Consequence of Swine Flu

So, just to let you all know... (sorry this is coming pre 'the end of my spring break' post)
Swine Flu is out there. Its here, in Mexico, and yes, so am I. But supposedly there are no cases found in my state of Coahuila (maybe the drug lords scared it away). The president did decide to shut down alllllll schools in the country in hopes of preventing the numbers of infected/fatalities from mushrooming any more than they already have. This means I am not in school until May 6 as of now. Its like a really long snow day, or another spring break immediately after the first, just not as filled with joy.... It was to be a long weekend this week already and two other teachers and I did book a trip to a resort in Acapulco.... yet to be decided whether we can go or not, having to fly through DF first... I'll keep you updated. Stay healthy

Easter Break Pics link

So far I have only loaded from Phoenix but I will update it later. Maybe tomorrow I will finish ...the rest of the story. (as the late Paul Harvey would say)
here's the link, check it back once the mexico portion of the week is up here!

http://picasaweb.google.com/millerbreanna/SemanaSanta09#

Semana Santa - Week 1: PHX and Vegas, Baby!

The saga begins in Torreon. After school on Friday the 3rd, I frantically finished packing desperately hoping there was nothing I forgot. Victor and I then get picked up by his aunt and taken to Gomez Palacio, the neighboring town in which said aunt lives. We get all of her things together and do our best to squeeze the three of us and our belongings into one of the ever so small taxis here to the bus station. The luxury first class bus then drives us through northern Mexico to the safest city I know, Juarez. [If you are not so familiar with Mexican politics and goings-on, this is actually probably the most dangerous city. Recently acquiring something like 5,000 troops to try to quell the drug war. It is said that last year there were three times more murders there than in the most murderous city in the US. Almost entirely our fault though as the US is the largest consumer of Mexican heroine, cocaine, and methamphetamines, while at the same time being the largest supplier of weapons for them. I digress...]
A fairly uneventful, yet roomy, 10 hr ride later, we arrive at the border town. Victor's parents had driven there, and a cousin and her children also met us there to join in on the fun. So now we are - Victors parents, Tía Lily, cousin Bere, her children little Victor and Angela, Victor, and I. Eight in a four door F-150 (I believe), only slightly crowded, 5 in the back, 3 in the front. First meal back in the US, McDonalds breakfast, of course?!
After dozing on and off for the better part of the day, I was feeling lazy and just wanted to relax. Actually, come to think of it, that's pretty much how I felt all week! It was good to be in a comfortable home, complete with such pleasures as carpet, dryer, HDTV :), and food and entertainment that I am used to. All of this comfort of the US but still so much Spanish around! Victors family doesn't really ever speak English, his brother and sister of course use it almost all the time, while his parents know it but only use it with gringos, and his aunt and cousin don't really know it at all. Plus, South Phoenix has every other billboard in Spanish and the radio stations in Spanglish. It was fun! Especially to play with the kids, we laughed a lot. Victor only calls me Blue, so his whole family does as well; sometimes I was Azul, and sometimes Blue amongst the rest of the Spanish words in their sentence. I showed off some of my face tricks (if you know me, you know the ones) which were a big hit with the kids. From then on I couldn't be seen without hearing "Hazlo" meaning, do it! They're so cute!
Things we did: GoKart racing. which I apparently suck at ... at least I didn't crash ;) Going out to eat: In N Out which is only in AZ and CA, some really good pizza joints because they are lacking in Torreon, and Jamba Juice which I was excited about! Watching movies - two in theater and a few rentals. I am pretty behind in my pop culture trivia! Visit to the Cardinals Stadium. or Heaven as Victor calls it. Shopping! found some excellent deals got a few things, fun had by all.
On Friday the whole family (minus sister, plus me and plus brothers guest) packed up into two vehicles and headed for Vegas! There was a large stretch of stop and go traffic around Hoover Dam, and Cesar got pulled over for speeding, but otherwise uneventful drive. We were of course playing the 50 state game, looking for all the license plates (again, if you know me, this is a given). In the end we had 41 throughout the week, including both AK and HI! Once in Las Vegas and all settled into our hotel room, we hit up Circus Circus for their cheaper tables for the guys. True to Vegas form, we stayed out til all hours of the night. Slept in pretty late and then got ourselves tickets for the Deuce! We visited a few different hotels, rode on the NY, NY rollercoaster and got some gelato at the Venetian, which I was surprised was a pretty re-creation, complete with street performers and people getting married and serenaded in gondolas. Then unfortunately, even though 24 hours in Vegas almost seemed like enough :), it was time for me to head to the airport to catch my flight to my next spring break adventure.
From LAS to LAX to OAO.... to be continued.

Easter celebration

On the Friday before break, the whole school celebrated Easter. For the week prior, we painted all the egg shells the students brought, this turned out to be over 200! My assistant also made the cutest little easter baskets for them to each bring home 2 of the eggs along with some candy. The day of the party, we brought all the kids to a room in Primary to watch some of Pixar's shorts in order to kill some time for some of the teachers to hide the eggs around the preschool area, in the gardens, the playground, etc. As we walked them back over, there was a mad rush of kids scrounging to get as many eggs as they possibly could. It was so cute. And the tradition here is that the egg shells are found and then smashed over the heads of whomever crosses your path. The secondary kids got to put flour into their shells so theirs was a messier fight. It was quite funny to watch though. And of course the kids thought it was hilarious to get a teacher but being 3'+ taller than them we had to crouch down for them which takes away from the element of surprise but was still a good time. Then once that settled down a bit, Miss Charo got on the loud speaker and said that the Easter bunny was spotted in the sandbox! so all the kids mob over to that area, the opposite side we teachers know the bunny is coming from and clearly visible so it was kind of funny they all still ran over to check. then she said oh no, maybe she's in Miss Irma's room and so on until finally the bunny showed herself from the office door and the kids finally spotted her and then the whole mass bolted over to greet her. I can't imagine having been in that bunny suit seeing over a hundred little people rushing at me?! But the kids loved it. Then there was also cake served, funfetti, my favorite! among many others. Why not hop them up on sugars before sending them back to class for the last hour of the day?! Oh yeah, thats a great idea, let's also chuck candy into the crowd so they can get some more! So after all this excitement, they were sent back to the classroom and I was expected to do what with them?! haha, we played with toys after we got the room all back in order.
Here are the pics of the event:

our Easter Baskets

three of my boys, and my assistant, I mean the Easter Bunny :)

chaos

200+!!!