First Week of School!

So I survived my first week of school!  The hardest thing to adjust to is the talking.  I talked to some of the teachers from previous years though, and I guess it's just in their culture to always be talking during class, sooooooo that'll get annoying.  I do "today in history" on the board and birthdays, and Rex Grossman's birthday was this week......they had no idea who he is, I told them they were going to make me cry because they had never heard of him and they thought I was serious.....another note to self, they do not understand sarcasim.  This is going to be a long year if I'm the only one laughing at my jokes all the time.  I definately didn't follow the rules though and spoke to them in Spanish.  It was to help clarify and they got a little nervous I had known this whole time what they were saying, but it hasn't been a problem, they still talk in English when in class.  They are a lot lower in writing than I initially imagined.  They are still doing literal translations, which I understand, I started that way too, but they are in 5th grade, and I thought they would be past most it, like they still say their birthday, "I have 11 years."  Which is how they would say it in Spanish.  So that is kinda frustrating.  So far I have been pretty tough on them and mean because they are not as well "trained" as the kids in the states.  They barely know how to walk in a line and not talk in the hall.  It's also weird they hate to read.  Literally, they told me they hate reading and won't do it.  Which also is frustrating, they talk back....baddddddd. Which is why I wish they knew sarcasim, but I think they think I'm just yelling at them when they're talking back and I basically talk back at them, but I guess if I think it's funny, o welllllllll. The next couple weeks should be interesting too because they are still trying to get down parts of a sentence and how to avoid run-on sentences, which if you're over the age of 10 reading this, you'll probably figure out that I'm a terrible writer and grammar/spelling is definately NOT my best subject.  So basically we'll be learning together.  Last thing!  The juice boxes here are HUGE! Not your ordinary juicy juice, these are hard core juice box fans down here.  Don't worry, I have a picture to prove it! and my class (even though today, Friday, they were horrible in the afternoon, the morning was great!)....Viewer Discretion: They might look like angels, but they are pre-teen, so their faces are often misdeceiveing...even though 2 girls tried sucking up today by buying me a chocolate popsicle, of course I accepted, I do not turn down sweets especially since they are rare around here, but I can see behind their motives, I was in fifth grade once is what I keep telling them.

This my coffee cup (just an ordinary coffee mug) with the gigantic juice box


Ok, this next picture needs some explaining.  The lesson was about Friendly Letters, so everyone wrote to a friend, some wrote to teachers from last year and I had 2 write to me saying how they like my class.  Well this is what the boy wrote, he is a trouble maker and I am constantly on him about following directions and paying attention, but I guess I'm doing something right. (the "jaja" part is how they write their laugh, its like "haha"; the "obed" is "obey", i think "fathers" is "others"?  I told them they need to be good for all their teachers, Honduran ones too; and "engry" is "angry"; the boy who wrote it is the one second in from the right in the picture)