we made it!

I got here safe and sound Wednesday. The plane ride over to the island was i bit scary. The plane was pretty small so it was a bumpy ride! We're staying at a place called Pedro's Inn. I'll put pictures up later. This place is BEAUTIFUL! Everyone is very friendly and it helps that they all speak English. It is a little embarrassing actually that the children speak three languages, English, Spanish, and Creole (they're slang language), and I can only speak one! We went and visited the two elementary schools and one high school that we will all be teaching at. They were much different from the ones back home! They call their grades infant 1 and 2, then standard 1-6. These are their elementary grades which are equivalent to our k-8. The classrooms were much smaller and they only had about 8 kids in each class, the smallest class having only 2 kids! They also start at age 4, so there were 6 year olds in 2nd grade. Much different than the states. Their high school grades are called forms 1-4. It was a two-story building that was very open. They don't have air conditioning and its pretty warm down here, but some of them were wearing sweaters over their uniforms. They said this was a cold front (its about 80 degrees!). Their gym was an outside area with an awning over it. They were playing basketball while we were there. I will be teaching at Ambergris Caye Elementary School. The principal is from North Dakota! She was very inviting. The teachers there were my age and had been teaching for years! They only have to have graduated high school to teach here. Everyone is so friendly here! Its very refreshing! Well I'm off to the beach. We have the day off today! Miss you all!