stay in la escuela, kids!

stake conference on our first sunday out here. raise your hand if you literally understood nothing they said! one guy after was like "did you hear that part they said about church history?" and i just gave him a blank stare...

so apparently this is a hamburger in the dominican republic....i mean it was still good and i definitely still ate it, but lemme tell ya, that was not a hamburger. also, don't even get me started on the spaghetti down here.

the kids at lunchtime literally swarm us and yell "aqui! aqui!" and point at their table for us to sit there even though we're not allowed to.

my hair's real pretty, you don't have to tell me.

most of the other teachers in my group during one of our breaks! always in the shade.

i like to play this game with the kids where i take out my camera and say things like "say cheese! say i love ice cream! say michelle is the best! say michelle is so pretty!" and laugh so hard because they have no idea they're being brainwashed MUA HA HA.

we taught these girls those school girl clapping games and they braided my hair in return. a fair trade indeed.

so you know those times when you're like "oh yeah, i'm so good with kids! i've babysat and taught piano a ton! i'll probably be a great teacher! they'll love me and listen to everything i'm saying and not climb all over me! :):):):):):):)" and then you go to your first day of teaching english in a foreign country and the teaching gods point at you and pee laughing as the kids are stealing your tickets/playdough/blocks, trying to braid/pull your hair, and are sleeping on the ground. all while you're teaching (read: maintaining) (read: attempting to maintain). sooooooo yeah, i'm kind of a great teacher :) 

seriously though, my first day of teaching was actual insanity! we taught first graders (they wear red shirts...remember that) for the first two hours which went okay besides the fact that i had to physically drag a huge (i'm talkin grande, people) stubborn kid off the ground because he wouldn't get up. then we had lunch with all the kids at the school where i proceeded to be an awful person and smile at them while i imagined handing over the keys of the school to el diablo since that seems to be these kids' master anyways. the second two hours of teaching were with the kindergarteners, who managed to win the award for master deceivers because they were so docile when we got them from their classes since they had just woken up from a nap. psyyyych michelle, they're actually crazy cucharachas that literally climb all over you and throw your teaching objects everywhere and make you want to start digging to china (which would probably take this geographically-challenged girl a loooooong ace time). by the end of it all, i was so ready to yell "dueces, psychos!" and run, not walk to the beach (whiiich i basically did anyways after all was said and done). 

in the kids defense, it's their first time getting english lessons ever and they don't really know what's going on. and i feel like discipline in their school is not as big of a deal as it is in the united states. or china, i'm guessing. and the teaching went muuuch better the second day (mostly because i got second graders (blue shirts) that time). besides the kindergarteners though, because those kids are just straight from satan's mistress. everybody just pray that one of these days i'll be able to tame them!