Can we throw a picture?!?!

Life has been pretty crazy around here lately. Coming back from Easter, we essentially had a week and a half to prepare for the science and social studies fair. It’s a little different than a science or social studies fair in the United States is. Instead of each student doing individual project, the entire class works on something together and comes up with a big presentation. I worked with my ninth graders along with the Spanish chemistry teacher on the development of the atomic theory. I know, kinda boring… But she was dead set on it, so I didn’t argue. We had the kids split into various groups, each one presenting on a different major scientist who contributed to the modern idea of the atom and building various models that showed how the theory developed from Dalton all the way up through the modern atomic model that is based on ideas from Heisenberg, Einstein, Schrodinger, and de Broglie. They kids really did a good job. They set up the science lab like a tunnel/ museum using sheets as divisions so they could “walk through” the development of the theory with their audience. They did very well. However, since St. David tends to be a little disorganized about things, we didn’t really know about this at all in advance… So, I ended up having only 1 free period the ENTIRE week! The rest was spent working on the project/ presentation with my crazy kids. Here are some pictures I threw of my 9th graders as well as some they threw when they “stole” my camera. (The Spanish for “take a picture” that they use here is “tirar un foto”. Tirar literally means to throw, so the kids always ask if they can “throw pictures”, even the ones that speak English perfectly!)


Pamela and JD introducing the "tunel de tiempo"


Oasting talking about Thompson's cathode ray tube experiment


The Rutherford group discussing his gold foil experiment


Arnold being a "retrato vivo" or living picture of Bohr


JD (Heisenberg), Yang Gi (de Broglie), Frankie (Einstein), and Rony (Schrodinger) discussing the modern atomic model

The tenth graders presented on Africa.


Mike, Harold, Carlos, and Beverly


Chris doing an "African dance"

The eleventh graders presented on various Caribbean islands.


The eleventh grade presentations... Maribel is talking about her islands


Fabio working the computer/ projector during the presentations


The twelfth graders presented on hurricanes.


Chris, Eduardo, and Priscila with Profe Rosanna


Alana


The "Ed Scislow Fan Club": German, Eduardo, and Jamie

Various ninth grade shenanigans from working on the presentation


Juan and Marcel decided it would be really funny to switch shoes for the whole day


Hanging out in the ninth grade classroom between presentations


Eduardo, Yang Gi, Sebastian, and George


The girls


Priscila, me, and Nicole


Camilo and I


Priscila and George

So, this is basically what my last two weeks have consisted of! If you want to see more pictures, you can check out my facebook album that has all my science fair pictures in it at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010233&id=88400178&l=c1266feb04

Presidente and Pigs? aka: Spring Break 2009!

Spring Break 2009!

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a big deal in the Dominican. The kids all have off of school and then most people have Thursday, Friday, and the weekend off of work for Easter. Even though most people aren’t very much into “practicing” religion, a vast majority claim to be Catholic, so Easter is kind of a big deal. To start off the week off, I headed to Costambar in Puerto Plata to meet Mom and Grandma. They came on the 25th, I showed them around Santiago and brought them to school for a few days, and then we went to their hotel in Costambar for the weekend. I came back Sunday night to teach, and then headed back to the beach on Thursday night after school. My high schoolers had a field trip on Friday and so they didn’t have class. So, Thursday night, I took a taxi up to their hotel and hung out with them until Saturday afternoon. It was really fun. We got to see a traditional Dominican dance, drink piña coladas out of pineapples on the beach, try some typical “beach” treats like peanuts and coconut in sugar cane sugar, and just visit and enjoy the beautiful weather. Costambar is #2 on the map. (Santiago, where I live, is #1.)


Me and Mom in Costambar

On Saturday, their flight left out of the Puerto Plata airport at 4 something, so we spent the morning on the beach, and then jumped in a cab to the airport. I had the driver drop me on the side of the road at the entrance to the airport and picked up a gua gua to Rio San Juan. (#3 marks the drop off point.) Gua guas are like 14 passenger vans that they smash like 20 some people into that run routes. Rio San Juan is #4. That’s where I had to make my first gua gua transfer. There, I got on a gua gua to Nagua (#5). In Nagua, I picked up a gua gua to Sánchez (#6). In Sánchez, I got “public transportation to Las Terrenas. This consisted of sitting on the side of the back of a pick up truck and driving 20 minutes through the mountains in the dark to Las Terrenas. In Las Terrenas, I got a motoconcho (a motorcycle taxi) to our hotel where I met up with my roommates who had arrived from Santiago about half an hour before me. It was a very interesting day. I met some interesting people, talked to a lot of random people, saw a lot of things typical to Dominican life, and was able to drive along pretty much the entire north coast which was pretty sweet. All in all, it was a very long day, but definitely interesting! The whole trip took almost 6 hours, but when I saw the beaches in Las Terrenas the next morning, it was ALL worth it!



Map of My Spring Break Travels

Las Terrenas is in the Samana Peninsula, which the American government tried to buy from the Dominican to use as a Caribbean naval base before they got Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Anyways, it’s gorgeous! We hung out at the beach pretty much all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It was so quiet! The first and third day we went to Playa Bonita which means pretty, or beautiful, beach, aptly named! The water was so calm it was almost like a swimming pool. The second day, we went to Playa Coson. It was about a 15 minute motoconcho ride away and even more deserted than Playa Bonita. It was amazing! We had a good time relaxing, sleeping, reading, swimming, and forgetting about school. Oh wait, we ran into our boss there! Dang it! Oh well! anyways, it was pretty great. At night, we cooked dinner at our hotel or went out, met some cool people, hung out with our friends Julianna and Anne who were there as well, had some adventures, the usual! I lost my ATM card in the machine one night, which was slightly annoying to get canceled, but all in all, that was about the worst part of the trip. It was absolutely amazing otherwise!





Playa Bonita


Sunset at the Beach


Playa Coson


Driving over a bridge on a motoconcho


Me and Jessie on the motoconcho with the wild hogs

Anyways, on Wednesday, we got up and going kind of late and ended up taking a gua gua that was nearly empty (which was awesome!) to the capital, Santo Domingo. We bummed around there, ate at Wendy’s, drove around for about an hour, and then headed back to Santiago. (Santo Domingo is #8 on my map.) We got home late, got showered up and went to bed.

On Thursday, Raul, Jennie’s husband, brought me to the bank to get a new ATM card since the machine “gobbled mine up” as she put it. Then that afternoon, Kaitlyn, Jackie, and I went to Salcedo (#9) to the Mirabel sisters’ museum. There were four sisters, three of whom were murdered for their work against the dictator Trujillo in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. You should read the book In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. It’s pretty awesome and talk about their lives and struggles against Trujillo’s tyranny. Anyways, we visited their house which has been converted into a museum, and the gardens around the house where they are buried. Dedé, the only sister not murdered, is still alive today and was there when we were, but we didn’t want to be rude and ask her tons of questions. The Mirabel sisters are considered national heroes now, are on the 200 peso bill, and are still referred to as Las Mariposas or “the butterflies” which was their code name in their fight against Trujillo.


The Mirabel sisters’ house


Their graves


Busts of the sisters who were murdered: Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa


In the Garden


A Mariposa in the garden

Friday was a much needed lazy day of lying around, sleeping, reading, and watching TV. On Saturday, I went to Cabarete (#10) for the day. I’ve never seen the beach as packed as it was! It was pretty crazy, but I still got to enjoy being outside by the ocean. I’m definitely going to miss that a lot when I move home. Today, Easter Sunday, has been pretty low key. I searched for my Easter candy that the Easter bunny left me (thanks Mom, you are the best!!!), webcammed with the family back home, went to church this afternoon, and now should probably get going because we are having some friends over for dinner. I hope you guys all had a great week celebrating our Savior’s ultimate sacrifice and his resurrection, the best gift ever! Jesus is Risen, He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

To see more pictures from break go to my facebook albums:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010115&id=88400178&l=02af8f12e1
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010116&id=88400178&l=8707d841ab

Winning Money and Exposing Yourself? What's going on at Saint David School???

Spanish and English are interesting languages. There are a lot of words that are similar to each other and mean the same thing. Like animal is the spelled the same (pronounced a little differently), but means the same thing in both languages. Sometimes there are things called false cognates though, which don't mean the same thing. For example, embarazada in Spanish doesn't mean embarrassed as one may think; it means pregnant! Also, a lot of times there is one word in Spanish that can translate to several things in English. Like querer is a verb that can mean to like, to love, or to want depending on the context. So, there is one word in Spanish that can translate several different ways.

Sometimes these language quirks lead to funny situations. For example, Oasting came in from recess one day and angrily informed me, "I broke my pants playing basketball!!!" In Spanish, the verb romper means break, but it also includes rip, tear, etc. So, apparently, he "broke" his pants when he wiped out and tore up the knees. Another funny one happened with Juan. He was sitting and working with me because due to certain actions on his part, he was kicked out of one of his classes until he apologized for something he did. So, I made him come sit with me during that time and work on his homework. Last week he asked me, "Miss Scislow, how much money do you win?" And I was like, "What? How much money do I win?? Doing what?" And he's like, "Uhh, teaching!?" And I was like, "Well, I don't really win any money teaching..." And he was like, "What the ****?!?!? I can't believe Miss Jennie doesn't PAY you!" That's when it clicked to me. In Spanish, the verb ganar means to win as in like to win a game. It's also the word they use for earning a salary. So, he was trying to ask how much money I make but asked me how much I won teaching instead. It was fairly amusing. Finally I was in the ninth grade class yesterday helping them work on their Spanish presentations for the upcoming science fair. Here the word they use for presentations is exposicion, and the verb that means to present is exponer. So, the kids were working on their various atomic models for the science fair. One group is writing a little play about an experiment that lead to the discovery of the nucleus. So, George calls me over and asks, "Miss Scislow, how old are the kids I'm going to be exposing myself to?" I just about died... Anyways, that's it for now! Life is crazy busy as usual, spring break is coming up, and I'm excited to spend the week at the beach! Hope all is well back home. Love you all and miss ya!