Tuesday, 12 Jan 2010
Katie decided that I needed to take it easy on Tuesday and excused me from work. I slept in late, then walked down to El Buen cafe and had some delicious tortilla soup. You know how, when you're sick, you crave chicken noodle soup? I crave tortilla soup or tom kha. It was delicious and made me feel better. Afterwards Katie and Kristan got back from their morning meeting and decided to take me out for some fresh air.
You only get to go somewhere for the first time once and this was my first time to historic Toluca town city square. It was awesome. A busy city block full of things to look and, people rushing around, shops full of familiar and unfamiliar things for sale. There are old buildings, a giant cathedral (of course), malls, and a promenade full of mariachis and other kinds of street performers. Katie gave a peso to a silver cowboy and got a kiss on the cheek (and silver paint on her face and coat!).
After Katie went to work I rested for a while but couldn't nap. When I was hungry I went directly next door for dinner. There is a cute little old couple running a restaurant out of their kitchen. The grandma made me a club sandwich and a special 'get well' juice combination. I watched the grandpa play games with the grandchildren AND I got the cute four year old girl to count and do her colors in English. I felt a bit like Alice, on the other side of the looking glass, thinking of all the English speaking kids back home who are so proud of their ability to count to ten in Spanish.
Wednesday, 13 Jan 2010
Katie decided that I needed to take it easy on Tuesday and excused me from work. I slept in late, then walked down to El Buen cafe and had some delicious tortilla soup. You know how, when you're sick, you crave chicken noodle soup? I crave tortilla soup or tom kha. It was delicious and made me feel better. Afterwards Katie and Kristan got back from their morning meeting and decided to take me out for some fresh air.
You only get to go somewhere for the first time once and this was my first time to historic Toluca town city square. It was awesome. A busy city block full of things to look and, people rushing around, shops full of familiar and unfamiliar things for sale. There are old buildings, a giant cathedral (of course), malls, and a promenade full of mariachis and other kinds of street performers. Katie gave a peso to a silver cowboy and got a kiss on the cheek (and silver paint on her face and coat!).
After Katie went to work I rested for a while but couldn't nap. When I was hungry I went directly next door for dinner. There is a cute little old couple running a restaurant out of their kitchen. The grandma made me a club sandwich and a special 'get well' juice combination. I watched the grandpa play games with the grandchildren AND I got the cute four year old girl to count and do her colors in English. I felt a bit like Alice, on the other side of the looking glass, thinking of all the English speaking kids back home who are so proud of their ability to count to ten in Spanish.
Wednesday, 13 Jan 2010
On the way to Atloc
Wednesday's adventure really started when Katie and I were on the way to teach our workshop in Atlacomulco. Our driver, Albert, is really cool. He's an accountant and a quiet sort of guy. He speaks very little English and, for the most part, Katie and I just chattered mindlessly to each other in the backseat of the car while he drove. Ever so often we would speak to him in a strange English/Spanish hybrid. Albert was so sweet and adorable. As the week went on he happily took us to some delicious taco huts after class, helped me get some batteries and a phone card, and even volunteered to take Katie to the airport on Friday morning.
But on this day, Wednesday, we decided, being English teachers, that it was time for us to teach Albert some more English. He was a quick learner and within 5 minutes we had him yelling, “FUCK YOU, BITCH!” at other cars on the road.
But on this day, Wednesday, we decided, being English teachers, that it was time for us to teach Albert some more English. He was a quick learner and within 5 minutes we had him yelling, “FUCK YOU, BITCH!” at other cars on the road.
These students are embodying "Summer"
This was the night of MY special workshop: using drama in the ESL/EFL classroom. My students were a bit shyer, at first, than my group from the summer but by the end they were all participating in their groups and doing the activities with zeal. There is hardly anything I find more amusing than watching English learners do improv. The accent, the word choice, the intonation... it's all hilarious to me and just so adorable. Someday I probably should try to do improv in Spanish so I can get a feel for what a challenge it actually is for them. For now I'll just sit back and laugh.
After class Albert took us out to pick up dinner. Katie and I skipped down the sidewalk singing 'On the radio... Whoooaaa... on the radio.... whooooaaaoooaaa' until we passed by a place that smelled REALLY good. The doors to the restaurant were wide open and the grill was right up front. We looked in and something FREAKING AWESOME looking was grilling: some kind of meat and veggies and cheese... thing. We ordered two orders of what has come to be known simply as EXTRAVAGANZA.
While we were waiting we couldn't help but notice a huge table full of young adult men. One of the nibblets, a very cute one indeed, kept checking Katie out HARD CORE. There wasn't even an attempt at subtlety.
Extravaganza was served to us in two giant foil make shift pouches with a huge stack of tortillas and, as always, a sack of fresh limes.
I don't know what it is about this town but pretty much everything is served with a TON of fresh limes. These aren't like limes back home, either. They we tiny and really delicious. They might be key limes but I'm really not sure... all I know is that when I get back to Dallas I am going to feel cheated when everything I order isn't accompanied by a pile of delicious lime halves.
Thursday 14 January 2010
I woke up with a sore throat... again. I moaned unhappily. Not sick. Not sick. Not sick.
Katie could immediately tell something wasn't right.
“You're sick.”
“No, I'm not.”
“Yes, you are!”
“I don't know.”
“You don't know? Wait a minute! This is the exact same conversation we had in San Miguel!”
I shrugged and sighed. I knew I was sick. I just wanted to deny the truth out of existence. This time there was no denying it. I felt awful.
Katie went downstairs and fixed breakfast, papaya with lime and extravaganza with eggs. Extravaganza with eggs was even better than extravaganza without eggs! Suddenly I was feeling a bit better.
After class Albert took us out to pick up dinner. Katie and I skipped down the sidewalk singing 'On the radio... Whoooaaa... on the radio.... whooooaaaoooaaa' until we passed by a place that smelled REALLY good. The doors to the restaurant were wide open and the grill was right up front. We looked in and something FREAKING AWESOME looking was grilling: some kind of meat and veggies and cheese... thing. We ordered two orders of what has come to be known simply as EXTRAVAGANZA.
While we were waiting we couldn't help but notice a huge table full of young adult men. One of the nibblets, a very cute one indeed, kept checking Katie out HARD CORE. There wasn't even an attempt at subtlety.
Extravaganza was served to us in two giant foil make shift pouches with a huge stack of tortillas and, as always, a sack of fresh limes.
I don't know what it is about this town but pretty much everything is served with a TON of fresh limes. These aren't like limes back home, either. They we tiny and really delicious. They might be key limes but I'm really not sure... all I know is that when I get back to Dallas I am going to feel cheated when everything I order isn't accompanied by a pile of delicious lime halves.
Thursday 14 January 2010
I woke up with a sore throat... again. I moaned unhappily. Not sick. Not sick. Not sick.
Katie could immediately tell something wasn't right.
“You're sick.”
“No, I'm not.”
“Yes, you are!”
“I don't know.”
“You don't know? Wait a minute! This is the exact same conversation we had in San Miguel!”
I shrugged and sighed. I knew I was sick. I just wanted to deny the truth out of existence. This time there was no denying it. I felt awful.
Katie went downstairs and fixed breakfast, papaya with lime and extravaganza with eggs. Extravaganza with eggs was even better than extravaganza without eggs! Suddenly I was feeling a bit better.
Looks gross. Feels awesome.
The papaya was officially done so we decided to make a beauty mask. We mixed papaya seeds, papaya, fresh lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, powdered milk and teavana's Empress of China tea (a combination of teas and flower petals, I steeped it in just enough water to cover it for 3 minutes) in a blender. The result looked like a combination of dirt, baby poop and vomit, we dubbed it 'The Empress of China goes on a Caribbean Vaca”.
First you gotta steam your pores open.
We opened our pores over a steam bath then giddily slathered The Empress of China all over our faces and rubbed it it. It was awesome.
Beauty is serious business
Then we heard a strange bell ringing out in the streets.
“THE TRASH MAN!!!!” Katie exclaimed with wide eyes.
In Toluca, hooking it up with the trash man requires a combination of careful planning, ninja like reflexes, and pure dumb luck. You have to manage to be home at the exact same time that the trash man happens by, hear his little bell, and run like the wind out to personally hand him your bags of shame. I was told that he wanders by my house on Tuesdays or maybe Thursdays and sometimes on Saturdays. Good luck.
“GRAB THE TRASH!!!!”
Katie bounced around the house shrieking, like a bat that accidentally got let in. She triumphantly pranced down the street, in her pink pajamas with “The Empress of China takes a Caribbean Vaca” smeared all over her face, and proudly handed our trash to the trash man.
Katie taking out the trash... in her pjs... with a facemask on.
We washed our faces. The mask really did its magic and we both couldn't stop talking about how smooth and wonderful our faces felt. It was amazing.
So fresh and so clean!
We agreed that internet was on the top of our TO DO list and Katie insisted that I should buy more antibiotics. As we walked into down town I started to feel worse and worse. My throat ached and I was hot and very tired. My head started to hurt. I just wanted to lie down.
When we got to the pharmacy I went straight for the thermometers. I picked one and stuck it in my mouth. A minute or so later it beeped. 38.
38?!
WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!
In my experience a temperature of 38 would definitely mean one had died and been stuck in the deep freeze.
Stupid Celsius!
I anxiously showed my thermometer to the annoyed looking pharmacist and asked her if it looked okay. She nodded and said that I was fine. I asked her what a normal temperature was. She told me 36-38. I asked her if 38 was okay. She said yes. I asked her if 39 was bad. She said not too bad. I asked her if 40 was really bad. She seemed to think 40 was bad. But 38 is okay? Yes. Ok.
We napped on the way to our workshop that day. I was so tired and felt sick but I didn't want to miss another one. Those workshops were the reason I came to Mexico a full 3 weeks before I would have needed to. I wanted to get as much experience as possible.
For the first 30 minutes of the workshop we didn't have electricity.
These workshops are for EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers were in Mexico who are trying to learn some new teaching methods. Overall they were a good class, with some goof offs, and seemed to really enjoy the workshops.
Chilangas SIEMPRE!!!
My favorite person that I met through the workshops is Charro. She is a boss of some sort (I never figured out how) and works with Katie and Kristan at UNT to organize workshops and summer programs. She was SO COOL. She's a Chilanga... which is a rude way of saying she is from Mexico City. Apparently there is a lot of discrimination against Chilangas in this region. Chilangas are both feared and hated: believed to be rude, crass, dangerous city folk who come out to the moutains and bring crime and … uh... rude behavior with them. I immediately decided that I want to be a Chilanga.
I spent a good portion of the workshop sitting outside the classroom with Charro and her adult children learning how to act and speak like a Chilanga. (I learned a lot of fun new words.)
On the way back home Katie and I wrote a song about Albert.
Albert, Albert
le gusta Albert
Albert, le gusta ALBEEEERRRTTT!!!
Albert, Albert
pinche, Albert
Albert, pinche AALLLBBEEERRRTTTT!!!!!
I spent a good portion of the workshop sitting outside the classroom with Charro and her adult children learning how to act and speak like a Chilanga. (I learned a lot of fun new words.)
On the way back home Katie and I wrote a song about Albert.
Albert, Albert
le gusta Albert
Albert, le gusta ALBEEEERRRTTT!!!
Albert, Albert
pinche, Albert
Albert, pinche AALLLBBEEERRRTTTT!!!!!
ALBERT!
Friday 15 January 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN! Friday was my little brother's 23rd birthday. I didn't get to tell him Happy Birthday until Saturday and I felt bad about that but he was busy out partying like a Rock Star anyway. =D
It was also Katie's last day in Toluca for a while. We went to an awesome little quesadilla place El Rey and ate ourselves silly. Then we walked downtown and visited her favorite place in Toluca, the Botanical Gardens. Greenery, trees, flowers, fountains and stained glass windows everywhere. Just gorgeous. It was nice to step out of the city and look at all the beautiful plants. I can see why this is her favorite place in Toluca and I look forward to spending more time in the gardens in the future (not only is it beautiful and calming... the place is FULL of oxygen... and this mountain altitude is definitely effecting my oxygen intake!)
After the gardens we trudged back towards the house. We were both very tired and sleepy (I've only been Mexican for a week and I already want to have a siesta every day). On the way to the house we stopped by a little bakery and got a ton of baked goods for less than $3USD. I feel like we must have robbed the place.
We grabbed our pillows and napped on the way to Atlacomulco again. It was our last day of the Workshop. Our students did little presentations and made us proud. Then we passed out the constancias.
Let me tell you about constancias.
Constancias are basically the most important thing in Mexico. I learned about constancias this summer when I taught a month long mini mester for Mexican students.. After students complete a workshop (even a meager week long workshop like we did in Atloc) they have a constancia ceremony. They get these fancy certificates with their names on it. They get their name called all official and come up to the front and are presented with their constancia. They shake hands and kiss everyone. Pictures are taken. Speeches are made. Cake is served. It's a whole big THING.
WTF, right? In America there wouldn't certainly not be all this fanfare. Constancias are important, though, and can get them jobs and raises and help them advance in their career. They frame them and hang them on the wall. I wonder how come I don't have any constancias?!
Saturday 16 Jan 2010
It's so incredibly beautiful here. I'm sure the novelty of it all will wear off one day, but as for now, I'm stunned almost every time I look around. I can't imagine what it must be like to grow up here and then move to the US.
I couldn't help but feel kinda grown up today. Katie went back to the US and so I have no one left to mommy me (Yes, Katie, I took my medicine!). Albert came and picked up her this morning. We decided to make him a 'constancia' thanking him for being a great cultural ambassador and friend.
He said he was going to frame it and put it in his office. =D He seemed VERY pleased! Albert surprised us with a gift, too! He brought us each a bottle of tequila! Mine is sitting in the back of my closet. I think I'll break it out when I have a house party so my guests have something to drink.
I finished (I think) rearranging my room. I made Katie's bed into a couch and moved all my clothes into the little canvas wardrobe. I arranged all my clothes by type and color, in rainbow order. (I wonder how long this organization will last.)
Not much happened today until I stepped into a Spanish 2 textbook: I went to the grocery store. Fortunately food was always one of my favorite subjects so I did pretty well. Still, I must have seemed a little insane to anyone who was watching me.
I wandered aimlessly, gawking, and muttering to myself in Spanglish. I mimed turkey to the deli people, I tried played pictionary with the cheese lady in pursuit of Swiss (I lost), and, in the end, I crammed all my purchases haphazardly into my backpack. I got sliced turkey, spinach, tortillas, chicken tenders, onion, rice, black beans, a huge thing of water, 3 tubes of toothpaste (2 for 1!), and alfalfa sprouts for about $195P. That's about $15USD. I feel like that's a good price but, sadly, I never paid much attention to the cost of groceries back home. Tomorrow I am going a block down to the fruit stand to get my fruit and veggies.
I got into my kitchen and started whipping things out to cook when I realized that I don't have ANY spices except for salt. I doused my chicken in lime juice and cooked some purple onions to death. Salt. Corn tortillas. DELICIOUS.
Tonight I was hit with my first real bout of homesickness. I almost cried, but I didn't. I just called Amber and Janice and had a nice long chat with each of them. It made me feel better. It sucks to not be able to invite my best friends over for dinner. I cooked some DELICIOUS chicken fajitas.
It's the end of my first week. I've got a loooooong way to go. Amber is coming to visit in 7 weeks. Lakshmi still isn't sure when she'll be here. Janice is aiming for 11 weeks (I think). I'll be home for a visit in 24 weeks (Wow. 24 weeks.) and then home for good in like 10000 weeks. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration.
I miss home but I am really glad I am on this adventure. This is such a wonderful and crazy world. I am so happy to be out in it.
I finished (I think) rearranging my room. I made Katie's bed into a couch and moved all my clothes into the little canvas wardrobe. I arranged all my clothes by type and color, in rainbow order. (I wonder how long this organization will last.)
Not much happened today until I stepped into a Spanish 2 textbook: I went to the grocery store. Fortunately food was always one of my favorite subjects so I did pretty well. Still, I must have seemed a little insane to anyone who was watching me.
I wandered aimlessly, gawking, and muttering to myself in Spanglish. I mimed turkey to the deli people, I tried played pictionary with the cheese lady in pursuit of Swiss (I lost), and, in the end, I crammed all my purchases haphazardly into my backpack. I got sliced turkey, spinach, tortillas, chicken tenders, onion, rice, black beans, a huge thing of water, 3 tubes of toothpaste (2 for 1!), and alfalfa sprouts for about $195P. That's about $15USD. I feel like that's a good price but, sadly, I never paid much attention to the cost of groceries back home. Tomorrow I am going a block down to the fruit stand to get my fruit and veggies.
I got into my kitchen and started whipping things out to cook when I realized that I don't have ANY spices except for salt. I doused my chicken in lime juice and cooked some purple onions to death. Salt. Corn tortillas. DELICIOUS.
Tonight I was hit with my first real bout of homesickness. I almost cried, but I didn't. I just called Amber and Janice and had a nice long chat with each of them. It made me feel better. It sucks to not be able to invite my best friends over for dinner. I cooked some DELICIOUS chicken fajitas.
It's the end of my first week. I've got a loooooong way to go. Amber is coming to visit in 7 weeks. Lakshmi still isn't sure when she'll be here. Janice is aiming for 11 weeks (I think). I'll be home for a visit in 24 weeks (Wow. 24 weeks.) and then home for good in like 10000 weeks. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration.
I miss home but I am really glad I am on this adventure. This is such a wonderful and crazy world. I am so happy to be out in it.
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