Catching Up on Three Weeks!
Hey everyone! As you know, it's been a bit of a crazy few weeks, but the trucker strike is over. It ended two Thursdays ago when a holiday weekend started because the truckers wanted their break and ended the strike. After the strike, there were lines several blocks long of cars waiting to put gas in their cars. It was crazy for a day or two, but things are back to normal. As I have a few weeks of blogging to catch up on I'll do both weeks.
Week one:
Alexa and I had dinner together on Tuesday, which was really fun. We went to a hot dog and burger place where I got a burger with chopped up hot dog on top. Brazilians put anything and everything on their burgers, which I thought wouldn't taste good, but I liked it. It was interesting, but good.
On Wednesday, I went out with some friends to get burgers for dinner. They put all kinds of sauces on their burgers here and the cheese was like the cheddar cheese from a can. It was kind of weird, but I also really liked the burger. I always thought Nebraska had the best burgers, but Brazil has some really good ones too.
On Thursday, I went to Jaboti Lake in Apucarana with some friends and we hung out for a while before heading to one of their houses to hang out and drink until I got a ride home around 2am.
Friday was one of my friend's birthday, so he invited me over for dinner. He made hamburgers, so I got to have my third hamburger for the week. We ate them with french bread that I hollowed out and stuck in mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, cheese, onions, and the burger. I had never had a burger like that, but again, I really enjoyed it. Brazil just has some of the best food I've ever eaten, so it's hard to eat something here and not like it.
On Saturday, I was supposed to go over to a barbecue, but my throat started hurting really badly and I didn't feel very good. I just hung out at home over the weekend and hoped I would feel better soon.
Week Two:
This week was kind of boring, but I started my master's class and I'm excited to work on that. The first week of it went really well and I don't think it will be hard, but it will be a lot of work. The class is current issues in curriculum. I felt pretty sick this entire week and finally scheduled a doctors appointment for the following week. I had both conversations classes and both of the classes with my co-professors. It's all going really well and I'm really enjoying teaching here. It's been the best teaching experience I've had so far and it makes me really want to teach university classes back in the U.S.
Week Three:
This was one crazy, hectic, busy week. On Monday, I went to the doctor. I took my student/friend Ricardo with me to translate and he was very helpful. The doctor prescribed me amoxicillin, pain meds, and cough medicine. Altogether, the medicine cost about $15 and the doctor visit was free, so it was amazing. In the evening, we had a meeting to talk about the Spring Festival, which is an event the English students put on every year. They do skits and music and dances all in English and Alexa and I are coordinating the event. After that, I had conversation club, I ate dinner at the university, and then I went home.
On Tuesday, we had a meeting to talk about English Day. The university English department wants to put on a day where anyone from the community can come and speak English and play games for a few hours. Alexa and I are also helping coordinate this project and we just met to start beginning the planning. After that, Alexa and I did a workshop for the English students about Dating culture and texting slang in the US and it fit in really well since it was also Brazil's Valentine's Day. We had about 12 people come and it was a lot of fun. After that, we joined one of our professors and his girlfriend for dinner and had a really nice time. They both are pretty close to our age and we get along with them really well. It's nice to have other people to talk to in English, especially people with a great sense of humor.
On Wednesday, I just had my conversation club, but I spent the entire rest of the day getting ready for my Thursday lecture. Our mentor also came on Thursday, so I just spent the day working on my master's class, the lecture, and doing laundry so I could get everything done I needed to. This was the least busy day in terms of classes, but I spent the entire day working on stuff for the future and I was very stressed out.
Thursday morning I put the finishing touches on my lecture and then met our mentor, Ashley, when she got to Apucarana. We got lunch and showed her around a little bit and then we went to our university for a tour and a meeting with our host professor. We talked about everything we had done and all of our future plans and Ashley seemed very impressed with all of the work we've done and how well everything is going here. Some ETA's have horror stories about their host professors and I believe I got very lucky with our host professor, Juliane, as she is extremely nice, always helps us with anything we need, and always is on our side. Juliane has been so organized and on top of everything and I am probably having one of the best Fulbright experiences out of all other Brazil ETA's. I'm so glad I got to come to Apucarana. Anyway, after the meeting, I presented my lecture on Gender Identity in the U.S. I think it went really well and people seemed very interested in how education is (or is not) incorporating different identities and diversity in the curriculum. We had a great conversation and Ashley said she thought it was a great lecture. Alexa and Ashley then taught a class on American slang while I watched and then I taught the following class the same lecture with Lauro, the professor I get along with really well. We finally got to go out for some much-needed beers after class and then we got to bed around 1. So as you can see, it was an amazingly busy day but it also was a really good day.
I slept in on Friday as the only thing I had was class at 7pm. The professor has stopped sending me his lesson plans, so I just show up and participate in any way I can. We will switch classes in about a month I think so I will be with a different professor soon. I will always stay with Lauro, which I am very excited about, but I will switch from Fernando and fourth year to Fernando Lima and first year. It's a bit confusing since two of the teachers have the same name.
This weekend, I have just hung out at home and worked on some things. Brazil played in the world cup yesterday, but as I don't care about soccer, I didn't watch the game. Today, I have conversation club and a meeting to talk about a teacher development course Alexa and I are putting on for the English teachers in and around Apucarana. I don't feel really qualified to teach this, but I think it will be just fine. I'm still sick and coughing and I finished my medicine today, so I think I will go to the doctor tomorrow or Wednesday, whenever I can find a friend to come translate for me.
Thanks for reading and enjoy some more pictures!
