Much overdue travel log

Well I am back in Tuxtla, safe and sound after an amazing week of traveling and relaxing.
Katy and I began our journey on Monday evening when we boarded a 10 hour night bus to Oaxaca city. A few days earlier when we went to buy our tickets we decided to splurge on the platinum bus which was a little bit pricier but definitely worth every peso. Upon our initial arrival we were given complementary beverages and eye masks to make for sleeping ease. As I sat down in my seat all my nerves about being on a bus for that long were wiped away in the cloud-like feeling of these super reclining chair/beds. As soon as the bus took off we were swept away in to the darkness and comfort of one of the most delightful traveling experiences I have ever known. (note: there may be a slight tone of exaggeration in this description but just know this journey far surpassed any of my expectations of a 10 hour mexican bus ride).

We arrived in Oaxaca City and quickly caught a cab to our hostel. We were a little nervous when the cab driver took us far up in to the hills of the Oaxaca but were very pleased when we arrived at our hillside hide-away. The whole set up was so peaceful and lovely, nestled in the hills surrounding the city, filled with hammocks, lush trees, a pool, and even a trampoline.









We took a quick rest and then headed out to explore the city. Our first stop was for food, we found a delightful little french bakery/restaurant where I had ginger-pear pancakes which were mouth watering, to say the least.

Then we continued on our venture and saw many lovely churches, historic buildings, a nice little center and also did some serious shopping. Some of my best purchases included a hammock and lots of little artisan trinkets, definitely money well spent. After we burned big enough holes in our pockets we ate a delicious authentic Oaxacan dinner and then went home to relax. The next day we got up and did a bit more exploring before we caught a bus at 2:00 for Puerto Escondido.

It would be the understatement of the century to say that this bus ride was nothing like our first bus experience. This bus ride was a few hours shorter however the bus was significantly smaller and the roads were hilly, windy, and filed with potholes. The whole trip was supposed to take 8 hours but because of the condition of the roads (due to all the rain) it ended up taking almost ten hours. While many of the views were spectacular (being that we were so high up in the mountains) many of the views were also quite depressing (being that we were in one of the poorest and most rural parts of Mexico. Overall it was quite a journey and we were extremely relieved to make it to our destination- the quaint oceanside surfer town of Puerto Escondido.
Our time in Puerto was mainly spent lounging on the beach, paying in the ocean and eating delicious food. I honestly cannot say enough good things about this little town. It felt like the kind of place you would go to on vacation in your twenties and end up falling in love and raising little surfer babies and staying trapped in this paradise for the rest of your life (I say trapped like its a bad thing). Anyways, it was a beautiful town and an overall amazing vacation!
Here are some more pics from Puerto:

My first Quinceañera and Mexican style hot chocolate

ahhh yes it's time for another post and I am just brimming with things to say about this crazy Mexican culture I am living in...

I went to my first Quinceañera last weekend (for those of you who don't know this is, it is a Mexican celebration for a girls fifteenth birthday which according to them means they have come of age) and what a Quinceañera it was. Katy tutors the children of the mayor of Tuxtla and this was for one of his children so to say that it was posh would be the understatement of the century. We were told the festivities began at 8:30 and were running pretty late so we didn't end up getting there until a little after 9:30. In America this might be considered rude and unacceptable to show up to a party over an hour late but in Mexico we were right on time and one of the first party guests to arrive. The venue was located at the highest point in Tuxtla so it was quite a beautiful view of all the city lights and the inside was decorated to the nines, resembling a celebrity wedding straight from the pages of us weekly. It was quite a sight to watch the hoards of Tuxtla's finest fifteen year-olds parade through in there fanciest attire. We frequently found ourselves saying things like "I cant believe there mother let them out of the house in that!" and trust me you would too, lets just say I have never seen dresses so short and heels so high. Katy and I sat and took it all in for a bit and it wasn't until 11:00 that the guest of honor even arrived. At this point we joined the adults for some delicious food and beverages. Luckily there was a table open so we didn't have to do any spanish hob nob-ing but got to just enjoy each others company at our fanciest Mexican adventure yet, so fun!

I have also recently started tutoring for one of the families at my school. There are three girls and they are all really sweet so it is a very easy job. Last night I was over at there house for our bi-weekly session and it was a particularly hot evening here in Tuxtla. Were just going along reading a book when the families "muchacha" (the mexican hybrid of a cleaning lady, cook, and nanny, most semi-wealthy families have them) came in the kitchen. She started making something on the stove that suspiciously resembled Hot Chocolate but I couldn't believe my eyes considering the 90 degree weather. A las it was true and she cooked up some gourmet hot chocolate for two girls and one melting american. I took a sip of the hot beverage and somehow was able to overlook the extreme temperature confusion because of the incredible taste. it was a crazy experience that would definitely only happen here in Mexico.

School is going pretty well, although everyday is exhausting in a brand new way there are always silver linings to get me through the day. I have a little chuckle whenever I look back at the time when I interviewed and they told me that my minimal spanish skills would be no problem. While it is not the end of the world it definitely makes things much more challenging considering that the majority of the staff at the school speaks only super speedy spanish and not a lick of english. So whenever someone comes to my classroom to deliver a message or get a student or something it usually turns in to a pretty funny guessing game where my first guess is usually lice checks (we have those ones a week). This happened last week where someone came in my room and asked to tell the students something so they came in and were rambling on to the students about something I couldn't understand which then caused the students to start messing with their hair so I assumed it was the weekly lice check but then as he took the kids out of the classroom and we started walking across the school I realized maybe this was something different. To my surprise it was picture day and the students were fixing there hair for there pictures, it's moments like these when I wish i could fast forward my brain and become fluent tomorrow, we'll see about that. Until then I will just keep pretending I know what's going on in this crazy country.

Speaking of this country, Mexican Independence Day is next week and we have tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday off of school because it is the bi-centenial celebration. Katy and I are planning a trip to Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido so I am so so so excited about, should be pretty amazing!

on the eighth day God created the nutella calzone...or something like that

As you can guess from my lack of blog posts, the past two weeks have been completely nuts!!
I cant believe that we are already two weeks in to school and I officially know all of my 37 students names (a task that seemed impossible on the first day). I mean it's hard enough learning student's names ever but learning students names in Mexico is three times as heard because every student's name is about three times as long. Anyways, it feels like quite an accomplishment to finally have them down, not to mention it makes classroom management that much easier. Overall school is going pretty well. I am sure I am not the first person to say this, but I had no idea how exhausting being a full time teacher could be.

I was talking to some veteran teachers about how by the end of the day lately I have just been feeling like I want to sit at my desk in complete silence and stare at nothing for approximately two hours. They said this is completely normal and if you can make it at our school, apparently you can make it anywhere. There just something about teaching a full english curriculum to two different groups of students who all speak limited english with very few breaks that simply sucks the life out of you. Let's just say it is going to be a very challenging first year of teaching. However some of the kids are pretty great and I am already starting to see that they are what makes all the stress and exhaustion worth it.

In other news, I had the wonderful opportunity to take a little trip this past weekend with Katy and our other friend Nikki up to San Cristobal, which is a little city up in the mountains, about an hour away. We were all feeling quite exhausted after our first week of teaching and decided we needed a little time away. So we left Saturday around noon and after an hour long bus ride where I was only mildly fearful for my life we ended up in one of the most beautiful little cities I have ever been in. It was crazy that it was only an hour away because it felt like we were in a different country. San Cristobal is much more picturesque then our city, Tuxtla and is filled with historic buildings and European-esque pedestrian streets. The restaurants are incredible and there are a few amazing french bakeries. It is very touristy and has many more white people so it was nice to not feel like the minority for a little while. The shopping is amazing and I definitely know where I will be buying all of my christmas presents. It also was sort of crawling with hippies (Especially American ones) and seems to be where you would venture to if you wanted to spend your life walking barefoot with dreads and speaking spanish. We spent all day saturday just strolling around and then ate a delightful little Italian restaurant where I indulged in a pizza, wine and (get this) a nutella calzone...basically top five best meals of my life! Overall it was a wonderful little getaway and I am already looking forward to going back.

That's about all the blog-worthy things that have been going on over the past two weeks. Sorry it took so long and I am going to try to be more regular with my posts. Also I am still trying to figure out a way to post my pictures that doesn't take an hour so until then I will be just put them on the facebook, hope thats not too inconvenient.
Hasta Luego!

classroom pics, mexican karaoke and hamburgesas gigantes

OK so here are the pictures from my classroom, enjoy...





















The one on the bottom is what it looked like before I did any work. I know they are kind of small but it took me like an half hour to upload them so thats all you get. Hopefully you can get the idea and I am sure it will look even better when there are students inside of it :)


We went out to a Karaoke bar last night with some other teachers which was quite an experience and very different from Karaoke in America. They just pass the microphone around and you sing from your table but it is quite a challenge to actually hear whoever is singing because literally everyone in the bar is singing a long with the songs. On one hand this is kind of amazing for the crowd participation aspect but on the other hand it makes me feel a little sad for whoever is performing (but then again I'm kind of a sucker for the spotlight so no surprise there).

On the way home we also stopped at a hamburger stand titled "hamburgesas gigantes" and yes my friends, they were gigantic hamburgers. I was a little nervous about trying this Mexican hamburger delicacy as it looks a little more like a giant meat pancake then a hamburger but with a little cheese, bacon, and ketchup it was just the post karaoke treat I was craving. All in all a great night.
Now I must get back to planning for the week, hopefully my next post will be filled with funny stories about my new students and my first few days of teaching, so excited!!

Just a few more days and I will be a real teacher...

I can't believe how fast the days are going by and that I have almost been here for two weeks!
It's also pretty crazy to believe that I have one more day of orientation and then get my students on monday and start being like a real-life teacher, very exciting and also just a bit scary. Setting up my classroom has proven to be quite a challenge, especially with limited supplies from the school and no teacher stores. I have definitely been channeling my creative side and even impressed myself with my resourcefulness- its amazing what you can come up with with a little construction paper, markers and a hot glue gun. Starting with a completely bare white classroom and seeing how much I have been able to create over these past two weeks has been a great lesson for me and makes me hope that if/when I have my next classroom this job will be much easier. After all, they always say the first year of teaching is the hardest (although I have suspicions it would be a little easier if I were in America where you don't have to make your own bulletin boards and can actually buy posters in english). All in all, I am feeling like this experience is already making me a better teacher so that is great!

While much of my time outside of school has been spent working on things for school (like making posters and planning curriculum) I have also spent a lot of time getting to know the other English teachers which has been awesome! There are about ten of us and everyone is either from the US or Canada. I am one of three new teachers so everyone else has been around for at least a year and sort of knows the drill. I have been super impressed by all the the other english teachers already so I know I will learn lots from them. They're also really cool people and it's been great to have that little community outside of school. Speaking of, today a few of us went to get some beverages after school and by beverages I mean these strange Mexican concoctions called Michelada, where they stir together beer, lime juice, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce...crazy! Anyways I gave it a try and definitely believed the fact that it is an acquired taste, my first response was, "I don't hate it". While at the restaurant we were also served some complimentary crab claws which were actually quite delicious. So anyone who was concerned about my picky eating ways let me assure you that my palette is already being expanded (and I dont mean by my retainers...had to say it). OK, its off to dinner for me, hope all is well in America.

ps- For those of you wondering why I haven't posted pictures, I am working on it but having some technical difficulties so hopefully i can get that figured out soon.

"Every cloud has a dark mahogany lining"

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here in Tuxtla and as I rolled out of bed this morning the first thing I noticed was a strange soreness in my right arm. This may have been caused by one of two activities- the four hours I spent painting my classroom or the one hour I spent scrubbing our shower. As a good friend of mine likes to say, yesterday I definitely "seized the day".
Katy and I found out on Wednesday that all teachers were able to, in fact encouraged to paint there classrooms in any way we wanted, so we took advantage of the opportunity and put in our paint orders right away. While at first I was overwhelmed by having a giant blank canvas on the back wall of my classroom I eventually decided to go with an "under the sea" theme on one half of the wall and some standard sponge painting (circa Grant Bramley's bedroom 1995) on the other half. Katy and I were super busy all day (led a workshop in the morning on incorporating drama, music, and dance in the classroom and then had to collect school supplies that parents came to drop off) so we ended up staying at school till like 6 painting up a storm. While the process was a bit tiring the end product was really exciting and definitely made the room feel more like my own.
When we arrived home we got in to a bit of a discussion about Mexican hygiene and how it is easy to conform to the culture's lack of cleanliness and organization. So we made a commitment to stick to our American ways and make our home reflect this resolution. So we decided to start with the shower and we both spent some quality time scrubbing the mold that had settled in on the bathroom tiles- also exhausting but unbelievably rewarding.
After all of the manual labor I took my daily (sometime twice daily) cold shower to cool off and then we heard a knock at the door. It was a furniture company that had come to bring me the dresser that we had requested from the American School for my room, since there was only a bed when I arrived. We had been expecting something simple from there storage room but were very pleasantly surprised when they showed up with a brand new beautiful hand crafted armoire, complete with a lock and key that basically looks like it stepped right out of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Seriously, as I said to Katy, I don't think I have ever or will ever own a piece of furniture this beautiful. Needless to say the special delivery felt like a hard earned reward after a long day of hard work. It also made for a bit of a laugh when I came up to go to bed and found Katy sitting inside of it., for some reason I have a feeling this will be a reoccurring scene throughout the year.

good fortune...cookie

I have officially started work at the American School and the past two days have been great. It is a bilingual school so the students take classes in both english and spanish which means that about half of the staff is American or Canadian and half is Mexican. Most of the staff is returning (which is pretty rare) ad there are only three new english teachers at the school (including me) and the two others are fairly proficient in spanish so basically everyone speaks spanish except for me. Usually during meetings with all the teachers they would say everything in spanish and then translate to english but because there are so many teachers who speak spanish they kind of assumed they didn't need to translate which left me feeling like my brain had to move in fast forward to even catch half of what they were saying. Luckily I had katy to whisper (mostly accurate although sometime inappropriate) translations in my ear. While it does feel a little overwhelming I am glad I am getting so much spanish immersion right at the beginning so hopefully that will help me pick it up faster. All of the teachers and staff are super friendly and the school itself is lovely so it is definitely feeling like it will be a great work environment. My classroom is a little bare at the moment but I am hoping to be inspired by my blank walls soon and let the creativity flow!

After school yesterday Katy and our friends, Dave and Amy and I participated in a lovely workout session led by a P90X DVD (I guess it is some big new workout trend). Anyways due to the extreme heat and number of people we had we decided to do it up on there roof which was very enjoyable, not only for us but also for the Mexicans who got to watch the crazy gringos doing strength training moves like "the wacky jack" or "the heisman", you can imagine the spectacle. We had a lovely workout and madre nature was definitely on our side when it started raining right as we sweated in to the cool down session.

Speaking of rain the weather here has definitely been quite hot but I am getting more used to it by the day. It is not too bad when you are inside cause cause you are shaded and there are usually fans blowing but I definitely notice it the most walking home from school. It is also at that time that my mind is boggled by the many Mexicans walking around in jeans and long sleeved shirts, I mean really? It is 95 degrees out and you are wearing a turtleneck? something isn't right with this picture.

Anywho after our workout we decided to go out for Chinese at a chinese restaurant down the street called Hong Kong (very creative name). I was curious to see what Mexican Chinese would be like but overall it was pretty similar to American Chinese. I will leave you with a bit of wisdom from my spanish chinese fortune cookie...

"El quien sabe que tiene sufieciente; ya es rico"