Rocks for Jocks

Hey all,

Hope everyone had a good weekend (I think that Tampa sports fans certainly did...) This weekend was fun for me as well! On Friday, after a 4 hour long meeting at Discovery (the school I work at) which was completely in Spanish, (gotta turn those listening ears on) I conked out for several hours, then awoke to meet up with my compadres and eat some bombass tacos. Then a few of us went to a bar called the Queen Elizabeth where we listened to the Beatles and drank Coronas. A nice little mixture of England and Mexico.

On Saturday, we caught the bus to San Antonio Texcala which is a small pueblita on the outskirts of Tehuacan. It is known for its onix and marmol. It is basically shop after shop of onix and marmol thingies and well as giant piles of these stones. Everything is CHEAP like you would not believe.

Brandon with a whole bunch of rocks

 

 

 

After shopping for a while and looking at store after store of onix and marmol chess sets, mirrors, little figurings, etc etc, Brandon and I decided to break off from the less adventurous group and basically climb up the mountain to see the mines. We were on a trail for about 5 seconds before we found ourselves going straight up the mountain. It was crazy but pretty fun. What we saw, we didn't expect at all. There were men stationed around the mountain with like old-fashioned pulleys and whatnot collecting onix, marmul and also mining salt. We didn't expect it to be such an operation!  It was reallllllllly cool. The climb was kind of scary and I thought I was going to fall at some points, but thank goodness neither of us did, and getting to the top was totally worth the scariness/difficulty of the climb.

Salt (yum)

Salt beds (view from the top)

The pictures barely do it justice, but at least they give you an idea of what it was like. I hope that some day, you will all get to climb a Mexican mountain, breathe the Mexican air and get laughed at my Mexican miners for basically crawling on your hands and knees to reach the summit, just like me.

Hasta luego!

Mayhem

So as much as I want to believe I am getting better as a maestra, I am not 100 percent true if that's the case. Let me lay it all out for you.

Today, my 1st graders attempted to glue myself and Emiliano (my tiniest student) together with several gluesticks, my 3rd graders were hiding in the stairwell for the first, lets just say 5, minutes of class, and my 2nd graders started a chant "Eres una abuelita!" (you are a grandmother) in the middle of class, which lasted for quite some time.

Help?

Viva Mexico!

Hey everyone! So I know I haven’t written in a while but I have a lot to tell you all about my recent trip to Puerto Escondido! (If you don’t have at least 10 minutes to devote to this post, I suggest coming back later haha.) 

So last week, we had a 4 day weekend for the Dia de Independencia which was on Thursday night. Most of my colleagues were being lame for some reason or another, so it just ended up being me and my friend, Veronika (tall, blonde and Slovakian) who made the 11 hour trek to Puerto. On Wednesday night, we took the 1:30 am bus to Oaxaca. We did this because we had to catch a smaller bus called a collectivo from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido and we wanted to make the most of our first day on the beach. Travelling in the middle of the night is never dull…in the Tehuacan bus station, there was this lady cradling a plastic baby and as hard as I tried, I could NOT stop staring. There was also this Mexican guy who grew up in New Orleans who wouldn’t stop talking to us. Um, hello, its 1:30 am, man, shut up!

Anyway, we arrived in Oaxaca without any problems and then had to walk to the smaller station for the collectivo. The first one we found wasn’t leaving until 8:30 (it was about 6 at the time) which would put a damper in our day, but fortunately, we found another station that had a bus leaving at 6:30 which was perfect! The collectivos are basically like little vans that fit about 12 people (completely packed) and although Veronika’s guide book proclaimed them to be “vomit-inducing,” we chose this route anyway because it is 6 hours shorter and significantly cheaper. For the first, say, 4 hours of the ride, we were sitting pretty. Although the head of the lady sitting to the right of me was hovering uncomfortably close to my own and I had to do a severe should pop to get her to move, the view outside the van was spectacular. We drove on winding roads of the Sierra Madre Del Sur mountain range and went through several teeny tiny Mexican villages. (Even though these villages had plenty of little Comedors and banos that we could have stopped at, when we asked to use the bathroom, instead of waiting until the next actual toilet, the driver pulled over and had us pee on the side of the mountain! Grass in the ass!)

My shoes after the "bano"

Anyway, it’s crazy to me that people live up in the mountains, so secluded from real civilization! There were donkeys, chickens and cows galore, so I was basically staring at the window, taking it all in, for most of the ride. However, when we had been driving for about 2/3 of the way, something (not sure what) happened to the driver that caused him to pick up the speed by (appx.) tenfold and not lift his foot off the gas as we rounded sharp corners and flew over bumps. I thought that either A) we were going to die or B) I was going to hurl. Thank G neither occurred.

View from the collectivo

When we finally arrived in Puerto Escondido, we took a taxi to our hostel, which was on the quieter, further end of the long stretch of beach. It was a big, stone building with hammocks and lots of fun art, and the woman who owned it was absolutely the sweetest (and she had a cute Argentinian husband and baby too!) They were anthropologists who had just opened this hostel a few months ago so they were very accommodating. After we got settled in our room, we explored the little beach near our house and ate lunch. I got my first Mexican margarita(!!!) which prompted me to pass the hell out on the beach for several  hours. Win. 

Our hostel!

After soaking up some sun, we went back to the hostel, showered and got read y for the Dia de Independencia! For the Mexican Day of Independence, the whole town gets together at the center which is decorated really nicely with Mexican colors and whatnot, and they shut down the streets to put in Carnival rides and food stands and vendors and it is relaly, really cool. 

There was some sort of ceremony involving soldiers and also these 5 beautifully dressed girls (one of whom sang what I assume to be the Mexican national anthem which had wayyyy too many verses) and of which I only understood about half.  As all of the commotion was going on, I proceeded  to purchase a mustache, a Mexican flag and a Corona. Can you say authentic? The actual “grita” happened at 11:00 and was when the mayor (?) of the city took the mic and yelled “Viva this!” and “Viva that” and we got super into it…I didn’t want it to end! More “Vivas!” “Viva Tequila!” “Viva Cerveza!” “Viva Tacos!” “Viva Salsa!” We could have gone on for ages. 

After the grita, I got a little snack (corn on a stick on which they put mayo, cheese, chile, lime and salsa….uhhh-mazing) and we went to this bar near our hostel that was supposedly having a little party. It was a sick bar: right on the beach with a lot of space and a really cute band, but the party was a little lackluster. I had a decent time (danced salsa with an older man, I just can’t say no!) but we were tuckered out from the day, so we returned to the hostel and passed the eff out.

The next day, we awoke to the sweet sound (not) of roosters crowing and prepared for a day of serious beach-hopping. Puerto Escondido is a regular city, but it has a huge stretch of beach, each with a different feel. The one near us was quiet with some surfers and as you walk toward the city, it gets more and more crowded (and pricey) and then you finally reach the Mexican area of the beach (which smells strongly of fish and has more trash that is ideal.) We hung out on the Playa Principal for a while ordering margs and chilling in the sun. However, when we went to get up and move to a different beach, I was walking on the sand to get my shoes when I started feeling super dizzy and as if I couldn’t stand. I got kind of scared and told Veronika that I didn’t think I was OK. We walked to the nearest restaurant where I scarfed a burrito and more than a liter of water. I hadn’t realized that it was almost 2:30 and I hadn’t eaten or drank anything other than a margarita. Not a good idea in the hot, Mexican sun! Luckily, after sustenance, I was back in business. We walked to another section of the city where we found this cove-like beach which was really cool and different and hung out there for quite a while. 

Puerto was definitely touristy. I could hear people speaking English all over the place and there were actually a bunch of Israelies in the city, which was interesting.  For dinner, we ate at a restaurant right on the beach which was awesome. We treated ourselves to a nice meal (we deserve it!) of huachignanga (red snapper, local in Puerto) and Auga de Sandia (watermelon drink which was incredible). Needless to say, we were stuffed! After dinner, we began the looong walk back to our hostel. By this time, it was pretty dark and as we started getting closer to our place, the less lights there were. We thought we were on the right track, but every time we reached a corner we thought was going to be ours, it wasn’t. I started to freak out a little bit and have flashbacks of the Florence monastery fiasco (Elise and Andrea, you know what I’m talking about) and after we had been wandering aimlessly in the dark for about a half-hour, we saw the highway and decided to make a bee-line for the road to hail a taxi. Definitely a good call; we were still a good 12 minutes away from the hostel and clearly lost. Crisis averted! 

Saturday, we decided to go to Mazunte, a town about 45 minutes away from Puerto that has a Turtle Protection Center that we were interested in seeing. We caught the a bus to a cross-street where we had to catch this smaller form of public transporation that they use in Puerto and the surrounding towns. It is basically a pick-up trick with a wooden base set on the back to sit on, covered with a blue or red tarp.

The picture (above) sort of gives you an idea of what it is like. Essentially, you are sitting outside and have to hang out for dear life at some times. Great fun! Anwyay, we got to Mazunte and checked out the Turtle Protection Center. Apparently Mexico just started protecting their precious tortugas in 1990, so they were kind of slow to jump on the bandwagon, but better late than never! There were a lot of different types of turtles at the center and each was cuter and more fun than the next. It is amazing that the little babies who are about the size of your palm grow up to be the giant sea turtles that everyone knows and loves! Oh, nature. 

Turtles doin' the dirty?

After the center, we chilled at a beach in Mazunte (not until after I got to have my first scuffle with a Mexican! This girl who could have been around 14 years old tried to sell me these disgusting, cold taquitos. I basically sent them back and told her I wasn’t paying. Heck yeahs!)  On the beach, I got a proper meal (choriqueso torta and a coconut to drink!) and this guy came over to us and started telling us about a trip he was organizing to go see the sea turtles laying their eggs. This was something that I thought was possibly available near Mazunte but I wasn’t sure where or how to go about doing it. The guy was charging 350 pesos for transporation and access to the beach where the turtles were. However, after a few more minutes of talking, we learned that it was possible to get to the beach, La Escobilla, via public transportation and then simply pay 100 pesos for access to the beach. That seemed more do-able for us, so at 5:45, we headed off to see some turtles. When we got to La Escobilla, there were soldiers there who made us go inside and explain ourselves and why we were there. I guess that usually, people travel in organized groups to this area, but we explained that we were just extremely adventurous girls who want to see some tortugas! They ended up letting us in for free, which ruled, but honestly, I would have paid 100 pesos or more to see what we saw. It was absolutely breath-taking.The mama sea turtles were coming up from the ocean and digging holes to lay their eggs in. According to this nice man with a glass eye who worked with the turtles, there was about 1000 turtles that night, and two nights ago, there had been 100,000. It was unbelievable! 

BFFs

It's impossible to tell the magnitude, but this gives an idea

There were even some little babies trying to make their way to the ocean. I wanted to badly to help them (it seemed so easy! Just pick them up! Toss them in!) but if you do that, they cant find their way back, so it isn’t really helping, is it? 

Tortugitas

It was probably one of the cooler things I've seen in my life. After the Tortuga frenzy, we went back to the hostel, made some dinner and shot the shit with some other travelers (German and Argentinian) then went to sleep, dreaming of tortugas.

On Sunday, we had to say goodbye to Puerto and begin the long journey back to Tehuacan. We stopped along the way in Oaxaca for some yummy ceviche and a small but fun shopping spree (they have a lot of cool street art unique to Oaxaca) and then finally (FINALLYYYY!) arrived back home in Tehuacan and (more quickly than I would have liked) back to the grind!

Thanks for reading, love and miss you all! And Viva Tortugas!

Everybody's workin for the weekend...

I literally live for the weekends, and I have to say, they rarely disappoint! On Friday, after a long day of (hungover) teaching, I came home to a delicious meal of fried chicken, broccoli, carrots, mashed potatoes and homemade onion rings, courtesy of Pedro (who has taken to wearing eyeliner which I find quite strange but do not affect his cooking skills whatsoever, thank g.) After I scarfed down my dinner, I retired to my room for a short nap which morphed into something that resembled a short coma and didn’t wake up until 8:15, only to find that Justine had followed my lead and was passed out on her bed.  I loudly jumped from my (somewhat precarious) spot on the top bunk to rouse her from sleep so we could both ready for the night!

At 9:30ish, everyone met up at our house (that’s the best thing about where I live…it is the most central location out of everyone’s homes and is the closest to our school, so everyone is always just coming over or dropping by. It is definitely the designated meeting spot any time we plan to do something together. Of course, I love this…its just like the Courtyards circa 2009.) Anyway, we all met up and went for….wait for it…wait for it….tacos!! We actually went to a different spot where they apparently make “healthier” tacos. I think that healthy tacos in Mexico simply means that they use butter or oil to cook the meat in rather than the grease from the already cooked tacos and whatever else they normally use. They were great, and after we sufficiently stuffed our little faces, we headed off to a bar where two of Zaid’s friends were playing a show.

We knew things were going to be good when the bar had Megas de Corona and served them in actual glasses!!!  The musicians were also really good. They sang some Mexican music, but they also did a little bit of ACDC, the Killers, Coldplay, Michael Jackson and even a little George Michael. I have to say that there is nothing cuter than Hispanic men singing their little Hispanic hearts out in English and not understanding a single word that they are saying. I loved it! One of the singers, Josue, was super nice and I talked to him a lot at the bar, so we had a great time. Oh and in more important news, Justine (who hasn’t had a drink in 2 years) had a few beers!! What a great influence the rest of us are. Whoops…

This morning we woke up, had some eggs and chilled with Ramon and Tere (and the cleaning woman and another teacher from school…I’m telling you, it’s the community house!) until Brandon came over and we all went for a walk around town. We were supposed to meet Alan at the Zocolo at 1:30 but because of some kind of miscommunication (I’m sure on my part) we never found him, so eventually we gave up and walked to the market to check out the upstairs which had a ton of different food stations and little areas to eat. It seemed to me that each place was serving the same stuff, but some were more popular than others, so I’m not sure what the deal is with that. We bought some fun fruit (I got some duraznos y platanos and also some other fruit from a cactus that is hot pink but I forget the name. I only got it because of the color.) This lady on the street also tried to get us to try worms. The closest I got to eating it was holding it in my hand. Brandon actually attempted, but he ended up dry-heaving and spitting it out on the sidewalk. We were basically a spectacle and the entire street was laughing at us, but that is typical for a group of our size, volume and look.

After the market, we did our weekly run to the Ched and then headed back home where Beverly was cooking food for everyone. She made a typical American dish…macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes and apple pie! We all sort of helped, and when we were all peeling the 40 apples that were needed for the 3 pies, it felt a little Communistic…but in a good way.  Dinner was nice, full of interesting conversation in a mix of Spanish and English and in which Tere and Ramo were educating the rest of us in all of the disgusting things that Mexicans eat, like blood and eyes. Yuck!!

After dinner, Veronika, Brandon and I went to this Mexican carnival that is only here for 10 days because of the Independence Day that is coming up this week. It was great! I was expecting a dinky little carnival, but it was actually pretty impressive with at least 10 rides, real ponies to ride (sooooo cute),a live bull, lots of lights, food and Mexican children (pics will come soon.) We had a nice time exploring and walking around, although we didn’t do any rides...this time around, at least. The carnival is set up right near the mall, so we walked around the mall a little bit as well, where there was some sort of art exhibition happening which was nice.

After a while, we split from Veronika and ran to catch a cumbie to the center of town. Once there, we saw that there was some sort of music competition or performance happening in this little stage near the Zocolo. It was basically a bunch of teen/adults playing a strange instrument (a mandolin? Lute?) and singing and dancing around. It was very sweet. After we had our fill of Mexican performances, we walked home, where we consumed 2 tacos each at our favorite taco place on the corner (EL Mismo) and then some apple pie back at the house. At least everyone knows I’m well-fed!

Ok, until next time, and thanks for reading!!

One more thing

Oh, and I forgot to mention that at Nectar, there was a part of the night where two people dressed like Jim Carey and Cameron Diaz from the Mask (circa 1990 or something crazy) danced around on stage like maniacs. And then the "mask" character went all over the club pouring shots of tequila from the bottle straight into people's mouths. Bi-zarre.

Que Asco...

Another week...check!! The rest of the semana went by pretty smoothly except for a couple bumps in the road. For example, today, after my 3rd graders finished their exam, I let them play outside for a while. After about 15 minutes, I noticed this one kid, Josemaria, laughing super hard and bent over, and then all of a sudden...woooosh, he was vomiting! I was literally speechless. All of the kids freaked out basically and he started crying and it was a huge mess. A mess that looked like it was made up of papayas and Doritos (aka bright orange.) Poor kid had to be taken to the nurse while the rest of the class kept saying, "Que asco" over and over again and trying their damnest not to vomit themselves.

That was the most major bump. The other recurring bump is that my 1st graders are absolutely wild, and today was no different. I finally gave up and let them play outside for about 30 minutes in the end of class. (I even joined in the fun. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?) Anyway, I told my boss that we have to brainstorm another way to control these kids because the only thing they are learning in my class is how to drive me up the wall.

In other news, last night, I went with Zaid and her friends to a "Welcome Party" for her University at the only discoteque in Tehuacan: Nectar. It was pretty ghetto (even compared to some clubs in Gvegas) but it was still fun. It was essentially a big white room with a lot of little white tables and red stool-chairs with a big stage, a decent DJ and lots of drunk Mexicans. DEFINITELY my idea of a good time. It was great meeting Zaid's friends and getting my groove on so I would call the night a success. I also saw Ramon (the man in whose house I live) and Pedro (his BFF) which was crazy because I actually went out in Mexico and ran into people that I knew. Que popular!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, fun and exciting weekend!

Teacher Nicole!

Hola amigos!

This week has been interesting thus far. My kids have been just as loco as ever, and yesterday we had an eventful class with the first graders. The other first grade English teacher, Anjulie, and I decided to combine classes for a fun activity in the garden adjacent to our classrooms. We made two sets of cards with the letters of the alphabet on them (one blue and one red) and placed them sporadically around the garden walls and floor. The idea was for my kids to collect all of the red cards and Anjulies to collect the blue cards. The first team to successfully get all of the cards and put the alphabet in order were the winners. Needless to say, it was chaos. It worked pretty well for about ¾ of the class, but the other ¼ just ran amuck in the yard. It was just our luck that our boss walked outside right a three of my boys had pulled a huge branch off of one of the trees and were running around with it like barbarians. Long story short, they got written up (if a child gets written up more than 3 times, they get expelled!!) and although I felt bad, I didn’t feel that bad because they are the biggest trouble makers in my class so it was bound to happen at some point. She also gave the kids a talking to afterward (in their native tongue) which I think was needed since they don’t understand my English and I try to avoid talking in Spanish too much because they take advantage of the fact that I can.

Today I played a sort of four-corners thing with them that had to do with the animals, which actually worked pretty well, and with my older classes, we are making diaries which is going over well, too. They can decorate them to their liking but inside, they are meant to write their feelings and desires, etc. It is good because it teaches them important verbs like “I like,” “I think,” “I feel,” and “I want.” I think I am starting to find things that work for the kids and things that definitely do not. For instance, there are a lot of literary things in the curriculum that we are supposed to do, such as “drawing conclusions” and “comparing characters to real life” that goes straight over all of the kids’ heads and out the window. I jump for joy if they are able to read and decipher the story, let alone decide whether or not the lion in the story is similar to their fathers. Please.

At home, things are going well. Zaid moved in, and along with her came her 6-month old boxer which is absolutely adorable but terribly-behaved. It scares me a little bit sometimes, and it actually made a little boy who was hanging out at the house yesterday cry. The little boys who come over are fun and also crazy. They love getting into my stuff and messing around with me (see below) but I don’t mind, most of the time.

That's my bed.

I have also been teaching the English class at the house each evening which is interesting because I never know what my student body is going to be like. I have had everything from 6 adults to 1 teenager to an 11 year old. It’s just basically like whoever wants to learn at that particular moment comes. Fine by me!

Hope you enjoyed my mid-week update! Happy Wednesday!

Felicidades!

Hi everyone!

So this weekend was fun! On Friday, we went out for tacos (surprise surprise) at apparently the best taco place in Tehuacan and true, to its reputation, it was great. Then we went out for a few beers, but seeing as it was a torrential downpour, we didn't stray too far from home.

On Saturday, we walked around town, per usual, and happened upon a little arts and crafts festival which was very cute and of course, I bought a shirt and wanted to buy about a million more things. We found out that the festival is going on until Friday, so we will definitely be back. We searched for a new and fun place to eat and happened upon a restaurant that had all of the food out so that we could see it. The the man basically suckered us into eating there because he showed us all of the options, and I mean, everything just looked so good! I tried some meatballs in chipotle sauce which was amazing and the Mexican version of chicken cordon bleu which was only so so and also creamed corn soup which was good. After lunch, we continued walking around and exploring and somehow ended up at our favorite place in all of Tehuacan....the supermarket. It's called the Chedraui (the Ched for short) and somehow, at least once per weekend we end up there. I bought my food for the week but apparently my eyes/stomach are bigger than my wallet because I was 136 pesos short. Thank g for friends!

At night, we ended up going to the wedding! We got picked up by Zaid at 7:10, when the wedding ceremony was supposed to have started at 7, and then had to go pick up another gringa so we didn't arrive at the church until 7:50...and by that time, the wedding was over. Whoops. We arrived just in time to watch them take pictures and then throw rose pedals at them as they walked out the door. I didn't feel that bad, though, because apparently Zaid's boyfriend, Julio who is the brother of the bride, missed the ceremony as well! Anyway, we hightailed it to the wedding party, which was very similar to an American wedding. There was food, a slideshow, a DJ (only Spanish music) and a bottle of tequila per table. Typical, no?

Needless to say, we had a good time dancing and eating and drinking and making friends (and a few enemies...my friend Veronika was making fun of a man dancing next to me only to be approached by him a few seconds later by him saying, "I speak English bitch!" Well, he didn't say bitch, but it was implied.)After the wedding, we got a beer at our neighborhood bar, Cheers, and then proceeded to cause a ruckus in the front room of my house.

That's all for now!

Nic

Irene does Tehuacan

I think the hurricane took a wrong turn and ended up in Tehuacan yesterday. I woke up to my room looking like this:

 Yessir, we were flooded! The drainage system is terrible here, and the folks that I live with forgot to put the barrier thing in the door, so all of the water from the street flooded into our house. A lot of swimming and drowning jokes commenced, but it wasn't that bad. Thank G I didn't have my computer or phone on the floor of my bedroom! And no wonder they don't have carpets or hard wood here in Mexico!

Anyway, this week has been good. As I learned to say yesterday, 'La semana paso muy rapido!' meaning the week flew by! My kids were generally OK, and I have gotten to hang out a lot more with the kids that come over in the afternoons, Giovanni and Miguel and I think we are all starting to like each other a lot. There is also a Mexican guy who is classmates with Ramon in cooking school who has been coming over a lot this week which is great because two nights ago, he made us Chiles en Nogada just for fun and last night he and Ramon made a BANGIN chocolate cake which I thoroughly enjoyed (2 peices of.)

Today, I had to give all of my kids tests, which was interesting to say the least. My 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders are all "on the same level" but they are actually not. So essentially, my 4th graders did great, my 3rd graders did OK and my second graders did , shall I say, "poor?" It was a fun day, though, because after the test I basically just let them do whatever they wanted for like 30 minutes. Yea, I'm that kind of teacher haha.

I'm not sure what we have in store for the weekend...today, another teacher, Justine, is moving into my room and another teacher, Zaid is moving into the back apartment on Sunday or Monday, so we are about to have a full-ass house. Zaid also basically invited us to a wedding tomorrow night, so if that actually happens that will be sweet!

OK, me voy! Hasta luego!