I know I've been slacking...

So first of all I would like to apologize for not updating this at all. I dont even know if people read this or not. most likely not so its not like it matters too much. But for those of you that do, I am sorry. I said in the first entry that I knew that I would begin to slack once things really started getting going...which they definitely have. I feel as if I have been going non stop for weeks now. Secondly, I would like to apologize to all of my friends for the fact that I have been such a bad friend since I have been here. I promise I will start to call more.

So...I honestly can't even remotely remember what exactly has happened over the past few weeks. Just working lots. I have typically been working what comes out to be around 50 hours a weeks...not even including most of the time that I spend doing my lesson plans. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays i've been heading to St. Pats around 7 with Emily and Mike when they leave for work. That extra hour before school starts gives me the time to be able to sit down and get some lessons done. Tuesdays and Thursdays when Anne is with me we get to school for 8. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday I'm there till 5, Wednesdays till 6 by the time I'm finished things up and headed home and Fridays around 3.

Work is going well. I finally know all 150 (give or take) kids names. The kids are starting to warm up to me a lot more finally. Kinder is finally beginning to calm down. 1st grade is still crazy. 2nd grade is with them but they are all good and adorable. 3rd gets a little upset sometimes but they have been listening well. 4th is pretty good...they are happy with anything that you give them to play and don't complain much at all. There are a couple kids that get down on themselves if they aren't doing well but they are still cute.

5th is just overall insane. There are 26 kids that all have very strong personalities. There is this one boy Kaleb who is new to the school this year that has been giving me and everybody else in his class a hard time. Once you tell him to do something he wants to go ahead and do the opposite of what you are telling him. And when kids in his class start to get mad at him he just goes even further to make them even more mad. The other kids are really bad with egging him on though. Last week he told me that he would rather fail PE then spend the 45 minute class with me. This week he actually played a game so we're getting there...baby steps. This week though about 8 kids in the class started an underground newspaper about kaleb though. Luckily Jane found out and Kaleb did not. Jane is by far one of my favorite teachers. I am so impressed by how she works with that class and especially how she is with Kaleb.

6th grade is one of my favorite classes. They are usually always pretty good in both PE and computers. Their teacher Shannon is also one of my favorites, she helps me out a great deal with everything at the school. 7th grade either has a really good day or a really bad day. Out of the class of 18 only 6 are girls and they are very cliquey; it's like 2 vs. 2 vs. 2. Some of the boys are pretty good but the others are pretty crazy. This past week Anne and I gave 2 of them parent notices and 3 different boys broke down in tears for a variety of different reasons. 8th grade overall is just obnoxious. They think they run the school and can treat me like crap and I don't even know what to do with them. Luckily due to them visit catholic high schools in the area and fall festival and testing I haven't had them too much. I think every one of the 28 works hard to do everything they can to go against me. I wish there was more I could do to get them to behave for me but it's how they've been for a while now, both the teachers and past av's have told me this.

My lack of equipment has shown to be a huge challenge. There are things that I want to do in class but I can't because I don't have the items to actually do it. I'm trying to figure out what I can for next week. I wanted to do football or baseball because the kids have been asking me to do those since I've been there but I don't have a football or even baseballs. I'm currently working on getting more equipment. Tutoring is also suprisingly slightly difficult. It's a lot to be done the school day and still have about 2-3 hours left. Kids tend to show up with nothing to do so we have to figure out things for them to do. Each day proves to be a new challenge for me. All I'm doing for now it just trying to give all that I can to the school and do the best I possibly can. I do wish I knew more about PE or sports in general. I have learned lots since I have been here though. My job is a bigger challenge then I thought it was going to be but I can definitely tell you that I will gain more then I even thought I would as well.

I do very much love the community at St. Pats. The teachers are all amazing. Like I said before, I am still amazed about how easily they were able to welcome us into their community at the school. The way they have made me a part of the school makes me feel like I've been there for years rather then a month and a half. Even a lot of the kids are great as well. Everyone up through about 5th grade will say hi to me everytime they see me.

Community life has been going great as well. I don't exactly remember what exactly we have been doing here all togther. Last weekend we headed to the fall festival at St. Pats. We've gone out a decent amount and stayed in as well. We tend to hang out with the Roderick's, Dan and Mike, who live down the street, on the weekends. Dan was a volunteer here in SD 2 years ago and stayed after his year to run the orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. It's nice to have some other friends here then just the 6 of us.

We are in the middle of our month of visitors. We had Pat here for site visit about 2 weeks ago now. The day Pat left, mom came. It was awesome to have her here. We didn't do anything too spectacular, but it was great to show here where I'm living and working and let her get to know my community. Emily's friend Karl came the day after she left and is here with us now until Monday. Thursday Anne's friend comes until Monday and then Emily is heading to LA with her mom. We all may actually head up to LA that weekend too. It's still up in the air a bit, but it should definitely be a good time! I'm quite excited to get out of our little like 10-15 mile radius. Tomorrow actually we are headed to this place called Julian where apparently it reminds you of fall which we are all quite excited for! Apparently it's cold there and there are trees that are not a palm! Next Saturday we are actually all headed to the orphanage for the day. I'm excited to head there since I've heard so much about it not only from my roommates but Merrimack people as well. I'm nervous because I don't know any spanish at all, but I think I will be okay.

Anyways, everything is going well here in SD. I am finally feeling very comfortable with my roommates and with the area and things around here. This weekend is actually the first one where I've really been homesick...and it's only because homecoming/alumni weekend is going on at Merrimack. I'm trying to forget about it though even though it's pretty hard. I will try to update this more often. I will try not to let this get out of hand without updating for a while again!