Almost a month now after my last post, I'm happy to announce that my new place of residence has changed from being in Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico, to Warrensburg, Missouri, USA, pretty harsh change if any of you know Guadalajara and Warrensburg, or let alone, Mexico and the US.
Warrensburg is a small town in Missouri, just a little South-east of Kansas City, it's about 1 -1 & 1/2 hour drive to KC, and about 5 hours to St. Louis in the west.
Ok, I've had so little time, what with fixing up my apartment, my social security number, my classes (the ones I'm giving AND the ones I'm taking), and with getting to know Central Missouri State University (from now on referred to as "CMSU").
The city is nice and quite tranquil, only 15,000 people live here and it almost doubles with all the students coming to study here. There's nothing much to do really, every night out starts at Pine St. Either, that's where most, if not all, the bars are. A night out could start in "Garrison's" or "Fidder's" which look like the most popular places, those AND Wal-Mart.
The parties are very "American" lots of beer and mixing with other drinks, most of the time people bring their own drinks, which is actually better, but the host still has to clean up afterwards. Simply put, they enormous, probably too big for this town, too big for me no doubt, by 2 in the morning I've had more than enough of the crowed and prefer to go home and sleep.
After 1:30, that 3rd call and they kick you out, there is always a party around somewhere, either at one of the dorms, or at ones unsuspecting apartment, which he'll inevitably permit, what with all the people around and not wanting to be an asshole.
Now, the classes I'm taking are American Literature to 1865, that's an American Culture class I had to take, but it's actually looking pretty interesting, my other class is Historical Archaeology, that on looks interesting, we'll see how that goes.
So today I taught my first two classes, to two groups of 30 people; by Friday I'm sure that number will go down dramatically, it'll probably be a huge bummer for my ego, but, it'll make the semester a lot more easier.
You can immediately figure out which are gonna be "the problem students", kids who actually know more than they should for that class, which they actually shouldn't take, because, even after my warning, they will not get credit for that class if they have more than 3 years of Spanish, prior, to this class. Basically, those kids want an easy grade. I have to kick those people out of my class.
My first class, 9:00am, was a bit complicated, I should've been more prepared, it went well, but it could've gone better, and I really thought it was gonna go worse. I went on for the full 50 minutes, which I probably shouldn't have, just because it was the first class, I should've given the kids a break. Thankfully, after that class, I managed to sneak in another 1601 Spanish class, where I got some pointers form a fellow teacher. So my 11:00 am class went on a lot more smoothly and, I think, the kids enjoyed it a lot more.
everything's cool, the weather is a bit hot and humid, but it'll get colder than anything I've experienced, which is weird because, believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to that. I cant wait for it to snow.
That's it for now, I'' try to post more as I go, I'm sorry for anyone who actually was a daily reader of my blog, I'll get up to date. Thanks
Cheers
Warrensburg is a small town in Missouri, just a little South-east of Kansas City, it's about 1 -1 & 1/2 hour drive to KC, and about 5 hours to St. Louis in the west.
Ok, I've had so little time, what with fixing up my apartment, my social security number, my classes (the ones I'm giving AND the ones I'm taking), and with getting to know Central Missouri State University (from now on referred to as "CMSU").
The city is nice and quite tranquil, only 15,000 people live here and it almost doubles with all the students coming to study here. There's nothing much to do really, every night out starts at Pine St. Either, that's where most, if not all, the bars are. A night out could start in "Garrison's" or "Fidder's" which look like the most popular places, those AND Wal-Mart.
The parties are very "American" lots of beer and mixing with other drinks, most of the time people bring their own drinks, which is actually better, but the host still has to clean up afterwards. Simply put, they enormous, probably too big for this town, too big for me no doubt, by 2 in the morning I've had more than enough of the crowed and prefer to go home and sleep.
After 1:30, that 3rd call and they kick you out, there is always a party around somewhere, either at one of the dorms, or at ones unsuspecting apartment, which he'll inevitably permit, what with all the people around and not wanting to be an asshole.
Now, the classes I'm taking are American Literature to 1865, that's an American Culture class I had to take, but it's actually looking pretty interesting, my other class is Historical Archaeology, that on looks interesting, we'll see how that goes.
So today I taught my first two classes, to two groups of 30 people; by Friday I'm sure that number will go down dramatically, it'll probably be a huge bummer for my ego, but, it'll make the semester a lot more easier.
You can immediately figure out which are gonna be "the problem students", kids who actually know more than they should for that class, which they actually shouldn't take, because, even after my warning, they will not get credit for that class if they have more than 3 years of Spanish, prior, to this class. Basically, those kids want an easy grade. I have to kick those people out of my class.
My first class, 9:00am, was a bit complicated, I should've been more prepared, it went well, but it could've gone better, and I really thought it was gonna go worse. I went on for the full 50 minutes, which I probably shouldn't have, just because it was the first class, I should've given the kids a break. Thankfully, after that class, I managed to sneak in another 1601 Spanish class, where I got some pointers form a fellow teacher. So my 11:00 am class went on a lot more smoothly and, I think, the kids enjoyed it a lot more.
everything's cool, the weather is a bit hot and humid, but it'll get colder than anything I've experienced, which is weird because, believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to that. I cant wait for it to snow.
That's it for now, I'' try to post more as I go, I'm sorry for anyone who actually was a daily reader of my blog, I'll get up to date. Thanks
Cheers
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