I'll start this post my apologizing for not having written in over 3 weeks (sheesh, has it really been that long?). There were at least 3 times when I thought to myself 'ok, tonight I'll sit down and write a blog' and then... nothing. Procrastination set in and as per usual, the more I procrastinated, the bigger the task seemed and the less energy I had. Anywho, starting is always the hardest part so here we are.
I left off last with Pako's various birthday celebrations. Tequila and all that. You'll all be happy to know that I've been offered tequila on three occasions and on 3 occasions have turned it down. I did have one small margarita and that was quite enough to remind me that Tequila and I are not really great friends right now. I'll stick to white wine every 3 weeks or so, thanks very much. The final celebration of Pako's birthday was the traditional family meal at Lorena's house. We ate... tacos? I really can't remember now, but I do know that there was some seriously delicious chocolate cake.
Blowing out the candles on the seriously delicious chocolate with chocolate frosting cake!One traditional part of a Mexican birthday celebration is called 'la mordida' and it's when the birthday boy (or girl)'s face is smushed into the cake. Being the ultra traditional person that I am.. I didn't want to let this tradition fall by the wayside, so I helped Pako keep in touch with his heritage :) Only with his own piece of cake though, because I didn't want any whiskers in mine!
No explanation necessary :)Immigration showed up at school one day. Now, even though I have all the right papers and permissions to work and live here in Mexico, it's still kind of scary to see a uniformed guy from immigration marching up to your classroom. Luckily, the guys from immigrations were super nice and just asked for my identification. I gave it to them, they checked my work visa and off on there merry way they were. Phew. It did remind me that I wanted to get my FM3 renewed before the year was out so that I wasn't rushing to do that at the end of the year. Luckily, renewing your FM3 is way easier than getting it in the first place, so it took all of 2 trips (plus one very aggravating and colorful-language filled trip to the bank) and $2104 pesos. Now they give you a laminated ID card with your picture and thumbprint on it instead of a little passport-like book thingy. Guess what color the card is... Yep, it's green. That's right, I have a green card. Ironic, no?
December 3rd was my last full day of classes because high school spends the next two weeks taking their exams which are run like college exams - they only have to show up if they have an exam. So, I spent that day reviewing with them and making sure they were ready for their oral and written exams. Exams were Monday the 6th and they all went off without a hitch and I said good bye to my high school students (all 21 of them) until the last week in January. Then it was time to review with the 6th and 7th graders, my only remaining students. I'm not sure how, but the last 2 weeks, even though I only had 2 classes a day, felt like the longest and hardest of the semester. As soon as the high school students leave,t he rest of the students decide they can check out, too (and who can really blame them?). I wanted to check out, that is for sure, but no such luck. 6th and 7th grade exams were on December 10th and everyone was happy to get those out of the way. The last 3 days of school were devoted to making Christmas decorations for the school's Christmas Concert - paper snowflakes were a huge hit with both 6th and 7th grade, and rehearsing songs and dances to Christmas Carols.
We didn't make these snowflakes, they're too impressive, but this is what I showed the kids - they were fascinated. We watched videos of snow falling and they had all sorts of questions about what it feels like, what it tastes like, etc. I feel a field trip to MN in December is in order! If only for the sake of a well rounded education for these kids! :)The Christmas concert was this past Thursday and it was... well, it was sadly unorganized and kind of chaotic, but the kids did a good job. My 6th graders sang Silent Night. The idea was for them to walk on stage holding candles and then all the other lights would be turned off, but it was slightly windy and at least half of the candles blew out before the kids made it to their places on stage. Oh well. The 7th graders danced to Mariah Carey's 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' They did a really good job and looked rather cute in their outfits, but unfortunately, as my camera is on it's last leg of life, the flash doesn't work and I couldn't get a good picture of them.
My 6th graders singing 'Silent Night' with 50% of their candles... oops.When I got home from the Christmas concert, a weird thing happened. CHRISTMAS CAROLERS MADE THEIR WAY THREW THE INFONAVIT (the apartment complex where I live). It was so bizarre, here we are in a 200+ building complex and all of a sudden a group of about 50 people carrying candles (theirs stayed lit, go figure) walked through our parking lot singing Christmas songs in Spanish. Now, maybe not so bizarre if you live in a suburb in the US, but I ask you, when has that ever happened here in Zihua? Well, I asked Pako and his answer was 'um... never, what the heck are Christmas Carolers anyway?' Helpful as ever. There is a tradition similar to Christmas Caroling that is practiced here and it has to do with Las Posadas or the reenactment of Joseph and Mary going from place to place asking for shelter. As far as I know, that was not taking place last Thursday night and this group of Christmas Spirit spreaders just got inspired and got out their candles. Again, no flash or I would have taken a picture. It was such a Christmasy night, I kept the pattern going and turned on the Christmas playlist and made some hot chocolate!
Sometime last week, when I was working very little, Pako and I and his two friends, Hilson and Eder, went to a beach called Loma Bonita. I had never been there before, so I was excited for the adventure. It's about 45 minutes outside of Zihua, just beyond the pueblo of Petatlan. You leave the main road and off road it (in true surfer style) for about 20 minutes until you come to a cliff. Then you scale a rather steep decline to get down to the beach. All in flip flops. All this effort means there aren't very many people at this beach and it's a pretty tranquil place. Unfortunately for the boys, the waves weren't great, but I still had a super time reading on the beach and digging for clams in the sand (clams are in season, apparently - I just threw them all back as they were tiny babies still AND there's some sort of bacteria attacking bivalves that can paralyze humans - no clams for me!). Anyway, it was a nice day at a new beach.
Excellent sign on the cliff where we left our car. I believe it speaks for itself.
Untying the surfboards at the top of the cliff. (We borrowed Tito and Lorena's SUV to get to the beach, our car is NOT off road worthy)
The Boys at the top of the hill: Eder, Pako and Hilson
Pako, happy to have made it down without damaging his most precious possession
Here I am at the bottom of the climb, happy to have made it down without breaking anything!
Look at all those clams!
Wedding planning is coming along. Caterer, check. Cake, check. Booze, almost check. Favors, check. There are so many little details, who knew?!? And if you knew, why didn't you tell me. Anywho, I'm thankful for my mom (she bought a book, so she's the go-to expert), my friends and my future sister in law, who have all been quite helpful when I ask them all the same question 7 times in a row. I'm hoping to get all of the big stuff taken care of this break so that when I do have to start teaching again I won't have too many distraction and hopefully won't be all that stressed... wishful thinking, I know. The knot.com keeps reminding me of the day count - 73 days until your wedding... 72... 71... AAAUGH! I think it's designed to stress you out! Luckily, I'm not the kind of person to get uber wrapped up in this sort of thing, so I'm keeping my stress level at a low-medium level. I'm more excited than stresse, so as long as I keep that balance, I'll be happy.
Christmas is in 6 days and that is AWESOME! We're having a turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes and peas, cranberry sauce and tiramisu (just like last year and very reminiscent of a Thanksgiving meal back home) and I am EXCITED!!!! My fast should start now because I know I'm going to over indulge, but it won't because I like to eat, too much. Pako has the 3-11pm shift these weeks, so he's working on trading days off to see if he can make it Xmas dinner! We hope he can. Otherwise he'll get leftovers (which are just as good, let me tell you). We're staying in Zihua for both Christmas and New Year's this year, so it should be pretty relaxing! I'm looking forward to the 3 F's: food, fun and family!
I feel like other things have happened, but they're escaping me. I felt really busy the last couple of weeks (so busy, in fact, I couldn't write even write a blog entry!), and now I haven't nothing to write about. I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking I guess. Until next time, blogites (which I promise won't be another 3 weeks), take care of yourselves and have a very happy holiday season!
xoxo,
Leyah
