Good Morning Boys and GIrls

Hello friendly readers,

Welcome back to another weekly episode of 'what happens in Zihua gets broadcasted to anyone with internet access.'

It hasn't been that long since I last wrote (about a week, if we're going to be specific), but I feel like a lot of things have happened.

Monday went well, nothing too notable, but I should have known that it was just the calm before the storm. On Tuesday, the great lump of a coordinator, R, pulls me out of class and snottily asked me where I was on Monday. Not one to be given snot without returning it, answered in an equally snotty tone that I was at school to give my classes and from there it was none of his business. He then asks why I wasn't at "the course" to which I replied what course? and so it continued until the big bum finally spits out that apparently there was a REQUIRED "competencies" course (similar to a continuing Education thing that teachers in the US are required to do to maintain their licenses active) and that the certificate of completion would be required by the Mexican government of all teachers for the next school year. Well, in case you have forgotten in my 8 month absence from your daily lives, I'm not likely to suffer fools, especially ones that make me look unprofessional or unprepared, so dealing with R on a daily basis has really amounted to an exercise in self-restraint and patience. Anywho long and annoying story short, I had to cancel all of my private lessons for the week and attended the course on Tuesday afternoon.

The course, while interesting, turned out to be NOT EVEN A LITTLE bit required by the government or anyone else and was not about how to use new materials in the classroom or competencies in using current materials as the king of the baboons had thought (or invented to cover his large behind). It was similar to what I learned in the INTRO classes for my masters program and during the hour that I stayed (of 4 required hours), we looked at how to write a lesson plan and what makes a good learning objective. Now, I do not deny that this is important content for teachers to know, HOWEVER, I like to give credit where credit is due and the University of MN taught me well and I can do those things in my sleep at this point. 300,000 pesos well spent. So, I spoke to the lady giving the course, promised to email her some updated versions of the material she was using in her slide show, and left. I came back to take the mock exam, got the highest score possible and got my "diploma."

Wednesday (while not at the 'required' course) I took my friend Chandra shopping for her wedding shoes. Have I introduced Chandra yet? If so, skip to next paragraph. I met her because she's teaching at the Tech as well. We had coffee one afternoon and discovered that we are leading scarily parallel lives. She is from Cali, but when to Carlton in MN and lived in Northfield for 10 years. She's engaged to a surfer from Zihua who wants to be a physical ed teacher. She's also been in Zihua since July. She's getting married (next week) on a beach. Pako knows who her fiance is and recognized their truck from seeing it at different surfing beaches. Small world.

So, she, not knowing me very well, tentatively asked if I would like to help her find some shoes for her wedding. I asked when and where and we went shopping. We didn't even break a sweat and found shoes in the first little shoppe I took her to. So then we just got some ice cream and chatted for a bit. She and Angel are getting married on my mama's birthday (next Saturday), Pako and I are going to the wedding right after I teach my Saturday morning class.

Speaking of the Saturday morning class, it's going well. I like the book we're using and I like that my students (almost) all want to be there and are eager learners. Their English levels are still to low to fully appreciate my humor, but they laugh at me when I jump around in front of the class and make a fool of myself. And they're always up for a song. We sang the Alphabet and head, shoulders, knees and toes and they were all about it. They didn't do so badly on their first exam, the average grade was a C+, but that's including the students who had only been to 1 or 2 of the 3 classes. I did have 3 students get As and about half were in the B range. I'll take it. Also, I got paid for my first 3 classes and that is a lot of fun. It maks me want to NOT work at Montessori and only work at the college, but that is not possible yet. Maybe next year!

Lorena, my sister in law to be, FINALLY got her plaza (teaching license) after 5 years of hard work! I actually held it in my hands, so I know it's true. The next hurdle will be to get her salary from the past year, but having a plaza and a code with which to get paid is a huge step in the right direction. We're all really excited that she finally has that piece of paper! Also, Pako SUPPOSEDLY will be called back to work next week at Sol, so yesterday was the day of good news. So now, the current reasons to keep all available appendages crossed are these: Pako gets called back to Sol AND it's a full time posisition AND Lorena get's her money!

Okie doke, I think that about does it. We have tomorrow (Monday, March 15th) off because of Benito Juarez' birthday (which actually falls on March 23rd) so I actually have a two day weekend! Woohoo! This afternoon I'm going to get all of my planning out of the way so that Monday is truly a day of rest: beach in the morning, whatever I want in the afternoon! Hope you all have a lovely week and that the weather continues to warm up. No daylight savings times for us yet, so we're either an hour ahead or an hour behind you people, I'm not sure which.

besos y abrazos,

Leyah