BRIGHT ... and early?

Good Morning Friends!

Here I am, 9:11 am, voluntarily out of bed and writing this blog. That means either a.) I got enough sleep or b.) Pako is snoring too loud! In reality, it's a combination of both, but mostly A. Normally, if Pako is snoring and I still want to sleep, a carefully (and gently) placed hand on his face will do the trick. :) The picture is of the boys at 9:42 am, as I am concluding this blog. Neither one of them has made signs of moving, except Tekila raised his head when I took the picture. Yesterday, I slept in until 9:15 and then rolled out of bed and made pancakes. It was weird not getting up and going to the Tech, but good weird! I met my friend Chandra and we walked downtown for a licuado and a visit. It's always nice to chat with her because I don't have to worry about grammar or syntax. She is going through the immigration process that I will have to go through next year and so far, it doesn't look fun. Pako picked me up after a bit and we went to order our invitations. I experienced a rather strong sense of deja vu because as we were discussing the details with the lady at the story, Pako wrote down abbreviations that were evident to both him and me, but probably not to anyone else - which is something that I dreamed about over a month ago. Exactly that, in fact. Pako wrote down abbreviations for my name, the date, the beach where the ceremony will be held! It was so strange. In my dream, I wasn't there to correct anything, so our invitations came out all wonky, in real life, I got lucky and was able to write out all the abbreviations. I'm sure I'll be anxiety ridden the night before we pick them up, but hopefully nothing will come of the dream!

This week went by quickly, thank goodness! All of my students can smell the summer vacation at the end of the tunnel (mixed metaphors, sorry) and they are chomping at the bit (ok, couldn't help myself)! So can I and so am I! There are 2 more weeks of classes (mas o menos) and then a week of review and exams!!! What's making it all the more difficult for me is that my high school classes have finished their books, which means that I am creating all of my materials, a very time consuming process, which should NOT be left until the end of the year! I think next year I will plan better and have a mid season book break so that we are finishing the book at the end. That way both my and student energy will still be high (supposedly) and focused (again, SUPPOSEDLY). Anywho, we're getting towards the end and nobody is complaining. Next Friday I'll be taking the high schoolers to el Refugio de Potosi, which I think will be awesome! (That is, we'll be going if Ricardo hasn't totally neglected the numerous reminders I have been leaving on his desk for the last month...). **El Refugio is a must see for all visitors to Zihua, expect mass trips if you make it for the wedding!

This past Wednesday, Pako and I opened a joint bank account at Scotiabank here in Zihua. We had a number of reasons for wanting to do this (not keeping all of our savings in an envelope in the apartment being a large factor), but mostly we did it now for immigration purposes. Later on, when we're asked to prove our love, they won't ask for pictures, cards or engagement rings, they want bank notes, titles and deeds in both of our names. Anyway, we went and opened an account, which turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated (all I needed was my passport and FM3 visa), and it was uber-romantic. We might have even held hands in the bank manager's office. I can't remember. The bank manager has two students at Montessori, one of which will be in my 6th grade class next year. Our next step of proving our love 'immigration style' will be to change the title of Pako's car so that both our names appear. Now, that might not seem romantic to most of you, but if you knew how Pako was about his car, you'd understand that he'd truly have to love someone to legally share ownership! By the by, should any of you ever get the urge to deposit money into our account, feel free, Bank of America is our US affiliate! ;)

Pako had a heck of a sports week. He played with his Sol team (scored the game-winning goal in his new cleats - from me, thus clearly giving me all credit for the game) on Monday and then sometime Wednesday his ankle swelled up and started to ache. Also, he snapped his new surfboard in two. He loves doing that. I tried to take a picture, but he wouldn't let me - it was too sad to document. We went to a man, who lives on a farm/roof tile factory out in a little pueblo named Coacuyul. He not only makes tiles (and trains packs of dogs from the looks of the place), but he rubs joints. Not joints as in marijuana, that would be illegal and who rubs a joint, anyway? No, joints as it where your bones meet. Anywho, he's pretty famous and had rubbed Pako's ankle before, so Pako knew what to expect. Apparently it's extremely painful as the man rubs your sore joints and flexes your limbs, but worth it. Pako went on Friday evening and Friday night his ankle had returned to normal size and he was running after Tekila like a kid again. Go figure.

I think that's it for today, unless anyone would like to enter into a political debate? No? No one?
Ok, that's it then. I took a picture of the morning because the burning of the hills to ready the fields for planting has ceased and my eyes no longer burn and not everything in my apartment smells of smoke, it's finally clear and I can see the ocean again! Hope things wherever you are are going well! Talk to you soon! OHMIGOSH! I can't believe I forgot the most important part of my week: Comercial Mexicana stocked Tollhouse Ready-Made cookie dough and I bought it! Chocolate chip yummy to be had at my apartment! YAY! :)

Adios and hasta la pasta!

Leyah

Disjointed, but soap-boxy

Well kids, another week done and gone. They are positively flying by, which I don’t mind telling you, is fine with me! While I’ve had fun and definitely learned a lot, I won’t be sad to see this year of Montessori come to a close. Right now we’re dealing with the splitting of groups (who will teach what grade/class) for next year and let me tell you, it is one more big pain in the arse, shaped scarily like that big lump I sometimes refer to as Ricardo. As it stands now, there are 3 English teachers: Artemisa (Kindergarten 1, 2 and 3, and primary 1), Coco (Primary 2-5, Secondary 2) and myself (Primary 6, Secondary 1, High school 1 and 2). Ricardo thinks that it’ a good idea to incorporate all of us in ALL levels of the school, kinder – high school, thus giving all of us classes in Kinder, primary, secondary (impossible, there are only two levels) and high school (NO!!! those are my classes!). Now, this irks all three of us teachers because we like our levels (except I do NOT like Secondary 1, but next year they’ll be my babies from Primary 6, so I’m hoping for a better class) and we’re comfortable in our roles. I don’t know how the heck I’d teach kindergarten. I have no clue how to teach 3 year olds and I have interest in finding out. They don’t use a book, so curriculum would be up to me. No thank you. I’m also not buying one of the ridiculous aprons they make the kinder teachers wear. I love my high school classes. They are conversation classes and I like the freedom of that. I can follow the book and bring in my own articles and it’s interesting listen to the discussions that develop. Anywho, this is the current Montessori drama in my life and it is nowhere close to being finished. I am NOT going down without a fight. What is going to happen is that I’m going to drop off my resume in other schools and do some networking with the other teachers that I’ve met in Zihua. If I have to drop some hours at Montessori and pick some up elsewhere, I’m not opposed to that idea. Ricardo has no idea who his sad, confused, inept self has messed with.

Continuing with the school theme, yesterday was my last day at the Instituto Tecnologico de la Costa Grande as a college professor. Bummer. Though not so much bummer when I think about the Saturday mornings that won’t be brought in with a too early alarm. May 15^th is Dia de los Maestros (Teacher’s Day) here in Mexico, so a lot of my students shook my hand or gave me hugs. It was an odd experience. I didn’t know why they were hugging me at first and then one of the more advanced student’s said in English “happy teachers’ day, teacher.” Well, not only did my heart swell as I realized that she used the possessive -s (teachers’) correctly, but I then understood why all of a sudden people were shaking my hand. Now I knew that teachers’ day was this week because of the two parties I had missed during the week due to an awesome cold that decided to take up residence on Wednesday morning, but I had forgot that the actual day was on Saturday. Montessori threw a pretty nice party for the teachers at a restaurant in Ixtapa and gave out presents and then the local government through an even bigger party at a hotel in Ixtapa and gave out presents (but only for government teachers, which means I wouldn’t have qualified anyway – they raffled off laptops!) Alas, I was laid up in bed, sweating from a slight fever compounded by unpleasant humidity. Oh well, there is always next year!

I’m happy to say that I’m feeling better today. Still have crud in my throat that forces me to make obnoxious noises from time to time, but I’m definitely on the mend. On Wednesday, after Pako picked me up from school early, we headed out to La Ropa to pick something up from Eliseo and he offered me a home remedy for congestion – mescal. I took a shot, all the while being a doubting Debbie, and immediately my sinuses were cleared and I felt slightly drunk. Now, mescal is not tasty (not even a little bit – ugh) so it’s not a medicine that I will be turning to often in the future, but I had to try it at least once, if just to be able to write about it here. In Minnesota, they give you tea and honey. In Mexico, your father in law gives you mescal. Sounds about right. Thursday I stayed home from school and only went for half a day on Friday and on those days definitely stayed away from any home remedies. Saturday I manned up and went to give my last class at the college, which was shortened as it was only a quick review and then an exam. Then came home and took two naps. Apparently, sleeping helps when one is sick. I had to remind my body of this as it is so averse to sleeping well at any time, in sickness or in health.

Speaking of sickness and health, Pako and I finally found little glass thingys to complete the centerpieces for the tables at our wedding reception. Woohoo! No you all may think that is boring news, but its one less thing on my list. Planning a wedding is a lot of details and all this heat makes me lazy! People asked why I planned such a long engagement – well, this is why: I knew myself and my tendency towards laziness when planning fiestas. So here we are, 10 months away from the big day and I’m already feeling the time crunch. Can you imagine how I’m going to feel in 6 months? 8 months? 9 months? Poor Pako.

May 14^th was my dad’s birthday. If you forgot, well shame on you! If you didn’t know, now you do. I wish that I could have been there to celebrate; especially when I found out they were eating beer-brats, potato salad and baked beans. I neglected to send his present through the mail as I’ve been to the post office here and it’s sketchy at the best. At least bringing it home with me means that it will arrive, late but sure, in June. Speaking of June – woooohooooo! I’m already dreaming about the food I’m going to eat! I know that’s probably not what I should be dreaming about, but it is. Friday fish fry, Turkey Tuesday, Krohl’s, deep-fried cheese curds… the list goes on.. but I won’t. Happy birthday again Dad, I love you!

Pako’s soccer team (with Sol, of all ironic places to be playing soccer) has made it to the semi finals and he broke his cleats open doing some fantastical defensive move that he has described to me in it’s entirety a number of times (but which I still can not visualize… or bring myself to care about … shh) and thus we had to go searching for some new ones. How could he be there for his team 100% with broken cleats? Anyway, we got ULTRA lucky and found some really nice ones here for the exact same price they are selling for in the states. That NEVER happens. Anyway, he’s like a proud papa and brings them out to show anyone who knows anything about soccer. Whilst playing, he’s been hearing rumors about being called back to Sol, but we’re not holding our breath or counting any chickens. He’s going to stop by Lala (Dairy products) and drop off his resume sometime this week. He really needs a job because it’s only a month and a half until the cold current and sharks leave the area and he needs to buy a new surfboard! Also, there’s the added benefit of insurance for him, Petra and me! And money for food and all that good stuff, too. But primarily it’s the surfboard, who are we kidding?

Alright, I apologize for the jumpiness of this blog, I’ve been on cold medicine for about 4 days now (and mescal). I’m going to do some quick lesson planning and then hop in a taxi to make tacos with Lorena and spend the day playing with puppies and painting my nails. It’s a rough life, but someone’s gotta live it! (Language note: gotta and gonna really irritate ESL teachers because while we want students to use them when pronouncing words because of their true value in conversational English, it’s rather annoying to see it pop up in a formal book report – and they say academic English can be learned in 2 years? Don’t even get me started).

Oh, one soapbox moment before I go. Recently the newest anti-constitutional bullshit (pardon me, but that’s what it is) that Arizona is calling a “law” has brought immigrants and immigration to the forefront of everybody’s mind, including mine. Now, I realize that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion (let them write about it on their own blog, this one is MINE), but I would remind everyone that immigration is NEVER an easy process. Pako and I are not even married yet and we’re already checking requirements and getting ourselves ready for what is sure to be a year long (minimum 6-8 months, if we’re uber-lucky), expensive process. The United States grants 50,000 alien resident visas a year, total. When considering that more than 50,000 people around the world apply for that particular kind of visa every day, the number seems absurdly small. I am not advocating that the US open it’s borders completely, I’m just stating facts. The process is difficult and expensive and if my child was starving or the drug violence was too much to take, I’d do what I needed to do, including crossing a border illegally. Let’s not be too quick in judging people because of their choices.

ALSO, and even if you didn’t agree with me in the last paragraph, please take a moment to read this one carefully. Arizona is no proposing a law (SB 1097) that would require teachers to report any children they believed to be in the country illegally. This not only targets innocent children, who probably had little to no choice in immigrating to the US, but it puts teachers in an impossible position. If students can’t trust their teachers, they cannot learn. This is a simple fact. Ask Maslow, he’s got this hierarchy of needs that explains what students need in order to be able to learn in school (safety - see pyramid). If you feel that your rabid sense of “patriotism” (cough * racism * cough) compels you to target any adult on the street because the “look illegal” that is one thing, but let’s not target the children. They have enough on their plate. I will never report a student, regardless of the laws that govern the state where I am teaching. Never. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Happy May 16 – 23^rd to you. Check back next week where I’ll attack some more ridiculous political mistakes… or I’ll just tell you about my week.

Besos and Abrazos and death to SB 1070 and SB 1097!

Leyah!

PS. Some links for those interested:

So You Want to be an American: 5 Circles of Immigration Hell

Arizona's Attack on Kids

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

I stand corrected

Sorry I’ve been delinquent with this blog. It appears that I have temporarily lost the ability to sleep at night, which leaves me unable to do anything worthwhile during the day. I’m working on it though, not to worry. Luckily, my sleep problems waited until the end of the school year to resurface and May is an unusually holiday-ed month (Day of the child, student’s day, mother’s day, day of the worker, teacher’s day) and that means I have more days than usual that allow for mid-afternoon naps.

Last week was excellent! It included both Day of the worker and Cinco de Mayo, which led to a 5 day weekend and a work week of only Thursday and Friday. Taking advantage of the fact that Pako was, again, laid off from Sol, we decided to spend a couple of days in Acapulco with Pako’s Grandmother, Doña Tomasa. So Saturday, right after I finished at the Tech, Pako, Petra, Lorena, Tito, Tekila and I piled into the car and drove 4.5 hours. To get to Las Lomas de Chapultepec, which is wear Doña Tomasa actually resides, we had to drive through Acapulco proper and I was introduced to some seriously scary traffic. I would like to state for the record that I stand corrected: Zihua drivers are not crazy lunatics, but rather slightly sketchy drivers who have a low level of patience. Acapulco drivers are, without a doubt, totally obnoxious, dangerous, crazy lunatics! There was no respect for driving lanes, traffic lights, pedestrians; no use of blinkers, hand signals, brakes; altogether too much use of horns and hand signals; and finally, just a general disregard for the value of human life. I would take Zihua over Acapulco driving in a nano-second and state now, in writing, published to a possible infinity of readers, that I will NEVER drive in Acapulco. Never. I’d rather take a cab or a bus (not exactly a tranquil ride either, mind you), walk, bike, jump, skip, crawl… anything but drive!

On the drive in we stopped at a mall called “La Gran Plaza.” Nothing special, but man did it feel good to be back in a mall! I like malls. I am a fan. I didn’t even know I missed them until I set foot in one. Turns out, I do. Petra stayed outside with Teki, while the 4 ‘kids’ walked through the mall. We didn’t really see anything great, but it was nice just to enjoy the air conditioning and stretch our legs. Also, it helped my heart rate to return to normal after having survived my first dose of Acapulco traffic. After a short while, we left and ventured into traffic again. One the one, main road that goes through the tourist zone, La Costera, I saw no less than 5 McDonald’s, 3 Starbucks, 3 Burger Kings (which delivers… gross), 2 KFC’s, a Pizza Hut, a Dominos, an Office Max and an Office Depot. It was slightly like driving down a main road in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.

We arrived and went directly to Doña Tomi’s house and gave her a big hug and she immediately served us dinner. Then we dropped the car off at Pako’s brother, Juan Pablo’s, house (better driveway area) and chatted with him and his wife, Roselia, a bit. Then it was back to Doña Tomi’s where we bedded down for the evening. Pako and I were given the guest room, Lorena and Tito were given Doña Tomi’s bed and Petra and her mom, against my strident but ignored protests, slept on a mat on the floor. Well, I’m not sure if they slept, but I sure the heck didn’t. See, the thing is, Doña Tomi has chickens. And roosters. Roosters that like to crow at midnight, 4 am and 6am. There’s also the small matter of the house not having any real windows, just open areas in the cement. These open areas, as you can imagine, do very little to soften a rooster’s crow at 4 am. Needless to say, I found out on the first night that this vacation, what with the death treks through the traffic from hell and the roosters, was not meant to be a restful one. Side note, in Spanish, a rooster says ‘ki kiri ki’ rather than ‘cock a doodle do.’ Silly, mixed up, Spanish speaking roosters!

About an hour after we showed up, a tiny woman walked in looking very much like she owned the place. She turned out to be Doña Tomi’s sister, Perfecta. She had come to visit from Carrizo, Oaxaca, a tiny pueblo with no access to a bus station. She and her granddaughter walked 5 hours just to get to a bus… 5 HOURS!!! That is crazy talk! But she did it and she didn’t seem too nonplussed about the whole situation, so who am I to get bent out of shape? She decided it was time for a visit and her granddaughter had a week long break from school and could accompany her so she packed her bag, walked 5 hours, took 3 buses, a van and a taxi and there she was! She looked just like Doña Tomi and had many of the same mannerisms, though it had been more than 50 years since they’d lived together. She was super affectionate and gave me about 15 hugs over the course of the 3 days that we were there. It was great to see Petra, Doña Tomi and Tia Perfecta interact because it seemed as though they’d lived together their whole lives, they were just in sync with each other. Pako and Lorena had never met Perfecta, so it was quite serendipitous that we all decided to visit during the same week.

Sunday and Monday were super shopping days. On Sunday Lore, Tito, Petra, Ximena (Pako’s niece), Pako and I set off for the markets of Acapulco, home to every pirated thing you could think of. I bought a pair of sandals for $50 pesos, which is roughly $4 USD. Lorena bought about 10 pairs. She is even more shoe-obsessed than me. The markets were pretty normal, a larger, cheaper version of what we have here in Zihua. We walked around for a bit and visited the church, which was pretty. Then Lore and Tito caught the bus home because Tito had to work the next day and the rest of us went on a site-seeing tour. Pako showed me where he lived and studied last year. Then we drove to a couple of places with panoramic views of the ocean and coastline. It was really interesting to see where Pako had spent most of last year. Finally we all went home and ate dinner at Pako’s brother’s house with Roselia, his sister-in-law and Pakito (nephew).

Monday, Pako and I rolled out of bed after a night of non-sleep due to the lovely crowing of the house roosters and pumped ourselves up for a marathon. We went to 4 malls. I do believe, even for me, that is a record. Luckily we started out the day with a trip to Starbucks! Now, it’s interesting because in the States, I’m not a huge Starbucks fan. I’m a Caribou girl through and through (a MN-WI coffee chain), but man that overpriced ‘grande’ frappuccino sure did hit the spot! Even Pako enjoyed his overpriced cappuccino. So, properly caffeinated, we headed out into the awful Acapulco traffic and hit 4 malls in just under 6 hours. My favorite was Plaza Diana because it had a Bershka and a Zara, two stores that captured my heart in Spain and haven’t yet made their way to the Mall of America (YET being the operative word). We were so tired and hungry and I was so drunk on shopping that we decided to eat at Applebees (very authentic, I know). Pako ordered Tortilla Soup and said that it was the best soup had ever tasted. Then he ordered a New York Cheesecake and was a very happy camper. We ended the day by walking around the newest Acapulco mall, La Isla, which is a huge outdoor mall with many upscale boutiques and name brand stores. I went into the Coach store, just to salivate, and the prices were DOUBLE what they are in the States! As this mall was clearly geared towards a higher economic class, we did a quick tour and then took our tired, out-shopped bums home for the day. Petra wasn’t terribly pleased with us when we returned because we’d been gone all day, but when she saw that we had bought Tekila a new sweater, all was forgiven.

We came back to Zihua on Tuesday and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow (which is a big deal when you’re me!). The next day was the 5th of May, Cinco de Mayo, so most schools had it off, but for some reason Montessori decided to hold classes. I decided to observe the holiday and abstained from going in to work. I spent the day lying around and unpacking and decompressing from a fun, but less than restful vacation. Thursday and Friday at school were normal days. Nothing special to report except that my students are comparing the book Blackbeard’s Treasure with the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ so I got to spend a couple of enjoyable hours watching Johnny Depp as the world’s sexiest pirate. Saturday was my 2nd to last class at the Tech and next Saturday will be an hour long review and then a final quiz and that will be that. I’ll be sad to see the class end because I like the students and I like the curriculum, but I won’t be sad to stop waking up quite so early on Saturdays!

I would like to take a moment to mention that on April 28th a member of our Las Urracas family passed away. Fred was a long-time Las Urracas guest and a good friend to Pako and his family and many of the other Las Urracas-ers. He always made me smile, either with a sarcastic remark or a joke meant for Pako or at the expense of Canada. Without a doubt, his presence will be missed greatly and winters at Las Urracas will not be the same. His passing was sudden and reminds us all to tell everyone in our lives how much we appreciate them, so if you’re reading this it’s because your path has crossed mine and I want to let everyone know that I’m grateful for their presence in my life.

Today is Mother’s Day in the US and tomorrow is Mother’s Day here in Mexico. Happy day to all the Mothers and especially mine because she is a beautiful, smart, intelligent, caring woman and I love and appreciate her. Everyday should be her day!

Extra hugs and kisses to all the mothers out there! Until next week!

Leyah

Puppy Chow! Yum!!

Hey All,

Just a short update this week because last week I was lazy and posted on Wednesday. Not a whole ton has happened since then, but we'll see...

I have been looking for powdered sugar ALL over Zihua for about two weeks. For those of you who know Zihua, this is weird because we have all seen it at Comercial Mexicana (owned by the Costco company and my go-to store) and Bodega (owned by Walmart - EW - my 'only go to in an emergency because Sam Walton and fam are evil and they don't need my money' store). Well, I couldn't find it at la Comer and so I asked and two people looked at me as if I had asked for frog's legs. Then I went to Bodega (ew) and had the same experience. I checked the other little supermarkets and scoured Waldo's (dollar store, hugely amusing) to no avail. I wanted to make puppy chow (the human snack, not actual dog food) and was being thwarted in my efforts. FINALLY, yesterday I found it in la Comer, no thanks to ANY of the CM workers, just by luck, wandering down a random aisle. YES! So this morning I made puppy chow... apparently not a great idea as I haven't stopped eating it yet... but it's the small pleasures in life... and life is too short.. and any other cliche that will help me justify my vice of chocolate! (Pako likes it too, shockingly enough).

Went back to the Tech yesterday. I had all of 7 show up and then 2 left at 9:50am. Needless to say, it was a pretty laid back class. It was fun to be back; apparently I really did miss my kids over break and didn't even realize it. How strange. The class went quickly and there are only 4 more Saturdays


***************************************************************************************

All of the above was written about a week ago... turns out, I'm tired! Those of you who know me, know I'm NOT a good sleeper. Not even close. I have not been sleeping well for about 3 weeks and it's catching up. Not to worry folks, I've been here before and most probably (ugh) I'll be here again. The good news is that I'm exceptionally good at reading myself and not pushing past my limit. Hence me staying in bed ALL Sunday and not writing blogs.

What has happened in the last couple of weeks?

We had that big earthquake and since then the mornings and nights have been quite cool, dropping down to 60s again. It's the beginning of the rainy season (though it hasn't rained yet), so it's strange that it's actually getting colder... It's too good to be true, which means, of course, that it can't last.

I managed to avoid giving myself a brain aneurysm when my boss (Ricardo) totally forgot that I was giving an exam and not only scheduled a guest speaker during my class, but forgot to make copies of my exam after me reminding him for 3 days straight. I just smiled and moved my exam back a day, so that I had time to do everything I needed to do. I didn't even swear at him in my head. I tell you, I think I'm growing up.

Pako and I talked to his friend, Juan Carlos, aka 'el chef', who may be handling the food for our wedding. He had lots of good ideas and advised us to look into somethings before making up our minds. When people find out that the wedding is still 10 months away, they laugh at us and look at us like we're crazy. Then they make a comment about me being from the States and being hyper organized and ahead of the game. Hmmm. I like to call it - not procrastinating till the last minute because I prefer to avoid becoming a bridezilla, but if you want to call it hyper-organized, go right ahead. I will just direct my bridezilla-ness your way. Get ready.

Pako continues to distribute beer, a fact that makes both of us very happy! His contract may or may not be up next week (we're not sure), but if it's the case that he's downsized again, at least we got 5 full weeks out of them this time. We're just wearing them down until they have to hire him full time because it's too much paper work to hire and fire and re-hire. He's also been playing a lot of soccer with his co-workers, which makes him happy and also those coworkers who happen to be on his time. Even the big boss kicks balls around with him. Turns out, he's a bit of a Sol soccer legend. A fact he has not let me forget. Big whoop.

May is rapidly approaching which means holidays and half days and then June! English classes are done by June 15th... WOOHOOOOOO! I'm done at the Tech on May 15th and I'll miss that class, but I will not miss waking up early 6 days a week! June and July mean all sorts of rapid-fire fun including seeing my extended family who will spoil me with home cooked food and goodies, my parents, a Madison reunion/wedding, my best friends in the whole world and my beloved VW beetle. I can't wait!!! Cheese curds! Caribou Coffee! Dairy Queen! YUM YUM YUM!!!

Ok, time for me to easy myself into bed and await what little sleep visits me. Don't worry, my friend Karen is going to be a doctor and I'm confident she'll figure out what's wrong with me. Or at the very least, she'll have access to the good sleeping pills :) (Kidding, kidding).

Love to all! Until next week (or the next time I have a spurt of energy!)

Leyah

I'm all shook up!

Hey kids, I’m back!

Last night (or this morning, Wednesday, April 14^th, 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 6^th 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.

Oops... I lied about the pictures..

Hello friends and family,

Tis true, I am not uploading any pictures this week. I know it's more boring (or as my 6th graders might say "boringer"), but it just so happens that I didn't get many pictures at the wedding (I still may post them later) because no one else takes pictures and being the only picture-taker AND being the only 'guera' makes me feel distinctly tourist-like. Anywho, the wedding and its subsequent festivities were the biggest happenings of this past week.

You would think that since I have been off of school for a week now, with one more week to go, that I would feel relaxed. Not so. My boss left me with not a small amount of work (ok, she left me with a shitload of *cough* her *cough* work) and there's always the fact that Lorena's in town again and thus we hang out with her a lot. Not that I don't like to hang out with Lorena, I do, quite a bit in fact, but it means that I don't have all this free time during which to finish copious amounts of work.

One of the days (ok, 3 of the days) of last week were spent shopping for various items: a blouse for Petra, an entire outfit for Lorena, another full outfit for Tito (and you all thought I was the chronic shopper!), a shirt for Pako, wedding gifts, etc. We found everything we needed, luckily, and then the rest of the week was spent hanging about, playing UNO (a game at which I have about as much luck as I do for Loteria), creating new Loteria cards (which brought me an unprecedented 2 wins in one day) and playing with the puppies.

Pako has been working a lot :) because Semana Santa apparently causes people to drink astounding amounts of beer. That means that I got to see him between his alarm at 6:10 and his leaving at 6:40am and then not again until after 7. Long days, but the commission and overtime will be swell. He did have Good Friday off, which was, of course, good.

The wedding was Saturday night at 8. Petra and I, loaded with all of our clothes and cosmetics, went to Lorena's around 2. Then Lorena and I went up to aunt Luci's house (her son Ray, was the groom) where there was what can only be described as organized chaos taking place. About 7 people were in various stages of getting their hair done, make up being applied and removed, showers being taken, etc. Lorena and I got our nails done by a cousin who was quite professional. I must say, it's been about 6 years since I had acrylic nails put on and it's making my life a bit difficult at the moment. See, down here, it seems, the idea with fake nails is: the longer, the better. They were aghast at how short I wanted mine and that was with me compromising and leaving an extra millimeter or two. The result being, of course, that I am having a bit of difficulty typing this entry as my stupid nails keeping hitting two keys at once...

Then Lorena and I went back to the house and showered and got ready. The men were, obviously, already ready and waiting for us. We arrived at 9, only about half an hour late. The bride looked quite nice in a cotton dress with crystal beading around the neckline (no good pic to post..) and they both looked quite happy and relaxed. The ceremony and party were both held at Pueblito's, a restaurant in downtown Zihua. There were 2 keyboardists, both friends of the groom and a DJ (cousin to the groom, also the DJ for our wedding) and so there was a lot of dancing. Pako was tired and I still can't shake the slight feeling of stage fright that comes from being one of the tallest and definitely the palest of all guests, which led to not a ton of dancing on our part. We left about 2, which was considered ridiculously early.

The next day, the party continued at Luci's house, where the object was to drink all the left over beer (20 cases of the mini bottles, still quite a bit of beer) and eat all the leftover food. Neither goal was accomplished, but there was cranberry juice for me and I won two rounds of Loteria (before losing all of my money), so I was satisfied. We got to Luci's around 11am and then left around 8. It was an exhausting day. I can only imagine how tired the bride and groom felt!

That's about the extent of it. Today is Monday, April 5th and Pako and I have been engaged for one year today. I literally cannot believe it. Time has FLOWN! To think that I was still a grad student this time last year boggles the mind. Boggles! Pako had to work so Petra, Lorena and I went back to Luci's to help polish off more food (doing our part) and beer (none of us drank any beer, but we encouraged others to do so in our name). Then I came home and did some work. Ugh. Tomorrow's goal is to get all of the 1st week back's lessons planned. Then I'll make a final decision about text books for next year and draw up a pro and con list from Jeanne. From there, I'll tackle the logistics of planning a field trip to Refugio de Potosi, the coolest place to take my kids! Then maybe I'll have an hour or two, or maybe ever 12, if I'm lucky, to relax and pretend that Montessori doesn't exist before returning to the grind!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter! Being surrounded by Pako's who fam really makes me miss my own (though I quite like his family)! Miss you all and can't wait to see/talk to you from the same country dialing code soon!

besos!
Leyah

The Sol WILL come out tomorrow!!!

That’s right people, Pako goes back to work at SOL tomorrow! It was quite a close call for a while and we thought that, after two promising job opportunities, he wasn’t going to be working anywhere! It all started at Christmas, when Pako was working for Sol. It was a lot of work, but he liked the people he worked with and he really liked driving the big trucks (…). Sol had to let the temporary workers go, after only one month of work. They promised Pako they’d bring him back for Semana Santa if not sooner. Well, the weeks passed, rumors of reorganization of the agency and full time positions swirled and yet no call was made. We waited and waited.

Meanwhile, Pako’s roommate from college ‘Carrillos’ got married to a Mexican-American and started to make plans to go with her to California. Well, the wifey left and now he’s really hoping to go and so he thought maybe he could arrange a switcharoo at his job and have Pako step right into his place. He works at Pacifica hotel in Ixtapa. Compared to Sol, the hours are better, the pay is better and the possibilities for long term employment are better. Well, that all led to Pako dropping off his resume, having an interview and being told to call back this past Friday (2 days ago). While he was waiting to call back, Sol called (Wednesday) and offered him the temporary job. He was honest and told Sol he was waiting to hear about the other job and could he call them on Friday. Sol said yes, but by the time the hotel had decided that tourism was WAY TOO LOW to hire anyone new, Sol had changed their mind about waiting and had filled the spot. That was what I like to refer to as ‘Dark Friday.’

Needless to say, Pako and I were feeling sort of low. I went off to teach my last Saturday class until April 17^th and he went to drop off his father’s laundry. I had sort of stopped thinking about it and was focused on preparing my students for their last quiz before break and I got a text message saying that Sol had called back and Pako started Monday! Woohoo! I got a huge grin on my face and so thus all my students clamored for the gossip, which I happily shared. Then, of course, came the requests for free beer, but I told them they were all too late and that my father already had dibs on any free beer. They were disappointed, but understood. Free beer is free beer after all, and one’s right to dibs it is respected.

We then went and spent the day at Lorena’s. She’s home now for 2 weeks also. We ate some lunch and then went down town to shop for her and Petra’s wedding attire. Pako and Lorena’s cousin, Ray, is getting married on Saturday and so everyone wants to look their best. In a shockingly frugal move on my part, I’m going to wear the same dress I wore to Chandra’s wedding and thus am just tagging alone for the shopping ride. Now that Pako is working, I’ve been commissioned to find him “a shirt” for the wedding. That is all the direction or constraint that I was given and thus, in my mind, I’m free to pick out any shirt I want and he’ll be happy with it… right? That evening Pako and Tito went to help Erandy and Mari (cousins) move into a new apartment on the 6^th floor of an apartment building downtown. Lorena and I would have gone, but we were too tired from all of our rigorous (but so far fruitless) shopping. Instead, we observed earth hour, by turning off all lights and appliances for one hour.

Sunday (which is when this was going to be posted, but I was rudely interrupted by a skype call with my parents – sheesh), was a lazy day, but one that left everyone super tired. We spent the morning reading and lying around while the more pious family members (everyone but Pako and me) went to mass. Then we went to Lorena’s house and putzed around, created our own personal Loteria cards (in hopes of improving our dismal record), read, played with the rapidly growing puppies, and chatted. Then we grilled hamburgers on the grill, which is always delicious and played UNO. I won two games in a row, which is a personal best here in Zihua, where Lorena is the reigning UNO queen. Then we watched a tiny bit of the recently connected cable (which means tv shows and movies in English, yippee) and dragged ourselves home. It was 9:30 and Pako and I both just wanted to sleep. So we did.

That’s all for now folks, I promise more pictures and more adventures next week! Hope your spring continues to get warmer and more pleasant, wherever you are! I’m back to the states in under 4 months, so prepare yourselves for my triumphant return!

Bechitos!

Leyah