cusco!

chao to chile

well folks, it sure has been a while. chile had lots of ups and downs, including the access of internet which made blogging a bit difficult. but to sum up the last two months, we celebrated halloween which was super fun and i got to meet some other volunteers that i become pretty fond of, i took a visit to la serena a beautiful beach town in the middle of chile and a weekend trip to a morthern beach town named iquique. both trips were really nice and it was good to be in a different setting and with different people for a while.

my last trip was my favorite! i went to san pedro de atacama and saw the most beautiful natural sights in the desert. it is a magical, mysertious place that i would love to revisit. as for school, November was a rough month for me becuase all the public schools in all of Chile were on strike, so i had no classes, which was VERY boring. as the strike was indefinite and we could have returned at any time it was not advisable to travel much so i hung out in town, getting hot cocoa and simply hanging out.... man can THAT get old!!! left my city, antofagasta on nov 25 and was in santiago for a few days, i went to a GREAT concert of manu chao and had some closing ceremonies, basically just ran around the city trying to wrap up the whole experience. which brings me to cusco

beinvenida a peru!
so i arrived in cusco on the 28th at like 4pm and my host dad came to pick me up. the fam is really nice, they all work in tourism so they can give me a heads up on the good deals and what to watch out for. the house is really comfortable, it has 3 stories with 5 bedrooms and a bathroom on each floor. the fam speaks english and one of the sisters speaks italian, but they all talk to me in spanish which is good. they are very interesting and also interested in others. they give me info but also give me space which is something i SO needed after chile and living with like 17 people who are CONSTANTLY calling you for something.

the city is gorgeous! and i feel so lucky to be here for an entire month!!! i went yesterday to the centro and drank tea on a balcony that overlooked this plaza just watching the people walk along and enjoying a most delicious breakfast... mmmm it was tasty.

the colors are vibrant and the architecture is impressive, at times imposing on the cozy city below. either way, i love it. today i will have an orientation to cusco and the program and then a tour of the city and tomorrow i will begin attending my volunteer position which is a home for young girls about 25 minutes from where i am living. i will take a bus (that costs 5 cents) to get there and be with the girls from 8 until 12 everyday.

the program also offers us interesting outings weekly and salsa lessons, which should be really fun. additionally, an 18 years old from Belgium lives in the same house as me and he is pretty cool. i have to say i feel really at ease and welcomed here and i just know this month is going to FLY by, so i am trying to take in as much as possible as fast as possible!

pictures to come! no internet at the house so i have to rely on outside connections and carrying the camera everywhere is not always the safest option. but stay tuned and i will share some of the beauty that cusco has to offer with you all!!!!

CHAO for now!

escuela #90

well i finally have had time to get some great photos of my students, school, and different activities.  i can't say it's been easy - i bring my camera EVERY single day to school but somehow between teaching, trying to remember 250 kids' names, getting to know my colleagues, and getting my materials ready for the next class i forget, go figure... this is a pic of my students who participated in a "cueca" competition.  the national dance of chile

anyhow the point is i finally have things to show you about my teaching experience :) last week i taught all my students the song "hello, goodbye" by the beatles (i can't say it was my clever idea, but i can say i was clever enough to steal the idea and use it as a teaching tool!)  i taught a lesson on different ways of opening and closing a conversation and that segued into the song. we learned motions to go with the music and it ended up being really fun.  although a negative by product of teaching a song 6 classes everyday for an entire week is that my voice is shot :( i attached a video for your viewing pleasure of 8th grade singing in a competition we had.

as for school i am teaching 4 grade levels - 5th and 6th grade one time each week for 45 minutes a piece and then 7th and 8th grade for 2 45 minute classes a piece.  i can't say it's easy and of course, nothing worth doing ever is - but i really did not anticipate so many discipline problems with my students.  i kinda thought they would be so excited about english and having a special class they would behave.  of course they are not all poorly behaved but in the classes where there are 5 students that disrupt and interrupt it is impossible for anyone to learn.  some days i wonder why the government spends so much money trying to bring english to schools that are lacking such fundamental things like a loudspeaker.... i know, i know - it's not supposed to be the same and i don't like complaining, but i don't wanna be dishonest in my account either.

last week was a great week of classes, everyone behaved beyond belief and participated because they were motivated and enticed by the song.  but we can't do a song EVERY class, besides there aren't songs to teach every skill.  believe me i have tried.  i have to say though, they do love the days of the week and months of the year song as they are set to the adamm's family and

 macarena themes, respectively.  i try to sing at least one song with them a day and they are totally appreciative of it.  and it makes me glad to see they are learning through music. speaking of music, this is the band - all of them are my students.... if only i could get them to be so disciplined in my class - i KNOW it has to do with the music!!!

since i dont have official classes on wednesdays i started an "English Club" - the 5th and 6th graders met together for an hour and then 7th and 8th graders come for the next hour.  we have been able to do fun stuff that is impossible to do in class.  we have done some arts and crafts, singing more popular songs (they LOVE michael jackson, miley cyrus, and the jonas brothers) we play simon says and have done more lengthy conversations as there are less students and they are all highly motivated.  it is a nice midweek thing to get me through because the other days of the week are long and often times frustrating.  but in the end, when students greet me and see me off at the end of the day in english i have to say it makes a difference.

 LITTLE by LITTLE... i have to keep reminding myself every step is a step closer to them learning and becoming more interested in english.  

so this week is the anniversary of my school and it is customary for the entire week to be filled with competitions of soccer, dance, performances, and general activities between each course.  as if that wasn't enough excitement independence week starts on sunday.  yes, you heard right - independence week, it lasts ALL week. everyone has been preparing to dance the national dance, la cueca, buying outfits and practicing like mad.  this entire next week is going to be spent eating, dancing, listening to music and watching games and competitions.  this is bastian (my lil bro) and ignacio (my lil cousin) at school getting ready to dance cueca.  well there you are some photos and info about my school ENJOY!!!!  

colo colo!!!

so this week has been pretty cool.  i joined a gym really close to the house so i can walk there, which is cool.  i have lots of free time, which i am not accustomed to since i usually work 2 jobs in the states and in mexico we had hours in the afternoon that we had to work also.  here i work until 1pm each day and then i am free.  clearly, as a teacher, i spent loads of time creating lessons and materials from scratch - but still i have lots of free time in the afternoons.  the gym is a good diversion and is helping me work off all that bread and meat im eating!!!

wednesday there was a soccer game, between Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile, rival teams of chile.  my brother cristian is for chile and everyone else is for colo colo.  well we went to the game, and i sat with the big crowd of colineros while cristian and marcelo (our dad) sat in the chile section.  as you may or may not be aware, the concept of time south of the border is flexible, to be kind.  when people say "now" they usually mean "anytime within these 24 hours"  and arriving to anything an hour or 2 after it was supposed to start is completely normal.  EXCEPT for a soccer game.  

the fam rocking colo colo flag!

we arrived at 6pm and the game started at 10pm.  we got there early because the stadium fills up and we wanted good seats, which we did get.  but for 2 hours we just sat in the stands.  i was definitely getting bored.  by 8pm a band "la noche" came out and sang, which was really entertaining.  and the game was originally supposed to start at 9pm.  well after the band left, they had a middle school soccer team play a mini game to keep the crowd semi interested. finally around 10pm the teams came to the field and proceeded to take millions of pictures before the game.  ugh the waiting!!!!  but once it started it was really really cool.  soccer fans are crazy! mexico doesn't compare at all in this department.  you have to enter the stadium according to your team and everyone knows and abides by this rule.  they actually block off the road so people can't go into the bleachers of the other team and there are barricades between bleachers so people can't cross once inside.  there are tons of police and tons of riot police standing by.  additionally, at the end of the game they only let out one side of fans at a time, the other side has to wait until the other side has pretty much cleared out.  sounds crazy, but seeing how passionate they are with all these restrictions makes one wonder what it would be like without them.  oh AND they dont sell alcohol at the games either, what a concept!

during the game some people from the chile bleachers hopped the fence and tore down flags from the colo colo fans.  the colo colo fans BROKE the barricades and ran to the other set of bleachers to start fighting.  it was crazy.  i was scared for a minute watching it, but we were sitting in the "neutral" section nearish the colo but far away and separated by cement walls that couldn't be broken down.  but you should see people respect the cops here without any question, another difference from mexico. 

yes that is two of the many cops on horseback monitoring the crowd.

the coolest part of the game - well actually there were 2 parts.  the beginning because when the teams come out onto the field the fans shoot fireworks and confetti like it is july 4th, you have never seen anything like it before.   this video is how the team is celebrated before they even start playing!  if celebrating your team is like our independence day, what is independence day like you ask?  well i will tell you - the entire country has off for 5 whole days to celebrate.  that will be coming in the end of september!!!

back to my story... the other cool part of the game was the very last 2 mins of the game, colo colo (my team) was losing 2-0 and they finally scored a goal in the last minute to regain some dignity.  it was the best!!!  although it sucked at first, it was totally worth the wait!

the rest of the week was normal, school and hanging with the family in the afternoon and evening.  today we went to a beach house owned by some relative.  it was gorgeous.  we stopped first at "la portada" which is this cool geological formation in the ocean that looks like a big door.  the mountains and ocean narrowed closer on the drive to the beach and it was such a magnificent view.  

my mom, pamela, bro cristian and i at the portada.

we arrived a bit later at the beach house and spent all day hanging on the deck eating and relaxing.  the house was built by my mom's uncle's father years ago.  it is 2 floors with a mini kitchen and 2 bathrooms and a few rooms with beds.  simple but all you need.  

the thing to do in towns with mountains is to write the name of the town on the side of the mtn with rocks and the name of this particular beach is "juan lopez".  my mom's uncle and his family were the first to write the town's name on the mtn way back when.  more recently my brothers, cousins, and sister rewrote it with bigger, brighter rocks.

moutain with juan lopez written on it

the kids took me for a walk around the beach and to the other side of this mini mountain.  the ocean was calm and the weather was perfect, windy but brisk.  we walked to the top of the mini mountain and saw up close and personal the "juan lopez" they wrote.  

aaron and i at the top of previously shown mini mountain.

all in all it was a very relaxing day with a more than impressive view of the ocean and desert.  

rep argentina se llama

well well well ~ so i am finally settled in with my host family. they are absolutely wonderful, i have a mom, dad, 16 year old sister, 14 year old brother, and 11 year old brother. also we live in a compound with my mom's three sisters, their families, and my mom's mother. needless to say there is always someone around. it has been super fun so far.  one of the cousin's that lives in our "compound" has been on vacation from university since i arrived so he has been showing me around and he is just a really nice guy - it's def cool to have people around the same age living in close proximity.  i got lucky with my family, they are really really great.  

they prepared a really nice room for me - i actually have internet, tv, d
vd player and a super comfy bed. it's almost nicer than home haha... i got here on tuesday evening and i confessed my dietary habit to my host parents. you see, here in chile red meat and bread are eaten ALL THE TIME. so i admitted to them, what i thought would be my worst secret first - that i don't eat much red meat... they were a lil shocked, but actually took it better than i expected.  they asked if i was a vegetarian and if i ate chicken or fish and when i said, no and yes respectively, they were fine with it.  so then i felt confident enough to say i wasn't much of a bread eater.  oh my word, you would have thought i just admitted to killing their puppy dog.  they just looked at me - and actually we weren't at the house yet, we were somewhere else, and i think the news was so difficult for my dad to understand he stopped the conversation right then and there.  his response was "ok let's not talk about this now, let's wait until we get home" hahaha they were hilarious about it.  not mad, just super super shocked, made me chuckle.

so the very next morning for breakfast was really humorous.  i was last to leave because i didn't have to be in school until 10am.  

my mom left breakfast on the table, and since i don't eat much bread - and thats the breakfast of choice in chile - she left me cereal, yogurt, an orange, a banana, juice, crackers, jelly, bu

tter, hot tea, and milk.  i took a foto of that because i'm not joking half of the table was full of food, for only ME.

of course, everything i do see

ms weird to them, and i laugh a

bout it to myself.  my sister's school is having their anniversary this week and it happens to be a art centered high school, so the entire week has been different dance performances and singing competitions and things like that.  well last night we went, the whole family, to the dance competition.  we left at 7pm and left the school around 11:45pm.  (video of my sister, jareth, to be found at bottom - she is the first girl solo in the dance show - about 3 minutes in)  anyway, my brother, cristian, goes to school in the afternoons and gets home at like 7pm so he did not go to the show with us.  when we called to say we were on our way home, he begged us to stop and get some food for him as he didnt eat anything since lunchtime.  so we stopped and bought "completos", which are huge hot dogs in a hoagie roll with tomato, onion, avocado, mayo all busting out.  so here we are at midnight buying 7 completos.  we got home and everyone was sitting around the table eating - and i thought, omg this is hilarious, this would never happen in my family at home... i had to take a picture, and the family's response "emily you are so weird" hahaha.  so all of a sudden my dad heard the tv from the bedroom

 and a famous person from our town was on the late show, so immediately everyone gets up and runs into my parents' bedroom with their ginormous hot dogs and proceeds to crowd around this tiny tv in their bedroom chomping on our completos.  at that point, i just told them i wanted a picture and had to forego the shot.  but it was a priceless moment.

as for my school, i start teaching on monday.  i will teach each class one time a week and i have 4 grade levels, so i will only have to prepare about 5 different lessons each week.  sounds easy, but it is super difficult because all of the activities are supposed to encourage speaking and as i observed in the past two days, my students either can't or are too shy to speak.  it is going to be a challenge, but i am definitely up for it.  

everyone at the school is sooooo nice and very very accommodating.  it is called "La Escuela Republica Argentina" and it is 2 minute walk from my house, really convenient.  also, my youngest brother, bastian, goes there so i have company walking to school and home everyday.  he's adorable by the way.  love that lil kid.  you all know how affectionate i am, and he starting giving me hugs and kisses the moment we met.   just adorable!!!

anyway, the school ~ when i first arrived they said there was no room for english - but the contract between the government and the school stipulates that there must be a fixed english room available.  well i asked if i could use the library as my place but there wasn't a chalkboard and it obviously is not meant to be a classroom.  they of course told me yes and were really apologetic about it.  well when i went in on thursday, my 2nd day, the director called me into his office to tell me about a possibility.  there is a new computer room for the kindergardeners, but they have class in the afternoons and i teach only in the mornings.  so he thought i could use that instead.  so in less than 24 hours i went form having no classroom and no chalkboard to having a computer room equipped with 2 humongous white boards AND a smart board!!!! im super excited to use that because i think i will be able to work with lots of different media and the kids will really enjoy that.

but you know - there is a very interesting dichotomy here.  you see, in many latin american countries toilet paper is not found in bathrooms.  you either pay for it outside or bring your own.  so imagine - my school bathrooms have no toilet paper, but they have a smart board.  i found that interesting... 

santiago to antofagasta

1. me in antofagasta (my city)

2. the andes mountains view from the bus

3. dancers that performed at a welcome lunch for us

4. group of volunteers at the "end of training party" the Ministry of Education had for us

5. my roomies and i in santiago in the capital building

yes, i made it safely to chile.  the first week was super intense, full of training and getting to know people, with a splash of seeing the capital as well.

we trained on how so many topics, ranging from teaching english to 100% beginners to what a bbq in chile really means (that you start partying at 1AM and hang until 6AM).... very interesting stuff.

as i said i met lots of cool people, of course the more interesting i found to be from england and new zealand.  we met the minister of education and had a foto with her, we also were permitted to go inside the equivalent of their "white house" in santiago.  it was pretty cool!!!!

we got in free to see an East Island exhibit in the museum and one evening i went with some girls to the top of a large hill, some might call it a mini mountain, and saw the whole city of santiago.  very impressive!  it was soooo cool because there at the top of the mountain are palm trees and you extend your view and see the andes mountains in the background - a super cool dichotomy i thought.

i packed on saturday morning to leave santiago and head for my placement city, which is called antofagastam and is the capital city in the antofagasta region.  it is a coastal city but also is the desert, look to the left and you see the ocean, look the right and you see mountains.  the geography is beautiful.  we have been staying in a hostel since sunday morning.

so the bus ride was supposed to be 18 hours, it was an overnight bus, but we had a minor problem with the bus and so it ended up being more like 21 hours.  before we left on saturday morning i actually whacked my head extremely hard on the corner of a metal closet door, which was not pleasant.  i ended up having a headache for a while and actually started getting really nauseous on the bus ride.  as it was an overnight bus the seats were very spacious and pretty comfortable, but we were seated on the top level of a double decker bus.  

i called the bus attendant over and told him i wasn't feeling well, and just started crying - thinking i was going to be sick for an 18 hour busride and with no one to comfort me.  well let me tell you - he was soooooo attentive!  he took me and my bags to the first floor, got me blankets and pillows, asked if he could give me aspirin, chatted with me.  i think i freaked him out cause i just totally started crying out of nowhere haha, but i felt really bad!!!!

anyway - i lucked out because the first floor was seats that TURN INTO BEDS!!!! oh my was i comfortable.  it was a rather nice night of sleep.  anyway since i hit my head it has been hurting me lots and i have just felt sick to my stomach and dizzy, but i can say that after a bit of a long process i did see a doctor and he says that i will be fine.  so that is good.  but it was a lil touch and go for a minute there... 

myself and a few others are still in a hostel, our families should pick us up tomorrow or wednesday and this week is just more introductions and information - but this time in our specific regions.  some of the people staying in my city are pretty cool and laid back, others are kinda partiers i think.  should be interesting to see what people think of the experience at the end.  

some people have been bothered by really simple differences between the states and chile, and im thinking - if THAT bothers you, you are in for a rude awakening!

the food isn't bad, just not many fruits or veggies, so i may have to supplement the food i am served a little.  they love their red meat and bread here, two of my least favorite foods.  well i should be at my final destination soon and then i can give more fun info :)

oh and by the way i have a cell number in case anyone is interested - texts i think work also the number is 00 56 9 8 183 8852

stay in touch :) 

feliz cumpleanos to me!!!

well if this doesnt make you smile (or get teary eyed) i dont know what will, the parentals and sister olivia video taped singing happy birthday to me with a cake and the 25 on top. you can see it on youtube, the link is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFvgJNvb7cA

its only 49 seconds, i want you to see it - i laughed and cried i was really touched. and olivia made me crack up at the end, not surprising bc she is a funny gal.

so this weekend was a fabulous fun time of celebrating my 25th birthday! friday i was invited to a student's birthday party at a pizza place, which was yummy and fun. after that a group of us went to the 'cerveceria' where they make corona and tons of other beer. it was semi interesting, but it was a free tour and a bunch of free corona (my favorite!!!) so i was happy. saturday we started out the day with going out to breakfast and then we had our volunteering at the orphanage. a few students moved from our group (5/6 year olds) so now the group we teach is smaller. it is nice because we can get to know each child better and they all get more individualized attention this way.

saturday afternoon was kind of a lazy day - i did some work and chilled, but in the evening we went ice skating! the mall that is near our house has an ice skating rink downstairs and so a group of us went because i have been wanting to go ice skating there since august. it was sooooo fun!!!! after that we had planned a theme party where you either dress "fresa" mexican for snooty and snobby or "naco" which is trailer trashy. clearly i dressed fresa, because i wanted to put on my party dress for my birthday. it was really fun and funny to see how everyone dressed. we partied into the wee hours of the night at one of the american houses. this picture is me, fresa and gen, naca (as you can tell by her big hair and loads of makeup...) it was a fun night for dress up and we had a great time :)

finally we had a nice cook out today. we went food shopping together and then all of us prepared tons of skewers and different salsas and dishes for a super tasty bbq. we made an assembly line for the skewers and just ate and ate and ate. jenna made homemade brownies for my birthday cake and we just ate outside in the beautiful weather and hung out.

it was a delightful birthday, definitely one of the best!!!

6 days til veinticinco

life just keeps going, i feel like i always talk about how hectic "it has been" ~ but in reality, it is kind of always that way....

a few of us have started walking in the evenings which is a really nice stress reliever. but gosh the past two weeks i have been in kind of a funk. just living and working with the same group of people is really difficult. its hard on all of us and its like the physical closeness of being a family, without the intimacy and unconditional love of a family... tough, but a learning experience in some way im sure...

wednesday there was a soccer game between mexico and the usa. my friend gen and i went to a bar with some friends from work, and her and i were the only girls in the one section of the bar - which was fine. no one paid us any mind (unusual bc people normally stare at the rare gringas) until AFTER the game when the usa won. we decided if we were asked we would say we were canadian that day. of course it was fine, just humorous.

so one of the other teachers here organized a volunteer mission for all of us, there is an orphanage with about 45 kids between 2 years old and 14 years old and bc there are so many of us different groups go every other weekend. my group started last weekend and we are working with the 5 and 6 year olds. obviously it's a totally different dynamic than working with my students at shcool, they have tons of different issues and circumstances and just are so emotionally deprived. there are 3 houses that hold all 45 of them so there is one "house mother" for 15 kids, which clearly is extemely understaffed. its so sad to know how some children are neglected, it reminded me a lot of my time in el salvador. even though it is sad, it is such a good feeling to be able to give them a little bit of kindness and love and time, they really responded well to us. we go back this coming weekend and im looking forward to it.

on friday we went to a really fun club called "stop" which was super fun. there was no cover charge for girls and the drinks were really cheap, at the end of the night we each paid $10 for like 5 rounds of bruskies and a bottle of tequila.... PLUS they had live music for about an hour or two and then dance music. here is the coolest part, it was an open air club so there were four walls but no roof and we were dancing under the stars it was really fun.

next week is my 25th bday!!!! the plan is to go to "stop" on friday and then one of our friends' cousins owns another really exclusive club, so he reserved us a table. im excited and i think its gonna be super fun :)

valentines day was fun - we had a little party during recess with all my 38 students, of course it was chaotic but it was really cute. they were sooooo excited we got to have a party, and i got so much candy treats from my students. it was really a nice day at school. on the actual day a bunch of us got together and just hung out playing games and having fun. i went to the doctor too yesterday morning because i have had this sinus thing for almost a month now, the air quality is just so icky, full of pollution and desert dirt so its hard to not have sinus issues. hopefully the meds start kicking in.

touring torreon

well friends this has been a pretty hectic past few weeks. after the hospital i had a lot of make up work to do and i had to meet all my student's parents for conferences. so this past week i worked all day and had to go back to school every afternoon except for friday to do my tutoring and conferences. i started getting a little head cold because the air quality here is terrible, so by friday i had nearly lost my voice from all the talking. i am much better now though, i loaded up on tea with honey and fruits and veggies to keep me healthy.

last weekend was fun, a few of us went out to chili's (yes thats right - i'll have you know i was against it but the americans here like feeling at home, i prefer eating real mexican food haha, but i went along and had a nice time). after dinner we went to karaoke, it was a nice atmosphere but SUPER smoky. honestly i dont know how anyone can sing in that much smoke. that was when i started getting sick because of all the smoke and whatnot. we heard about this really great and cheap market to get produce so we went on saturday and got tons and i mean TONS of fruits and veggies for literally $5 dollars. i was really happy about that.

i know what youre thinking... is the fruit there safe??? the answer is yes, as long as you clean the outside very well, so we got a produce spray that is %100 natural and cleans all bacteria off foods. i learned that water does not wash off salmonella (duh...) so i feel confident with this spray. so saturday i went to this bar where they played live music and aside from it being really loud it was nice. the music was totally what you would expect of mexico, accordian and tons of guitarists - all wearing jeans and cowboy hats. and my friend genevieve introduced me to a new friend who is super fun.

jenna and i went food shopping and realized when we were going to pay for our groceries that she left her wallet in the taxi. clearly we had no way of contacting the taxi driver thusly no way of retreiving her wallet. i tried my best to keep her calm and advise on what she needed to do (cancel her cards, call the bank, etc...) just as she is freezing her bank accounts in the states our doorbell rings. who could it be you ask, none other than the taxi driver with her wallet. we were dumbfounded and SOOO grateful. she gave him 100 pesos and a million thanks and went back to the phone to UNfreeze her recently frozen accounts. it was an interesting day!

this weekend we had a 3 day weekend, so were are off today (monday). instead of traveling somewhere jenna and i decided to stay back and take in some of torreon. friday directly after school i went to a student's house and ate lunch with them at 3pm and met her grandparents who came in for the weekend. i stayed talking with the family and had dinner with them around 8ish and stayed until 9:30pm. i was TIRED!!!! from a long week of working all day and all night and then from having no free time to unwind on friday after school. it was really fun though, the mom is SOOO nice and so is the rest of the family.

so saturday we went to a student's birthday party at the movie theater. it was fun some of my students were there and jenna's students were there. the theatre closed off on entire 3D theatre for the party and we watched Bolt in 3D. we had hot dogs, popcorn, and cake. it was delicious!!! after the party we chilled a bit then went for a nice dinner and split a meal bc we were still so full from the movies. we met up with some friends at this fabulous club called LOVE and had soooo much fun. we left at 1am (which is REALLY early in mexico) because we had such a long day.

sunday was fun. torreon has the second largest cristo in the world so we went to the mountain top to see it and we went to mass at the church on the mountain, which was very interesting. i really liked the father's sermon. they had a cat that must live there who was wandering around the church during the mass, lounging on the kneel posts, walking across the altar. it made me smile. after the cristo we went to a few towers in torreon (bc torreon means tower the town is full of them). we got a taxi and had him stop and park and asked if he could take pictures of us. it made me laugh the pictures he took, because if we were standing in front of the tower he got us and literally 1/4 of the tower, which is the whole reason for the picture.

anyway he took us around and then we ended up shopping. i got a super cute dress and 3 pair of underwear for less than $25... i was happy about that :) we met up for dinner with lily a new mexican friend and had a nice authentic meal. we had a very full day. we were pooped...

today was much more calm, i tutored in the morning for a bit. i booked a trip with my best friend for the first week of july, we decided on going to mexico city for 4 days then to acapulco for 3. and i also booked my flight to come back to philly. dont get too excited though, im only staying for a few weeks to visit. we shopped at the market and i spent like $2 on all my fresh produce for the week and then we had delicious shrimp tacos for dinner. i have a bit of school work to catch up on and im chilling out the rest of the night to wind down from such a whirlwind of a weekend. but it was certainly worth being tired over.

finally, i made a decision for the second half of this year. i am going to volunteer in chile from july to november and then in peru for the month of december. so i will return for a bit in july 2009 and then i wont be back until 2010. who knows where i will end up after that, but im thinking somewhere in the southwest of the US. that is still up in the air. once i get more information about chile and peru i will let you all know.

back by popular demand....

hey ya'll - well break was nice, but i am glad to be back here too. the way back to torreon was a long one, but i didn't mind.

i took a plane from philly to atlanta and literally had to RUN to my next flight which was across the friggin airport. that went to san antonio. from san antonio airport i took a taxi to the greyhound station and then hopped a bus to laredo, texas. by this time it was like 3am.... i was sleepy, but i was ok with it. when i flew home from mexico to philly i was really weirded out by the fact that i could be in two such drastically different places in such a short amount of time. i enjoyde the scenic route back. from laredo it was about 12 hours more on a bus. i can't imagine anyone that would ever be a good travel companion for that long of a ride, needless to say i was glad to be by myself. it didn't hurt that i was sitting next to a super cute lawyer that talked to me the entire time.

so i left philly around 5pm on monday and arrived to torreon by 2pm the next day. since then we have been doing nothing but catching up and getting ready for parent teacher conferences.

well that was last week, but this monday i woke up for school extremely itchy... by tuesday my whole body had broken out in a red rash. i clearly decided i could not go to school and was seen by a doctor. he gave me some allegry meds and was done with it. unfortunately, it was not an allergy to anything, it was my body telling me i had food poisoinung (salmonella) and a parasite.... yuck, i know... needless to sya the rash came back as it was not allergies and i insisted that i go to the hospital on wednesday morning.

so there i have been, in the hospital around the corner from my house, spending my days until saturday around 2pm. i cam home yesterday, but im still obivously not 100%.... the hospital care was phenomenal and the doctors and nurses were super nice and attentive which was comforting.

so i contacted my parents and the only thing that was really getting me through my first time hospital stay was thinking of my sis livi, cause she has been in and out so much of the hospital. she was keeping me strong. of course when i tell her on the phone she is my inspiration and i know i will be ok bc she always is, she responds "yea, but my first hospital stay wasn't alone and half way around the world..." haha, so much for the compliment.... it made me laugh :) anywho, thats what ive been up to down here.

great seeing everyone on break, i'll let you know what my plans are for after june as soon as i figure it out myself!!!! big plans for the next half of this year to come soon :)

what happens in torreon...

well its been a while... i won't bore you with ALL the details, but here's a few... we had a halloween party at one of the american houses and it was super fun. i dressed up as a gypsy and a bunch of the other teachers chose mexican beers and made that their costume. for instance one girl was "modelo" so she dressed up as a model and another was "corona" so she dressed up as a queen bc corona means crown... it was funny, we had a good time. mexicans celebrate the day of the dead on nov 1 and 2, so in school on halloween we had a presentation about the day of the dead which was soooooo incredible!!! the kids were amazing, im so sad i didn't bring my camera, i didnt even think of it - i got to see the altars and the presentation, i just wish i had photos to share with you all because it is really a beautiful celebration of life. it was a very enjoyable day at school.

that was a big weekend, because the next day a huge group of us were invited to a family party at one of my student's houses.

we had such a good time. the food was amazing, of course... and when in a mexican household you eat and eat and eat until you can't eat anymore, and then you put on a smile and eat some more... we had sooo much food. but luckily, they are also super active, so in the span of like four hours we played volleyball, kick ball, musical chairs, had potatoe sack races, jumped on the trampoline, and even had low impact swinging as an activity. we were WIPED OUT by the end of the night. but it sure was fun.

sunday we needed to veg out, so me and the roomies watched the entire first season of 'entourage' haha... don't get too freaked out, it was only 8 30minute episodes, so we weren't tooooo too lazy... that night we had tickets to see juanes, who is quite possibly the sexiest latin singer to walk the face of this earth... this is the second time i saw him and i got a shirt and a jacket, because i love his music and him too... the concert rocked the friggin house, and funnily enough one of my student's moms sat behind us. you never can go anywhere without seeing colgeio ingles family. its kinda nice that it seems like a small town in that way sometimes... it makes you feel a part of the community :)

the week after halloween i was kinda lazy because somehow i really hurt my shoulder. so i had a kind of chill week, both the people i tutor were on vacation of sorts, so i had those nights to myself and i skipped out on the gym so as not to further injure my arm. monday i tutored for an hour and then had the rest of the week off from that. tuesday i was invited to one of my student's houses to eat after school. the mom picked me up from school with her daughter at 2:30 and we ate and talked and hung out forEVER.... her husband is a doctor (and she is too, but she just had a baby so she is home right now). so we chilled at the house talking and talking. i held the baby, which was so nice. i love babies and it was really cool to have a conversation with her because first of all it was all in spanish, and second of all it was so far removed from the same ole stuff. i like the americans here of course, but we live together and work together and sometimes its nice to get away from that for a bit.

i was actually at the house on the night of our elections, and i must say i was soooo glad to be there because it distracted my mind for the hours before the election was called. the mom was so nice, she told me about a million times that their house was mine also and if i ever wanted to stay over they had an extra room, and if i ever needed family time to please call. and she was just so sincere and generous, i was overwhelmed. it was awesome... after she dropped me off at 9pm (haha) i went straight to the election gathering we were having...

we don't get american news here, obviously - and neither can we watch much online becuase our IP address is in mexico and a lot of things from the states are only for national use. long story short, we were listening to cnn radio, all huddled around as if it were 1940. it was 9ish and the count was like 207 to 125 or something and all of a sudden, the radio says "this is unbelievable - radio goes out... - 'just won oregon, washington.... - radio goes out - 'is the new president of the united states...." so there was like a minute we're all sitting around like "what?!? who?!?" until it finally came on the radio again clear as day "obama has 297 electoral votes and is the next president of the united states" and i was soooo shocked. i was stunned, because i couldn't believe we knew the race so early AND because i couldn't believe the guy i wanted was elected.... i was waiting for them to be like "oops we made a mistake" but thankfully that was not the case... luckily we were able to get his victory speech live online and so we all watched it with bated breath.... clearly i cried. i was so happy, i couldn't hold it in... YAY!

anywho... after that was a normal rest of the week, i kind of lazied around nursing my shoulder back to health and recouping myself from a long and fun weekend.

friday the directors of our school organized a tour of torreon and so we left around 3 and went to eat, stopped at a bunch of cool places in the city and got acclamated to our surroundings and finally got home around 6:30. jenna had been invite to a birthday party of her one student, so we went to that which was nice. we got there around 7 (which was when the party was supposed to end - but in mexico nothing ever starts or ends on time) so we ended up playing a ton of games with the girls. another active party full of kick ball, trampoline, red rover (which we taught them), and plenty of fun mexican hand games. jenna and i came home and decided to go to karaoke. we got dolled up and made our merry way to a place jenna had been to once and didn't remember how to get there. haha, 4 U-turns and 70 pesos later we arrived at our destination. we tried to get some songs for ourselves to sing, but alas we were last in line. we watched others sing and pretty much everyone joins in so we did as well, but after a while we got so sleepy from such a LONG day we headed home for beddy bye.

saturday we were invited to a student's ranch house - which is the equivalent to a mountain house or beach house by us. so we drove about an hour away from the city and got to this HUGE ranch in the middle of the desert. they had tons of goats, some that were literally born a few hours before we got there and were tenny weeny. we saw them getting milked, playing, and some of the kids and teachers got in and even held the babies and fed them with bottles (which i found a bit weird, since their mothers were right there...) they had tons of property and 3 4-wheelers, so we went on a ride through the desert, jenna driving and scaring the hell out of me awhile i held on for dear life. we came back and were fed an insane meal of ribs, quesdillas, and veggies, and stuffed with tons of halloween candy for dessert. of course our drinks were always kept filled to the brim. tequila is like water - its pretty much runs from the tap in mexico, so they didn't have any problem keeping our thirst quenched... we climbed the huge mounds of hay and sat at the top for a while looking out at the sunset and the dessert and the goats and their ranch house. it was pretty sweet.

after a while the family decided to take us to their cotton ranch because the goat ranch was really the grandmom's house. so jenna and krista volunteered to drive over 2 4-wheelers while we drove in the truck on the rode. clearly they had no idea where they were going and needless to say, in the dark dessert, without cell phones they got lost. before we realized they were lost we took a tour of the cooton ranch. we saw the humongous cotton gin and all the bails of cotton, we saw all their millions of animals, horses, birds, turkeys, random things. we saw the 'playhouse' which was - no exaggeration - a mini brick house (probably nicer than the 3rd little piggy himself could have made), equipped with a kitchen, bedroom, and living furniture, as well as a cement porch and lawn furniture. it was a sweet little set up, i loved it and i'm an adult, i can't imagine how much fun the kids have with it...

anyway, finally we realized jenna and krista should have arrived by now and i starting getting super nervous knowing they were out without jackets, cell phones, passports, lights even... the dad decided to go look for them and after he hadn't been back for a while the two mothers took their truck and were headed to the police station. en route to the police station, the moms came upon a firetruck, who lo and behold, were giving jenna and krista a lift to the ranch. poor jenna, she was so freaked out i gave her the biggest hug and tried to calm her down. immediately after they got in the mom ran to the kitchen and promptly returned with a shot of tequila. we all decided to have one - and that was how the night ended. on the ride home i got to talking with the one friend of the family who was driving us home, and it turns out he is the uncle of one of my students. and one of my students who i have an extra soft spot for in my heart, so we laughed all the way home talking about how adorable he is and singing along to my favorite, juanes....

sunday we chilled, went out to eat, walked around the mall for a while and saw a richard gere movie. man, he will never go out of style, god he is good looking. the movie was good, a tear jerker - but good.

this week was also pretty low key, i focused a lot on school and had a really good week with my students. we had the book fair at school and so i bought a few fairy tale classics for the classroom that are in english and spanish. i love reading to the class, because sometimes they learn a new phrase or are able to link something else they know to the story and it makes me so happy!!! they are coming along so quickly, they are really a great bunch of kids. it is really cool to see how much they like books though, because once i explained to them they were allowed to look at books during class, so many of them wanted to finish their work so they could choose a book. ohit made me happy - i love to see kids liking to read, especially loving it so much they don't care if it it is their native language or not.

wednesday night is 'ladies night' at this one bar in town, so a group of us went - and i cannot believe this, but i went out completely for free on wednesday. i met a bunch of friends of this one teacher who works with us and we had such fun dancing and singing and talking. me and 2 of the other girls were pulled on the conga line and ran through the entire bar, what a workout!!! especially in boots, don't wanna do that again, but at the time it was fun haha... as i was leaving, a parent flagged me down - happy to see i was enjoying myself outside of school and gave me a hug and kiss, she left me with "i'll see you tomorrow morning" i smiled and we left...

well that brings us to today, at school i was greeted by another teacher informing me one of my students locked another student in a 18inch cube locker... needless to say i had a serious talk with them about the dangers of such acitivities and the principal also spoke with all of first grade before calss started. after that, we had a really nice day :) a few of us got pedicures today as a little treat to ourselves and tomorrow morning we are off to zacatecas, a little historical town a few hours away. we have off on monday for 'revolution day' so we are taking advantage of the long weekend to see another part of mexico. well, next blog shan't be so long - i will try and stay more on top of it from now on!!!

hugs and kisses to all :)

the divine secrets of torreon (and gomez)...

so last thursday, which happens to be "lucha libre" night - a few of us went to a lucha show. it's basically wrestling/theatrics with people wearing masks. the point of it is to be entertaining and boy was it ever.... we laughed so hard at the ridiculousness of the first few acts, they don't throw punches, they slap each other... breanna and i were shocked to silence that the entire crowd cheered when one guy SLAPPED another... and then we laughed! it was pretty interesting and fun. one of the american teachers here has a car he drove from arizona where he lives and so he drove us all to the lucha. i thought hecklers in philly were bad, but man they got nothing on the people in gomez. a lot of the time i couldn't understand the slang spanish that was being shouted form drunken audience members, but that which i did get was HILARIOUS!!! almost funnier than the pathetic show they pawned off as wrestling. needless to say it was interesting.

friday i was invited to dine with a student and hiw parents. i wa snervous at first, because the dad is much older and works at the school and rarely talks to me so i wasn't sure what to think. but they picked me up and took me to this tasty restaurant and we had tacos and drinks. obviously there are cultural differences in mexico versus the states that make this situation not at all awkward (having dinner and drinks with the family of your student)... we stayed out pretty late, i actually didn't get home until past midnight. and they invited me to their house for tequila anytime i wanted haha... what a stark difference from the US...

saturday was a chill day - i got a really tasty "lonche" which is simply a huge sandwich with tons and tons of toppings on it.... and that was so yummy i had to mention it here. saturday was blah, we ate at a restaurant by the house late in the evening and then chilled at the house.

sunday was cool though, first we went to "el bosque" which is a park in torreon. they have tons of food and vendors there and a little stageesque area. we went to watch one of the students from our school perform in an orchetrsa. it was soooo good, i was really impressed by the talent and obvious dedication of these middle-schoolers. they played really good music too, it reminded me of this bar by jason where they play big band stuff, because they playe dsome sweet tunes and the different sections would stand up during their "solo" it was cool, i enjoyed myself. this park also has carnival rides, so we took a spin on the tilt a whirl for 70 cents. we were literally riding it for like 3 minutes if not longer. we could NOT stop laughing. we definitely got our money's worth.

later in the day some teachers were invited to a "reliquia" which is an aztec/catholic fusion ritual unique to my town torreon. about 20 people dress in aztec clothing and do all these different dances as an offering or sacrafice to the saints. the music is only 3 drums made out of trashcans and the small dried out squash with seeds inside that the dancers wear on their feet. they danced for like an hour in the middle of the street in the swetlering sun, it was crazy. one dance in particular calls for them to stomp out fire on the street with their bare feet. boy was that a sight to see. so after the dance the family (whoever puts it together) has a huge meal for everyone that comes. the tradition is they are not to turn anyone away and are supposed to invite people even walking by on the street. i went along with 2 teachers that were invited as they extended the invitation to any american teachers and i'm so glad i went. the family could not have been more hospitable or generous. they talked to us and explained the whole tradition to us and everyone came over to introduce themselves and say how happy they were that we could come join in their celebration. they told us to eat as much food as we wanted and to stay as long as we wanted. we sat with the student from our school and talked to him for a while. it was just so beautiful. the family had rented out an entire restaurant to hold their entire extended family and they hired musicians to play and had waiters to serve the food. it was very impressive. while we were eating the family kept coming over and asking us if they could get us anything and even the student, harrison is his name, served us 3 types of cake. we finally had to tell him we were too full to try another piece. but it sure was tasty!!!! as we went to leave, the family insisted they drive us home instead of us taking a taxi, so we even got to drive in style. it was really really cool. i was so happy to go and take part in such a unique tradition that i otherwise would never have known about.

this week at school has been pretty good. i feel like everyday i am able to be more and more of myself with my students because now they know what i expect and i don't constantly have to model the little things, i can actually trust them to do it on their own - so i can tell them jokes and talk to them about things that are non school related too. i like it, i feel like i am making connections with my students now. i have been to a few soccer games and practices and so i have talked with some parents and done things like that, which also makes me feel more connected to them.

this weekend is a big weekend!!! there is a halloween party at one of the american houses on friday, so everyone is dressing up - which should be fun. then saturday a group of us were invited to a picnic that a few families plan together a few times a year - so i am going to that. saturday night i may or may not go to a halloween party at the first grade spanish teacher's house. it depends if someone else can come with me - i know her, but i don't know any of her friends, so i might prefer some back up haha... we'll see. anyway then sunday we are going to a JUANES concert, who is my ultimate favorite latin singer. i saw him in costa rica and it was one of the best concerts ever so i am super excited. after that election day... which makes me a tad nervous, but i suppose what will be will be.... anyway love to all - GO PHILLIES (so sad im missing it - but you know how it goes....) and happy halloween!!!

busy busy bee

so it has been a very busy past week. i started going to the gym on more of a regular basis, which will hopefully be tuesday, thursday, and fridays. the aerobics instructor is HARDCORE!!!! we do so many repetitions of everything... we are all sore all the time, but i think it will ease up in a bit. anyway i like destressing by going to the gym, i have been a lot more at peace i think with school and life in general lately.

wednesday i tutored and practiced spanish with one of the ladies from school. it makes me so happy when i speak spanish because i feel like i get a teeny bit better every time and i am just so shocked when i can have lenghty conversations about things and be understood. it is really cool speaking in a different language. i think i appreciate it more and more as i get older.... anyway thursday rained A LOT!!! so we kind of stayed in and i had some schoolwork to do.

friday was a gym day, so we did aerobics then i cooked dinner for the house and we all kinda chilled and i did some more schoolwork. next week we have exams for the end of the 2nd marking period, so we each had to make 4 exams and study guides for our classes. it has been a lot of work...

saturday was alllllll about exploring and getting things done. i got up early and had gottten info about a hair salon from a student's mother. i took a walk there and got a much needed haircut and color which made me feel like a million bucks. as is the custom in mexico, men always honk and whistle and yell out the car window when americans walk down the street. well this particular morning i was walking by the unviersity just as a sports bus pulled in with the team on it. not only did i get whistles and yells, but it was multiplied by a whole soccer team.... at first i trid to ignore it, but alas i succumbed and smiled and waved, because truthfully they were complimenting me, why not show some appreciation??? it made me laugh.

when i got home we all had made plans to go to a mall that apparently has really good shopping. so we headed in taxi to Galerias, the mall. we spent a while there, we snacked and got some specialty candy - which was fun. sidenote about candy in mexico, well torreon - it is mostly dried fruit and it is ALL covered in chile powder, yes folks, that means lollipops and candy apples dipped in chile powder.... so i was happy to find a candy store that sold americanesque candies.

i found a really cute maxi dress and got that and was on a mission to find comfortable work shoes. when i had no luck at the mall erin and i decided to hit up the center of town where there are tons of stores and street vendors. we found some pretty adorable things and clothes and after much trouble i finally found the right shoe. interesting how the shoe stores work. shoes are on display in a locked window case with numbers and the price of the shoe on a label. you tell the employee which number shoe you want and what size (i wear a size 25 in case you were wondering) and they get you the right shoe only to try on.

well i tried on many shoes and finally settled on 2 pair of nicer sandals for work. but the one shoe was a tad large in size 25 so i settled for a 24 (size 7). they bring out the left shoe and put it in the box and you pay for it. no trying on of the left shoe necessary... when i got home, i realized the right shoe fit perfectly fine, while the left shoe was a bit snug - because no one has EVER tried on the left shoe and the right shoe is pretty well stretched out... alas, what could i do? the left shoe fit, just not 100% comfortably - so i wore them one day and i will wear them another in hopes that the left shoe somehow manages to catch up to the wide width of the right shoe... all for a pair of shoes!!! oh mexico.

well our day did not end there, we wandered around the centro for a while, walked through parks where people were slow dancing to live music and vendors were selling water ice and drinks and elote. we indulged in some horchata, a delicious drink made of rice and water and had some elote, which is corn OFF the cob with cheese, butter, mayo, chile powder, and lime all mixed in. sounds interesting, but it is tasty - anything with that many calories has to be good is what i say. good thing im heading to the gym 3 days a week!!!

we continued walking and happened upon a catholic church. we went inside to take a look and noticed a wedding going on, we stayed for a bit and observed the ceremony in spanish and the wedding dress, which was ornate and large.... we even stood in witness to the marriage along with the rest of the guests. it was pretty cool. we found an underground canal, called la perla that was used way back when for something or other haha.... either way it is now open to the public during the day and is sort of like a museum. it was a nice and cool down there - a little relief from the sun.

we headed back to the house a little after that and i had to get to school to watch my students play a soccer game. the Copa Libertad, (Freedom Cup) went on until sunday so i went to watch a game of theirs. all the families were there and i ended up talking for a while to the director of the school and to the mothers of some of my students. all in spanish of course which made me happy and i think them too :) my students won the game and again i was pulled onto the field to sing their congratulatory song and make a london bridge with our hands. it was nice to feel included. i enjoyed myself.

when i got home a few of us went out to a chinese restaurant for dinner. it was tasty and rather empty so we got impeccable service. there were a few things missing from the menu that we wanted to ask about, but how do you translate chinese to spanish??? lucky for us we had charlie, who speaks cantonese. he explained the dished we were wondering about and we got some special dishes made. here we were in mexico, listening to 3 guys speak cantonese. it was pretty cool and i think it made charlie feel good, because he doesn't speak much spanish so he was able to communicate with someone other than us for once. it was nice. the food was tasty and the leftovers lasted a couple days which was also good.

after dinner we walked around the park a bit then headed home. i tell you saturday was quite a busy day, i was up at 8am and went to bed around 1am, but you know i had a full and satisfying day. i liked it.

sunday was a day of rest. i relaxed a while, did some grading that i had been puttting off and rested my aching legs from aerobics. monday was long as usual with a nice school day and fulfilling tutoring session and tuesday was also busy.

i had a good past 2 days at school, i feel like i am able to be more pleasant now that the kids know my rules and routines and i can be more of my happy go lucky self. they responded well the past few days to me too so i was pleased. i needed a nap after school today because boy have i been busy and monday was LOONNGG!!! so i napped and then had a date with a spanish teacher at school to practice my spanish and her english. did that for a while and had a really good conversation and then i went to aerobics.

i must say, it is nice to have a full schedule again. i can't stand sitting around with nothing to do and so even though i am more tired these days, i can say i'm not restless. it's a good feeling.

as for living with people, it is hard haha.... the grass is always greener i suppose. i used to always say how i wish i had a roommate at home, but now i see the pros and cons of both situations. i love my roomies, don't get me wrong - it's just living alone definitely has its perks.

well i will leave it at that, if anyone even read this far haha. love you and miss you hasta luego

football is freedom...

so this week has been really good. on friday i went to one of the american houses and we hung out - which was fun. saturday i was super sick (which may or may not have been related to my friday evening activities...) but i kind of chilled all day nursing myself back to health. at night we went out to dinner and then we saw mamma mia... SO MUCH FUN!!! i love musicals and meryl streep - so you couldn't go wrong!

sunday was nice and very relaxing. i went to the supermarket solita and got tons of fresh fruit!!! yum. so the meals in mexico are as follows breakfast, snack around 11, lunch around 3, snack/dinner around 9... at school we only get like 20-30 minutes to eat and it was so rushed the first month and a half i decided to just take a small snack like the mexicans do it. i was eating a big meal after school anyway, so i figured that could take place of my lunch/dinner. so i have adapted my eating habits to the way of the land - i eat a small breakfast and a snack of fruit at 11, then i have a big meal at 3pm after school and usually later in the evening i have a small snack. i hope it does my body good!!!! i even found soymilk and some organic things in the supermarket - which was better than finding pure gold haha!!! i was happy about that.

anywho - after food shopping on sunday erin and i caught a taxi and cabbed it to this park called el bosque. it was so nice, there were tons of vendors and food stands. we got our favorite drink, horchata - its sooo tasty and delicious. we treated ourselves and just sat and talked in the park for a few hours. the time really flew by.

monday was hectic as usual with school tutoring and then private tutoring but i like to be busy so i didn't mind. juan, the driver was like 20 minutes late to pick me up and i had just gotten off the phone with my mom, so i was a bit sad trying to hold back the tears. thinking of how everyone is seeing each other this weekend and how jason and kim were at my parents and how i haven't talked to them in a while and blah blah blah. well anyway in an attempt to conceal my sadness i overcompensated and i guess seemed really angry. so he asked me point blank "estas enojada conmigo" are you mad (for the lateness factor) and i was like 'no' and i tried ot leave it at that, but he kept asking me... so i had to let him in on the fact that i was saddish and missed the family and i almost started crying right then and there - but he realized it and let up. it was kind of nice though, to not be let off the hook. normally in the states people just ask, how are you and you say fine regardless of how you really are feeling. i liked that he was not overbearing but sincerely interested. i felt better after i told him how i really felt.

tuesday i came home and watched a movie called Bella. it is an independent film that i really enjoyed. i reccommend it to anyone interested in movies that are off the beaten path so to speak. and it was set in nyc and nj so it made me happy to see some east coast!

after the movie i went to the gym to do killer aerobics with erin and a few others. it was intense, but fun. it was nice to be out of the house on a weekday... imagine that!!!

so i had started last week helping one of the administrators with her english conversation and she paid me. i got to thinking and i asked her if instead of paying me she could do an hour of spanish for an hour of english, so i went to her house on wendnesday after i relaxed for a bit and we spoke in english and then spanish. it made me so happy, i felt like it was the first time i actually had a conversation in spanish here. i am trying so hard to plant the seeds of friendships and just relationships in general with mexicans, but it takes time.... so i was really happy.

juan, the driver for the family i tutor for picked me up from the admin's house (isabel). he speaks only spanish so that is another nice way to practice. i had a good lesson with mauricio and man is he smart - it is so refreshing!!!! i like it a lot. and well the parents are never home, but their maid is so nice and the boys are really polite and sweet. also i speak spanish with juan which is cool - i may have invited myself over to his house haha. i told him i wanted to meet his wife and kids and he said definitely, and i tried to explain how i didn't want to force him into hanging out with me but i think that message may have gotten a bit muddled. he understood all the same.

so there is a soccer tournament at school this week, la copa libertad, the cup of freedom - because clearly football = freedom... no but it was really fun. my students are in a few games so i took my classes to see them play and it is actually really exciting. when i went to my spanish class tonight i walked by the game with a bunch of my students playing just as they were winning the game. at the end the families of the winning team do a bridge with their hands and cheer "ole, ole, ole, ole, ingles, ingles' (that's the name of our school/team) so the parents saw me and asked me to some on the field to make the bridge for my students. they were shocked to see me there!!! i hope they were pleasantly surprised haha, i thought it was really cool.

lastly, i have made friends (at work anyway) with the 1st grade spanish teacher and she doesn't speak any english. we're going to try to get together to have a lil' intercambio of english/spanish and she is in her 20s so she said she would invite me out with her and her friends when they hang so i can meet more mexicans and see torreon. i also talked with the computer teacher today, it was funny - i was commenting on how hansome the soccer coaches are and it brought us to the boyfriend question. i didn't think she had a boyfriend for some reason, come to find out she is married - she just doesn't wear her ring to school because the girls NEVER stopped bothering her about it when she first started. so that was surprising, but she too invited me to hang out with her and friends. i was really hapy about that.

all in all it was a pretty busy week. tutoring, the gym, and spanish class kept me busy and i hope this weekend brings more activities :)

a wee bit

well today we had a science lab - my students are learning the parts of the plant and so i took them to the science lab and they looked at different potted plants and took them out of the soil to see the roots and they were amazed!!!

but it brought up a really unforeseen moment of weakness. i guess it was just the feeling of the dirt in my hands, the smell of flowers and dirt, and the sight of the pretty potted plants - but it reminded me so much of the mini garden i planted at my apartment in jersey and then of the garden jason and i planted together in philly. i was literally blindsided by homesickness.... i nearly started crying right there in the middle of class, i had to start talking to a student and get a quick hug to bring myself back. i knew if i kept thinking about it there would be no stopping the tears....

i don't know where it came from. i mean of course i miss everyone. i wish i could say i was having so much fun and made so many friends i was too distracted to notice, but it's simply not true. i suppose i do have fun and i have made friends, it's just very different than costa rica in the sense that we were always out doing something, speaking spanish, and meeting people. i don't know - this is not like that. i'm trying really hard though... anyway ugh, i feel like all i ever do is whine on my blog - has it become irritating yet???

what you see when you look up

so things have been going pretty well this week - not sick thats good!!!

i got paid for a bunch of tutoring hours, so i feel like i have some cash and can save a little more of my actual paycheck. one of the administrator's at the school asked if i would come to her house to give her an hour of english conversation lessons - so i did that wednesday and asked the other people i tutor for if they could pick me up at her house instead. she lives in the same development as them, so i think it was more convenient.

but it was really cool going to her house because, first of all it is absolutely gorgeous. i mean nicer than homes i have seen in the states. she lives in a sort of complex with her house connected to her parents house and her sister's house as well. it was so beautiful. they have a pool and a jacuzzi... pretty sweet. enormous and extravagant rooms filled with art and furniture. really nice.

so i tutored isabel for an hour - we just talked politics. i had the stevie song prepared for her as well, but she kinda pushed that aside and had a bunch of questions she wanted to ask me... i was happy with that, cause i love talking about obama :) then i went to tutor mauricio. he is 12, so i started by finding out if there was a girl he like. of course there was. he would NOT tell me her name, but he described her to me which i thought was a very good exercise. then we read an article about gas shortages after the hurricanes in the southeast. he is so smart, i love it. i mean i can literally see when he has a moment of learning, it's so refreshing and honestly rewarding.

and their driver juan is really really nice. he only speaks spanish, so i get to practice speaking with him and he gives me good tips about torreon and the surrounding cities and things.

today we had our spanish class, which was fun. but also ugh. it is an hour class and there are 11 people in it, so i don't like that. i mean i like everyone in the class, i just wish it was either longer or there was another section of the class so we could split up. i just feel like its too many people who want and need to practice speaking with too little of a timeframe to do it.

also we had a faculty meeting on wednesday and sometime last week i had talked to the principal about how it's really hard to meet new people, when the school is constantly cautioning us of all the dangers in torreon (newly arriving with the drugs moving closer to here) and that we shouldn't go to "unsafe" places. but truthfully, we have no idea what is or isn't safe or where to go to meet reputible people. i asked if she could arrange some sort of tour of the city so we could become more aquainted with it and if they could facilitate in us meeting more mexicans.

SO at the meeting, the administrators came up with 2 things. they are setting up a program where they ask families of colegio ingles to invite a teacher or two to dinner at their house. this way we can interact with more of a family and with authentic mexcian culture. i was super happy about that. AND they are doing a bus tour and dinner 2 or 3 fridays from this week. i am super excited about that. i thanked them soooo much today, because i honestly feel like everything i ask of them they try to do their absolute best to acommodate me. i asked for tutoring and got it, i asked for tour of torreon and we're getting it, i ask for meetings with parents and i get them, i ask for anything i feel and i get it.

it's interesting because i know there are a lot of things that are different here than they would be in the states, teaching wise, and i sometimes get frustrated. i have been getting more and more used to it though. the other teachers i feel are having a little tougher of a time with it. i feel like i have had experiences with plenty of materials and little administrative support and i much rather forego the materials. and truthfully - for a "developing country" i think they have a lot more than i initially expected... so i'm good with that. anyway i NEVER get emails anymore, whats up with you all!!! it's not even the holiday season yet. tell me what's going in in YOUR life, cause i am missing everyone... love to hear from you!!!!

oh what a little sunshine will do

well i am happy to report these past few days have been a bit better. im not sick anymore, so that is a plus!!! here's the rundown

saturday
went food shopping in the morning and got tons of fruits and i found soymilk, which made me very happy!!!! i got salad stuff and was generally just happy to fill my cart with healthy food instead of meat, meat, meat... after shopping i hung around and kind of did nothing for a while.

there was supposedly a 'youth meeting' at the church i went to last week. i don't consider myself a youth, but the church assured us there would be others our age there. well when we got there it was full of 15 year olds... i wanted to leave immediately because i felt OOOLLLLLDDDD and inappropriate... we were heading out the door when one girl stopped us and convinced us (and by us i mean the other girl i went with) to stay... i couldnt leave her, so i stayed. it ended up not being horrible, haha - it is cool to hear spanish in a very different aspect... so after that i went to hang with some other american teachers that live a few houses down. we had a good time. two of the girls in that house are for mlast year and they know a bunch of mexicans, so they were there and we were speaking spanish which was sweet.

sunday
i kind of lazied around in the morning and then a group of us went to a soccer game for the local Santos team. some people were scaring us prior to going, saying it was super unsafe and we would be harrassed as foreigners and blah blah blah. we decided to try it out anyway... we went and since the game had started already these people sold us tickets (and by sold i mean scalped) on the road for 150 pesos instead of 200, which was sweet.

we got inside and found a front row seat, the entire stadium is just cements bleachers, no individual chairs... so we sat on BURNING HOT cement. luckily we were shaded, but the cement had gotten ridiculously hot from the beginning of the day. so pretty much immediately after we arrived a group of guys swarmed us and started chatting us up. they were kind of hmm - not creepy, but persistent i suppose is the best word. they were actually nice, one of them spoke in english and was talking to me the entire game, all i wanted to do was watch it!!! it was nice though because i spoke to him in spanish so that was good. he was super goofy. and they were like all about buying beer, but i didn't have any on account of my recent stomach issues. they did buy a bunch of rounds for the others though.

after the game we went outside and got these sandwiches and juice from a vendor... oh my word, no words can describe how delicious this sandwich was.... pork, avocado, tomato, mayo, onion, jalapenos, mustard and a million other things all thrown onto a toasted roll. it was delicious!!!!

monday
today is my LOOONG day, because i have lunch duty at school, tutoring at school from 4:30-6:30, then private tutoring from 7-8ish... so i am wiped out. BUT private tutoring was soooo much fun today!!! i love the boys i am tutoring, it's really nice because they know a lot of english and the parents just want them to keep up their skills. so today i brought a stevie wonder song that i have on my ipod and whited out some of the lyrics and had him listen to it and fill in what he could. then we talked about it afterwards. it was 'heaven help us all' so it has a lot of figurative language and expressions that he wouldn't know otherwise. it was really cool and it lent itself to so many other conversations, war, poverty, racial tension and more. i was soooo happy that he understood it enough to learn from it and he really liked it. so after the hour of dissecting the song and meaning he listened to it again and said he really liked it :) which clearly, if you are into stevie wonder - you are good in my book.

the other good thing about private tutoring is speaking spanish with their maid and driver. they are really nice and it is nice to have someone to speak spanish with one on one... i had a good past few experiences :) well anyway - tomorrow is a pretty open day, we will see what it brings! tata for now

what you can get for 12 bucks....

soooo school was pretty uneventful this week. i had been feeling increasingly exhausted since monday and by wednesday night i was not feeling well at all. luckily the people i tutored cancelled - well not so much cancelled as just didn't show up without a phonecall... so i rested.

thursday rolls around and i had a terrible night of sleep on wednesday because my body ached so badly and my stomach hurt, so i didn't know if i should even take medicine for the back in case it reacted with the stomach... i went to school feeling crappy, because we have NO sick or personal days, if we take off because we are sick we don't get paid. so i figured i would give it a shot.

well my kids were really well behaved, i told first thing "Miss Emily feels really sick today, so please cooperate and listen really well today". they actually did, which i was surprised about because when i taught high school and i told them the few times i wasn't feeling 100% they could care less... i was pleasantly surprised by their excellent behavior.

in my second group of kids i have one little boy who is a terror!!! haha, we're trying some things but he has a lot of behavior issues, so i didn't know how this class was gonna take me being sick. funnily enough he was the one coming to my rescue, when the class got out of hand he would speak on my behalf, "silencio, la Miss no puede gritar esta enferma!!!" adorable... my knight and shining armor "silence, the teacher can't yell she's sick!!!" that made me happy - maybe there's hope for him yet, haha...

anyway around 1:45 i was feeling awful and my kids were at a special class, so i went to my supervisor and told her i didn't feel well. she got the nurse to come check me out and lo and behold i had a temperature of 39 degrees celsius, which for us americans translates to like 102 F... not cool. she had someone else wrap up my class for me and i sat in her office and started crying, because no one likes to be sick... especially when you're not home and sick, and then when you're not with people that love you unconditionally... i didn't think anyone was gonna take care of me and i would be sick and left on my own in mexico.

to my rescue came krista!!! she is a canadian teacher that was here last year. she has lived and taught in mexico for like 5 years, so she is pretty familiar with things. she offered to walk me to the doctor down the street. now let me tell you, there is universal healthcare here through the social security office which is long and sometimes unreliable if you just wake up sick one morning. social security goes by appointment and sees only 3 people a day that don't have an appointment. in a city of 1 million people it can get overwhelming... anyway there is also private healthcare for those who would rather have a doctor's immediate attention and who can afford it. but there is also generic healthcare... which is where i went.

i got to the doctor's office at 2:30 and was the next person in line. i saw the doctor for about 15 minutes and he prescribed 2 things for me and a clear liquid diet... his exact words were "go home, boil a chicken, take out the meat, bones, and fat and drink the chicken water" to which krista and i asked "will a bouillon cube work?" - clearly we thought of something he hadn't and he assured us bouillon cubes were A-ok... after i paid $2.50 for the doctor's visit, i went to pick up my meds, which cost a total of $9.50... so for a doctor visit and meds, i spent a grand total of 12 US dollars... just that made me feel better!

i went home and slept and slept and felt much better the next day, my stomach still a littley iffy, but overall better. unfortunately i had to miss the first spanish class which pissed me off, because i have been waiting for this to start and finally it did and i missed the first class. UGH!!!!

now a moment of truth - (not that everything else was a lie, you know what i mean) i feel like i'm kind of at a low point. heres the thing... i want to speak spanish, that is a HUGE part of the reason i took this job... but i do not feel like i am getting the chance to do so, because i teach in english all day and i live with americans. there is not much to do in our town except go to bars and stuff on the weekends, but truthfully it is a tad unsafe lately because there is a new access to our town that is allowing drug dealers and the like to come in. so the option of going out at night isn't super safe either... i feel couped up inside and i am really dissappointed about that... i know things aren't always as you imagine them, i'm trying to figure out my purpose here, and i'm hoping it gets better because right now it's only october and i feel like it sucks... im just bored, all we do at our house is work, cook, eat, and watch movies and that's no fun all the time.

well hopefully things start looking up, krista and i are going food shopping today and possibly to the bank for a bank statement (they are not a courtesy, you have to ask for one...). maybe we will go to a museum or the park "el bosque" which is like 30 blocks long and supposed to be pretty sweet. we have church tomorrow... i don't know - i know you're all thinking that sounds like a lot of stuff, but i don't want all of my fun to be pushed to the weekend... i mean even in the states you have diversions during the week.

i think i need some cheering up... i did NOT feel like this in costa rica, because we went out EVERY SINGLE NIGHT... here, no one wants to go out - or it's not reccommended to go out at night... oh well... sorry to be such a debbie downer, its just how i feel lately...