What´s in a Name? Plenty.

For the two readers I have left, (thanks, mom and dad, even though I know you´ll read anything I write and think it´s up there with War and Peace) it´s been a very, very long week, and I´m only halfway through Thursday. Teaching got easier by the second day, but it´s exhausting (teachers are always overworked and underpaid, right?). My first class is at 7am. My last class ends at 9pm. I have a 6 hour break in the middle, but that fills up fast. First of all, I have my own Spanish lessons twice a week for 2 hours. On Wednesday, I was looking forward to going home, (attempting to) go for a run, taking a shower, and hopefully squeezing in a nap, when they told me they needed me to teach private lessons for the rest of the week. I was pretty annoyed, but it´s extra money that I can definitely use (it will pay for my own private Spanish lessons) and the girl I´m tutoring is pretty brilliant. She says she´s never taken an English class before, but you´d never know it. She taught herself by reading books. (I learned today that she´s an Inca Trail guide, and she leads the tours in French. Smart chica.) Besides the exhaustion, my classes are all going well, with the exception of my Basico 2 class. They´re my lowest level class, so it should be the most challenging, but they just make it worse. I can´t get them to stop talking. Yesterday I had to lecture, which I really hate doing, especially when I´m sure they didn´t really understand what I was saying. It just so happens that Hitler is the worst offender. If he´s not talking to whomever is sitting next to him, he´s trying to get my attention (even if I´m talking) by just repeating "teacher, teacher, teacher" over and over and over again. I think I´m going to have to put him in a corner by himself, but I don´t know if that will work. (I still can´t call him by his first name. My guess is that his parents are very uneducated and thought it was a powerful name instead of an evil one. But how is it possible that no one has said to him, "You know, Hitler was one bad dude. You should really find a nickname." Hmmmm, maybe I should get that ball rolling...) So between 3 and 4pm on weekdays, please send patient vibes my way. It would be much appreciated.