En español

No sé porque, pero hoy, mas que nunca, tengo ganas de escribir en español.  Posiblemente es que lo que voy a decir es un poco cursi y siento mejor diciendo lo que quiero explicar en español.  Estaba hablando de eso hace algunos días con mis amigas... que puede ser que alguien diga la cosa más cursi del mundo, pero si está en español, son las palabras más bonitas del mundo.

Estoy llegando a mis últimas semanas aquí en Mexico.  Todavia no sabe mi mama que ya me voy.  Es increíble que lo he quedado como secreto por tanto tiempo... estoy muy orgullosa de mi misma, y de toda la gente que sepa.

No sé que pensar del hecho que ya me voy.  Estaba tan segura que es lo que quiero en la vida.. pero me da miedo también.  Empezar de nuevo siempre es muy difícil.  Quiero saber que voy a tener un trabajo, que voy a tener lugar para vivir, que voy a poder hacer lo que quiero en mi vida, que voy a tener dinero para vivir!

Siento un poco perdida la verdad.  Es muy difícil cerrar la puerta de mi vida aqui en Querétaro.  Quiero tanto a la ciudad, a la gente, a la cultura, a mis alumnos.  Yo sé que es bueno irme cuando todavía quiero mucho a toda mi vida aquí, porque en esta manera, voy a querer regresar lo más pronto posible.

I love Science!

For those of you that knew me growing up, you would think that I'm lying.  I always sucked at Science, I hated Science classes, and I was the laughing stock of my Physics class because everyone was sure my teacher and I were having an affair since I was in his room until 430 PM every day getting help.  Now that I look back on it, I'm not sure why I cared so much since I got accepted into college the third week of September, but whatever, what's past is past.

Ironically, my dad ran into my physics teacher last summer and told him that I was living in Mexico, teaching Physics, and my teacher stared at him open-mouthed and simply said, "Wait... Sarah... Cram?"  That's right, Mr. Meier, and I love it!

In college, I decided to do all of my student teaching and practicums where I got to choose in Math and Science classrooms... I knew that that's where most of the jobs were.  And now, it's so hard to imagine myself doing anything else.  Very often, I miss teaching English, or the idea of teaching it.  I feel like it would be a much better place to get to know my students.  But I have days like today and it's hard to imagine myself teaching anything else!

Today, I made up a board game for my kids.  It was about making healthy lifestyle choices... I made all the pieces myself, and Camille helped me by making the game board.  The kids had to exercise for some of the cards.  So many of them told me how much they loved it because they actually got to get up and move around.  And I just felt so proud... not of me, but of them!  Some days I just stare at them in amazement... because my students really ARE amazing.  I'm going to miss my sixth graders so much.  I know I've found a place where I feel like I'm home and appreciated... and so soon, it's going to come to an end!  It seems impossibly sad to think about it!

I love this place. <3.

A Mexico City Adventure: to say the least

This weekend, Jena jenika and i went to mexico city with bethany to get to know the city as well as luiss buddies who live there. we got in around eight on friday night and went right to luiss apartment and met up with a few of his friends. we went to our hotel then to drop our things off and were off to geravaldi to eat some dinner while listening to some mariachi. it was such an incredible mexican experience. saturday we wwere on our way out the door around eleven to go to a really cool market. it took us forever to dind it but we did and beth and luis met up with us. then we just walked through the super rich neighborhood for a while and imagined what our lives could be like if we werent teachers. it was really nice to see some beautiful parts of town and get to see it how luis ssees it. then we met up with some friends again and went for a fancy lunch in another well to do neighborhood. it was so beautiful and jenika and i could not get over how safe and comfortable we felt. in the evening we went to this vip movie theater where each person gets their own recliner and you can call the waiter to bring you whatever you want whenever you want.. after the movie we just took a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed early. in the morning we got up early to get ready for our turibus ride. we met up with luis and beth again and took a tour of the city center. it started to rain and we were already sitting on the bottom so there were ppl standing all around us. then all of a sudden luis told us it was time to get off and we had to push and shove our way through. we then went to our friend savves place to watch the superbowl. he lives above the restaurant he owns so we got some lunch on the house. a bunch of friends came over. around seven tthirty jenika went to grab her camera out of her purse and it wasnt there. she then realized that she left it on the tour bus. i found the number and called them and this really nice guy said he would investigate. then we got back to dancing to some great tunes and enjoying the company of our new df friends. around eleven thirty i got a call from him telling me that they found the camera and that i should call around eleven the next morning to plan where we could meet. hooray. so we got back around four in the morning slept a few hours and then went down to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast and to wait for a phone call from cesar. we finally got a hold of him and were getting our things together to go and i realized that i did not have my laptop. turns out after watching the security tape that someone sat at the booth right behind me and using his jacket to conceal it took my laptop right out of my purse and left. awesome. so we obviously talked to the hotel manager and she told me that laps are covered under the hotels insurance so hopefully ill be able to get money for a new one. so all in all everything worked out. we got jenikas camera back and we are praying that i can recooperate the money for my laptop so i can get a new one. until then i am just praying that that will happen because i most definitely do not have money for a new one. all of my files were backed up and i just got a new hard drive when i was home for break so there is not a lot on there thank god. and needless to say my lesson was learned. so now i am writing this from the comfort of my cellular phone. and my thumbs are tired so im going to call it a night. although ive lost my laptop i am looking for the silver lining and knowing that for that one asshole that stole my laptop that there were at least ten increidble people there for moral suppoert and to drive us around to make sure we got the camera and got to the bus station ok. i have not lost my faith in humanity and i believe there is a reason for this... or maybe a few and i am finding them out. oh and the kicker of it all was that we got to the station to buy our tix and when we got to our bus it turned out we bought tix for the crappiest bus ever instead of the really nice comfy ones. haha. what a way to end our night.

Decisions...

I need advice. And this email is so that my dear friends and family can help me make a decision.

I decided before I even left for winter vacation that I was not going to be returning to the school I've been working at next fall. I began thinking about working in Madison and getting my master's degree in bilingual education and I was incredibly excited. I began to work on my applications, find out from friends about the opportunities that were available to me, and research bilingual ed programs that I could take while teaching in Wisconsin. On Sunday afternoon, I had finally finished all of the applications. It felt so good to get it all done and I was genuinely excited about it all. And then I got an email from my coworker from last year.

I had emailed her because she wrote me a letter of recommendation, but I needed her to sign it. So I was trying to make a plan to meet up with her for coffee, catch up on the past six months, and have her sign the form. Well, she emailed me back Sunday evening asking if I had any interest at working at a new school in San Miguel de Allende (45 minutes from here). San Miguel is a cute little town, a lot of American and Canadian people retire there, it's a beautiful city, all that jazz. She didn't say a lot about the school, but said she could definitely send them my email address if I was interested. She mentioned it was dual immersion and project based. All of a sudden, I started flipping out. This school: www.academysanmiguel.org sounded absolutely incredible. So, I found out Wednesday that I got an interview. And I had my interview last night. And they offered me a job teaching fifth grade. And I don't know what to do!!

If anyone has some extra time on their hands and wants to give me some input, I would greatly appreciate it. There are definitely benefits of staying here (not having to leave Mexico, getting a dream job, being a part of a NEW school where my input counts, team teaching, all brand new technology, etc), but there are also many benefits of going home (one of the main ones is that I would be able to actually make money, and of course I would be closer to my parents and be able to get my bilingual license).

Right now, I'm leaning towards yes. I love being in Mexico, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, I would get to work with my coworker Dorothy again, this experience can definitely only do positive things for me. BUT, how do I wrap my head around another year or two years in Mexico when, six days ago, I was ready to go home?????

Right at home...

In a city of 1,000,000 people, you'd figure that you could disappear into the crowd a little bit. Especially since your students all live about 10 km (at least) from where you live. And then you have days like the one I had yesterday.

Every once in a while, if I go to certain places, there are bound to be students from our school. For example, one of the shopping malls here that's considered high class. Also, one of the movie theaters here. And if you have high school students, you'd better not go to Classico, the club in their neighborhood. But, if you avoid those three places, you're in the clear. Except, in some twilight zone universe where your students start infiltrating your neighborhood... like yesterday.

So Bethany and I decided to go walking to said shopping mall to pay off our Telcel bill. Of course, if we were to go all the way in, it would be completely expected if there were some students inside (and actually, we did, and there were... but they don't count.) On the walk there, all of a sudden we hear, "Ms. Sarah, Ms. Bethany!" There is one of our students, in the car with his family, driving literally right next to us, driving slow enough so he can talk to us, but he doesn't have anything to say... so he's really just staring at us. Bless Bethany's heart, she was trying to have an awkward, through the car window conversation with this adorable little boy that really, I think, just wanted to smile and stare. So Beth and I kind of just laughed it off and ya know, it was just a small world thing.

So on the way home, we have to walk underneath a bridge that has train tracks on it (said train tracks also pass literally five feet from the back of his house). The train tracks are about a five minute walk from my house, so we were almost home. As we got closer to the train tracks, we see that there are about 15 kids jumping up and down on the bridge. Many of them were wearing the same shirt, so I thought maybe it was some kind of youth group of sorts that was doing a service project of meeting and greeting the cars that passed below. And they were SUPER energetic... screaming and yelling and jumping and waving. And then all of a sudden we hear, "MS. BETHANY!!!!" Oh... boy.... So of course we're walking right towards this bridge where all of these hooligans are, and now we learn that we know said hooligans, but we can't make out who they are. Then we hear all kinds of shouts, "Ms. Sarah, Ms. Bethany!" Yeah, turns out a bunch of our students had a soccer tournament close to our houses and went to the train tracks to throw money at the trains? I didn't really get that.... "Ms. Sarah, what phase was the moon in last night?" "Ms. Bethany, go to the other side of the bridge and we'll see you there!!!" So then we had a parting party for us as we walked away. We couldn't stop laughing... of COURSE we would know those kids :) And where were their parents? ;-)

So then, we started to think that although we are probably going to be moving on from Queretaro next year, that we kind of like, in our own little way, being celebrities here in Queretaro :) We really feel a part of the community and we love the sense of community that there is in this city. I don't want to leave it!

And then, later that night, we were driving along at like 1130, and we look to our right, and we see at least 15 prostitutes... holy cow, Queretaro! You never cease to amaze us. Obviously, they had to have existed somewhere, but we've never seen them! We couldn't believe it! hahaha. Little conservative Queretaro. The best part was that we were enjoying the beautiful renovations that QRO has done on this street to make it more eco-friendly, and the landscaping is incredible, and there are little cute lampposts along the whole walk. It was a very interesting combo of views, for sure!

Things here are going really well! I'm enjoying school, I'm enjoying my Spanish classes, as well as giving my English classes, I'm working really hard at the gym, and I'm not taking a moment for granted. It feels so good! :) When are people coming to visit me so I can show them this beautiful place?!

How can anyone ever want to leave a city like Queretaro?

Obviously, this post is going to be about how much I love Queretaro... and how it makes me sad to think that maybe some day I'll leave it. Here are this weekend's reasons that I don't want to leave this beautiful place:

1. You can get Indian food, no problem.... and it's delicious!
2. You can walk down and get crepes... all different flavors, savory and sweet.
3. You can then walk with your crepe to watch some cute old people traditional dancers show off their moves on stage with their clogs and adorable outfits in the same plaza.
4. You can then turn around and see a guy on stilts with a tie-dye T-shirt inviting you to the circus.
5. You walk a block to the circus, stand in line, and out of the 15 people in line, you know 4 of them (two of them being former students).
6. You can laugh your butt off at the free circus while sitting next to your former students and joking around with them and have a blast.
7. You can leave the circus and walk back home and just have a nice cozy night in with some incredible friends.
8. You can wake up the next morning, bright and early, with your hiking boots on, to climb the 3rd biggest rock (I think?) in the world in 23 minutes flat and have surprisingly little knee pain.
9. On your way to the rock, you can pull over on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere and buy a sweet as cowboy hat!
10. You can climb down that rock and have some funky blue corn gorditas (which are usually really good, but unfortunately this weekend, were subpar).
11. You can drive just 30 minutes to a neighboring town and buy candied nuts and take a look at some incredible artisan artwork.
    Are you jealous of the city I live in, yet? We're not even CLOSE to done!
12. Then you get to drive back home, take a muy rica siesta (a really incredible nap) and wake up, get all dolled up like a cowgirl, and go out for some banda dancing (basically jumping around like the polka) with some great friends!
13. When you get bored of banda dancing, you can go to the salsa club.
14. When you start to feel queezy about all the greasy food you've eaten, you can walk home and on your way, stop to visit Francia, who makes the greasiest, most delicious tacos in the whole world. And even though you were feeling sick, they somehow make you feel like a million bucks. It's true.
15. You can wake up in the morning, do your laundry, and sing Beauty and the Beast hits to yourself while you hang your laundry out to dry (I always kind of feel like I'm in some old movie when I hang my laundry out).
    You don't think any more could possibly go right, do you? Just you wait.
16. You then come online to find that some of your girlfriends are looking to go to the hot springs, and even though you have a TON of work to do, you go, because who can refuse a beautiful, relaxing day alongside the thermal springs? No one.
17. You can spend the day in the warm sun, swim around, have some good conversation, have some incredible guacamole, and feel like you don't have a care in the world.
18. You can get a message from a friend on the way home asking if you want to go downtown just to walk around. And even though you're thinking about all that work that you have to do, you go.
19. You walk downtown, thinking it's kind of eerie because usually there's so much going on (like stilts dude walking next to clog dancing old people), but there's absolutely nothing... it's not even lit up. So you decide just to walk a little bit further and....
20. You cab all of a sudden see an orchestra crammed into a gazebo, playing some Mexican classics with a classical feel, with a huge aisle of stands set up selling everything from churros to funnel cake type things, from tortas to sopes, from burritos to tacos, from flan to (not so good, but that's ok because then later you abandon it to get the funnel cake type thing) cheesecake, for what appears to be set up for no reason at all. So you stuff your face, of course!
21. You can sit and listen to the orchestra for a while, enjoying all of the Mexican families downtown, the random guy dancing with himself, the cute young couple dancing while their dog sits next to them hanging on his leash.
22. You can get up to head home and, right next to the orchestra, find a group of young hipsters showing off their breakdancing talent (and yeah, I mean TALENT!) for all the passersby.

And that all happened in 48 hours flat. I am the luckiest girl alive :).

"Ms. Sarah, I don't feel so good."

"Ms. Sarah, I don't feel so good."

So this weekend was an epic fail in the schoolwork department. I could not get motivated... at all. So instead, I went out dancing on Thursday, to a going away party on Friday, and bar hopping on Saturday! Which basically meant that all day long, I was out of commission. Out til 4 AM isn't really conducive to a good working day.

So a week ago, I started eating healthier. And I was doing surprisingly well until the weekend came along and all I wanted to do was CARB LOAD. Not good for a body that's not used to it. So Bethany and I went to the market, got some gorditas, "worked" for an hour, and then watched a movie (and we both slept for part of it). Then we "worked" for another little bit, and then went and got pizza. I had every intention of getting salad, but the restaurant didn't have any! It was a sign. So I basically inhaled pizza instead, went back to Beth's, and watched another movie. And slept for most of it.

Which brings us to Monday morning. Moctezuma's revenge hit me... or more like greaseball-food-revenge hit me, and hold cow did I feel sick this morning. I was not ready at all for school, especially since I teach all 7 periods, but I sucked it up. I told my students that I was going to have to be sitting down at my desk if they needed help with their stations. Not two minutes later, a student comes up to me and says, "Ms. Sarah, I'm not feeling so well. Can I get a pass to the paramedic? (that's right... that's what we call it here!)" So I turned to my drawer to grab a pass, and started writing on it when I saw the poor kid leaning over.... and then I saw the floor. Puke everywhere. Thank you, son! That's something I've never experienced! He stayed keeled over for about two minutes, wiped his mouth and said, "So, Ms. Sarah, can I go just wash my face real quick?" REALLY? I sent him to the paramedic anyway and should have had him come back with air freshener, because holy cow...

So that basically was the preface to one of the craziest days I've had yet at school. I had a ton of grading to get done, I was trying to organize things for NJHS, I spilled water twice and Diet Coke once all over my desk (and my students' papers), and I got an incredible migraine right around lunch time that didn't allow me to move my head. Needless to say, it was a rough day. I blame the puker!

In other news, tomorrow I'm starting Spanish class so I can brush up on some of the harder grammar with two girlfriends of mine, Tae-Bo Mexican edition is kicking my butt, I volunteered to teach English for the first time and it was pretty rough (but they had like, 10 kittens there that were absolutely adorable!), and time is just flying by! I can't believe we're almost halfway through October!

Things I miss: foliage, raking leaves, eating caramel apples, corn mazes, pumpkin in a can, band, college!

But it's OK, I've got a lot to make up for it here :)