A Schedule, etc.

This morning we finally got Alexa's and my schedules figured out. I am so glad that Dr. Santos, my Art Ed professor, was able to come to Tonga during the first week and a half we are in the school. Even though we still have had an extremely hard time getting a grip on how things work here and trying to get everything organized, she has really been a big help getting things moving. This morning Alexa and I went to each Creative Technology teacher to get their schedules written down, then we went to the staff room (as usual) to figure out the best way to organize our timetables. I will be helping in Ofa's, Moana's (two of her classes), and Lucia's classrooms, teaching three form 1 classes and one form 2 class. Form 1 is twelve year-olds and form 2 is thirteen year-olds. I am interested to see how everything plays out.


Today we went to get pizza. I let Cathy decide what kind we should get, and she went with bacon and eggs. I didn't know that was even a kind of pizza, but it definitely is. It didn't have tomato sauce, but it had cheese, little pieces of bacon, and eggs cracked right on top. It was interesting, but I ate three pieces of it.

 The biggest challenge for me right now is managing my introversion. I'm not antisocial, but I am definitely not a social butterfly by any means. I am envious of people who easily engage people in conversation and who can keep conversation moving easily in any situation. I can do that to a point, but when I hit that point, I am reserved. I am okay with silence in conversation, but I worry that others think I am rude when there is a lot of silence. I love my host family a lot, but I hope that they don't think that I dislike them at all since I am not extremely talkative. Along with that, I have been getting tired early on in the evening and I usually go to bed early, so I really hope they don't take offense to this.

Christein (Christine) is 5 years old and does not speak English. She understands some things, but she mostly just stares at me or ignores me when I tell her things or ask her things. It is a really different experience interacting with a child who doesn't understand me and who I don't understand. Usually Christein acts shy around me and chooses not to interact a whole lot with me, but tonight as I wrote, she came in and hung out in my room. I think easing her in by sometimes giving everyone American candy has helped.