Hasta Pronto

I used to have the best family in the world.

Now I have the best families {note the plural toneage} in the world.

So.  Fam número dos.  Would you like to see how we spent our final days?

Monday:  Veracruz

You wouldn't believe the amount of famous people we saw...

Blu from Rio.

Obama.  U.S. President currently.

Brad Pitt.  No explanation necessary.

 And then the beach of course.

Twas truly splendid.  I loved every second.

Tuesday:  See for yourself.

Then at like 8 we went and played basketball one last time.  Desafortunadamente, I didn't bring my camera for that.  But you can just trust that it was fun.

And then at night all my fav cousins came over to spend my final hours with me.  Guess what.  I never went to bed.  Yes, I stayed up all night last night and it is now 6:14 p.m. Phoenix time and I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight.  But anyway, back to the fam...

Miguelito y yo

Roberto, Diego, Cesar, Me, Chucho, Jorge, y Miguel

Several videos were made.  Miguelito is my diligent video maker for pretty much every occasion.

No, but really, my family is so so so so so great.  I keep trying to tell you how awesome they are and how much I love them, but you will just never understand.  You need to experience them for yourself.  They are so nice and funny and I love being around them.  They treat me like a princess and they love me as much as I love them, which is AWESOME!  I really do love them to death and I truly miss them already.  I can feel it in my heart, you know?  That feeling when you miss your fam?  I feel that for them and it hasn't even been a whole day.  I cried when I got on the bus this morning, leaving this all behind.

I just love them and that is that.

Okay enough of that.  Now guess what.  I am in the U.S. and it is official, so we need to party hard, okay?  I have a week and a halfish before I have to get back to real life, so please text me so we can set up a play date.  Isn't it great that I now have a phone and a car and an American life all around me again?  I mean, if I had to leave Heaven slash Tehuacán today, at least this is what I get to come back to, verdad?  Because remember, before I had the best families in the world, I had the best family in the world, and my life pretty much rocks.  So it's all good.

See you in a couple hours.  

Dear Mexico,

You have changed my life and I will never forget you.

Thanks for the incredible fam you gave me.  We were meant to be.  How did you know?

Thanks for the awesome students you gave me.  We were also meant to be.  Really.

Thanks for the teachers you brought together.  Do I need to say it again?  Well, why not.  We were meant to be.

Thanks for immersing me in this culture you taught me to appreciate and love.

Thanks for the incredible memores made and lessons learned.

I just had the best summer of my life, all because of you.

So thank you.

Brittan

Oh Happy Day

Mañana, vamos a la playa!  Would you like to know how happy I am about that little fact?  Look at the above picure.  You see everyones' smiles?  Times that by approximately 73 and that is how happy I am.  The ocean and the sand and the sun and the swim suit.  It's going to be fabulous.

But guess what.  My life gets even better.  Ya me voy el miércoles.  Would you like to know how happy I am about that?  Look at the picture below.  That is pretty much how happy I am.

I do love it here and I will miss everyone dearly as I have said about a thousand times.  But what I have not said a thousand times is that I miss my real family in Utah.  And in tres dias nada mas I get to see them and guess what.  No puedo esperar!

Dear Fam, you are so great and I miss you and I can't wait to see you!  Have a fabulous first half of the week, but don't get too comfortable because come second half and I will be joining you.  It's going to be awesome, I can tell you that.  Let's be the coolest family ever for the rest of our lives, deal?  Deal.

Love, Brittan

P.S.  Let's party like this the night I get home:

Because trust me, that's how we're gonna be feelin.  I am thrilled.

It's a Good Thing They Love Me

*See Scene 2...

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

8:30 p.m.

Scene:  Kitchen, television on, little boy sitting at the table, young woman standing about 5 feet away from table, and me.

My thoughts:  I'm going to eat cereal right now.

My actions:  Feet walking, eyes looking at cereal, hands swinging whichever way they feel.

Results:  I knock over a GIANT cup FULL of agua de betabel.  A.k.a. PURPLE JUICE.  It spills EVERYWHERE.  All over the floor.  All over the chair.  All over the table.  All over everything on the table, including little puzzle books, napkins, vitamins, boxes, papers, a ruler, a razor blade, etc.

The aftermath:  Young woman comes to the rescue, cleaning everything up for me, salvaging whatever possible, mopping the floor, and taking the blame when another little boy enters the scene, sees his little books ruined, and yells at her.  And when she finishes, she says to me, "Okay, you continue.  Get your cereal."

10:30 p.m.

Scene:  The great outdoors, young woman, young man, husband, wife, and me climbing into a convertible with the top down.

My thoughts:  It's funny how I always get to sit in front.  I guess now that everyone is in, I will get in, too.

My actions:  Close the door.

Results:  A little TINY grunt from the husband, followed by the young woman saying, "OPEN THE DOOR!"

The aftermath:  Husbands hand is basically crippled due to the fact that I completely shut the entire thing in the door and left it like that for about 5 entire seconds.  Twas obvious he was truly in pain, but he's such a good sport, and he didn't want me to feel bad, so he acted like it was nbd.  But it was.  I felt horrible.

10:37 p.m.

Scene:  A taco stand on the side of the street.  We've just arrived, and pulled up next to the curb.  Car is parked.

My thoughts:  I suppose it's time to get out, considering they just told me to bajate.

My actions:  Open the door.

Results:  Door hits curb in a relatively hard fassion.

Aftermath:  "Ay, Breetahn."  And then the young man says to me with a smile on his face (in Spanish of course), "Maybe you should just sit down and keep your hands to yourself so nothing bad happens."

And then they stuffed me with tacos and refresco and a partial cemita and a fried banana.

What will they ever do without me, that's all I have to say.

Terminé

Yesterday was my last day. Can you believe that?  I will never see these adorable kidlets ever ever again.

I'm sad.

I miss them already.

They were so cute in the final show.  You should have seen it.  I thought it was going to be a major failure, but everyone showed up in their adorable little costumes and remembered their lines and did everything right and you do not even know how happy I was about it all.  So happy.

And now it's over.

See you all in ONE tiny little week!

Adios Mexico

Well, peeps, my time here is rapidly coming to a close.  I decided to favor you all with a semi-deep post about my thoughts and feelings on this whole experience.

On Friday we teachers had our final party.  Our party to say goodbye to this Mexican life we have lived for the past four months.  I can't believe it's nearly over.  You have no idea how fast that went.  Anyway, at said party we played a game in which we answered some questions and then read the answers and tried to guess who answered the question with those words, ya get?  So how about in this post, I just answer those questions for all of you, in a more detailed and semi-thoughtful way, por supuesto.  Deal.

Question numero uno:  What will be your first meal back in the U.S.?

Answer:  While true, this was not actually number one, it was number five, I just want to answer it first, so here goes.  I think I want yogurt and granola about the second I land.  That is my favorite food on the planet.  In real life, I eat it at least once, sometimes twice, and occasionally three times a day.  Because, hello, it's freaking delicious, that's why.  And I have been deprived of this Heavenly dish for four months now.  I think it's time we be reintroduced.

But as far as actual meals go, I don't know.  I just want every breakfast food I can think of.  Pancakes, waffles, one-eyed-wallies, german pancakes, french toast.  Mmm.  Oh and peanut butter.  Another food I dearly miss.  And normal chips without chili.  And homemade pizza.  And strawberries.

Yep, those are the foods I will eat when I get home.

Question numero dos:  What made you most nervous about coming to Mexico?

Answer:  Illness, for sure.  I have a deathly fear of vomit in all its shapes, sizes, smells, colors, and glory.  I hate it.  "Never again," my 11 year old self promised me last time I threw up.  And guess what.  I have kept that promise.  But then I decided to move to Mexico (who does that?) and they told us at training, "Just plan on getting sick.  It happens to everyone."  I was like, "Great, my life is over, I'm not going, I refuse to barf."  And then I found myself in Mexico.  Remember that story?  How I went into the bathroom in the airport and the girl in the stall next to me was letting all her insides out?  So then I was like, "Great, they were right, I'm going to get sick."  And within two weeks of being here, half of our group had had their fair share.  A month ago the 11th of us 12 experienced Mexican vomit.  But guess what.  Here I am, ten days away from my house in Utah, and I have yet to share the love.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have experienced the Mexican stomach many a time these past few months.  But I have not let it come back up, and that is quite the feat.  If I do make it all the way home, you all owe me a million dollars because I. am. awesome.  The end of that.

Question numero tres:  What surprised you the most?

Answer:  Well, okay, listen to this.  I always kind of thought that in order to really grow and progress in life, you needed trials and hardship and blah, blah, you know?  And yes, I still think those things are very important and we do need them, but at the same time, I now see that you can grow a lot and learn a lot, even in the good times.  Because for me, Mexico has been a good time.  I might even venture to say the best time of my life, and I'm not exaggerating.  I feel no stress and I love everything I am doing.  But in all this non-stress I am feeling, I feel like I have grown and learned more than I ever have, you know? This is really hard for me to explain, especially via blog.

What I am trying to say is that I am surprised by how much I loved everything about this experience, how much I grew, how much I learned, and how much it changed my life.  I will never be the same ever again.

Question numero cuatro:  What is something you have learned?

Answer:  Okay, as mentioned above, I have learned so much it's really quite ridiculous to even ask, but since you did, here goes.  I will tell you two things I have learned.  One is that attitude is everything.  Everything.  Before I left for Mexico, I told myself I was going to love it.  I told myself that I was going to have to let go of a lot of things in order to enjoy myself.  I told myself I was going to be a successful teacher and I was going to leave feeling like this was all worth it.

Then I got here.  And there were definitely things I had to let go.  Remember the food?  On a daily basis I had to make myself forget how the food was prepared, where it came from, so on and so forth.  Remember the kids?  Everyday I wake up and say to myself, "Oh my gosh!  I am living in Mexico right now, teaching English to little Mexican kids!  This is the coolest thing ever!"  And when something happens that I don't like (like toilets with no seat), I just say to myself, "This is so Mexico!  I can't believe I actually get to live this life!"  And then I smile about it.  And then it's all good.  It doesn't take too long before everything you tell yourself is true.  I love teaching for real.  The food is delicious.  And the gross things?  I've seen worse.

The other thing I have learned here in Mexico is that I am an adult.  This is actually very significant.  I was not an adult when I got on the plane to come here, and I knew it.  I was close, but not quite.  However, a few weeks, maybe a month in to all this, and I could feel the difference.  I just knew that I was an adult.  And now I'm excited.  I can't wait to come home and see my Utah life from my adult perspective for the first time.  When I go home to see my fam, I won't be the child Brittan coming back like I was all last year.  I will be the adult Brittan, coming to visit like an adult child would.  I don't really know what it was that changed, but something did for sure, and the adult me has stepped out.  This is good news for all.   Prepare yourself.

Question numero cinco:  What will you miss the most when you leave?

Answer:  Oohhhh boy.  My family is definitely number one on the list of things to miss (yes I have a list, yes mangos, huevitos, and constant Spanish are on that list, and yes I will be returning to good old Tehuacan in the near future, for sure).  My family is the bomb.  They are so fun and so nice and generous and happy and just pure great to be around.  They are so relaxed about me doing my thing and I feel like everything is just so take-it-easy around here.  I have had some good laughs around these people.  They have taught me so much and given me so much, I could never repay them in any form.  I love that I just live here like another member of the fam.  I wake up when I feel like it and come downstairs when I feel like it and just chill on the couch when I want, or eat an apple if I so desire.  I put the silverware away every morning after I eat breakfast.  I just have a place in the fam, you know?  Me being there is never awkward, because I just belong.  I have a room.  I have a place at the table.  I love it because I really feel like I'm home.  I'm not a stranger or a temporary visitor; I am home.  That is what I will miss the most.

I will also miss my students.  They are so cute and so funny and I love going to class everyday to speak English with them.  We have had some great times together and I will miss seeing them everyday.  I hope their next teacher is good to them because they are awesome and they deserve the best.

And clearly I will miss the teachers.  As I have told you before, we have the best ILP group on the face of the planet.  No group before us has ever matched our awesomeness nor will any group after us.  That's just a fact of life.  All the teachers are so nice and genuine and fun to be around.  I feel comfortable around them and I love spending time with them.  It is so great that we all chose to come here at the same time to do the same thing, so that if nothing else, we made 11 new great friends that we can chill with when we get home.  And that's the great thing about it.  We can still be friends in the U.S. Our one month reunion is already planned and I am stoked.  Dirty Dash?  Meet Nacho and the Nuns.  Cannot wait, I tell you.

Thus, we've reached the end of the questionare.  Sorry my answers weren't crystal clear and magnificently worded.  It'll be easier to tell you all in person my feelings, but I just wanted to give you a sneak peak.

And just for fun, how about I give you a list of things I am most looking forward to when I return home NEXT WEEK!!!!!!

1.  Meckenzie.  You get to be number one here because you are that awesome.  You are so hilarious and I can't wait to talk to you in person.  Let's be best sisters for life AND beyond, deal?  Deal.
2.  The rest of the fam, clearly.  I just don't want to name everyone because that would take forever, okay?  No offense.
3.  Carpet.  I guarentee I will lay down on the carpet for at least 30 seconds the second I walk in the door.
4.  Blasting music in the car and singing my lungs out all the way home.
5.  Watching all the movies I want in ENGLISH.
6.  Cold milk.
7.  My black sandals.
8.  Free, semi-clean, and toilet paper-supplied public bathrooms.  Toilet seat included.
9.  Being barefoot in the front yard.
10.  CHURCH!  Oh how I've missed thee.  (Don't worry, I've been going to church here).
11.  My car.
12.  My phone.
13.  My piano.
14.  PB&J sandwiches on wheat.  Maybe that will be my first meal.
15.  Washing machine.  And dryer of course.
16.  Straight hair.
17.  Comfy bed.
18.  Snow cones.
19.  Running.
20.  Jewelry.

Okay, I think I will stop now.  FYI that list took me like two seconds to write.  I'm excited.  See you all in 10 days!

Peace out.

Ay Jorge

Jorge:  Breetahn, sabes decir tres mil in español?

Me:  Tres mil.

Jorge: (Smiles) Oh, si, cierto.

Te he.  That was funny.

Translation for those of you who only speak French {Meckenzie}...

Jorge:  Brittan, do you know how to say three thousand in Spanish?

Me:  Three thousand.

Jorge:  (Smiles)  Oh, ya, true.

You probably had to be there, but I found this little convo hilarious and I laugh just thinking about it.

Por Favorcito

If I come back a tiiiiiiiny bit chubbier.... don't judge.

I'll go on a diet or something.

So no te preocupes.

Just kidding.

Kind of.

Bahahahaha.

A Visual Tour

Paco, Abuelito, Eli's bf, and Eli
Abuelito's Birthday Fiesta.

Kira, Emily, Megan, Paige, and Me
Kickball for Christmas in July.

Jesús and Rico
Hotdogs SLAMMED with Salsa Valentina.
Dear Beca, Your addiction is normal.
All Mexican children are obsessed.

Elvira, Jorge, and Miguelito
On our way to play basketball.

Pomegranates and things.
El Mercado.

Evelia and Elvira
As we say around here:  Pueden casar.

Me and Rico
This is a daily routine.

Me, Roberto, and Evelia
The Wedding.

Back row:  Roberto, Chucho, Patty, Saúl, and Rene.
Front row:  Diego, Itzel, Sylvia, Alejandro, and Me.
Sylvia's Birthday Fiesta.

Miguelito and Pamela
Yesterday.

Welcome to My Life

Nydia, Me, Rico

WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?!?!?

Okay, I am so sorry.  I honestly didn't realize it's been over a week since I last posted!  I just checked and it said Sunday the 24th was my last post and I was like, "WHAT?!?  A WEEK HAS ALREADY GONE BY!  THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING TO ME!"

Because guess what.  I love love love it here and I truly, honestly, do not want to leave.

When I first got here to good old Mexico, there was a teacher from last semester who was still here, helping at another school or something.  She stayed at least a month longer before she went back home.  I remember thinking, "She is insane.  I can't believe she made it all the way to the end of the semester and decided to stay for a whole extra month.  I could never do that."

Well guess what people.  I am not exaggerating in the least when I say I could stay here for TWO more months and be so so happy.  I do not want to leave.

I love teaching, I love my family, I love Tehuacan.

And my Spanish is getting slightly better, which is awesome.  On Saturday a friend of Roberto's got married, so he took me, Elvira, and Evelia with him to the reception thing.  It was at this really nice place and there were these dudes serving us and guess what.  The server guy came up to us and since I was on the end, he asked me first what I wanted to drink and I totally understood and I answered, and he asked if I wanted ice and I said no and it was great.  Then later he was serving this soup stuff and he asked me to hold my plate up and I understood again and I did.  And later he was clearing off our plates so I gave him mine, but he told me to take my fork off and guess what.  I took it off.  So then I felt awesome because he probably thought I could speak Spanish since I answered all his questions and did everything he told me to.  It was great.  Oh ya then like 5 hours later he asked if I wanted anything and I said no.  Te he.

But ya, that wedding?  Wow.  You should really see these Mexican weddings.  They are so fun.  But as you can probably imagine, there is A LOT of dancing involved.  Like hours.  And as you know, I reeeaaaallllyyy can't dance.  My body just does not move and there is nothing I can do about it.  But it's fine because I have accepted that fact and I don't let it stop me.  So guess what I did.  I danced with Roberto.  Now keep in mind, Roberto was like born to dance.  He dances all the time, even just sitting there in the kitchen or something.  All the time.  So there I was at a Mexican wedding, dancing with a Mexican that was born to dance and he was trying to show me, but, uh, it was a failure.  So then he just made fun of me and all was well.  I got a cowboy had and like a hawaiian-ish hat and flip flops out of the experience.  And really, it was so fun.

We got home at 4:30 a.m. and then I was sitting in Sacrament at 8:00.  Two hours of sleep is what I ran on yesterday and I hardly even noticed.

So yesterday.  I went to a birthday party.  Do you realize how many birthday parties I have attended since being here?  Like seven thousand.  But really, there is one almost every week.  In fact, maybe there is one every week.  There was one on Tuesday, there was one yesterday, there is one next Sunday, wow.  But I love it.  The family is so cool!  We play games and talk and have fun and it's just great.  I taught everyone how to play Spoons so we played that forever yesterday and it was so fun!  And remember little Cesar?  He is too little to play by himself so he was just sitting there watching.  So I told Miguelito to trade me places and I was on Cesar's team.  He was so cute!  He would hold half the cards and I would tell him when to grab a cuchara and then he would smile so big and I would say, "Muy bien, Cesar!"  And he thought he was so awesome.  It was adorable.  And then he asked if he could shuffle.  So I gave him the deck and he said, "Mira, Breetahn."  And then he did the cutest attempt at shuffling I have ever seen and I told him he was awesome and both our days were made right there.

Then at like 7:30 me, Elvira, Roberto, Eli, and Eli's boyfriend went to this competition thing for these four girls who were turning 15 and that was quite the experience.  There was this man dressed as a woman hosting it and then like two more transvestite dudes performed for us.  Yaaaa.

But anyway, point is, it was fun and I feel like I am part of the fam and it's awesome.  At that competition thing, Elvira was standing on one side of Roberto and I was standing on the other and his arms were around us and he would say things in my ear since it was loud and I could understand!  And I didn't even have to read his lips.  He would just say something and I would answer and it was the coolest thing ever.  We rode in a taxi on the way home and this song in English came on (I can´t remember for the life of me what it was!) but anyway, we were all singing our hearts out.  Can you picture that?  Really.  I, Brittan, sat in the back of a taxi in Mexico last night in between my Mexican sister and my Mexican cousin and we were singing to the radio like there is no tomorrow.  Tell me that is not Heaven!

I could and would go on and on and on about how I am so in love with all of this, but for the greater good of everyone involved, I will now force myself to stop.

Entonces, peace out.

Oh, and to answer the commonly asked questions:
1.  I am coming home on August 17.  A major fiesta will ensue.  Just kidding.
2.  Sorry, but the souveniers for y'all are semi slash pretty much lame and already purchased and there´s nothing we can do about it.  I went on my last vacation like a month ago so that just adds to the fact that there is nothing we can do about it.  And I partially chose for it to be this way because I don´t want to stress out about getting everyone what they want and blah, blah, you know?  So sorry.  Don´t hate.

More ramblings:
1.  I have yet to vomit in this lovely country.  Yes I am the only teacher to accomplish this feat.  I just gotta hold out for 2 more weeks...
2.  Elvira and I beat the whole Crash Bandicoot 3 game on Saturday.  Guess who beat the final malo.  That´s right.  My childhood videogaming days are paying off.

Okay, for real I am stopping now.

But let me just say, when I get home, I can guarentee I won´t be able to force myself to stop talking about my Mexican life, so if you think you might tire of hearing about it, please kindly avoid me for like a month.  I won´t be offended.

You´ve been warned.

More Bits and Pieces of Mi Vida

Teaching:

I know, I know, from the videos it appears that all we ever do is play around.  Oh wait, that is all we do.

No, just kidding, we do legit learning every single day, but why would I film that?  Thus, you only get to see the fun.  This is 3 of 10 students from Megan's class.  (We rotate mid-class and teach another class for a half hour).

Aren't they adorable?

I may have forgotten to tell you, but they combined Brian's class with mine, so remember Nydia who I mentioned forever ago?  She's mine now!  We painted faces on Thursday.  It was great fun.

Eating:

This is called a Guanabana.

It's a fruit.

It's acutally green on the outside, but here it is already peeled.

It's slimy.

It has giant seeds.

It's really quite delicious.

It makes good agua tambien.

I don't remember what this next thing is called, but at the bottom right corner you can see it.  It's stuffed chili with stuff on the outside of it and it's a July food.  I also don't remember what that black stuff is at the top of the pick, but yes, that is black.  Probably the only real food I have ever seen that is suppsed to be that legitly black.  It was crazy.

Vacationing:

The fam and I went to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids on Friday.  Best day of my life.

Miguelito, Rosa, Miguel, Jorge, Breetahn

Me.  Estoy bolando.

Miguelito.

Me, Jorge, y Elvira jumping off the Pyramid of the Moon.

Speaking:

I have found words from both languages that you just need to use sometimes that don't exist in the language you are speaking.  For example:  Just kidding.  That doesn't exist in Spanish.  I mean, ya, they say, "Es una broma," which means it's a joke, but that is not the same, trust me.  Sometimes you just need to say just kidding and you can't.  And from Spanish?  Grosero.  When someone does something that is disrespectful, like hit a girl, fart, flip you off, kick you in the knee, ignore you, etc., that is called a grosero.  And if you're a girl, it's a grosera.  And if it's a bad word coming out of your mouth then it's a groseria.  I seriously think I'm going to use that word from now on, even at home, because it makes so much sense!  Like yesterday, I was trying to explain to Miguelito the difference between "Excuse you" and "Excuse me" because he kept saying "Excuse you" to me, even though he knew it was wrong.  He was just trying to tease me because I would always be like, "It's excuse me!"  So then I explained that to say, "Excuse you" is una groceria of sorts because it's rude, you know?  It's hard to explain via blog, but suffice it to say, every language has it's missing words/phrases.

But here are some that are not missing from the Spanish language:

Ojo por un ojo, diente por un diente (Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth).
Buen punto (Good point).
Piensa rapido (Think fast).

Also, we love making words small around here, just for fun.  Like, cochecito, perrito, grocerito, Breetahnita, graciasita, etcita.


La Familia:

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this yet, but we have been playing basketball and soccer like non other lately and it is soooooo fun.  Next time I swear I will bring my camera and take pictures for you.  We run around and play hard and sweat and hurt and just have a blast.  And then we come home and eat cereal.  Boo yes.

So here's just a pic of us at la casa de los abuelitos.

Me, Itzel, Alejandro, Diego behind Alejandro, Jorge, Miguel, Abuelito, Moises, y Cesar.
And yes, I finally figured out how to spell his name:  Cesar.

Emperor's New Groove:

You know the part where the two niños are in their bunk bed arguing and they say, "Yahuuuuuu...yahuh nuh uh ya huh nuh uh ya huh nuh uh, 'night mom, ya huh nuh uh ya huh nuh uh..."  Well we quote that on a daily basis.  Te he.


The Wedding:

This is Elvira y yo in the dresses Evelia made for us, at the wedding last week.  I know you can't really see the dresses, but whatev.

And then we have Miguel drinking the wine.

The Weather:


It's perfect.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  I know, Heaven, right?  Exactly what I was thinking.

Random Pic of the Day:

Roberto y yo drinking a giant coconut.

Peace out.

Kinder

I love teaching.  I don't even know why.  Really, why??!!!?  I'm so confused!  How can I possibly love it this much?!

First of all, Elementary.  You all know that I teach Elementary because I've told you like seven times and I've introduced you to all my students at least once or twice.  I love elementary with all my heart.  The kids are SO funny!  They are so cute and so smart and they freaking rock at English.  We get to learn real grammar which I love and play actual games and tell actual stories and we all understand each other because we are all speaking English.  Plus they say the funniest things.

I know I always tell you what Rico says, but that's just because he is always cracking me up, so here is what he said last week.  Someone stole his pencil or something so he started shouting, "Robber!  Robber!  Robber with... a R.... big!"  You know, like capital R.  Haaaaa.  Also, like a month ago I taught them about slang words and I told them that sometimes kids use the word "sick" to mean cool.  Rico has really taken that to heart and just yesterday he came and sat on my lap and said, "Teacher, you are very sick."  I about died of laughter.  And his accent makes it even ten times funnier.

Anyway, I love them and I always have a fabulous time with them.  But then it turned to the Summer session as I told you in a previous post.  Let me tell you what exactly that means.  First of all, it doesn't affect the evening session.  The morning, however, is totally different.  We now teach every other morning from 10 to 12 and it's mostly kids who weren't taking ILP earlier in the semester.  Some of them know a lot of English and some of them know nothing.

So before it all started, we really didn't know what to expect.  We didn't know who would show up, how much English they would know, how old they would be, nothing.  So we told Kelly what we would prefer to teach, if possible.  As you could probably guess, I told her I prefer Elementary.  Because they are so fun!  And I didn't want to have to learn how to teach something else and I thought it would be hard when they don't speak English and blah blah blah.  We all have our reasons, but whatev.

In the end, I was assigned to Kinder.  A.k.a. the kids who stare at you when you ask them their name.  A.k.a. the kids who only say, "Blue" when you say, "What is this?"

So I was nervous.  I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know how to plan my lessons, I didn't know what to ask the kids, I could hardly remember their names after I forced it out of them.  Last week was week one of all this and it was crazy.  We didn't know how to separate the kids, we didn't even know how to separate the teachers, we just didn't know what was going on, but we had to pretend like we did, because all these kids were showing up everyday to learn English.  So we took that week to get everything figured out, and then this week came.  Week two.  And guess what.

I LOVE KINDER!  I seriously can't get over how fun they are!  I didn't teach on Monday or Tuesday morning, so yesterday was my first time, and oh my gosh.  When those two hours were up, I could not stop smiling.  I kept talking and talking to Kira and Timber about how awesome it was and how much I loved it to death and I honestly had this permanent smile on my face.  I couldn't wait to come back the next day (today) to teach them again.

And guess what.  This morning?  Just as fun!  The little Kinder kids are just adorable because they are so little and they have these big eyes and they think everything you do is amazing and if you act really excited, they will be really excited, so it's just a big ball of excitement and learning and it is sooooo fun.  But if you think the little Kinder kids are fun, try the older ones.  They are my favorite.  They are like 10 and 11 years old (same as my Elementary students), but they don't speak any English.  They try so hard and they have such good attitudes and they are so fun.  It's weird because I feel like I can still talk to them like they are older, even though they don't really know English, you know?  So they are like Elementary in their matureness, which I love, but they don't know any English, so they are fascinated by everything we do and they smile all the time and I love love love it.

And another thing absolutely fascinating about teaching Kinder is that you can totally see their progress. Last week when they came and didn't know anything, we would say to them, "Who wants a pencil?"  And they would stare at us.  So we taught them to say, "I want a pencil!"  And after a couple days we would say, "Who wants a crayon?"  And they would say, "Who wants a crayon?"  So we taught them again to say, "I want a crayon!"  And today, I said, "Who wants to feel it?"  And I didn't even have to tell them, they just said, "I want to feel it!"  It's crazy!  This program totally works.

So after two hours of ridiculously fun English learning, they all file out of your classroom with their arms folded, smiling, and saying, "Bye, Teacher!"

If this is not Heaven, I don't know what is.

Teasers

So here's what my mother said about my last post (not in these exact words), "I liked it.  You gave lots of info is a small space.  Maybe you should do that whole numbers thing with your vacation.  Just give us little teasers and then you can give us all the details when you get home.  Then you won't forget."

Isn't she brilliant?  That's why I call her my mom.  Aside from the obvious reasons.

Thus, your post of vaca teasers...

1.  Leave Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m.  Final destination?  Taxco, a.k.a. Heaven.  Jesus even guards this place.

2.  Visit our temporary home.  Yes it was a monastery.  Yes there were legitmate nuns.  Yes they make candles and granola and play basketball and pray and wear aprons and things on their heads at all times.  Yes they were freaking hilarious.  Do I want to be a nun when I grow up?  I think YES.

3.  Shop, eat ice cream, get drenched by a thunderstorm, visit Jesus himself, sleep in the softest bed of my Mexican life, eat the best breakfast of my Mexican life, talk to the coolest nuns of my ENTIRE life, visit the biggest caves on the planet, etc.

4.  You know the saying, "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite?"  Well someone should have said that to us before we went to sleep.  Because bite they did.

5.  Learn that it is really quite creepy how much English everyone knows in these touristy towns.  I don't like it.

6.  Ride on every level of a combie possible, front, middle, trunk, you name it, I sat there.

6.5.  Speaking of combies, one evening the driver was playing a bunch of American music so we sang our hearts out and guess what.  All the other passengers loved us.  They loved us so much in fact, that when our time came to exit at the bottom of the monastery street, they kindly asked the driver to take us all the way up.  AWESOME.

7.  El Rollo?  Best water park on the planet?  Again, I think yes.

8.  What?  More ice cream?  Best food on the planet?  Is that even a question?!

9.  People like to make out on buses.  FYI.  I mean, I thought the sidewalks were public enough, but to have a front row view to the sights and sounds.... te he.  That was fun.

10.  Awesome markets full of awesome souveniers and great memories.

11.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?  Best church ever?  I KNOW yes.

12.  ENDLESS jokes about nuns.  Thank you, Brian.

13.  ENDLESS jokes about colors.  Remember those?

14.  And finally, a bunch of random pics, definitely not in order, but still enjoyable, if I do say so myself.

After this bottom pic was taken, I was walking away and I heard that, "Tch, tch" sound that people do around here to get your attention.  So I turned around and there was a guy standing there with a camera wanting a picture of me "for the press."  So I gave him one.  Baha.

So.  Best vacation ever?  Yes, my friends.  Best vacation ever.