Ta da!

If there was a circus performance parodying a stereotypical first day of school, today I was the star.

Act One: While maneuvering my bike over some railroad tracks at a busy intersection, I graced the posse of school-uniformed pedestrians with a 45-second dance of arm flailing and one-footed hopping,  in a failed attempt to salvage my balance.  Exit Stage Left with the universal I’m-OK hand signal.

Act Two: After being hissed at by a police officer for trying to park my bike in an apparently illegal spot, I was taking the long cut across campus (I made the mistake of orienting myself by “The Building with Che Guevara’s face painted on it”--as if there were only one).  Suddenly, a stray soccer ball whizzed across a field and smacked me square in the shoulder.  Cue drums: Ba da boom, psh!

Act Three: The curtain opens on a sunny courtyard, strewn with lounging students and food vendors. At last!  My building.  I stride confidently to the entrance steps and... smack.  Was there a banana peel on that first step?  This time I didn’t bother with the I’m-OK hand signal.  I just laughed at my own improvised slap stick routine and walked (on two feet, without falling) to my classroom.

Act Four: Costume change: clown to superhero.  As soon as the students pieced together why there was an obviously American girl in an English class, you could almost feel the ground rumbling as the imaginary pedestal emerged beneath me.  The new assistant!  You would have thought I was performing a Shakespeare play when I was walking them though a reading worksheet.  They adore native English speakers like kids adore their fourth grade science teacher.

Act Five: An actual circus.  As a karmic congratulations for weeks of jumping through hoops and surviving the comedy of errors that was my first day of school, I walked out of class to find a huge crowd circled around spandexed contortionists and jugglers on stilts in the Plaza Che. I stayed to watch and treated myself to an oblea (caramel/fruit sauce/wafer sandwich).  I think it’s going to be a good year.