25 Years of ME! A highly caloric birthday :)

Hello All!

It seems that I am on the 'every two weeks' schedule for this blog at the moment. Not too much going on here in Zihua beyond the back-to-school frenzy. August 9th was the first day for the high schools here (10-12th grade equivalents in the States), but August 23rd was the big day when ALL kids entered school: Maternal (18 months - 3 years), kinder (3 years of kindergarten), primary (1st -6th grades) and secondary (7-9th grades). I only added 2 more classes to my day (Primary 6 and Secondary 1 (aka the 7th graders from hell)), but man did it hit me hard!

I start my day with 9 rather angelic 6th graders who have an extremely high level of English and actually WANT to speak me to speak English to them instead of Spanish. I really, really enjoy this class. It's big enough that I can have kids work in partners OR small groups, yet small enough that a full-class activity is not in danger of getting out of hand. Also, I think I have the world's smallest 6th graders. I'll put a picture up in a later post, but for some reason they make last year's 6th grade class (currently known as the 7th graders from hell) seem like giants!

Last year's not-so-angelic-but-not-too-bad 6th graders have, unfortunately, undergone the dreaded 6th to 7th grade inevitable transformation that takes them from respectful and willing students to moody and defiant pains in my bum. Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but sheesh, it's only the first week and I'm dreading their class! There are 20 of them, but 3 of them are from last year's class full of hellions as they got D's and have to repeat the year with me (goody!). Plus there are 4 new students. Why is it that the angels (see prior paragraph) are always so few and their counterparts (ahem ALL 7th graders everywhere ahem) are so many? I'm trying out a couple of new discipline strategies with them this year and am planning a lot of different kinds of activities, so we'll see. I'm trying to keep an open mind (though the constant eye rolls and lip smacking make it slightly difficult, even for me, someone who is always so happy go lucky and forgives people in the blink of an eye...).

Those are my first two classes and probably the most difficult. I have a difficult class with my 10th graders this year because their English is SO low, but there are only 7 of them and only 2 of them are chatty Kathys (Kathies?), so we are able to get some work done. My 11th and 12th grade classes are my favorite and they're my two high school classes from last year. They know the drill and they know what I want from them. Plus, they have a high enough level of English for us to have real conversations and debates.

Pako had to give a presentation as part 1 of 2 for a job interview on Wednesday (what a lovely day was Wednesday, if I do say so myself). He is up for a position as a supervisor at a voting locale for the upcoming elections (as to when they are upcoming.. there is some debate - tee hee). He had to choose a section from a guide they gave him (which would promptly put to sleep even the worst of insomniacs - I can personally attest) and give a short presentation. He made a visual aid which was quite visually appealing and then talked about the participation of the citizen in the electoral process. He thinks it went quite well, not even counting that one of the judges was his old teacher with whom he gets along swimmingly. Part 2 happens next Saturday, a written exam covering the entire 28 page guide... snooooooze. Nobody will tell him when the results from the exam will be ready nor when the actual hiring will take place, so we'll just be sitting here, waiting by the phone it seems. So if it's your thing, start praying or crossing fingers or knocking on wood or whatever because we really want this job!

Also on Wednesday the 25th, I turned 25! Previously my scary age (which is now 28 for reasons that I cannot articulate), I had some queasiness upon walking up and hearing Pako whisper lovingly 'ooooh, you're so old.' Like the mature adult of 25 that I suddenly was, I popped him a good one before rolling out of bed. At school, Jeanne, my boss made me blush by entering every class and making them sing happy birthday to me. Sheesh. Then during my 30 minute break she surprised me with an ice cream cake and the closest cookie to Girl Scout Thin Mints that I have ever tasted! Everything was delicious and I indulged thoroughly not knowing what was in store for me later. After my break I went to hell *oops, I mean 7th grade* for an hour and then climbed the stairs to high school and 10 extra lbs.

I start with 12th grade and they had bought me a cake and even put my name on it! That was exciting! Then 10th grade. Cake number 3 for the day. Again with my name on it.. good day! Then 11th grade. Cake number 4 AND soda. Sheesh!!! Might I mention that I was served a large piece of each of these cakes and had to outright REFUSE to take the leftovers home with me. I was handing out cake to other teachers like it was nobodies business!

By the time I got home, I was hoping and crossing all appendages that still allowed me to climb the 5 flights to my apartment that Pako had not bought me a cake. He had, but in the form of a Pinguino (very much exactly the same as a Hostess cupcake). He light a match, stuck it in the pinguino and sang to me. It was lovely. Then I blew out my match and promptly returned the penguino to it's case and left it until yesterday. Pako made himself some lunch while I tried to run circles around my apartment and sweat out some of the copious amounts of chocolate cake that I had ingested. He also bought me a beautiful bouquet of lilies and made me a digital movie of pictures of us. It was really nice.

We went down to Lorena's where Petra and Tito were waiting for me with... yes, you guessed it... chocolate cake #5 of the day! I served everyone else pieces and myself a sliver and sat down to the task of eating more chocolate. I felt like the kid in Roald Dahl's Matilda who is forced to eat an entire chocolate cake in front of the entire school. All in all on Wednesday, I ate a bowl of cereal and 5 pieces of chocolate cake. Seemed healthy enough to me, what do you think Mom?

I had a really nice birthday and even managed to forget to freak out about being a quarter of a century old. I know it's ridiculous to worry about your 25th birthday, but I can't help it. I'm not the first to do it and I know I won't be the last. I'm certainly going to wake Pako up in 3 months with a cane, a set of dentures and an adult diaper ready to welcome him into his 25th year, that's for sure.

Thursday Pako and I went out for my absolute FAVORITE Zihua meal which is coconut shrimp from Chendo's or Lety's (the chefs are from the same family and thus the menus are almost exactly the same). I was still feeling full from my over-caked birthday, but I did what I had to do in order to eat my shrimp! They were delicious and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Birthday number 25 was a good day (or two)!

Yesterday we met with a chef to discuss the menu for the party we're throwing in February. He sounded quite competent and we're going to do a tasting of the menu we decided on in the next couple of weeks. He also happens to be good friends with a French pastry chef living in Zihua. Score! The theme of this blog is clearly food. He's also going to help us contract waiters and a guy to open all the beer. Things are falling into place. For those of you planning to come to the wedding, there are lots of details (and more to come) posted at our wedding website:

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/pwp2/view/MemberPage.aspx?coupleid=6972764514965813&pid=2471755&MsdVisit=1

Ok, I think that is all for now. The following are pictures of 4/5 cakes, my beautiful flowers (displayed on my excellent new table cloth - which is actually a shower curtain) and my yummy, yummy shrimp! Have a lovely week (or two).

Besos!
Leyah

Cake # 2 - Courtesy of 12th grade: Lizeth, Chantal, Andres, Carolina, Evelyn, Elizabeth, Ximena, Melissa and Karen :)

Cake #3 - Courtesy of 10th grade: Valeria, Samantha, Pako, Eduardo, Carmen, Hiram and Rafa :)

Cake # 4 - Courtesy of 11th grade: Alondra, Amy, Marlene, Denys and Max :)

Cake # 5 - Courtesy of the In-Laws and the fHubs :)

Pretty, pretty flowers and excellent table cloth/shower curtain!

Best Shrimp in Zihua :)

2 weeks worth of blog

Hey All,

Last week I didn't post because I had spent the entire previous week doing nothing. That is not an exaggeration, I did nothing. Ok, not entirely true, I went to two different doctors and got stabbed 4 times for an IV of glucose, vitamins and antibiotics. So I guess that's not 'nothing.' Ok, let me back up a bit.

Friday of last week, Pako and I were playing Scrabble* with Lorena and Tito when we all decided to order a Pizza. Tito had the bright idea to order from a different-than-normal pizza place called 'Roquet Pizza' (I mention the name so that you're all forewarned should you ever choose to eat pizza in Zihua). Well, nobody liked the pizza, everybody thought it tasted strange, though no one could decide why. Some thought it was because of the cheese, some thought it was the dough. The next day, Moctezuma claimed his revenge on this poor Gringa transplant. Two days later, Tito fell ill with the same symptoms. It seems Moctezuma does not racially profile, he's an equal opportunity revenger!

I went to the $25 peso/office visit doctor on Wednesday. He asked me some questions and pushed on my stomach a bit. He prescribed me some meds, but I didn't really give him a fair chance at doctoring because on Wednesday I actually felt slightly better. So I told him all the symptoms I had had, but didn't so much have that day. Anywho, Tito who got hit a lot harder than I did right off the bat had and was given an antibiotic and had a glucose IV for dehydration (which was to be my fate 3 days later).

Tito got better, I relapsed. Pako was adorable and rather worried about me, so he finally put his foot down on Friday night and said he was taking me to the doctor on Saturday. So Saturday we went to a different, more expensive doctor. I get wimpy when I'm sick and so I didn't feel quite as brave about going to a $25 peso doctor. This time, I walked in the clinic and the receptionist descended upon me shouting about me being uber-dehydrated. She had me in an office, with a doctor within 30 seconds. We chatted about my symptoms and he decided on a course of action (after doing the same pushing on my stomach thing the other guy did). IV of glucose, antibiotics and vitamins (because part of me doing nothing all week including eating nothing). So, I womanned up and mentioned that I tend to faint when people try to stick things in my veins, but that I would do my best to take deep breaths.

My veins were all constricty-like being that I was a week into dehydration and malnutrition. The first doctor poked me twice without hitting a vein and then invited his colleague to give it a go. The 2nd guy also had to poke me twice in order to finally hit a vein. I can not say it was a pleasant experience, but by the time half of the liquid was in my system I felt about 85% better! Man, dehydration is lame! It really takes a toll on you, but without your even knowing how much it's kicking your butt! Anywho, I was at the clinic for about 2 hours total and not much of it was fun, but it was definitely worth it. I'm including a shot of my lovingly gazing up at my IV bag and then another shot of my arm that I took TODAY, a full 8 days after my doctor's visit, to show off the cool (or sucky) battle wound I'm still sporting at injection site #2/4.

Luckily, the IV did the trick and I made it to my first day of work on August 9th. I only had my 3 high school classes and the first week is really quite a waste of time as we're not allowed to give homework or start anything substantial as kids are still coming and going and deciding which high school they really want to attend. In my 10th grade class, I had a grand total of 3 kids. With low levels of English. The perfect ingredients for a great conversation class. Or not. By the end of the week there were 5 students, English levels still low. That class will be a lot less conversation than I would like, but we'll do what we can. In 11th grade I had 4 girls, supposedly there will be 5 students total, but by Friday, it was just the 4 girls. This was a shocker for me because last year that class had 14 kids. Quite a few defectors. That's what happens when the coordinator of the school (Ricardo... obviously) says that the school won't be opening this year... kids find other places to go. Um, duh. Anywho, my 12th grade class has 9 students, only 2 left. So, this year will be more challenging, planning-wise, because activities that take 20 minutes with 10 kids take about 5 minutes with 4 kids and even less when the kids don't know the necessary vocabulary or grammatical structures.

This coming week is still just the high schoolers, but hopefully their books will have arrived (and they will have purchased them) and we can get started instead of playing charades, pictionary and scattegories all week. We'll see how things go. I'm definitely going to start grammar reviews with the 10th graders, present and past simple, because you'd be amazed at how many simple conversations deal only in those tenses. This year in my high school classes we're also reading ESL specific versions of The Mask of Zorro, Fast Food Nation, and Angela's Ashes. Then we'll be watching the movies (probably sometime around the end of February...) and discussing them. That is, of course, assuming the books show up at the book store... a leap of faith that is hard to take after the 'great book fiasco of 2009.' We'll see.

When not at school, we've been spending a lot of time at Lorena's house. She's here until next Wednesday when she has to go back and get ready to start her school year in Apatzingan. She was assigned 1st grade this year so she's been doing a lot of drawing and cutting to make decorations for her classroom. Lorena also finished her 4th (out of 5) year of Folkloric Dance. For each dance that she learned, she had to have the traditional costume and so she was busy doing a lot of sewing and designing, too. For one dance, Pako drew a design for her on a shirt/skirt combo and all three of us painted it. It turned out pretty cool. It was for an Aztec-style dance that she performed at the end of the year celebration. In the following pics, Lorena is wearing a bright blue outfit with a bright yellow sun painted on the front. She also made the headdress that she wore. The dance was really cool and she looked great! I was glad I was healthy enough to go see her dance!


The last one shows the ankle bracelets that all the dancers wore (and presumably made - Lorena sewed all of the bells on herself) which made the dance really cool because every piece of footwork was accompanied by a soundtrack.


So, that's it for this week. I'm looking forward to a couple of things in the next couple of weeks: cooler temperatures!!! (It's been in the high 90s and humid just about everyday... AND night!), my birthday #25 (formally my scary age, which is now 29 for no apparent reason) and the Bicentenial celebration (200 years of Mexico being Mexico - Sept 16, 1810 - 2010). THEN, in the first days of October, our favorite Canadian, Bambi, arrives and Las Urracas can begin to feel like Las Urracas again!

Saludos until next week! Here's hoping for no more doctor visits!

Leyah

Grammar

I am SO embarrassed! In my last post, I actually wrote "most direst"... um, shoot. That's worthy of W. And nobody said anything! My only excuse is that I've been language-confused since moving to Mexico and English is only sometimes my first language! Dang. Most direst. Seriously.

Actual blog to be posted on Sunday. Maybe this time I will proofread. Probably not, but maybe.

xoxxo!

Leyah

Back to school, back to school... NEXT week.. apparently.

Hello Blog-World,

I'm back! I have been in back to Mexico for a week today, but this is only the 2nd time I'm sitting down at my computer with a bit of spare time on my hands. What happened to the laid back, go with the flow schedule of Mexico you ask? Well, it was on vacation.

I got home (the tropical one, not the chilly one) Sunday morning at 9:30am after having left home (the chilly one, not the tropical one) at about 10:45 the day before. 8+ hour bus ride to Chicago, extremely pleasant mini-reunion with a friend in Chicago for dinner and a trip up the Sears (or Willis or whatever lame name it has now) Tower, train to the airport, tram to terminal 5, flight to Mexico City, bus to terminal 2, flight to Zihua... phew. I'm tired just typing about it. I think I'll take another nap. Nothing like a 22 hour travel time to remind you that you are not 21 anymore. (Ok, that's crap, even at 21 I would have been knocked out! People always say (and by people, I mean my dad) that it's a good thing you're young, well dad, young people get tired too!)

That night we went to see Lorena dance at "Domingo Cultural" (Cultural Sunday) in the Municipal basketball court. She's getting certified to teach folkloric dance so periodically we all get to benefit from her hard work. She did great, lots of feet stamping and the like. I was in a mildly catatonic state and thus forgot my camera. She has some good pictures, but they're at her house where there is an inconvenient lack of internet.

Then on Tuesday Pako and I went to Acapulco. Pako's cousin, Ada Alberto, passed away the Sunday I got home and so we went to pay our respects. The bodies are not prepared, so they are buried the next day. Then a prayer vigil is held for 9 days, while the family leaves the door open of the house for 40 days for the spirit of the deceased can pass through unhindered. We went to one day of the prayer vigil, which consists of a large group of (mostly) women sitting around an altar and saying the rosary with some other prayers that my heathen-self had difficulty recognizing. It was really quite nice, but a TON of work for the family. The pray-ers must be given food first (if they show up early enough) and juice (agua fresca) and cookies at the end of the rosary. Then there is all the cleaning, the arranging of the altar, etc. It certainly keeps the family busy. It was nice to see all of Pako's family, in spite of the circumstances, and pretty cool as a cultural experience. Also, I got about 83 mosquito bites. Pako got 1.

My trip back to the USA was all together too short, I'm convinced. I know 5 weeks sounds like a lot of time, but it's really not. I spent two weeks in Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Campbellsport, Madison. Not really enough time at any one spot, but one does what one has to with such a limited amount of time.

My time in Minneapolis FLEW by too. I saw a lot of people, had a lovely, lovely bridal shower thrown for me by my Mama and my GodMama, Gretchen, which was SO much fun and so thoughtful. I went to Target Field for the first time and saw the world's longest baseball game ever. I walked around lake Nokomis with my dad, ventured to Chaska, went to Target about 79 times (and still forgot stuff) and tried to soak up as much friends and family as I could. I also ate at Dairy Queen about 46 times and had about 200 Caribou Coffees. All in all it was a thoroughly wonderful and filling trip. A wonderful and filling trip that FLEW BY.

There is a ton more I could say about my trip home such as the fact that while cleaning out some of my things that I had in storage I found some candy circa 1998 or that while driving roads I had driven confidently for 7 years I made wrong turns over and over again or that walking through Office Max made me want to cry for the plethora of cool school supplies that just cannot be found in Zihua or that THANKSGIVING IN JULY is pretty freaking cool, but I won't because it would take up too much time and space. I did have a surprisingly small amount of culture shock, slipped right back into my old routines (except for the the aforementioned driving - that was weird) and it was like I had never left. But leave I did.

It's been over a year that I have 'resided' in Mexico and the following are just a random sampling of what I have learned over the past year:

*hair gel is not just for hold, it's an artistic media used to display one's creativity and style

*sometimes, when you turn the tap, water does not come out (most seemingly obvious, but biggest shocker for me)

*working does not automatically amount to getting paid regularly

*hot water and Caribou Coffee are great, but it's the friends and family that really make a place 'home'

*it is possible to get sunburned through an umbrella

*some people just don't go to work when it rains

*it's best not to think in terms of 'better' or 'worse,' but rather as 'different' and 'new'

*salsa is APPARENTLY a universal condiment that can go on everything from fresh cut mangoes and/or cucumbers to hot tuna casserole (yes, the kind they eat in the midwest)

*one can buy a wide array of merchandise by simply sticking one's head out the window and yelling

*when living in a different country, what were once considered comfort foods become precious commodities to be hoarded and doled out in only the most dire of situations

*internet is absolutely necessary to one's mental health

*one CAN adjust to cold showers if one sets one's mind to it

*time is a concept that is culture-specific. Expecting an exact time frame is just silly and will only lead to considerable frustration and temper tantrum inducing miscommunications

Actual conversation JUST had with Yair (literally, he just called):

Yair: Que van a hacer en la tarde? (What are you guys doing in the afternoon?)
Me: No se, Pako anda en la playa. Por que? (I don't know, Pako's at the beach. Why?)
Yair: Ahh, anda surfeando, que raro. No quieren venir en la tarde, para ver el video? (Ooh, he's surfing? Weird. Do you want to come in the afternoon, to watch the video? ** Yair just got married last week, so the video is of the ceremony that was held in a small pueblo in Oaxaca, about 24 hours away from Zihua)
Me: Si, claro. Como, a que hora? (Yeah, of course. Like, what timeish? - Silly me, asking what time, this is obviously a left over from being home for 5 weeks)
Yair: Uuuuh, no se, en la tarde (Ummm, I don't know, in the afternoon)
Me: Ah bueno, se me olvido que estaba en Mexico y no se hacen esas preguntas (Oh, right, I forgot I was in Mexico and we just don't ask those questions here)
Yair: Asi es... yo digo que a las 7 o por ahi (That's right... I'd say about 7 or around there)
Me: 7?? 7 ya no es la tarde, hijole ustedes con sus conceptos raros del tiempo... ahi estaremos (7?? 7 is not the afternoon... sheesh, you guys and your strange time concepts... ok, we'll be there)

I was supposed to start at Montessori tomorrow, August 2nd, but apparently that has been pushed back to August 9th. How do I know? Well, I tried to call the school, multiple times, but clearly no one answered. So I went to Jeanne's house. She wasn't there, but I talked to her neighbor who told her to call me. At 9pm last night (Saturday), she calls and tells me to be there at 8:30 on Monday (tomorrow). Then, in the middle of the conversation, her neighbor yells that Ricardo (they all live in the same apartment building) told him to tell her that high school starts the 9th. So, awesome. One more week of summer vacay. Sweet! Except for that whole money thing, but it would be decidedly un-Mexican of me to worry about that so I won't!

Until next week my friends! If I saw you this last vacation, awesome, it was great, I wish we could have spent more time together. If I didn't see you, dang, that sucks, let's hope for next year! Happy August to you all! What a wonderful month it is! After all, it is the month that gave us... ME! The big 2-5! That used to be my scary age, but I'll let you know how I'm feeling as the actual day gets closer!

Adios amigos, los quiero mucho!

Leyah

PS. This is what happens when I'm forced to abandon my (mother's) bug: