LIFE IN MEXICO...
• When 2 girls (aka Marin and I) are walking down the street and see a mariachi band (instruments and all) walking towards them, little did they know that the entire band would step off the sidewalk in order to let them pass by.
• Not only do men look and whistle as girls walk down the street, but dogs bark like crazy. I honestly feel at times as though I have stepped into the scenes of "101 Dalmatians" where all the dogs are barking across the city to communicate Pongo's actions.
• Going to the grocery store means walking 10 minutes to the store and carrying all of our bags back with us. To envision how ridiculous we look, picture two girls with backpacks stuffed so full the zippers don't work, 2-3 bags in their hands and possibly a frown or two on the faces. This may be one of our least favorite parts about living in Mexico as we have no other way to get our food home. :) At least we can laugh about it after the fact.
• Marin and I have been trying to run more these days. I repeat try to run as a couple weeks ago I definitely took my first bite of the sidewalk as I somehow tripped and scraped up the knees. It would have been a little less embarrassing had 5 of the other teachers not witnessed the fall...oh humility how I love it.
• Getting anywhere beyond a place we can walk to means taking the bus. There are times we abhor the bus....imagine 60 people stuffed onto one bus. 35 people are sitting while 25 or more depending on the sanity of the bus driver are standing. Imagine being so squished that you have no idea who is pushing you and you occasionally knee a person or hit someone over the head with your bag as you try to exit off the bus.
OUR COZY LITTLE CASA...
• One night upon returning home, I opened the door and turned around to set my bag down as I heard something fall. the door had indeed fallen off of its hinges and we had to "set" it back in place.
• Marin and I try to have people over every week to share a meal with us as we experiment with our culinary skills. Note that we can only have 2 people over at a time as we only have 2 extra chairs in the house and only 4 chairs will fit around the table as we pull it from the wall to accommodate the company.
• Killing spiders (together - it takes some serious teamwork) and discovering dead cockroaches is a common part of daily life.
• When finished with a load of laundry, some people might hang it outside to dry or throw it in the dryer, but Marin and I get to decorate the inside of our cozy home with our clothing hanging from every possible place to hang them.
• Trying to be more domestic, I have made a couple cakes while I have been here in Mexico. One was to celebrate Marin's birthday, the other was to celebrate High School Musical 2 coming to Mexico. Let's just say that Saray and Jesus Bravo (my Mexican "parents") have told me that when they first got married, she couldn't bake very well either, after about the 20th time something turned out...so anybody want to be my guinea pigs with the next 18 cakes? (they usually taste good they just don't look so good)
• When watching TV, we must not make any sudden moves after we get the antenna in a good place. If we move too much, the clarity disappears...and we see a few too many pixels.
• Walls disintegrate here in Mexico as both of our bedroo
m curtain hooks have fallen out of the wall. • We usually go through one 20L water jug a week as our faucet doesn't pour out drinking water. To get our water jug into its holder which sits on top of our fridge, we have to use some team work to lift the jug above our heads. One time when we were doing this, we started laughing and lost it half way up to the fridge. We suddenly had a mini pond in our kitchen and after screaming we started laughing very hard. Our cute little landlady ran over and asked "Muchachas, estan bien?"
MY CLASSROOM...
• During a spelling test, I had a moment when I wasn't sure what to do as a teacher. On #13 "thrill" one of my students stood up and sang "thriller" by Michael Jackson (with the dance moves). I decided laughing was appropriate before I told him to sit down so we could finish the test.
• One day when I got to school I noticed something staring at me from atop the water jug outside of my classroom. After yelling for Marin to come and look at whatever this thing was, we turned the light on and realized it was a peacock! Yes, I repeat a peacock was on top of the water jug...go figure.
• Marin and I may have been the coolest teachers ever this very morning as we dressed up like world travelers (I was an eskimo and she was an Oriental woman) and performed a song from the play "Around the World in 80 Days" which we will be attending next week! Let's just say our student's eyes were as big as saucers while we laughed our way through the performance...so fun! (Check out the "FOURTH GRADE FUN" video in "links of interest" at the top right of this page...)
LATEST AND GREATEST...
• Our latest adventure took place this weekend as we went to the "barranca" (mountainous valley). After taking an hour bus
ride to the top of this valley, the rain was coming down lightly. By the time we got ourselves together and started walking down the 5K path down the side of this mountain, it was raining cats and dogs. We honestly felt as if we were walking down a waterfall as the water rushed between the stones we were hiking on. By the time we got to the bottom, the rain had stopped and we rested down by the river at the bottom. On the way back up someone in our group had the "brilliant" idea to climb back up the railroad tracks. Imagine a railroad track at an angle more vertical than horizontal...after making it halfway up this torture track we decided to jump back on the trail and leisurely climb back up. We then took an 1 1/2 hour bus ride to get on another 45 minute bus ride to arrive home...a long and wet day indeed. :)Well life here in Mexico never ceases to be an adventure and never ceases to make us laugh. I hope you can enjoy some of these moments as much as we have as you read away. Much love, Miss Dynes
No comments:
Post a Comment