Verano en: 7 de junio 2010 - Guanajuato Day #6 - First day working at Luis Gonzales Obregon

So I got up at 5am this morning cuz that's when my roommate got up and I didn't want to be late as we have to compete for the bathroom. Anyways, I had plenty of time to eat breakfast and wake up. I would later pay for such an early rise. After getting ready me and Angela walked to LGO for our first day of observation. We filed into the office and met the director of the school. She led us into the common area where all of the children were lined up around the perimeter of the courtyard according to class. Every one of the children was wearing a uniform and they looked so professional.

Since I don't know Spanish very well the assembly was difficult to understand. Nevertheless, the whole school is involved in a Monday procession where the national anthem is sung, the salute to the flag is done, and poems and parts of the constitution recited. There is also music with trumpet and drum accompaniment. This, amazingly, lasted almost 45 minutes and is done every Monday morning at 8am. Every class was so well behaved despite the long time that they had to stand at attention. When the assembly was over the children then all filed to their individual classrooms. I arrived at the classroom and sat in a chair to observe the children. The class I observed was a 6th grade classroom led by Maestra Camela Perez with, what I counted minus about 5 empty seats, 32 students. I had an opportunity to observe a writing prompt being done: "What is the most important thing about the quote of the day?" The quote of the day was: "Respect and a positive attitude is important to a good life for you." They then did some group work where they were constantly watched over for their participation, respect for others, good work, and helping out others. After a couple hours of work the children then took recess, which consisted of having a snack and some down time. The children don't eat lunch at school, they wait til the afternoon to eat La Comida. I said goodbye to my teacher who informed me that she wanted me to teach English to her class tomorrow. I am so excited about this possibility. Definitely looking forward to this! Sorry, no pictures of the school assembly, will post some after next Monday's class.

Then me and my friend from Canada, Michelle, walked to Escuela Mexicana where we met Lenore, Kara, and Coral for our beginning Spanish class. Our teacher, Memo, was really great and very helpful even though we just kinda jumped into the world of Spanish. We learned about regular and irregular verbs. Conjugation was never my strong suit, but I am going to do my best!

Michelle and I then walked to University of Guanajuato where we walked around the campus. It is located in a very beautiful building in the downtown area.

Interior of University of Guanajuato

Later after la Comida some of us went to Mega, Guanajuato "Walmart", and had McDonald's. It was nice to have some American food again. On the cab ride home I got some pictures of the tunnels. There are 23 total tunnels in Guanajuato, the longest being 3km (1.8mi).