The Apartment

Front View

Just a few words about our humble abode. There are five of us staying in the teacher’s apartment this semester, which is located right downtown just 2 blocks from the main plaza. We’re located between a night club and a church so when the music stops blaring at 4 am on Saturday we have until 8 am when the church hymns start blasting on their amplifier. So, not much sleep expected on the weekends, but the location is great for getting errands done in the afternoons and for walking back and forth to school, which is about 20 minutes away. 

Laundry-line next to the kitchen.

Some definite pluses here include consistent electricity, (mostly) drinkable tap water, and a boiler for hot showers.  On the other hand we’re pretty much doing laundry by hand and we’re vulnerable to all manner of pest invasions since there are so many open spaces for crawling inside. We’re not infested by any means, but waking up at 6 am to find a cockroach in your kitchen is never pleasant.

By far my favorite part of our apartment is our rooftop. Even though our building is only 4 stories tall, it feels like one of the tallest buildings in town. You can see over the town to the hills surrounding us and get a feel for the valley we’re centered in. A great place for a lunchtime nap, a good book, and a nightcap.

Things I learned this week:

1.       Gutters are a luxury

2.       Toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet

3.       If there’s a river 8-inches deep running down the street, school isn’t cancelled

4.       Always bring a towel

5.       4-months is a long time to wait for good beer

Upon arrival it was all too clear that things in Mexico are a little less organized and much more relaxed . . .

Oh, are you missing a key part of your curriculum for Monday? Don’t worry – I’m sure we’ll have it in a week or two.

Oh no, you’ve locked the door to that classroom and we seem to have lost the key. Don’t worry – I’ll have my husband climb onto the roof and through the window.

Main School Building

On the first day of class the new supervisor and her husband decided to skip town without saying a word. Strange since they had several years of experience in Poland in China, but I guess that Mexico just wasn’t what they expected. It’s taken a while for things to be re-worked, but I think everyone finally has all of their extra classes in place. Right now I’m teaching 27 hours a week and prepping for 2 different levels of students. My first class starts at 8 in the morning and my last class ends at 9 pm. Even with a 4-hour lunch break my day doesn’t seem nearly long enough to get ready for the following day.

Fortunately my classes are quite small. My fifth grade class only has 7 and my biggest class, adults at the end of the day, can get as big as twelve when everyone decides to show up. Compared to when I was in grade school this seems tiny, but the sizes of our classrooms here couldn’t really handle more students. I usually have to borrow a chair or two if someone wanders in late.

As a whole I’m really enjoying teaching here. 4/5 of my classes are sheer joy and the 5^th is just going to take some behavior management skills to make my rowdy 6^th graders settle down. It’s so strange teaching children since my behavior management skills have been mostly confined to adults up until now, but in the long run I’m sure this will make me a better teacher. If anyone has any suggestions to keep these kids interested or get them in line please let me know.

Things I learned this week:

1.       The mud is always deeper than it looks.

2.       When you step on a cockroach, make sure it doesn’t pop.

3.       Recycling doesn’t exist in Mexico.

4.       No one is immune from Montezuma’s Revenge.

5.       Medicine in Mexico does not come with instructions or warnings. 

One of the four classrooms we share.

Staff Lounge/Technology Center

Why on Earth are you going to Mexico?

Nothing will burn you out faster than Corporate America. Need I say more? Instead of doing the logical thing and switching jobs or going back to school I decided to run away to teach English around the world. I’ve always been interested in exploring Central and South America so when I was offered a 4-month contract in Mexico I jumped on the chance to explore. The town I am living in is called  Tehuacan  and is about 3 hours Southeast of Mexico City and 2 hours West of the Gulf Coast. The population is just under 250,000 and the elevation here is about 5200 feet. Weather here is temperate and the people are all friendly so I feel like I’ve been pretty luck so far.

Getting started on this grand adventure was an adventure all on its own. Apparently there's a new rule about 45-min check-in time that I missed since my dear  friend Paulina and I were trying to find a second suitcase for me (new charge for over 50 lbs is $200 per flight that I discovered at 4 am that morning - so I was desperate). I wouldn't have made it anyways since the security line was about an hour and a half long. Apparently that day there were some cancelled flights in addition to back to school traffic so people were missing their flights before they even cleared security and were being sent back to the check-in counters. In the end it all worked out and I was placed on standby for my flights, which I made. It just pushed things back so I arrived in Tehuacan at 2 am.