Unhappy Monday

Teaching at 6:45am isn’t a terrific way to start the week, however, I did everything possible to ensure a happy start to my week.

Last night I was asleep by 9:30. Now that I have to work on Saturdays, my weekends are cut much shorter. Yesterday, Alvaro and I spent the better part of the day with his extended family. I had a terrific time being with them and felt a major confidence boost with my Spanish, but the six hours intense immersion experience left me feeling exhausted. I was asleep at 9:30 and awoke this morning at 5:30 ready to take on the week.

Everything was great until I got to school and realized I should have eaten something. I skipped dinner last night because our giant Peruvian lunch was at 3pm. But this morning at 6am, was much further removed from my delicious aji de pollo and I was starved. Then my four person class quickly turned into a one person class because three students were late. I began the class with a review from last week, focusing solely on vocabulary. After two minutes of trying (rather unsuccessfully) to prompt my student with the word “landlord,” I had to check my lesson plans to make sure I was in the right chapter. Tough classes are particularly tough when they happen at 7am.

Thankfully another student walked in around 7 and I sighed with relief because I assumed she would have a better grasp of the vocabulary. The class started looking up, that is until I moved my chair and saw a gigantic cockroach mean inches from my book bag sitting on the ground. Somehow he flipped over and was lying on his back. I wasn’t about to touch him. I had a hard enough time dealing with large bugs but seeing as my day was heading downhill and fast, I just couldn’t do it. So he sat there, cockroach legs in the air, for the next 25 minutes until the class break.

During the break I found the sweet cleaning lady and asked if she could dispose of my unwelcome friend with a broom. After this, I was convinced that things would get better. A third student arrived but her phone rang 6 times in the span of fifteen minutes, on the seventh ring she apologized, grabbed her things and left.

As the hour approach 8am, I started to really dread my already dreadful “coaching and micro-teaching” at 9am. My usually comfortable wedges, were uncomfortable and I was hot because my Peruvian students hate AC. I needed coffee and the syrup like liquid served at Berlitz was not going to cut it. I immediately decided that if I had to sit through almost two hours of unpaid “coaching and micro-teaching,” I was going to be comfortable and I was going to have my coffee.

I walked home, changed, made coffee and spent a few minutes with Emmaline. I grabbed my books, took a deep breath and walked out the door. I rode the elevator with a sweet little boy in his stroller and his grey terrier. I walked along the street feeling like maybe, just maybe, Monday would start looking up. That thought quickly left my mind when in the next instant, the old man walking by me made a perverse kissing noise at me. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it always irks me. I just keep walking, shaking my head in disgust and mumbling a variety of insults in English. I still haven’t decided which is worse, the young man who whistles as me or the old man who makes kissing noises. It’s probably a tie, they’re both repulsive.

I marched on to my micro-teaching, forcing myself to be in a better mood but that didn’t exactly help. Disinterested students, cockroaches and gross old men- all before 9am- can put a damper on even the best laid plans