Meet my Class

I realized this past week that I have not given a full introduction of each kid in me and Johan's class, so here we go...
Benllina. She is super sassy and does not take orders from anyone. She is tiny, but do not overrate this girl because she can surprise you.
Wilton. Clueless is the best word I can give. He is young so his cluelessness makes him cute (if that is even a word). He barely speaks, and it is hard to hear if he does, unless you ask him a question and put your ear right up to his mouth.
Nayelis. Every morning when I walk to work, I pass her home, and she gives me the sweetest smile. Although young, she is one of my smartest students.
Bianca Nicol. B-R-A-T. But super smart and a perfectionist. She does the best drawings out of anyone in her class. I put up with her high maintenance about lunch because I was once the same way (what am I kidding, I am still that way).
Nelisa. One of my favs. She has the softest hands and cheeks. She also loves giving hugs probably every second of the day. I once saw a Shrek sticker that looked like her when she smiles, so when I saw this at the park, I had to take a picture...awful I know.
Marta la Loca (Robin loves to call her this). Marta is the sassiest student in the school by far. She calls me princesa but tells Johan he is ugly haha. Sorry inaprop but kind of funny. She loves to dance and tell all the students what to do.
Manuela. Do not be fooled by the dress. She has about 7-8 family members, mostly boys, so she is a tomboy to the fullest. She loves making random noises during class and annoying all the boys, especially Wilson.
Kendry. He rules his mama; therefore, he tries to rule the class. He was tough at first, but as time goes by, Johan has been doing well with him. He loves to rap in front of the class, and hopefully one day I will record it and show you in a blog.
Wildania. One of the oldest but does not know what language to speak yet so has not fully learned one language. She knows more than most students in our class and loves to guide the super young ones like Jemsy. That is nice when we need someone to help clean up or answer questions in front of the whole class.
Jemsy. Tightest kid in the whole school. We only allow three and up in the school, but we decided to make an exception for him because he is younger, and I am so thankful for that decision. If you ask Jemsy, "Comas estas?" He will say "Si." From time to time when I need a good laugh, I will ask Jemsy if he can dance, and then we will start dancing silly together.
Alex. Besides Nelisa and Jemsy, Alex is my favorito. He is super spoiled by his family to the point where they have a picture of his face on the front of their moto. I get it though. He obeys in class and answers questions, is a bit shy, but laughs every now and then at the most random things. He is definitely a lil teddy bear so I love giving him hugs. If I ask him, "Como esta mi pelo?" (how is my hair?), he will walk up and fix the front of it for me.
Yasmaidi. When I said Wilton was cluesless, I meant Yasmaidi. She walks around super flimsy and honestly has no idea what is going on. I think I could pick her up with my pinky finger. Thankfully she is young enough to get away with being clueless so she has plenty of time to learn.
Wilson (Son). Hyper, but all out of fun. Whenever he is bad, it is because he has so much energy and thinks everything is a game. I love to hug on him and let him know he is loved.
Marileidi (Leidi). Her mom is super stylish so she loves for Leidi to be the same. Every Semana Santa (Easter week), she gets Leidi's hair done. Leidi is a sass-o-frass, and I love it...well sometimes. Her and Nelisa are cousins.

Well, there you go! Bienvenidos a mi clase :).

Finalmente

Two blogs in one day. crazy stuff. It is worth it though to read both the one before, and then this short one. This one is only to say...

I FINISHED HARRY POTTER, finally!!

I suggest everyone read all seven books because they are wonderful (especially if you have someone like Robin by your side who has read them already and gets excited every time you finish each book, wants a recap, and then watches each movie with you after). Sad to be done. But now I need a new book or series of books, so if you could email me some suggestions, that would be great. Ok? Thanks.

"Ff" es para Fiesta

Johan and I have been making an alphabet book with our kids, a letter each day where they can associate the letter with a picture of something that starts with that letter. Last week we were going over la letra Ff so they colored a flower, and then we decided to have a Fiesta with our kids after lunch before they would go home, ya know, hype them up on sugar and caffeine and then send them off with their parents. We went to La Sirena the night before and bought stuff to make cake, princess and transformers plates and cups, and balloons. They each made their own Fiesta hat to wear during the party because I was too cheap to buy them party hats, plus the ones in Sirena were ghetto.
After lunch, Johan took the students to the front of the school to distract them while I taped all the balloons up in the room and cut the cake. Once I gave the okay, he brought them back, and well, it was time to partay. They all jumped up and down and gave many bullitas, and then sat quietly waiting for their cake because Johan and I threatened them with no sorpresas if they did not obey :) love it when that happens. We sat a piece of cake and a cup of coca cola in front of them and yelled go. They all scarfed the cake down quickly and then asked for more, and this is where the point of my blog comes in...
I looked at their cups and noticed that no one was drinking their coca cola, but hey let's get serious, who from Texas says coca cola or soda. We say coke right? for everything. So naturally I say to the kids, "Todos, beban sus cocas!" No one drinks. Some kids turn to look at me, and Johan immediately goes, "Kendall, that is not what you say...you say refresco! You just told them to drink their cocaine." Awesome.

I am so Dominicana...

...ya right. But no joke, sometimes it just happens.

Almost everyone here drives a moto (like a motorcyle). I am a bit late in talking about this, but maybe because I wondered if my mom would read it and freak out. Last Thursday I went to Caraballo to talk to the lady who use to take care of Marleini and Wilson. Johan took me on his moto, and on the way back he stopped on the road and told me to take over. The road from Caraballo to Pancho Mateo is a long dirt road surrounded on both sides by cane fields...in other words, it is pretty much deserted. Of course I freaked out and told him no, but he is Johan so he kept insisting. Well, I did it. I scooted to the front, hit the gearshift with my left foot, and then accelerated (all with the help of Johan). So when you accelerate, it either goes smoothly or you jerk, right? Well I popped a wheelie and was driving at the same time. haha. It was hilarious! I could not stop laughing but would not let go of the accelerator so we were swerving side to side, like when you first ride a bike and cannot ride it straight. I had to eventually stop because we were both laughing too hard, and I could not focus. After we stopped laughing, I tried again and actually drove for awhile. Johan of course had to help steer for a few seconds here and there so we would not fall off the road. Success...or in my mind it was, seeing how I can be such a weenie sometimes.

Next on the list...I learned how to dance bachata and merengue. I have always thought I could not dance worth anything, but I actually did ok. I did much better dancing salsa (thank you random Tridelta meeting when we learned how to salsa).

Last but not least. My spanish. It still is not great, but I am trying. Robin is teaching me, and it helps so much seeing it visually. As you know from my last blog, I am co-teaching with Johan. I get to hear Dominican spanish on a daily basis. If you do not know anything about spanish here, well, it is ghetto, and they call it Dominican not spanish. Anyways, today I called a kid over, and Johan looked at me and said, "Whoa, you sounded so Dominican." Awesome. Not only did I get complimented for my accent, I got complimented for my Dominican, haha. One step closer to being a Dominicana :)