Back to the Real World

We are now back from our wonderful vacation where we had forgotten that we were teachers and had to do things like grade papers, figure grades, deal with discipline, wake up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am. So, we've been back to this for two weeks now and it's been crazy! We're at the end of the quarter so grades are coming due and Tristan has spent the whole weeks giving end of the quarter tests. These quarter tests are a really big thing here and they have to follow so many rules for administering them - I think Tristan's glad the week is almost over. My end of the quarter doesn't consist of official testing - more like trying to get all the late work turned in that they have been missing.
Since break I've come back pretty refreshed - the farther into the year the better teaching is getting - it's not so hard and not nearly as stressful as it was at the beginning. I'm also learning how to use my time better and I'm learning my kids so much better that we're able to do more things. So, that's good.
Last Friday we went to a cell group through our church but the catch (for me) is that it was only Spanish speakers that were attending! This is the same group of guys that Tristan went camping with, and built the church with for two other Saturdays, and plays soccer with so he's become friends with them. This was new for me in that it was the first time I met "the wives" and hung out with only Spanish speakers. So, I pulled out my smiles and did my best to work through the study - I'm getting pretty good and understanding, the problem is speaking back - i sound better with my mouth shut! :). But it was a good night and I think we'll go back. Tristan has a really good connection with the guys there and his great friend Joel goes. So, this is a great way to challenge us to use our Spanish.
Tomorrow we are using our bus ticket that we had to cancel due to the Thanksgiving emergency trip for our visas, to use to go to El Salvador. We're heading San Salvador where we will spend Friday evening. We'll catch the bus to the beach or to a volcano on Saturday morning and then explore La Libertad - the cool beach community. Then we catch the bus home on Sunday afternoon. Even though we'll only be in the country for less than 48 hours, we're hoping to see as much as we can. We'll let you know on Monday. There is 6 of us going and we all get along really well so it should be a really fun trip!