Say a little prayer for me...

Well...I don't want to jinx it BUT I might have a job!  I interviewed today & I would have had the job right there on the spot but, alas, I don't have a visa to work in the country.  But I do have a visa to be here (my tourist visa doesn't end until December) so technically I am not an illegal alien yet! 

Anyways..I interviewed at a school today and it went really well.  The administrator was very nice and seemed excited about hiring me but he was hesitant because I don't have a visa.  And this is Mexico so it could take a ridiculously long time to get it.  Bureaucracy and all that business.  But I'm supposed to bring all my official information (diplomas, passport copies, birth certificates) back to the school tomorrow morning & they're going to go to immigration and see what they say.  Hopefully they say yes because I am bored!  If I get the job I'll be working from 10-2 Monday through Friday teaching 3-9 year olds English.  I can guarantee I won't be bored after that. Hopefully it works out because the other schools I applied at have yet to call me back.  Jerks. 


Anyways, here are some pictures from yesterday.  Octavio & I scoped out the school before my interview today.  Good thing too because it's a little tricky to find! 

We got caught in a rainstorm on our walk home so we had to take shelter under an overhang and wait for it to pass.

One minute it's sunny, the next it's pouring.  Xalapa weather is just as crazy as Kansas weather.

We stopped right next to a Women's Clinic waiting for the storm to pass so I took a picture of the "Ultrasonido Diagnostico" sign for my mom. 

Waiting for the storm to pass.  Octavio says umbrellas are for girls.

Neat looking tree roots in the middle of the street.

Incense & Cotton Candy.

Well let's see...what's new...I still don't have a job so I'm still very bored during the day while Octavio's off learning how to cook and speak a whole new dialect of English.  I do however...drumroll please...have an interview tomorrow morning.  So hopefully that goes well!  And hopefully they aren't put off by the fact that I don't have my visa & they'd have to write a letter to immigration & some stuff for me to get it.  A lot of hard work, I know.  We've been doing a lot of wandering around in our free time.  It's actually a very enjoyable way to pass the time because this is Mexico and you never quite know what you're going to run into on any given day.  Last Thursday we came across about 75 older people dancing salsa in a park.  Apparently they do it every Thursday so maybe next time I'll remember to bring my camera and get some pictures.  On Saturday we decided we'd explore this cute little alleyway with a bunch of bars in it (like the Irish Pub) and on our way we ran into these lovely people performing some kind of ancient ritual/ceremony. 

I loved these little kids.  They just walked right through the ritual/ceremony thing and plopped down in front.

This guy, however, was by far my favorite.  The cotton candy vendor.  He saw a crowd forming and jumped at the chance to sell his cotton candy to the onlookers.  He just weaved his way through the crowd & in front of everyone not minding at all what was going on.  I loved the juxtaposition of him hawking his cotton candy & the ritual going on behind him, both paying no mind to the other.

This picture sadly is blurry.  I have about 5 other blurry pictures of this little girl too because she was quite possibly the cutest thing ever and my camera would just not cooperate with me despite my best efforts.

Later we found a cute little bar with a patio and drank some beers and people watched.  I tried to order a chelada, just beer and lots of lime, but the waitress misunderstood me and brought me a michelada, beer with tomato juice and spices.  It was an unfortunate mistake to make.  After that I stuck to just plain old beer, no mistaking that for something else!  gross...

We outran another storm, a common theme to our life in Xalapa...

And Octavio baked his first cake in his pastry class!  He got to bring half of it home with him.  I could get used to this.

Please take note of the creepy clown head decoration.

Also, Octavio's teacher taught him a new English word.  New to not only Octavio, but the world.  To arrange.  I guess I should clarify, the word is not new, just the use of it.  His class had to make sentences using the word to arrange and one of his classmates sentences was, "I arrange my radio."  Apparently, you can also use the word "to arrange" in place of the word "to fix."  According to Octavio's English teacher they are synonyms.  Octavio, knowing this time that that was not the correct usage, raised his hand and said something to the teacher but his teacher was sure that it was also proper to use it in this context.  Octavio just gave up and accepted the answer.  Not before coming home and telling me all about it though!  His homework for tomorrow is to come up with a list of 10 career choices in English.  Shouldn't be hard he said then started listing off jobs, "doctors, teachers, hookers..."  What a jokester.   

English as a Second Language

I have now successfully applied to three different jobs.  I've tried to contact a whole bunch more but haven't heard back from any of them yet.  One is at an English school in town & they said they are going to email me back with a time for an interview.  Another is at a private school literally across the street from my apartment and they said they will call me after reviewing my resume.  Another is for a preschool English teaching position.  Octavio called the preschool today and asked about the job.  They told him he could apply but they were actually looking more for a woman for the preschool position.  So he said oh ok, well do you have an email address to send information to because I have a friend who might be interested. AKA-me!  So that is how I got out of calling them on the phone but still applying.

Octavio has started school.  He came home yesterday worried that it was going to be harder than he thought and his French class was really hard.  Then he came home today with a question from his English class.

"What is to essay?"
"An essay?" I said, "like a paper you write for class."
"No, to essay.  Does it make sense to say I like to essay."
"No, that's not a real thing."
"Yeah!  That's what I thought!  My English teacher asked what we like to do after school and someone said ensallar mi piano, (which means to practice my piano) and he wrote on the board 'to essay the piano.'"
"Yeah...that's not a real thing."

Now Octavio is skeptical of his English teacher because he seems to know more English than him.  The teacher also told them acceptable responses to the question how are you? are I'm blue or I'm peachy.  I told him they made sense & people would understand but no one really said those things.  Except my mom.  (also the reason Octavio already knew about the use of the word 'peachy')

In other news:  Here are pictures of our furnished apartment!  And some of a very studious Octavio. 

Octavio putting our couch together.  He claims that Mexicans don't read instructions.  Which really only means I read the instructions to him.

Octavio studying like the good student he is at our kitchen table.  I think he's just really excited he finally has a chair to sit in!

Our little kitchen area.

More of our kitchen & my beautiful curtains billowing in the breeze.

Our table with our new chairs.  We were definitely the most excited for these to arrive.  We got them on sale because they were a little damaged.  The legs are slightly uneven but nothing a little cardboard folded up under one leg won't fix!  We were waiting for these guys who carry chairs they've made on their backs & walk around neighborhoods selling them to come by.  Octavio said he saw them every day practically before I came but once we needed them they were no where to be found.  My dad said a sure fire way to find them would be to buy different chairs.  Sure enough, two days after these arrived the guys were back in our neighborhood toting their chairs for sale around!

Our "furnished" living room.  Octavio thinks it's funny I called it that since all it really is is a futon and a table.  Still. better than nothing!

I tried to get a better shot of my curtains :)

Part of our bedroom.

Desk area of the bedroom

Closet area of the bedroom.

And now you've seen it all!  Well except the bathroom but that's pretty standard.  So now that you've seen pictures it's probably about time to see it in person...aka come visit me :)

I need a job.

Our chairs & couch finally came!  We waited and waited and of course during the 2 hour period we gave up waiting, they came.  Luckily we were only next door at my host moms house so Octavio could run over and help them unload everything.  So now our apartment is complete.  The only thing missing is Lola, my kitten graduation present!  Octavio's sisters cat had kittens when he was living at home & he picked one out for my graduation present.  Then the sneaky little guy told me once I got here we had to go to Tres Valles to get her.  If there's one way to get me over my nervousness of meeting his whole family at once it's bribery with a kitten and he knew it. 

Octavio's started school now.  His first day was cancelled due to the hurricane.  Apparently there were supposed to be big storms as a result of it in Xalapa but it just rained for part of the day then was sunny the rest of the day.  I used the day to apply for some jobs at English schools in town but so far have heard nothing back.  Octavio's really excited about school, his (second) first day went well and he can't wait to start cooking things.  I can't wait either because they get to bring home everything they make, including what they make in his pastry class! mmmm...

Now I'm just looking for jobs and hoping I find one soon because it's really boring all day by myself!

I would have a classic first day of school picture to post here but Octavio wouldn't let me take one.  He says once he gets his uniform though he'll let me take one so look forward to that. 

A Laid Back Saturday

Much to my disappointment, our couch & chairs did NOT get delivered yesterday.  Apparently there was some problem with the truck so they will be coming on Monday.  I was very frustrated so I let out a string of a few of the cuss words I knew in Spanish, much to Octavio's amusement.  It probably sounded a lot like a little kid cussing what with my pronunciation and all.

Speaking of small children, we had the pleasure of having lunch with one today.  We had lunch in the centro after we went to an orientation for Octavio's school that starts Monday.  They invited all the students and their guardians so I went as the role of guardian.  I am his emergency contact after all.  We were starving afterwards so instead of making lunch at home we ate downtown immediately following his meeting.  When we were shown to our table there was a little girl already seated at it.  She was reluctant to go back to her own table with her mom but did anyways, for a while at least.  Her mom was deep in conversation with someone at the table so she either didn't notice or couldn't be bothered that her daughter kept running over to our table.  She sat next to me, she crawled over me & sat on the back of our booth, she stole our sugar and salt and poured it in her hand and licked it out.  Then she proceeded to steal Octavio's bread.  It was funny at first, especially because the little girl was really cute, but it got serious when she tried to steal the strawberries off my pancakes.  Luckily all it took was a lo siento, no and she backed off.  Then she decided I was messy & needed help because she took my napkin & tried to tuck it into my shirt as a little bib.  I had to admit, that was pretty funny.  The girl was nuts though, running around barefoot causing havoc in the resteraunt with her mom barely noticing.  And when she did she would go pick her up, laugh, and call her a "salvaje"  or "savage"  A cute little savage but a savage all the same.

Then Octavio & I walked to Walmart, like a 30 minute walk, to get groceries and a few things we needed for the apartment and decided to save the 20 pesos on a cab home and walk back with our bags.  So we used the money we saved by walking on beer.  A good trade off.

We let our stomachs rest a bit in the park after lunch before walking home.  

These people were some sort of security patrol in training.  I just liked the pink backpacks they all had, super intimidating.

 

I'm a sucker for anyone in a cowboy hat so this cute little old man in the park caught my eye.

 

I saw a bunch of Boone's Farm at the store in the wine section & it reminded me of home :)

Octavio & I treated ourselves to beer after saving money walking to and from Walmart instead of taking the cab so we bought my favorite beer, Indio.

Octavio enjoyed his watching the Mexican vs. France soccer game on his computer.  Mexico won.

 Tomorrow we're going to translate my resume so hopefully I can find a job next week.  Everyone, cross your fingers for me!  Maybe say a little prayer, send good thoughts my way, anything really, I'll need the help!  I hate interviewing in English, let alone Spanish!!

A picture's worth a thousand words

To start things off, here are a few pictures of our unfurnished apartment.  Slowly but surely we're getting it put together but you can consider these the "before" pictures:

Here is our completely empty living room.  Our couch is being delivered tomorrow!

                                            

Here is our little kitchen with Octavio cooking.  Contrary to popular belief, I have made meals in here (2 to be exact, spaghetti & macaroni & cheese.  I leave the rest to Octavio.)

Right now our table is in our little hallway by the bathroom but soon it will be moved to the living room.  Which I guess will make it a living/dining room.  Right now we only have a computer chair so Octavio eats his meals leaning against the wall like this.  I try to convince him to take the chair but he's ever a gentleman & won't accept.  I don't complain.  Tomorrow though we'll finally have 2 official chairs for the table!

This is part of our bedroom and my pride & joy, the curtains.  Note the craftmanship.  That's right, I made those puppies with my own two hands.  They started out as nothing more than a strip of fabric and with scissors, a needle, and thread, I made them into the masterpiece you see before you today.  Soon to come, curtains for the kitchen & living room.

This sign in a park downtown at first just said if you bring pets, pick up their excrements but some smartypants with a marker wrote in "ninos" about the mascotas word (sorry it's hard to see in the picture!) to make the sign read, if you bring pets or children, pick up their excrement.

 Part of the park downtown that we wandered around

I was of course attracted to the horses for children to ride in the park.  

Wall mural on some random wall downtown.

A little piece of Irish pride, even in Xalapa.

I couldn't pass up the Shalom sign either.  Some sort of restaurant next to the Irish Pub.  They were closed when we walked by though so we'll have to explore them at a later date.

A different park downtown with loads of vendors, shoeshine men, and balloons for sale.  (Octavio got his shoes shined here before he picked me up at the airport!)

And last but certainly not least, a little homage to my tropical sno days:  the traveling shaved ice cart.  This guy hand shaved the ice!  Too bad it was no good.  I should have given him some pointers from my snow cone knowledge learned over the years.