Blogs from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, North America - page 22

Well, these past 2 weeks in school have passed without much excitement, studying the past tense, how we talk about habits and analysing not extremely profound texts on May Day celebrations and tourism in London, written by Anne and myself. Last Monday we visited another school for the afternoon, a private primary school in which one of the secondaria´s English teachers works in the afternoons. It really couldn´t be much different. Firstly, at aged 11 and after only 6 months of classes the students we saw already have a much better grasp of English than the 14 year olds in our senior school. On top of that it´s so quiet! The children actually do the work they´re set, when they are set it, and get it right and they listen to each other and the teacher ... read more

So I've finally had some time to explore the centre of Guadalajara and it really is a lovely city. It is however pretty huge which means it takes quite an uncomfortable 30 minute treck on the bus to get there from where I am staying with the family in the suburb Zapopan and, as mentioned on a previous post, often involves longer when we miss our stop / get the wrong bus / generally have no idea where we´re going. The cathedral is much like any other Latin American cathedral inside - huge but pretty plain apart from the compulsary collection of saints and gold alterpieces, no where near as impressive as the churches of Italy of Spain, but the outside of this cathedral is actually very different with a huge arch-shaped front and double spires ... read more

This weeks most annoying event has been my contraction of an irritating, Mexican illness. It is really only a cold and I will survive but not being able to breath through my nose and looking like Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer have not really been enjoyable experiences. Luckily though this week has also been full of fun things to fill my time too. Last Tuesday, Beto took Anne and me to a football (soccer) match. It was Chivas, one of Guadalajara´s 2 local teams, against an Argentinian side in the quater finals of the American Clubs Championship, basically an Pan America UEFA. It was quite exciting as everyone was supporting the Mexican side and I soon employed my ability to switch allegience to wherever it is required (applies to sporting matches only) to fully support our ... read more

School this week has been mostly spent revising how to talk about people and to this means we have been talking alot about James Blunt who is one of our examples ... James Blunt is British, he was born in Hampshire on 23rd February 1977 and is a singer ... It was therefore quite appropriate that it was to a James Blunt conert we took ourselves on Thursday night. After failing to purchase tickets in advance (my Spanish may be good but you need to be Cervantes to understand the Ticketmaster Mexico website) we turned up on the night without tickets to find that it was sold out. And that is where thsi story could end. But it doesn´t. Not to have made a wasted journey we decided to sit outside the venue in the bar ... read more

Safe in Gudalajara at last, I was collected from the bus stop on Saturday evening by staff from the teaching project organisation who could not believe the weight of my bag and taken to my host family's house in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. The family: Señora Rebeca, Señor Carlos, Ernesto, Oscar, Carlos, Carolina and Paulina and Gina the famiy's cousin are all lovely and I will be loving in their house for the next 3 months with all of them and Ann, a volunteer from Germany who I am also working with at the school and with whom I share a bedroom. After the somewhat false starts of being taken to a school who didn't actually need any volunteers and the laundrey dying all my white clothes with blue spots (now thankfully expunged using gallons ... read more