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!