Morning came very quickly. I had a hard time sleeping last night, not because of the heat (so grateful for air conditioning) but because of the time difference. I'm lying down and it is only 9pm PST but in fact its midnight here and I have to be up early. So when my alarm rang at 8am, it really felt like 5am = GROSS. I enjoyed a nice bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast and then headed to the grocery store for some fresh produce.
Everything here is priced in EC or Eastern Caribbean Dollars and is at about at 3-1 ratio with the US dollar. A head of iceberg lettuce was $5.73 EC so about $2 US/Cnd (love that our dollar is par right now!). What is great is that they will take the US money and just give back EC in change. I'm trying to write down everything I spend so I have an idea of what I bought and for how much. This is my attempt at budgeting hahaha Dad would be so proud.
This morning, after the grocery store, the team brought out all of the supplies we brought with us and sorted them out. We have been so blessed by countless donations. Balls of every sort, pens, paper, markers, stickers, the list goes on. I hope the teachers will feel blessed by all the supplies we'll be able to leave them with. It's very exciting. We then played a few games that we'll be teaching here on the island. The one was called "mingle mingle" it only requires tennis balls with letters and numbers written on them. What was great about the game is that in integrates math and spelling into physical education. Which is what we're trying to teach the teachers here, the importance of physical education, but that it can be combined with other subjects. Hopefully it will hit home with the teachers, healthy students = happy students.
It's a national holiday for Antigua, so its nice to have it off to get accustom to the weather and the climate here. Tomorrow we will be meeting with the Minister of Education and getting a chance to meet the teachers and principals at each of our schools. Pam (my teaching partner) and I have decided we're going to keep all our lessons together in one binder and just chat every night about what we're going to teach. I think that will work well, it will force us to communicate - which will be a good skill to learn. Having someone else to teach with will also be comforting I think, to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to reflect upon the day. Starting on Wednesday we'll actually be teaching. I CAN'T wait. It is going to be so great, so hard, and hopefully equally rewarding.
At the end of the week we're going on a catamaran trip. I think that will be one of the highlights. We'll sail around the entire island, get to see the sights, do a little snorkeling, etc. That happens on Saturday. I'm hoping to find a church to go to on Sunday, maybe one of the teachers will have invited me by then. I've heard that it is etiquette here to be invited, so here's to praying I get invited this week ;)
Everything here is priced in EC or Eastern Caribbean Dollars and is at about at 3-1 ratio with the US dollar. A head of iceberg lettuce was $5.73 EC so about $2 US/Cnd (love that our dollar is par right now!). What is great is that they will take the US money and just give back EC in change. I'm trying to write down everything I spend so I have an idea of what I bought and for how much. This is my attempt at budgeting hahaha Dad would be so proud.
This morning, after the grocery store, the team brought out all of the supplies we brought with us and sorted them out. We have been so blessed by countless donations. Balls of every sort, pens, paper, markers, stickers, the list goes on. I hope the teachers will feel blessed by all the supplies we'll be able to leave them with. It's very exciting. We then played a few games that we'll be teaching here on the island. The one was called "mingle mingle" it only requires tennis balls with letters and numbers written on them. What was great about the game is that in integrates math and spelling into physical education. Which is what we're trying to teach the teachers here, the importance of physical education, but that it can be combined with other subjects. Hopefully it will hit home with the teachers, healthy students = happy students.
It's a national holiday for Antigua, so its nice to have it off to get accustom to the weather and the climate here. Tomorrow we will be meeting with the Minister of Education and getting a chance to meet the teachers and principals at each of our schools. Pam (my teaching partner) and I have decided we're going to keep all our lessons together in one binder and just chat every night about what we're going to teach. I think that will work well, it will force us to communicate - which will be a good skill to learn. Having someone else to teach with will also be comforting I think, to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to reflect upon the day. Starting on Wednesday we'll actually be teaching. I CAN'T wait. It is going to be so great, so hard, and hopefully equally rewarding.
At the end of the week we're going on a catamaran trip. I think that will be one of the highlights. We'll sail around the entire island, get to see the sights, do a little snorkeling, etc. That happens on Saturday. I'm hoping to find a church to go to on Sunday, maybe one of the teachers will have invited me by then. I've heard that it is etiquette here to be invited, so here's to praying I get invited this week ;)
