Welcome Back

Being home for ten days was nice. I missed my kitten and my boyfriend but was glad to have friends nearby. Now I'm back in the heart and heat of Mexico.

Octavio picked me up at the airport and we took a bus back to Tres Valles where Octavio's family lives and where he had been spending his vacation. I love coming to visit Octavio's family and playing with his little brother and nieces, not to mention there's always kittens to be found somewhere. But I hate the heat. There is no way I could live here year round. It's winter and it's in the 80s. And the cement houses seem to just hold all the heat in. After a week in the heat without it I really value airconditioning! I'll take Xalapa's 45 degree weather without heat over this anyday!

Now, to add to what Octavio is calling my True Mexican Experience, the water pump system at the house is broken so we have to shower old school style (also Octavio's words) with a bucket of water and a cup. Luckily, I just chopped about 2 1/2 inches of hair off so it's much easier to wash!

Showering old school I don't mind but I knew I would have problems when Octavio told me his neighbors/cousins were planning on butchering their pig (who I had grown quite fond of on my last visit!) There was no way I was sticking around to see or hear that so Octavio & I spent the night at his aunt and uncle's house so we wouldn't be there when they did the deed early the next morning. I may be a kansas/missouri girl but let's be honest, I was raised in Leawood and am this close to being a vegetarian. I'm far too connected to the food chain for my own comfort here.

The bright side is Lola has loved being able to climb trees and walls and chase bugs and leaves until her heart is content. And I've won over Octavio's shy little brother and nieces with my video game and hungry hungry hippo playing skills which I brought them for Christmas. Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I'm excited to celebrate it with everyone here and see what happens!

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Confusing Calendar

It should not be this hard to figure out if I have to work or not.  I've called my school every day this week, except for the day I showed up in person, and can't get a straight answer out of anyone.  Well, that's not entirely true, so far I've only spoken with the secretary but each time she says someone is supposed to call me and no one ever does.  This morning she asked for my cell number because she said someone tried to call my apartment yesterday and no one answered.  Except, I was here all day and no one called.  I would just show up tomorrow at my usual time but there's an odd schedule for after tests and of course, no one can ever tell me exactly what it is.  One person will tell me something then another person will tell me it's changed then the principal will tell me she doesn't know for sure and to ask someone else and then that other person gives me a completely different answer.  So I have no idea what time my classes start, if they even have English class tomorrow, etc.  So I guess if I don't hear from anyone by this afternoon I'll just show up and hope the principal is there.  It's a school, they have to have a schedule, why can't anyone ever give it to me??

Crazy Cat Lady.

We've been very lucky.  For multiple reasons.  The one I'm thankful for lately is our apartment's amazing location.  We're within walking distance of practically everything we could ever need or want.  (slight overstatement, I'm not within walking distance of horses or friends in Kansas but...you get my point.)  I can walk to work, Octavio can walk to school.  A new supermarket was built right before I moved here within 5 minutes walking distance from our apartment.  And most important lately it seems, we're within walking distance from our vet.  Just down the block actually.  I feel like we're there once a week.  I'm sure the vet feels the same way.  Luckily, he's very nice and doesn't say anything about the obscene amount of times we visit him.  First, we were on a schedule to make sure Lola got all her shots and vaccines.  Sometimes we had to visit him several times a week because the first time we went they didn't have the correct vaccine for cats.  Apparently, most people in Mexico don't worry too much about getting their cats vaccinated or anything unless they're some kind of super fancy breed.  Which, as much as I love Lola and think she's the best cat ever, she's not.  She's just your average (or highly above average in my opinion) orange cat.  But as we're planning on bringing her back to the U.S. with us and dragging her through customs we thought it best to make sure she has all her shots so we can avoid any problems in the future.  Last week we got her spade.  We wanted to avoid any "premios" as our vet likes to say.  (prizes- aka surprise kittens)  And Lola has recently decided that she is fully healed and doesn't need her stitches any more so she has taken it upon herself to remove them.  I can't decide if that move was particularly bad ass of her or just a pain in the ass of her since we then felt like we should take her, once again, back to the vet.  She's doing fine but as I was lugging her back home (she's been eating a lot lately!) I realized how fortunate it was that we were just a short walk away from this particular destination.

School Day Woes

Well, the principal was supposed to call me yesterday to let me know what was going on this week.  Yesterday when I showed up one of the other English teachers told me another teacher was administering the tests.  She didn't know, however, if that was just for yesterday or if that was for the whole week.  The English tests are in three parts, spelling, grammar, and history and they are split up into three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  So, surprise, surprise, the principal did not call me yesterday.  Luckily, I don't have to be there early in the morning because I'd be pretty frustrated if I woke up at 6:00 AM or sometime unnecessarily.  As it is, I'm still wandering around my apartment before I can go run any errands that I was planning to do today after school.  I called the school and the secretary (a super nice lady) told me she didn't know but would ask and have the same English teacher call me back.  She sounded concerned that I didn't know so I trust her to pass along the question.  And luckily, she's passing along the question to the English teacher I consider my friend so I know she won't accidentally forget about me as it seems the principal did.  Understandable, because she's always running around doing a million things at school but still...a heads up would have been nice.  It's easy for me to overlook all these things though since everyone at the school is friendly and nice as opposed to my first school where everyone barely agnowledged me when I said buenos dias and if I had called like I did today and said hi, this is Maggie, I would have gotten a dead line of confusion rather than an hola!    It's the little things...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Xalapa

 Octavio & I went down to the centro last night to see some of the Christmas decorations. Here are a few pictures.

The giant Christmas tree in the plaza by the cathedral.

 A Nativity scene by the giant Christmas tree.

Felicidades.

more lights downtown.

more lights and decorations.

 

The soccer National Championship was last night.  Los Tigres from Monterrey won and some avid supporters showed up downtown after the game honking their horns and getting out to cheer and dance.  They even had their own mascot.

 

Octavio & I by the Christmas tree again.

Peace be with you

Just Another Manic Monday

It's Monday.  The start of the week where no one really wants to get up and go to work after their weekend.  But, I pulled myself out of bed with thoughts of being home at the end of this week propelling me.  Imagine my surprise when I show up to work only to find out they don't need me today!  Actually, to be honest, it wasn't much of a surprise because this has happened rather frequently since I've been working at this school.  Luckily, I only live 5 minutes away walking so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience.  Except for the fact that I won't get paid for today of course.  I love Mexico's laid back atmosphere but I can't get used to that kind of thinking when it comes to working.  I'm still acting as though I'm working at home where if they say we need you here at 9:30 and you stroll in at 9:30 you're late.  So I've been showing up about 15 minutes before they tell me I need to be there and I end up sitting around for at least half an hour.  And, surprisingly, it's a hard habit to break.  Like today, my class was supposed to start at 10:00 so I got there at about 9:35 thinking I'd help with recess before class started.  Too bad I didn't leave just a bit later because I walked in right as they were about to call me to tell me not to come in.  It's testing today so they have the main second grade teacher testing all the second graders.  Probably a good thing since I made four boys cry on Friday.

But that's a different story.  And I guess, in my defense, I didn't make them cry, the principal did.  But the same four boys kept acting out in class and wouldn't pay attention, listen to the instructions, stay in their seats or stay quiet.  So when the principal stopped by to check how we were doing I told her the truth.  And boy, did the disciplinarian come on full force in her.  They hadn't responded to my threats or even when I got down on their level and talked in the scary voice I'd heard my mom use growing up.  Well, it did work but only for a few minutes.  As soon as I moved away to teach or talk to another student they were right back to their old tricks again.  They don't know me yet, I've only been in their classroom for a couple of days.  But they know the principal.  And they know she doesn't mess around.  The terrified looks on their faces when they were called out into the hall showed it.  So a few minutes later, after some indistinct yelling where we could only catch a few words like "suspendido" (suspended) and "tus padres" (your parents) they came back in crying.  I was doing my best to distract the other students so they wouldn't listen in on their classmates embarrassing punishment but it was no use.  I was actually a little excited to see if they'd be scared straight and how they would behave today but looks like I won't get the chance. 

Pueblo Magico

Pictures from our day trip to Coatepec. (see below for post about Coatepec)

the outside of one of the churchs in Coatepec.

part of the market/street vendors we stumbled across, luckily before it started to rain!

more street vendors

one of the churches.  This one was right across from the park in the centro.

the main square/park

main square/park

everyone was getting into the Christmas spirit, Santa rode around the square waving at everyone.

church.

City Hall.

a different view of City Hall

more of the centro.

another church.

this is called tapetes de aserrin.  It's a design on the street made out of dyed wood chips.  It was super intricate and all I could think about was how lucky it was that it wasn't a windy day.

Church of Our Lady of Guadelupe. 

Tomorrow is the day the Virgin of Guadelupe appeared to Juan Diego so all of this is part of the celebration.

This is all tiny wood chips also.  Like I said, super intricate.

It went ALL the way down the street only stopping for intersections.

church.

Christmas shopping

Today, Octavio and I finished our christmas shopping in one fell swoop. We took a bus (well two busses really because the first bus broke down) to the neighboring town of Coatepec. Coatepec is one of my favorite towns ever. It's got small town charm and all the great fresh, hand brewed coffee you could want since that's where all the coffee plants are. So we hit up all the artesenia shops near the town square and found plenty of great gifts. We were also lucky enough to stumble into several open air markets where we found a few gems for family and friends. Coatepec is considered a pueblo magico or magic town because they meet certain standards like cleanliness, great architecture, traditions, etc. There are 42 in mexico and another, Xico, is right by Xalapa as well so we're planning on going there after New Years because it's really cute also. Plus, Octavio has a friend who has a family business of horse back tours so I've been promised we'll get to do that also. And you can bet I'll be holding him to that promise!

Pictures to come courtesy of Octavio, the official photographer of all our adventures, big and small.

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My Hiatus

oh, hello there.  It's been a while but for a while there wasn't much to tell.  My school gave me a 2-3 week hiatus while they figured out how best to use me (their words not mine) and during those 2-3 weeks days seemed to blur together with a lot of browsing the internet, wandering while Octavio was in school, and halfway searching for a new job in case my school came to the conclusion that they didn't have a need for me after all.  But luckily, I got a call on Monday asking me to come in and talk to the principal.  After some chitchat and talk about how I liked the school and how long I planned to be in Xalapa she asked if I'd like to work there editing English papers and handouts and acting as a substitute teacher until the next school year when they'd find me a class of my own.  (I kind of though that was the deal we'd already agreed upon so I just nodded & said that'd be great)  So that's what I've been doing.  The kids are still great and the teachers still nice.  Thursday while I was helping at recess a group of 4th grade girls gathered around me asking me to say different words in Spanish & then giggling like mad when I did.  (4th grade girls: Say Spanish in Spanish.  Me: Espanol   4th grade girls: No!  Espanol!!  hahahahaha Me: Isn't that what I said??)  Then when they got bored with that they switched to asking me how to say different words in English ( 4th grade girls:  How do you say "nachos" in English?  Me: Nachos.  4th grade girls:  Oh. ) 

Octavio, being the busy beaver and over achiever ( hey! that rhymes!) that he is got an internship with his pastry chef at school.  His chef owns a pastry shop so Octavio has been helping him there (a lot!) but he's really been enjoying everything he's learning.  I've been enjoying his practicing what he's learning at home but not his working so much.  Good thing I have Lola to keep me company! 

I'm going home for Christmas in 14 days (not that I'm counting down or anything) and I'm really looking forward to it. I already have my meals all planned out.  Pizza (for some reason the pizza here is just..lacking.)  Barbecue (which is weird because I'm not a big meat fan but I could really go for some Jack Stack right about now) Chinese food, and ironically enough, Mexican food.  But American, fake, Mexican food.  Like chips and cheese dip Mexican food.  Luckily, I have a brother who is always up for meals out so I know I'll have a companion on my reunion with all the foods I've been missing.

And last but not least, pictures.

It's been cold here the last couple of weeks and Lola has taken to curling up in blankets or just crawling all the way under them.  We have to check bumps in the bed to make sure we don't sit on her on accident.

We made a pizza one night and this is Octavio spreading the dough.  Octavio made the dough and the sauce, I put the toppings on.  Even, right?

The pizza's before they went in the oven.  Octavio decided to get fancy & make a pan pizza also.

Preparing our Thanksgiving meal.  We opted for a smaller chicken instead of a turkey since it was only the two of us.

The finished product.

Our mini Thanksgiving.  I made green beans and mashed potatoes.  And I made gravy from scratch.  Be impressed. 

Octavio & his friend Soco.  Octavio is trying to play with Soco's spare instrument- a donkey jaw.

Soco was playing in a charity concert for Las Patronas, a group of women who provide food and water to immigrants from Central America traveling by train so we went to watch one weekend.

The main stage set up at the event.

Thank you letters from travelers to the patronas.

Octavio called me a creeper but this kid in his St. Louis Cardinals hat caught my eye.

a dance group at the Patronas event.

A really weird theatre group.  Everything centered around suitcases.

Of course I made friends with a dog.

Some acrobats performed at the event as well.

Soco's band performing.

There was another event going on at the same time nearby.

Lola has gotten into the habit of jumping onto your back anytime you bend down for any reason.  She's like a monkey, it gets a little ridiculous but it's humorous none the less.