The working man

I'm not teaching an incredible amount of hours -- about 30 a week -- but my schedule is a little scattered. I work 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 4 hours or so on Saturday (8-12 or 12-4). Also tutor on occasion. I'm teaching college students the finer points of past perfect continuous, phrasal verbs, and idioms. Lesson planning takes a little bit of time for me. Preparing a four-hour lesson on grammar and vocabulary requires quite a bit of thought, actually, because you want the students doing the talking and you want the activities to be interesting. It's a challenge. Luckily, I have the internet and thumb-drives. My students are pretty good. Nice to know that students in Peru are like students everywhere. The students here take an average 6 or 7 courses a semester in addition to the English class I teach. They're pretty stressed and the English class isn't always high on the priority list. But I've had good classes, and my bosses have been very supportive (how's that for sucking up?). Support from you supervisors makes all the difference. I usually start classes with vocabulary -- call my bluff, where I show the students the meaning of the word and they have the option to give the real answer or make one up to tell the class. Same thing with idioms. Then we'll discuss a topic, such as nature vs. nurture, and the students may pick a side and write an essay defending their point. We have workbooks that contain grammar points as well as various discussion topics. I'll show a video (such as Vacation by the Go-gos) and ask them explain what's going on. I walk to class and take a combi (small van packed with people) home from San Pablo University's Institute Del Sur. It's a little more than a mile one way. Walk to my night class at the Institute. That may be a mile round-trip. No more taxis unless it's an emergency.
Things I find myself missing: Fresh brewed coffee -- you can get it but you have to make a trip. Mostly, it's instant. I miss driving my car, but I wouldn't do it here. I miss milk. Fresh milk is very rare here. Got some new pictures of views from my roof, the central market, my 'hood and traffic.