One Week To Go

It's hard to believe that its down to one week now. The internet went down this week and haven't been able to update much. My two practice teachings went good I thought. After one of the classes that I thought went really my instructor told me all of the things I did wrong. I didn't agree with all of them but I still love her.

The class I had Thursday was probably my best class. I did it on food and the homework is to bring food next week. I think one of the ladies will bring a cake since its our last week. If she does then she gets a passing grade. The teacher who observed that class said he didn't have anything negative to say and it was the best class he has observed me teaching.

Good news! The school offered me a 4 or 5 day teaching gig. The director said that I have had good reviews from my instructors and wanted to offer this to me. A lady from Sao Paulo is coming in for a few days starting next Friday for an immersion course. She'll be taking English 8 hrs a day for a week. I'll be teaching half days for the days that she is here.

The director said if I get good reviews then I may get some other opportunities in the future. It's small but its a good start. I should be getting some interviews lined up next week. A big focus now is getting an apartment. The other guys are really worried because they have to move out of their housing after this Friday. I have until April 16 to move out. I paid for housing for the extra 2 weeks of Portuguese but they chose not too. I'm glad I did.

If you think about it say a prayer for me to find the right place. I have emailed a lot of people and not many will email me back. You would think they would want to rent their place. I know God will open a door.

Today I worked on a little homework and went to the beach and read. This afternoon I went exploring and went to this 8 story mall in Botafogo. It was really nice. I haven't had ice cream since I've been here and I had to get a vanilla ice cream cone from Bob's Burgers. It was soooo good!

Monday I have to teach high intermediates. This is the class I have felt the most unprepared for because we don't have any books that we use for them. We kind of come up with ideas on our own for their lesson plan. I will be telling them about Alabama and doing a slide show with some different pictures and facts about Alabama. At the end I'm gonna play the chorus from "Sweet Home Alabama." I may have to bring my lighter and sway it back and forth.

Halfway Through

Today I had my third teaching session teaching grammar. There are six total teaching sessions so I am halfway there. Grammar is the toughest subject to teach but it was a good class. They were high basic and understood the if conditional sentences using may, might and will.

The teachers talked today about finding jobs. They have a bunch of partner schools that hire students from them and most are close to the schools location. I went ahead and drafted my resume and sent it to a posting I found on the internet last night. We'll see what happens. The first teacher of the day said we should start having interviews next week. She has been around the Rio teaching circuit for years and has a lot of connections. I've talked to some recent students and they found jobs pretty quickly.

I have started being more aggressive with my apartment search. They are a lot more expensive than I was anticipating. Copacabana is where most of the available apartments are and the cheapest I found was R1,400 per month which is around $875. On the surface that doesn't look bad but after seeing what we'll be making to start out with that would eat up most of my earnings not to mention transportation, food and tithe.

I found rooms that you can rent in a house or an apartment for 1/3 of the cost. It will be a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment or house and I'll rent a room and pay R400-R500 per month including utilities and high speed internet. It's basically the same setup I have now. I'm praying for favor to find the right place with the right people. I'll do that to start out and once I have built up a good clientele and some private students I'll get a better place.

Aunt June update: She's in therapy now and today the therapist pinched a finger on her right hand and she flinched which is really good. The speech therapist worked with her a lot too. She's a tough lady and I know that with prayers and her strong spirit she'll get back to her old self again.

Obama in Town & English Translation for Church

I worked a lot of this weekend on a paper that is due Monday. I worked a few hours Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night and this morning. I finally finished early afternoon and then went to the beach to read for a few hours. There were a lot of people at the beach today because it was so pretty.

Obama was in town this weekend. I went to Copacabana beach Saturday and he was supposed to be staying close to that. There was some short of naval boat patroling the beach. Oh yeah, when I was coming out of class Friday night there some people protesting Obama coming and handing out literature. They had signs that said Go Home USA and things like that.

I went to the church I had first visited and asked about english translation. They directed me to go with this guy and they gave me a headset and he translated the service in another part of the church so he wouldn't disturb others. There was one other guy that needed the translation besides me. He was from Bolivia but living in some european country and was here on business.

It was so much better to be able to understand the service. I was just a little delayed. If he said something funny, I would laugh a few seconds after everyone else. The guy who translated introduced his roommate to me. He had studied at Gadsden State Community College for 2 1/2 years and loved Alabama. He said he had visited Minnesota and New York but he loved Alabama the most.

He gave me his email and phone number and said some people from the church hang out at the beach sometimes and do other things and invited me. He really wanted to help me feel included. It was a good feeling. I only had to walk about 8 blocks to the church and it only took me 10 minutes. Last week I left the apartment at 4 pm to go the church in Recreio and didn't get home until 10:40. This was much better!

I teach two more times this week and in two weeks I will be TEFL certified. Now I'm starting to check out apartments. I checked on one from Craigslist and the guy emailed me back saying he was in Africa now on business with UNICEF and said he had the key with him and would only rent to someone who would take care of the place and he had no pictures. Something just didn't feel right about it. I started thinking, if he has the key he will probably want me to send him money first and then send me the key. I don't think that's gonna happen.

First Week of Teaching

It was a good week of teaching. My second teaching experience was better than the first. I was more relaxed but I still made some mistakes but I'll keep getting better. I'll teach two more times next week and two more the last week for a total of 6 times. It's really good experience. I've been impressed with the school.

We have a weekly evaluation with the teacher on Friday. Yesterday she had good things to say about me and said I was doing good. The only criticism she had of me was my critiques of my classmates. I'm kind of like Paula Abdul was on American Idol. I always find the positives and don't really say many negatives. I told her that is the way I've always been and it's tough for me to critique others. If that's my only negative as a teacher so far then I can live with that.

We have a big paper due Monday and I spent a couple of hours last night working on it and a couple of hours this morning. Our teacher said she will not give us a final grade on Monday. She'll show us our mistakes and allow us to correct. As long as I turn in something Monday I'll be fine but I want to do as much as I can and try to do it as well as I can.

I'm about to go to Copacabana beach and read my Kindle for a while and then come back tonight and work on it some more. I need to get out and enjoy the weather. It's in the low 80s and feels great. It's partly cloudy but it's just good to see some sun because it has rained so much since I've been here.

Tomorrow I'll visit the first church I visited during Carnaval that I couldn't understand. I looked at their website and it said they had translation in english. I'll ask someone about it as best as I can in portuguese. Last week I visited the church that is so far away. I left the apartment at 4 pm and got home around 10:40. Even though I like the fact that the pastor knows people at my church it would really be difficult to get involved with a church that is so far away.

It took about 1 hr 40 min to get there by bus and walking. The service lasted a couple of hours. I had to catch a bus and it took about 30 minutes of waiting before it showed up and then took over an hour to get back. It took me home but went past my apartment this time. I told the driver to stop at Flamengo and stood up to get off but he kept driving and said something in portuguese. I gave them a dirty look because I didn't know anything smartaleck to say in portuguese. I guess it's improvement because this time I only walked about 20 minutes to the apartment instead of 30 minutes like last night. No dark shadowy figures this time.

The people at school said most of the job openings are going to be on my current side of town and I have to live close to my job. I figure I need to find something much closer to me. I know God will lead me to the right church.

Prayer request: My Aunt June had a stroke on Thursday and has lost some movement on her right side. If you'll pray for a quick and speedy recovery it would be much appreciated.

1st Day of Teaching

I did my first of 6 teaching sessions today. I was a little nervous beforehand but not too bad. One of the instructors let me and other student go over our lesson plans yesterday and get feedback from him. For some reason I was so nervous and talking really fast like some kind of jittery squirrel. The other student that heard me yesterday said it was painful to watch. Not what I wanted to hear.

I just really focused in on some scriptures on God's peace and that He'll never leave me nor forsake me. I kept speaking those to myself today and it went well. I was a little nervous before the lesson but it went good. God is good!

After you teach, you have to critique yourself and then the other students critique you and then the teacher critiques. I was ready to be blasted but the comments weren't bad. I'll get better with practice. One guy said he counted "ya'll" 6 times. I guess I should teach them "fixin' to" next.

The students were really nice and friendly and told me I did a good job. I teach again on Thursday. I couldn't work on my lesson plan tonight because I had a lot of homework to do. It won't take long to do the lesson plan tomorrow. All is good as an english teacher in Rio so far.

Last Free Day Before School Starts Back

(Took this while walking back today)

Since school starts back tomorrow, I decided to have a hang loose day. Slept in until around 9 and then had breakfast. I went walking around the beach for about an hour and a half. It was a gorgeous day, around 84 but felt close to 90 and the humidity was close to 80% (it was really thick especially when you don't have a/c).

I received an email back from a pastor here that knows some people from my church. Actually a group from our church came down here last year to help this pastor. I went to meet him and eat dinner and then go to his church.

He told me which bus number to get on and I went. I asked this guy next to me on the bus about Recreio, which is where the church is located. He told me to get off when he got off and get on this other bus. So I did but I didn't know where in the world I was so I told the guy to let me off. I called the pastor and he came and picked up in about 15 minutes. He bought me dinner and we talked for a while before his service.

It was exactly what I needed. I think I can really help out there. The people were so nice and helpful. One lady let me borrow an english/portuguese bible until I got one. She also translated during the service so I could actually understand what he was saying. He also said he knew of an english school that was in desperate need of teachers. He asked if I was interested and I told him I would be. He said they really want someone with a teaching degree and a work visa but since they're in need they might look past it. He said he would check with someone there and let me know.

If that did work out I would be able to get a work visa and three months of vacation plus making a little more money than I was expecting. They also have a thing that if you work somewhere for 12 months, then you get an extra month salary. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'll be praying about if for sure.

On my way home he talked to some guys close to the bus stop and asked them which way was closest to Flamengo, where I live. Oh yeah, saw a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Recreio. They told him a certain bus number but I thought it wasn't right. Turned out to be right but I got off waaaaaayyyyy to early, about a couple of miles. It was right by the beach which at first was well lit. Then it was more shaded and I saw this guy and he yelled something at me. I then crossed traffic and walked in the grass until I got back. While I was walking I saw another guy sitting in the shadows where I would have been walking. Note to self: don't get off too early next time.

Carnaval Sambodromo Pictures