Monday, March 30, 2009

A quick update...

thank you, computer, for your assistance in procrastination.

Really quick... March has been a great month, especially on the weekends...

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Kim in Cuernavaca, and we had a great time. We ate out several times, went shopping, relaxed by her pool, went to a waterpark/river... Cuernavaca is sort of the playground for wealthy chilangos, residents of Mexico City, that come for the weekend, so there is much fun to be had. Expensive fun, but fun. :)

Last week was my last full week before I head off to vacation in Costa Rica... and also one of the last weeks of the quarter, so I took advantage of the time we had left and made a Jeopardy review game of all of their materials from the quarter for the TOEFL students... it ended up being a BLAST. The students had a really good time... some were quicker than others, but generally, it was really fun. :)

This past weekend was quite full... Friday during the day I went to Toluca for some festivities at Memo and Victoria's school, a French film and discussion... I actually understood more than I thought I would, which was fun. My friend Laura called and invited me to a motocross event for that night, and I said sure. So we went into Mexico City with a few of her friends, and let me tell you, I love motocross. Who knew?! I mean. I'm sure if I knew about motocross, it would be old hat, but it was my first time, and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to see if I can put up a video of it so you can see...

Saturday I was invited by my neighbor Francisco to go to Mexico City with a few of his friends to watch the Mexico/Costa Rica game... we went to this nice restaurant, and watched the game, then the mariachis arrived, then a live band played... we were there for a loooong time, but it was fun. :)

Aaaaand... tomorrow I leave for Costa Rica! My friend Courtney is getting married this Saturday, so my friend Hannah and I are going down to help out and then take a little vacation... getting all of Holy Week off is one of the bonuses of living in Latin America. It should be a blast... more to come on that! I'll also be celebrating my 23rd birthday there, which will be great. :)

Thanks for reading, and happy spring!

Besos~

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I forgot it was St. Patrick's Day.

I didn't even wear green! That is so lame.

It has been an eventful past few weeks. Allow me to catch you up, you faithful readers, you...

Since returning from Cancún, I've taken no big trips to speak of. It's been a lot of hanging around here, going out around Toluca and Metepec, and several birthdays, both Memo's and Heather's. Both were very different but equally fun; there was a lot of Mexican music at Memo's surprise party, and puro hip hop at Heather's this past Saturday. My Fulbright friend Kim has come to town each of these three weekends, which has been a blast. She's from Madison, so we have the Midwest connection, and she's just a blast to hang out with. It's my turn to go visit HER in Cuernavaca this weekend. :)

Re: School. My friend and colleague Julio César quit about 3 weeks ago, leaving his 5 classes mid-semester. I don't blame him, there was drama, etc. and it actually worked out great for me, because one of his classes has since been given to me! I feel like a real teacher now. :) So I've been with them, actually giving class, for about a week and a half, and they're very bright, nice and actually (for the most part) do their work and participate. They're level 2-A, so a pretty basic level, but they've all had enough English throughout secondary school that they catch on pretty quick. Every day it's a challenge to keep the material dynamic and interesting, but at the same time fomenting their opportunities to participate and ask questions... but I'm really liking it. I'm still in and out with 15 other groups a week, keeping me quite busy, but thankfully I'm getting into the swing of things.

My next big trip is to Costa Rica for Holy Week, as well as the few days before, to celebrate my friend Courtney's wedding, with Hannah Jane... I leave 2 weeks from today. Egads! Much to do...

Oh yeah, and this weekend my friend Carlos invited me to a temascal, really similar to Native American sweat tents... The structure was made up of black garbage bags and woven rugs, and there was a hole in the ground in the center of the temascal, where white-hot stones were put, then water was poured over the rocks and steam generated... I tell you, I have never sweated that much in my LIFE. Water was streaming from each and every one of my pores... It honestly felt like I was in the shower. But it was cool. It was a little hard to breathe, especially since I was already a bit congested, but I'm glad I did it. After we got out, we had cold water poured on us... Yikes!
Thanks for reading! Besos~