My First Day of School

Today was my first day doing laundry at my new place. I've been putting it off because I didn't know exactly where the laundry mat was, and when I first got here my roommate had offered to bring me along with him when he did it so we could use his car. Well, unfortunately, my roommate is never here, and when he is, he's boarded-up in his room laughing at the television. So taking into consideration that I would begin teaching today, I intended on pulling it off yesterday. When the trumpets sounded and my roommate finally emerged from his den, I was, much to my chagrin, informed that the laundry mat was already closed and that I would need to go myself during the day today before work.

The laundry mat is about 6 long blocks from here. Not so bad, I can handle that. I can see the building it's behind from my house. Problem was, I used nearly every article of clean clothing I have in procrastinating this endeavor. So I stuffed them all into a black Hefty bag, slung my Duffle bag over my shoulder so I could bring my soap and a book to read, and left on my merry way. Wouldn't you know, halfway there and the bag rips to shreds and my clothes spill out everywhere. Thanks, universe.

I gathered them together in my arms, which was a serious feat considering that I was dealing with about three loads of laundry, and ran/waddled the rest of the way to the laundry mat. I was met by an incredibly nice, little old lady who helped me with everything and was thankfully patient with my Spanish handicap. Little did I know that her benevolence was just a form of foreplay to the severe f-ing I was going to get with her $8.00 invoice. For laundry. 3 washers and 2 driers. I was blown away, especially considering how cheap most everything else is here.

I got to work early enough to have a chat and eat with my taco guy ( I call him mine because he won my heart with the most incredible shrimp tacos ever to grace existence ) and then went in to prepare for my first class.

Funny thing is, I wasn't nervous at all. I was going to be teaching the present perfect tense, negative questions and answers, and tag questions. All of which for me are like riding a bike. So my first class begins. Four people. Good, I can handle that. I introduce myself and give them the low-down on me, have them do the same, and then we crack open the book.

"What's your name again? Okay, sorry. So, will you please read from the top -- letter A?"

They all look at me like I'm an idiot, because it turns out that they have a different book than I do. Shit. I ran to the office and looked through the books, and from what I can tell, it's simply the first part of my book that they're missing. Their book starts at my book's page 10. Good. So I start at page ten. We flip the page, and it changes again. Son of a --! I run back to the office again, and at this point the students are all looking at each other and smirking. We had about 20 minutes left for learning, and I was so unprepared for that lesson that I just stumbled through the whole thing.

Afterwards I smoked the most amazing cigarette I've ever smoked, thinking meanwhile about how they're going to go home tonight and their families will ask them, "How was your day at school?" To which they'll reply, "Well, we had the dumbest teacher ever, but.."

My second class, I had no students. Registration is all week, and none started today. Hallelujah. I took that hour to chain smoke and go over the material for my last class. My last class, which was the exact same subject as the first one, went much smoother. I had 8 students, which somehow was better because it felt like there was much less pressure. It turned out that I originally had the right book, and that the students had gotten the wrong ones, so I felt a lot better about that. We got the books matched up and I was able to teach what I had originally prepared for ( instead of having to read ahead on each page so I knew what I would be explaining like I did in the first one ), and I managed to be much more graceful about it. Now just to patch up the bad first impression I caused in the first class, tomorrow.

In the end, I don't have much to complain about. The first class was horrific while I was dealing with it, but after it was over and I had a moment to think clearly, I understood that I shouldn't have expected my first day to be flawless anyway. It's a little strange to be called "Teacher," or "Sir," especially since, particularly in my last class, all of my students but one are older than I am. I tried to have them call me James or Jaime ( Spanish-speakers have a tough time with J.R. ), but they wouldn't have it. I suppose I'll get used to it. I'm simply going to aim to do better tomorrow.