22:30 Breakfast today at the hotel was great as it makes a change to have tea, coffee, toast, fruit, eggs and rice in the rooftop kitchen area of a comfy hotel as opposed to a wooden lodge every so often. Soon after DL, SL and I made a trip to the airport to collect the rest of the students. We grabbed a snack whilst we waited for about 15-20 minutes for the students to find their luggage and possibly each other, some were flying together, but all of them were told to prepare their suitcases with flagging ribbon so they were easy to spot. I held up a sign as they trickled out through arrivals and directed them to SL located by the bus to take them back to the airport. One girl immediately pointed out my English accent - I didn't note who…
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| San Jose Airport "Angry Passengers Loading Zone" Haha (D.Philpot) |
We
found everyone, loaded the bus with luggage through a convenient rear window
and I bought cupcakes (as a small surprise for two of the students birthdays
recently or soon). DL gave everyone a speech on the bus and introduced the rest
of us staff, as well as us to all the bright-eyed students of the group!
Back
at the hotel us teaching assistants (TA's - PS, SL, and I) secretly got the
rest of the students to sign two of the students birthday cards, a difficult
challenge when you are not aware of students names and they are split into
rooms of 3 or 4. We then all had a snack
upstairs, dished out the birthday gifts and cards, and then had introductory
orientations for them all followed by proper introductions of one another which
I really liked. We went around all the
students first followed by the staff, and my talk started along the lines of
"Hello my name's Dean and as you can tell I have an English accent…"
before providing an overview of my university education, and ending up with ML
informing them all of my trampolining skills which took me a little by
surprise.
Me
and my group then headed out to Maria Bonita, a Mexican restaurant which was
pretty lovely inside where I had one of the best pork chops I've ever had. Meanwhile I got to know my group of students
and attempt to get their names memorised early.
We
returned to the hotel for a short rest where SL told me she was confused
between "esquina" (corner) and "izquierda" (left) in terms
of pronunciation and sorting taxi directions.
When then had the first quiz (quiz 1) that was an individual informal
quiz with questions to do with things the students might have noticed already
and was followed up my small prizes (a hacky sack this time I think). We then had some more orientation information
to provide, especially considering the first stop was Monte Verde and the host
family immersion section of the course, and I felt I had pretty much already
learnt the names of all the students who I will abbreviate here:
Ca,
Kar, Je, Dw, Kat, Ma, Da, Ar, Na, Am, Em, Al, Ja, Adria, Adrie and An - There
was a total of 16 students enrolled on this CSU program, mostly of Hispanic
background including a couple of Mexicans and Americans, 10 girls and 6 guys.
For the purpose of this blog I will refer to each as and when using these
abbreviations to make things easier and to keep this blog largely impersonal.
I
went to dinner to an Italian pizzeria in San Pedro with DL in my group this
time, the aim being for everyone to eat or be in a group with everyone else at
some point, and we shared some interesting conversations about "first
thoughts," how to think of the course, why students got involved with the
program and what they want from it etc.
I decided to try a drink made with a plant from the Eucalyptus family
called cas or caz or something - I didn't describe it as being delicious here
so I cannot recommend it. On the way
back we passed a car that had collided into the side of a bus and after I
thought the taxi driver was taking us on a bit of a "bunny trail" but
my thoughts were interrupted as a large but normal-sized train passed right by
us on what were practically tram tracks.
When
we returned everyone just rested for the evening and slept.
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| Beautiful Sky This Evening (D.Philpot) |