Today, we visited a secondary school called Instituto Politécnico Osimani y Llerena in the morning. This is one of the oldest schools here in Salto, dating back to 1873. Italian Gervasio Osimani and the Spanish Miguel Llerena, were the professors of the school and were also the first principals who took over the administration. When I first saw the name Osimani, I immediately thought that maybe he was from the Ottoman Empire and had Turkish descent. However, my search on the internet about him failed. The only thing I found was that he was from Italy. Anyway, Matias, an English teacher, guided us throughout the school.
The school had many antiques dating back to the 19th century. It was a beautiful building, and I especially loved their library. There were numerous old books that one could enjoy reading at any time. However, my only concern was that these old books should be cared for more, or at least have some protective measures. They were literally on the shelf, and anyone could grab and read them. I would be afraid that people could damage these precious books at any time.
We also visited some classrooms and chatted with students and teachers. Students were engaged with the lesson, though it looked a bit more traditional way of teaching rather than hands on and student centric. I guess we can find those type of teachings here in the states as well. I just thought that if they had a chance to be student centric, those great students would have been more excelled.
My favorite part was the principal’s office. It was very humble and welcoming. One can just go in there and look around and relax with the antique furniture. The furniture, including her chair, is at least 100 years old. They kept everything in its original version, making her room feel like a museum. The principal herself was originally from Ukraine, and the minute she heard I was originally from Turkey, she was really happy and mentioned her love for Turkish series. She said that visiting Istanbul was on her bucket list. By the way, I learned that many people in Uruguay were big fans of the Turkish series.
The principal showed us a school guest book where every visitor wrote something about their experience in Salto. I thought that was a neat idea, and we all wrote something about our time here.
After visiting the secondary school, we took some time off to explore the city further, with a particular interest in shopping. One store we visited was La Criolla, which had a wide selection of authentic leather products and other Uruguayan gifts. We spent more than an hour in that small shop, and I ended up buying some really nice campo pants for my son. I wished they had them in my size too, but unfortunately, they didn’t. When I showed the pants to my wife, she loved them and suggested buying two more pairs. Since I was already heading back to Montevideo when I was writing this blog, I thought about asking one of the host inspectors, Isabel, to buy them for me, so she could bring them when we all meet in the capital before heading back to the U.S. I texted her to see if it was okay, and she immediately said yes. I just loved these people! Now, I’m eagerly waiting for the extra pairs for my son.
Towards the end of the day, we stopped at the grocery store and bought some fruits to have for dinner. I wanted to go light that night because my stomach had been overwhelmed by carbs!
Expeditionary Learning 