Things are getting busy!

The past couple days have been pretty busy with meetings and other things, so I'm already working past 6pm at my kitchen table. It's fine with me for now--I have a LOT of preparation to plan a new class and there's not really any social activities anyway that I'm missing out on.....
Earlier today a few of us faculty had a somewhat impromptu meeting with the outgoing Access Academy director that I was very glad i attended, even though it was almost 2 hours long. The original intention was to get a feel for the students' science and math education and background to better prep our courses, but she also gave a lot of more general useful information on the students--their academic level, learning styles, methods of teaching and class structure that were successful and some insight into the inner workings of the bureaucracy here.
I'm really struggling with what I'll be able to teach these students, especially because I'll have the 2nd year students and so will need to be at a slightly higher level. My plan for now is to put together a syllabus of topics I will be covering and once I get some class time with them and assess their abilities, that will determine how deeply I can go into those topics......
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On the home front, I am beginning to acquire some houseplants, so my house is beginning to look more like a home! I'll have some photos once I get them in pots (they sell them in little plastic bags). It takes a lot of effort to get this stuff transported to my apartment, but I found a nice nursery very near to school with a big selection. Plants are CRAZY CHEAP here--So far I have:

2 very large plants already in pots,
a cool hanging basket made out of a piece of bamboo (with plants in it),
5 large pots,
3 medium size pots and
6 small plants
Total cost around $11.
The guys at the nursery also gave us some starfruits for free b/c they were ripe and literally falling off their tree. Yum! Tomorrow I go back to get a bag of soil and a few more plants. The soil here looks so bad, but every potted plant I've seen since I've been here has the same stuff and they all seem to thrive, so I guess maybe it's not so bad? The nursery guy said he was going to mix in some fertilizer for us, so that will help.
The other faculty and I who started this process yesterday also pulled a few small plants out of the ground for free....it's a jungle here and there are literally plants growing out of cracks and over walls and along the road EVERYWHERE. I don't want people to get the impression we were stealing from anyone!