Saturday

Finally this school week is over !! It was not easy being the first complete week since Christmas vacation. It ended with failed math test that i have to repeat to some. I don’t know what happened or what spirit possess my classroom during that test that many children that knew the material well flunked. Even the mothers were surprised. The truth is that they are not behaving well since we came back. They are not taking things seriously and they are talking,talking and talking. So this are the consequences. Anyway the other event this week was that a girl called me some nasty name. She has been talking, talking and I told her that I was going to give her a warning. When she was in recess she told other girls that I was a zangana. The other girls inmediately came to tell me what she had said. So I gave her the warning. The parents wrote me a letter telling me that their girl didn’t said that, that their moral and their values wouldn’t let her. Yeah right….. the problem is we have 3 witness. Me and my supervisor had a talk with the girls. Yes she said it although she keeps denying it. So the warning stays. On other things my friends cruise on the Valor ends tomorrow . I am very much looking forward to every detail that they can tell me and I want to see pictures. I know they had a great time. Ahh this week….. complete again but I’m looking forward to the weekend excitement. Next weekend we are going to a party at my friend’s. The same one that we have gone to parties before. This time for a red party. it had become a tradition and almost every month there is a party at my friends. Also next week Is the Bloggers cruise and even though I’m not going and I’m going to have fun with friends. Sharing as much as I can with them. I’m going to be reading all about it on John’s blog, CC, Expert cruises, CM, whenever I can find info. I
m going to be writing about anything that I’m able to find. Just like the last time.

My little sister

Many of you know that I have a sister who lives in Dallas and used to work with the Something of the Seas cruise line. Even though the 14 years age difference and the fact that I only lived with her until she was 6 we have a lot in common. She is like me only braver. She has done a lot of things in her life that I would have liked to do but I didn’t have the guts. The only thing is that she is 30 and she doesn’t have a family yet and she really wants to have one and finally settle down. Doesn’t anyone know a good man that you can recommend ? Why I’m talking about her today? I don’t know if you have seen that in facebook many people have written 25 facts about themselves. This morning I saw my sister’s and I loved it so much that I wanted to share with you. It’s very interesting like her life.

25 facts about me

1. I love art and I think that every child should have access to quality art education. Forget TAKS!
2. One of my passions is dance, I will dance all day everyday if I could.
3. My goal is to travel as much as I can.
4. I dont care where I live (where I am now is expensive cause I feel safe here), what I wear or what car I drive, I just want my money to travel!
5. I cried during my College graduation, not because I was happy, but because I didnt want to leave college, New Orleans or my friends. Those were the best years of my life!
6. In that same line, one of the reasons why I quit ships, was because I couldnt handle any more goodbyes.
7. Some think working on cruise ships was a waste of time. I might not have a PHd, an MD, a JD, a family or my own place, but what I learned on ships, the people I met and the places I went kick the ass of everthing else. What’s the hurry anyways?
8. I dont think I could ever decide what career I really want to pursue.
9. Due to recent experiences, I have realized that I would have enjoyed being an MD, but I change my mind by the second. I will also like to be a Dance Therapist
10. I had a lot of trouble adjusting to life on land, I think it was easier to adpat to life at sea.
11. I want to learn to sail and own a sailboat some day
12. I miss Puerto Rico and my family a lot
13. I am always in search of “home”
14. I will never feel complete as a woman until I have my own children
15. I am not as strong as people think I am…I am VERY sentimental and I cry for everything! When I say everything, I mean everything
16. I love the water and the beach, but I also fear it!
17. My most embarrasing moment was when I fell off a stage while dancing during a rehearsal. It is a miracle I didnt break my arms and legs.
18. I lbelieve in change, I love change, I think change is always good. I am addicted to change
19. I really wish I could sing
20. I really should be doing lesson plans right now
21. I love peaceful days at the park, at the mall, etc more than I enjoy a night out in crazy bars…I think I had enough of that in college…New Orleans, baby!!….
22. Can you tell I am a procrastinator????
23. I am very liberal and open minded when it comes to other people’s lifestyles and believes, but when it comes to my own life, I am WAYYY Y too conservative. I am also very hard on myself.
24. I enjoy the quiet of my apartment…especially after years and years of roommates and years of years of working with huge amounts of children in the one room. Silence is golden for me!
25. finally #25!!!

4 good friends and a birthday

As many of you know, bloggers Paul, Bee and Linda are onboard the Valor for this week’s cruise. Linda and Bee has already been on cruises with John but Paul has never been able to meet John missing him for just one week. He was very much looking forward to meeting Mr. Heald. John has promise Linda that they were going to meet on the lobby today for that long awaited meeting. This time John was able to make it and they finally meet and I was able to take part of it. We were all in the car picking up Vivi at work when Linda called.I talked first with Linda and Bee. I was very happy to talk with my friends again and they both sounded very happy. They were having a great time with each other and John. They told me they were giving gift to John and taking a lot of pics ( that I want to see). Then I talk with Paul for the first time. Sweet and special as always it was very good to hear him. I’m very happy for you friend!! Finally you got to meet John!! I know how much you wanted this. After Paul I got to talk to John. Is always so good to hear him! His voice reminds me of good times. He told me that he was having a great time with this special friends and that he wanted to spend more time with them that if he could he would have stay with them the whole week. I wish I have known how to put him on speaker so everyone on the car could say hello but I was afraid I would hang up. Talking to all my friends made me very happy. I am lucky to have them and that they never forget me. After that we went to my mother in law for My nephew’s 25 birthday. We had a good time but it’s sad to see that all of us were present even Ginita on the skype thing, all except his father. He stayed on his room as always. I ate sooooooooooo much that I think I gained the 5 pounds I lost ….. ugh! Well tomorrow is another day. I’m going to stay working until 5 tomorrow and I’m not looking forward to it but I need the money.

The future is here

WOW!! I just experience for the first time the Skype thing. I was talking with Ginita and I was seeing her on her dorm room in France. Live and in color!! LOL WOW!! Vivi was “carrying” her all around the house and she was seeing everything and everyone. We all got to say hello. She was watching Eugenio take out the groceries. HA!! She show us what she was eating a box of creal and a baguette. It was fun! She sees her family everyday and they got to see her and she is in France!! So I’m going to see Vivi also when she goes to France. It reminded me of Epcot. On the ball of comunication the last scene shows a family talking with others on a distant country through the TV.
We have that already and I didn’t use it until today. I like it!

A new president

I am glued to the television and I can’t hide that I still can’t believe what I’m seeing. WOW! History in the making….the first African American president. It makes me happy and hopeful. I can’t hide that. He is young and has a beautiful family. I’m not into politics and even though I am an American citizen and all his decisions have a direct effect on us, we don’t vote for the president so I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to wish him the best. God bless President Obama! I really wish he does a good job for the sake of all of us. On other things for all of you that have asked about my doctor appoinment it went ok. Blood pressure is fine and he gave me some “happy pills” so I have more strength to deal with school and parents. This week is short for me because it is only 3 days with children. Holiday on Monday and this Friday is parent- teacher conference so it is an easy week. Let’s see how that goes.

Just so you have an idea

Fiestas de la calle San Sebastian
Just so you have an idea on how big this party is for us. This weekend from Thursday through Sunday this are the streets of old San Juan. This year I decided not to go. It’s not easy getting in and out even though it is very well planned it takes time to get there. Take the train and the bus, make lines. Struggle to just walk.It is worth the time don’t get me wrong. Everyone it’s happy and on the party mood. But that’s exactly it you have to be on the mood. Vivi went with her friends. You can get an idea with the first pic. Those of you that have been here,This is la Calle del Cristo and the yellow building at the left is the hotel El Convento. La calle san Sebastian is the street up there where San Jose church is and the park with the totem near El Morro. Sorry it is not clear. It is a sea of people and you have to move with the wave. Music and dancing in every corner

I’m a Barbie mom in a Barbie world ehh

A new day and it was much better than yesterday. I have to confess (although you may already know) that yesterday was a really bad day. I was down… down… and it continued to be that way until this morning when I finally got out of bed after waking up at 2:00 and making the decision to call my doctor and make an appointment and take any med he decided to give me for me to feel better. It didn’t last long though and I feeling like myself again. Anyway I’m going to the doctor tomorrow just in case he wants to give me something. Yesterday Cristian wanted to see the movie The strange case of Benjamin Button and that didn’t help either. The pictures is very good but it’s sad. After seeing the picture we went to Old San Juan to see the ships and looking at the Splendor and the Liberty didn’t help either. LOL
Ahh today…. I was really thinking of not going to work . If my friend had told me I could go to her office today I would have left school, go to the doctor , the lab and back home to sleep. But no I don’t like to do that. I hardly miss a day. I won a bonus 3 years in a row for not being absent ever in the school year. I stayed and the Music teacher didn’t come, he does that a lot most of the times after long weekends
( Tuesday) my music day, that meant that I only had one free period. YAY! Ok I took that one well. But I had a surprise waiting for the end of the day. I have a girl in my classroom that is a very good student and doesn’t give me any problems. I was the lucky one because I got the only one in the family that is no trouble. This girl has 3 brothers. All of them are famous at the school. Why? The older is in ninth grade and when he was in 4th grade was almost kicked out of school because he used to tell kids in the bathroom that he was going to kill them if they didn’t do what he told them. The other 2 ummmm used to throw temper tamtrums at the classroom , throwing chairs and all, one of them even tried to jump from the second floor. I don’t know why they are still at our school.
Fear? Money? lawsuits? I don’t know. You should see their mom, the Barbie mom. Blond and stupid. All in her screaming money, hair, clothes , jewelry, purse ALL. She comes to school in her expensive car , so vain and living in la la land. Anyway she has asked me an appoinment asap the first day that we came back to school. I gave her one for the next day and she didn’t show up. Well she did today after school and she was furious! Do you remember the project of the towns that I gave the grades at the last minute because I knew that someone was going to give me some trouble?? Uh hu She didn’t like the 90 that I gave her daughter 90!! the project was perfect… right but she was late!!! That’s minus 5 points. I told the girl that day. If you don’t give it to me today you are going to lose 5 points her answer was it’s not finished and my mother wants it back. I said that to her and she continued to give some other reasons that I ignore. The other 5 points were 2 points that I took out of a paragraph that they had to made in the classroom and 3 points of the oral report. Everyone one of those points had an explanation. You can believe the things she said to me. That the boys got a better grade, etc, etc. A bunch of nonsense. I was stoic and did not go back one inch. What was she thinking?? Take care of the important things like your kids mental health. Why are you complaining about a 90?? and with no reason….That’s why things and kids are so screw up today because of Barbie moms in Barbie worlds. Get real!  I would be perfectly happy in my job without some parents. Believe me! This is another day at school…:)

Tired

Tired of doing nothing, tired of waiting for something that we are just not going to get just waiting. Tired of inaction. Tired of the same thing. We are not going to get what we want if we continue the way we are. We can forget about it. Yesterday I finally realize that. We are just waiting for that building to sell but that is not going to happen. No it’s not . Why ? My sister in law died more than a year ago and her papers the ones that we need to sell the building ( if we got a buyer first) are not ready. More than a year !! and still not done. Why? Everyone is waiting for someone else to do it. There is one ONE paper missing. Her husband can’t find it. He doesn’t come out of the house, it’s been months since the last time we saw him. We been told that he went to the place he used to work to see if they had a copy. It seems they don’t have one. Now what????? Everyone is now waiting for the paper to fall from the sky. Nobody is doing nothing!! He won’t search for it. It doesn’t matter to him. He is a living dead. He hardly gets out of his room. Everybody talks about it. Nobody does nothing!! He is not going to search for the paper!! It could be years. Everybody talks and talks and waits. Wait for what?? I don’t want to wait anymore. But who I am?? They have to storm into that house and demand. Search!! Put him on meds. Take him out! He is taking us all into the hole with him!! I think we can forget about the building and the money. What next?? Well then like it or not I need to find something else to do. I will have to get some kids to tutor or something after school. On Friday I learned about something that I would have been able to do but they didn’t ask me. The principal was asking teachers if they wanted to stay until 5 to watch preschool kids. It would have been $750 more each month. He didn’t ask me. Sometimes I think I’m invisible. If you don’t make any trouble and you simple do your job you are invisible.
I was sad when I learned about it. I think he should have asked everyone first and I think that he as our boss should be more interested on his employees. He doesn’t know anything about us. This is taking a toll on me and I certainly don’t want to remain on this job until it’s time to retire. It is not made for me. I don’t like to say this things. I don’t like to complain. I know that I’m blessed with a secure job on this difficult times. I know , I know I know and I thank God for that, but I can’t hide that it is difficult for me, it’s not made for me. It is not that I don’t want to work, yes I do, but only if I could go back to my assistant teacher job. That is not going to happen if we continue to wait , wait, wait. I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel not yet even trying to be the most optimistic of the family. At least I will keep fighting. I don’t want to remain like this the rest of my life. I want it to be like it was before but there is so much that I can do. Please let me at least write it so I can get it out of my system. I feel better now

And that makes me happy

Well today was my first day back to work after Christmas vacation and before I go to sleep I want to let you know what made me very happy today. The day at school was not bad it was ok nothing to report on that part. But when I came home I found Vivi talking on the computer with Ginita. Ginita is doing well and she is happy in France. She talks a lot on the computer with her sister and mom and with Vivi. Until yesterday she was a little lonely because she has not meet many people. When I got home from work she was telling Vivi that after she talked to her last night she was going to sleep when he heard a knock on her door. It was a girl that has just arrived from the United States. They talked and talked and it seems they have a lot in common. Ginita told Vivi that she was a lot like them and that afternoon they were going to go to the town to check later for pictures. My nephews came and ate here and stayed until late talking about cruises. Me and Eugenio were trying to convince one of them not to go on the AOS again with his friends and choose the Carnival Victory instead. We told him all the pros and cons. I think he is convinced but now he has to convince his friends that are blinded with the climbing wall etc, etc. Let’s see… Anyway after they left I was checking my facebook to see if Ginita has added new pics and I was very happy to see her strolling with her new friends the beautiful town of Rennes and not only that to see her on a picture with a bunch of friends. Friends from Greece, France, USA, Mexico and Brazil!! She could even practice her portuguese.WOW!! The good life and she is living it. Her loneliness lasted 2 days. That makes me happy. I want Vivi to experiment the same things. I’m going to work for it and I know we are going to make it. She wants to go and I going to do everything in my hands to make it happen. Even if she is going to be so far I’m going to be so happy that she has the change to do something like this!! To see so many beautiful places to get to know people from all over. How much knowledge, culture, life! she is going to get from all these. WOW! I’m glad to have the wonder of the internet and to be able to live this things through Ginita’s eyes almost everyday. Vivi is next I know we are going to make it. Some way or another.

Three Kings and a visit

Today Christmas is officially over in PR. Yes, I say officially because unofficially it’s not over yet. We continue to have an excuse to party up to almost the end of the month. Now we are in Las Octavitas that are the 8 days after 3 Kings day and after Las Octavitas we got Las fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian that this year are from the 15 to the 18 of January. If you want to know more about Las Fiestas you can read about it on one of my blogs that I wrote last year: http://nanetteali.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/fiestas-de-la-calle-san-sebastian/

We are supposed to have the longest Christmas in the world. LOL
Here is a little bit of info about our Three kings day so you have an idea:

Dia de los Reyes in Puerto Rico
The Feast of the Three Kings also known as the Epiphany takes place every year on January 6th. It is an intricate part of Puerto Rican folklore. Traditionally, this day is very important, especially for children, for it is on this eve that they will receive their gifts. On the feast of the Epiphany, the Three kings visited the newly born Christ
Child in Bethlehem bearing him gifts. This tradition is repeated and reflected in present day with the belief that on this eve the 3 Kings will visit every good child to deliver them gifts. Tradition states that on the Eve of the Epiphany children collect hay, straw or grass and place it in boxes or containers under their beds. This gesture is a gift of food for the Kings’ camels  while they rest in between deliveries.  If a child is good for the past year he will receive candies, sweets or toys. This tradition is much older than that of Santa’s visit on Christmas

I got a visit from my parents and my aunt yesterday. Do you remember my aunt the actress?

http://nanetteali.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/back-from-mayaguez/

It’s been a while since the last time I saw her. It’s always interesting to have her around. She is a character and this time my kids where more eager to see her. She is always very interested in what Cristian is doing. If he has made another short movie or a script. She wants to help him when the time comes. She wants him to take some leasons with some producer friends she has. Let’s see….
Well…Viviana is now hooked on Lost. She along with 2 other friends have spent nights and days of this vacation watching the episodes. They are already on season 3 and they want to catch up before the new season starts. She wanted to see Lillian to ask her a bunch of things about the series and the characters. She did and got some info and later call her friends to tell them all excited. She got Lillian to promise to get her autographs next time she goes to film in Hawaii in April. Let’s see if she doesn’t forget. We also talked about life and jobs. We talk about mine and how difficult it was to be a teacher in this time. She told me I should write about it. You know I do. Anyway we were talking also about my sister and how she didn’t seem happy about her job and how she sounded bored when she talk to her on her first day of school after vacation. UMMMm!! My aunt told me that was because she had travelled and once you have travelled that much your life changes. It is an addiction and you are not happy if you can’t travel. I know that .. I just can’t picture, I just can’t imagine not traveling for many years. It hurts…. My sister has interview for a job related to travel on Friday. She would have to relocate to Houston. Everything is in God’s hands.
Anyway tomorrow I start working again. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
AHHHH I just talked to Ginita on Facebook chat and I saw some pics. She is doing great although a little lonely because she doesn’t know anyone yet but that is not going to last long.