Que VIVA MEXICO y que VIVA EL BICENTENARIO!

Hello Friends!

Here we are again, another week gone! This one was especially enjoyable for me because 1. NO NEW SICKNESSES, NO IVs, NO INJECTIONS IN THE BUM!!! and 2. I only had to work 3.5 days! I got Thursday and Friday off so that I could celebrate properly 200 years of Mexico's independence from Spain. I did, in fact, celebrate by doing absolutely no work and thus this blog is going to be short and sweet and next week's blog will include pictures and a great quantity of my witty prose.

Mini - History Lesson:
In the early 1500s (1519 to be exact) Cortez and his crew of conquerors/murderers (depending on who's point of view you want to take... I've seen both Spanish and Mexican history textbooks that deal with the arrival of Europeans to what is now Mexico and the versions are somewhat SHOCKINGLY different) arrived at the coast of what is now Veracruz, Mexico. From there, the Spanish marched into central Mexico, battled with the Aztecs for roughly 2 years and by 1521, had established the beginnings of what we now know as Mexico city and the current Mexican civilization/culture/people.

Eventually you had a very stratified society that consisted of (listed in order of 'importance' to the Spanish king and access to power, money and land) Spanish born Spanish (Peninsulares), Criollos (Mexico-born but totally Spanish heritage), Mestizos (mix of Spanish and Aztec or other indigenous blood with access to power lowering as percentage of non-Spanish blood rose), Mulattoes (Mix of Spanish or indigenous blood with African Slaves), Indigenous peoples, and finally Slaves (Africa or Mexico-born, didn't really make a huge difference). To make a long story short, the Criollos got mad because the Virrey (Spanish King's representative in the colonies of 'New Spain') was taxing them and then Napoleon's bro, Maximillian, was instated and they were even less happy about paying HIM taxes. Also, those dang Peninsulares got all the good political appointments and looked down their noses on those who hadn't been born in Europe.

So, a priest by the name of Miguel Hidalgo and some army generals by the names of Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama decided to rally the peeps of Queretaro and gave what is famously known as "El Grito" and got everything started. And by everything, I mean they freed some prisoners, threw together an army of peasants armed with pitch-forks and machetes and marched towards the capital. And that, my friends is the very concise, very abbreviated beginning to a sort-of civil war that ended in Mexico's independence from Spain. Don't be fooled into thinking, though, that those Criollos gave the Indigenous peoples or Slaves any rights or powers... not really, but you have to start somewhere and that somewhere was the Spanish colonial government.

Now that I have sufficiently procrastinated quite a bit more than I had intended to, I'll leave off. You may all learn more about the history of the fight for Mexican Independence here, here, or here. I, for one, NEED to get to my lesson planning or I will seriously regret it later on! Boo.

Hope you all had a great week, threw up a shout for Mexico on the 15th and 16th and are considering writing your local representative about the importance of legalizing drugs in the US and saving the country where I live! (Couldn't resist that last plug, sorry).

xoxoxo y UN FUERTE VIVA MEXICO!

Leyah

Syringe Plunger Happy Mexico?

Hello readers!

Nothing much has happened since I last posted. One blog worthy thing ALMOST happened, which is the sole reason this blog is being posted - to write about what almost (but didn't) happen to me this week.

Sunday past I started to get that ucky taste in my mouth that proceeds a sore throat along with some serious body aches and I thought - oh great - a cold! It had been raining for the entire weekend and everything was damp, I didn't feel good at all and and I was CRANKY! Nothing out of the ordinary there, as Pako will attest.

I decided to nip it in the bud, made myself some tea and got into bed early. Unfortunately, I spend most of the night shivering and sweating and shivering some more. At about 4am, when Pako rolled into a position that left him snoring contentedly, I thought to myself - screw this - and I went into the other room to write up Sub plans for Jeanne. At 7 when my alarm went off, I got dressed, went to Montessori and left the plans on Jeanne's desk. Why didn't I just call Montessori, you ask? Well, as Montessori is an exclusive private school that offers your child only the best, the phone lines don't work when it rains. Two tylenol's, an ibuprofen, an anti-histamine and into bed for me. The head cold bit of things got progressively worse throughout the day, so at 6ish, when Pako asked if I wanted to go to the doctor, I said ok.

Off we went to visit the $25 peso doctor (a new guy this time). This guy was super nice, very, very thorough and did an excellent job of talking me through everything. He asked a bunch of questions, took my blood pressure, felt my throat and then felt my abdomen. Turns out, not only did I have a roaring head cold (nothing he could do for me there), but ALSO an intestinal infection that was up to 10 days old. GREAT. He gave me two shots, one in each cheek and then prescribed 3 more shots, plus a lot of pills. **What's going on with the amount of shots being prescribed here? Anytime I hear that someone went to the doctor, they've had a shot and were prescribed more for at home... It's SERIOUSLY odd for me to go to a pharmacy and buy syringes... what happened to good old bad tasting syrups and horse-pills?** Within minutes of the 2nd shot, the body aches started to go away and I felt much better. Pako bought me an electrolyte-rich drink called Suero (the Mexican cure-all it seems, it's what they gave me intravenously the last time I was sick - you know, like 3 weeks ago) and off we went to the Comercial Mexicana to buy the rest of my meds.

At 7 o'clock PM on most Monday nights, the CM is HOPPING! There are people everywhere and this was true that evening as well. I got lucky and was only the 2nd person in line at the pharmacy. When the woman started to fill my order, all of a sudden I got SUPER hot and my peripheral vision started to go. Now, while that might sound ultra-scary, it's happened to me before, so I knew what was going on. I was going to faint. Shoot. I handed the prescription and the credit card to Pako and went to pretend I was looking at something on a low shelf - away from the pharm crowd. This worked for a minute, but only so long as I stayed still and kept my head DOWN. I then decided that I really might faint and it wasn't just a passing wave of whatever, so I moved even farther away from the crowd and sat on the floor with my head between my knees. Pako, at this point, begins to get really nervous and flits over to ask what in the name of Emiliano Zapata is going on and I just wave him away and tell him to finish paying for the drugs.

Let me describe, a bit, where I was sitting. The CM is kinda like a Target or super drug store with a row of checkout lanes at the front. The pharmacy is on the outside of these lanes so that when you're finished with your other shopping, you stop at the pharmacy on your way to your car. So where I was sitting was pretty much directly in front of where EVERYONE had to pass to leave the store. There were probably 14 lanes open, each with a long-ish line of people waiting to check out and get home so I wasn't exactly isolated in my little health crisis. I only saw one student, but then I had my head between my knees most of the time I was sitting there, so who knows how many saw me!

I sat there for awhile, sweating profusely and wanting desperately to lay on the cold tile floor (which I didn't because - um - EW) with Pako leaning in front of me, worriedly. Finally, I felt like most of my vision had come back and I made to get up. I tried to keep my head down and rise slowly as to avoid that rush of blood that you can sometimes get if you stand up too quickly. I made it about 10 yards. Then I had to squat a bit (no full blown sitting this time - progress!) before moving another 15 yards. Pako was almost dialing the red cross at this point, but I assured him that I was getting better. After the last kneel down, I made it all the way to the car in one go! Yeah! I think Pako probably left half of our tires on the pavement as he peeled out of the parking lot and we rushed back to the same doctor. By the time we got there, I could walk all by myself with no fear of swooning.

The doc looked at me, took my blood pressure and said that it had bottomed out, probably a combo of the heat, the antibiotics he had recently injected into my bum and dehydration. Dang that dehydration, it seems one can never beat it! So, I dutifully drank my Suero while the doctor assured Pako that it was, indeed, ok for me to go home. He told me to drink some juice, which would help regulate my blood sugar/pressure.

Anywho, my soon to be brother in law (too many possible hyphens there, so I just left them all out in favor of fairness) had the pleasure and privilege of giving me an injection in alternating sides of my bum for the following three days. The last shot was on Thursday, but I can tell you that I am still sore and purple-polka-dotted! I decided to leave this week's blog photo-less. Your welcome.

I feel much better, though I'm still catching up on sleep! This weekend was all about relaxation! Next week at school is a short one - Monday thru Wednesday and my high schoolers will be taking exams! Then an excellent 4 day weekend to celebrate 200 years of Mexican independence! I'm going to lay very low until then so that I can participate in what promises to be a very patriotic weekend! Next week's blog will definitely include some photos (not purple - more red, white and green). Hope you all had a better and less syringe filled week!

Viva Mexico! (LEGALIZE DRUGS IN THE STATES SO THAT IT CAN KEEP ON VIVA-ING!!)

Leyah

Flood Alert!

Hi there folks!

How is everyone? I hope you're all slightly drier than we are here in rainy Zihua! It hasn't stopped raining for more than 30 minutes for the last 48 hours and many of those hours have been all-out downpours! We're lucky in that we haven't been getting the same rains as Oaxaca and Veracruz (which are largely under water right now, over 50,000 people affected), but the latest wave of tropical pressure and precipitation is making up for lost time, it seems. Being that our persian slatted windows are and have been rusted open since we moved in, we get a lot of rain in the apartment if the wind blows. I started my Saturday by mopping the kitchen floor before I could make coffee. Oh well. We got smart earlier in the rainy season and put ugly, but extremely functional plastic sheaths in our bedroom windows so that we can at least sleep in peace (as the rest of the apartment gets soaked). I'm hoping it clears up today so that we can make a quick trip to the market to buy some food for the week.

This trip to the market might not be as easy as it seems, however, as the streets might be flooded downtown (as frequently happens when it rains a lot) and Pako and I are without a car for the next paycheck or two. It seems that our 'horquilla' (possibly ball-joint... not exactly sure and since I'm not really car literate, nobody has been able to give me a satisfactory explanation of what it is or how to say it in English) on the front driver side is seriously on the fritz. We brought the car in to our normal mechanic and he quoted us a price that was $600 pesos more than he had quoted us for the SAME thing 5 months ago so we decided to shop around a bit. Pako has a surfing connection (shocking, I know) who owns a garage, so that was our next stop. We got our hopes up as the friend originally thought it was some other issue and quoted us a WAY lower price than the first guy. Unfortunately, he opened up the whatever it is (it's not the hood and you can't really open up the body of a car... can you? - anywho, he looked more closely at the wheel thingy) and discovered that it was WORSE than he or the first mechanic had thought... dang! So, his advice to us was this "you can drive it dude, but I'd stay away from highways or road trips... it's not like your wheel is going to come off or anything... it just might flip sideways... which might roll your car." Needless to say, I put the kibosh on the car and now it sits sadly in Lorena's yard, where Pako can easily visit if the loneliness gets to be too much for him.

It's not a huge problem, luckily it's one that will only take a month or so to save up for (rather than 6 months or a year) and we'll be back in business. What it does mean, however, it lot's of combi rides. For those of you who don't know what a combi is, it's a van/mini bus that runs like a city bus - the same route, all day, for $5 pesos a pop. They're pretty convenient, but the drivers think that they own the road and, like other Zihuatanejenses, don't follow any observable rules and/or driving patterns. They weave in and out of traffic and stop where ever they want to let someone on or off. Also, I'm slightly taller than your average Mexican (male or female) and thus have a tendency to bump my head upon entering or leaving (and most of the time on both occasions). Also, the drivers have a propensity for pulling out into traffic before all of the riders are comfortably settled, leading to many a grabbed arms or shoulders of strangers and murmured apologies. It's these times when understanding Spanish as well as I do does not work in my favor because it means that I fully understand the 'stupid gringa' comments. Come on people, it's not my fault I'm tall and uncoordinated. I didn't grow up riding these death-wagons! I drove the blue beast and followed ALL rules of the road (impeccable driving record - thankyourverymuch!). One more instance of culture shock, 1 year and 1 month into my stay here in Mexico.. I wonder when this will stop happening to me?

I've been writing exams this weekend (and will continue to do so after finishing this post) because all of a sudden, the first round of exams are upon us! How in the heck did that happen? Have I really been here and working for that long already? The answer to this question is: no, I have not. Ricardo, in another moment of extreme educational/pedagogical ineptitude, has decided that monthly exams are a good idea. That's right, a full exam and evaluation of each student is due every 4 weeks. Which means that I will have about 3 weeks to teach, one week to review and then will be expected to give oral and written exams. If you know anything about language teaching/learning or have even a modicum of common sense, you will already know that this is a BAD IDEA.

If you're still unsure about the harshness of my judgment of this lastest pearl of wisdom from Ricardo, let me explain a bit. Language is WAY more than memorizing a list of 20 vocabulary words and a grammatical structure. It is all about being able to react on your feet and decide almost instantly which words you want to use, in what order to say them and which tense to put them in. The way to do this well is to practice language everyday, in various contexts and formats. You want your kids reading, writing, speaking and listening to examples of the past and you want to them to do it a lot, over and over again. Even if recite the past tense forms of a verb doesn't necessarily mean they can tell you (correctly) what they did the day before. Giving them a full on exam every 4 weeks is SUCH a huge waste of time. I'll be testing them on the SAME material, over and over again. It makes the students nervous and means a whole heck of a lot of extra (unnecessary work for me).

I plan to rebel in my own way, however, and only give a full exam every two months. The other months, I'm going to give the students a project to do and that's how I'll calculate their grade for that month. This way, only I am getting screwed, and not so much the students. I still have the extra work, but they won't be as nervous or stressed out ever 3.5 weeks and they'll actually benefit from being evaluated in the two different ways. Our first "exam" (which is actually a project) will be some variation of a letter, depending on grade level, written to the UN, in honor of International Peace Day, September 21st.

My 12th graders are actually giving speeches on the last day of a 4 day International Peace Summit that is being held here in Zihua in honor of International Peace Day. They're going to be talking about Community and multicultural diversity and it's relation to peace as it pertains to Zihua. We'll be giving the speeches at the closing breakfast, to be held at the Dorado Pacifico Hotel in Zihuatanejo and we're speaking right before the mayor, Alejandro Bravo. There will be people from all over the world and my kids were chosen to represent Zihua's youth. I tell you, I was just like a proud mama when I got the news. We're working hard on perfecting our speeches (which will be in Spanish and English) and will be practicing a lot. I'm excited. Let's just hope the geniuses of Montessori don't find a way to trip us up! The summit we're participating in is listed on the UN website - it's the only event listed for Mexico - pretty cool if you ask me! Obviously, I'll have LOTS of pictures to post and stories to tell after the fact.

Last week, Wednesday, Pako and I went to La Ropa to visit his dad and walk on the beach. The parking lot was flooded due to a recent rain storm so I, as usual, made Pako carry me across. (You may say 'high maintenance,' I say 'GROSS!') We got in just fine, talked to Eliseo, walked on the beach, Pako even got to play soccer with his friends while I read my book (Eat Pray Love - in Spanish!). When the mosquitoes were getting to be too much, we decided to leave. As I stopped by a bench and waited for my big, burly man to adjust his shorts and whatever else he was carrying, we were laughing and he was making fun of me for not wanting to wade across the water. All of a sudden, both of us realized that we were standing on an ant hill and the little suckers were not happy about it. These are the teensy tiny little ants that pack quite the punch! Anyway, we both start stamping around like wildebeests, trying to get these little buggers off of us, but they hung in there pretty well. Pako, used to these type of happenings, walked directly into the parking lot water and was awarded some respite for his actions. I hesitated just a little bit, because like I said before... gross. Anyway, I was eventually forced to follow him into the yuck-water in order to stop the foot-feast. Now my feet are covered in ridiculously itchy little bites and Pako has little sympathy since we stopped where we did so I could climb up onto his back... Girly? Yes. Annoying? Maybe. Deserving of a million tiny red ant bites? NO! :(

That's all for this week: ants, exams, no car and LOTS of continuing rain. Here's hoping for a sunnier blog entry next week (figuratively and literally)! Football season is upon us, Pako get ready!!! Last night my beloved Badgers pulled out a victory over UNLV at UNLV. Now I'm just hoping for a CRUSHING Saints victory during the NFL opener on Thursday (why is that...? I'm not really a Saints fan..) and then my favorite Green Bay Packers take the field in Philly on Sunday. HOORAY! I love football!

Have a great week, blog readers, and start looking for your green and gold (or red and white and black) apparel!

XOXO,
Leyah

The following are the views from my apartment. Usually you can see the ocean clearly... not so much in the last couple of days. I took these during a pause in the heavy rain and this is the clearest it's been since Friday morning!