Tomorrow is the first day of school!

Well, I've been going to the gym and swimming and taking an aerobics class and playing tennis too. Dang...some might call me white, especially now that I work at a private school.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes. :( BOOOOOOOOOO

I guess it will be pretty good. At least I have textbooks and workbooks to work with. I still get the freedom to teach how I want and cover what I want, so I don't feel too trapped under a curriculum.

The roommate and I had people over last night for a discada (where many different types are thrown on this disk and mixed together and cooked over a fire....kind of like a cook out but slightly different. Then, you put the meat in a taco and eat it. It was nice to gather all of the people together and get to see them in a different environment.

Tomorrow is not a normal school day however.......There are many meetings and I'm not sure which students I will see.

One thing that does suck is that all of the kids have two first names and two last names...that really sucks when I put them in my excel spreadsheet program...........tooooo many names to type.

The roommate has finally moved in!

Well, my new roommate is from Tennessee, is 24, AND is gay! Menos mal. He worked here last year. That's good to know because he's even more obviously gay than I am....so it seems that I won't have to worry about this Catholic school after all. I was slightly concerned since it is a Catholic school..........well I guess you can imagine.



The other good thing about this is now I can share a cab with someone when I want to go out instead of taking the bus (which I already don't love to do). The bus always gets really crowded. To get off of the bus, you just stand in the back door and either scream "BAJA" or you loudly tap twice right above the back door. Then, the bus driver stops immediately on whichever corner he happens to be at. I guess this is convenient in the sense that you don't have to wait for any predetermined bus stops! The same goes for getting on--you just wave the driver down and he normally will stop anyway to let you on...and that doesn't really mean that he will completely stop --ROLLING STOPS. I almost fell out of the bus trying to get on yesterday. Well, it wasn't so dramatic, but it did feel like I was going to for a split second.



Wow, after writing this, it looks like I'm glad I have a roommate only because I want to ride the bus less!





In another note, the school is absolutely beautiful and huge. It seems very organized. However, I get a sense that the children will be about the same as they were in NYC, except that unlike NYC, they won't be able to curse at me! SO I guess that's not so bad.





Hasta la proxima.

Yikes--Scary Cops

So, last night I went to a club here and it was pretty funny. There was a stripper show, but here, the strippers aren't allowed to show anything. I guess, then, that they were only go-go dancers.

I sat at a table and about five minutes later a guy came up to me to tell me that his friend thought I was cute. I told him to send his friend over. We talked for a while. This kid is only 18 years old. His friends were only 21. I feel so old. LO BUENO is that they guessed that I was 20. I did shave and I do look younger.

We danced for a while. I hadn't danced that much in a long time.

When I left, the taxi driver didn't know how to get to my house, so they offered to drive me home.

During the drive, we were pulled over by the cops. We all had to get out while they searched the car. Then, they let us go, but the driver had to give them a bribe. According to the guys that I was with, the police do this regularly during the weekend when there aren't many cars on the road so they can make extra money from the bribes.

As if that weren't enough, we were pulled over five minutes later by more cops. However, this time the guy told him that he had just been pulled over, so they let us go.

VERY STRANGE. Yikes. I'm only taking taxis if I'm out at night from now on.

Photos of my house from the inside!

Extremely large living room kitchen

My bedroom

This is part of the kitchen with the pantry on the right. The pantry is huge. We have every appliance that you could want....except a dish washer. I've never had one. I guess I never will.

This is about half of the patio as seen from my room (on the second floor).

These are the shelves as seen from my walk in closet.

This is my walk-in closet. You can't see the sheves on the right side.

This is my private bathroom. There are 5 bathrooms in the house, however. WOOT.

more later.

Guadalajara has been interesting. I’ve mostly been walking around the city with Mariana. I hadn’t seen her in almost three years. Yet, it seems like I was here yesterday. The city is so familiar that it does, in fact, seem to be like a second or third home.
My Spanish is recuperating quickly. This is good news.
I got to see Claudia and her new boyfriend. He’s strangely funny. Quiet. Attractive.
Last night was the birthday of Suzy, the best friend of Mariana. We went to the restaurant where Mariana and Miguel (the two people with whom I am staying) work. It’s called La Titotera, which basically means a woman who likes to gossip. I really liked the restaurant. We sat outside. It had a lot of artwork and bean bag chairs in random places with an Amy Winehouse concert projected on a wall. Everyone at the dinner seemed fairly nice. My ex-boyfriend David showed up to say hello as well. It was nice seeing him.
By midnight I was extremely tired. It seemed like all was going to end and everyone was going to go home, but, as we were paying the bill, someone suggested getting wine and heading back to Mariana and Miguel’s house. So, in good Mexican fashion, everyone decided that it was a good idea and did so.
For the next five hours, all seven of us sat and talked about whatever came to anyone’s mind to the tunes of Miguel’s record player spinning music from the 50’s.
What always strikes me as interesting is how animated people are in group conversations in Spanish. Maybe I notice it more because it’s my second language and I don’t necessarily pay attention to these things in English. And as usual, the conversation did take the usual anti-American turn for a while. But I guess that’s to be expected. Naturally, I can’t really defend the United States because I agree with what they say, but a the same time, I always feel like a representative of the country and I feel that people probably expect me to respond or at least add something to the conversation. However, it is a topic I think I just won’t touch while I’m here.
Everyone I know in Guadalajara is an artist of some sort. Is this normal? I don’t think I had realized that before.

After the whole first airplane fiasco, I finally got on my airplane at LGA. Everything seemed fine until we were number 10 in line for take off. We ended up leaving 45 minutes late. This stressed me out because I only had about 1. 5 hours to make the connection to the other flight in Chicago, which was in a separate terminal and which meant I would have to go through security again.
My flight from LGA actually only arrived 10 minutes late, so I felt better about the 45 minute late start. However, it took us 20 minutes to taxi to the gate with 10 minutes of just sitting and waiting for huge airplanes to go by. It seems that everything about this flight was meant to annoy me.
As I got off the airplane, there was no one to direct me at all. I looked because I only had about 40 minutes to check in with Mexicana and pass through security again. I began the airport run with my gay brown teacher shoes and my short shorts. I knew that my connecting flight would be in terminal 5 because it was the international terminal. I got this information from the American Airlines magazine which had various airport maps.
As I’m running to terminal 5, I got increasingly nervous because I still hadn’t spoken with anyone about my connection. I ran past a general airport information desk and asked the man how to get to terminal 5. He gave me a billion directions which included stairs and escalators and a train. I didn’t take a wrong turn, and in about 10 minutes I was in terminal 5.
I went up to the Mexicana check-in desk and the woman began to talk to me in Spanish. I told her that I was going to Guadalajara. She took my passport and swiped it. She couldn’t find the voucher that American Airlines was supposed to have sent her so she went to a room in the back somewhere. She came back and told me to stand to the side and that someone would come back when American Airlines told them about the voucher. I asked her if I would make my flight because there were only 20 minutes left and she said that there wasn’t any reason for me to miss it. I, of course, couldn’t understand how she could say this when there were only 20 minutes until my flight was supposed to take off and I didn’t even have a ticket and I hadn’t passed through security yet.
I waited on the side for 20 minutes observing all of the Mexicana employees. One comment--no sense of urgency at all. As it was time for my flight to leave, I walked up to the lady and asked, “Do you have any news?” This was in English because I realized that this lady was speaking English to her co-workers and I wasn’t in the mood to speak to her in Spanish anymore. She responded that there wasn’t any news and that someone would be out shortly.
Finally a man came out, and in stead of calling my name or trying to figure out who I was, he held my passport in the air and waved it at me (and everyone else). I assumed it was mine, so I walked over and he gave me my ticket and my passport.
I ran to security (again with my gay shoes and short shorts) and got in a very short line. Of course, the line didn’t move and the longer lines did. My stuff finally passed through the scanner and they search both of my bags. These security guards were very vocal about people’s things, making comments about the stupidity of passengers and what they were bringing. They were also meat-heady. In any case, after looking through two of my bags, I was free to run from security to my gate.
I got to my gate and realized that the flight was an hour behind even though the screens in the American Airlines terminal said that it was on time. I was also really annoyed because the dumb Mexicana employees could have told me that I wouldn’t have missed the flight because it was an hour behind schedule. I finally got on the plane and was fed dinner and given coffee and beer. No one talked to anyone else either during the flight, so I was a happy camper.
Finally, I arrived in Guadalajara. I was scared that this was going to be bad too because my layover wasn’t that long and you know how baggage is always lost when switching between airlines.
But, my little taped up bag that Liz had bought me in LGA was one of the first bags that came out and my large bag came out later. From there I took a taxi with all of my things to Mariana’s house. I finally made it!

This is from the day after my first blog post

After the whole first airplane fiasco, I finally got on my airplane at LGA. Everything seemed fine until we were number 10 in line for take off. We ended up leaving 45 minutes late. This stressed me out because I only had about 1. 5 hours to make the connection to the other flight in Chicago, which was in a separate terminal and which meant I would have to go through security again.

My flight from LGA actually only arrived 10 minutes late, so I felt better about the 45 minute late start. However, it took us 20 minutes to taxi to the gate with 10 minutes of just sitting and waiting for huge airplanes to go by. It seems that everything about this flight was meant to annoy me.

As I got off the airplane, there was no one to direct me at all. I looked because I only had about 40 minutes to check in with Mexicana and pass through security again. I began the airport run with my gay brown teacher shoes and my short shorts. I knew that my connecting flight would be in terminal 5 because it was the international terminal. I got this information from the American Airlines magazine which had various airport maps.

As I’m running to terminal 5, I got increasingly nervous because I still hadn’t spoken with anyone about my connection. I ran past a general airport information desk and asked the man how to get to terminal 5. He gave me a billion directions which included stairs and escalators and a train. I didn’t take a wrong turn, and in about 10 minutes I was in terminal 5.

I went up to the Mexicana check-in desk and the woman began to talk to me in Spanish. I told her that I was going to Guadalajara. She took my passport and swiped it. She couldn’t find the voucher that
American Airlines was supposed to have sent her so she went to a room in the back somewhere. She came back and told me to stand to the side and that someone would come back when American Airlines told them about the voucher. I asked her if I would make my flight because there were only 20 minutes left and she said that there wasn’t any reason for me to miss it. I, of course, couldn’t understand how she could say this when there were only 20 minutes until my flight was supposed to take off and I didn’t even have a ticket and I hadn’t passed through security yet.

I waited on the side for 20 minutes observing all of the Mexicana employees. One comment--no sense of urgency at all. As it was time for my flight to leave, I walked up to the lady and asked, “Do you have any news?” This was in English because I realized that this lady was speaking English to her co-workers and I wasn’t in the mood to speak to her in Spanish anymore. She responded that there wasn’t any news and that someone would be out shortly.

Finally a man came out, and in stead of calling my name or trying to figure out who I was, he held my passport in the air and waved it at me (and everyone else). I assumed it was mine, so I walked over and he gave me my ticket and my passport.

I ran to security (again with my gay shoes and short shorts) and got in a very short line. Of course, the line didn’t move and the longer lines did. My stuff finally passed through the scanner and they search both of my bags. These security guards were very vocal about people’s things, making comments about the stupidity of passengers and what they were bringing. They were also meat-heady. In any case, after looking through two of my bags, I was free to run from security to my gate.

I got to my gate and realized that the flight was an hour behind even though the screens in the American Airlines terminal said that it was on time. I was also really annoyed because the dumb Mexicana employees could have told me that I wouldn’t have missed the flight because it was an hour behind schedule. I finally got on the plane and was fed dinner and given coffee and beer. No one talked to anyone else either during the flight, so I was a happy camper.

Finally, I arrived in Guadalajara. I was scared that this was going to be bad too because my layover wasn’t that long and you know how baggage is always lost when switching between airlines.
But, my little taped up bag that Liz had bought me in LGA was one of the first bags that came out and my large bag came out later. From there I took a taxi with all of my things to Mariana’s house. I finally made it!

American Airlines--YOU ANNOY ME!

After arriving at LGA at around 7 AM and standing in line for about 45 minutes, Liz and I were informed that my flight had been cancelled and that I would be getting on a plane that would leave at 4:30 PM. As if this weren't enough, the woman tells me that bags over 50 pounds aren't even allowed to go to GDL (my bag was 72 pounds). After kind of almost having a panick attack, Liz ran to a store, bought me an extra bag for 10 dollars and we moved stuff around. It's amazing! If she weren't there, I would have freaked out and thrown half of my stuff away.
ACK! They wouldn't even let me pay extra. Out of control. So, after checking my two bags, I went back to Liz's house and slept for 3 hours. Now I'm back at the airport. Can you believe that wireless internet is not free?

Wish me luck! I hope I don't miss my connecting flight in Chicago.

Sitting on Felix´s bed escaping the heat

I´ve just created this blog! Hopefully this will be the beginning of documenting a new stage in my life. I´m slightly nervous about heading to Torreón, but I think I will find things that I enjoy. I am very excited about heading to Mexico again--the idea of eating the food makes my mouth water. I´m not terribly great at writing a blog, so I guess I will make this entry short.

Only a few days remain until I leave on August 9th!