Thursday, October 9, 2008

Whew!

Quite a full week... Tuesday school (Religion and the Cupid Shuffle--a random combination) and tae-box at the gym, Wednesday school and some lesson planning--Nirvana's asked me to help put together a "Lab Manual" for the other teachers, so that everyone can take fuller advantage of their time in the Laboratories, which have computer access, TV, stereo, etc... thankfully, it's something I really enjoy and have lots of practice with thanks to my TESOL certification program.

Wednesday evening I headed for Toluca, to take advantage of the half-price movies (it's $2.60--even cheaper than the Ogden! Can't see a bad movie for that price :)), with Victoria and Memo. We saw Mirrors, with Keifer Sutherland--worst idea ever. I didn't watch over half of the movie cause I was freeeaked. Bad news bears.

Today our topic was stereotypes, and I started by asking my students about stereotypes they have about others... they were pretty timid/respectful at first, but then the conversation switched to Spanish, and I told them I wouldn't be offended by anything they had to say--THEN the hands started going up. I heard a lot of things I expected to hear, like "All Americans eat fast food," and "All Americans are really concerned with fashion." Things like that are relatively easy to answer; it's a lot of hay de todo, you get every kind in every culture-- that yes, some people DO eat fast food, it's quite convenient if nothing else; yes, some people ARE very concerned about being current with their styles, but not everyone-- and I think I was able to get through to them that Hollywood isn't representative the whole United States. Then the conversation took a different turn-- I told them they could ask me anything, and I would answer it as honestly as I could and as specifically or as broadly as the question required... I got asked about "college girls," if they're really as crazy as they seem in the movies, if Latin men are really more passionate than US men...

Then one student, Mark Anthony, asked me about immigration. What I think, what the rest of the country thinks... and boy, did I have plenty to say (Gracias a ti, Profesora Beatson...)-- I won't go into it all here, but ask me about it sometime. I didn't want the class to end on a negative note, so we came back to a relatively lighter subject, that of "groups" or "cliques" in junior high/high school-- it really makes me wish I'd brought Mean Girls to watch with them. Oh well, next week is Crash, which they hopefully understand better after our conversation.

Ah, and I'm getting a housemate! Anne Marie, the French assistant at my school, has decided to live with me! I'm super excited-- not only is she cool, but we're going to teach each other French/English, sticking up vocab words around the house, etc... yes, I'm cheesy, and I love it. :) It will also be nice to have the company. Things do get a bit lonely sometimes.

Ok. That's enough. Thanks for reading!

Hasta luego~besos!

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