I'm not on vacation

It's been a while, yes? Yes. Things have been busy, life's been crazy.

We've moved. That's the first thing. We left Philly (happy dance for me!) and moved to Costa Rica. We're working with ADE in a really rural area of the Costa Rican mountainside, safely off the beaten tourist paths. Not that we don't have any tourists, just that we don't have many, not for a country whose economy revolves around tourism.

And therein lies my issue today. When people think of Costa Rica, they think of sun drenched beaches, frosty drinks, bright sun, and tourists. And they think I'm here on vacation, which, you know, I'm not. I'm working. I work anywhere from eight to thirteen hour days, six days a week. It's coldish where we live, getting down to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and up to 75 degrees on bright, sunny days. Oh, and this used to be rain forest, so it rains. A lot. Torrential downpours of Biblical proportions. And that's all well and good, because that's what I signed up for. But sometimes I miss things from home. Cheese, for one. Or dark chocolate. Or the convenience of having a steady income. Or even just the ability to find a variety of things at a grocery store or, luxury of luxuries, restaurants that serve food from all over the world.

It's the little things.

Yes, there's running water, electricity, hot water in the shower, but sometimes I miss a little luxury. And when I say I miss something, people are all like, "But don't you live in a tropical paradise where every day is a sunny vacation with umbrellas in your drink? Be grateful that you live in one of our most popular tourist destinations."

Right. I am grateful because this is an amazing experience and it's doing wonders for my faith. You don't realize how big God is until you start expecting Him to be that BIG.

But let's get one thing straight: I'm not on vacation. I don't live on the beach, no one puts umbrellas in my water glass, and even if I do live in a country that gets a ton of tourism, I can't afford to check most of it out. I am not here to be a tourist. I am here to get up at the crack of dawn, teach all morning, come home, make lunch, and do administrative, organizational work until late in the evening. And then, when y'all are lazing around on Saturdays, I'm working some more. Again, it's what I signed up for, and I'm gaining some great experience, so I'm not writing this to complain about my work. What I want people to know is that I have not been here relaxing. This is my job. My day-in-day-out job that just happens to have dramatic volcanic backdrops.

The reality is this: I'm living in an area that is in recovery. It's been two years since the earthquake and the roads are still a rutted mess, the local clinic will see only thirty people once a month, this is only the second year that the local high school has been in existence. There's a lot of work to do, good work, fun work, important work, but it's still work. Life is different here. And because things are different, I'm allowed to miss some of what I had in the States. A car, for example, or security. Or just plain convenience.

Because I'm not on vacation every day of my life here, and sometimes, I'd like to be.

ARGH!

True story:

Projects were due today in my Spanish 2 classes. I gave them this project last week. It's a super easy project where they talk about what they did and what they were like at ages two, five, nine, and fourteen. I gave them questions to guide their writing and gave them step-by-step instructions with due dates and a note to the seniors saying that their projects were due before their last day of classes.

Their rough drafts were due Friday, final projects were due today.

One of my students came to me today before her class started and said, "Miss, are our projects due today?"

"Yes they are," I said.

"Nuh-uh, you said they were due Friday."

"Take out your project sheet," I said.

"No, you said Friday!" she insisted, angrily this time.

"Take out your project sheet," I repeated.

Another student looked over and said, "It says the twenty-seventh. It's due today."

Not to be outdone, the first student looked furiously at her project sheet, and said, "Yeah, like I'm supposed to read this."

Actually, honey, you are.

We're on etsy!

B. and I have finally started an vintage clothing shop on etsy.

Check it out here: Frances Joy Vintage.

To get a sneak peek at some of our items, check my other blog: Mad Dress Game

I'm so excited for this, and I hope it goes well....

Quote of the Day

My student J. came in today to (finally) take his midterm. He started joking around and said something in Spanish that sounded so thoroughly Dominican, that I whirled around and asked this Puerto Rican / Italian kid: "Where'd you get that Dominican accent?!"

Apparently it comes from the barber shops: "Miss, you can't talk Rican to them or they'll mess up your hair."

Oh, J....

Quote of the Day

"Miss, do you put your clothes together yourself?"

Apparently, this is a compliment which should be taken to mean, "You dress well" and not, "You look like your mama dressed you".

Thanks, Y. I do, in fact, put my clothes together myself.

On the upside

Since I was such a whiner last week (and have been since, oh, November), I figured it was time for a little something more upbeat.

There's this: Today was one of those days when I was glad to be a teacher. The students were exceptionally funny, I got positive feedback from administrators and coworkers, and I was teaching material that I absolutely love.

This is not to say that today was a blissful day at my inner city high school, just that it was a good day. I don't know if it's that the weather is warming my students' cold little hearts, or that the right combination of students was present, or that I was just in a good mood because I was so in love with my outfit (seriously, nothing can go wrong when you're wearing yellow shoes), but something was working today.

I taught about written accent marks, which, seriously, are my passion. If I could just introduce everyone to accent marks and my little tricks for where they go for the rest of my life, I would be one happy little word nerd. But, alas, when you teach Spanish to Latinos as if you were teaching non-Spanish speakers Spanish, you don't get to spend weeks on accent marks.
So I settled for a single day and totally geeked out over accent marks. I shared all the great examples: está/esta, papá/papa, and - my personal favorite - mamá/mama. I advised my students to show their mothers some respect and give them an accent mark, which got quite a laugh. I enjoyed it today.

Teaching is often a thankless job. You get blamed for everything that's wrong with education even though you're being forced to do more with fewer resources every day. It's my fault when the students don't do their homework or projects. It's my fault when they don't pass standardized tests. It's my fault when they're disrespectful (because in an hour a day, I should be able to what the parents haven't done in sixteen years). I'm an entertainer, a secretary, a disciplinarian, a counselor, and a surrogate parent. Oh, and an educator. That, too.

I loved every minute of teaching back at G-F. My department was amazing, my students were sweet or at least entertaining, and I was teaching a subject about which I am passionate. This year has often been a struggle. I'm teaching Spanish 1 and 2 and my classes are so mixed as far as level and ability that I'm actually teaching two or three classes at a time. I don't feel as connected to my department or to my students. I've struggled to love it.

But today, through the complaints, I felt something. Connection, perhaps. The easy banter I've got going on with my students, the gentle teasing (Twenty-seven, Miss?! ¡Abuela!), the flashes of understanding, the visits after class.... Yes. It's taken me just over six months, but it's happening.

And that's why I do what I do. Yes, I think it's important for folks to be multilingual, but that's not why I do this. Yes, I'm passionate about reconnecting Latino youth to the language of their parents and grandparents, but that's not why I do this. Yes, I get my "Spanish geek" on when I talk about grammar and orthography, but that's not why I do this, either. It's those moments when there's a human connection across generations, when two people standing in vastly different places in their journeys can look across at each other and see something familiar.

Today I felt that.

I joked with the student that had been such a challenge earlier this year - a student whose reputation precedes him - and thought, "This kid knows I care whether he makes it out or not. He knows I think he's talented and intelligent. He knows I make him do work that is more difficult than the work the rest of the class does AND HE DOES IT PROUDLY."

I tutored one of my students after school. She complained that the work was difficult, and we worked together for a while. She was dramatic as always, and I teased her a little about it, which caused her to crack up and say, "Miss, how are you in the world? You are too funny for the WORLD! You make me crack up!" And I thought, "Where else would I hear little bits of brilliance like that?"

People are such strange, fascinating, curious creatures. Our connections are so vitally important, so influential. I think it's been really hard for me to see them this school year. Maybe I was expecting this to be the utopian paradise that G-F was (I kid!), but it wasn't and I have been discouraged.

But today? Today I saw those connections, and I am content.

Quotable

I've been meaning to post something like this for a while, but I haven't gotten around to it until now.

My students are hilarious. Sometimes on purpose, and sometimes unintentionally, and they give me enough fodder to tell stories for days and days, so here are some of my favorite student quotes from this year.

1. L. (after wiping black marker off a white board with her hands): I'm all black.
B. (an African-American student): It's a privilege.

2. E.: Miss, you too serious. Do you have any friends?
Me (sarcastically and dramatically): No. None at all.
E.: Do you have any pets?
Me (Still dramatic and sarcastic): Nope.
E.: Do you have a husband?
Me (Even more dramatically): Nope. I go home and I don't talk at all until I come to work the next day.
Y. (looking concerned): For REAL Miss?!

3. While working on an example of a poem that they would have to write in class -
Me: What's something I might do over the summer?
Student: Swim!
Student: Go outside!
L.: Sell hotdogs!
Whaaaaaaa?!

4. C.: Miss, do you talk about us when you go home? Do you tell stories about us?
Yes, kiddies. I tell the Internet.

5. The day of parent-teacher conferences - J: Miss, my dad is coming; he's going to hit on you. (For the record, he did, but at least I was prepared! I flashed my ring like crazy.)

6. K.: Miss, you look nice today.
Me: I'm always scared when students tell me that. Does that mean that I don't look nice most days?
K.: Naw, Miss. You know how to dress; some teachers don't.
On a related note, I had parent-teacher conferences last night, and parents are funny, too:

1. Me: S. is doing really well; he has an A, but he talks a lot in class, and I had to give him two days of detention because he was disrupting class.
S. Sr.: I thought he had detention; he told me he was cleaning for community service hours.
So busted!

2. Me: C. has brought his grade up from an F to a C. He's been coming in for tutoring and is working really hard. I'm really proud of him.
C.'s mom: Me too. He's getting a milkshake!

The best part, though, was the mom who told me that her daughter hated speaking Spanish before my class and now she goes home and wants them to speak to her in Spanish. "She wants to send texts in Spanish and she watches movies in Spanish with her dad." I will not lie, I teared up.

Back to School

Some memorable moments from my first two weeks of teaching in Philly:

1. At freshmen orientation, students are asked to give three reasons why they need their student IDs. They give two of the answers pretty quickly (to get into the building, to check out library books) and then get creative with the last one: "In case we get kidnapped. Because it says return to...."

2. Michael Vick. Not kidding. He came and spoke. And you thought Obama was controversial.

3. One of my students asked me to call him "Jigga"; he insisted it was his real name. Newsflash, kid: I've got your real name on a roster right here and it's not even CLOSE.

4. While reviewing nationalities, I gave my (mostly Puerto Rican) students the word for Puerto Rican in Spanish - puertorriqueño. They ooh-ed, and said, "I didn't know there was a Q in there."

5. Again, while reviewing nationalities in Spanish. Students were asked to write a sentence saying a person's nationality given some information. The information given said: "Yo soy de San Antonio, Texas." I am from San Antonio, Texas. They said: "Miss, you didn't teach us Texas!" I asked, "Where is Texas? What country is it in?" The reply: "I don't know, Miss. Mexico?" *sigh* That, kids, is a lesson for another day....

Five

Days until I find out from Teach for America.
The nerves....

Almost there....

I spent last night with my "Foreign Language Friends". We had dinner and spoke Spanish so that M could practice and C could learn. It reminded me of just why I loved working at G-F. I seriously couldn't have worked with a better group. K, one of the new Spanish teachers (and there are a lot) and the new department head, is also cool. I'm glad to know that there will be more good people joining the group, though I will miss being there.
Other than that, I got caught up on the G-F gossip - always fun.

Today I went to the clinic (finally!) and feel much better. I also took care of a few more pending issues and enjoyed pho' at my favorite Vietnamese place where they know me and know what I like. I really heart that place....

I'm just about set to go. Orientation starts the 25th and classes start the 27th. Holy geez, kids: I'm going back to school.... It's strange to be on the other side of the desk after all these years (three, but still). Alright, I'm getting back to packing mode.

"Just tell 'em I'm your kid!"

So I've kind of fallen in love with one of the little girls at the rec center - she's not even in my camp because she's too young. Anyway, this little girl, we'll call her A., went swimming today when I took my group out to the pool. She is FEARLESS and feisty and TINY which is why I love her so much, I think.

Anyway, today, after allowing the big kids to toss her into the water and swimming around like a champ, she came over to me and collapsed on her towel next to the pool. She talked to me for a while, and I told her I was going to steal her and take her home with me. She was like, "Okay."
I said, "No, the police would come and I'd go to jail for stealing you from your mama."
She didn't miss a beat: "Just tell 'em I'm your kid!"
I laughed and asked, "Do you think they'd believe us?"
"Of course."

Oh, kids.



A. with her brother, B.

Pros

Since I've already made a list of what I don't like, here are the things I do like about commuting:

1. Time to read. I've already read "Malinche" by Laura Esquivel, "The Bolivian Diary" by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and am halfway through "News of a Kidnapping" by Gabriel García Márquez.
I've enjoyed all three, but would have to say that "News of a Kidnapping" is hands down my favorite. García Márquez's fiction is brilliant, but his nonfiction is better in my opinion. You can see how the journalist and the novelist in him combine to weave together this seamless story, talking about the real experiences of these Colombian hostages and their families in 1990. What a time to read it, too, because of the recent release of hostages in Colombia! Granted, this situation was different because the hostages I'm reading about where held by Pablo Escobar, while the others were held by the FARC, but it still seems to relevant.

2. The stretch of track between L'Enfant Plaza and the Pentagon.
You go from a tunnel to the brilliance of day over the Potomac. The sun paints the surface of the river with silver light that makes me think of Río de la Plata in Argentina. You can see the cars on the 14th Street Bridge as they come into the city from VA or vice versa. And it's a nice long stretch, with all this beautiful natural light and the river below. I love it.

3. People watching
'Nuff said.

So I guess there are only three, but they should count. ;)

hood, food, good

As I was walking to work today, they were putting some police tape across Princeton. Turns out there was a shooting there last night. The block was real quiet and none of the usual drug dealers were out since the place was swarming with police. They are going to be working out of the little building over by the playground, right along the street where everything went down last night.

In happier news, today was cooking day at camp and we had a couple of Thai dishes: Thai lettuce roll ups and Thai curry noodles. Both were hits with the kids, though they preferred the first.



They were delicious. My boy, M., was so excited because he says he only eats "fast food" and didn't know he liked other stuff. Cute, but sad.

The weekend was spectacular despite the fact that I dropped my phone in a toilet and was without running water for a day. I'll have to post pics of that later.

For now, there's only this:

"More Than Friends"



I love Estelle.....

Triple time

I've got to stop posting so often....
I had meant to blog about this earlier, but I got carried away with A. and El Che and Nikki Giovanni.

This is what I hate about commuting to DC, particularly in summer:
1. Tourists who get up noisily on the metro to peer at the map and shout out "Which stop are we looking for again?" during the morning rush hour. Hey, out of towners, NO ONE TALKS ON METRO IN THE MORNINGS! If you don't know where you're going, get a pocket map and keep it with you or sit across from the map on the wall or - and I know this is a novel idea - do a little research beforehand and figure that out at home. If you've got the map, the rest of us will still know to avoid you on the escalators, but at least you won't be so OBNOXIOUS.

2. Tourists who stand two and three across on the escalators. Stand right, walk left, folks. Some of us need to be somewhere working, not lollygagging on the Mall, so if y'all could just step to the right in a single file and let us pass by, we'd really appreciate it.

3. Tourists who don't move to the center of the car on Metro. If you get on the train and there are no available seats, don't balk at the door looking around like you're not sure whether or not you're supposed to be there. Keep it moving; there are rails you can hold on to. And don't all stand in front of the door and decide that's the best spot for your family of seven. File in and leave the space by the doors free so people can exit and enter the trains easily.

4. Commuters on the Franconia-Springfield bus who talk on their cell phones (loudly) in the mornings. Apply the rules of Metro to the bus and let people sleep on their way to the station, for the love!

5. Drivers who talk loudly on the phone or listen to music and loudly as possible while they've got slugs in their cars. Turn it down, turn it to one of those God-awful stations: soft rock or "smooth jazz" or WTOP or screw those and turn on something worth listening to: NPR; and call your friends back once you've dropped us off in the commuter lot.

*sigh* Glad to get that out.... Don't get me wrong, I love the diversity of public/near-public transport here: Metro, buses, slugging (organized hitch-hiking unique to the area), but we have rules for it. Follow them and we should have a smooth ride....

Long one

Thursday, but it feels like Friday, which is oh-so-nice. We took the kids on a field trip today. They went to Chipotle and then to the National Portrait Gallery to check out the Recognize and Champions exhibits. I'm always annoyed that no one likes to go to the museums as much as I do, because we have such a wealth of interesting things to see here in the DC area - AND it's all FREE. I don't take advantage of it often enough, so I was glad to go today. My kids were well-behaved, Mr. D's group was, as I like to say, "off the chain". So much so, that security had to come and tell them to keep it down.

I promised my kids a reward on Monday for their good behavior. Even my boy J. and my girl P., who are a little wild and a little ADHD, respectively, were good. It was a good time, although the kids worry me because they weren't too excited about the fake Mexican food, which means they are going to freak out when we take them out for pho' next week.... I, however, will be one happy, happy girl with my delicious Vietnamese. YUMMM!

Other than that, I met one of the guys who hangs out on the corner all day. They call him Frenchie (he's actually French) according to J who knows EVERYONE. He's got this little accent which is quite charming, but I just thought it was amusing that he was the first of the corner guys to actually ask me out - he suggested we go play pool sometime at Buffalo Bill's on Dupont. I gave him my classic, "Oh, I don't know, I live all the way down in VA, and it's so far...."

Oh! And I jumproped with the girls today. Who knew I still had it in me?! Haha... They did this little rhyme to count how many "husbands" I had as I jumped, and I made it to ten, which P. proceeded to shout out across the playground: "Oooh! Miss Frances gonna have ten husbands!" M., one of the boys in my group for the fieldtrip yelled back, "Yeah, I'm one of them."

They start so young....


Besides the work stuff, I spent a lot of time thinking about A., about last night, about our conversation and the forgotten discs of dough for empanadillas in the freezer. I think I listened to "Travelin' Soldier" twice on my way to work this morning.... I don't know what it is, but he's under my skin - in a good way. He's a good man in ways that few men are. I wrote something a few months ago, a little piece scrawled on a post-it note after work one day. It was about being swept up sometimes by love or attraction or whatever it might be. Sometimes it comes slowly, quietly, paulatinamente, and sometimes you just fall. The last line was "química instantánea". Instant chemistry. That was it with A. It was just this catching of the eyes across the room, a moment's wait, an invitation to dance, and there it went. The rest just flowed. *sigh* It is what it is, and there is purpose for everything. Even if someone is only in your life for a brief moment, there can still be a greater impact. I think of Peter on the Plane, Ni-Ni, my girl S. in CR, among others. All these people who made me a better person despite being in my life for as little as an hour.... Maybe that'll be A. Or maybe he'll be someone I run into again later in life. We'll see.


Last two points: I'm reading Che Guevara's Bolivian Diary, and it's kind of heart breaking. I don't agree with all his ideology, but there is so much beauty in what he writes, and I love his passion for justice, for politics and mobilization. I love that he wanted something and gave himself to that. I hope I can be so passionate and dedicated. I'm reading through July right now, and his asthma has been bad, he's running out of medication, and the cave where they'd stored their reserves was found and raided. I'm so worried that he's going to die because of the asthma even though I KNOW the CIA and the Bolivian army are going to capture and execute him in October.... Anyway, that, and the situation in Colombia with the freed hostages just have me thinking, a bit about revolution, a bit about justice, a bit about passion and the pursuit of a the greater good.... Which is probably with this piece by Nikki Giovanni at the Recognize! exhibit hit me so hard today. Am I allowed to say that I really like her? Me? A suburban Puerto Rican girl? I do.

Anyway, this is the last point:

It’s Not a Just Situation:
Though We Just Can’t Keep Crying About It
(For the Hip Hop Nation
That Brings Us Such Exciting Art)

By Nikki Giovanni



You don’t
Just wake up and brush your teeth and make up your bed
and put on your favorite pair of blue jeans

You don’t
on other evenings
Just sneak away from your sleeping lover
Just to grab a bite of Quik Stop
Just to hop a train

You don’t
Just visit the 24 hour superstore
Just to get a few cans
of spray paint
And
Just happen to have a case to put them in

You are not
Just out of yellow
So you’ll
Just shadow with grey this time
And
Just shy of metallic blue you will
Just fill in with electric orange

You are not
Just bored
Or hungry or silly or
Just crying for attention

You are
Just, if there is a
Just
Trying to be an artist

You are
Just
If there is any
Justice
Trying to find a way of not
Just surviving but living

You are just
trying to show the beautiful soul of your people
You are just
trying to say “I’m alive”
You are just
determined to be more
than what the powers who
Just hate the idea of you want you to be

You are just
trying to discover the route
of the neo underground railroad
so that your kids can
Just be free

You are just
being a man
You are just realizing
your womanhood
You are just singing and smiling
because you
Just don’t want to cry anymore

You are just
falling in love
because hatred is too hard to bear

You are just
determined
to be the very best you and
You just guess
you better not let anyone take that away

You are just
a person
with a big heart and wonderful talent
That you just
think should be shared

Put a button on it
people

‘cause suspenders
Just
won’t
do

Summer, summer, summertime

Can I just say: I am so freakin' tan! Working at a summer camp is the best thing I could be doing to get this sweet golden brown here in the States, although it's probably not the best thing for my skin. I will say that I have recently starting spraying myself with SPF 15 daily before leaving, and I reapply SPF 30 to my face periodically. I'm working on it....
That said, I am still the whitest person at work.

Moving on, I have another date with A. tonight - the last before he's off to FL for his deployment. Like I said, it's been fun, and I have enjoyed hanging out. He's a really cool dude. We'll see if we keep in touch after tonight....

Alive

I'm back from LA and have hit the ground running. I got back on Saturday, didn't get HOME till Sunday because I locked myself out... (Sometimes I'm smart and pretty and sometimes I'm just pretty), had church, Sunday School, and training, and started work on Monday. Today was my second day. I have thirty kids. Thirty. And they're little. We have a lot of kids who are probably too young for the program - 6 and 7 years old - and I don't know if we'll end up keeping them in the camp or not. It's been chaotic. I'm trying to keep them busy but it's hard to keep the same group of kids entertained from 10-4.... I don't know how elementary school teachers do it.

I'll hopefully get some pics up over the weekend - I'm back to my world of commuting and it'll take me a minute to get used to it....

No good at good byes

So, boo, I had to cancel on the date. :(....

I was at work until FOREVER tonight - I JUST got home. Seriously. Who'd have known how much ish you accumulate over the years.... Plus I had a meeting with L. and F., my replacements. I gave them everything I'd made up over the years, all the work.... I guess I didn't realize that not all teachers put all their materials together themselves - I don't use books often, so I just put things together and make up practices, notes, projects, quizzes, exams.... Must be nice to have a book that does that all for you. Ha, ha.

It was definitely bittersweet. I said bye to all the folks in the department, shared my email address and phone number so we can all keep in touch, and made plans to meet up with folks over the summer for a little Spanish practice. Spanish practice and pool, or Spanish practice by the pool, whatever we decide works best. Ha, ha.

I honestly can't imagine working with a better group of people.

Besides that, I got mad help cleaning up my classroom, which was nice, and I was able to get rid of a lot of stuff. It was good. Good, good, good....

Oh, but I'll miss it. I'll miss it so much. I'll miss my beautiful kids and their beautiful stories; I'll miss the time with my coworkers, sharing information; I'll miss the satisfaction I get from teaching.

But this is the right decision.

Today, I was in the planning office and returned to my room. John Legend's "Coming Home" was playing on my ipod and it was so achingly beautiful that I looked around that nearly empty room and just started to cry again....



*sigh*

Time to pack.

For real.

I'm off to LA tomorrow - debating taking the laptop with me - we'll see....

Wish me luck!

So cute!

From B's retirement party: The Foreign Language Department


I love that I'm so stinkin' dark in it. Mind you, I'm not the only Hispanic one in the pic, just the darkest, most ethnic looking. I look tan and my hair is enormous. I love it. Haha.

In the meantime

Once finals are over, my classroom is cleaned, and grades are turned in, I promise a substantial update. One that includes Obama pics and pics of the kids that made my life either so sweet or bloody hell for the past three years and possibly a C. wedding update.
Until then, there's this from my boy E. from fourth block - all grammatical and orthographic errors are copied from the original with an occasional note for clarity:

Los días, los meses, los años han pasado con gozo

Las memorias vívidas de los años
han volado en mi mente como las cenizas del
fuego de ayer.
las sonrisas, y el gozo que pasé nunca
los voy a olvidar amiga mía. Todas estas
memorias de gracia las voy a marrar [a amarrar] en el profundo
de mi corazón, como un niño amarra el globo
a la mano para que el globo nunca vuela
de su alcance. asi marraré [amarraré] las memorias amiga
querida.

Si por razón vuelas fuera del alcance, del niño
mandaré una paloma de mis recuerdos.
Si la palamo no llega a lo destinado,
mandaré un pez de mis recuerdos,
si el pez no llega a lo destinado
mandaré a .... Victor Manuelle con
los recuerdos. :)

FYI: Víctor Manuelle is my favorite salsero. E. went on to call me "Mrs. Manuelle" (they don't realize it's his middle name and not his last name, but that's okay) and to say that I am the "BEST TEACHER I'VE EVER HAD".

It makes my heart swell.

Okay, I have placement exams and final exams to grade. PEACE!

Back to hiding....