day 2

I have had a rough time with internet connection – they have been here 6 times!  Wire problems, electrical problems. – all the lights in my apartment worked the first night, then… not so much J  but today the school got us the portable plugs to tide us over until the internet can be worked out.

Today we were picked up in our vans at 7:30 and taken to school.  We ride with people who live in apartments near ours.  I got to see the school for the first time.  Wow.  It is really different.  The classrooms have AC, but the school is open air so whenever you are in a hallway etc it is warm and damp J !  Space is tight here so not everyone has a classroom, but thankfully I was assigned one.  WHEW.  Because we all know I am not the most organized person!  We learned a lot today about how the school runs etc.  I also got some technology training and am already improving – people were very proud of me!  I was helping others occasionally J  They had a business fair where we got to talk to different businesses.  My shipment should be here between aug 5^th-8^th so I signed a million papers for that.  I haven’t signed my name that many times since I bought my house!!  I signed paperwork for a bank account but can’t get one until I go to the government office FRRO tomorrow.  The superintendent has split us into three groups and is having a group over for dinner each night.  My night is tomorrow so tonight I am meeting at another place with a group of people.  This school is so well organized!  They transport us everywhere for right now.  I am going to have to venture out and walk around my neighborhood this weekend – hopefully when it isn’t pouring! They had binders for us to look for maids that other ASB folk have had and liked. The school gave us all simple cell phones to use right now and then when we get a phone we can transfer the SIM card to the new phone and keep our number.  I also got a SIM card for my I Pad so I can travel with it.  The cost of things are weird here – some things are the same or more – like all the stuff I bought yesterday, but some are cheap.  Like we’ve been told at iphone will cost 33,000rs which is about $750, but the monthly rate of the phone is 199 rupees which is less than $5!!!!!!

I have already had to go to the nurse’s station twice today.  I got two big bites on my arm the size of golf balls and one burned really badly.  She put some calamine lotion on it.  Later I got two more and my whole arm was numb!!  So they gave me some allergy meds which helped for awhile.  I will need to go to a chemist (pharmacist) to get some.  The doctor said once I acclimate to the different bugs, my body will stop responding so terribly and I’ll get smaller welts J Most everyone else has done extensive traveling so my newbieness is working against me.  No GI issues yet.  I have only drank bottled water but I use the tap for brushing my teeth… ooh risk taker!!  We also have a water filter and after a few weeks I am going to start trying to drink the filtered water a few sips at a time and hopefully build up so I don’t have to depend on bottled water. 

The superintendent spoke about how they spent moths choosing us and have extensive notes on our hiring process and that we were chosen because we are awesome.  It costs $62,000US for the first year here!!!!!  That is 3 times the second most expensive private school here so he was talking about how parents pay for our experience etc.  It made me feel honored to be chosen among all these great people, but made me feel a little inadequate too!  I really want to live up to their expectations and be a great teacher.  There are tons of people to help –technology, apartment maintenance, drivers, security, medical staff..  There is WAY more staff here at this school of 750 and at my school with 1400.  I’m just trying to take it one step at a time.

I like that everyone here likes to travel and are adventurous – a lot of the dinner conversation last night was about where we are going to travel on our breaks!  I might have found some people to go hiking with in October J