I am, You are, She is, He is, It is, We are, You are, They are...

Hello readers :)

So, today was our second day of real teaching.  Matt and I are in charge of the beginning group ages 13 to 44. There are three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced.  Our students have had some exposure to English in their schools but many of them still don't have the basics down.  Yesterday we taught simple present (regular and irregular verbs) and family vocabulary. Today it was job vocabulary, days of the week, using the verb to be in simple present and deciding between a/an.  We play some games but most of the games are pretty simple right now like charades or Pictionary; we are constantly teaching them new vocab words today they ranged from “Mosquito” to “Musician.” We teach from 11-2 doing mostly grammar and speaking exercises, and then if they want to stay from 2-4 we play games, watch movies, listen to music and just talk at cafes so that they have a less formal place to practice conversation.  Teaching is a lot of work! Outside of the actual class we spend about three hours preparing for each day haha I’m really tired. BUT…OUR STUDENTS ARE AMAZING! In our section there are 11: Madalena, Joao, Joao, Mariana, Mariana, Raquel, Dolce, Carolina, Teresa, Clara, Miguel and Leonor.  The older Joao (17) is a spear-fisherman and scuba diver; he likes to collect shells and made each of us a decorated shell…it was adorable (see the picture).  It is interesting to be teaching some adults who you know are so much smarter than you in almost every other area.  We have a university professor who is 33 in our class and several students who are currently working on their masters or doctorate.  So far everyone has had a really great attitude and seem to really like us and appreciate what we are doing for them :) YAY!

Other than teaching, we went over to the Portuguese/American Airbase for the fourth but it really wasn’t that exciting and we ended up just going to a restaurant for drinks and burgers.  I am eating more meat than ever before mostly because there aren’t really vegetarian options.  When in Rome right? They have a lot of cows here so beef is on every menu…I kind of miss vegetables but it’s not a big deal.  We found this super cheap place for dinner and the lady is really nice. She gives you like twice as much food if you order it to-go aka “para levar” and she gives each person a bag of bread all for 2.50 €.  OK well that’s all for now. Watch the video below if you want to see some traditional Azorean culture…send me an email if you want to chat, it’s been working better recently :)

Love always,

Anya Sophia Keithley