Now I have:
Early work out , followed by a 9-10 Am Spanish session with Amer, followed by 3 hours of TESOL, lunch, school, and then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have another Spanish Conversation with Darian. I will arrive home between 7 and 8:30 PM depending on the day.
Major Bummer!! The washer is broken and may remain that way for the duration of my stay.
The temperature cools off in the evening but the house stays REALLY hot until about 3 AM. We have escaped to the roof to get out of the heat.
YUM!! Almuerzo (lunch)
We live across the street from a school. There are two turns as they call them for classes. The first turn goes to school from 7AM to 1 or 2 PM depending on the day. The second turn goes from 1PM to 8PM. There are 1000 students in each turn. It is a secondary school which is equivalent to our Jr. High. The band practices in the morning and in the evening 7 days a week. Early in the morning (7AM) the loud speaker is on with announcements and music. Every evening before classes get out, this van (below) shows up for 40 minutes with a loud speaker that repeats over and over, pan….pan…pan…pan de dulce…pan…pan…pan…..pan de dulce. There are several different gas trucks (propane) that come down our street throughout the day with a loud speacker, el gas….el gas….el gas….atencion y servicio….el gas….el gas. So…..what I want to say is, I LONG FOR PEACE & QUIET, big time. On Sunday the TV does not get turned on which is soooo nice. Yesterday was peaceful for the most part. I will never take “the quiet” for granted again.
This is the pan de dulce van.
Guayabas, YUM! Chapulines (grasshoppers)
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Today was a great day at school. We made peanut buteer playdough and then we ate it. We all had sticky fingers.
We got caught in a big rainstorm on the way home from school with granizo (hail). They were large and hurt when they hit us in the head. It was great fun. We were soaked when we returned home.
On Sunday I went to breakfast with some friends and I ate Huevos Divorciados. They were just like I am used to only there were two of them. One with green sauce and one with red. This week I have also eaten Guayaba. I had eaten Guayaba IceCream in Costa Rico but never knew what the fruit looked like. I also tried Capulines which look just like cherries only the fruit inside is green. The girls and I at home had popcorn with a ton of hotsauce on it. The sauce is similar to Cholula back home. I am becoming addicted to this sauce and limes which we eat on EVERYTHING.
I finished the book, The Book Thief which was great. Thanks Kelcey for the recommendation. I really enjoyed it. When I lost all the information on my hard drive, I lost my library card number so I am unable to download library books.
Today I helped clean chile’s. That was easy as I have done it many times before. I wish I could tell you all the delicious food that I have eaten here so far. Some days I eat 4 times which is good and bad. Every morning I have milk with either a banana or mango in the blender. Then sometime between 11 and 12 I have breakfast, then at 3:00 I have lunch, then if I can stay awake until 11:00, I have dinner. Everything is muy rico. Oh yeah and I eat churro’s also since all I have to do to get one is walk downstairs and pay 3.5 peso’s.
Night before last I went to see Agua para elefantes with a group of 9 girls. Five of them are from here and friends of another teacher, Angela. Then there were the 4 of us teachers. It did not start until 10:30 which is usually about my bedtime. We were lucky that we got a ride home and arrived here just after 1:00 AM. It was a great show as was expected since I had read the book.
On Monday I started daily sessions speaking Spanish with Amer, the dad where I live. I ‘m enjoying that. We meet in the store from 9-10 in the morning. There are many customers. t is easy to understand the customers since they are asking for things that I am familiar with. Amer sales so many different things in the store that I am amazed each day. This week he purchased a new copy machine which is a big change from what he had to the huge one that he has now. He is the only person in the neighborhood who has one and it is a big part of his business. Then between customers we speak in Spanish. This is giving me the opportunity to learn about things that I normally would not have the opportunity to. I am really enjoying it.
My flat mate Kristin from New Zealand has taken a job in Korea to teach English for a year so she will be leaving within a couple of weeks. I will definitely miss her.
Isn’t this funny? They are using the logo’s from Burger King and McDonalds.
I have been bummed about not having more exposure speaking Spanish. Yesterday I started Spanish sessions with Amer, the father here where I live.
I am paying him for an hour per day. I go downstairs for an hour while he is working in the store and attempt to interpret conversations with customers and then talk with Amer when there are no customers in the store. Yesterday he had to go to the bank to make a deposit and he asked me if I wanted to come. It was a perfect opportunity for me as I still had to change my US Dollars for Pesos.
His bank does not change money so we had to walk another mile or better to another bank. He was a good sport. It was the worst experience I have had changing money in another country. Finally he just had them do it in his name which still was quite a process.
An old student of Kristin’s gave her a candied apple today. It was covered in chile, tamarind, and sugar made into a sticky substance. It was another new taste. It is easy to get addicted to the chili flavor on everything.
Cuando a el Zocolo hoy, compre cacahuetes con chili, limon y sal.
I won’t make you Gringos translate.
While at the Zocolo today, I bought peanuts with chili, lime and salt. They were pretty spicy which forced me to buy a beer.
