History Class

Hello Kids, what’s tricks?

Blog-worthy things started happening literally RIGHT after I posted last week’s blog. The first (and biggest and most important and possibly most detrimental and depressing) was that my beloved split the skin between his pinky toe and ring toe (what is the 4th toe called?) while playing soccer on the beach. It seems that he was coming upon an opponent and he swung his right foot as to kick the ball between the long legs of his friend, Luis, and his pinky toe chickened out at the last minute, decided to stay behind and was thus folded under the rest of his foot, resulting in ‘the split.’ Being gentlemanly, Luis drove Pako to the Red Cross, (where the doctor knows both of them on first name bases because of the numerous trips they have made over the years with various and sundry injuries) and Pako was given 4 stitches as well as an admonition. Turns out that just last year, Pako had driven Luis to the Red Cross for THE SAME INJURY. Pako and Luis will be seeing very little of each other prior to future big events to avoid similar occurrences.

The stitches are supposed to come out Monday or Tuesday. For those of you who have been following along and are rather quick-minded, you’ll be wondering ‘but what about his new job??!’ What, indeed! Well, he couldn’t walk on his foot (as much of it was bruised and swollen from the actual collision with Luis’ shin) at all for the first couple of days, but now is quite mobile. He called the human resources lady in charge of hiring and she told him to keep on with the hiring process (which in this case is quite rigorous and, luckily for us, can take up to 3 weeks, giving Pako’s footsie some time to heal). So he collected the mountain of paper (or sent me to collect, another interesting story), went to Lazaro (a city 2 hours away) and we were interviewed in our home by a tiny little man from one of the headquarters in Acapulco. The man asked me when we had first met, what Pako’s birthday was and about his biggest flaw and best attribute…I won’t get into that conversation, haha. (Note, he also asked Pako for MY biggest flaw and greatest attribute… was I being interviewed?) He also took pictures of us at the entrance to our apartment building and in our living room. Weird.

While my fhubby (future husband – thanks Trina) was laid up, I was left to do the driving. Now, normally, that wouldn’t bother me, I did a lot of driving in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and quite enjoy my mother’s VW Beetle (which, consequently, can be seen in our driveway on the google earth satellite photo of our house – makes my day, everytime!). Well, let it be known that there is NOTHING normal about driving in Zihuatanejo! There are no rules (well, none that anyone adheres to at the very least) and one has to constantly be on the watch for the taxi, combi (van-taxi things) and bus drivers, who seem to be on missions to scare the BLANK out of me as many times as possible. There is also the issue of communication. My lovely mother, who you all know as patient and soft-spoken, taught me to drive. She was (almost) always calm and always gave detailed instructions as to my next move. Pako, on the other hand, uses hand signals. He points. And then if necessary (which it always is as I do NOT respond to hand signals), he speaks in an exasperated, low voice while repeating the inane and extremely aggravating hand signal. The result is that I have driven successfully (thought not without a lot of stress and yelling on my part and frantic hand signals on his part) through all of Zihua and Ixtapa and disliked the whole of the experience. Luckily, Pako can drive again and we can go back to being a happy couple.

This week of school consisted of review (for the middle schoolers – high schoolers didn-t have class) and oral exams for all 4 groups of students. My high school students signed up for days and times to do their oral exams as they were not in classes. 2 students just did not show on their assigned day. That irked me quite a bit as it is something that I would never dream of doing. Both waltzed in the next day, cool as cucumbers, without an excuse in sight. The will be receiving half-credit (of what they earned). I know that might seem harsh, but someone has to teach them to be responsible about their education and I’m more than willing to be that person. Being punctual and keeping to appointments is a skill that will aide them all of their lives. So there. End of discussion. That is what I will say to them or their parents when they inevitably arrive to complain. The rest of the week at school was fairly uneventful (thank goodness!). Got all of my grades calculated, all that remains for next week is adding in the finals and getting their final grade. Mwa ha ha ha!

Wednesday was Pako’s cousin, Yair’s, birthday (man that was a lot of commas and apostrophes) and we went to his house for dinner, cake and hot chocolate. ** A hot chocolate sounds excellent right now, be right back… ok, I’m back, chocolate in hand ** I ate too much, as usual, and went home with a stomach ache. Friday and Saturday (Dec 11th and 12th) are Virgin of Guadalupe day (really only the 12th, but the masses and celebrations begin on the 11th) which means that starting on Thursday morning, all businesses, including hotels, and neighborhoods started their pilgrimages toward the 2 churches in town. That involves large groups of people walking behind a truck carrying an altar for/image of the ‘Virgencita’ decorated with flowers and clogging up traffic lanes. It also involves people dressing up in traditional clothes like those worn by people in the 1500s, when the Virgin first appeared. On Friday night, Petra (mother-in-law-to-be) and I took a combi (deathtrap that masquerades as public transportation) downtown, but couldn’t get very far because of all of the pilgrimages. We ended up just getting off in the downtown area and walking to the first church. I went along to give Petra some company as her invalid, bad-Catholic son, couldn’t do much walking, and for tourist/cultural knowledge value. The church was ABSOLUTELY packed with floral arrangements and new ones showed up every 5 minutes or so. We sang some songs and watched a movie about how the Virgencita showed herself to Juan Diego* and then walked to the next church. Along the way we bought some buñuelos (thin, flour crisps eaten with honey), tamales, pineapple atole, Jamaica punch/water and some plates of pozole (another stomachache on it’s way). The whole city was decorated with lights and there were a ton of people out. The teenagers had come out en masse and taken advantage of the evening to meet up with potential kissing partners and receded into the dark corners (of which there are many). The second church was more of the same, except there was a 12 piece mariachi band playing ‘Las Mañanitas’ (the birthday song), to the La Virgencita.

*Cultural note: A brief summary of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (I had learned this at Emerson (probably more than once) and then got a nice refresher course at the church).

In 1531 a very humble Nahuatl (Aztec) Indian, Juan Diego, was walking along his way when came upon a hill in Tepeyac. The Virgin, a beautiful woman with brownish skin (this point is disputed) appeared to him and introduced herself as the mother of God. She instructed Juan Diego to go to the bishop and tell him of her appearance and ask for his help in building a temple in her honor on the hill. Juan Diego went and though he was a humble Indian, was granted an interview with the Spanish bishop (something of a miracle in and of itself for those times). The bishop was kind, but didn’t believe Juan Diego and sent him away. JD went back to the hill, and was sent back to the bishop the next day. He was again refused and sent away. This went on for 3 days. On the 4th day, JD went back to the hill feeling discouraged. He was told to climb the hill and that even though it was winter, he would find some roses. He was to collect those roses in his serape/tunic and not release them until he was in front of the bishop. JD did this and when he released the flowers in front of the bishop, miraculously, an image of the Virgin appeared. Finally JD was believed and construction of the Virgin’s temple could begin.

The fact that the Virgin showed herself to a humble native rather than a Spanish bishop has endeared her to the Mexican people and she is worshipped here as their queen. Pope John Paul the Second, who was also a devoted follower of hers, visited the temple in Tepeyac and declared her the ‘Queen of Mexico and Empress of America.’ Her day is a pretty big day.

Anywho, Pako has turned in all of the papers to Sol and was given yet ANOTHER intelligence test and so things are looking good. He should get a call on Monday and maybe will be working on Tuesday, though payday is Tuesday, so they may wait until Wednesday for him to start. I don’t care when he starts as long as he starts! I also have all of my immigrations papers in order and will be turning them in on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on Pako’s work schedule and his availability to come and be my witness. As I was almost finished with the process the last time around, I know I have all of my papers in order so (hopefully, all appendages crossed again) it should be a fairly painless process this time (minus the paying… that’s always painful). So that’s where I’ll leave you this week, hoping for a job and a visa. Tuesday is my last day of classes and Wednesday is my last day of official classes at Montessori until Jan 7th! Let vacations begin!

Have an excellent week, besos!

Leyah