Journal Entry #8 – Monday, February 11, 2008

First of all, I must admit it is going to be difficult to maintain the high level of creative and detailed journal entries written by previous Global Volunteers.

We began our day at 8:30 am with the traditional Hotel Senorial breakfast served by Jesus. We finished our breakfast, daily meeting, and waited for the UTEQ van to pick us up.

Right before boarding the UTEQ van, we experienced a small crisis. Bea’s hair stylist, Daniel, called Bea on her cell phone. From what I gathered, he was worried Bea did not schedule her traditional haircut appointment. Bea solved the small crisis and we boarded the van.

We arrived at UTEQ on time and our day began at 10 am. The next five classes went exceptionally well. The students seemed eager to learn English, were very interactive, and intelligent.

The teaching day ended at 3:00 pm and we ate our usual UTEQ cafeteria lunch. We discussed the day’s events and shared stories over lunch. I sat in the front seat with Marcos. I tried to speak my usual “pigeon” Spanish (this is the term Ernie calls it) with the driver.

We arrived at the hotel at 4:20 pm. Some of us ate dinner at the hotel and some did not. To quote Marilyn: “Where is the salsa dancing?”