Mazatlan, Mexican Bridal Showers, Massive Packages, and Magnificent Friday Afternoons

Well, I finally have some time to write in the blog...I know it has been awhile...I guess I don't really have time since grades for 56 children are do right away Monday morning and one would think it would be a speedy process, however it is not. We have to enter grades by hand and the grading scale is very different than what I am used to. So it more than likely will take me all weekend to get them ready. Also, I have to grade some more papers from today and the missing work I collected. Missing work really is a pain in rear and I am definitely coming up with a better solution ASAP. I had a pretty good day today. It was basically a work day so I could meet with each kid and tell them what I was missing from them. I was a little worried about how they would act with writing things on the board for them to do during that time but they did an awesome job. Speaking of board: I no longer have a chalkboard!! This is exciting news, I finally have a white board and I am pumped about it. Even the kids were super excited and they acted like they have never seen one before. It is pretty sweet but now I have to constantly tell them to not erase the things I wrote on it:).

This afternoon, Emily and I decided to be spontaneous and go to Faralitos for a little afternoon treat and it was awesome. We had flautas, rice, and beans. It was a magnificent little trip and we will for sure need to go again. The funny thing though on our walk back, all of a sudden we heard "Miss Jenna, Miss Jenna, Miss Emily, Miss Emily," and two of our students were in the van across the street and the mom stops the van and tells us to get in and she was going to take us home. So we run across traffic and she pushes the automatic sliding door opener and we hop in. In the van, it was humorous because it was like I had a mini-confernece with her mom. She was asking many questions about Isabel and how she is in class. I couldn't stop from laughing becuase sitting right behind me, not even 2 inches from me, was Isabel smiling from ear to ear, loving that I was speaking Spanish with her and her mom. She is the cutest little thing with her bangs chopped severely with cute little dimples. So then her mom brought us home and it was a great end to our lovely afternoon.

This week was actually a pretty good week for me. The kids weren't too horrible except for the infamous DIEGO dun dun dun. My third graders really make me smile though. I am so proud of their recent behavior. They did awesome on all their tests this week and they come into the room and get busy. I do have some toubled boys but they are not too bad for the most part. There are a few girls in the class that make me smile because they are always asking to pass out papers or clean my desk or basically anything. My door to my closet it full of pictures they have drawn for me haha. The one thing that cracked me up was I put on the board _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and they are able to earn letters for their behavior. It just so happened that they finally got the word popcorn. So I brought in popcorn and I was going to read Amelia Bedilia to them while they were eating. While I was reading one girl shouts out "It's like a cine!, CINE CINE, can we turn off the lights?!" So there I was reading while the kids ate popcorn at 8:30 in the morning pretending that they were at the movie theater. It was a pretty fun time.

Another interesting thing I experienced this week was going to a Mexican bridal shower for one of the spanish teachers. The spanish teacher I work with, Ana Olivia, picked us up at around 6pm on Wednesday and we headed to Paty's, one of the principal's house across town. Paty's house is awesome. It definitely is more fun and better to look at than anything else I get to see on a regular basis. When we got there, Emily and I took a tour of her house. It was so cute and Paty's artwork was all over the walls. It was pretty amazing because she taught herself to paint from a book. Now if it were me, there is no way I could read some skill from a book and expect to be awesome at it. She painted a portrait of Frida Kahlo and it could honestly be the real thing. After we were done with our tour we joined the rest of the people outside on the patio for some snacks. Georgina, the school pyschologist made some garlic cheese dip and it was AMAZING. She told us how she made it and it seems like quite the process but well worth it. Then we had to go around and give the bride to be some advice for her married life.....well just picture myself among 2 other americans, a fluent canadian, and 12 spanish teachers, attempting to find the words in spanish to give this lady advice. They told me I could say it in English but I said I would attempt in spanish and when I was done I got an applause haha. That boosted my self-esteem:). I was uber nervous because not only did I have to give relationship advice, it was said in Spanish. I laughed and my coodinator told me she needs to find me some nice boy...so I told her good luck with that:). Speaking of my coordinator, she is a great lady. Her name is Ana and she makes life easier. She makes Emily and I laugh because she always says este andale pues..and so during supper we told her that and we are going to make a little surprise for her:). Well supper included some of the best food I have had. It was crema de crepes and it was DELICIOSO. It was cheesy, creamy, spicy, greatness and I told Paty I need the recipe soon. I also mentioned to Charro, the principal, "Same night next week at your place:)" I am hoping that happens sometime haha. A lot of fun was had all around and Georgina was nice enough to give us a ride home.

The other nice surprise was that I finally got my PACKAGE!!! It has taken an act of God to get this package my mom and dad sent me. I was a little worried about it because I got a message weeks ago saying I needed to call this number. So I had breanna call the number and they told her I needed to send them copies of my tickets, passport, and a letter saying what was in the box and why I needed it. So I wrote the letter and got that sent off. Well then I got another email saying I needed to be more specific and it had to be in Spanish. So a crap ton of annoying work later...my package arrived and I was happy. My mom and dad slipped in some chocolate, movies and some other fun surprises. Thanks mom and dad:).

Oh and a couple of weeks ago we had two days off and I went on a little vacation with Breanna, Emily and Erin to Mazatlan. It really was what we needed and it was really rejuvinating. We ate some awesome food, swam in the Pacific, basked in the sun, reinacted statues, and watched the sunset nightly. It was a great time and if you want some more details, let me know or check out Breanna's blog:). Her link is located on this page and if you want to see some pics, you can check out http://picasaweb.google.com/jennarmiller/Mazatlan?authkey=L7AOctJaSyI#

Well have a great weekend!:) Peace out and think of me when you are doing better things than grading a boat load of papers!!:)

IMSS-Thanks to God

Well......I think I am on the mend from a whorle wind of a stomach infection that basically only allowed me to lay on my bed in the dark for 2.5 days. It all started on Tuesday; when I woke up, I didn't feel like myself but I figured it must be just that I am tired and what not. Well I went to shower, and no water was to be found so I got to go to school with out a shower:). I tried to eat a little something for bfast but it just didn't settle. I got to school that morning and I could tell that my health was on a steady decline. By noon, I could hardly stand and have the energy to teach. Unfortunately my not so wonderful 4th grade class was in the afternoon this week. I hardly had enough energy to keep them in line. To top it off they were TERRIBLE, and the only way to get their attention I walked over and slammed the door to the classroom as hard as I could. This did get their attention:). So I continued teaching in my chair and as soon the bell rang, I got out of school as quickly as I could.


As soon as I got home, I changed into my pjs and hopped into bed. I slept for almost 3 hours and woke up in a cold sweat. So I basically fought a fever the entire night. Luckily I have such nice friends that were worried about me that helped me out. Breanna brought me up water and gently forced me to drink and take meds:) Thank you beans!!! Emily would change my cold wash rag for my forehead and since I still had a pretty bad fever they turned my fan off and Emily lent me her little fan. When morning came, I felt gentle hands touch my face to see if I was warm or not and Breanna, gotta love this girl, got up at 5am to check on me and she called Eren to tell her I needed to go to the doctor. Then Breanna and Emily so graciously walked to school to my classroom to find my social security card before the sun was up. They searched for it for my card for a long time and had no such luck. So they came back and very slowly I was going to go with them to find the card and since my mental abilities were faultering, I forgot that I put it in my purse.....so we did find it but I owe them big time for getting up early and trying to get that for me. Thank guys!!


So I went back to sleep after they left and Eren called me around 8am and she came over to see how I was and to see if I was in the morning or the afternoon for the social security (Mexico has a national health plan so when you get sick you go to the social security place). This was a day for of "thanks to God moments." The first moment was when we found out I am in the afternoon, so Eren sent the chaufer to sign me up for the afternoon and she said she would be back around 1ish. She made sure to remind me to try and eat some toast with jelly-no butter and some 7up:) haha...So I fell asleep until she came back to get me at 1 and we were off. We got to the social security place and it was huge and there were tons and tons of people there. Thanks to God moment #2 was that we got a parking space right in front and that never happens! It was quite a sight. We walk in and we had to go to the fourth floor and since I am under the number 27, I had to go down a long hallway to that door. Well we finally get there and we have to wait and of course there is confusion. I was signed up to be the number 4 person however, they only allow 3 people to go without an appointment. So we thought I would have to try the next day. So here comes in Thanks to God # 3, the number 3 person didn't show up, so I got to take their spot. We were pretty happy about it!! So Eren told me to sit down and wait until the nurse called my name because she had to leave but she would be back to pick me up.


Well I thought no big deal. I know how to explain my ailments in Spanish. However, I was wrong! About 10 minutes after she left, the lady called my name and I handed her my social security card and she put the information in the computer but my name wasn't there. So is the fastest spanish ever she was trying to explain that I had to go to this other place to get it fixed. So I go and try to find that place but it was a no go. So I come back and she flet bad for me and gave me a hug and took my arm to help me find it. We get to the room and they can't seem to help me either. So they tell me to go downstairs and get a vijencia. So I go all the way downstairs where there is a line of prolly 100 some people. So I join the others in this line and it was sooooo warm. The whole time I was there I kept thinking and hoping that Erendira would walk through the door. Finally, She comes strolling in through the door right before it was my turn to speak with the lady at the window. Man what a sigh of relief, the whole time I was waiting in line I was trying to figure out what I was going to say and how I was going to say. It was a good thing Eren came when she did because she and the lady went back and forth in quick heated Spanish and finally they figured it out and I could go back upstairs and get back in line to be seen.


So after we get back upstairs, I had to wait about another 30 minutes before I was seen. When I finally got into the room, it took about 15 minutes haha...I had to lay down on this weird cloth cot and she poked around on my stomach and decided I had a bad stomach infection. So she prescribed me 5 different medications. In my mind I was thinking oh great 5 different meds, how much is that going to cost me. Well actually it was all free so that was sweet!! All we had to do was take it to the pharmacy and boom boom boom, I got my drugs:). Well all I can say 5 long, exhausting hours later, I got some meds and I got the sheet of paper that will let me still get paid because we don't get sick days. So I guess it was worth it:)...especially since we were headed to Mazatlan that FRIDAY for our mini vacaction. Malita was kind enough to make a schedule for my medications! It was actually really helpful and I looked at it all the time!!! I owe my roomies big time for all of the help they gave me!! THANK YOU:) The rest of the week, I didn't go to school and I just stayed home to rest and recover. I was however curious how my kids were acting for those three days I didn't go to school. I am a tad worried. ;)

I survived week two.....

Well as many of you can see, I haven't blogged in over a week and well I apologize but it has been quite a week. I am going to start from the begining where I left off..which is last Saturday:)..

Saturday

We were pretty excited because we got to sleep in after our crazy first week of school and it felt good:). It took a while for us to get moving because we got distracted watching old music videos online. After we got our butts in gear, Malita invited us to come with her and Charlie to her grandma's house. We of course said yes and all 5 of us piled into a taxi to her granny's house. It was a nice little house where her grandma lives with her 3 sisters. The outside of the house is tourquoise and it looks like it is going to be quite small but you walk in and it actually goes pretty far back. It has a nice little outside area where they have plants and hang laundry. The inside is typical of loving elderly people:). There were definitely two pretty interesting features which included their water purifier and air conditioning unit. Their water purifier is a pretty nifty and inexpensive way to purify their water. It is basically a hollowed out stone that resembles a orange traffic cone tipped upside down but made of stone instead of rubber. They pour water into the stone and about 3 hours later they have a pitcher of purified water. Malita's granny said they bought it 30 some years ago so I am pretty sure they have gotten their money's worth. The water did have a distinct taste, it wasn't bad just different...and we didn't get sick from it so it that 30 yr old stone really does work! Their air conditioning unit consists of a square like container that has hay in it and you pour water into it and through some magic:) it cools the air. Most of the town, including our house and school uses this as a cooling agent. After we chatted for a while, Malita's granny and aunts fed us lunch and it was quite the feast! It was sooo nice and generous of them. We started out with some sort of soup that had a little shark in it. It wasn't too bad...I admit I was a little concerned but you know me and trying new things:). Then there was a second course which consisted of some sort of fried fish, rice and a sweet salad. It all ended up being pretty good and I of course was happy because it ended with nuez ice cream which is basically like butter pecan and it was GOOD!!

When we were finished with lunch, Malita's aunt took us to the market....so all 6 of us piled into her little car and she drove us throught the streets in her stick shift car. It really kind of cracked me up because she is such a crazy driver and she resembles my Grandma in so many ways!! It honestly is soooo strange. She basically is the Mexican version of my grandma...even Breanna agreed. While we were at the market walking the streets, we saw a ton of flower shops which brought me back to the days of Addy's Floral:). The flowers were arranged beautifully and they smelled as good as they looked. We stopped and went into this open air market that was full of anything and everything. Anything from little maracas to special potions/powders to Santos shirts. Santos is the local soccer team and so we thought we should go to the games in support of the team. It was a plus because we got them for a deal but here I thought mine was going to be 8 bucks too but since all the women's shirts were skin tight, I had to settle for men's which was a dollar more...bummer:)

When got back from the market, we took a family trip to Soriana to buy the weekly groceries. We decided to pick up some fried chicken when we were there for some grub. The fried chicken was pretty tasty! Well by the time we got home from store, it was about 8pm and we had to eat and change so we could head to this bar with live music for Gina's birthday. We once again around 9:30 piled into a taxi and tired to find the Cantanita. It was pretty funny because the taxi driver didn't know where it was and we had no idea but we eventually found it! It was a pretty sweet lucha libre themed bar with live music. Most of the teachers here were there and it was fun just hanging out. The live music was for sure a plus. As you can see our Saturday was JAMMED packed! I was exhausted and ready for bed by the time we got home and I slept in and it was great! Sunday was an ok day, basically it was spent grading grading and grading some more papers and doing some work at school.

The rest of the week

My week was pretty crazy. My kids still are having issues with talking when I am talking. Monday was horrible especially with my 4th graders. I was pretty upset with them because of how rude they were. I had a lot of kids in for recess because of this reason. On Tuesday it was one of my last straws. One of my worst kids decided to throw a fit and throw objects at me and throw a tantrum. It was pretty fun;). I ended up giving him detention because of his choices and he was not ok with it. I think it made him more angry but well a note went home and what not. The next day I decided that I was going to have a better attitude and some how try to find a way to reach or relate to this kid. So even though he wasn't acting very well, I designated him my errand runner and permanent board eraser. This somehow made his day and his face just lit up. This really caught be by suprise.. so well we will see if this works. I also had my fourth graders spend some time journaling about how they were going to be a better person in my class. I am also hoping this solves some problems as well. I was very stern when explaining this to them and I mentioned that on Thursday night I would be meeting their parents and they were oddly quiet for the first time since school started. Actually I don't know if they were ever that quiet.

Well Thursday came and it was a LONG day. It started at 7 am and ended about 9pm. I had school all day and then I had a short break and then I had to go back for a 2 hour tutoring session and then I had to quick go home and change so I could go back to school for parents night!!! Parents night was pretty fun. I admit I was a little nervous because many of the parents would ask me things in Spanish. I did have a Spanish translater but she was more nervous than I was and she wasn't there afterwards when parents would talk to me. All round it was a good time. The parents for the most were very warm and welcome. I was greeted with many hugs and kisses haha...The parents were very supportive and they told me that their kids liked me and if there was anything I needed, that I should not hesitate to ask! That was very reassuring and I am hoping by getting to know the parents more will help me in dealing with the kids. One parent raised their hand though and I thought they were going to eat me because of the look on her face. She asked me why I assigned soooo much homework. As soon as she got done saying this, the parents in the room quickly turned around and faced her. It turns out her daughter who doesn't listen, wrote down that I assigned 6 pages of math homework, when in reality, I assigned 1 page and 6 problems that should have taken them no time. It was interesting:)...My second heartfelt moment was before I was about to give my speech, a mom slowly came up to me and quietly said.."I'm Diego's mom and I am ashamed to show my face." He was the boy who threw things at me and who I gave detention to...Well we did have a nice chat and we are going to work together to get this figured out. All in all it was a good night with the parents and I felt good about it. The thing that just cracks me up is that the fourth graders tell their parents that I am great but I feel like all I do is yell and assign journal assignments about good behavior....very strange...very strange...:)

Well that puts us to Friday and we were all pretty stoked for it. It was a tad crazy because it we had mass in the morning which meant my morning group had barely anytime to do anything but it turned out ok and I didn't really have any behavior problems so I guess you could say I had an okay day. Let's hope next week is a ton better!! This weekend, I am looking forward to rest and relaxation!!! and of course grading grading grading and more grading....grading may be the death of me.............:)