Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts Elementary School is in the hood. The barrio? A "bad" neighborhood.

I love it.

Today was the official first day of school, our third day in the building, and the students' first day back. It was chaos but within half an hour of our class being in the room I was in love. This year is going to be so, so tough but just as rewarding and that's a great sentiment to have on the first day. There are 27 students in my sixth grade class: 10 girls and 17 boys, which is abnormally unequal. I'm wondering if the extra testosterone will make for a more hostile classroom environment. Two students quickly proved to be the most challenging--Austin, whose right arm and attitude are broken and Enrique, who so obviously wants attention and needs serious medication but only gets it periodically for reasons that have yet to manifest. My favorite students of the day: Joshua, a very small, very quiet boy with dark, sad eyes who is soft-spoken but very respectful; and Azalea, a girl who proudly told her friend she wanted to go to Hamilton College upon hearing that I went to UW-Madison. How she knows about Hamilton I have yet to find out, but she seems really spunky and bright. We're going to get along great.

This afternoon was spent perusing the neighborhood. Most signs in store windows are all in Spanish and most store owners spoke primarily Spanish. Again I wished I had taken both French and Spanish, but as a team we talked about getting a copy of Rosetta Stone. Anyways. The neighborhood is run-down, but people were so friendly. I love that kind of meandering exploration. We went into a bakery about two blocks from school and I was in heavennn!! So many pastries and breads, homemade churros, and the lady behind the counter only spoke Spanish and doesn't take plastic. Between the nine of us we split a pastry made with sweet potato (two of my favorite things combined!? How have I not known about camotes!?!), a coconut cookie (another favorite!), pound cake, and some kind of pastry with a marscapone-like cheese. If nothing else, I will learn enough Spanish to ask for those recipes and make them myself. Also, there are frequently men pushing ice cream carts with lots of bells on them in the street which reminds me of Nicaragua or maybe Morocco. We talked to one man today, in Spanglish, and he was so freaking friendly. We also found these chips called Takis, rolled corn chips with different spices. Fuente, aka chili pepper with lime, and guacamole were our successful purchases.

So what I've learned from the barrio today: the food is great.

And I want to go finish the guacamole Takis before bed. :-)