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Published: August 25th 2010
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Our Living Room
we now have sheers and loveseats, and of course must have flowers Well, another week has gone by and we are comfortably settled in. Last week, Linda was walking with Matt, another teacher 10 minutes to the Metro, 15 minute Metro ride, then another 20 or so minutes catching a shuttle bus up to the school from the Metro. The whole process takes 45 minutes to get from home to the school, and teachers are expected in their classes by 7:30. That means Linda is leaving home at 6:25 a.m.
Now, for the school. I am still hoping Linda will soon find time to blog about her school in detail. What a huge place. Their enrollment (approximately 2600 students....preschool-grade 12) is increasing, and their academic standards are rising when measured against other private schools. The number of graduates being accepted into international universities of their choices was at an all-time high last year, and the students performed very well in international testing at all grade levels. The preschool and kindergarden school is across the road from the campus, then grades 1 to 5 are in lower school building where Linda teaches, then middle school houses grades 6 to 9 and finally the upper school housing grades 10 to 12. The organization is
The Office
Linda liked this funky desk, I was just happy to be able to have one, and of course, the executive chair too phenomenal, simply because of the logistics. There are over 80 teachers just in Linda's lower school. There are 8 classes of each grade with about 22-24 students in each. There is an English teacher for each class, and each Spanish teacher has 2 or 3 classes. Therefore, you need a class co-ordinator for each grade, that would be one of the very experienced English teachers. You then need meetings to make sure everyone is on the same level as far as teaching. Then, all teachers are divided into 4 groups, houses they are called, each with a dean, who naturally needs to have meetings as well, and this is all overseen by the principal of lower school, Evan Hunt, who is the one who hired Linda at the Iowa job fair. Of course, as principal, he has to host meetings as well. Then, there is the science co-ordinator, the math coordinator, the music, the phys-ed and others who have to have meetings as well. And, the students came in on Monday and classes began, with meetings in-between, sometimes several meetings scheduled for the same time period. Needlees to say, Linda was extremely sick and tired of meetings, and getting to
School Hallway
outside of Linda's class, there are 3 floors in the Lower school and Linda's is on the third. Thirteen trips up and down on Friday! We are staying fit! school early, and staying till 5 o'clock or so trying to get a handle on what was to be done. Then of course, we have to throw in the new Mac laptop. As most of you know, Linda managed to survive quite nicely without all the electronic devices that so many of us deem so necessary. She is now proud to say she has her own laptop, her own cell phone, and has mastered texting as well. She has come a long way in only a couple of weeks, and now that our internet works fine at home, she is able to keep up with the 20 or so emails daily.
So while Linda was busy at school, I was busy looking after domestic chores, then out and about trying to learn my way around. Mexico City was formed over the centuries by villages joining other villages, and growing through assimilation. Each village had their own streets set up and the result now is that streets run every which direction. For example, our area or colonial, La Condesa, has a basic grid pattern that runs kind of northwest-southeast. Except, you have a major thoroughfare called Michoacan that runs at
Linda's room
note the size of the teacher's desk, and all new student desks and chairs an angle through the whole colonial. Then to the southeast side of La Condesa, there is an oval street called Amsterdam which used to be an old racetrack and so streets radiate from that street. Throw in 2 lovely parks of weird shapes, and the result is that no one here seems to know what direction north is and being a farmer, I find that difficult. By the time the sun gets over the buildings, and because it is so directly overhead, it doesn't help to define direction. Then, of course, the colonial is surrounded by major roads, many of which have 6 lanes of traffic in each direction,and they run at different angles as well, The result is that there are many corners that have 5 and 6 streets intersecting. Therefore we have 3 different maps that we use, one of the city, one of the district and one of the ecobic (bike) stands. I have been to Sam's club,Walmart and Costco, all of which I arrive at by Metro. No problem, except for when I want to return home with packages. Then, I have to take a cab. Now, if you take a cab, you still need to
The Spanish teacher
8 English and 3 Spanish grade 5 teachers know where you want to go and how to get there as most cab drivers won't know how to get to where you want to go, then, throw in one way streets that are not marked as such on maps, and add in the not much Spanish speaking ability part, and outings quickly become an adventure.
One of the nicest things about our area is the Ecobics. There are 85 Ecobic bike stands throughout this area. For $25 per year, we walk up to a stand, there is one a block from our house, then we swipe our ecobic card and take the bike it tells us to. Ride for up to half an hour, then hang the bike back up at the station closest to where you want to go and there is no charge. It is the handiest thing, there are ecobike stands at the grocery stores, at the markets, at the parks and all over. We have both lost weight since we are here, thanks to the delicious fruits and vegetables, all the stairs we need to climb and the ecobics.
So, Linda spent the week teaching, I spent the week shopping and Friday Happy
The Ecobic
coming back from the Tuesday market with flowers of course Hour finally arrived. Lots of margueritas and lots of fun with other teaching friends. Our friend Megan then informed us that it was our "duty" to employ a maid. Hers has lost a few days work and was desparately needing to find other clients. It so happened however, that the maid that works here for our landlady came to us Saturday and asked if we would prefer her to come in and clean on Wednesdays or on Fridays. She cleans the bathroom, kitchen, floors, windows and does the laundry for $20 a day (11 to 6PM). So we feel we have no choice but to have a maid, it was getting difficult for me to keep up with all that housework....ha ha.
On Saturday, we went and bought furniture at stores that I had found throughout the week, and then had friends over for supper, our first guests; what fun we had teaching them Kaiser, and then them teaching us Hearts. Good thing we had 4 bottles of wine in stock. Sunday, after going to our gorgeous church, back we went to the Jardin des Artes market to pick up the picture we bought last Sunday and which was
Lower School Gym
breakfast for staff, about 580 or so now framed, We were thrilled with it, it was beyond our expectations and very cheap. It is hung on the living room wall over the loveseat for now.
And the very best news of all now, Linda has found a ride to school. A teacher that has been living here for many years lives just a few blocks away, and has room to give Linda a ride to school every morning. She picks Linda up right outside our door at 6:30 and they arrive at the school by 6:45. This means she gets to school much more rested and much earlier so she will be able to leave at 2:30. In fact, she should be home very soon now.
We are planning a trip to Taxco, a silver mining and heritage city of 50,000 a couple of hours south of DF on the weekend. We are a group of 6 going so should be fun.
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Annette and Lionel
non-member comment
Wow, big school!
Hi! We really enjoyed your pictures and all your info.! Glad to hear you are having a good time and staying safe and well. We look forward to more! Thank you!