Pictures

Sunday afternoon I went out with one of the nuns to downtown Sao Paulo. We saw the cathedral in Praca da Se which is the city center. It’s a gorgeous square lined with unique trees, but it’s also a place where countless homeless people live. Even as we walked through the streets, there were so many of them lining the sidewalks.

We also went to the equivalent of Chinatown, except here in Sao Paulo it’s “Japantown”. There were tons and tons of markets going on all over the city, so we walked and walked and walked all around. We also went to Trianon Park which is one of the smaller parks in Sao Paulo, but still it was really nice to see so much green in such a ginormous city.

This morning I was supposed to meet the director of the school (who is one of the nun’s I live with) in the teacher’s lounge at 10:20 when all the teachers had a break. I sat in the loungue awkwardly as they all stared at me and tried to talk to me, but all I did was smile and say “Eu nao falo Portuguese” (I don’t speak Portuguese). Eventually I went to the director’s office and she walked with me back to the teacher’s lounge and introduced me to the teachers. Among them were the 2 English teachers for middle and high school, both named Fernando. They were very welcoming and all the teachers wanted to know if I could teach English to them. I said yes, only if they could teach me Portuguese ☺ I hope to set something up.

One of the Fernando’s also invited me out with him to see the city sometime. Actually, he is a dentist as well. He teaches 3 mornings a week, and in the afternoons he works as a dentist. He said it’s common for people here to have more than 1 job.

I went with him to watch 2 English classes. His first class was 8th grade. There were 35 students- a lot more than what I’m used to. The other class was 6th grade. The students in both classes were extremely rambunctious; they were really excited I was there. The first question a girl asked me was “Do you know Justin Bieber?” Some of their questions were pretty funny:

Do you like Ricky Martin? AC/DC? Bob Marley? French fries? The Black Eyed Peas?
Do you know the song “Just Can’t Get Enough”?
Have you ever met anyone famous?
Have you seen the show “Everybody Hates Chris”?
Do you talk to Obama?
Do you know how to dance?
Do you like Paramore?
Do you like funk?

In the 6th grade class, a girl started playing the cha cha slide on her cell phone and a few girls came to the front of the room and danced—too funny. At the end of that class the bell rang and students flocked to me so they could take pictures with me. I felt like a celebrity.

Each classroom is very simple- only desks and a chalkboard. I was really spoiled at Dumbarton where I had a document camera, which made life so much easier. The classroom management was the biggest problem I observed today. It was such a big class, the students were talking to each other and they didn’t really seem to take much of an interest in learning English. Fernando later told me that it is common for them to take English less seriously than their other classes.

The director has a schedule for Michelle and I, but since Michelle won’t be here until June 1st, I don’t really know yet what I’ll be doing until then. From what I understand, we will be split up between different grade levels. Wednesday evening there’s a faculty meeting with all the teachers, so we are planning to set up something more concrete then in terms of what I’ll be teaching.