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 :)

Just when I was sure I was getting a hang of this Mexico thing...

So I don't know how much I said about my internet issues since I've been here in my last blog entry, but there have been a lot. I spent multiple hours on the phone with Telmex every night for 3 weeks asking them why my internet still wasn't working. I got every excuse in the book. A few of my favorites:

"Can you please tell me where there is a Telmex store close to my house?" "No, ma'am, I don't have access to the internet." Really?? An internet company... that doesn't have internet access? Yeah.. ok.

"Can you please call my cell phone when you've figured everything out?" "Sure, ma'am, I'll take all of your information, and I PROMISE to call you tomorrow with an update." Did anyone EVER call back? Nope.

"Can I speak with your supervisor?" "Yes, one moment please." Click.

"Can I speak with your supervisor?" "Yes, one moment please...... (5 minutes later) Ma'am, it turns out that my supervisor is having lunch and cannot talk right now." Lovely.

"Can I speak with your supervisor?" "We don't have supervisors here. Sorry."

"Can I speak with your supervisor?" "Well, ma'am, my supervisor can't do anything more than what I have already offered you." "And what have you offered me?" "Well, to just wait and let our tecs do their job."

And my all time favorite!: "Can I speak with a technician please?" "Sorry, ma'am, but we do not have direct communication with our tecs. We simply send them an email with your problem and they respond within 24-72 hours to fix the problem." "Ok, that's fine, but 72 hours ago was about 336 hours ago."

Needless to say, it was a pretty painful month. Finally, when I threatened to cut my service, amazingly someone was free (weird!) to come over and take a look at my internet. And then it worked. For 5 hours. And then it cut out again. And then I had to do that all over again. But now I've had internet (knock on wood) for one and a half WHOLE weeks without any problems! Hooray!

So, I had a few bad weeks. I really thought that Mexico was out to get me. And then Monday, I had a super successful day! I went to find tennis shoes, which always seems to be a really hard thing for me, but I found them in the second store I went into and I LOVE them and they don't make my feet look as huge as they really are! Super score for Sarah.

And get this: right before that, I had to go pay my Telmex bill for the past month, and I had to use this special phone there to call and see if I could get a discount for the days that I was without internet. Background info: the day I called to report my internet as not working, they told me to wait a week because there was another account still open at my house that had to close. So my first report doesn't show up in their computers until a week after I called the first time. So I call this woman and she says, "Well, looks like you did not have internet for 20 days... so that'll make your bill 800 pesos." And I was like, "Whoa, woman, hold it.... I did NOT have internet for a whole month." "Oh, ok, let me fix that then." (Which got me to thinking, why didn't I tell her it was actually a month and a half.. or two months?!) "Ok, man, that's all fixed, it'll be 700 pesos." "Um, why is it still so expensive? All I should have on that bill now is part of a month of internet and my cable." "Oh, it says here that you had a charge for changing households. Had they told you that they would do that for free?" "Um... yes?" "Oh, ok, let me fix that..... Perfect, it looks like your total will now be 400 pesos." Champion, right here, people!

So I was high on life. My students are becoming EXPERT notetakers, they laugh at almost all of my jokes, and I got an email from eInstruction (they have all kinds of awesome technology for classrooms, like mobile interactive whiteboards, clickers for instant voting, ya know, all the stuff you would have loved to have as a student?). They actually have a distributor right here in QRO that is going to give me an EXCELLENT deal on clickers, a whiteboard, and some programs that will go along with it. So I'm ecstatic about that.

And then I get home. Ugh. There is water... EVERYWHERE. And my shower? Running. You wanna know why? Because I turned it on. Yep.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the cold water to my shower takes forever to start running (I mean, like, an hour.) One day it only took about 5 minutes, and yesterday I left my water heater running too long in the morning, so I knew I'd need some cold water if I didn't want third degree burns. Well, I turned on the cold water, and what to you know, it didn't run. In my anger and haste, I took the fastest, hottest shower of my life (it could be worse.... cold showers are pretty awful), and in my huffy puffy state, forgot to shut the cold water off. Well, folks, the cold water runs...and runs...and runs. Until my whole floor in my apartment was wet. So that was cool. I guess I can't really blame Mexico for that one... I guess we tag teamed it.

So then I went and ran 4 miles to let off some steam. The end :)

Mexico...... te quiero mucho, te juro!!

A month goes by so quickly

I LOVE SIXTH GRADE! I think that's the best way to describe my year so far! It's been incredible. The students are so sweet, they listen (for the most part), and they're just so precious! I am so impressed by how much they've grown in just one month... I'm excited to see how they'll end up at the end of the year. Some of my students have already said that they can already tell how much I care about them and they love to come up and say hi... I'm so not used to that! The first few weeks, all I did was teamwork building activities... the kids loved it, I'm not sure that they were ready to really learn! haha. I'm learning that they don't know as much as I had hoped, but I'm really hoping to get them up to speed quickly.

I haven't been going to the gym a lot, BUT I bought a jump rope and I feel like a little kid all over again! I love it! I jump all by myself on the roof of my building and it's incredible :)

In other news, I just had the most incredible weekend! I went to San Miguel with a bunch of teachers from school and then headed to León and Guanajuato with four other teachers. It's something that I've wanted to do since I got here, but I let one person determine that for me. And let me tell you, Guanajuato is now one of my favorite cities I've ever seen! If anyone ever comes to visit me, that's where we're going! Pictures will come soon on FB, but some of the details are that I bought a nice leather jacket, I tried to find cowboy boots (epic fail), I ate more than I ever have in my life for the least expensive price ($30 pesos!), I saw a HUGE statue of Jesus!, we almost drove off the road a few times, we saw a TON of donkeys, poor little kids ran next to our car to get money, we saw some natural mummies (that was a bit morbid), I ate lots of delicious sugary pumpkin seeds (mmmmmmm!), I stayed in an incredible hostel with all kinds of funky animal print, I sat on a curb and watched drunk people almost fall down a cobblestone hill, I saw one of my students from last year (FIFTEEN) out at a bar, I sat in a hot tub, I made french toast with Luke for 10, did I mention that I ate a lot?, I tried REALLY hard to get into some techno music, and I didn't do any school work. None. It was GLORIOUS! Until today when I didn't have anything ready and taught 7 periods. Yikes.

Some of the highlights of teaching the past few weeks:

• "What's this, kids?" (holding up a funnel) "A margarita glass?"
• "Ms. Sarah, you talk really fast." "OK, from now on, if I talk too fast, give me a peace sign!" And then having one actually use it today. Adorable!
• Reading "What's Your Poo Telling You" to my students. "Ms. Sarah, are we going to read about poo today???" Thank you, Kathy Blomker!
• EVERY single time that the kids laugh at my jokes!
• My mentoring team winning one of the competitions by all stepping on my back
• Watching my kids scramble to get things done because they're used to coloring EVERYTHING and color coding their writing (Red for punctuation, blue for all other writing)
• Teaching my students how to be organized (a blessing and a curse)

Overall, I've been having an incredible year. My kitty is a little sick (we'll have to take him to the vet), I waited a month for internet, I've gotten pretty sick a few times, I've stressed out at work a few times, I got my hair CHOPPED off! (even though most people couldn't tell I got it cut), but after all is said and done, I am incredible blessed to have this life, have these students, have these friends, have this country! :)

The first day of school: take 2!

So yesterday was my first day of school with the sixth graders. And they are ADORABLE. I just wanna squeeze all their cute little cheeks and give them little kisses! haha. The boys are TINY and all have the cutest smiles! I don't want them to grow up, haha.

Yesterday was such an easy day for me. I had 3 classes and the kids were great in all three. One girl came running up to me in the morning and said, "OMG, ARE YOU MISS SARAH???" and was jumping up and down wildly and I said, "Yes...." and she continued to jump up and down and yelled, "YOU LOVE DR. WHO!???!??!" and I said, "Um... no." And she stopped jumping, got really depressed, and just said, "oh..." and walked away. And I don't even know who she was!?

I had the kids make "Extended Name Tags" yesterday in class and I love them! It's such a great way to learn about them. I also had them take a multiple intelligences test so that I could learn what their strongest ones are... and so that they know what each other's are. They did such a great job on everything and I just hope that they stay this sweet! Today, if we have time, we're going to play Fact Bingo where they have to find certain people wearing certain things and then we'll play Bingo with it. And I've got prizes, baby! I just have to go over all of my rules and procedures with them today. Whoohoo.

So a few nights ago, Sandra did my nails quite beautifully, and last night I already bit one of them off. I went to the gym yesterday afternoon for the first time in about a week and a half, and in the middle of the night, I couldn't take the pain in my legs anymore and had to take some meds. Holy cow, did that workout kick my butt! Then Beth and I went to see "Crazy Stupid Love"... and I'm not gunna lie, I cried. And I'd totally see it again!

In other news, I've almost killed my cat on multiple occasions because he insists on being SO close to me when I walk that I almost step on him. But he's so cute.. I can't be mad at him, haha. He keeps eating the dying plant in my apt, so I think I'm going to have to finally give up and throw it out ;-).

Overall, life in QRO is pretty dang sweet! I love the weather, I LOVE my coworkers, and most of all, I LOVE my kids. I wish I could post some pictures of them! I could just eat them up.... for real.

What a week.

Time is flying by so fast..... I can't believe that I'm going to meet my students in a few short hours! Last week was filled with spending time with some new teachers, getting some planning done, playing with my handsome and cuddly new kitty, and getting into a routine again!

The weekend was great... Friday, we went bowling for the middle school and a coworker and I started up a round of crazy bowling (thank you, high school girlfriends! haha) We had so much fun, I laughed so hard! I left from there to get my new phone (I LOVE IT!) and hung out at Mel's for a bit with a bunch of the new teachers. Then, I headed downtown to watch some performing arts festival performances with Bethany. My favorite was the erotic dancers ;-). I left from there and went to dinner with a few of them and then we went out dancing again! I had such a blast... and learned that flip flops aren't the best salsa dancing shoes.

I'm still hanging around waiting for internet, so yesterday I went to Mikey's for the day to swim in his pool! I was searching in town for a rug and some kind of cabinet something to put in my living room, but didn't have much luck and was sent on a wild goose chase for their other store (who knew it existed?) and ended up smack dab in the middle of the old fashioned center, where there is most definitely not going to be a Home Depot. So I abandoned the mission, drove an hour, and before even really saying hi to Esme or Mike, jumped in the pool. And boy, did it feel good!

Today I've been getting a lot of things done (I feel like I didn't do this much last year and last year was my first year... what's with that?!), but the day isn't even close to over. I'm going to be here with the sixth graders for their orientation evening. I'm super excited! We're going to play games, help them open up their lockers, and have ice cream! I hope they all feel more relaxed after today.

I'm hoping to get internet soon and then I'll be putting some pics up! If you're reading this, I hope you'll send me a FB message updating me with what's going on with you!

School has started!

I can't believe the second year is already here! I have been having such a blast getting settled in to my second year... I'm so happy to be back.

Saturday, I went out dancing, but ended up getting pretty sick and came home early. BUT, Dave and I danced for a long time and not gunna lie, he's learned a lot since I went to salsa classes with him! The birthday boy hadn't even showed up by the time I left (at 1:30), so that was a bit unfortunate, but I got to meet some of the new teachers and it was a lot of fun. Of course, I was super sore from having played ultimate frisbee earlier (yeah... we got roped into playing otherwise they wouldn't have had enough players!). Dave and I only played one of the three games, but I realized that I hadn't run outside since my half marathon, alm

ost a year and a half ago, so my lungs were put to the test. And my sprinting ability... haha.

Sunday, I ended up getting a text from Bethany, who got into town, so we went to Walmart to get some basics, and ran into Mel there (and another teacher). We caught up for a good hour :), then headed back by way of Telcel where Bethany got a new plan and phone and convinced me to do the same (I should be hearing from them soon to get my new phone!) I didn't have any ID with me, so I ran home while Bethany was doing all of her work, and ran back as fast as I could. I put Bethany's groceries in my fridge so that they didn't get all creepy warm sitting in the car. When Beth and I got back to my apartment, my door wouldn't open. Turns out, I had this wonderful (not) lock on my door that had a chain and then above it, a little pole that goes across. That little pole doesn't lock in place and just slides from one side to another. So, the

re was no way I was getting in there. So, I called up the locksmith, good ol' Jose Luis, who has me as a contact in his phone, that's how often I call him (and every time I see him, he says something like: "Oh, Sarah, you're more beautiful every time I see you, haha). He wasn't even working, came from home to try to help me, but there was just no way. So Dave, my Superman, ended up having to scale the wall, get up onto a ledge of a window that I had luckily left open, cut up the screen, and came in through the window to let me in. Yeah, that would happen to me. Thanks, Dave!

So after a little while, I headed over to Dave's for some burgers with some friends. They were DELICIOUS, and one of them is a chef, so he helped Dave prepare some mushroom/onion concoction which was probs the first time I've had mushrooms and liked it!

Yesterday was the first day back and it was filled with meetings. I fortunate

ly did not have to sit through a 3 hour meeting in the morning and spent most of the time helping out the new teachers to get acclimated and such. After school, Beth, Dave, and I were driving home, and I really wanted to go check out a kitty at the shelter, and it was pretty close to our chef friend's DELICIOUS restaurant, which is 60 pesos (about 5 bucks) for a 3 course meal, and it's all presented in a way you've never seen it before. For example, they brought us our soup yesterday, and in the bowl was only my zucchini and some cheese on top of it. Then they brought over the broth and poured it in on top. And it was AMAZING!

Then we went to the animal shelter, which was probably one of the saddest things I've ever seen. First of all, it was in the back of some junk yard type of thing, where they keep 35 dogs and 21 cats. Second of all, it took us a good 5 minutes of walking past it multiple times to figure out exactly where it was. I had gotten an email about a certain kitty that was the cat of the week, and he looked cute in the pic, but I wanted to see what my options were. After walking past rows of poor puppies barking away, I met Midnight and I just had to love him. He

was rubbing his body against my legs and just seemed to be the perfect fit. And he ended up being the kitty that they had recommended to me. So today after school, I get to go pick him up and bring him home! Isn't he cute? And he's got the greenest eyes I think I've ever seen :)

Today, I got a call from Dave around 7:05 (we were supposed to leave at 7). I have gotten sick since being here, so I didn't sleep well at all last night... so when I fell back asleep, I messed up the alarm on my phone. So, I show up to school, with all of my cosmetics in a bag, no shower (oh, which by the way has yet to be hot because I can't figure out my water heater... so maybe it wasn't so bad that I didn't get to shower!). Still waiting on my phone, my internet, my cable, and my new kitty!!!

Check, check, and check!

So I know that school hasn't started yet, and maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew, but I'm finding that it's been pretty easy for me to get things checked off my list, even if I've only been here for 30 hours!

I've already emailed a shelter asking about a cute little kitty that they have and I'm going to watch/maybe play in an ultimate frisbee tournament today! Today I will also be emailing El Puente to put myself down for a conversation partner on weekends instead of the English classes because I feel that that might be too much for me... and I have no friggin' clue how to teach English. You poor souls that have to learn it... I went yesterday to get my internet up and running and it will be soon, and until then, I'm sitting outside my friend Dave's apartment stealing his internet!

Last night, Manuel and I went for a coffee just to clear the air. It was really nice to see him and talk and ask some questions that have been bothering me this summer. As good a guy he is and as good a friend he was to me last year, I've realized through some pretty blunt words from a friend of mine, that there are just too many things that I was settling on with him that I really want in my life. So, it just felt good to talk and realize that he really isn't the one I want forever and ever. Heartbreak is never easy and I think that there will be times that I'll still miss him, but I've discovered that I've missed his friendship more than anything else. So, folks, Sarah is back on the market... watch out, Querétaro! ;-)

As nervous as I was to come back (especially with the whole Manuel situation), I'm really happy to be home. I love my apartment, I got a yoga mat, today or tomorrow I'm going to go pay for my membership, I've already had my 2 for 1 sushi, and I'm going out tonight for a friend's birthday! Lots of good things :)

Two days until school starts... I'm excited, optimistic, but still nervous because of my inquiry-based learning technique that I want to implement (thanks for making me so nervous about it, ROB! ;-)). I think it'll be a great school year and I'm excited to meet all of my little sixth graders, but also the new teachers at the school. I have a feeling that we're going to have tons of fun! And, as nerdy as it sounds, I can't wait to see my 8th graders, all grown up and in high school, around campus so I can give them big hugs and tell them how much I miss them :-).

Back to Mexico

This summer I've had a lot of time to think about what I want to do this year when I go back to Mexico. I've also realized that after being home for a few weeks, I don't know what I want to do at the end of the coming school year. I've missed it! Things I'll miss most about living in Wisconsin:

• swimming whenever I feel like it
• riding my bike!
• hanging out with my family
• air conditioning
• waking up when the sun is already shining!

However, there are also some things that I really want to dedicate myself to doing when I get back to Mexico, which are as follows:

• volunteer with El Puente three times a week
• join an ultimate frisbee team!!
• save a kitty from the shelter and spoil her
• teach with project-based learning/inquiry-based learning
• keep up with my blog, for goodness sake
• find ways to meet other people in QRO
• swim every Sunday at Mike's house (ok, Mikey? haha)
• keep up with the gym
• find a yoga center

I hope this will keep me accountable... I have a lot that I want to do and am really excited that the day is here that I get to change some things that I didn't like about how I lived last year! Queretaro, here I come! (again!)

"Hey, Ms. Sarah, LOOK!"

The other day, I went into another teacher's classroom to ask a student a question. While I was trying to find him/her (I can't even remember, I was so distracted by what happened next), one of my boy students yelled, "Hey, Ms. Sarah, LOOK!" Before I could react, I found myself looking at his pants, ripped right down the front, where I, as his teacher, definitely should NOT be looking. Luckily, he was wearing his gym pants which have some mesh on them, but WHOA, buddy, I don't want to see that!

Today I had an emergency situation. I was about to fill out a professional document that I had to turn in to my principal. I went to pull out a black pen and realized that ALL of my awesome New Zealand black pens were gone. I panicked. I didn't have any other color besides red and apparently here, that's a little disrespectful to write in. I then remembered that at some point during the day (after I had had 5 classes), that I had given it to a student, but could not for the life of me remember who it was. So, being the dedicated teacher that I was, I went to every single class and asked who took my pen. And I found it! And the girl just smiled and said, "Here you go". Doesn't she understand the stress she put on me?! That was 10 minutes of good work time, lost to the pen predicament ;-).

I don't know what you guys do to celebrate happy occasions at your schools, but at ours, we have CARNIVALS (rides and all!) On Saturday, we were required to go for an hour. Dave and I went nice and early when it wasn't very hot outside. We watched the boat ride (the one that goes back and forth up really high) and as I was watching, I noticed that the bottom of the ride was literally RUSTED out in some places. And we thought our carny rides were bad!! :-P

"Ms. Sarah, are you a runner?"

So a few funny things have happened in the past couple weeks. I sent a student to the office for being disrespectful and a few days later, he was entering the classroom and said, "Ms. Sarah, I love you." And not knowing how to respond, I said, "Yeah, ok, go sit down." Him: "No, really, Ms. Sarah, I appreciate all that you've done for me." Me: "Um, thanks, go sit down." Him: Huge smile. I brushed it off as a student just being goofy.

Last week, he was a part of the huge math competition we had at school. I saw him in the morning and he said, "Ms. Sarah, I'm going to win this thing for you!" That afternoon, I was the moderator for the last competition (thanks, Mrs. Stewart!), where the top 10 students compete head to head to be the champion. When I saw the list of names, who was in first place but this student. I got all excited and nervous for him, but couldn't help but say to my coworker, "He's going to win this for me!" He ended up taking second place, but I went up to him afterwards, gave him a big hug, and said, "I couldn't help but notice you were in first place... and you did it for me!" And he said, "Ms. Sarah, you remembered! Of course I did it for you." Another time I just didn't really think anything of it.

On Saturday, I was grading my students essays they wrote about a superhero they invented having to do with Newton's 3 Laws (If you're a science teacher, let me hook you up with this awesome project!) I was reading this lovely boy's essay, when I got to a sentence that literally made me laugh out loud. "One really special thing about my superhero is that he only falls for 8th grade physics teachers." Either this kid is the master at brown-nosing, or I've got a little boy crushin' on me. I'm going to go with the former, haha.

Today, I decided to sit with some of my students for lunch. They were mostly girls and we were chatting about girl things and they were just really silly, but then one of the girls asked me, "Ms. Sarah, have you ever been a runner?" I went on to tell her about cross country and soccer and marching band for a while. We talked about their sports experiences for a while and then she said, "Well, yeah, this might sound weird, but I've been noticing your calves, and well... you seem like a runner." Her friends all just started giggling. So for the first time in my teaching career, I've been complimented on my calves by my students. So of course, then I had to show them off like the muscle men do in competitions. There's something to be proud of, Ms. Sarah, awkwardly showing off your calves to your 8th graders. I wonder if anyone else witnessed that and thought, "Well... um.. that's uncomfortable." ;-)

But, at the end of the day, you've gotta do what you've gotta do to make 'em laugh!! :)

Hop in, we're going on a field trip!

So yesterday was the one and only field trip that my 8th graders will take all year long. We took a bus ride about 20 minutes across town.... in coach buses. LOVE it. One of the teachers was nervous that the kids were going to plan a revolt and all RUN away from us at the auditorium we went to. Field trips are such a foreign concept here! It was so funny.

So this field trip was a presentation that one of the universities here puts on talking all about non-violence and not using drugs/alcohol. Ironically enough, during the lunch break, my coworker and I walked outside to see most of the high schoolers that were there standing around in little circles smoking cigarettes! It was like a scene straight out of Grease. Then all of a sudden I got a sniff of something that was most definitely NOT cigarettes... which was ironic since we were there to hear about how we shouldn't use drugs. haha.

Some of the conference was informative. It was all in Spanish and I was pretty impressed with how much I understood (about 98%). After we came back from the break, I was asking the kids if they liked it and said that I thought it was a little boring. One of the students goes, "Well, Ms. Sarah, that's because you don't speak Spanish." Awww, honey. One of the other students said to him in Spanish, "Ms. Sarah speaks and understands everything." Love it. I'm still surprising kids and it's February!

I took a few kids to the bathroom and when I got back, one of the kids said to me, "Ms. Sarah, while you were gone, they were talking about inertia!" And then another one chimed in, "Yeah, Ms. Sarah, science is EVERYWHERE."

Writing this positive blog has really helped me to realize, that after taking all of the good with the bad, that I love my students. They're really good kids!

Today I read a news story about a woman who, in her personal blog, wrote negative things about her students and got suspended from her job. Yikes. I think that's another reason that I'm keeping this positive... don't want to have any of that drama happen!

You're not foolin' anyone, kids!

So sometimes, students just make me laugh with what they think they get away with. Our school has a no gum, no food policy. I never liked that policy as a student, either, but the fact that these kids can't clean up after themselves has proven to me that they really can't have food. The kids know the rule, so I love to watch them try to sneak their food in class.

A plastic wrapper crumbles: a kid coughs over the noise

A student passes a snack to another one: they say that they just wanted to touch each other (awkward, much?)

A kid bends down, shoves food into his/her mouth that was stuffed in the desk: "Ms. Sarah, I was tying my shoe."

Come on, kids, I wasn't born yesterday. Amy and I were the masters of the note-passing craft in 8th grade history.... there's no fooling us.

And then there's the bathroom pass. Oh, the bathroom pass. That beautiful piece of green wood that's chipping and reveals the random red color underneath (why did they change them from red to green anyway?) with a hole in it hanging by the door. Kids get to come and go as they please, as long as it's not in the first or last 10 minutes of a class. You'd think kids would be running the 100 meter dash to get to that pass in time.

One student passes the pass to another student without hanging it on the wall: "Ms. Sarah, that's not fair, they're leaving me out of the bathroom pass."

One student goes for the bathroom pass while another one has been staring at the door, salivating, waiting for the pass for, God help us all, 3 minutes: "Ms. Sarah, that's not fair, he knew I was waiting and he took it anyway!" "Sweetheart, sit down, he'll be back in 3 minutes." "F*** you."

A student beats another student to the bathroom pass: Waves it in the air, "Hahaha, I beat you to it, just like last period!"

All for a bathroom pass. Really? Do they go home and tell their parents that people swore over the bathroom pass? How do their parents respond???

Winner or wiener?

So last Friday I had a competition in my classroom. The students were playing a game where, using only their hands, they had to try to knock their partner off balance. I made it into a tournament, with brackets and everything, and then we talked about what it had to do with force. The kids loved it, I had fun, and it was a great way to connect something so basic with something we were talking about. When the competition ended, one girl yelled out, "Yay! So and so is the WIENER!!" I just about died.

I proceeded to write the words "winner" and "wiener" up on the board. I read each one a few times. Only a few students in the class knew what a wiener was. She had no idea what she was saying or how it was wrong, which made it even more priceless. Of course, from my Wisconsinite roots, I broke down into a chorus of the Oscar Mayer song. Then she was able to make the connection and turned so red. Poor honey!

My kids make me laugh :)

Yesterday during lab, one of my students, who has a hard time in my class, looked like he was really spaced out. He was just kind of staring off into nowheresville and then turned out and looked at me and with a mystical look on his face said, "Ms. Sarah.... science is.. everywhere." I think that it is my crowning moment of my year so far. Thank you, Kathy Blomker, for helping me to realize that and for helping me to convey it to a bunch of 15 year olds, who, when I was in their shoes, would have never been able to make that connection. Success!!

Has it really been almost SIX months??

So almost six months ago, I arrived to Queretaro, Mexico. A year ago (on Saturday), I signed my contract to work at John F. Kennedy International School. It's funny to think about what I knew then and what I know know. It's also comforting to know that if I could do it all again, I would.

I've learned SO much in the past six months. I've learned what it feels like to be in a healthy, loving, give and take relationship. I've learned how funny 15 year olds can be, I also learned how poopy they can be! I've realized with every waking morning that patience is the most important quality to have as a teacher and as a human being and I'm becoming more focused on increasing the amount of patience I have. I've realized in the past couple weeks how much I missed laughing. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I finally let myself go and decided to just have fun at my job, and gosh, do I love it. It makes it a lot easier to roll the little things off my shoulders and wake up every morning ready to go. When I was home over break, I came to the realization that me, Sarah, Mumma, the person of the people, didn't know anything about my students as people. That really upset me! I had put such a division between them and I that none of us were happy. It then became my goal to get to know my students on a more personal level before it was too late. And here's what comes of it: (One example of many and hopefully many more to come!)

When I was home, I bought this thing called a "Chat Pack". It includes about 200 cards with really random questions on it. I decided it would be a cool, fun, and easy way to get to know my students by just reading these random questions and having them answer them. One of the questions was, "If you could own anything that weighed 50 lbs (besides money), what would you want?" Some of my students said, "Gold" (they're smart ones!) After a few other ideas were thrown out, one of my boys said, "A girl!" I then proceeded to tell the poor boy that 50 lbs (they measure in kgs) is about the weight of a 5th grade girl. The class just cracked up. Poor Andrés turned all red and tried to laugh it off and then went off about, "Oh, well, no, I meant... one day I want to have kids and... well, um... maybe all of them combined could be..well, um...???" Aww, honey. Adorable, haha.

Things I love about my life here:

1. Manuel (and his incredible family)

2. My car (I learned how to drive stick!)

3. My new laptop-TV hookup so I can watch TV and work at the same time from my laptop

4. My friends

5. My coworkers

6. My students (most days)

7. Sunshine... every day!

Things I miss about life back home:

1. My mommy, daddy, and sister

2. Snow (but only when it brings about snow days)

3. My incredible support system known as my friends and cohort!

4. Students that NEED me to love them (My students are really fortunate that they have really incredibly supportive families, but I kind of miss being needed!)

I hope for this to become my "funny things my students and I say and do" place... and funny things most definitely happen every day! Another example:

Last Friday, I had a chat with some of my 8th grade girls. They told me that sometimes they feel like their teachers don't want to get to know them. They sometimes feel like teachers are only there for the money. Oh, sweetheart.... if only you knew. If only... you.... knew...