Un Viaje

After almost two months, I finally get to do some traveling around Mexico. Tuesday night, me and my new North Carolinian friend will emark on a journey with a group that My mexican mother found in the newspaper. She did some investigating based on price, people, etc. and finally came to the conclusion that it was a really good deal. I was excited but didn't want to be the only foreigner; fortunately, I was able to convince the North Carolinian--her name is Jenny--to go with me which makes it even more exciting. She is a really good friend. She is also majoring in Spanish and wants to teach.
The reason for this particular trip is to observe the traditional Day of the Dead celebrations. I encourage everyone to read more about the holiday to learn more about it. When we think death, we think gloomy, sad, or even spooky. It is the exact opposite here. They celebrate it and remember the good that comes with the memories of their past loved ones. They build altars and do dances and stuff. In Michoacan, it is particularly celebrated, so that is where we are going. We meet the group at 6:30 on Tuesday night, leave at seven and should arrive in Michoacan Wednesday morning around 8. That's a long bus ride. I hope I can sleep! Tomorrow is a regular day of classes and such, but I will pass it highly anxious about the trip.

Diversión.

This is a late night for me to be up after eleven at night. As pathetic as it sounds, I am usually asleep by 9:30! 5:00 a.m. comes early every morning, especially when you're not on coffee. Well, it has been a while since my last update. I just haven't had anything major to discuss, frankly. I am managing tohold tings down here in Monterrey by making it to my classes, teach at the Language Center, do all of these crazy presentations for the Language Methodology class, and be as social as possible with the friends I've made from classes and my North Carolinian friend. Oh yea, I am also doing observations in a Mexican middle-school on Monday and Friday mornings. It is neat seeing them all dolled up in their uniforms ready to learn! It is middle school, however, so I am not in my element at all! The children are quite chatty and loud. The problem is perhaps not that they are chatty but they chat in Spanish, which is a no-no in a school that focuses on languages.

Lord...Sometimes I feel like all I ever do is complain on here, but I really am enjoying myself. Today was especially fun. Mary, one of the ladies of the house had a visitor Evys who used to be a student from Mexico who lives here. Now she is grown and is a dentist. Anyway, she was visiting and she brought her cousin who had never been outside of her rancho (farm community) in her life. I would say she is at least 16. We thought it would be a good idea to go walk El Paseo Santa Lucia which is a nice river-walk in Monterrey that was recently named one of the 13 Wonders of Mexico. There was a live Mariachi band playing, too, which made it that much better. For some reason, I get a kick out of these groups while I am down here! A few pictures should be below:

This is supposed to be a barrel dumping water in to the river (an architectural design) which the photo does not do it justice...

¡Enfermo!

I do love Mexico and I would definitely say that I am enjoying my time here. I have met some new friends with which I hope to remain in touch for quite sometime.
HOWEVER, today sucks! My alarm clock usually goes off at 5:00 a.m. so I can get to the Language Center on time for set-up and stuff for my class. This morning I woke up at 3:30 puking my guts out. It was quite a tragic situation. I assumed it would go away and went back to sleep only to wake up again at 4:30 with the same situation. Combined with a fever and inexplicable dizziness, I was quite worried at this point! I still got ready like always for my class. I leave the house at 6:00 a.m. after getting shower, shave, clothes, a little breakfast, etc. This morning I didn't eat breakfast because I felt horribly. When 6:00 finally rolled around, I decided I needed to call my one student and tell him that I simply could not make it. He was not terribly upset since he said he had to leave for Mexico City for a business trip this evening. After talking with him, I went to sleep and woke up at 8:00, and immediately began to puke again. Hortencia, my Mexican mother, was moving about outside my bedroom so I asked her if she had any medicine for an upset stomach. It was killing me! She said no and that she was sorry I didn't feel well and began to ask me what was wrong. She tells me she can always read how I feel by my face. My friends do tell me the same thing. I didn't know I was so transparent. ANYWAY, she demanded that I go to the doctor because it might be something caused by mosquitos. Well, after that news I was freaking! A mosquito disease in Mexico. It's called Dengue and sounds quite serious.
They did convince me to go to the doctor after they told me about this low-income medical clinic that their Catholic parish offers in the mornings. I went and Mary, the other lady of the house (age 52, I think) went with me. We waited for at least an hour in this little clinc. It was quite neat and a blessing for low-income Mexicans. I was about two seconds away from throwing up again before they finally called me back to see the doctor. It was not the typical doctor's visit. He was sitting at a desk and I was sitting in a chair as if I was meeting with a professor or something. He made me describe my eating habits, which prompted me to turn the floor over to Mary who does the cooking. She said nothing out of the ordinary, of course. She did remind him that I do eat "de la calle" on Sundays. I go out to eat on Sundays because that is the one day that no one cooks in the house. Since this was Thursday, I told him I doubted that the chicken joint I ate at on Sunday is causing me to be sick today. He concurred and made me lie down on the doctor table, which actually did resemble that of the clinics in the United States of America. He touched my belly in various places asking if it hurt. It only hurt when he pressed hard which he said was intestines. He said it confirmed that it was a genuine stomach virus. Thank God it wasn't the mosquito disease I had been warned about. For three days I can only drink liquids and eat liquid-based foods like soup and jello. Oh my God...three days! He gave me a prescription of three pills, which totaled 25 dollars. The doctor visit itself was only five but they sternly said I was welcome to make a donation of more than that to the clinic. I gave them ten. (100 pesos) because I didn't have much at the time. Mary and I went to the store to buy jello and juice and made it back home around 2. I slept from 3-8. I ate a little bit and now I am writing this and will probably go right back to sleep! I MUST go to class tomorrow though, because I cannot miss many more days of the Language Methodologies Class...

I am finally teaching...

The lady called me about my class situation. As fate would have it, three students failed their last class and do not get to move up to me. So I only have one student. ONE! I will take what I can get. She tells me that he is quite advanced and can converse on a high level on any given topic. Sounds like my kind of student. The down side is that our class is from 7:15-8:45 in the morning. "What time will I have to get up?, " you ask. 5:00 a.m. IN THE MORNING. Monday through Friday. It's another reminder of Mexico's lack of French Vanilla Coffee Creamer. I've just been doing without the coffee thing since I cannot make it taste like I want it to down here. But I miss is so severely.

Zach el Profesor...Confirmed!

I gave the lesson on the crazy passive voice (The lesson was given by me today). I feel like it went well. They did too. They gave me a class. They said they call me to tell me which class I have. Lord knows I want an advanced group. As a teacher, I have to take the classes they give me. I will enjoy it regardless of the group's capacity; however, I feel like the advanced groups give me more creativty and freedom concerning what I can do with them during classtime. For example, I cannot do much reading comprehension activities if they cannot say "My name is Paco." I will keep y'all informed on this situation dear readers!

Zach el Profesor...Hopefully!

When I first came to Mexico, I went to speak with a lady at El Centro de Idiomas Angloamericanos about teaching English. Fortunately, she sounded very interested and said she would definitely give me a call once she had an established schedule. Turns out, the classes had already started so there was no chance of my teaching one then. Liars answer to God...
Anyway, she did finally call me back and said that she finally had something for me. Before she can allow me to teach, however, she has to view me give a sample lesson. I wanted to remind her that I’ve been doing this kind of thing for three years, but I refrained like a good child and expressed my gratitude for the invitation. I was excited. Then, she called me back and said that my topic for the sample lesson was the passive voice. PUKE! In my archives, I don’t have anything on the stupid passive voice. Frankly, I don’t view it as essential to Latinos who want to speak English. Between now and Saturday I need to think of something very creative/ impressive to do. If all goes well, I will finally have my own class of eager Mexican who want a native speaker to teach them English. Cross your fingers!

El Estrés

When I return home from this trip, I will celebrate Christmas with friends and family. And then I will begin my Student Teaching Internship through UWG at a local high school. I am VERY excited about this as I simply cannot wait to start teaching. I got this email from the office of field experiences saying that a criminal background check form was due by November 1st or I would not be permitted to student teach. Lord have mercy. I was freakin out!! Thankfully, I called UWG in Carrollton on my cell phone in Mexico to explain the situation. She said it was OK and that I could just bring it when I arrive on that Monday December 17th, since they aren't open on Saturday, December 15th. What a relief. Student Teaching here I come!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños a mi!

Yesterday was Happy Birthday to me! How does one celebrate a birthday in another country? I would say…Quite nicely. I knew I would miss everyone back “home” on my birthday, but it ended up being a good day anyway.
First, I awoke to my Mexican mother singing the traditional Mexican birthday song “Las Mañanitas” and it was very sweet. (She is 69 and smokes…you can imagine her voice!J) Then everyone wished me a Happy Birthday in the house “Felicidades Wero” they all yelled as they saw me. Mary, the “other” Mexican mother even hugged me. She doesn’t seem the hugging type. Neither am I! But it was sweet nonetheless. I went to class like normal and then came back to eat lunch at 1:00, which is the biggest meal of the day in Mexico. To my delight, on my plate was a gigantic hamburger…I was thrilled! It had been over a month since I’d had a freakin’ hamburger and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mary said she fixed it because she knew I would love it since I come from the States. She was right. She also made a cake. It was a glorious concoction of the Tres Leches type she said it was “nut-flavored” but it tasted like a normal cake to me. However, cake of any kind is never a bad thing!
Topped off with the well-wishes and the “miss you’s” from Friends and Family from the United States of America via email of good ol’ Facebook, it was an excellent day that I will remember forever!!

¡Un Mes!

I have already been in Mexico a month (today)! It is unfathomable to think how fast time is going here! It is also hard to believe that it is already October! It's almost time to start singing Christmas tunes. More updates to come, I promise!

Wero Perdido

Today wasn't the best of days. Frankly, it reminded me I am foreign, which I wasn't thrilled about. For starters, I [thought I] had a test today in my Language Methodologies Class at 5:30. Like any other day, I leave at 4:30, a whole hour before class, to begin my long, Mexican trek to the university as a foreigner with no car. I get to the place where I catch the bus and for some reason wait for a good twenty minutes before I realize that my bus, either Route 97 or Route 95--whichever comes first--hadn't passed by. I start to panic as this has never happened before. I knew I had to get to the Highway named Cuauhutémoc from which I walk to the university. Well, since my bus wasn't coming (So I figured) another bus caught my attention, which had Cuauhutémoc written on the front of it meaning that was one of its stops. I, like a fool, quickly climbed aboard this new Route 83, which is clearly not 95 or 97, and expected to go to my street and arrive for my test on time. Lord was I wrong! We went on the very outskirts of town, the parts where the houses are plastic and such, and I was not a bit happy. We even passed this place called El Bosque Mágico which means "The Magic Forest." God only knows what could lie within this "magic forest." I finally gave up and got off that crazy bus that seemed to be going to Guatemala for all I knew. I got a taxi and then remembered I didn't have any cash--simply forgot to go to the ATM...crap happens (Another good title for this particular post)!! Anyway, the taxi driver agreed to stop at an ATM machine and let me get some money. I don't want to know what any other alternatives would have been!
Thanks to the kind taxi driver, I arrived to the university at 6:00--the test started at 5:30. Luckily, it turns out there was no test at all. The glorious teacher decided she should review us first. Thank God for reviews...