Vida

with work as the subject i wanted to share some stories from lunch (sometimes my favorite part of the day) the cook really takes care of me at work. after about a week of me eating beans and tortillas with salsa everyday (they pull the meat and literally put it in everything). she started setting aside a portion for me before adding the meat for the day. i am so appreciative to her! yesterday she even set aside mole without meat (very rare here...it always has meat). today she thought the soup would be ok with me because there wasn`t pulled meat in it, but there were chicken feet in the pot so i couldn`t do it. one day of beans and tortillas was ok with me so i started working on making myself something when she stepped in and made it for me...i`m perfectly capable of making it myself, but it was nice. today at lunch was funny. i was battleing some major tiredness and sat down by one of the boys, Emiliano, who always takes forever to eat. He was so excited about his taco so I t...

So I realized yesterday I keep updating my blog about the fun things I`ve had the opportunity to do here, but work is a very important part of what I`m doing so I wanted to give an update on work. One of my kids, Murat, LOVES to sing and dance to Beat It! Then it spreads to Felipe and I hear the song all day. In fact, I`ve heard it everyday for about the last 2 weeks. I love it when they do the spin. Murat loves to dance. He`s definitely a stinker, but I love him. I`m finding my balance with him because I think he misbehaves to get attention, but I don`t think it`s fair to give him all the attention and not give the good kids any... I love everyday at the Guarderia because everyday is different. But things changed since the last time I wrote about it. I`m no longer working with Lulu. Essentially, an inspector came and removed Lulu from her position because she didn`t have some certificate so now I`m working with the same kids, but a very different teacher. Her name is Lucy. ...

So the title isn`t exactly correct, but I ran a marathon yesterday and it was Melissa & my`s one month being here. But Caro helped me come up with the title and I thought it was catchy. So marathon #2 and a completely different experience than the one I ran last year in Chicago. Lisa Rottler Chamberlin is the name I ran the race with...I tried to sign up as Lisa Rottler, but it forced me to enter mom`s maiden name or i couldn`t continue with registration. the first difference I experienced this marathon in a very different way. In Chicago I was competitive I would say. It was on my mind since February of last year when I signed up. I was didigent about training and very serious about it. This year I signed up like 3 weeks ago and it was very last minute. Although, I ran like I was training for the marathon this summer in Chicago-that was 2 months ago. Last year the weekend of the marathon I rested. This year Friday night I went to my first quinceanera and got home at 4 a...

Mexican Independence Day was yesterday! My celebrations started Monday at work. They always have a "ceremony" Monday morning with the national anthem and other things that I don`t know what they are. This Monday the students were allowed to bring Mexican toy instruments. And wear bows and such for patriotism, on girl, Xion, had fake long braids. The 4 year olds, including 3 students from my class, wore special hats and they were some of the niño heroes (sept. 13). They did such a good job with their lines I just smiled and felt proud. As I traced the Mexican flag 12 times for the lesson I was very happy it wasn`t the American flag. So much detail. (I didn`t have to trace the crest in the middle) =) Tuesday more students sported patriotic gear and we decorated more flags and had another ceremony, this one involved marching around & around the little play area and lots of horn blowing. Lunch was a special celebratory lunch of pozle, a corn dish of some ...

Work started out pretty crazy Wednesday as it was. Melissa was sick and I think Lulu said Adriana ( melissa `s co-teacher) took 4 kids to church. ???? It didn `t really make sense to me. So Lulu & I shuffled kids back and forth from classroom to classroom. Finally we got to recess and I started feeling relief until Axa `s mom arrived with a huge sheet cake for his birthday. The way the preschool is set-up she walked through recess with the cake and all the kids abandoned their games and their pretend animals and became human again to realize their desire for cake. It was like a mob around Axa `s mom and I felt like a bouncer. Honestly, it was really stressful. I loved how happy it made the kids, but I digress ... the story continues! We kind-of held the cake over the kids heads for the rest of recess and lunch. "if you don`t do ________ you won`t get any cake." Even though in the end we knew everyone would get cake. Then we finish lunch and it`s time for cake. ¡Surpris...

i hope that title didn ´t create TOO much fear. we don´t think we have bed bugs, but jess broke out in bites this week and one of her friends said they looked like bed bugs forcing us all to become rather nervous and a mass cleaning of jess & my room. including all the comforters (i really hope mine are dry for tonight), pillows, and jess even bleached her mattress. she recently had some tests done so we`re thinking it`s from that because i don`t have any and it surely would have spread to my bed by now as well. i think we`re good, but just another thing to think about down here =)

The greetings are endless here. I`m honestly still figuring them out while desperately trying not to be rude. A hello is generally a hand shake with a kiss on the cheek (I have to work hard to keep my right hand and right cheek smooth while I`m here), but that sort -of depends too. Generally the 1st time you meet someone it should just be a hand shake, but not with everyone... some people are so excited to meet me they want to hug & kiss right away. See how this can be confusing? I know I` ve screwed it up a lot, but I just laugh about it. Then when you enter a room generally you should walk up to each person individually and greet them. I`m definitely still getting used to this. I often forget. 1/2 hour later I`ll realize it and feel a little rude. Again this isn ´t always expected. Conversations will stop to greet a new person to the room and then continue after everyone says hello. This can be difficult for me since I OFTEN lose my train of thought in regular conversation-add...

who knew the word i half-heartedly picked to take with me (i think that´s what it was for) at our orientation retreat would become SO important. I didn´t really understand what we were doing (the instructions were mostly in spanish), but i picked patience. When I said it Sister Lourdes gave me a look that indicated that wasn´t what she meant. It is becoming more and more apparent I picked just the word I was supposed to. I originally picked patience pertaining to spanish and it still proves true in that area, but also in many other ways. I have to be patient with myself as I adjust. I mentioned before I feel tired most of the time. I don´t have the same level of energy or I can, but it´s harder work to muster it up. I need to be patient when I go to work with Caro and feed the developmentally handicapped. I´m not very comfortable there yet and patience becomes very important. I look at their food, which looks & smells pretty disgusting to me and pretend it looks delicious and...

I MADE IT and i´m loving it! It seems like the week went by so quickly, but SO much happened. I´ll try to write about a few highlights. First word I learned at work compartir-share 2nd sit down (i´m still working on translating that correctly) I´m working with 4 year olds and I love them. I am a I guess you would say teacher´s aide to Lulu. She´s 24 and has worked there 4 years. She´s amazing and very patient with me. She doesn´t speak English, but we´re doing just fine. We had our first close to conversation on Wednesday (in Spanish). She told me I´m getting better everyday which was very encouraging. As frustrating as it is it´s good for me to be on my own and try to make it work. (I keep my dictionary in my backpocket and all the kids make a game of trying to get it from me.) I think I was nervous Mon. & Tues. and Wednesday I did my best, but Thurs. & Fri. I was super tired and I think my spanish went down hill as well. She´s so patient with me though. And I know at the end ...