La casa 
The view from my bedroom window, see the mountain on the left?
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.
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.
2 comments:
Katie,
congratulations on your success to transitioning into your first week. I am so excited! I am glad that all is well for now. Take care of yourself and make us proud. Remember that you are our ambassador.
Take care
Dr. Delano
felicitades!! me encanta que tu tienes un buen experiencia alli. Te echo de menos mucho pero estoy muy emocionada para ti :) cuidadate muchismo :)
~tara~
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