family outing

boy did we have a fun filled weekend so far. thursday after school malita and beanner (that's breanne) and i walked down the street to get a pedicure. it cost 8 dollars. it was sooooo disgusting the amount of dead skin they took off. and the lady i think saw the look of disgust on my face and she reassured me "it's really dry and hot here so this is normal" which made me feel better. it was so nice afterward to see pink soft flesh on the bottom of my feet. ah pedicures :)

friday night we all came home form work and just chilled - exhausted by our first week of teaching. nursing swollen feet and sore throats we relaxed with a movie. we had promised ourselves earlier in the week friday we would relax for sure and treat ourselves to dinner out. after much relaxation we finally mustered up the energy to walk a few blocks away to this cute tapas bar we had been eyeing. upon foirst sight, we thought maybe it was close - there was not a customer inside. boy we were wrong.

we sat in this cute little booth and ordered up some delicious margaritas and tasty tapas to share. we had such a good time and the restaurant was so beautifully colored and decorated with a zillion and one bulls. our waiter was really nice and it's always a process ordering food here because we still don't know exactly what everything on the menu is, so that takes time to figure out for 5 people. it's good though because there is always someone who understands a word someone else missed so that is cool - and if one person doesn't know a word someone else does or can explain it, so we are a nice little group. and it's fun learning a new word or a different word for the same thing, i learned straw is popote and i like that!!! it's the little things in life that excite me :) in front is our waiter Carlos, then it's me, jenna, bean, malita, charlie, and the owner Manuel. we had fun.

we got in late friday and saturday afternoon we went to malita's family's house. her granny and three aunts live about 10-15 minutes away so we went there and they made the most delicious lunch for us. we started with soup then they brought a plate of fish, rice, salad. to drink we had water purified by a clay/rock purifier and fresh jimaica juice. all followed up with yummy butter pecan ice cream. it was the best meal i have had since i've been here and i was sure to tell them. after we ate and chatted for a while malita's tia alicia took us shopping. we all got santos shirts to support our local futbol team SANTOS who are the best i might add. when we got home we all changed into our new shirts and walked to the store - we had to do some serious food shopping. on our trek to the store we got SOOOO many honks and hollars for our shirts we felt like real torreonites.

once we got home we ate and had plans to meet people at a bar/restaurant for another teacher's birthday. we were supposed to leave at 9ish and didn't end up heading out until like 10:30 - we are starting to get this mexican time down... where everything starts about 2 hours after its supposed to. after a taxi ride gone awry we finally got there and the band was awesome and the drinks were tasty and we had a good time. the restaurant was absolutely gorgeous, and it was so funny because the waiters come around and pull your head back and give you a shot of tequila and shake your head around for good measure. i declined the offer. but beanner and jenna weren't so lucky... anyway it was a fun weekend and i will be keepin gyou updated :)

we got a little family time in and fun with friends. tata for now!!!

las chulas

mmmm churros - what a delicious treat, late at night, early in the morning - no matter the time of day they are tasty (and full of calories...). unfortunately we have an ice cream parlor and churros place within literally 50 steps of our front door, which is much closer than the gym we are members of. hopefully we balance it out with some workout - but i dant say for sure...

don't know if you're aware - but in mexico (and most spanish speaking countries) everyone has two last names, and when we all had to sign up for social security they made us add our mother's maiden name. to which we all said "this is not our legal name, and it is not this way in our passport..." to which they replied "it's your mexican name". soooo we all (malita, jenna, breanna, charlie, and i) have been commenting on how we love having our family dinners and watching our movies and just hanging together - thus was born our 3rd last name - we are the Chulas.

my Mexican name is Emily Rose Klinke Ruszkiewicz Chulas, which is not as long as many names o fmy students.

well because my school is Catholic they do retreats every friday with a different class. and i teach 1A so my retreat was the first one of the year and it was today. it was actually really interesting.

lately i have been kind of low because the school doesn't have really good communication with the staff and i feel like every time i turn around there is a new thing i should have been told about - and wasn't told until after it was necessary. for instance, today for the retreat my students were supposed to bring their crayons, but no one informed ME of this important piece of information until we were all seated on the bus ready to leave. so i felt really frustrated because even though that is minor little things like that have been piling up... needless to say that is a tad irritating.

anyway, the retreat today was really nice becuase it gave me time to reflect. the entire retreat was in spanish - and even though i understand it, if my mind wanders for a moment it is hard to follow. i always have to pay really close attention and especially when there is new vocabulary involved. i realized how my students must feel. they are in english class for half the day where they have to pay serious attention and it's not even stuff they really care about, kind of how i felt about hearing about Jesus today. i felt like the shoe was flipped and i got to see school from their perspective. then i got to thinking, hmmmm i am in ANOTHER country so i should take these minor yet irritating differences into account as being cultural differences. and albeit sometimes annoying, they are to be taken in stride and accepted as customary of torreon mexico.

the kids have gotten progressively better since monday. they have learned most of my routines which i am happy about. today we had one hour before we went to our retreat so i decided to play simon says and do the hokey pokey before. they were sooooo into it, they absolutely LOVED it. which in turn made me soooo happy! it was adorable to watch them and listen to their lil voices and mexican accents... it was the perfect way to end a super exhausting week.

well this weekend will be hopefully relaxing and restful. malita's grandmom lives in torreon so we are making a Chulas family trip to her house tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!!! peace out for now

first day pic

Breanna, Malita, Jenna, and I at 7Am before the big day... read on for the first day dirt!

first day of school

so today was the first day of school. what an exhausting day. firstly i haven't worn heels for 9 hours straight for a LONG time haha... wasn't used to that. the weather wasn't bad because its been rainy so it was cooler today. i felt really prepared because i have been working so much to get my room in order.

i have to say though it was an experience. school starts at 7:50, but everyone arrived early so even though i got there at like 7:10 there were some parents and students waiting for me. all the parents were there for the first day of school to physically walk their kids to class and meet the teacher - i mean EVERY parent, first grade all the way to 9th grade. it was pretty impressive. a much different perspective of education here then in the States. and every parent introduced themself to me and gave me hugs and kisses. it was very nice.

as for the actual school day it was CRAZY chaotic. so i have 2 groups of 20 first graders, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. lunch is from 10:50-11:20 for everyone in the school. there is no cafeteria, the kids all bring lunch and eat on the grass or if it's raining they eat under the patio that has a roof. as for the students they are really little and some of them barely speak English at all, so it was very difficult today to train them about my routine and the classroom conduct and things. a simple task like getting out a notebook and pencil took 10 mins. first grade i know is hard in any language, but in a foreign language it's totally magnified.

the schedule is insane though because of course i have two groups to keep track of, BUT there are even and odd weeks, on the even weeks i have my B group 1st and A group 2nd - on the odd weeks i have group A first and B 2nd. this switch of schedules wouldn't be so bad if not for the added confusion of "Special classes" like music, computers, religion... each group has a different special everyday at a DIFFERENT time, so there is no consistency in the daily routine which is a big adjustment for me and i'm sure hard for the students. i feel like everyone benefits from a good routine and unfortunately this school is not set up for that.

an interesting known fact - all students refer to their teachers as "Miss" and thats it... i can't explain how irritating it is to have 20 7 year olds calling you nothing but "miss". haha and because they haven't been in school for a while i think they have lost some of their english skills, so they trully only say "Miss! Miss! I finished" and they poke you because clearly you can't hear them if they don't stand next to you and touch you.

another random thing is that they have all students using lockers, which ifind to be a tad much for elementary kids. ok, the lockers are right outside of the classrooms and both the English and Spanish rooms are next to one another, but they constantly forget things in the locker and if writing is a fine motor skill 1st graders haven't mastered imagine how hard it is for them to unlock a miniature lock. and then imagine how long that takes - sigh...

despite my diference of opinion on some issues, i have to say this is a much more supportive school than i am used to. my principal came by my room today and complimented me on my room so much i was really pleased. it is so nice when people recognize your hard work. and all the other teachers are so nice and understanding and always offer help. i like that.

so thats it for school. but here are another few differences between the States and Mexico that i noticed today.

• "checking on a table" in the States is "disturbing a table" in Mexico
• to get the check at a restaurant takes longer than getting the food
• normal notebooks are graph paper, you have to search for lined paper
• notebooks are literally the size of an RL Stine chapter book turned sideways
• kids get 2 pencils for the year and keep track of them
• most small restaurants are closed between 3-7pm... i found out the hard way
• education is valued and teachers are respected
• cars, bikes, and horses alike traverse the streets
• the beer is GOOD!!!
• personal kegs come to the table....

long day today, started at 6am when it was still dark outside :( and im sleepy. time for bed. hast pronto

things that are noticeably different in mexico

soooo even though torreon is in the desert, it has been raining cats and dogs!!! i don't understand it, but they actually have a "rainy season" - it boggles the mind. and for some reason there is no drainage system, so the water sits on the road in huge puddles and you feel like you're crossing the rio grande to get across the street. hopefully its dryer tomorrow and we are A-ok for school.

today was spent mostly finalizing my classroom, which i feel really good about for tomorrow. i can't wait to see my little students tomorrow. i have to review my plan for tomorrow so i feel confident but aside from that i am pretty much set.

mexico versus new jersey...

• no dryers, just washers and clothes lines
• trash pick up is 3x a week, but no recycling :(
• beds are made of foam - and not the temperpedic kind
  
• no root beer, but plenty of carbonated apple drink
• an order of tacos is just that, a taco - no sides, unless you order that too
• switches are sideways and flatish
• air conditioning is made using cold hay filtered water
• restaurant tabs are super cheap, like 2 dollars for a sundae or 3.5 dollars for lunch
  
• soda is sold in 1L not 2
• morning routine = bugspray instead of perfume
  
• eggs are not refrigerated (and that upsets jenna...)
• you can go to work ANYTIME of the day or night, any day of the week
• running water is a luxury, not a given
• replacing a stapler is a 25 person job and takes about an hour
  

well thats all for now... im sure i will notice some more things to comment on. send me email :) i'll let you know how the first day goes!!!

spanish word of the day = iman

sooo just when you think you're ahead, you realize a crucial piece of information, language, supplies to complete the job... i have been really frustrated a lot lately because i feel like i am scrambling around to get supplies i need, mind you i don't know where to get it all and finding it takes time too, and then when i finally sit down to complete a project i can't because i'm missing something essential to the job.

i worked sooo hard on so many handcrafted things in the past week and finally sat down at the computer so i could make some nice posters for my class. i finished 6 documents, was sooo satisfied and ready to print them out so i could color and paste them on the actual poster, then i realized the printer we all splurged on for the house didn't come with a USB cable.... how irritating!!! so a trip to the store is necessary yet again!

i know i am complaining a lot. i am having fun and it's not really that bad, it's just that when you put so much literally sweat and energy into a project and you still can't follow through it's hard to swallow. but i digress....

so today is saturday, we stayed up really late last night just the four of us, malita, jenna, breanna, and me watching sound of music and chatting. before bed i went to wash my hands and brush my teeth and there was no water.... so i went to bed and figured it would all be fixed in the AM. well this morning i was lucky to have four trickles of water to shower with because no one else had water in their bathrooms at all. we went to school around 10am, yes on a saturday, because we have sooo much still to finalize for our classrooms. we stayed till about 2 then came home and had leftovers from the past few days... we were starving, we scarfed down like 5 mini meals in less than 15 minutes. then we headed out to the store for some minor items, we went to waldo's mart, soriana, then to walmart. ew searched and searched for magnets for our chalkboards, but 3 stores and 3 hours later we were left empty handed. on the up side i learned how to say a new word, magnet is iman (like the model). funny thing is when i walked up to the lady in the store she had her face turned away and i started talking to her and when she gturned toward me we both recognized one another. yes its true, i have gone to soriana so much that the people who work at the store are starting to recognize me and vice versa. and by no means is this a small store. it was a tad embarrassing haha.

so we didn't get home until 6pm. then we headed back to the school and stayed for another two hours. i have seriously been working my tail off.

when we came home we showered and started another delicious family dinner. we dined on BLTs and cheetos, yum! check ya later

waldo's mart is where its at!!!

hey there friends and fam! sooo wednesday was a rather busy day. we got our class lists and had to start decorating our rooms and figuring out our plans for the upcoming week. you would never imagine how arduous of a job it is to come by bulletin board paper at a school in mexico!!! it took at least an hour to find the person who cuts the paper, tell her our order, write it down, and get it cut. and in mexico a "decoration kit" for the classroom is bulletin board paper haha... soooo after finding that out i settled down to plan a few things and figure out what i would need and how to make some classroom items that i wouldn't be able to find. i had passed a bunch of the spanish classrooms whose rooms were decorated so nicely, so i decided to inquire as to where one might acquire said decorations. so i introduced myself to a few mexican teachers and they told me of a place in the mall. after school i was sooo excited a few of us got a taxi and went on a search for the store.

they had some good things, but anything that was in english was extremely expsensive as it is sent from the States. we all picked out a few items went to the cash register. even though we were the only customers, paying for everything (and by that i mean maximum of 2 things each) took a while. it seems everything in mexico takes patience and a long time.... we left a tad dissappointed and decided to grab some grub at the food court. we found a taco stand with a 2 for 1 deal so we all opted to get food there. i ordered "tacos de chicarron", which in el salvador and costa rica was pulled pork.... not so in mexico. by the time i finally got my tacos, everyone else was almost done. i didn't mind the wait, i thought it would be worthwhile. i was all excited because i loved pupusas de chicarron in el sal.... when i got them i was a touch concerned because they didn't look like what i was used to. after one bite i was certain they weren't what i was used to. it was at that point that someone reminded me of an email we had recieved from a previous teacher warning us that "chicarron" is fried pig fat.... needless to say i couldn't eat. "lost in trnaslation" strikes again.... eh, i chucked it and got an ice cream which was tasty. can't go wrong with vanilla ice cream and M&Ms.

after the mall we went to Soriana again to get some school supplies. it was another long stay at the store, but well worth it. actually, maybe all that happened on tuesday - who can keep track of time in mexico anyway???? even though things take a really long time, i feel like the time just flies right by here.

thursday came and we went to school, a lot of time i felt like i was spinning my wheels, because things move so slowly and simple supplies are not so easy to come by, but i did what i could with what i had. thursday evening was yet another trip to the store. we walked to Waldo's Mart, which is a dollar store a few minutes down the road. we found a bunch of things for really cheap so that was good. then we had to go food shopping for the house. so we made the trek to Soriana again, in the rain.... who knew it rained in the desert??? it was no big deal actually - just a point of interest. when we got home i decided to make a nice dinner. i put together some penne vodka spaghetti with chicken and a nice salad and we had a really nice dinner. i live with 3 other girls, breanna and jenna who are friends from home, which to them is Minnesota. the third girl malita is from chicago and she is half mexican, she actually has family that live like 20 minutes from where we are staying. she found the job through her family, her mom was a student at our school for one year when she was a kid. and malita is engaged to charlie who is another teacher here. so even though it is the four of us, we have an honorary 5th housemate since he is here most of the time. so we all had a nice dinner together last night.

today was a FULL day, i finally finished most of my things in my classroom. it was properly cleaned this morning and i had my lesson plans checked over by my supervisor so that is done. i feel really good about monday morning, aside from a few minor details i will be attending to tomorrow (because the school is open on the weekends) i feel very prepared. so i have 2 groups of first graders, 19 kids in each group. i put the desks in 4 groups of 5 and i have a calender bulletin board, and a round table for math and science lessons as well as read alouds. i found some really cute english puzzles and memory games so i made afew centers out of them. Waldo's Mart came through for me, i found some really great things for the class there :)

so after work we all came home and relaxed for a bit then went for ice cream down the road. when we got home i napped for a bit and jenna and breanna made the most delicious chicago style pizza.... mmmmm mmm good!!! now here we all are, sitting on our couch - watching sound of music and hanging.... well i will keep you posted on my first week of classes, wish me luck :) and i will be putting up pix soon.

thanks for the inconvenience...

wow, a lot has happened in a week!!!! i moved in thursday and was all by my lonesome in a huge house, but i survived. i got a roomie the next morning. she was nice - but kind of a loner... i met the other new teachers who all live within a 2 minute walk from my original house. we decided to grab some lunch and possibly go to the store. soooo - we all met and walked to find a restaurant. on the menu TACOS. we all ordered the same dish, haha - but it was very tasty. afterward we stopped by the gym (our school gives us a gym membership) and then headed home.

everyone headed back to their respective houses, but i went to the store with two girls. what an experience! i wsa shocked at how large the store was, honestly big as a super walmart - i told you guys this was a happening town hahaha. after 2 hours of gettin aquainted with the "Soriana" as it's called we headed home. the whole group of us got together for margaritas and a good old game of catch phrase. boy was that fun, we played a few rounds until the phrases started repeating then we threw in a curveball of a rule - you could only use 5 words to explain.... that got interesting. after a while the party wound down and i returned to my lonely house with my loner of a roommate.

saturday was a chill day at the pool, with a rendevouz at a different house for some tasty rice and beans, made by me. then sunday was another chill day, i hung out and slept a bit late and later in the evening we had a get together at yet another house for a good game of phase 10. this was the night i seriously started considering moving, because i saw how i was intereacting with a bunch of other people and wasn't happy in my room assingment.

monday was the start of orientation, which was sort of overwhelming - we learned about our social security benefits under the socialized medicine here and we also were given a presentation of our major medical insurance. unfortunately, the explanation was in spanish so all the intricate details were lost in translation - sufficed to say i do NOT plan on needing that!!! as for the social security - if you are sick one day from work you have to go to the social security medical center for a doctor's note. essentially they divide the people up by name, so if you have a last name from A-M you can only be seen in the morning hours and you have to get there early because a line starts forming around 6 in the AM, everyone else is in the afternoon and you need to get there early too... so hopefully i stay healthy as can be :)

it was also on monday that the people at shcool realized they made a faux pas with housing and needed to move the guys to another house because there wasn't enough rooms to accomodate all the guys that would be arriving. SOOOO, i saw this as a perfect opportunity to get on the bandwagon and move too. the school felt AWFUL about making so many people have to repack up their stuff and switch houses, but it honestly didn't take much longer than like an hour because noone has that much stuff and because the houses are so close together. we went for lunch, where i ordered a "chile relleno" which is a stuffed pepper, or so it is in costa rica and my mind.... when it arrived there was A pepper with some cheese in it that was fried in some sort of dough. luckily the guy took pity on my and gave me three or four tortillas to have with it. i would have starved if not for a chalupa that jenna gave me. thank you friend!

so once everyone was moved i told my room mate i would be more comfortable living in "Casa C" and her response was "Okay." haha, that was easy!!! so i moved and in about an hour i was in business in my new place. that takes us to monday....

tuesday was more of just basic school information and getting our curriculum. in the evening we got a call from the school saying they were sending over tacos as an apology for the house switch and a thank you for the cooperation. the call was at 8pm, because dinner is done late here. we waited while watching a movie and finally another call came in at 10pm, it was the school saying we had to wait outside for the tacos because the delivery guy couldn't find the house. so 2 hours later jenna and i went outside to wait for the tacos. and boy did he deliver. there were like 25 tacos in all with tons of salsas. mmmmm were they tasty!!!! the ladies at the school attached a note - "Thanks for the inconvenience. We want you to be happy and comfortable." I'm pretty sure they meant to say "Sorry for the inconvenience" - yet another thing lost in translation.

another blog to follow with the rundown of the past few days!!!