I feel like I haven't had time to breathe these last 2 days, but we've been having a lot of fun keeping busy!
Well, this whole week at school was "La Semana de las Bellas Artes" or "Fine Arts Week." On Monday, we got to sing together and one of my 6th graders played the Sax for everyone with "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and the Harry Potter theme song. On Tuesday, we watched bongo players and dancers. I actually got to learn how to play the bongos and did a 3-step beat on them. On Wednesday, we learned how to dance "la plena." We didn't have time to participate on Thursday, because our classes were misbehaving and it took forever to do a simple task on Twitter. Also, Carla, another student teacher, took us into town to an awesome shoe store and we had these crazy loaded baked potatoes on the street. That brings us to Friday, when we finished up the week with a school wide chalk mural on the sidewalk outside of the school. Each class had a different central idea to draw about, and ours was "equality." Being 6th grade, we had the end of the sidewalk to work with and then it spit out into the parking lot. The kids took full advantage of the parking lot, and I just thought it was ironic that our theme was equality, but we had the most space out of anyone.
So between classes on Friday, Jenn and I decided to pick up some boxes from the USPS so we could send some stuff home to our families. The "it fits, it ships" boxes would be the cheapest, but their large box isn't all that large. Regardless, I'm planning on sending home some souvenirs and leaving behind my towels and sheets to lower the weight of my suitcase. It was already 1 pound over on the way here, and I'm lucky they didn't charge me for that.
We returned back to school and tried to teach, but the kids were so wound up with the fine arts week, the fact that it was Friday, and also because we had a school event that night.
After school, we went back into town to do some shopping. And the stores here are ridiculous and have awesome prices. When you walk into an accessories store here, be prepared to be bombarded with accessories. Same goes for shoes, clothes, etc. They have so many flashy things and the whole store is just covered in them. It kind of reminded me of the little holes in the wall in Chinatown with all the purses and jewelry and belts, except the stores here aren't little, they're big regular sized stores just packed with stuff all over. I got the cutest sandals for $5 and some really cute wristlets and dresses. I bought so much stuff and on the way home, we stopped back at the school to see the kids' soccer games. They were so good, but it was so hot, so we went back home.
The school event to go on that night was called "Cine Bajo las Estrellas" or literally, "Theatre Under the Stars." It serves as a fund raiser for the 6th grade by them selling concessions. We had sushi beforehand, but when we arrived to the school at night I had a pincho and some popcorn. All of our class was there and they were so excited. They set up a projector for us and started the night with a photo power point with "Party Rock Anthem" in the background. The kids love LMFAO and they were all dancing and shuffling. Finally, we got to watch Cars 2 totally in Spanish, which helped me learn some new words. A lot of the younger kids ran around the whole time, but the older ones and all the adults sat on their blankets or lawn chairs to watch. Afterwards, we went and got nutella milk shakes before bed.
Today, Abby and Melissa, the 2 student teachers from Boston, were going kayaking with their teacher, so Jenn and I decided it would be a beach day. We went to Condado again and it was nice and hot. We were in the hotel zone, though, so we had to keep moving position so a hotel tower wasn't shading us. I got a lot of sun and my cheeks look a little red. The water there is so salty that when you dry off, you can see salt rings on your skin. We decided to get Starbucks before coming back and I found that they had my Tazo peach tea, which is one of my favorites.
We caught the bus and went back to meet Abby to go out in Old San Juan for the night. When we got there, we went to see if my teacher was home, but she wasn't. She later texted me that she was with her grandkids. So we went to Señor Frogs, a very touristy place. But in those places where they assume everyone's a tourist or American, we like to respond to their Spanish and speak back to them. We danced for a bit there and then met up with our friends to go and eat. I had some steak fajitas, which were awesome. They drove us home afterwards and now I'm about to go to bed.
Tomorrow, we need to find something to do outside the apartment. The university is shutting all power off tomorrow from 7am-3pm and we're going to need air conditioning!
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