Sometimes…

Some days, being a Peace Corps Volunteer really sucks. Well, that’s not entirely fair. I mean, some days it’s awesome:

Some days it’s completely the worst (i.e. food poisoning)

Or the classic counterpart over-share:

Some days it’s kind of both at the same time:

Sometimes I get really sick of what I perceive as bad attitudes and general weirdness at work

and feel like the whole day is just going to be:

So, sometimes I go into work like:

 

because let’s be honest, personal growth (which is what I signed up for) is challenging, by definition. Sometimes that doesn’t feel so nice

Sometimes you get all Sebastian the Crab about it 

Sometimes you just want to make presentations like this:

But sometimes, sometimes, you realize you’re being kind of a jerk, especially when you have those great rare, rare moments that make everything worth it.

When my students prove that they’ve actually learned something:

and I actually feel like a real teacher for a minute (or like I’m doing a convincing job of faking it):

Or this weekend, when my landlord lent me the grill, and we had a barbecue:

 

Or the best yet– today, I had a really, really good workshop for about 40 teachers. We played Jeopardy to review TOEFL Speaking, which is my favorite way to do classroom review.
I’ve been working with them once a week now for about a month and a half. I’m really growing pretty fond of them. Today I found out they’re fond of me too!

They were being all weird about asking me what I do in my free time, and when they heard that I have friends that I do things with, they looked so relieved. One said, “hmm, how do you say ‘me alegra (I’m happy)… that you’re ok.’?” They care that I’m settling in!!