Post-Trench Town

Sunday was one of my favorite days on the trip. The day started off with brunch at Strawberry Hill. This restaurant was in the mountains, so the view was incredible. The food that we ate here was also very delicious. After brunch, we traveled down the mountains and headed for the island at Port Royal. Even though the boat ride to the island was very rocky, my time on the island was one the best memories I had on the trip. The reason for this was because we met Usain Bolt! It was ironic because I read Usain's autobiography for class, and I also did a presentation on him. I learned so much about him and then I had the opportunity to spend a few hours on the island with him. It was quite the experience. On Monday, we started our time at Alpha Primary School. I was placed in a second grade classroom. The moment we walked onto the grounds of the school that morning, all the kids were just filled with excitement. Many of them have never seen white people before, so we seemed exotic to them. They especially loved playing with our hair because they've never felt anything like it before. I thought the classrooms were very interesting. The class that I was in had 44 students. It made me feel bad for the kids because there we so many of them and not much space in the classroom, so most of their desks were on top of each other. Unfortunately, the week that we were there was a testing week. Each day the students took different tests including math, language arts, Spanish, and integrated studies, so we weren't really able to see many lessons being taught. They were all so loving and excited that we were with them. My cooperating teacher was also very appreciative of us that were able to share our culture with them. The kids were so curious about America. They were especially curious to hear us talk about snow because that is something that most of them have never experienced before. It was so sad leaving these kids because they were all so precious. The class that I was in wrote pen pal letters to the students I student taught, so I hope I could keep these letters going so I could stay in touch with them.