Mexican Turkey

Thanksgiving in Mexico!

It was such a good night! All the American teachers got together, each bringing a dish to pass. Thanks to Jenn, our wonderful coordinator, the school even delivered tables and chairs for us to set up in the courtyard of one of the houses! It was perfect. After school, my house had a cooking fest to get our part of the bargain ready. I made the ever so delicious Double Layer Pumpkin Pie. [Unfortunately, Mexicans apparently don't eat pudding, so the JellO I got was really vanilla flan, which made it a little different than I'm used to...aka it didn't really pass my test but I guess no one else knew right.] Tye came over to join the fun, he made a jalapeño corn bake and a green bean casserole type dish (again due to lack of american ingredients we're used to). Jenna had $17 worth of potatoes to peel, cook, mash and make glorious (a guess... it was maybe 10lbs?! I'm no good at that game but..). And Emily had large servings of carrots and green beans to cook as well. Our oven/stove was working its little but off!

When the main event finally got underway, we were able to see just how much food we had brought together. I think it may even have been more than our Amundson gatherings! (wait, can that be true?!)

How perfectly cute, no?!
We even had Pilgrims and Indians in attendance

Thank you to first in line and layering up the plates! :) It was alllll soooo goooood! There were two big turkeys, three types of potatoes, corn, beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cornbake, two/three types of pasta, a green salad, gazpacho, a fruit plate, a cracker-cheese-meat platter, and at least four types of pie, a few cheesecakes, and orange fluff! And I'm sure I'm forgetting something! Man, it was so worth the little belly ache!

The food... this is before some people arrived with their dishes too! and this is only the entree table as well! See those monster turkeys in the background!?

MMMM!!! :)

Once we all had a bit of time to settle we went back into the house and saw all the leftovers!! after 30+ people ate you'd think we could have dented it more than that! Leftovers are the best part though aren't they!? So Jenna and I walked back to our house to get some Tupperware. Just as we exit the gate of the party, we see the family that often comes by and asks us if we have any food! What a fantastic coincidence!!!!!!!! What they really wanted tonight was to sell me oranges or something but I told them we had just had a party here and had tons of leftover food so if they could just wait... I think we all felt very good that that happened, Jenn had just been feeling bad for having organized such a gluttonous feast ...'and then totally redeemed herself!' (another Dumb and Dumber quote, you'd think I love that movie....) No, but it was definitely a situation to make you feel better about yourself to see that family looking soo happy and grateful. 'Thanksgiving' at its finest. We sent them away with a both plate and a box full of food!
I then proceeded to pick away at the turkey for a good 10 mins to fill up our own leftover container, much of the time spent laughing at jenna getting more and more grossed out by it. and now the tryptophan is really kicking in! :) Too bad we have school tomorrow! geez. oh well, I guess I will survive. It was a great holiday!

Zacatecas, Zacatecas

Three day birthday weekend!!!!!!!! Love it! Jenna, Erin, Emily, and I (the same group that went to Mazatlan) decided to take a minivaca to Zacatecas.

I started the celebration of my birth by getting up around 430am in order to get my stuff together and ready to catch our earlybird bus. I believe I slept off most of the morning hours, but we arrived in good time around noon in Zacatecas. This city seems very European which was a welcome change from our drab Torreon. It was also quite chilly which made it seem more like the middle of November. One night we made a pit stop at the local Starbucks and being decked out in our 'its cold outside' attire and having Starbucks already changed over to the Christmas theme: cups, decorations, flavors, music, and all.... it felt like it might be December back home! For an hour or so we were surrounded by the Christmas spirit :)

My favorite part about my birthday was that the girls and I stopped to eat 3 times in the first 4 hours! And they weren't just snacks :)

Apparently, it is quite a touristy city... I guess I didn't know much going in. Shopping was abundant, we all got a few gifts for family and friends back home... and a few for ourselves too!

It was the super chill vacation I think we all needed. Saturday we just wandered around the city and did whatever, ie eat :) But we also took the trolley ride through the city which was a fun way to see a bit more.

Isn't it a pretty city

We went to a karaoke bar and
didn't even drink any of this
but asked if we could get a pic with it anyway....
get it.... J & B....

These pics are also evidence of my 4-5" haircut...doesn't even look different does it?!

Sunday we slept in late, another favorite! Then, we visited the mine. Complete with hairnets and hardhats we toured the depths... There is a club at the bottom of this mine! The other group of American teachers that went actually went to the club and said it was awesome, who ever thought of that was genius. Outside the mines we enjoyed the silver shops... we all got a new necklace with either a Virgen de Guadalupe or an Aztec Calendar pendant, they are pretty sweet :)

that's hot :)

Monday we had until 130 to take in the last delicious dregs of vacation. We got on the teleferico(cable car) and rode up to the Bufa. It was a fun little Willy Wonka glass elevator ride :)

The trip was much needed and I think we were all sad to have to come back to work, but who isn't sad when vacation is over I guess....

A weekend packed with fun

This weekend was quite exciting... we had a Halloween party, a house picnic, AND a Juanes concert to look forward to!

On thursday at school the Jardin de Ninos teachers/assistants dressed up
"Mira! una Abejita!" (look a bee!)

On Friday we then celebrated Day of the Dead, this is the altar the kinder kids made.

Lately, it has been getting more and more difficult to get up and get ready (and peppy!) for school, I'm still not using the snooze button, but I will lay in bed thinking about what I have to do as if thinking about it ahead of time will make it go faster in the end. This of course doesn't work, but sometimes it makes me feel better. You can tell the whole house is doing something similar as all of our arrive-downstairs-times are getting later as days go by. So, I definitely am working for the weekends right now: get through the week and then forget that I teach for a few short hours until I have to get ready again for school...

The schedule for this weekend was a great way to forget about school for awhile! Friday night we had quite a large gathering for a costume party at the neighboring house. Teachers getting together for costume parties is such a fun thing, just imagine the crafty-ness that comes when we all combine minds! 7 of us all decided to have a theme: the personification of different mexican beers, namely- Corona, Indio, Estrella, Leon, Modelo, Victoria, and Sol. So respectively we had Jenna as a queen (crown), Natalie was an indian, Tye was a star, Jenn a lion, me a model, Victor as Victoria, and Megan as a sun. I thought it was clever, and a lot of fun! The party was attended not only by the american teachers from Colegio Ingles, and some of the spanish ones as well, but also a few americans from a different school along with many of the spanish friends various people have made while here. The best part of any Halloween party is the costumes! Some were so clever or funny... one of my favorites was Wolverine, from XMen, it was one of the american teachers from another school but all he had to do for this costume was shave his chin and add some gel to his hair! thats what made it good. The Incredibles also showed up, along with some pretty good pirates, even Obama was there. It was a pretty good time!

Saturday I invited myself to a picnic put on by a few of the students families from CI. Many of the teachers were formally invited, I wasn't, but I figured no one will notice right :) There were quite a few people there and it was really fun to see this type of interaction for a change. These families apparently get together a lot as their kids are all involved in the same things. We met at this house with a huge backyard, so much grass! They had a big Rainbow jungle gym, a mini soccer field, a trampoline, a pingpong table, and more free space to run in! The food was quite good, they cooked the meat on a disco which is traditionally the tilling disc used in agriculture... why not just rip it off the tractor and cook on it ay?! It was fun to see the families playing their backyard games as well. They did everything from soccer (of course!), to sack races, to musical chairs, to kickball, to walking with not an egg on a spoon, but a lime, because that's the mexican way! Not only did the kids participate, but many of the adults and the teachers did as well. It was good wholesome fun :)

On Sunday we went to the Juanes concert!!!!!!!! it was a lot of fun. It started an hour late, but somehow I dont think we were too impatient. After a very short hour of performing he left stage but after much chanting of "otra, otra" he came back on and sang about 6 more! It was fun, he's good-looking, sings well, and we knew most all of the songs so we could sing along! I bought a cheap T-shirt outside as well, yeah souveniors :)

lucha and lunch

Thursday night is Lucha Libre night in Gomez! A fellow American teacher, Victor drove there with me and 4 others so we could enjoy the entertainment. If you are unfamiliar with this term, it is the mexican wrestling they do with masks, more recent pop culture reference would be Nacho Libre. As I have no former experience with it, I didn't go into with many expectations, it took a little bit for me to get into it, but that stuff is funny! As was pointed out by a few fans, the best part is really the crowd, the hecklers if you will. Fortunately for us, we were seated just in front of a very vocal, witty fan. The fighting itself is ridiculous; contact is hardly ever really made and the choreography can be so blatantly obvious. But couple this, first with a good sense of humor and an open mind, but second with the crowd and the announcer as well cracking jokes nonstop... you have yourself a good time. The show stopper of the night was probably Sexy Piscis, this was an unusual drag wrestler who won the crowd over with the large array of jokes to be had at her expense. The only complaint I can come away with is the seating: why are the benches tilted back at an angle complete with metal back? The bruised spine was worth the show though!

Sweet action move! looks more like the worm, no?!

and here is Victor, Emily, and I looking almost as ridiculous as the fighting!

On the left there is Sexi Piscis...

we were IN the action!
you can see Natalie in the bottom left corner,
and she was sitting next to me.
So you know we were close.
Bringing the fight into the crowd?! love it! :)

Friday after school I went home with one of my kids. His mom speaks English very well, and the older children are also going to a bilingual school so there was a lot of English being spoken. Good and bad, I should be practicing my spanish much more than I do now.... Anyway, it was interesting to see their house and hang out for a few hours. I am now on the cool list I think too because A) you should have seen his face when he heard I went to Lucha and B) I played Wii with him! His mom joined in on the action too which was fun, we had ourselves a Mario Party. Teachers can be cool people too you know :)

Tengo La Camisa Negra

Ok, I dont have la camisa negra, but I DO have tickets to the Juanes concert!!! Charo was nice enough to pick me up and take me to acquire them from the only logical place - a liquor store. I thought it was kind of odd, but its apparently totally normal to go to this particular store and buy concert tickets. So, November 2nd, me and Juanes have a date :)

pics for the previous post

So I uploaded a few pics.. They are in random order but I think it will do. Enjoy

Sorry for the tilt... but these are a few of the huge blow up items around the school :) YAY!!!
kindergarteners won their game,
so of course the jerseys were ripped off!
This is Jenna's class' doing... :)
The field was wet, what other option was there?!

Chillin on the sidelines,
routing for the hometeam
with our homemade pompons :)

this is a funny action shot if you could
zoom in on the kid about to be smacked by the ball :)
We are the green and white stripes, a few of these are my kids

adorable!?
[This is the kid who hid in the closet though :)]

another cute little hellion,
this kid won't do a lick of work when he's supposed to,
and his twin is the same
(though not in my class thankfully)
This is also the kid who enjoys giving love-bites,
and random little yips throughout the day,
can't stay mad at him for long!

again, if only you could judge
them solely on their photogenic abilities
instead of their attitudes in class :)

and the sweet cheerleaders who did their
act numerous times throughout the event.
All of course american songs, and
almost inappropriate for a catholic school I think...I also just wanted to mention that my computer says it is currently 86° here and 48° back home....

Grades and Freedom

Sunday marked the end of the Copa Libertad, or the Freedom Cup soccer tournament I talked about last time. Wednesday night they held the opening ceremony. It was quite the show too. Thousands of kids were there from different schools around the area to compete and they all filed in ceremoniously to a band playing. So important are we that celebrities showed up to watch: some guys from the local soccer team, Santos, along with a local boxer. After speeches were made, flag salutes held, and anthems sung, the first games went underway. Jenna Victor and I watched much of the older boys soccer game until Jenna and I decided we should head back to finish our planbooks due tomorrow.
Thursday and Friday at school were very much days of Freedom for the students. My kids watched 2 games the first day and 1 the second and didn't get much else done the rest of the day. I think I went to the fewest games probably as well. In the upper grades they have so many kids on different teams and brothers or sisters to watch, they could be outside all day long. I dont think secondary teachers did anything at all really, primary maybe a little more, and I did a bit. We did make pompons, and for the most part they were well behaved. Soccer is The Sport here as you know so I guess that helps keep their attention span up. To be seen and heard around the school: huge blowup bottles of Gatorade -the apparent sponsor, music always blasted from different sets of speakers (mostly american and not what I would expect to hear while walking past statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary), many (too many?!) random kids and adults everywhere, cheering, begging for gatorade tickets (free cup with a ticket), jerseys and cleats worn all day by over half the population...
I had 2 kids on the 4-5 yr old team which was really fun to watch. They swarm around the ball like little bees and even fight over control with their own teammates. They are still however, far better than their age group in the states! And their parents on the sidelines were quite intense as well. They won both of their games we watched and ended up getting 1st place! The older kids in my class were pretty good too. I dont know their final standings, but they won the game we watched as well.
On friday many games were postponed due to excessive rainfall. The main fields were flooded so they were giving them time to dry out through the afternoon. After school on my way to Jenna's room I had to stop and laugh at the importance placed on this event... There were 5 janitorial workers trying hard to quickly rid the field of water. The three on the sidelines were digging a small hole in which to funnel the water into and then procede to empty it by 5gallon pails as it continued to fill up, the pails were taken off the scene somewhere to be emptied and refilled again. The two men in the middle of the field were using a shop-vac to suck out as much excess as they could. I thought it was comical. That was the last of my experience with the Copa, I did not go back at all this weekend, but it was still quite busy all weekend.

Friday night I went to aerobics. bad idea. It was an intense workout filled with all sorts of lunges, squats, leg lifts, along with some arm/upperbody workouts. Sad to say, I can still feel it today...
Saturday we took a long-ish taxi ride to the big Galerias Mall. This mall is much more american than the others - A large food court (complete with choice asian cuisine, burger king, dairy queen, and other more mexican options), escalators/elevators, decent clothing stores, corner department stores that could have definitely been in america with both the products they carried and the music they played. I didn't really need anything though, and was just along for the ride.
Afterward, Victor invited us over to his aunts in the neighboring town, Gomez, for a 'bbq.' This is what we called it but really he just wanted hotdogs wrapped in bacon, so that is what we had. I had 4 to be exact ;) It was fun, a lot of chatting, a lot of laughs, and even some cable tv watching! We stayed overnight in hopes we could catch the hot air balloons on sunday... no such luck though as they were at 7am! So the fun must stop and we must go back to work. No one wanted to cook supper either so we hit one of our local favorites Opas, and, though not appropriately dressed for it, we watched the Santos win 1-0.
Back in the life of school... kindergarten grades were due today. This has really been making me think about their levels the last week or so and I am happy to report that I can already see such a change in them! It is exciting to think how much more they say to me in English now. Though not as much as I should, I make them ask me all the regular questions that come up throughout the day in English, about the bathroom, pencils, going outside, having questions, etc. I can see them learning! :) I think that will be one cool thing about this placement here; on the one hand, it is a bigger challenge to have to push through the language barrier, but on the other hand, English is one of the things I am teaching them and it is be so obvious when they learn some of it!
One super cute moment I had: I put one of my centers as tying your shoes in order to check who can and cannot for the grade book. One kid did not know how but through the 10 mins or so we were in that center he kept at it. When he finally got it the first time by himself without help he was glowing! it was adorable and after doing the excited high five with me, he went around the classroom to show off his work, first to Jenna who happened to be visiting and then to other students who of course didn't much care. But man was that cute :) His brain is like a sponge though, and he is always throwing english words in the mix much more often than the others.
another fun bside - we are in the process of (hopefully) acquiring tickets to the Juanes concert coming to town!!!