Alma (sister)

Today (Tuesday) at school was another good day. It wasn’t amazing like yesterday, but it was good enough. It was my long day, so I had to give tests to both first grade groups (kinda a nightmare since they don’t “get” test-taking yet, but I think they all did well-easy to do when you’re copying!) and review second grade for a test before recreo. In the middle of my second grade review, the 6th grade teacher came to get me for our school picture. It was a group picture of the teachers. Yep, that’s right; we left the whole school alone in the classrooms. I gave my second graders Mexican homework: I had them copy 3 times each the vocabulary words for the test. We had only covered 5 at this point. I leave them working and head to the picture which of course is not ready. After about 5 minutes, a 2nd grade girl came to tell me kids were fighting. I marched up there and of course had no authority because I had seen nothing and had no idea of the truth of the matter. I told them to copy the words 15 times each. That did it. They worked quietly until I got back (and still had plenty more to do). I softened up and told them they’d get extra credit on their tests if they brought the words to class on Thursday.
During recreo, I was a bit anti-social and stayed on the computer filtering through junk mail and such. After recreo, I had 3rd grade and it went so smoothly. We’re learning new clothing words and they’re pretty receptive so far. They’re still too loud and don’t all pay attention at the same time, but I’ve figured out how to compromisingly manage them. I think it’s working.

From school, I came home and needed another nap. Fist I recorded 1st grade’s grades from the first test (I’m terrible at this official teaching stuff since I have no grades at home!) so I would be ready to record the others the next day. Then I started reading to fall asleep. It worked.

At 4, Mabel came by (as promised via text) with Alma who is in town visiting for three days; she won’t have a Christmas break, so this is her chance to see family before the next show’s season. The four of us went to eat sushi and then to Papá’s house to hang out (and so I could do laundry since I’ve been out of town the past two weekends). When Cosette, Alma and I walked in, it was dark and he wasn’t excited to see me. I wasn’t offended, but it was weird. So I set my stuff down and Alma turned on the light. “Laura!” he said. “I thought you were Mabel! How are you? How have you been? Where have you been?” We caught up. He and Cosette played and he put on a Frank Sinatra album. He went on and on about Sinatra and did I know who he was, etc. We had an Obama conversation again (so what’s new, right?), and he tried to feed us dinner. Mind you, we had just come from eating sushi.
He also decided that we would all go out (the grown-ups) on Wednesday night to hear Juan Show? Apparently he’s a singer in Culiacán who plays at a bar here. Our reservation is for nine o’clock pm! He just knows I’ll love it. We shall see. He may not know me well enough to know that I’ll be sleeping through the second half!

It was good being with Alma again. I just love this family! Alma is a great, hilarious story teller. She and I shared stories about Tepoztlán and climbing the ruins, etc. I think when I return to DF during Semana Santa (2 weeks of Spring Break), I’ll see if I can stay with her, since she will no doubt be in town and working. That way I can come and go on buses with as little or as much luggage as necessary.