We went to see Jesus Cristo. The giant Jesus statue that is in the mountains here. It was a funny story because my roommate Katie answered the phone and thought it was my roommate Em's boyfriend who called and said he wanted to take us so we all got ready to go and then Eda opened the door and it was some guy she did not know and had never seen before. Thankfully the other Emily met him through one of the other girls, but needless to say, it was a bit awkard!
Last week we started a Tuesday dinner tradition. We are going to take turns making meals for the 5 in my house, Emily's boyfriend and his friend, Paco, my friend Luz, and whoever else comes along. Last week we made lasagna, this week Paco made us Pastel Azteca which was super yummy!
I went and explored Wal-mart on a random Sunday. I bought fun things to make my room more of a house. Such as a candle, a puzzle, a new shower curtain, some food, and other fun things.
My children are super naughty! I have kids throwing chairs and kicking and biting and twisting skin and being all around naughty. I have kids who say they hate me and this school. They wish that I would go away and not come back. I have a boy who runs away from my classroom and makes the other children afraid. I have kids who scream all day long. Welcome to Mexico. My principal says that what I am supposed to do in this situation is let them be. That even if they are destructive they “hopefully” won’t hurt anyone else so just let them be. Talk about a different standard than at home! Here you’re supposed to let kids run away from your classroom and when you send them to the office they get to color pictures and get stickers, oh yeah….really helpful! At the same time I have super sweet kids who are always doing their work. I have kids who are starting to use English more. They have a sticker chart that they are trying to fill up to get something from my prize box. I had one girl who turned from green (good) to yellow (so-so) today and had a meltdown. It's such a difference because some of my kids don't care at all.
It's so different because the kids are not expected to be respectful or responsible for their things. These kids are used to just getting new things and an endless supply of everything. Plus, these kids say unkind things to their friends all day long and when they are called out on it, they lie!
Last week some of my kids ript the pages out of my books. On Tuesday one of the kids stole one of my beanie babies I brought back here, On Wednesday my kids broke my coffee cup (The one Berk gave me for my graduation present :-( )
Okay, two weeks have passed. Sorry I have not updated. Life right now has been super crazy! I spent this past weekend in Iowa. I went home for my grandpa’s funeral and it was good to be there. Here is my adventure of the way home:
5:10- wake up
5:45- wait outside for Luz to pick me up in her bug
6:05- talk to the continental lady and learn that I need my “blue paper”- visitor paper, I’m told that I cannot leave Mexico. I was told that I could pay $100 at the airport to get a new one, but the customs man would not give me one.
6:30- We called and woke up Erendia and asked her for Ms. Patty’s number and told her where I was. I also called my house and asked Eda and Emily to look for it in my house even though I was certain that it was at the school in order to get my working visa. Then we went back to the continental lady and she tries to pull strings to get me one. When she can’t she changed my flight so that I would not lose it completely. However, there were no tickets on Friday so I had to wait until Saturday to fly.
7:00- Luz and I leave the airport to go look through everthing and wait for school to open or for the Torreon government office to open so somehow I can get home by plane, bus or some other way.
Home: all the girls gave me hugs and told me it would all work out somehow. Then they all went to school. Emily and Emily let me borrow their computers so I could call my dad (he’s the one picking me up in Des Moines) and look for flights. My dad told me to try other airlines and to go to other locations such as Chicago.
7:45- got to school. I asked Anna in the main office if Charo or Paty were there. They hadn’t arrived yet so I went to kindergarten and cried with Cassidy.
8:00- Charo head principal found me and apologized and gave me a hug. I went with her to her office and we looked at flights and options:
- Take a bus to Monterry and fly from there
Problem: there’s been tons of water and she didn’t know if the road would be wiped out or if the bus would have problems.
- Take a bus to McAllen
Problem: very dangerous right now and would take more than twelve hours and is not good to cross boarder at night plus bus stations is far from the airport.
- A bus to Laredo
Problem: dangerous, long trip and not safe to cross boarder and no flight until tomorrow.
- Flight from Torreon to Dallas
Problem: super expensive, full tomorrow, left today before I could get the paper
8:35- was in computer lab and sent my dad an email about how upset I was about being trapped and updated him on flights. Charo came in and told me she had a plan and we needed to go quickly.
8:45- we left Colegio Ingles in Charo’s super suburban for the Torreon government building where I could get a paper.
9:15- a man flagged us into our spot which my door opened up into the middle of a bush! He “watched” the car for us when we went inside.
- Inside we signed in and got a visitor sticker and waited. As we were watching Charo told me that for her husband’s job he goes there a lot. He has a friend who can help us named Lupita, but she didn’t know which girl it was. She told me she had bought her cakes though.
9:33- Lupita helps us! She has a file full of information and my FM3. This is my ticket out of Mexico. There were only 5 teachers' papers ready and mine was one of them- such a God thing. The other option would have been to get some paper saying I’m in the process of getting my visa. This is what Charo is getting for all the other teachers in case something happens and they have to go home before they have their FM3. Lupita was super happy and helpful. Charo said it must be because she was recently married :)
10:00- we left the government building to go buy a flight from Torreon to Guadalajara where I could then take a flight from Guadalajara to Huston and Houston to Des Moines. We had to wait a little bit here because Miss Mexico was buying a ticket and chatting. She was very beautiful, sweet, and fun.
10:17- we left that office to go to the continental office to buy the Guadalajara to Houston ticket. This office had just one girl working and no form of security accept a bell on the door. Charo told her to be super careful.
10:40- we arrived back to my house to get my stuff. A suitcase full of children’s books. My broken computer, my camera, and a few other presents. Charo noticed the large whole outside the house where we’ve lifted two cars out of and the reason we lost electricity. It’s for this that she called Fernando. Colegio Ingles' Mr. fix it. During this time I called my dad and told him I was getting on a plane and would be home sometime that night.
11:05- we arrived back at the airport, got checked in, said goodbye and thank you to Charo. Found out that I needed to get my suitcase in Guadalajara and Huston because I was switching airlines.
11:40- walked upstairs and found out there’s hardly anyone there as in two cleaning people, 1 security woman, 1 kiosk lady, and 1 man waiting for a plane. So incredibly weird.
12:00- boarded plane #1 to Guadalajara without a problem
1:20- arrived in Guadalajara 15 minutes early which was a huge blessing. As I was waiting for my bag a security guy told me he thought it had left already and asked to see my claim ticket. While he was checking, out came my suitcase. I then tried to figure out how to get to Terminal 1 the international one. You could wait 30 minutes for a bus or take a walk. I chose to walk finding randomly posted signs for 15 minutes. Then I had to re-check my bag and fill out the Mexico FM2 form. A kind airport man helped me.
1:50- I walked through security and on to the international gates. I took a minute to stop and go to the bathroom. As I was walking down the final escalator to get to my gate, my Uncle John was walking up the stairs! I wondered when I knew I was going through Guadalajara if they would be there since they had been doing missionary counseling there. I gave them both big hugs and told them the whole story.
2:20- I had to board my flight that left at 3. I get in the line and find out that somehow I was supposed to go through immigration and get a stamp. I left the line, went up the stairs, down to gate 7 and immigration. There no one helped me and told me to turn the corner and go right which of course was nothing. So then I talked to this girl almost in tears asking where I could get the dumb stamp. Next she sent me to a table with 5 security checker people who also had no idea what I wanted. I explained it all in Spanish this guy took me to the same area as the lady who told me to turn right gave the dumb paper to a guy who asked for no information and just stamped it.
2:45- I have to walk out as an “arrival” through security AGAIN, walk around, down, over, up, down to get back to my gate so I can leave.
2:55- they’re checking my carry-on for the 3rd time now and I’m getting excited as I am finally on a plane that will take me to America.
3:00- I had originally asked for an aisle seat, but the woman I’m sitting next to had so much stuff and was looking for her ticket so I just moved over.
3:30- her and I were talking and Spanish and were able to talk about Guadalajara and an accident her family had. She said that went straight from the hospital to the airport and are going to relax in Huston for two months.
5:15- arrival in Huston! There were so many tall pine trees and there was a ton of English! :-) We had to walk away and then go through customs and security. Apparently if you set off the metal detector they now take an x-ray more or less of your body to see what you have on you. Then you keep walking until baggage claim. Then have to go through some homeland security guy who takes your customs form. Ext I went up an escalator through security again and then up another escalator and took a train to the correct terminal. Then I did some more walking and for the first times since 5 am had something to eat 6:15.
8- our plane left a little late and then there was a backup on the runway, but supposedly we have good wind pushing us along so we might arrive on time. Then once again to find my bag and my paper :-). Then drive two hours home and find my bed 21 hours after this crazy traveling began.
Today (Wednesday) is Mexico Independence Day! This means...we have no school!!! Tuesday at school the 4 yr olds did a play about the children hero's from the American vs. Spanish war. It was interesting to listen to it from the perspective. Also how 6 kids held off a bunch of American men to save a castle for a few more days...I didn't quite catch the whole story because only parts were shared and because I had kids not listening to whom I needed to talk.
After school today I took a siesta. It is becoming a bad habit, but the days get so long with the kids and the fact that we stay out late. Tonight we went out to dinner, but since we didn't start making lunch until 4:30 and were cleaning up at 5:45 we didn't eat much :-)
Then later we played games at one of the other houses with 5 Mexican friends and about ten other female teachers. We played Spanish gestures and it was super difficult, but really fun!
Tomorrow we are going to go downtown to the Plaza de Armas to see what festivities we can take place in. We are hoping to go to an open market and do a little shopping and find some authentic Mexican looking things.
Today I let my kids play with the tangram puzzles. The classroom aid had laminated them and kids were ready for some new toys. However, I found out that there were only enough shapes for one child to work at once so while the rest of my kids were playing around the room I trace
d shapes out of the foam stuff and created enough for 3 kids to play at one time.
t we have NOT hurt our friends with them.
I have begun to notice some of the "politics" at school already.
For example, my classroom assistant is best frieds with my principal. She therefore is always out of my classroom and truly rarely working.
Yesterday, Cassidy the other prepri teacher had a child who stabbed someone with a pencil after punching a different kid. both my assistant and the principal were missing and Cass had to take her kids to the science lab so she brought me my girl and she just sat in the corner... It would have been a great time to have someone around...
Today, I had a child who went from green-yellow-red-blue-no cards by 9am. Now, I was not just grumpy or hadn't gotten enough sleep or something like that...this girl was super naughty! So when they pull their cards out they have to go to the principal's office for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, for this child it was a treat to need to go there although she was upset at me that she missed computers.
Also, there have been a lot of kids gone from school. There are many with "flu like" symptoms. Has this happened in the States to and I'm just out of the loop?? They have canceled 4th grade for a week (how strange is that?) because there were too many kids sick, but they have not canceled school yet which is very strange to me. Everytime I've gone in the office this week it has been crawling with sick kids and angry parents and people talking loudly on the phone in Spanish..it makes my head hurt!
I found out this week that I get to take my kids to the science lab once a week which I am super excited about! We give this teacher a theme and she will prepare the activity and find all the materials (a very hard task when you have to ask for EVERYTHING you're going to need the following week on Thursday).
Tuesday while I was teaching one of the ladies from the office came to my classroom with two men in black suits and said "this is Miss Alicia", they looked at me and checked my name off and then that was everything...so strange this place is!
Life has been very crazy lately. Last night was the first night I've had electricity in my room since Thursday night. No electricity meaning that I couldn't find anything in my closet in the mornings, I got to shower in the dark, I couldn't blow dry my hair in my room, I couldn't see after 8pm to do any of my school work. Also my fan did not work nor did the air conditioning. Not our WHOLE house was out of electricity. My room did not have any, Emily's room upstairs didn't have any, our pantry and part of our kitchen was out. As in the part with the fridge and the oven...
and Eda decided to make a bet which resulted in her jumping into a wall in the pool and cutting/brusiing both her legs badly. Then Saturday we went to another place to watch the Mexico/somebody soccer game and then listen to/watched some of our friends participate in mexican karioke. 
Then Sunday Jesse picked us up and brought us to his soccer game...he plays on a 25-40 yr old league team. When we got there I was certain I saw one of my kids dads and then I saw Roberto and knew that I knew both of them. Jesse's team won really easily. After the game Roberto (the dad) invited us to his house for a barbaque. The guys were ver nice and served us tons of amazing looking food. They however did make us eat a bunch of hot things like jalepenos, some chili something and a vegetable I had never heard of that was very hot!
Sunday night someone tried to take a shower only to find out that the water in Katie's batroom wouldn't shut offf. All of us had to shower in her bathroom one after aother and then we turnd the power off for over 24 hours with no water. They fixed this water problem on Tuesday finaly.
Emily and Eda are hanging out with the pinata from casa E... these are the returning girls who apparently bought her around Christmas last year and have kept her since!
Emily, Emily and I sitting around the kitchen table eatting some lunch! Random side note....the water men just came. It only cost 15 pesos(1.20) to fill up a 5 gallon jug. Each week we get 5 of them.
