Ben posts

It´s 8:39 am on Thursday morning. I thought I was going to be the first one up, since I was the first one to bed last night. Think again, I just found a note from Nobu written at 8:00 am saying that he went for a walk around town. He probably went to this local bakery that we recently discovered. It is a couple blocks away, and they make incredible breads, croissants, and pastries. Two days ago, we went there for lunch AND dinner.

We are on the doorstep of `final week craziness.´ In many ways this second week has gone slow. We seemed to have a lot of time to do different things, but it is an allusion. Highlighted by the video production schedule, we realize that in reality our time is short. Many of the students have started post-production and will soon be pouring many hours into their pieces over the last week. Our home, where all the computer and camera equipment are housed, will be crawling with caffeine-fueled teenagers. For those of us without much video editing experience, myself included, we will support Nobu and the students in anyway we can. That video process in particular has been a great learning experience.

Yesterday was a full day. Janelle and I escorted the intermediate Spanish class to the market to buy ingredients for guacamole. When we returned to CCL, we got down to business—mashing avocadoes, dicing onions and tomatoes, and debating how much chile peppers to put in the mix. When the preparation ended, we threw down. The students did a great job making, and the teachers did a good job eating it. The other notable event of yesterday was watching the France / Portugal World Cup match. Once France scored on the Zidane penalty kick, they hunkered down and thwarted any offensive effort Portugal could muster. Some of us were disappointed with the outcome; some of us were elated. An Italy and France contest in the World Cup Finals has the potential for an incredible 90 minutes of soccer. We will see.

The church bells down the street are striking 9:00, so I should get on with my morning ritual, which today includes washing dirty dishes I left in the sink last night, oops.

See you very soon.

Take care,
Ben