First Week Coming to an End!

Today is the last day of my first week at Colegio Menor. I have fallen in love with the school, the students and the staff! These children are lucky to be a part of Colegio Menor. The students are required to speak English at school, but you can imagine after a 2 week break how difficult this has been for them this week! The teacher, Tisa, was lenient with them the first of the week, but now they are marking tallies if they are heard speaking in Spanish. They are very fluent in English, but Spanish is their native tongue and what is spoke at home! We only have the students until 11:40 today and then they have lunch, recess, art, and Spanish...this happens several days a week. They had centers this morning for an hiur, then break. Needless to say there is a lot of "free time" for the teachers!! Nice, right?? Fridays we leave at 2:45 instead of 3:45. Today we are having a celebration of teachers at a local restaurant/pub. Last week was Teacher Appreciation Day, so the school is celebrating tonight! Free food, drinks, and transportation! Tomorrow we head to our host moms school for family day and then to Octavalo to the huge market and we are spending the night! Looking forward to loading up on purchases for everyone back home! Everybody says this is the place to buy beautiful gifts at great prices! Chow!