"laughter has no foreign accent."
introductions first of all intros for jess & carolyn are in order
carolyn- originally from Pittsburgh, but went to school in d.c. and lived there several years before joining this program. she was sort-of in my shoes with spanish last year when she got here. now she´s taking classes at a university and doing really well!
jess- from wisconsin. she´s 23 and works with the parish here a lot. her spanish is amazing! my new roommate =)
Jess and Caro have been introducing us to people like whoa. I´m starting to struggle with names. Then Father "presented" us to the parish after mass Friday morning while melissa & i were trying to understand some guy talking to us and before we knew it everyone was looking at us and clapping. it was pretty embarrasing.
water we buy water in the big things that you usually flip over and put on the thing (that´s a really bad description, but hopefully you get it). carolyn and i went to go buy more last night and i was honestly so excited to carry it back to our house, but these two boys carried it for us. i literally had my hands outstretched ready for it. (one of the many differences with gender in mexico vs. us) but one of the boys had a ^zou crew" shirt on. that´s the cheering group for mizzou basketball. i smiled and asked where he got it. didn´t get a real answer, but i enjoyed it anyway.
we have hot water for showering! we turn the gas on several minutes before we get in to warm it up and then turn it off when we´re done.
food they have markets here monday, friday, & saturday where we buy all our veggies and fruit and i am already in love with them! they´re beautiful! we went yesterday and we´re going again today!
new foods i tried
pomegranate- yes i know it´s silly, but i never had one before. DELICIOUS i have no idea how i lived without them for 22 years
tuna- fruit from a cactus. i can´t even think of what i can compare it to
guava water
some sort of bean in a blue tortilla
some sort of warm milk (i have to get used to what these things are called here)
all good & i´m not sick...knock on wood
weather it rains everyday. and gets quite chilly in the evening. i sleep under two blankets every night and i´m comfortable. during the day it´s very comfortable though. the texas/monterrey heat is far behind me. i´d guesstimate it gets around 80 in the afternoon. i got a raincoat during the weekend my parents & karen visited in san antonio and i know i´m going to put it to very good use. by the way, who knew raincoats aren´t like they used to be anymore. i love mine though! thanks mom & dad. =)
work we visited the guadaria thursday to set-up our schedule. it´s so bright and happy there. melissa chose to work with the oldest group (4 & 5 year olds) and I chose to work with the middle group (2 & 3 year olds). I met my future boss Paquita who seems wonderful! She doesn´t speak english so we may have some problems communicating for a while, but i think it will be good for me overall. we start on monday.
recycling i asked jess about recycling here. and it´s not the same at all, but...
she said they put boxes, plastic bottles, etc. on the top of their trash because the trash guys rip open every bag and go through them for stuff they can use so we make it a little easier to put it on top so they can use it. also you can take certain containers back to the store and they reuse them. we do what we can.
trash & gas what a new experience to have trash come around when it choses and you know when it´s coming when you hear the bell and you need to get your trash together and get it out to the trash men. also gas is somewhat similar. they walk around yelling GAS and if you need gas you run out to buy some. then we tote it up the spiral staircases to the roof. which it sounds like can be quite a hassel because it´s heavy.
english classes thursday we taught 3 english classes. (i´m not sure how much help i was, but i was there) the first one was the mid age class (9 & 12 year old brother and sister). we worked with them on english and then played a spanish jenga game so they got to laugh with me on my spanish too. next was a 40 year old woman who worked so hard. she had notes everywhere and continued to dilligently take more. next was a 5 & 6 year old boy and girl. i loved singing head, shoulders, knees and toes with the little girl. she was good! when jess said "i bet Lisa knows this song" i hopped up and said "Lista" (ready) When she kept saying rabbit (with rolled rs) i kept feeling a little pain of jealously as she stretched out her rs and they just kept rolling!
running not going to happen here. i basically know i´m not going to get to run here. i don´t even know what i could compare the city to so you could sort-of understand. the sidewalks are not very wide if there even are any. i did some kickboxing myself thursday & jess, melissa, & i went to a zomba class at a community center friday, which was really fun. it wasn´t just zomba though. i did get to work on my spanish dancing. i definitely need some work. if there was a camera it would be very funny to watch =) they also did other types... even a little kickboxing! she played some oldies in spanish so i sang along a little in english (yes outloud). the best part is it was 10 pesos so a little less than $1. then i jumped rope on our roof while i waited my turn for the shower. i think i just need to become ok with the fact that i´m going to get out of shape while i´m here.
our house our house is very cute. we have a chapel in the front (on the street) and we use a side door to enter the house. (by the way... jesus is much more gruesome, more blood and bones, down here. not my cup of tea) you walk into the kitchen and on the 1st floor there´s the kitchen, living room, a 1/2 bath. on the second floor, up the spiral staircase that i´ve ALWAYS wanted, there´s the bathroom, shower & our bedrooms. I put up some pictures Thursday night so the room feels a little more like i live there. up the next spiral staircase to the roof with the bells (we have 3 bells on our roof) with a great view of santa fe!
it´s so nice when you meet people and they basically say my house is your house, meaning we´re welcome anytime!
transportation it seems we don´t leave santa fe that often so this will mostly be by foot. i´m excited to explore more of santa fe, but i´m remembering my word ´patience´and going with the flow. for some reason i´m really anxious to go to the bottom of the hill, which is one of the worst parts of santa fe (don´t worry i´ll go in the daytime). maybe it´s because i want to experience this massive hill i´ve heard about for weeks.
as i mentioned there are sidewalks on the main roads, but not so much on the sideroads (which i would compare to alleys). i feel like i´m learning new traffic laws "be careful crossing the street because cars don´t always stop at the red lights" i learned quickly to look at buildings and sights we´re passing and not the cars we are centimeters from while riding in cars/vans/buses. We took the bus Friday and it´s a good thing i have a superb eL stance from all my practice in Chicago. I definitely came in handy. Then on the 2nd bus the driver kept reving the engine so at first i thought he was learning how to drive manual and a bus (he looked young), but then he was laughing so i figured he just thought it was fun. THEN on the 3rd bus of the day i realized that´s just how they drive. i think it´ll take me a little bit to get used to which bus takes me where, but i really like that you "hail" the bus (like you would hail a cab in chicago) and there aren´t designated bus stops. it adds to the adventure =)
Friday we took the bus to a nicer area of mexico city... where the "mother house" is. it´s so interesting to see how the surroundings change from our neighborhood. There are green patches vs. here it´s mainly concrete. i mean i even saw a 7 eleven vs. here- none.
time i have no sense of time here. i have no cell phone or watch so i should probably buy a watch, but i don´t like them and i sort-of like just going along and seeing how i feel. maybe i could carry my old cell phone with me, but for now i like it.
i want to give a shout out to the monterrey family for being so hospitable to melissa and i while we were on our journey. i loved seeing your future home & where you´ll be working. although i found the day exhausting (like all days here) i left feeling you´re in good hands (with good water) =) I know our hour late bus on wednesday pushed back your schedule at least an hour too. Sorry.
i don´t have much time for the internet right now as i´m trying to figure out our schedule so i know i have a ton of emails to respond to and i´m sorry. i just figured this would be better for everyone right now as a mass update and i´ll start working my way through the emails as soon as possible. i actually started writing out my entries in my journal and quickly typing them up at internet.
"everything is a once in a lifetime experience."
introductions first of all intros for jess & carolyn are in order
carolyn- originally from Pittsburgh, but went to school in d.c. and lived there several years before joining this program. she was sort-of in my shoes with spanish last year when she got here. now she´s taking classes at a university and doing really well!
jess- from wisconsin. she´s 23 and works with the parish here a lot. her spanish is amazing! my new roommate =)
Jess and Caro have been introducing us to people like whoa. I´m starting to struggle with names. Then Father "presented" us to the parish after mass Friday morning while melissa & i were trying to understand some guy talking to us and before we knew it everyone was looking at us and clapping. it was pretty embarrasing.
water we buy water in the big things that you usually flip over and put on the thing (that´s a really bad description, but hopefully you get it). carolyn and i went to go buy more last night and i was honestly so excited to carry it back to our house, but these two boys carried it for us. i literally had my hands outstretched ready for it. (one of the many differences with gender in mexico vs. us) but one of the boys had a ^zou crew" shirt on. that´s the cheering group for mizzou basketball. i smiled and asked where he got it. didn´t get a real answer, but i enjoyed it anyway.
we have hot water for showering! we turn the gas on several minutes before we get in to warm it up and then turn it off when we´re done.
food they have markets here monday, friday, & saturday where we buy all our veggies and fruit and i am already in love with them! they´re beautiful! we went yesterday and we´re going again today!
new foods i tried
pomegranate- yes i know it´s silly, but i never had one before. DELICIOUS i have no idea how i lived without them for 22 years
tuna- fruit from a cactus. i can´t even think of what i can compare it to
guava water
some sort of bean in a blue tortilla
some sort of warm milk (i have to get used to what these things are called here)
all good & i´m not sick...knock on wood
weather it rains everyday. and gets quite chilly in the evening. i sleep under two blankets every night and i´m comfortable. during the day it´s very comfortable though. the texas/monterrey heat is far behind me. i´d guesstimate it gets around 80 in the afternoon. i got a raincoat during the weekend my parents & karen visited in san antonio and i know i´m going to put it to very good use. by the way, who knew raincoats aren´t like they used to be anymore. i love mine though! thanks mom & dad. =)
work we visited the guadaria thursday to set-up our schedule. it´s so bright and happy there. melissa chose to work with the oldest group (4 & 5 year olds) and I chose to work with the middle group (2 & 3 year olds). I met my future boss Paquita who seems wonderful! She doesn´t speak english so we may have some problems communicating for a while, but i think it will be good for me overall. we start on monday.
recycling i asked jess about recycling here. and it´s not the same at all, but...
she said they put boxes, plastic bottles, etc. on the top of their trash because the trash guys rip open every bag and go through them for stuff they can use so we make it a little easier to put it on top so they can use it. also you can take certain containers back to the store and they reuse them. we do what we can.
trash & gas what a new experience to have trash come around when it choses and you know when it´s coming when you hear the bell and you need to get your trash together and get it out to the trash men. also gas is somewhat similar. they walk around yelling GAS and if you need gas you run out to buy some. then we tote it up the spiral staircases to the roof. which it sounds like can be quite a hassel because it´s heavy.
english classes thursday we taught 3 english classes. (i´m not sure how much help i was, but i was there) the first one was the mid age class (9 & 12 year old brother and sister). we worked with them on english and then played a spanish jenga game so they got to laugh with me on my spanish too. next was a 40 year old woman who worked so hard. she had notes everywhere and continued to dilligently take more. next was a 5 & 6 year old boy and girl. i loved singing head, shoulders, knees and toes with the little girl. she was good! when jess said "i bet Lisa knows this song" i hopped up and said "Lista" (ready) When she kept saying rabbit (with rolled rs) i kept feeling a little pain of jealously as she stretched out her rs and they just kept rolling!
running not going to happen here. i basically know i´m not going to get to run here. i don´t even know what i could compare the city to so you could sort-of understand. the sidewalks are not very wide if there even are any. i did some kickboxing myself thursday & jess, melissa, & i went to a zomba class at a community center friday, which was really fun. it wasn´t just zomba though. i did get to work on my spanish dancing. i definitely need some work. if there was a camera it would be very funny to watch =) they also did other types... even a little kickboxing! she played some oldies in spanish so i sang along a little in english (yes outloud). the best part is it was 10 pesos so a little less than $1. then i jumped rope on our roof while i waited my turn for the shower. i think i just need to become ok with the fact that i´m going to get out of shape while i´m here.
our house our house is very cute. we have a chapel in the front (on the street) and we use a side door to enter the house. (by the way... jesus is much more gruesome, more blood and bones, down here. not my cup of tea) you walk into the kitchen and on the 1st floor there´s the kitchen, living room, a 1/2 bath. on the second floor, up the spiral staircase that i´ve ALWAYS wanted, there´s the bathroom, shower & our bedrooms. I put up some pictures Thursday night so the room feels a little more like i live there. up the next spiral staircase to the roof with the bells (we have 3 bells on our roof) with a great view of santa fe!
it´s so nice when you meet people and they basically say my house is your house, meaning we´re welcome anytime!
transportation it seems we don´t leave santa fe that often so this will mostly be by foot. i´m excited to explore more of santa fe, but i´m remembering my word ´patience´and going with the flow. for some reason i´m really anxious to go to the bottom of the hill, which is one of the worst parts of santa fe (don´t worry i´ll go in the daytime). maybe it´s because i want to experience this massive hill i´ve heard about for weeks.
as i mentioned there are sidewalks on the main roads, but not so much on the sideroads (which i would compare to alleys). i feel like i´m learning new traffic laws "be careful crossing the street because cars don´t always stop at the red lights" i learned quickly to look at buildings and sights we´re passing and not the cars we are centimeters from while riding in cars/vans/buses. We took the bus Friday and it´s a good thing i have a superb eL stance from all my practice in Chicago. I definitely came in handy. Then on the 2nd bus the driver kept reving the engine so at first i thought he was learning how to drive manual and a bus (he looked young), but then he was laughing so i figured he just thought it was fun. THEN on the 3rd bus of the day i realized that´s just how they drive. i think it´ll take me a little bit to get used to which bus takes me where, but i really like that you "hail" the bus (like you would hail a cab in chicago) and there aren´t designated bus stops. it adds to the adventure =)
Friday we took the bus to a nicer area of mexico city... where the "mother house" is. it´s so interesting to see how the surroundings change from our neighborhood. There are green patches vs. here it´s mainly concrete. i mean i even saw a 7 eleven vs. here- none.
time i have no sense of time here. i have no cell phone or watch so i should probably buy a watch, but i don´t like them and i sort-of like just going along and seeing how i feel. maybe i could carry my old cell phone with me, but for now i like it.
i want to give a shout out to the monterrey family for being so hospitable to melissa and i while we were on our journey. i loved seeing your future home & where you´ll be working. although i found the day exhausting (like all days here) i left feeling you´re in good hands (with good water) =) I know our hour late bus on wednesday pushed back your schedule at least an hour too. Sorry.
i don´t have much time for the internet right now as i´m trying to figure out our schedule so i know i have a ton of emails to respond to and i´m sorry. i just figured this would be better for everyone right now as a mass update and i´ll start working my way through the emails as soon as possible. i actually started writing out my entries in my journal and quickly typing them up at internet.
"everything is a once in a lifetime experience."
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