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?????