friends!

ginny and i just got home from the airport... and we have company! our friends jessie and steph have come to visit us for a WHOLE week! it is so great to be showing our lives to people from home. they are taking pictures of the mountains! it is great to have people remind me to appreciate this place. they are SO wonderful and exuberant... and they seem to be fine with the fact that they are sleeping on a bed in our living room. yaH. we will be staying in monterrey for a few days and then heading off to playa del carmen on wednesday. more on our adventures to come!

an open letter.

an open letter to any parents of children who...
a) are not as financially responsible as you would love
b) are still paying off debt
or
c) are growing up.

there seems to be a nagging fear amongst parents of twentysomethings that we're not doing alright. they know we're happy, independent, globally minded individuals, but that isn't what i mean. they are worried that our spending habits are not responsible, and as a result will go bankrupt before the age of 30, soon followed by a long and painful adulthood alone in a shack. you laugh, but its true. (while i know this to be true with my parents, i know they are also not alone in these sentiments).

but seriously: think about it. the kids are going to be alright. at least the large majority of us. and actually, if we're not alright, we'll have to dig our own way out of the hole we fell into. how is it that a generation of world thinkers, passionate about success, travel and new experiences have caused such concern? i know we aren't the most frugal people to ever grace the face of the planet; but most of us are living on our own, making a small living, gradually paying off debt AND managing to learn more about this place we like to call the world.

if you are and adult worrying about your twentysomething's irresponsible spending, travel ambitions or debt repayment plan, let me give you some advice: stop worrying, nagging, and sending reminder e-mails. the only way for a child to learn is to learn for themselves. stop checking their bank account, watching for the debt to drop 20 grand by next sunday. stop lying awake in bed for hours at night picturing the collectors coming to call. stop giving fruitless advice that actually makes us want to run quickly in the opposite direction.

instead...

give us a chance. to grow up. to learn ourselves. to prove you wrong.

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

There may no longer be a working silver mine in Taxco, but we found a silver vein with our name on it.

Just coming off a two week holiday for Semana Santa, it may seem that we would not be in need of a travel fix. But yet, with flight prices being dirt-cheap and Amy celebrating her last few months in Mexico before going home to Canada, we just couldn’t miss the opportunity. Did I need to take a day off work? [well… no, not exactly… but we are given a ‘personal day’ to use at our discretion] Did I need to go to Taxco? [again, no, but how could I let Amy go and brave the Mexican streets alone?] Did I need to spend even a penny on silver? [this one is a given, definitely not! But why let it all go to people who won’t appreciate nearly as much?]

In preparation for the weekend, I had a brutal week at work. Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday I was at the office until 8 or 9 each night. Progress Reports were due, I had a pull-out for Unit Planning on Thursday, and I was taking my Personal Day on Friday. These are the weeks that I hate having a job because all you feel like you are doing is working and sleeping.

Friday

Friday began like any other weekday, I woke up at 6 AM ready to go to work. But then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I could go back to sleep for a WHOLE HOUR! There are some people that feel guilty missing their kids, but c’mon. Kids are resilient, and they will be fine. When I am at school, I am full time all the time… but the kids won’t remember in the grand scheme of their lives that I took a Friday off. I worked hard to put my day plan together, but aside from that, any feelings of worry or guilt end there.

Amy grabbed a cab and we leisurely headed to the airport. Funny enough, another Grade 2 teacher was on the SAME flight because she was heading to a wedding for the weekend. It was an ASFM party at the airport [but let’s keep that between us!] Our flight was painless, even though we were completely surrounded by children; this was, only because of brilliant mothers who packed entire suitcases of play-doh and tools. At the airport we also had the luck to run into a lovely young women who was traveling to Taxco so buy jewellery to sell in Monterrey. She took us under her wing, and she actually directed us from the plane to the taxi to the bus that we needed to take to get to Taxco. She traveled in cute clothes, and had amazing taste in jewellery, so I could tell that the trip was off to a good start!

Taxco is actually built into the side of a hill/mountain, and is only really accessible by bus. The roads are steep and full of traffic [mainly VW bugs in vibrant colors], the streets are cobble-stone like with one clear distinction: jagged uneven edges and holes just big enough for your feet to go in and your ankle to go over. There are absolutely no American chains in Taxco [apparently there was once a Domino’s Pizza, but it didn’t survive], and the houses are ALL white with terracotta colored roofs. Jewelry is this town’s claim to fame, and there are more then 200 silver shops in the city as well as endless markets and booths covering the span of the entire city. All of this meant two clear things:
• We definitely made the wrong choice in footwear by choosing casual flip-flops for the downhill slippery treks to the market.
• If I wasn’t poor enough already, I certainly would be by the time I left this place.

We spent Friday afternoon walking up steep hills with our luggage, getting lost in a market, perusing the silver stores to get a sense for prices and sampling some of Taxco’s culinary delights. The sad part was that we were eating in a beautiful town square [called ‘zocalo’ in Mexico], at lovely restaurants on a Friday night… and it was almost empty. According to some locals, Taxco is dying, and is only crowded on holidays and Saturdays. There is always mixed feelings when I hear this, because I love when small colonial towns are undiscovered, but I certainly don’t want them to disappear completely.

Saturday

If we had brought our alarms, we would have been up at daybreak. Unfortunately, we both neglected to pack them, so we didn’t wake up until 8 o’clock. The day began at a cute café across from our hotel, where the French toast is as thick as a Bible, and the owners were still drunk from the night before. All fueled up, we began our mission for plata. You cannot imagine how much silver is in this town. The markets go on and on: the stalls go down staircases, into nooks and crannies, and on every spare bit of street. Some of it is cheap; some is not; sometimes you can bargain; sometimes you can’t; some of it is fake; and some of it is real. There are really no rules in Taxco until you know how it all works! Amy and I walked and tried on until we really could walk no more. [and I mean this literally, Amy could barely walk by the end of the day because she had worn shoes with no support!] I won’t give you a play by play of our entire 7 hours of shopping, but I will, however, offer advice for others who may want to attempt a similar feat:
• If you want something, buy it. It is difficult to go back and find booths or remember where you saw something in a sea of silver!
• Learn how to ask the difference between plated silver and genuine silver. I got ripped off on one of my first purchases because I did not realize the difference.
• In the stores, everyone wants to be your friend. You feel like Taxco is the friendliest town! Just remember, they don’t want your friendship, they want your money.
• Do not buy something at a booth because there is a cute little one-month-old wrinkly dog there to play with. Amy and I both own necklaces because of that damn dog’s marketing ploy.
• If you want a new career, come to Taxco, buy up a few thousand dollars of cheap silver, and open up a store back home. [and don’t forget to quadruple the price!]

We ended the day after our eyes were glazed over from looking at silver, and we settled into our favorite little café to reassess our purchases. The place was called Café Sascha, and it is one of the only bohemian style backpacker’s places in the city. We sat down with the owners [a strange, overly intelligent man named Javier who had killed too many brain cells over the years, believed vomiting was orgasmic, believed the past was the same as dreams and fervently advocated against democracy] and Sascha [a lovely business-savvy wizard in the kitchen who was also completely hammered] and didn’t get up for 8 hours! They fed us free mescal [similar to Tequila, but you sip it, and it is much sweeter], offered up discounts on delicious food, and introduced us to all sorts of characters who came in to the café. They were backpackers who had stumbled upon Taxco 9 years earlier, and had lived this transient-drinking-hedonistic lifestyle ever since. Amy and I enjoyed that life for one night… but NINE YEARS? I can’t imagine feeling fulfillment from night after night of drinking mescal with new travelers. But eight hours after being on your feet all day? Divine.

Sunday

We left Taxco early on Sunday looking like our very own silver mines. But let me defend myself: I also purchased tons of gifts, and almost finished my Christmas shopping for next year! The 6 hours of bus-taxi-waiting-plane did not even phase us, because we had had such a lovely weekend. Amy and I had a wondrous time traveling together, but this trip in particular suited as both perfectly: we are the only people who could keep up with each other and look at jewelry from sunrise to sunset… without running the other way.

Plata Power!

food for thought. kids style.

there are travel ramblings that remain to be posted, but now that i am back in the land of children, my thoughts have *temporarily* returned to them.

i was doing some marking (GASP!) after school this afternoon (what a concept... perhaps this is something i should be doing all along, and not only when i have marks to submit!), and i got some insights through their eyes. over the break, i had an optional homework assignment (i know, i'm a terrible person; but don't worry, there are prizes involved) which involved writing sentences about miss sarah.

here are a few things they wrote about yours truly. edited for clarity purposes. ha.

"you are the funniest, goofiest and the nicest."

"but most i love about you is that you always don't want to miss school because you want to be with your friends and us."
[if you only knew...!]

"miss sarah told us to write 5 sentences about her."
[she likes to get straight to the point]

"miss sarah is always gonna be miss sarah."
[points for insight!]

"when she is mad she always says, i'm very disappointed"
[oh goodness. i sound like my mother.]

"i hope you could come to 3rd grade, we are never bored in 2F because you always do something fun, like morning activities"

"you are the best teacher in the world!"
[well... i wouldn't go that far. let's keep things in perspective, now.]


enough about me. this next assignment was to draw or write a representation or response to the book called 'the important book'. the kids could really do whatever they wanted, as long as they demonstrated to me how they were thinking about the book. from their perspective, the world seems so simple and clear:

"the important thing about a desk is that you can open it and close it."

"the important thing of an orange is that it is delicious"

"the important thing about a soccer ball is that you can kick it."

"the important thing about a sumo is that he is fat."

"the important thing about a tree is that it gives you oxygen. the trees give house to little slimy tickly creatures, they are bright like shiny blossom but the most important thing is that they give people oxygen in the world."

"something special about a mitten is that it can keep you warm by the snow and you can put it on because if you are going to do a snowman, your hands aren't going to freeze."

and my most insightful words of advice from 8 year olds are last:

"the important thing about love is that you feel fuzzy and you have someone to be with you until you die or separate."

"the meaning of the book is that everything has a use and everything is very important and nice and we should appreciate what we have. the important thing about something good is that it has something bad, and something bad always has something good."

i don't think i could have said it better!

surf's up.

in case you were worried, we did find a place to crash for our first night in puerto escondito. in fact, it was a simple place actually recommended in the lonely planet! other then the fact it was up four steep flights of stairs, we were happy campers.

the best part about this chapter of our trip, is that we just rolled with it. we didn't make any real plans, and when things needed to change, we just let it happen. i was right at home on the oaxacan coast. in terms of vacation (for me), this is when it truly began. everything i did was purely for my own enjoyment: sunbathing, sleeping, watching surfers, drinking mojitos, sunbathing, eating, reading, sunbathing...

i made a REAL effort when:

i read two full books (mostly while lying in a hammock)

we navigated our way from puerto escondito to zipolite (only to immediately find an indent for myself in the sand)

i lathered my entire body with sunscreen each morning AND reapplied (my march resolution)

i walked the whole length of the beach in zipolite (but thought i'd have a little rest before turning back)

you get the picture.

puerto escondito was discovered by surfer's long ago because of the infamous 'mexican pipeline' along the playa zicatela beach. while we couldn't really swim because of the harsh undertoe, we had an impeccable view of all the surfer's riding the waves. it was certainly not immersion in mexican culture, but more of an exploration of surfing culture: too bad neither of us can actually surf! it was fun, though, to have a concentration of healthy restaurants, surf stores and cheap accomodation. it felt more like daytona beach then mexico.

zipolite was a small, hedonistic town that draws travellers and sucks them in, never letting them leave. you lose all sense of time and place in zipolite, and when you leave, you definitely have no idea what day it is. it is the only beach in mexico where nudity is legal and chillin' out is a form of employment. it was the perfect place to forget the world, find a hammock, eat with your feet in the sand surrounding by candles... a definite budget traveller's scene. ginny and i could have spent longer, but after two days of nothing, we sadly left, albeit with sand still between our toes.

out of luck.

when we first landed on the oaxacan coast we thought we were the luckiest two gals on the face of the planet:

*we had avoided the 6 hour vomit express bus that weaves through the mountains from oaxaca city to puerto escondito by flying in a mini plane with a much better view in only 40 minutes!

*we found carmen's cafecito which served the most delicious cinnamon rolls and chocolate croissants on earth.

*the beach in puerto escondito stretched out for miles, and we had a perfect view from our beach lounge chairs of the mexican pipeline, where all the surfers do their tricks.

*we were so happy about our delicious healthy lunch consisting of hummus and salad that we ignored the fact that our hostel was on a dirt road in the shoddy part of town...

until. our luck all changed.

we returned to our hostel after our day of perfection, and the owner (let's call him crazy steve, as we later found out the locals call him), had still not shown his face. many other backpackers assured us that he was slightly odd, but that we would definitely have a place to sleep. for example, crazy steve had screwed up the bookings for another group, so they had slept on the couch. luvely.

staying calm, cool and collected, we decided there was nothing we could do except continue to ride our streak of luck. it was decided that we should just go enjoy our dinner and hope that there would be a bed to sleep in when we returned. as we were about to leave, as luck would have it, crazy steve walked in the door. crazy steve had given away our room because he did not know that we were coming, even though our luggage was there and we had paid a down payment on a reservation.

crazy steve: 'grunt. grunt. well you should have told me you were comin'

us: 'we did. we made a reservation. look on these papers on your desk. our name is right there.'

crazy steve: 'well, i don't know bout all those papers. grunt. grunt. why didn't you come back during check in?'

us: 'you don't have a check in time. and you weren't here when we came to check in.'

crazy steve: (now talking to his bird) 'oh well, bloody ell, how was i sposed to know that you were comin. what should i do? it is high season and someone told me that you guys were going to be in the dorm room. grunt.'

us: 'well, um, who would have told you that? we don't know anyone here. um, do you have a room for us? or should we just leave?'

crazy steve continued to yell, swear and blame us for coming to his hostel. his solution was to kick out the couple who had our room, but they had also reserved and made an online payment. realizing that he was totaly mad (like the hatter), we packed up our bags and walked out (even though we knew it was the busiest weeks of the year and our chances of finding accomodations were slim). but we were empowered! we were making our statement to crazy steve!

and then it started to rain. and we could not get a cab. our luck had taken a turn for the worst.

and i'll leave it at that for today. check back tomorrow to find out what happens to our two heroines!

the hitchhikers guide to oaxaca city.

in honour of semana santa, school's out for two weeks. YES! i honestly think i may have been more excited then my kids when the bell rang on friday. it had been a rough month. without boring you with the details, it was a mixture of problems that included dumb boys (not my students!), my grandmother passing, beginning my masters, my workload at school and general staff unhappiness at work.

i could not wait to get out of dirty, polluted, crowded monterrey.

for our first week, ginny and i decided to explore the province of oaxaca. it seems fitting that oaxaca city has had a teacher's strike every year for the past TWENTY FIVE years. (this and other turmoil led to a seven month political conflict in 2006... all is safe now, with only graffiti left as evidence)

we flew into oaxaca city late saturday night and had four lovely days in the city. we each did our own thing, but meeting up for our culinary exploration of the city. the heart of oaxaca city is in its vibrant zocalo. surrounded by cafes and filled with buskers, shoe shiners, balloon sellers, candy vendors, men on benches and women selling local crafts, it encapsulated the bustling life of the city.

on our first day, we left the city to explore the little towns which were known for their sunday markets. transportation was a little (to put it nicely), random and unclear. the bus station was more of a street where buses drove by and people jumped on and off and the collective stand were cabs waiting to be PACKED full of people before heading off to their destination. to me, this was what made it so exciting! who knew where we were really going to end up!?? and with a first class seat on top of the gear-shift, who could ask for anything more?

our first stop was the market town of tlacolula. what struck me most were the market bolsas (bags) which everyone carried and filled with their vegetables for the week. i could picture my retired self bringing my colourful bolsas down to the market each weekend. the market was mostly food, clothing and textiles and was full of women in traditional dress. there were live turkeys being carried to their doom, grasshoppers you could buy for a snack, live boxing matches to bet on, and meat covered in flies. yum. appetizing. we picked up a collectivo going back to the city, but i wanted to stop in the weaving town of teotitlan del valle. SO, the collectivo dropped me off on the side of the highway and told me i would have 'no trouble' finding a ride into town. i am standing (ehem... stranded) at the side of the highway as i watched car after car pass by me. how does this work again? eventually a collectivo stopped when i waved and i squished in next to a 90-something mexican dude who told me that canadians were very tall. thanks. like i hadn't noticed that i was taller then half of the mexican population.

next, i tried to get a collectivo to el tulle, where there is a GIANT tree that claims to be the largest in the world (apparently it is not). this also appeared to be a challenge. i walked and walked and walked from the weaving town expecting to have a car stop for me... i began to wonder if i had made a wrong turn on the only road out of town! finally, a car felt bad and pulled over. all of the passengers got quite a laugh out of the gringa girl who thought she could walk to the highway. sigh. i got everywhere just fine that day... but if you ask me how it all works, i still have no idea!

the next three days were slightly less eventful as we decided to stay (more or less) within the vicinity of the city. i perused craft stores, read two full jodi picoult books in cafes, drooled over mole sauces, and even got my fill of history at the ruins of monte alban.

to a critical eye, oaxaca city is a place that appears to be falling apart. but there is so much to offer. including a lesson in sticking out your thumb (or waving your hands madly in the air... whichever looks cooler).

finally!

oi.

here i am. finally sitting at a computer. ready to write the chronicles of sarah.

living abroad and travelling leads to such an odd dichotomy of feelings. on one side, i am living the life i have always dreamed of: i get more vacation then i could possibly count, i have seen incredible places and i have met wondrous people while doing it. but then, i have moments like this. i am sitting in an internet cafe in a beautiful city with a whole week ahead of me, and i feel kind of empty. i am so lucky to be travelling with ginny (who is my one spirit who keeps me feeling connected to my life at home) but sometimes the whole thing seems stupid if you don't even have the people that you love the most with you.

this is not to say that i want to live this life with my mom and dad in my backpack, but it just puts things into perspective. if i don't yet (YET) have a partner to share in my wanderings, and the majority of my friends and family are not experiencing this with me... then i need to make the effort to write it down. this blog is partly for me and for my memory. it obviously helps me to remember details that i would otherwise forget, but it is also a means to keep myself to connected with home, and with those that i love scattered around the world.

so, wish that, i want to wish all my friends (both near and far) a happy easter. remember that just because i don't speak with you as much as i would like, i am still wandering the streets of new towns and cities with you in my heart.

tick tock.

"how long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on."

time has been driving me crazy these days. there is never enough. but WHY? the only reason there is never enough is that we have over-programmed our lives and heightened our expectations, forcing us to constantly feel behind.

there isn't enough time to finish my marking, to write my blogs, to read the book that i want to read. when people say they are bored i am always in complete and utter shock -- what i wouldn't give for a week off to do all the things i always wish i had time to do.

i am at school ALL day, yet i am complaining that there isn't enough time to fully teach the curriculum. but i don't want more time at work, i want less! the whole thing is absurd.

the problem is not time: it is me, or more broadly, my life.

BUT please tell me how i am supposed to be completely unaffected by the world around me? how i am supposed to ignore the administration at my school that constantly wants more more more from me? how am i supposed to ignore my body telling me it wants more time to sleep? how am i supposed to balance the little free time i get between cooking, reading, working out... essentially ALL of the things that i love?

if you have an answer, please send it my way.

educating kathryn.

i got my first visitor in mexico!


my lovely, wonderful, amazing friend katie hutchinson came and joined me in mexico for a vacation over new years. we have been friends since the end of the grade 8, so not having her regularly in my life has been tough this year. SO many people have told me that they will come and visit me in mexico, but i knew katie actually would. the thing is, katie and i have actually never travelled together. we have, however, done a lot together. we have cried over boys, gotten drunk for the first time, and watched each other grow up. she understands me because she has been there through it all. i have always known we would travel well together because her preparation and caution would nicely counteract with my spontaneous wanderings.

a little of this...
in a lot of ways, our trip was reminiscent of a quiet trip appropriate for 80 year olds. and that suited us BOTH just fine.

*one night, we went to bed at 8 o'clock and slept right through until morning!

*we found divine pleasure in wandering around in the garden outside of our hotel in playa del carmen.

*each night before going to bed we read out loud to each other from a little question and answer book that i got for christmas.

*playing scrabble at the bar WHILE drinking margaritas. perfection.

*enjoying new years eve dinner in french with a lovely couple from paris. they were accidently served our guacamole, and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

*getting massages ON the beach!

*the most exciting part of each day was deciding where we wanted to eat for dinner! a culinary extravaganza. homemade italian pasta, a religious experience with nut crusted pork at john gray's place in playa and generally fabulous food. yum.

and a little of that...
in many other ways, we lived life on the edge, braving the treacherous mexican highways and still emerging in one piece.

*after visiting grand cenote, a huge underground pool, we were unable to find a cab to bring us back to town. SO, we had to brave a five km walk on a highway, almost being swiped by passing cars and buses. a young man cycling by offered us a spot in this little metal pushcart buggy, but we passed the transportation over to a young family who needed it more then we did. so humble and kind, don't you think? we felt pretty good about ourselves!

*there was no room left on the 1st class bus, so we had to settle for being packed in to a 2nd class bus all the way from playa to tulum. katie compared it to being squished into a bus in india, all that was missing was the chickens. i sat on the floor of the aisle, thinking "katie is going to kill me for this"! luckily she thought it was quite the adventure.

*because it was only a 2nd class bus, the stops only lasted for a few seconds. BUT, we had to get our luggage from off the bottom of the bus in those two seconds. first, the bus driver would NOT open the other side of the luggage compartment, so we had to literally climb into the bottom of the bus to get our suitcases. i could hear him revving the engine and i could just picture him driving away with us stuck in there. we yanked the suitcases off of the bus and at that exact moment he drove away. phew. i laugh in the face of danger now!

*our hotel on the beach in tulum were little palapa huts with only a lightbulb for electricity for a few hours a day, and a bare-bones twig bed. it was all very romantic until it dipped into the single digits at night and we had to go into town to buy blankets so we wouldn't freeze!

*living in little jungle huts come with some risks. little cucarachas were found in our clothes, shoes and suitcases! one even joined katie for a trip all the way back to canada. lucky guy.

*we had been waiting all week to eat at a delicious thai restaurant that was recommended in lonely planet. unfortunately, when we got there, they said they had no room for us because we had not made renovations! we begged and pleaded and they ended up setting us up on the ground, on pillows, on the windiest patio in the world. in the end, we felt more genuine, sitting on the floor, enjoying our scrumptious food (even though we were almost blown away). que rico!

*we had a few days of bad weather (cloudy and windy), so the beach was becoming out of the question. we decided to make the most of the situation by taking a day trip to chichen itza, one of the most famous mayan ruins that i had wanted to see for years. we had more then 2 hours in the car in each direction, but it was worth every minute. on the way home, the bus stopped at a huge famous cenote (a freshwater sinkhole) and gave us 30 minutes to explore. just as on the amazing race, we decided we had enough time to go swimming, even though it was freezing and crowded! i felt a soundtrack start of fast-paced music in my head as we quickly changed, ran down the stairs and jumped off quite a high cliff, without enough time to think about what we were doing! good thing we moved quickly, because the cliff was actually quite high. a few minutes later we were changed again and back in the van. another day, another adventure!

*while we were staying in tulum, we decided renting bikes during a windstorm might be a good idea. we were trying to have a leisurely bide ride along the coast but ended up essentially standing still as we fought a wall of wind. we always have the best ideas! the wind also affected our sun-tanning mission. we were being attacked by a sandstorm so we set up a barricade by turning a kayak and using it to shield us. only slightly successful, but very ingenious!

and a lot of...
*amazing friend catch-up time, bonding and memories.
gracias mi amor!

fly away home.

i almost didn't go home for christmas. for the most part, i have been very happy here, and felt that part of growing up was potentially having to miss my traditional canadian christmas. but, when the school offered me the trip home (on them!) i realized that even adults have to admit that they could benefit from a little taste of home.

it was a jam-packed week full of family, catching up with old friends, new random encounters and good old canadian comforts. and here, with no further delay, are the best parts of going home for a fleming canadian christmas:

1. travel, with an edge: i booked a flight with a so-called illegal connection in houston that is known for being an impossible flight to make. but the secret to life is to truly believe, and you will succeed. ha. and with a little luck thrown in, a long sprint through the airport and some good research done beforehand (by a friend, not even myself!), i did manage to make the three flights and get home for my mum's official bday. nothing like a little adrenaline to prepare for holidays with the parentals.

2. santa claus: no guitar hero 3 video game for me, but santa clause is still definitely alive and well at our house. he is getting better and better at following requests, and even still wraps his 'big' gift under a blanket on the couch. and mrs. clause must have been helping because i managed to acquire a hot diesel purse!

3. trippy traditions: christmas wouldn't be christmas without dad's eclectic creche covered in fake snow, opening stockings on my parents bed, eating croissants for brunch and wrapping presents while watching old movies from circa 1990.

4. a little bit of canada: in order to expose me to as much canada in one week as possible, i was served beavertails, walked around downtown to see the christmas lights, ate mini wheats for breakfast (i can't get them here), got to see a few snowfalls and had to slip back into my winter boots.

5. everything is eclectic: christmas dinner was totally random and turned out splendidly. the spiess family joined us, which always leads do some good laughs, but this year we also had some interesting additions. a young family who recently moved from africa came with their one-year old bundle of joy simba. along with other friends, we had about 15 people over! to me, it fully encompassed the christmas spirit of sharing joy and spreading love. my mom ended up on the floor when the table fell over, simba kept trying to be DJ and we played an out of control game of outburst - in other words, it was perfect.

6. foooooood: my mom certainly knows how to make home attractive for us. she went on a cooking spree and made ALL of our favorite meals in one week. i got my favourite comfort food (lasagna), my all time favourite side dish (broccoli casserole) and even a beautiful sky-high yorkshire pudding! she certainly makes it hard to stay away.

7. friends: while i did not see everyone that i wanted to see while i was home, i did get some quality time with many of my friends. since i only had time to visit ottawa, there were lots of people that i missed. i felt so regenerated to have had some quality time with people who have known me for more then six months. i introduced kristin to the famous 'works' burgers (try the sweet ride), met erin for brunch and a visit to lululemon, had a quick catch-up with elena on the run, and went and saw the kite runner with my brother.

i can't believe i almost did not go home.

i hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing and rejuvenating holiday season. feliz navidad!

the cure.

so i finally kicked the cold of the century. i have spent the last two weeks sniffling, sneezing, and coughing all over everything and everyone, and generally feeling pretty sorry for myself. the worst part was that i wasn't as good of a teacher, because i felt that i was being less patient and was slightly more irritable. no fun. i finally caved and visited the mexican doctor to be loaded up on drugs. i know they are known for over-medicating, but i figured if it got me better for christmas, it was worth it!

and if you weren't convinced that monterrey could be a destination for medical tourism, then you will be when you read this. on friday, ginny had laser eye surgery. and saturday morning, she woke up with 20/20 vision. whoa! it was absolutely perfect, flawless and easy. she was in no pain, was barely disoriented, and she didn't have to miss a day of work. and, because the doctor is a parent at the school, the price is right! i think this will be my new savings goal. oh, to wake up and see the alarm clock! i can't imagine.

i leave for canada in four days. i only have to teach for 3.5 days. before i go, i have to pack up my classroom for construction (they are lowering the ceilings), i have to enter progress report grades and do a significant amount of marking, i have to finish building a grade 2 economics unit AND i have to find time to pack and get myself organized. my plane leaves 2.5 hours after my kids walk out of the building on friday, so i won't have a second to lose. this week is absolute insanity! but being busy is certainly making the time go fast, and i am all of a sudden REALLY excited to be going home for christmas.

i don't know whether it was feeling better, or making plans, or just getting more immersed in the christmas spirit, but i am SO excited! originally, i hadn't even intended on heading home for christmas. i have always considered myself to be very independent, and i knew that at some point moving away would mean missing my traditional christmas. BUT, the transition has definitely been harder on my parents, and i did have a free flight that the school gives me for the year... so i decided to book a crazy route home to have a week with my family for the holidays. and i really am glad i did. i am even kind of looking forward to jumping in the snow! but mostly, i am excited for traditions that i recognize, for comfort food and for a little quality time with the fleming's.

even though it was 5 degrees today, yesterday it was 20 degrees. so here is a picture of us at the christmas parade... in tank tops:



ginny and lindsay smelling christmas trees at the market! feels just like home:

so this is christmas?

contrary to popular belief, christmas does actually exist in countries without snow. i don't know what i thought, but i guess i didn't expect many of the traditions to be the same. or maybe that christmas was bypassed in favour of a holiday where we celebrated palm trees.

instead, christmas is here in full force. these people sure know how to celebrate - tacky, religious but also with enough spirit to bring out the kid in me.

i started the season at school by pulling out all my holiday books. as if i don't love reading enough to them already, now i can't stop! titles such as "how santa really works" and "how santa got his job" are captivating me more then the kiddies! in case you were wondering, santa is actually a skinny dude wearing a fat suit, and he takes off the suit to get down the chimney.

christmas here in san pedro, is a season. it begins with the massive san pedro parade the first weekend in december. every dance troupe, every school, every single child in the city seems to walk in the parade. we gathered our hot chocolate (spiked with bailey's, of course) and set up along the calzada to soak up the spirit. rollerblading clubs, choreographed routines and multiple santas marched past us, and the ending was timed perfectly with a HUGE firework display.

after this parade, my kids became out of control, and in many ways, the whole month has been a write off. particularly in this community, these kids are very affluent and i struggle watching their sense of entitlement when they write their letters to santa. when i was 8, i was asking for toys, and these kids are asking for cell phones and ipods. one really cool thing, though, is that they all believe. when one child brought up the possibility that they had heard a rumor about christmas, and the kids refused to believe it. santa comes. no questions asked.

on the same note, the kids were shocked when they heard that not everyone celebrates christmas. they asked me, "mizz, do you not go to church because you don't understand spanish?" i have tried my very best to expose them to other realities without being judgemental or critical of what they understand as their reality. one of my friends here is jewish, so i had her come in and talk to the kids to talk about hanukkah. i was really proud my little ones when they asked thoughtful questions such as:
"what does it feel like to be jewish?"
"why did they all fight?"
i don't know if they will remember my efforts ten years from now. but if even one kid remembers this, then all this work is not pointless.

a traditional christmas celebration in mexico is called a posada. these parties traditionally happen in the 8 days leading up to christmas and represent the difficult journey that mary and joseph took to find an inn. in spanish, posada simply means shelter, but it has evolved into a huge festive celebration commemorating the journey. half of the people at the party stand on one side of a door, and the other half stand on the other side. a traditional call and response song is sung (the song with NO tune, as we like to call it), followed by the kids hitting a pinata in the shape of the star, again representing the star that mary and joseph followed to bethlehem. we had a class posada at one of my student's houses (errr, mansion) AND we had a full staff posada at the huesteca campus last wednesday after work. it was interesting watching the children interact with each other outside of school, and to observe the lack of rules/structure they are given by their parents. but it was nice not to be in charge. our full-staff posada was also an eye-opening experience, but for a different reason. ALL of the staff were there: the security guards, the teachers, the cleaners, the custodians and the office workers. when you fill up a gym filled with all of us, international teachers are a SIGNIFICANT minority. i don't notice it on a typical day because i am always surrounded by the teachers. we were all served delicious tamales, we had karaoke (which the mexicans took with a storm) and they had a HUGE draw for gifts. every person's name was put in the draw for everything from microwaves to heaters to cleaning supplies. very cool. i didn't win, but i was SO content watching everyone else walking away smiling.

as i walk around san pedro, both on the way to school and in the evening, there are almost more decorations here then at home. or maybe they are just more prominent: blow up nativity scenes, huge santa scenes, flashing lights in multiple colours. talk about over stimulation!

presents started pouring in over a week ago, one of my kids has already left for a cruise and i am counting down the minutes until my last class this week. christmas is still christmas, even without snow. i am being won over by different traditions: visiting christmas markets with tacky decorations, eating hot churros and learning to re-gift the piles of christmas chocolates i am given by my students.

christmas is all around.

little vacation BIG fun.

day 5: its hard to get over. he was my first australian friend.

on wednesday, haley and i got some advice from one of the ladies at our language course. she told us that the nicest beach, devoid of vendors and annoying tourists, was called playa bruja, about 14 kilometres south of where we were staying. we jumped on of the cab golf carts (of course, we picked the one that was probably the slowest in the city), and found ouf little piece of deserted beach. the two biggest problems we had that afternoon were figuring out how to open our beers without an opener, and trying to understand the 'bilingual' horses that were advertised. it was an area of beach that was just north of some of the big resorts, so at the end of the day we walked down the beach to try and see if we could actually find the resort where we knew other asfm teachers were staying. i love walking in my barefeet on the beach. it feels like a massage as the sand gets stuck between my toes. we had no trouble finding the hotel, sneaking in, AND finding our friends lying by the pool. perfect timing! because i got to play with the babies AND the whole group of us went out for dinner together. it was great -- thirteen of us, or more, all enjoying seafood by the beach, two for one drinks (dangerous) and i had a baby in my lap the whole time. little quinn has not had a lot of experience with busty women in his life, so let's just say he got mighty comfortable. my mom did always tell me that someone would really appreciate them one day.

day 6: haley, stop pulling the baby's hair.

language school was pretty hard today. i was tired from a late night of dancing and two for one margaritas. we were not overly ambitious in the afternoon either, parking ourselves down on the beach and snoozing all afternoon. we met up again in a big group for a shrimply delicious dinner, and i was in baby heaven once again. good thing there weren't serving two for one drinks, only some spanish homework paired with an early night.

day 7: little people big world.

i got a little starstruck on friday. i knew that one of the guys in my language class was a tv producer, but i didn't know the specifics. it turns out that he used to produce the dr. phil show and now produces the tlc show 'little people big world'. and when i walked in to my prononciation class early friday morning, amy, one of the parents on the show was sitting there! i'll tell you, she wouldn't have been at the top of my celebrities to meet list, but it was pretty fun. i guess one of her kids is failing spanish and they were thinking of doing a show where they bring the kid down for some extra spanish classes. we found out that her and her husband matt were staying at the hotel right next door to our condo (sans cameras... too bad, because we think it would have made a great episode: elementary teachers take little people parents out for a wild night on the big town!). we did actually end up meeting up with them several times, and they even took us out for lunch!

day 8: is cam on a boat to australia?

it is always easier to leave a place when the weather stinks. it was cloudy all day, so the beach was really out of the question. instead: silver shopping! (which for me, really does rank almost up there with lying on a beach) i spent too much money, and but i got a lot of my christmas shopping done. by the afternoon, however, the weather had gone from bad to worst. it was now so windy and rainy that we couldn't keep the balcony doors from breaking open. i think it was as close as i have ever been to living through a hurricane. on second thought. that might be a slight exaggeration. but it was pretty crazy. tonight we went dancing again with the full group (minus the babies this time!) and had a pretty ridiculous night of which the details (to save face) will be mainly left out of this entry. i will only say this: there was some serious grooving and maybe some late-night ocean swims!

day 9: life lesson #368: don't come on vacation with five ladies and expect to get the ocean view flower-print room.

i woke up earlier then everyone, which was a perfect way to end my week. i am rarely a morning person, but perhaps i should become one. wandering the quiet streets and sitting at a cafe in the early morning was quite relaxing... although so is sleeping. hmm. tough choice. maybe it was only a one-time thing. unfortunately, the trip did actually end on a bit of a sour note. because i really enjoy planning things, i was the one who had found the condo and put the trip together. i make the mistake of trusting too easily and i have now learned that not everyone is as laid-back about travel as i am. i don't know how someone could have found trouble in our paradise, but i guess not everyone is so easily pleased. so, with drama to settle, we returned to monterrey... with bags loaded with silver, a tan to beat, a few new laugh lines and a brand new appreciation for all things vacation.

treis noches con camarone.

where to start?

its been awhile. and i'm sorry about that. but i have a good excuse. i've been off gallivanting around for a whole week off! its true, i have been back for a full week already, but it has been a rough one. coming back to work was like hitting a brick wall at full speed. at times, i felt i was a bit of a waste of space! but now, with my vacation over, and back into the swing of things at work, i finally have the time (and energy) to update you all on my adventures.

in celebration of american thanksgiving AND mexican revolution, the school gave us a week off. and the timing couldn't have been better. after three months of solid teaching, we were all feeling a bit burnt out. we had just finished report cards, and two days full of parent-teacher conferences. anyone who knows me knows that i LOVE to plan trips. in fact, one day, i could see myself making a career out of it! well, it seems that i have become the unofficial trip planner here as well. my friend (sarah tambien) and i decided we wanted to go somewhere and stay in a condo for a week. on the mexican low-cost airline viva aerobus, mazatlan (on the coast, just north of puerto vallarta) was the cheapest destination. and with a few searches, i stumbled upon a magical mansion condominium in the old town. so, we booked the flight, booked the mansion, found a few friends, and off we went.

day 1: you see, the problem is...

i packed faster then i have ever packed before. friday night i was lazy and had gone out for dinner instead, so i was running around my apartment saturday morning like a madwoman. in truth, it didn't really matter what i brought, as long as it included a bathing suit and sun glasses. we had no trouble getting to the airport on time and our flight was comfortable and easy. however, tim (this. is. mexico.) definitely shone through when we had to have our baggage completely searched by HAND because they don't have the equipment to do it electronically. but getting off the airplane into the fresh warm air, smelling the ocean literally made my life complete. we did, however, have trouble figuring out transportation into town because the inexpensive buses had one small problem: "you see, the problem is, we don't know where it stops". you have an airport shuttle and you don't know where it stops?? apparently the driver just stops wherever he pleases. so we settled on taking a cab. BUT we also had trouble finding our condo because as our cabbie explained, "you see, the problem is, they changed the name of the street"... we did eventually make it to our condo, and managed to lug our massive bags up three flight of stairs. and with one look, all our problems disappeared.

day 2: this one time, i rented a mansion and i danced.

i wish i could take you all to see this mansion for yourself. i have never seen a place so huge in my life. it was a penthouse apartment, large enough to play a professional basketball game in the living room, open a night club in the loft and start a restaurant in the kitchen. my jaw dropped as i walked from room to room. our view was spectacular, our block-long balcony overlooking the ocean and the beach below. the rooms were differing in size and amenities, but the common areas were exquisit. today we decided to take a 'ferry' (slash small motor boat) to an island for escape artists lined with palapa restaurants, cute mexican kids burying themselves in sand and the most gorgeous sunset i have ever seen. but wait! how could i forget the best part! the night before, eating fresh seafood at the world renowned 'shrimp bucket', we had met the highlight of our trip: australian cam. not only was his name cameron (which in spanish literally means shrimp), but he was the loveliest, friendliest most delightful person i have met in a long time. we basically adopted him. i mean, c'mon, we had enough room in our mansion for at LEAST one extra friend. there was something about cam that just made the days better and more hilarious. i have never laughed so hard in my life! he even participated in our ridiculousness: we had a dance party, a photo shoot in a blow-up boat and drank some massive margaritas. and every night we would stay up late talking on the balcony and the moon would turn red, shrink and then disappear. seriously. i'm telling you, there was something cool about this guy that made the world wake up and notice.

day 3: language school dropout, go back to monterrey, your spanish didn't get any better, anyway.

haley and i woke up bright and early monday morning and tried to go to language school. cam even woke up to send us off to school. however, our plan was foiled when we arrived and language school appeared to be closed. there was a sign (albeit in spanish) that pointed to the door and it was locked. (inset: we learned the next day that, in fact, language school had not been closed, but that the sign was telling us to go up the stairs. too bad we hadn't learned that in spanish yet). instead, we parked our butts on the beach in front of a restaurant where a lovely waiter served us margaritas all afternoon. and what a great day it was! i played in the waves, played with an adorable puppy named milo and read my national geographic magazine all while getting a TAN! life couldn't have been better. AND we got to have seafood for dinner!

day 4: enchiladas para camarone!

a sad day. this was the day that cam had to leave us for his great love, baja california. little did he know, life would not be the same without us! haley and i had our first day of language school and met the slightly insane woman who runs it. this lady was quite the piece of work. a total nutjob. but that is another story. afterwards, we had our last meal with cam, but the cafe was quite slow, and he had to leave for the ferry before his food arrived. we all shed a few tears about the loss of our new friend. until we had a fabulous idea: we should bring his enchiladas to him at the ferry terminal! like a scene from the amazing race, we raced down the street, jumped into a cab and vamanosed to the ferry waiting terminal. we even burst through the gates thinking we were going to get stopped by the guards (which would have ruined the whole motion picture aspect of it all) but we got there in time. hopefully cam will remember us thoughtfully, running towards him with cold enchiladas... the rest of the day was a contemplative one, filled with traffic jams, grocery shopping and lots of sleep. i think i fell asleep at 6 for a nap, and woke up the next morning.

and part two will continue tomorrow of my mazatlan adventures will have to continue tomorrow. it is way past my bedtime and i am no longer on vacation!

grade a.

report card marks were due this past week.

it was a particularly hard week for me, having just returned from south padre island, struggling with the monday blues and having to be a marking machine to get all my marks in on time. i am not a last-minute lisa, but i am definitely NOT someone who has my marks entered weeks in advance. i would say, for my first go around, it wasn't an entirely awful experience.

i find that marks can be a really difficult thing. often, you just have a gut feeling, and with those children it is not difficult to decide whether they are at grade level or not. but with many of my students i am facing a myriad of factors that influence my grading. everything from how they behaved that week to my personal feelings toward their work. i find assessment to be the area i am least secure in, particularly as a first year teacher. what if i am being harder on my kids then the other second grade teachers? what if i am being easier? do i give out 'exceeds expectations' in trimester one, or do i remain stingy with them and save them for later in the year? how low do i have to go to scare parents into understanding the reality for their children? and lastly, how much do all these marks really matter to an eight year old in the grand scheme of life? some of my kids are actually being told that getting an 'approaching grade level' is bad. at 8 years old, they are already dead-set on straight m's. i don't want marks to be the focus of my classroom, but i also need something to use as leverage for good performance!

we gave each child over 30 marks. and that was just from their homeroom teacher.

i tell my kids that giving their best effort is the most important step in school. but what do i do when their best effort is still underachieving? and then they go home and get criticized? these are issues i struggle with every day.

this week we have two afternoons off for parent-teacher conferences. i am looking forward to them, because i feel that i can better articulate their child's progress in words then with letters on a page. but as a busy weekend draws to a close, i am realizing i have a lot of work to do to get myself ready for two very intense afternoons. many of these parents consider teachers experts on all aspects of child development, so i want to make sure that i am prepared and can make well-informed comments. there's always more work to be done.

except, hanging on the horizon is our week-long november break for american thanksgiving. five more days of school and then i am off to mazatlan for a week of language school, beaching and not thinking about school.

countdown begins.

in case you've forgotten...

i definitely DO live in mexico:

-there are very large bugs that live in my room.
-when kids go trick or treating, they don't have snowsuits under their costumes. they chant "halloween, halloween!" and get candy launched at them.
-swarms of ants attack any little crum of food that is left out.
-when we crossed back into mexico on saturday i accidentally showed the wrong passport and no one noticed.
-the temperature drops a few degrees and all the kids come to school in parkas.

i definitely am a new teacher:

-report card marks were due this evening and i was still marking math work at 4 this afternoon.
-i have read math lessons WHILE teaching them.
-lunch break? what lunch break?
-i'm not yet bitter and jaded.
-i started telling my friends to "make a good choice" when reaching for another beer at a party.

i definitely DO live a crazy life.

-i went to south padre island for the weekend to go golfing and sunning. i was in the lonestar state. for only the WEEKEND.
-it is still t-shirt and capri weather. i still can't believe this one.
-i have stopped noticing or caring that i don't understand a single word my aerobics instructor says.
-to celebrate the end of trimester one, the adminstration served snacks, drinks, gave us personalized cards AND made a slide show with all our celebrations from the first third of the year. can you imagine? just for surviving three months.
-i am not (yet) a regular golfer but once i learned to make contact with the ball, i almost won the 'longest drive' competition!

sometimes i have to shake myself to remember that this all this crazy new mexican teacher thing is real.

quote of the day:
i am reading a book about communities. we are dicussing transportation.
miss sarah: "did you know we have a subway here in monterrey? who can tell me what a subway is?"
kid: "subway? isn't a subway a torta? [torta is spanish for sandwich]"

se necesita un poco de gracia.

there are 7 other teachers who teach grade 2 with me. there are EIGHT classes at every grade in the school. it truly is gigantic. sometimes the size can be a blessing. for example, if you are wanting to feel anonymous and bury yourself in your classroom, it is definitely possible. however, there are many difficulties that can arise with SO many differing personalities, visions and communication styles.

i think no matter where you work, there will be drama. and difficulties and moments where you hate your life. the most important thing is whether that comes home with you at the end of the day AND whether it affects your ability to be a great teacher. don't get me wrong, i love my school, my colleagues and my job but it can be exhausting sometimes dealing with all the 'behind the scenes' stuff involved in teaching. we have weekly grade 2 team meetings, discuss all aspects of assessment, curriculum and our teaching. everyone always has the best of intentions, but sometimes i leave the meetings more stressed out then before! it is also hard, as a first year teacher, to know what you 'have' to do, and what you can use your judgement about. the school has set the bar so high for us, that i don't know if it is physically possible to get it all done! in a way, it is a juggling act... who can keep all the balls in the air, or at least drop a few without anyone noticing?

a few other quick thoughts before bed:

-we are doing levelled reading testing school-wide right now, and my kids are doing SO well! in only three months, many of them have moved up a level. it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see them smile when i tell them they can pick their 'just right' books from a different basket.

-our school does everything BIG, it seems. last night was our staff halloween party. almost everyone came in pretty great costumes and the girls who hosted it had decked out their house in decorations, food, candy... everything. their house was like a small restaurant/bar/club! this week is going to be crazy with halloween at school. we even have a costume parade for parents. aii.

-i'm quickly learning the school jargon. in meetings, we always 'unpack' the curriculum, discuss the 'nuts and bolts' of issues, and 'build common eyes' as a team. its a different language!

-i spent a good chunk of the weekend marking writing at starbucks. report cards are coming up and i wanted to get some of the bulk of my marking done when i actually had free time. sitting at rooftop starbucks marking will simultaneously getting a tan is not the worst deal!

-friday i impulse bought... wait for it... a CELL phone! my friend amy and i were sitting in my classroom after school discussing how annoying it is that we couldn't meet up easily with friends later that night without setting concrete plans. all of a sudden, she said, "hey, you wanna run over to oxxo and buy cell phones?" it took me about 1 second to pack up my stuff and run out the door. cell phones are cheap here, and you just pay as you go. texting is only 1 peso! the greatest idea she's every had! i am a happy camper again. all i need is a car and my life will be back to normal again.

happy day of the dead week!

a wee bit nippy.

i can't believe i am actually writing this. but, its true. i am cold in mexico.

let me clarify: it is not actually all that cold, but compared to the summer heat, the slight drop in temperature has hit me hard. PLUS, with the concrete floors, outdoor concept of the school and lack of insulation, you feel every degree drop. the switch happened in a second. i could barely believe that i was in the same place! all the teachers from last year kept warning them that i would be cold, but i didn't believe them. winter, in mexico? i thought. not possible! i walked to school in capris and a short-sleeved blouse yesterday morning, and even broke a sweat. however, by 8:30, when i walked out into the hallway, there had been a distinct drop in temperature. the kids were whining: "mizzz. i am soooooo cold." i told them it wasn't so bad, and shushed them. "it is only because you are from canada!", they said. now look at me. 24 hours later and i am bundled up under my duvet.

in other, less woe-is-me, news...

-things have been REALLY busy at school the past few weeks. i am over my hatred of teaching and am back feeling motivated and inspired. i get the feeling this is something i am going to have to get used to in this profession. we have started new units in all subjects this week, report cards are coming up in two weeks and i just finished up my first official assessment by my principal. i was at work until 10pm tonight, but that is still a rarity. i can't complain, because in how many jobs do you get to hear: "well, with this teacher i really learn things".

-people seem to be gradually getting out of their funks (including me!) and resurfacing back into the world of the living. i feel like i am making inroads on my spanish (finally) and my guitar has even been improving. i have discovered the physical pain of body combat at my gym and now the trainer knows my name, so i have no excuse not to pump it up.

-things in mexico seem like they will be really difficult until you finally just try... usually it ends up being much more accessible then you intially thought. in that spirit, we tried a ton of new things this weekend. on friday, my friend ally and i sought out a driving range in the dried up river bed and actually discovered we could rent clubs and hit a ball of buckets for about ten bucks! some good practice for south padre island in two weeks. we also really uncovered the wonders of the international culture FORUM which is in monterrey for a full three months. artists, dialogues, exhibits, music... anything you can imagine, from all over the world... has taken over a large park downtown. it is incredible! the city has done a ton to shape up for the exposure, and there are a ton of free things to do. i think i was there every day this weekend seeing shows, listening to dj's, wandering, visiting bookfairs and artisan fairs, and soaking up a world of culture. we will miss it when it is gone, but take advantage of it while its all here.

-our little drama club of fourth and fifth graders has been a great change of pace. tash and i don't kill ourselves to plan for it, we just go with the flow and have fun with the kids. i am really enjoying the older kids... they are slightly wild, but the work for it doesn't feel like a burden. AND, i generally just get to laugh for an hour!

-saturday evening three of the girls who work at the high school hosted the most stellar party. bollywood themed: their place was decked out! they had rented furniture for their rooftop patio, had a live dj, cooked unlimited indian food, played bollywood films on the wall and encouraged people to dress up. loads of people were invited and brought mexican friends, so it was nice to mingle with some non-teachers. (not that i don't love them!) it was a late night, but ginny and i made only good choices. we even joined the late-nate crowd at the local taco stand before crashing, which was the best, most delicious decision of all!

-and the greatest, most hilarious news of late is certainly.... the avril lavigne concert i attended on sunday! i would never, in a million years attend an avril show back home in canada, but when we discovered she was visiting monterrey, we felt we needed to represent! we sat in the back row but brought huge canadian flags and made our presence known. mexicans were actually taking pictures of us! (ha. the closest i'll ever feel to a rockstar) the most unbelievable part was that i actually knew the words to a ton of her songs, and actually really enjoyed the show. she's done quite well for herself to have a ton of mexicans singing along to her hits. yaH little old canada.

now, off to bed. cross your fingers for the return of heat to my life.

bbq, eh?

today we went on an adventure.

i had had a rough week. combined with being exhausted, my kidlets being little terrors, getting sick and having to take friday off and generally resenting my job, i was really ready for a weekend. and a quiet one.

last night i slept, ordered pizza and fell asleep watching a movie. this morning i slept in (after sleeping ALL day yesterday), did my nails and caught up on some blogging. this evening i am lying on the sofa, yawning, thinking about all the things i could do... but may just settle on reading on my own. this is NOT like me, but something i think even i need to remember to do every once and awhile.

this afternoon, though, we went on the great canadian adventure. i had received e-mails about the canadians in monterrey social club, and ginny and i decided it was time we checked it out. for all we knew, our future husbands could have been hanging out, and we were missing them! (sidenote: uh, no.)

we were told that this event was top secret, and you had to be registered to attend. as well, they told us that we needed our canadian passports to even get in! as you can imagine, we had HIGH expectations. when we arrived (after one wrong turn and a tour of greater monterrey), to three people sitting underneath a palapa and a few mexican kids playing soccer, you can imagine what we thought. did we get the directions wrong? is there another large factory that we are unaware of? ginny, amy and ally all creeped behind, designating me as the official spokesperson. i walk up slowly, tentatively asking, "where are all the canadian people?" an eager middle-aged man responds, "right here!" oh jeepers. are you sure they aren't somewhere else?

so here we are, in the middle of bf nowhere, sitting awkwardly at a picnic table. i had been expecting security, frisking, future husbands: instead, this? we cracked a beer, hoping this would ease the awkwardness ever so slightly. now, i am being slightly unfair. the people that we met were very lovely and as the afternoon progressed, more people did actually begin to show up. i would say we actually left when the party was getting started! but, in case you were wondering, i don't think i am going to find my future husband at the canadians in monterrey social club. first problem being: i think there were actually more mexicans then canadians??! but it was a great adventure into northern monterrey, and gave us all a good laugh.

and i got to eat a maple cookie. awesome, eh?