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Published: October 16th 2006
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Me
My visa photos. Can you see me biting my lip trying not to smile? I haven't traveled since Zacatecas but I thought I'd post an ordinary blog anyway. My photos are of whatever I could scrape up. I've been taking more with my film camera, sorry. These are just little stories, so sorry if it is repetitive to some of you.
I started teaching English on September 30th. I definitely enjoy playing teacher. The students are Mexicans who need to take this English course in order to be certified Mexican grade school teachers. The class is for two hours a week and there are 17 students ages 19-22. There is one pregnant womyn, a married couple, and several people who already have children ... and then they asked me how old I was. On this first day, I definitely had a David Sedaris moment like when in "The Learning Curve" he planned his outfit and made nametags fashioned in the shape of leaves and then realized ... he never planned past that. No worries though, the IB education system of high school has made me a master last minute bull shitter. Some things I have taught are explaining various plural endings to them like what you do with ch, sh, x.y, exceptions to the
Mexican Hot Dog
DELICIOUS! Some special meat with a white cheese slice inside, mayo, mustard, ketchup, squeeze cheese on top, tomato, onion, and bacon bits. The bun is grilled. Usually they eat them with MORE condiments. rules as well as plural nouns like fish and moose. I've had them read cheery things like Sylvia Plath's poems and some of Dickenson's. During the second part of the class I am supposed to encourage conversation so one day I ended the class with a debate on whether women going to work is destroying families or not. They got really into it and the conversation ended with a debate on whether or not women have more instinct to take care of their kids than fathers and who should take care of kids. It was very cool to listen to their opinions mostly because many of them are married and have kids. I've learned a lot myself from teaching and I am definitely the cool teacher.
My internship has been going OK. I have a few reports under my belt already and on Wednesday Collin and I are going to fancy reception for the Governor of Louisiana at a fancy hotel here called Quinta Real. From my experience, I do know that working for the government isn't my thing. It is way too conservative and quiet for me! But I am learning a lot nonetheless.
I have tried
Mexican Hot Dog 2...
My background is the school's stadium where the annual college American football champions play. Yeah, my Tec has the best team in the country. My photo prof and I talked about it (he got his masters at UW Madison) and was saying if they played a division 1 American team they would be smashed. He says because Americans "drink milk.. a coke, what's that?" American Football isn't that popular outside of the Tec system. a lot of new foods in the last few weeks, including but not limited to: Chillaquilles, Gorditas Nopalitos, Cheacheron (the spelling is phonetic). Because I haven't been traveling, I've had the chance to get to know Monterrey better, too.
One evening, I went to see some folk dancing at Monterrey's Theatre of the City with a NY friend and an Australian. It turned out to be Spaniards showing off their flamenco skills. Watching those flamenco dancers brought back a lot of memories of Spain and my Flamenco dancing class. We went to a pizza place and spent the rest of the evening at a chill Reggae bar. My first drink was "Christ's blood."
Last Saturday evening my German pals and their Mexican roommate, Carlos, and I went to a Japanese restaurant down the block from my apartment called Yamato. The Germans never had sushi. They said the only abundant Asian food in Germany is Chinese and so they had a good time and I ordered some Sake for every one to try. Afterwards we went to see a play that my friend Humberto, from photography is in. He's the guy who I help with his English. Humberto will
be studying abroad in Pennsylvania next year. Anyway, he did a good job acting and the play, "La Mudanza" (The Move) was funny.
A few nights ago I took a walk around Monterrey to take photos for my class. I came across several houses that have Halloween decorations. Halloween is NOT traditionally a Mexican holiday.
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) takes place on All Saints and Souls day but it is more religious and about honoring the dead than fake blood. It really saddens me that American culture is making void their holiday.
Later, I ended up in a less developed area. I found this dark street where there seemed to be something going on way down. So I went. It was a night market. Apparently they have them every Thursday and Sunday. The streets were crap and the only lights came from one-story homes with aluminum tops. During my walk through the night market, I came across a Mexican Bingo booth (Mexican bingo is so fun!) and I chatted with the older ladies. They let me take a few photos of them while they played. I bought them all a round of bingo to say thanks. The
ducklings
These ducklings live on campus. They are much bigger now but still not full-size. prizes were napkins and jugs of juice and I was too damn slow to win! Anyway, I left to find new interesting people. I flashed my Tec ID a few times just so people wouldn't think I was just a creep taking photos. By the end of the night I managed to take a roll of fabulously interesting photos and exchanged stories with a lot of locals while dodging a corncob that was thrown at me by an angry vendor. Last night, Carlos (Linda's Mexican roommate) told me that where I went is one of the most dangerous parts of all of Mexico. Apparently it could have been worse had I walked beyond the fence that sections off the people who live at the very top of the hill, you know, where the cops don't even go.
On Friday, Linda, Nina, and Carlos and I went to the Shakira concert. It was amazing! It was raining the entire time and we were crammed in the largest and most dense crowd I have ever been in, but still if I stood on my tiptoes I could see Shakira shake her hips! It was a really great show mostly because she
lizard
On my window screen really knows how to work the crowd. The concert took place in a massive soccer stadium with 3/4 of the seats filled and nearly the entire soccer field (where we were) jam-packed. Later, I had a sore throat- probably from the rain and singing.
Then last night, to help my throat, Linda, Carlos and I went out to Barrio Antiguo and then we went to as Linda called it a "very Mexican bar" with live music until 6:30 AM. We danced the entire time and I had a nice day today sleeping and eating. I hardly have a voice, but I'm not coughing.
I've had several presentations, large homework assignments, and my second round of partials. Most everything went just fine and definitely better than my first round when I was even more lost with the language. In my free time I enjoy going on long walks and taking photos, being a photo lab-rat, and breaking up the testosterone in the weight room at the gym.
I have learned a lot more and have had more experiences than I could possible relay in this blog so I hope you'll still be interested in hearing stories later. Bridget
will be here in less than 2 weeks! The next blog you'll get will probably be full of mushy couple photos after she leaves. Until then, take care!
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alex the awesome
non-member comment
mushy couple photos? eeewwww. pictures of tiny ducks? aww...