The first day of school was my worst nightmare. I awoke promptly at 5:35 to the sound of my alarm. With the adrenaline of "first day at the big kid job" pumping on overdrive through my veins, I got ready in plenty of time, had my coffee, and was just grabbing a hair elastic from by bedroom when I heard a horn outside. Now, I live around 40 minutes from school and because the school set up my living arrangements, they also provide a shuttle to and from school each day for us driven by Raul, my buddy who picked me up from the airport. So, upon hearing the car horn, I scuttled downstairs to grab my purse and coffee and scrambled out the front door to find....nobody. I don't have a Guatemalan phone yet, and I didn't have Raul's phone number anyway so naturally I started running all of the possibilities in my head - we weren't outside in enough time so he moved on and was coming back, he was down the street and turning around, what the what the what is happening right now. As minutes ticked by the aforementioned adrenaline quickly turned into an irate fear that we had gotten left behind. Tom sat on the stoop as I paced back and forth checking my watch. After about twenty minutes had passed from our intended pick-up time I was completely panicked.
It's funny because before I left the States people asked me over and over, "are you scared?" and I honestly never was. Putting my whole life into a suitcase? No problem. Starting my career in a new country? Piece of cake. Being late for the first day of work? Now that sends shivers down my spine.
Not knowing what else to do, we set off toward Parque Central, because it was the only place where we knew to pick up a cab. Upon our arrival, at 7am, and a quick "wrack my brain for the Spanish to say this" conversation with a police officer, we learned that the cabs didn't start operating until 7:30. Super. Much to my irritation at the time, but probably to my benefit in the long run, Tom doesn't stress over these type of things like I do. So, while I was pacing, spitting, swearing, generally cursing every moment up until that point, he calmly sat by drinking his coffee until the first of the taxi fleet arrived, was quickly commissioned by us, and hit the road. With only the CAS address in hand (and no GPS), by the grace of God we found that school and arrived only a few minutes late. Turns out, the reason that Raul was not there to pick us up at 6:20 was because there was a huge accident on the highway and he didn't end up arriving until 6:40 - at which time we were already long gone. The honk that we had originally heard was, in fact, not intended for us but was our neighbor who I have since learned honks his horn every morning at 6:20. Woof.
But all was well that ended well. We got settled into things easily and have been rocking and rolling ever since. On Monday I learned that not only am I an English teacher, I'm the only English teacher. And in addition to that, there is no pre-existing curriculum for me to work off of for my classes. This means that the minute I get home, my nose immediately goes into one of the five hardback monstrosities that is the 7th/8th/9th/10th/11th grade textbook. IlovemyjobIlovemyjobIlovemyjob. But seriously, I do. All the fellow staff have been just as crazy, if not crazier than myself, I pretty much get to do whatever I want with the kids (with in standards-based reason) and the admin has been super supportive thus far. And I know, I know, I'm still living in the honeymoon bubble, but I really do think this year is going to be hard but rewarding. Oh, and transportation for days two and three have gone far more smoothly, in case you were wondering.
That being said, I will bid you all a big buenos noches because this girl has to be fresh for day four of pre-planning meetings and curriculum building tomorrow!
C.
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