Hasta Luego en vez de Adios

I can't believe I'm back in the states, the time went by so fast. I miss Mexico already. My host family wouldn't let me cry, they told me we couldn't cry or say adios because it wasn't goodbye it was hasta luego, or see you later because I have every intention of coming back. The principal even said that if I stay in touch after I graduate there could be a job there for me, which would be absolutely awesome. The last few days there were wonderful. My students threw me a party for my birthday. There was tons of food and we took lots of pictures. Friday was las olimpiadas and of course my 6th graders dominated. They are all so athletic. Varmond placed in almost every event we participated in. We had one race where first through fourth place were all taken by my 6th graders. Then in the afternoon I went to lunch with some of the teachers and go to say my goodbyes and then after that to Peter Piper Pizza, which is like Chuck E Cheese's to say goodbye to my carpool kids. I can't wait to show everyone all my pictures and show you all my students. I miss them so much. It was really strange not to get up to go to school with them on Monday. It's hard to believe that next week I transition to first graders a whole new world compared to my outspoken 6th graders. I will definitely never forget this experience, it was one of the greatest of my life. I am so fortunate to have had this opportunity and to have met everyone that I did. I am really glad that I got to be the one to pave the way for others to have this experience in the future, and I can't wait to go back and see everyone again.

la semana final :(

Wow I can´t believe today was my last Monday at Varmond. I´m going to miss it so much. Everyone there is so great, the teachers and the students. Today was a good day the students were pretty well behaved and we were all joking around at recess. I´m going to miss their smart mouth jokes and the way they look at me when I pronounce something wrong or when they pretend not to understand me when I talk in English.
This weekend was fun I went to a water park Saturday during the day and got a little burnt but at least I´m finally making some progress and starting to look a little less out of place. Saturday night I went to a bar with some of the teachers from Varmond to hang out. It was incredible, the bar is outdoors up in the mountains so you wear blankets and can see the stars and an incredible view of the city at night.
I am so very lucky to be here and to have spent my time with such amazing people. I´m going to miss the people the most, and my host mom´s cooking! This week is going to go by so fast. I can´t believe I have less than a week. Thursday is my birthday and the students have their Olympics so that will definitely be a busy day. I´ll let you know how it goes.

la semana penúltima

I can´t believe I only have a week left! The time went by so fast! The students had their English exams all this week and for the most part I think most of them went really well, except for the math exam. My cooperating teacher was not there on Wednesday because she was at a convention and the students decided that because she wasn´t there that meant they could talk and share answers during an exam. It didn´t matter how many times I asked them to stop talking or almost took away their tests they just didn´t stop talking so now they all have to retake their math test. They definitely were not happy to hear that. It´s so hard to stay mad at them though because so much of what they do is so funny. During the exam they offered to pay me for the answers and started chanting Miss Katie to encourage me to do it. Then they asked me ¿porque estás enojada Miss Katie? Why are you mad Miss Katie, and with completely serious faces. One of my students even told me to have a sense of humor. I´m going to miss them so much. Yesterday 6B had their taller, workshop about prehispanic culture. Their group is the Toltecas, which don´t know very much about but they kids are interested in learning more which is always good. I spent most of the day in the workshop with them 2 hours for each half of the class to make our project. I really don´t know how to explain what it is so I will just have to take a picture of it and post it up next week. It was a lot of fun spending so much time with my students outside of the academic setting and just talking to them and listening to them talk to each other. They have started telling me not to go and asking me why I can´t stay. I really would love to come back and teach here in Mexico for a year or two after I graduate and I´m told their might be a program through Varmond to do that. I will definitely be looking into that before I leave so I have the information in case I can someday return to work here. I am going to miss it here so much. Everyone has been so welcoming of me and I´ve been having so much fun learning about the culture and getting to know the students and the city. The people here are really great, and the city is wonderful, not mention it will be hard to leave the warm weather. :) I got a great compliment today though from one of my coordinators, she told me my accent had changed that it was stronger, that made me feel that this trip was definitely worth it if only for that reason, not to mention the thousands of other reasons I´m so grateful I had this opportunity.

Una fin de semana muy ocupada

I was definitely busy this weekend I feel kind of bad that I was hardly home. Friday night I went to the disco again and was out way late because they don´t close til 4am here. Then up on Saturday and off to Pátzcuaro with friends from the CCL to say goodbye to Katie before she left for Mexico City. Which I´m very excited for her she´s trying out for the Mexican national soccer team and if she makes it she might get to go with them to the Olympics. How cool is that? She´s half Mexican so she´s elligible to try out and she plays soccer for her college team. But anyway we went to Pátzcuaro for lunch with two of the teachers from the CCL to this restaurant called Rancho la Mesa. First of all the food was incredible and second the view of el lago de Pátzcuaro and the islands in it was incredible. We were up on a mountain a little and could see alot of the city and the lake and two of the four islands, it was beautiful. We listened to a mariachi band for a little while and then went down into the center of Pátzcuaro to walk around and eat nieve de pasta, the best ice cream ever. I´m gonna have to figure out how to get some in the states :). Then on Sunday it was Dia de La Familia, my host family tells me they have days for almost everyone here which I think is great. We all went to mass together the whole family all three of their kids and their families then back to the house for a big, delicious lunch. I´m really going to miss their cooking. Then after lunch I did a few things for school before getting ready to go to a wedding with Roberto. He picked me up to go with him and his family to the reception part. It would have been nice to see how the actual ceremony was but it was really nice of him to invite me. The food was good, his family was very nice, and I met the parents of two of my students because they are Roberto´s sisters. The dancing was so much fun. Almost every one here is a fabulous dancer it´s great. We were out til 1am on a school night. I´m going to miss it here so much everyone is wonderful so welcoming of me, a complete stranger. I really want to come back someday possibly even to stay for a year or two to work, but no matter what I definitely have to come back to visit to see all of these people again. I can´t believe I only have 13 days left. It´s gone by so fast.
Tomorrow starts English exams for my students so I´ll be busy making review games all week. Cross your fingers that they actually study for the exams, I know I´ll have mine crossed. More later! :)

Que rapido el tiempo

Wow another week is already over I can´t believe it! Only two more left. :( I´m going to miss it here so much and my students especially. This week I was definitely kept busy trying to finish as much of the book as I could with them before their exams start next week. We still have more to do but we should be able to get it done and still have time to play some review games for the exams. I can´t believe next week is really my last week teaching because the last week we only have two days of classes and the second half of the week is the Olimpiadas where the students go to compete against other schools in a mock Olympics which I´m really excited for I think it will be lots of fun.
Yesterday I went to the movies with two of my students it was fun to spend time with them outside of school. I´m going to miss these kids so much. They definitely don´t make it easy for me to get through that book but they are great kids.
Tonight and possibly tomorrow night I´m going dancing at the disco again with friends from Varmond, I´m going to be pretty tired on Monday because tomorrow afternoon I´m probably going to lunch with friends from the CCL to say goodbye to Katie from Washington, and on Sunday Roberto invited me to go to a wedding with him to see what a Mexican wedding is like. I´m so lucky to have so many great people to spend time with. They are going to be keeping me busy these next few weeks, which will be wonderful but I think will also make it even harder to leave. Tomorrow is already March 1st which means only 16 more days. I can´t believe how fast it´s gone by. I will definitely have to come back some day to see all of these people again, and to see more of this beautiful country.
(wow this has got to be the shortest post I´ve ever written, a little break for you faithful readers :) )

Un viaje muy bonito, y una obra de teatro

This past weekend, Roberto, the other 6th grade teacher at Varmond, offered to take me to see a few other cities in Michoacan. We left Friday afternoon after lunch and headed to La Piedad where he used to live and still has friends. We got to his friends´, Ricardo and Javier (I love the names here!) apartment after an almost 3 hour scenic ride through mountains and desert. His friends had dinner waiting for us and then took me to see the different views of the city at night and the central plaza. It was beautiful and you could see so many stars. I learned that because of the shape of the city and the different levels that its at no matter what part of the city you are in, you can never see the whole city at once. Then back to the apartment to rest up for the next day. Saturday we went back to the central plaza to see the church and the fountain in the daytime. La Piedad is a really nice little city. Then we dropped his friends off at work and headed on to Zamora to see the church there. It was incredible, so beautiful. It had amazing stained glass windows and a beautiful painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and one of the biggest organs I´ve ever seen. Roberto, who has traveled just about everywhere, told me the design of the church is modeled after Notre Dame in Paris, how cool is that? Then I off to a market place to try chongos a dulce that´s only made in Zamora, don´t ask me what it´s made of I tried to figure it out but all I know is it was good. Then back on the road for a little bit to head to Lake Camecuaro. It was absolutely beautiful. The lake was crystal clear and surrounded by beautiful trees. There were ducks and families there on vacation swimming, yes swimming because the water is warm even in February, and so much food. It was an amazing place we walked around the lake a little and had lunch. I tried secina, which is dried cooked meat really good, and agua miel which is made from the plant they use to make tequilla, it was really good. Then on the way home we pulled over to buy tamales de zarzamora, which are tamales made with blackberries so they were purple also very good. I am really going to miss the food here. The ride home was again incredibly scenic. It´s so great to be surrounded by mountains, and trees and green and then sometimes large patches of desert it´s so beautiful. I wish you all could see it. I will post pictures of my trip next time so you can see the church and the lake.
Today was an interesting day at school we took the kids to see a play in English called Transylvania. It was pretty cheesy but the kids enjoyed it. It was so funny afterwards to hear some of the reactions. One of my students came up to me and asked me if I understood it word for word, another asked me what it was about, one of them told me she cried because the couple got together and she thought it was beautiful. Many of the girls told me it was romantic and asked me if I was thinking of my boyfriend. And Roberto said he liked it even though he didn´t understand it at all since he doesn´t speak hardly any English! All and all a good day even though I´m still way behind in the book and will have to take a few days of next week to finish it because there have been so many extra activities going on in such a short month. I´ll keep you posted on how the rest of the week goes.

Partido de fútbol

Celebrating their victory with tacos and soda

Yesterday my students invited me to their soccer game it was so much fun. The team consists of 5th, 6th and 7th grade students from Varmond. They are really good. I hadn´t been to a soccer game in years They won 4 to 3 to be able to go on the tournament. Alot of the students from the school were there to cheer them on. It was great to hear them cheering in Spanish and they really supported their team. The girls and the guys there to cheer them on were really surprised to see me, it was fun to be there to support them. To celebrate they doused their coaches in the leftover water in the cooler then went after each other the principal and me. :) Then the team and the coaches were off to Tacopolis to celebrate and they invited me to join them. It was so much fun. The food was really good and they kids were hilarious. Screaming and yelling and cheering. I felt so bad for the waiters but man did they make a lot of money off of us. Those kids and the coaches can sure eat a lot of tacos :). I was so glad I finally made it to a game and that they invited me to join them afterwards. They are a really fun bunch of kids even if they are trouble makers. :)
The week of teaching is going pretty well I´m almost caught up to where I need to be to finish the book on time. My cooperating teacher was sick on Tuesday so I spent the whole day alone with the kids which was a definitely a challenge but a good experience for the future. They are good kids but man are they alot of work to keep focused. I think finishing the book next week will be a very satisfying experience, and playing review games with them will be a great reward for them and for me.
This weekend I´m off to Zamora and to see some of the sights along the way. One of the teachers from the school offered to take me so we leave tomorrow after lunch. I´ll let you know how it goes on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone! I can´t believe tomorrow makes 7 weeks that I´ve been here already! Only 3 left, it´s gone by so fast!

Pátzcuaro, Discos, and motos

This was an eventful weekend for me. On Saturday my host family took me to Quiroga a town where a lot of artesanias come to sell their goods lots of wood working things like guitars, games, frames and lots more. It was so interesting and there was so much to see wandering through all of the shops. Then we went on to Pátzcuaro, a city about an hour or so from Morelia. It has a huge lake which I got to see a view of and then we headed to el centro (downtown) for lunch. Lunch was nothing spectacular most of it I had eaten before but it was good. El postre (desert) was fabulous. In Pátzcuaro and Quiroga they have nieve (snow, literally translated) instead of helado (ice cream). Nieve de pasta or de hielo, pasta gives it a different texture I´m not quite sure how to explain it but it´s awesome, so good. Muy rico. Nieve de hielo is like a really rich snow cone/sherbert. You can get a pretty good sized cup for only a 1.50 with three flavors. I had coco, limon and chocolate. (you guys can guess those flavors I´m not going to translate everything! :) ).
After lunch my host brother and I wandered around to see the churches near by and the artesanias who had booths set up in a near by park. I bought some fun goodies to bring home with me. Then we headed back to meet my host mom and dad and we watched the viejitos. They are young men who dress up in traditional clothes and masks of old men and dance on wooden slabs with wooden shoes making a clacking sound as they dance. It was very cool. I forgot my camera cord so I will have to put the pictures on next time. Then we headed home so we could rest and I could get ready to go out. One of the teachers at school had a party at a local bar/discotec for her birthday and they invited me. It was a good time a mix of a dj and live music. The soccer coach, Jose Manuel tried to teach me some traditional dance steps and I failed miserably but it was fun :). And I learned that the bars here close at 4am not 2 like at home so needless to say I was a little tired yesterday. But my host family told me I could sleep in and we went to a later mass 1pm, and then came home for a big lunch with the family to celebrate my host dad´s birthday. The food was pretty good and I love being together with the whole family they are so much fun. They all get along great and they have such a good time together. My host sister´s husband bought a moto (a four wheeler) and he was letting us take rides on it. Frida, the granddaughter would ride with her dad and everytime they circled the block she´d come back and say "falta dos" or "otra" meaning she wanted to keep going. Then I got my turn I rode with my host brother and he took me to see where my salsa dancing lessons are going to be starting Wednesday which I´m really excited for. The moto was really fun, you can ride four wheelers in the street here so we were right next to the traffic and we went all over the place. The only downfall was the speed bumps :). Today was a pretty good day of teaching, but I have lots to do with the students this week we have to finish the book by next week Friday because the students start their exams the 4th of March and they have to have the books finished to study from. Hopefully I can get them to stay focused long enough to finish what we need to. I can´t wait to see their history projects finished next week. It sounds like they are getting really creative with them.
Any way I think I´ve rambled on long enough with this post. Here´s wishing some of the Mexico sun in your direction! ¡Hasta luego!

¡Feliz Dia de San Valentín!

Most of Sexto A
Most of Sexto B

My wonderful 6th graders each one with a very distinct personality. I can´t wait to get full class photos. so I can show all of you the wonderful little troublemakers that have kept me busy here in Morelia.

Well minus the fact that I got very little academic accomplished the second half of this week putting me behind a few days on my schedule for the book, it was a great week. Thursday was so much fun. My students gave me lots of treats and hugs (which are my favorite). They also gave each other lots of treats and gifts. I learned a little more about who has a crush on who on Thursday. The school had a Kermesse for the students, which is what they called the fiesta the students got to enjoy for over 2 hours. The morning started with games outside class versus class. The sixth graders and I faced off with the 5th graders in a game of volleyball with a giant red ball. It was absolutely hilarious. Then the teachers faced the students 4 of us against about 15 of them, again, hilarious. Then off for food, I tried elote which is corn with mayonaise, parmesan cheese and lime juice, really good. There was also tacos and agua fresca and popsicles and churritos and all kinds of goodies for the kids to buy. They also had a stand called Registro Civil where the students could "get married" in front of an honorable 6th grade judge. I was innocently standing by to see what was going on when I was dragged by my students over to the table and wed to the soccer coach Jose Manuel. Absolutely hilarious. The couple puts on a veil and black cowboy hat and sign the paper with witnesses saying they got married. One of the students I carpool with (who is in 4th grade) married one of my 6th graders, her brothers friend, because he bought her a bouquet of balloons for Valentine´s Day. Too funny! This is why I love kids. Then off to the disco inside the gym. They have alot of songs here that have dances that go with them like our Macarena and cha cha slide. When we went back out in the afternoon for second recess after a fairly unproductive afternoon there was still music going in the gym so many of us were in there dancing all through recess and the last class of the day. Everyone was having so much fun that the teachers let the students have the last period of the day free. I think I danced with them for almost a straight hour it was so much fun. They are all great dancers, students and teachers included. My sixth graders were really good. I really wish I had brought my camera out to recess to capture the fun. They helped me learn some of the dances and they were pretty impressed when I was able to keep up (most of the time). Overall, yesterday was a blast and I finally got some pictures of my classes to share with you.
Today was fairly uneventful, but tomorrow I´m off to Pátzcuaro with my host family to see the sights. Then tomorrow night off to a party with the teachers from Varmond at a Discotec to dance and have some fun. Then Sunday a family party in the backyard to celebrate my host dad´s birthday. Then Monday back to school and my first salsa dancing lessons after school wish me luck! I´ll let you know how it goes.

algunas refleciones

Just a few thoughts to leave you with today.
I decided that I´m very mimada, spoiled here! I have yet to clear my own plates, change my own sheets, make any food, I´ve had dinner in front of the tv more times than I can count. All I have had to do is wash my own clothes which they let me do for free in their house instead of walking to the lavanderia. I am very lucky to be with a family who takes such good care of me. I have a little bit of a cold right now and they made me tea the other night and offered me cough medicine. The culture here is so caring and conscious of everyone else. I wait in the mornings at a bus stop for my ride to school and there have been three different occasions where other school families or teachers have passed by there and offered me a ride because they thought I was waiting for the bus. It will definitely be a culture shock for me to return to the states and it´s much more individualistic society.
Today I went with my host brother to some of the mercados, markets, in downtown. I needed to buy candy for my students for valentines day so we went to a dulces market first. There were all kinds of fabulous goodies there. I got some suckers and some dulce de leche candies for my students. Then we went across the street to the mercado de independencia. It was huge. It´s like going into the exhibition hall at the Wisconsin State fair except this place is full of stuff you can actually use! (Just kidding, that was a cheap shot, I really shouldn´t talk seeing as I will be working there one more summer, so come to the fair and buy a belt! Those are actually useful!) It was incredible. There were stands full of fresh fruit, of meats, cheeses, honey. There were stations where you could order food. There was a giant section of fresh flowers. There were clothes and shoes and even stands that sold all different kinds of herbs. It was really cool. I wish we had more things like that in Wisconsin. I know we have the occasional farmer´s market but this really showed up any farmer´s market I´ve ever seen.
My teacher voice is really getting a work out this week but I think that working with this class is a good challenge for me in classroom management. I am thinking of starting a behavior chart with them with the incentive of the number of stickers the class has by the end of the week earns them that many extra minutes of recess on Friday. I am going to talk to my teacher about it tomorrow. I am very excited for tomorrow. I have never been on the teacher end of a Valentine´s day party and I am excited for the fiesta the school is having for the kids tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes on Friday and I will have pictures of my students to post!

Capula y la Catedral

This weekend on Saturday I went on another day trip to a small town called Capula about 30 minutes outside of Morelia. Capula is known for it´s pottery work so naturally we went to see how it´s done. I went on the trip with a teacher from the CCL (the place that found my housing and where I go to use the computers) and two students, and the friend of another teacher here. We took a bus out to Capula and then walked a few blocks to the home of a family who works with clay and making the pottery for a living. They showed us the process pretty much start to finish. La Señora Martes showed us how they crush the rocks into dust both by hand and with a machine. Then they filter out all but the finest grains to be mixed with water which we got to do. It was messy but fun! Then after we had made a batch of clay she took us back inside to show us how they form the clay into the different shapes. They have a whole wall filled with shelves of forms they made to form the different plates pots and jars. We each got to pick a form to make. She made it look so easy! I think mine will turn out pretty good though. Her daughter was behind us washing the pots that were leather hard after a few days so they could be ready to go into the fire the next day. They make 450 of the pots their family is known for in a week. The whole process from start to finish of hardening and firing the pots takes 7-8 days so they are working all the time. We also got to paint some jars that had already been in the fire once so they were hard and they will go in again to be glazed later this week. The whole family works there together doing all of the different tasks. It was great to see and you could tell they are close family. I thought it was very interesting to see what the difference between successful businesses is, by American Standards this family would probably be considered poor, but in Capula their pots are highly desired and they sell them wholesale to other vendors to be sold all over Mexico. I can´t wait to see my finished products later this week. My only regret of the trip was that my camera battery was dead so I don´t have any of my own pictures but one of the other girls has facebook and said she would share her pictures with me.
Later Saturday night I met up again with the teachers from the CCL, Ramses from our trip, Dee and her guest Jan who came on the trip and go figure another Katie is another American here to study. We met at Dee´s house and had some snacks and saw the view from her roof before going to the Cathedral for the illumination ceremony which involves music and fireworks, a very good recipe for a good time. It was beautiful. I took lots of pictures, I will post them soon. Then we wandered around downtown a little so that Jan could see some more of the town. We walked into the lobbies of two of the fanciest hotels in Morelia, absolutely beautiful. One was an open courtyard with a fountain and ivy everywhere, the other a huge building with a stained glass ceiling. Probably muy caro! (expensive) All in all a great night, that ended much later than I have been up yet here 1am! I usually am in bed by 10 or 10:30 since I´m up at 6 every day.
Today at school my students continued to let me practice my teacher voice and I got to work with the 4th graders for the last hour of the day for math class. I´ll will keep you posted on how the rest of my week of teaching goes, and the festivities of Valentine´s day. :)

En Frente de la clase

Well, Wednesday was my first day as the classroom teach of the 6th grade english classes at Varmond School. Wednesday I did not get much accomplished because there were other things going on all day and I´ve been playing catch up all week. I´m a little behind on my lesson plans but I think I will be able to catch up next week. The way the curriculum is designed at Varmond is that you have to get through one book per month and this month it is really important to get through the book because they have exams the first week of March on the last 2 books and this one. So I have the responsibility of making sure they understand this book and making sure they get review questions on the last two books. I have some ideas for fun review games for them in March. This first week has been a little challenging. The students have decided that Miss Katie being in charge means they don´t really have to pay attention so I´ve had lots of practice with my `teacher voice´. I even had to take away 5 minutes of recess yesterday to show them I was serious. The teacher also lectured them about respecting me, so I think next week will be better when they realize that I´m in charge and that I have a say in their grades this month. They are good kids they just don´t like to focus in English class. It doesn´t help that the class leaders insist upon speaking spanish in the classroom, which is not supposed to be allowed. I have to remind them to speak in English. It´s pretty funny how they think I´m naive because I´m new, but they are forgetting that it was only a few years ago that I was in classrooms pulling those tricks and watching my friends pull them. I see when they pass notes, or are hiding gum. I see when they try and cheat and I´m not stupid enough to fall for the `can i go to the bathroom´ and their best friend asking if they can go get a drink at the same time. They tried to pull that one on me yesterday. I´m also learning who has a crush on who in my classroom. Valentine´s day should be interesting with a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds. :)
My plan for the month is to get through the book and hopefully have time to play the fun games I have planned. I think next week will be better now that they are starting to realize that I mean business. I want to be able to have fun with them but they also have to understand that I´m there to be their teacher. So wish me luck I have lots to do with them on Monday! I will post pictures from the classroom next week and probably take some during the Valentine´s party and festival too. Have a great weekend everyone! Stay tuned for more classroom adventures, and a post on my trip tomorrow to Capula!

Las Mariposas

This past Saturday I went on a day trip to see the butterflies. The Monarch butterflies come down here for the winter and stay in the mountains in some of the towns here in Michoacán. My host mom spoke to a local travel agency and found a trip for me, it was only about 50 dollars for the van lunch and the ticket to see the butterflies. The car ride took 3 hours but there was so much to see. It is absolutely beautiful here. We drove through small pueblos and up into the mountains. Once we got to Angangueo we were able to go a little further in the car up the mountain and then we got out, got our guide and started climbing the mountain. Well, so we didn´t really climb it we walked up the uphill path to where the butterflies sleep and hang out until their journey back north. They were so amazing I can´t even begin to describe it. They were everywhere one flew right past my cheek and another landed right on my leg. I will try to post a video so you can see what I mean by everywhere. We stayed and watched the butterflies and took lots of photos for probably half an hour 45 minutes, then we hiked back down the mountain and raided the little vendor booths for cool souveniors, can´t tell you what I bought though because some of them are gifts :). Then we drove back down out of the mountain to the pueblo Angangueo for lunch,( it was about 4pm, so a late lunch). All that was left was the drive home. It was a great day and the butterflies were so amazing I will post the pictures as soon as possible.
The next day was Sunday so my host family and I went to mass in the morning at 10, the earliest we´ve gone yet, because the family was coming in the afternoon for a big lunch to celebrate my host sister´s husband´s birthday. We ate outside in their garden and there were about 13 of us. We had carne asada, which is basically barbequed beef, quesadillas, rice, taquitos, chips with salsa and guacamole, there was so much food. I couldn´t believe how much I ate. Then to top it off we had desert this really yummy cake my host mom made with rompope, which is mix of all kinds of stuff, peach syrup and peaches. Not your traditional chocolate birthday cake but still very good, muy rico as everyone at the party said. Then when everyone left after stuffing themselves my host family and I watched the SuperBowl. (I´m sure many will not agree but I was kind of glad that the Giants won. :) )
Monday there was no school because it was a day to celebrate the Constitution of Mexico, it´s like our Memorial Day or Labor Day, a day off of work and school to remember something important, so on my day off my host brother took me to see some museums and historical sights downtown. We went to the birthplace of Morelia´s namesake, the museo de artesania, the museum/marketplace where artisans from all over the state of Morelia can display their work and sell it, I think I may have to go back there before I leave to buy some of the crafts. We also saw the Palacio de Justicia and another very traditional style church. It seems like there is so much more to see here than if someone were to come visit me in Wisconsin. I feel like I would run out of stuff to show them before their visit was over :).
Well I´ve rambled on long enough. More updates later this week. I take over the class starting tomorrow so wish me luck! I´ll let you know how the first week goes on Friday!

¿Sabe que... ?

So not much exciting has happened since Wednesday except that it´s official that I´m going to see the butterflies tomorrow! and that next week I officially take over teaching the class, which I´m very excited about! So I decided I would just post some interesting facts about Mexico and what I have learned.

¿Sabe que...? Did you know that....?

- In Mexico the plumbing isn´t very strong so you put your toliet paper in the garbage can instead of flushing it.

- In Morelia they can´t drink the water either so everyone has those giant water jugs, you know like the Culligan man commercials? so that they have purified water.

- that the monarch butterflies come to the mountains of Michoacán (the state in Mexico that I´m in) for the winter and that you can climb the mountain and see them in the trees, which is where I am going tomorrow

- That Mexico has stores like Sears and Walmart, and restaurants like KFC and Applebees

- That they have stores called Pick and Go´s that you can drive your car through and buy food at a convenience store while still in your car

- That there is no spanish word for muffin, so they pronounce it "moofin"

- Here in Morelia the most common animals are wild birds and domestic dogs. I saw a few squirrels at the zoo but thats it, and only one cat so far

- that there´s a Latin American Idol? One of my host families relatives actually took third place in it a few years ago.

- that keyboards here have the upside down question mark (¿), exclamation point (¡) and accent mark (´) functions built in, a huge advantage over trying to put it in manually in Word!

I will add more posts like this everyonce and a while with some more interesting facts for you, just in case my blog wasn´t already long enough lol :)

Fin de Semana y la cuarta semana

Check out this gorgeous view of the city! Don´t worry I took more than one, I will try to post them to facebook soon!

This past weekend I went to mass up in the mountain at the church where my host family´s daughter was married. It was a nice church and the ride there was beautiful. After mass my host mom and dad took me to a look out point where you can see over most of the city. It was an incredible view. You can see the mountains surrounding the city and the houses that are painted bright colors stand out even from high up. I will try to post one of the photos so you can see the view.
This week I taught the 5th graders about directions, (N, S, E, W). We played with my inflatable beach ball globe and told them how people give directions in the US. It was an interesting experience to step in and try to teach a class that I did not know at all. I had a few problems with classroom management, and I was surprised the teacher didn´t help me much with keeping them focused. Overall, I think they understood it better after we played with the beach ball.
Last week my 6th graders took my math quiz, some of them clearly did not study for it but when we went over it after I graded them I think most of them got it.
This week I have been spending a lot of time planning next months lessons. Starting next week I take over the class, so I got to put the plans in the official planner that gets read and approved by the primary grades coordinator. It is different to be planning all of my lessons from one book with the timeline of one month to teach the whole thing but I think as a first time teacher it is probably good to have so much structure to teach me time management. I think the plans I have laid out will give us time to get through the book and have some fun extra activities on the side. I am really hoping to do some fun stuff in science class with them, they will be learning about microscopic organisms, depending on what they have in the lab at the school. They will also be watching (hopefully) the Magic School Bus inside Ralphie VHS if the seller ships to Mexico. :) I think the first week will be a little scary but once I get going I think I will have a better idea of how to go with the flow and get through the book and get to the fun review games for their exams in March.
I´ll keep you posted on how it´s going!
More later!
P.S. I get to go see the butterflies on Saturday! I´m so excited! I promise to take lots of pictures!

El Centro, Palomitas, y juntas

One of the many fountains at night, I can´t remember the name of it right now but I thought it was really beautiful, especially with the moon in the background :)

The Callejón de Romance

After my last blog entry my host brother took me for a walk around downtown. It´s very beautiful here at night. There are fountains all over the place here and at night they are gorgeous! He showed me some of the other churches nearby too. One of them is so incredibly detailed, so much gold trim everywhere, it was unlike anything I had ever seen. We walked down a couple of famous calles, streets, too, one used to lead to a church dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and now it leads to the really ornate church. We also walked down this street called the Callejón de Romance, it was really peaceful, very quiet, it didn´t feel like I was downtown at all. I have to admit I was jealous of all the couples that got to walk down there together. :) Don´t worry I took pictures while we were walking around so everyone can see what I´m talking about. I will try to post them on Facebook next week (it takes a while because the internet here is a little slow.)
On Wednesday night I went to the movies, el cine, with my host brother to see Soy Leyenda, I am Legend with Will Smith. Very good movie. It was in English with Spanish subtitles, but some of the movies are in Spanish or translated into Spanish, I think I am going to try to go to one in Spanish next time. Wednesday is the best night to go because you can get in for half price. It was only 75 pesos, about $7.50 for both of us to see a movie, and it´s not even a budget movie theater, so much cheaper than in the US!
Now I have advice for anyone who would be going to the movies here in Mexico. Apparently mixing popcorn, palomitas and water here is a bad idea. For some reason the combination here is a very bad idea and I was very sick on Thursday and I had to miss school. I felt so bad having to call in sick, but my host family took very good care of me and I was feeling better enough to go to school yesterday, Friday. It was only a half day for the students and then the teachers had meetings, juntas or reuniones, in the afternoon. I stayed for the meetings. It was all in Spanish but I understood most of what they said, which I was glad about. The teachers here are not that different from teachers in the US they are concerned about issues like classroom management, discipline, testing, and of course their students. It was interesting to be a part of my first official teachers´ meeting. The students asked about me on Friday too wondering where I was on Thursday.
They invited me to their soccer game yesterday but I didn´t think sitting outside in the sun for so long after being sick was a good idea so I will have to ask them on Monday when their next game is so I can go. I haven´t been to a soccer game in years I think it would be a lot of fun to go see my students play. I´ll have to learn how to cheer in Spanish. :)
I came here to the Center for the first time today by myself because my host brother wasn´t feeling well, but I got here just fine and I know my way home too. I am going to try and come at least 2 or 3 times a week still to email and post blog updates for everyone. Miss you all!

Alumnos traviesos (mischievious students)

El Catedral Rosa, it´s huge and beautiful (I´ll post pictures of the inside on facebook soon)Palacio del gobierno, see the mural on the wall? There are 3 huge murals like that in the building.

Well my weekend didn´t go exactly as planned, we ended up not going to the Cathedral Saturday night because my host family thought it was too cold and that it might rain, but we went to mass there Sunday morning it is a beautiful church one of only three Cathedrals left in Mexico. Then after mass we went across the street to the Palacio del Gobierno where the Morelia government is housed, there are beautiful murals there by an artist named Alfredo Zalce, who is very famous here. I think I will have to read a little more about him and look up his work it´s very good. Then i went back to my house to eat lunch and watch football. I got to teach my family about American football, my host mom said that Packer game could give a person a heart attack. I agree, I was so sad about the loss and then I went into school on Monday and my students had the nerve to come up to me and taunt "Green Bay lost go Giants!" and they want the Patriots to win the Superbowl... It was really funny though that they remembered that Green Bay was my team.
School is going well. I talked with my cooperating teacher and coordinator and I will be starting to teach more in February when their book switches. I will be helping with the planning and then teaching the whole day to both classes. I´m excited for the chance to do that. They are a starting to get better about listening when I tell them to quiet down. I still get some funny looks though when I use my teacher voice on them. :) Today I was working alot with the students on the Spelling activity I made for them and on math, I teach math all the time already now. They have a quiz in math tomorrow and I got to write it. I think they will do well on it. I am getting the book for next months lessons this week so I can start planning for next month. They have trimester exams in March so I will get to plan lots of fun review games for them to help them remember the material from the last few books for the exams.
The weather was so hot today! When I went out to recess at 1pm it was at least 75 degrees outside. I was warm in a short sleeve shirt and pants. I hope that those of you in freezing Wisconsin feel a little warmer when you read this!
Random interesting fact for you about the people here. Everyone tends to talk with their hands, they explain things by making the shape of it with their hands or gesturing which I must say has made me feel at home since I tend to talk with my hands all the time. Not to mention it can help if I don´t understand a word to watch their hand gestures. :)
More to come later this week. I´ll let you know how the test goes and plans for the weekend. ¡Hasta viernes!

La segunda semana

I can´t believe week two is over already it has gone by so fast. I had a good week with my students. They are forcing me to practice my Spanish because they insist on talking to me in Spanish outside of questions they ask during class. Some of the students got in a lot of trouble this week with the teachers and were suspended for a day for lying to the principal. Fortunately, most of them apologized to the teachers today when they returned for their behavior, when I told my host mom about what happened she said it was a good learning experience for me to see what students are capable of and how the school handled it, and I agree, it definitely taught me what the students are capable of. I have also learned that sitting in the back or observing while another teacher teaches can teach you alot about what to look for when you are in front of the classroom. I have seen more mischief from the back of the room in the last two weeks than some teachers notice in a month from the front. I definitely know which students to keep an eye on for note passing and for attempts at cheating. It also helps that I remember all the tricks my friends and I used to pull to pass notes in class, I remember one where you fold it up really small and tuck in the clip of pen and act like you are lending the pen to your friend, I haven´t seen that one yet, but these students aren´t as subtle, they like to just throw the note across the room. They are good kids though, some of them asked me if I want to go to bowling with them next Friday after school. I don´t know if I will be going but it was very nice of them to ask. They are always curious if I have a game for them too which tells me they are enjoying them. I have already pretty much taken over teaching math for my teacher and they seem to be getting it, which is definitely a good thing.
I have some fun things planned for the weekend, tomorrow my host family is taking me to see the lighting of the Cathedral which I´m told includes fireworks and music on Saturdays. On Sunday my host brother is going to take me to see some of the historical sites downtown, el centro. My teacher Miss Monica also tells me that there are trolley tours of the city and leyendas, legends that you can take tours of to learn about Morelian legends, and that is something I would love to hear. I will post pictures and tell all about my weekend on Monday or Tuesday.
I also made plans today to start taking salsa dancing lessons, and a jewelry making class. I´m so excited! El Baile, dance is very traditional for Mexico and other Latin American Countries, and I can´t wait to make my own traditional jewelry, and most of you know what a sucker I am for gorgeous earrings and necklaces, and to have made them myself in the traditional style will be great.
Things are going great at the school. The last few days I have been in the teachers lounge a little more and have been listening to the conversation and I am glad that I am actually understanding most of it. Hopefully soon I will feel confident enough to put my two cents in. Today they were talking about how the 6th graders are learning about puberty and reproduction in their Spanish class, and I sure am glad that I am not teaching that subject with these students, the questions they could come up with would probably make me blush. I think perhaps I will wait on teaching Middle school until I have a few more years between my age and that of my students because right now it would be like teaching it to a sibling or a cousin, and professionally speaking I don´t think I´m ready to teach that subject.
The teachers are really nice though and I hope to get to know them better as time goes on, they all seem to get along with each other very well which I think is important for a school to have teachers that get along and can work well together. I finally met the principal yesterday, I haven´t really seen him around the school, but maybe now that I know who he is I will see him more often. I´m sure I will see him next Friday when the kids have a half a day and the teachers stay to have meetings about what will be happening in the next months curriculum. It will be my first official teacher meeting! How exciting! (and no that´s not sarcasm at least not this time, future meetings maybe but the first one will actually be exciting :) )
Overall my stay so far has been great and I can´t believe how fast it´s going. I am so lucky to be here to work with the students at Varmond and to get to know so many wonderful people and such a beautiful city. More next week. Hasta luego!

Tiendas, Animales, y Estudiantes

This past weekend was great. On Saturday I went to the mall with my host brother and he showed me around the area a little what stores were around there. We also went to the Galeria de Zapatos, also known as shoe heaven, the whole building is full of shoe stores and jewelry. I resisted the urge to buy new shoes because I need to save my money but the jewelry store was having a sale so I bought a few necklaces, don´t worry though I only spent 75 pesos or about 7 American dollars. Much to my dismay though when I looked at the necklaces again when I got home I saw they were made in China! I intend to buy some authentic Mexican jewelry before I leave though. Then on Sunday after mass at the church where my host mom´s brother is the priest, my host brother and I went to the Benito Juarez Zoo. It was really fun, it´s not too big so we were able to walk through most of the zoo. The reptile house was under repair though, and the line for the aquarium was 40 people deep. I got to buy some postcards to add to my collection though, and I got to wear sunblock in January so all in all it was a good day. Usually on nights when I have extra time Vico and my host mom and I watch movies, either on tv or DVD´s. When we watch DVD´s the put the English language on for me and subtitles in Spanish for them, but on tv they are usually all in spanish, but I can pretty much understand what is happening, and watching the subtitles is helping me remember some vocabulary that I had forgotten.

I taught math class yesterday for 6B and we learned how to divide fractions, and played a game. The teacher said even she understood it better after I taught it. :) The students really enjoyed the game and they always ask when we are going to play another one. I taught 6A math today too but we didn´t have time for the game, so we will play it tomorrow, I´ll let you konw how it goes. I have been talking with my teacher about game ideas for the students and what we can do so that they are not always working out of their books. I think I am going to introduce them to School House Rock and the Magic School, some of my favorites from when I was a kid.

The system they use here is called the AMCO program its a billingual program used in California because the Hispanic population there is so high. It has the kids learning in Spanish half the day and in English the other half. I am working in the English classroom, but I will also probably teach a class or two in Spanish since Sr. Roberto said it was ok. I am going to wait a little while for that though until my vocabulary is stronger. The students work out of unit books that have all the subjects and they change every month. It is a very structured learning system, and a little limiting for fun activities but my cooperating teacher said we can see what we can do to make room for more activities and games that aren´t straight out of the book. I think it gets boring if all you do all day is worksheets and book activities and these kids are active so the games and other activities will help. I am very excited to start getting more involved in the class. I have learned all the names of my students in both classes and they gave me funny looks the other day when I had to tell them to get working because they couldn´t believe I knew their names.

They are starting to get used to having me in the classroom though, because today I went to observe in a 5th grade classroom and missed part of the classtime with the 6th graders and when I saw them at recess they came up to me asking where I was and if I was coming back to class after recess, I guess they missed me :), definitely a good feeling. They are great kids, most of them troublemakers, but I tend to have a soft spot for troublemakers so I think we will continue to get along just fine.

un poquito mas de la primera semana

Well I finished my first week at the school today and I will have a little more responsibility in the classroom next week. I get to teach math class on Monday because the teacher doesn´t like it very much. :) The students were amazed today that I knew their names, since I had to yell at a few of them to hurry up on the way to art class. It´s been hard to switch between the languages, english with the students and spanish with the teachers and my family, but I´m getting better at it. I still have a lot of vocabulary to remember, I think that perhaps my dictionary and I will be spending some quality time together this weekend. The students are great though, some are troublemakers but they are all nice kids. I am very excited to be working with them.
Some of the 5th graders today asked if I get to come to their class to teach too, which I think I might be able to at least go and observe. The kids had a free dress day today and could bring their toys from Christmas and los Reyes Magos. Alot of them brought Ipods and cellphones and tried to sneak them during class, they were pretty surprised when I called them out on using it. Alot of the boys also brought skateboards and were riding them down the hill at school, I really thought one of them was going to crack their head open but it was really funny. My family has been really helpful too teaching me how to use the Combi´s and how to walk to the nearby mall and el cine (movie theater).
I am very lucky to be here and to be learning from the teachers, my family and the students, they are all very generous with their time and help. One of the teachers has even offered to take me to the nearby city of Zamora one weekend to see the sights, which I´m very excited about.
This first week was great and I´m very excited to see what will happen over the next nine weeks. It was great to hear some of the students say today "you only get to stay for 10 weeks?" I think maybe my choppy spanish is growing on them. :)

La primera semana

La casa The view from my bedroom window, see the mountain on the left?

Wow I can´t believe that I am really in Mexico. Es loco ¿no? It is so beautiful here, I could never have imagined what it looks like. My host family is wonderful. I have a mom named Coco, a dad named Vico, and host brother also named Vico. My host family also has a son who is married and has a young daughter who is hilarious, and a daughter who is also married and pregnant. I got to meet them on Sunday for the feast of Los Reyes Magos, to eat el rosco de los reyes. (its the feast of the Three Kings, and Rosco is a type of bread) If you find a muñeca, a plastic doll, in your slice of bread you host a party in March for the family. The culture here is wonderful, the food is great and I´ve tried lots of new things already. We eat breakfast, a late lunch, around 3 which is the biggest meal of the day and then a small dinner around 8:30 at night.
The city is beautiful it´s surrounded by mountains and the buildings downtown are very colonial. The school i´m working at is very modern though and you have to drive up a mountain to get to it. There are so many houses in the mountains and the valley. Everyone here is so nice. You always say hello, goodbye, have a nice day when you are coming and going, the people are so much more personable here than in the U.S. There are alot of businesses here that are the same as the U.S which really surprised me. I know there are McDonald´s everywhere but there are KFC´s and Office Depot and Sam´s Club and lots of other restaurants that are the same, but there are lots of places that I´ve never seen before too. Even some of the movies are the same, I can go see Alvin and the Chipmunks in spanish at the cine if I want to. The houses here are very close together and painted in a variety of colors. The house I live in is bright orange. (I will try to attach a photo so you can see it)
Driving here is very peligroso, dangerous, there are not the same kind of rules here as there are for driving in the U.S. Cars cut in front of each other and there are not many stop signs so cars just go when they want to sometimes. I don´t think I would want to learn how to drive here, not to mention many of the cars are manual and I definitely do not want to learn how to drive stick shift. Alot of people walk or take the Combi´s, mini buses, to get places. The roads here are very confusing too. I think that even after my 10 weeks here, I could still get lost sometimes.
Varmond is wonderful, the teachers are very nice and the students are great. I am very excited to work with the 6th graders. I am told they are a challenge but I think it will be a very good experience. I am going to work in their English class teaching them in English but I speak spanish with them outside of class too. I also got to observe and will probably teach a few lessons in Spanish too. In the spanish class they took a spelling test and I´m pretty sure that I would not have done very well on that test! I´m sure the students would find it very funny that their teacher would not do well on the same spelling pretest that they are taking. They are wonderful students though; they call me "teacher" or "Miss Katie". It was great to see a familiar technique used in their English classes, the teacher, Miss Monica, introduced the students to KWL charts on Tuesday and I was so excited to know that they will know how to use this tool already when I work with them. I will also be going on a field trip with the students to Mexico City in Feburary to a museum. It will be a chance to see the city and to practice being a chaperone!
I carpool to school with a family, and one of the students is in my class. Everyone here is very generous and helpful, and very understanding that I am an "extranjero" a foreigner. I am very excited to work with the students and help them with their english and to practice my spanish. I am going to try to be very involved with the school, and do things outside of normal school hours with them. I am also going to try and take some classes at the Centro Cultural de Lenguas (CCL). I hope to take salsa dancing lessons and a jewelry making class.
So far this experience has been great and I am so excited to continue working in the school and learning all that I can about Mexico and it´s culture.