Last night (or this morning, Wednesday, April 14th, 2010) there was an earthquake big enough to wake everyone in Zihua and give us a momentary scare! The epicenter was in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, which is only about 2 hours from Zihua and it measured 4.9 on the Richter scale. It happened at about 12:50am and I was really quite asleep. Being that I live in a large apartment complex, with hundreds of 10-apartment buildings, most of which have Persian slatted glass windows, earthquakes big or small are noisy things here. The windows shake and the noise is such that you’d think someone had a can half-full of marbles and was shaking it right underneath your nose! It only lasted about 25 seconds (which was enough for me to dig my frightened fingers into Pako’s forearm) and luckily there was no damage and no death!
The last week of my Easter vacation went far too quickly for my liking! I did a lot of work planning lessons, writing final exams and analyzing textbooks for next year’s secondary program. Looking over the 17 textbooks that Jeanne had left me, I was brought back to one school day last spring when I absolutely did not pay attention in one of my seminars. This particular memory sprang to mind because the subject of that class was ‘choosing a textbook,’ something which most likely would have been beneficial to me this last week, but at the time something about which I couldn’t be bothered. It’s funny, it seems that as you get older, the time between your actions and when you look back and shake your head at yourself is much shorter! It started in high school, when you look back at elementary school and laugh; then college, when you really, really laugh at high school. Grad school has you looking back at all prior schooling. Now it seems that I’m looking back at less than a year ago and tsk-ing my own lazy attitude that day in lecture. Sheesh, I’m making myself feel old!
I was absolutely dreading my return to Montessori, though it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I thought it might. It’s actually quite nice to see my kids again and I told them so. I think they either thought that I was being sarcastic or turned all mushy over break, but I meant it. It wasn’t all that gratifying to find that none of the annoying administrational problems had been solved magically over Easter, but you can’t have everything. We’re talking about childhood memories in my high school discussion classes and having quite a good time with it! We talked about games we played and I started to think about all the fun that could be had on a playground with a large group of kids: olly-olly-oxenfree, kick the can, freeze tag, sardines.. the list goes on! My students had a great time explaining different games to me and practicing their English. Total success of a lesson from a teacher’s standpoint – the kids didn’t even realize there were using the vocab and grammar structures we had gone over in previous classes! Score! Jason, the overly knit-picky supervisor, would have been proud and I would have said, with all the dignity and maturity that I could muster, nana nana boo boo!
My cousin’s exceedingly bright daughter, Taya, sent me a ‘Flat Sabrina’ as part of a class project. If you’re not familiar with ‘Flat Stanely’ he’s a character from an excellent children’s book with the same name, about a boy who gets flattened by a falling bulletin board and subsequently has great adventures as a paper thin boy, who can travel the world in an envelope.
Well, being an equal opportunity student, Taya the genius made a ‘Flat Sabrina’ and last week she slid under my door. Thus far, together, we have played hide and seek with 15 day old puppies, had a surfing lesson with the famous Zihua surfer, Pako, and taught high school and 6th grade. Later we may go pay the water and electricity bills and buy some groceries… depending on our energy levels. I know she’s pretty tired from not sleeping well after her first earthquake. She’ll head back to Wisconsin next week, if, that is, some other adventure doesn’t present itself and she decides she’s ready to go.
Last Sunday, another beautiful mother and grandmother left us and I wanted to mention her because she was such an exceptional person. She was a great artist and encourager of the arts and also the mother of my godmother and grandmother of some of my favorite kids in the whole world. She will be missed!
The weather is heating up right quick and I’m reminded why I thought it would be fine to not have hot water at the apartment. That’s right, what is sometimes known as the rainy season or summer, but what I like to call the two-a-day cold shower season has arrived. That means big waves for Pako and a lot of red-faced, sweaty moments for Leyah. It’s almost enough to make you think that Minnesota winters might not be so bad… ALMOST. Let’s not go crazy. Then end of the school year is rapidly approaching (simultaneously hallelujah and holy cow that went fast!) and also my first year in Mexico! That means that my trip back to the Midwest is also within sight. I must say, I’m ridiculously excited! Plus, baseball season! Yes! It’s a good day, people!
Have a good week and GO TWINS! (and BREWERS, unless of course, you’re playing the Twins.. it’s the one MN team I’m attached to).
Leyah
PS. Here are some pictures of Lorena and Tito at the wedding two Saturdays ago and also a picture of the parents-in-law starting the dance party, plus a pretty sweet shot of Pako getting ready to ride a wave yesterday.
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