Monday, April 17, 2006
Vacation preparation = inability to work well
Here is the entry from the week before my spring vacation, so these few entries are all out of chronological order. Sorry about that!
This week in tequila country: A week with Lea in exciting Arandas; a weekend in Guadalajara with Julia; preparations for Julia’s grand finale in Mexico.
For a week I didn’t teach any afternoon classes. What joy! Lea arrived Tuesday night. Without afternoon classes, we ate out and walked around town the next day. I made Lea watch my show “La fea” with me, but I’m not sure she enjoyed it as much as I did. One night we went to play pool, drink micheladas, and eat popcorn at the cinema. Hadn’t done that in a while, and it was fun. Thursday Lea came to my school and got bombarded with questions from the third-graders. Not that they know how to ask any questions in English; I had to write them on the board and then they would read it to Lea. They were all very amused that she is a high-school Chinese teacher. They asked us to speak Chinese to each other, so we did a little. Then they started pulling slanty eyes with their fingers and pretending to speak Chinese too. Lea was alarmed, but I am used to this. Even the principal did the slanty-eye thing to me once. What do you say? To the kids, I can say, “Hey, that’s not very nice. Don’t do that. How would you like it if I started going around saying ‘Look, I’m Mexican!’ and doing a little Mexican hat dance?” (My second-graders actually laughed when I did that.) But what do you say to adults when they do it?
This week in tequila country: A week with Lea in exciting Arandas; a weekend in Guadalajara with Julia; preparations for Julia’s grand finale in Mexico.
For a week I didn’t teach any afternoon classes. What joy! Lea arrived Tuesday night. Without afternoon classes, we ate out and walked around town the next day. I made Lea watch my show “La fea” with me, but I’m not sure she enjoyed it as much as I did. One night we went to play pool, drink micheladas, and eat popcorn at the cinema. Hadn’t done that in a while, and it was fun. Thursday Lea came to my school and got bombarded with questions from the third-graders. Not that they know how to ask any questions in English; I had to write them on the board and then they would read it to Lea. They were all very amused that she is a high-school Chinese teacher. They asked us to speak Chinese to each other, so we did a little. Then they started pulling slanty eyes with their fingers and pretending to speak Chinese too. Lea was alarmed, but I am used to this. Even the principal did the slanty-eye thing to me once. What do you say? To the kids, I can say, “Hey, that’s not very nice. Don’t do that. How would you like it if I started going around saying ‘Look, I’m Mexican!’ and doing a little Mexican hat dance?” (My second-graders actually laughed when I did that.) But what do you say to adults when they do it?
Thursday night Lea and I stayed up talking till about 3 a.m. It was nice to sit and talk again like we used to, so we didn’t follow our common sense about getting enough sleep. Then Lea left early in the morning to get back to Guadalajara to catch her flight home.
Last weekend, after Lea’s departure, I wasn’t going to go to Guadalajara, but in the end it was just more fun to go. Friday night we went out with Amanda and some of her friends to a club. It was in a mall, and it had a Buddha-Thai kind of theme. It was kind of lame, but what was good about it was that we got in free and had free drinks from the open bar till midnight. We couldn’t stay long, though, because the music was just too loud. It was kind of a pity, because they were playing all kinds of music videos, including one of Soda Stereo.
Saturday we went shopping, but this time not in the malls. We went to the market downtown, where we bought the sparkly belts that are so popular here, and metallic bags, too. I also ended up with a pirated CD of the soundtrack to “La fea,” because Julia convinced me that I would want it for souvenir purposes. We have now ended up knowing more of the words to the show’s songs and singing them at random times.
That evening we went to the Chivas game, the last one Julia and I will attend together this season, and also the last one in Estadio Jalisco with the full Chivas team this season, because soon the best players will be gone to play for the national team in the World Cup. The Chivas scored their first goal against Pachuca within the first couple of minutes, and soon after followed another goal, both by the star player Omar Bravo. It seemed a sure thing, and Julia even complained that it’d be more exciting if Pachuca would play better. Then it did start getting more exciting, because Pachuca began playing better and the Chivas weren’t playing well at all. Pachuca went on to score two goals, leaving the game tied. They might have scored many more if it weren’t for the best goalie ever, Oswaldo Sánchez. Finally, during the last few minutes of penalty time, the Chivas scored the winning goal (a penas, which means something like “with great difficulty”). A very exciting game in the end, and we got our fix of beer and potato chips with chili sauce and lime.
I guess I am turning into a real fanatic, because I felt it necessary to name the favorite players on the team. Many of you will find that pretty boring, so I apologize.
Sunday morning Amanda, Julia, and I went to the University of Guadalajara ballet folklórico show. It was good to pay for the cheapest seats possible and then get moved down to the floor with better seats because there weren’t a lot of people. The dancing was fun to watch, but the singing was pretty awful. Amanda and I kept rolling our eyes and giggling whenever the tuba was off or somebody’s voice couldn’t quite reach the correct note. I call it authentic tuning.
This week was the last week of school before Holy Week, Semana Santa, which means two weeks of vacation. I felt so lazy I could hardly teach. Lucky for me, I had to come to Guadalajara early to deal with my visa situation.
I left Arandas Wednesday evening so I could be here this morning to go to the migration office. The man who is in charge of helping me (he’s an employee of the brother of the owner of the school—see how things work here?) picked me up early this morning at the posada, and we went to fill out several more forms and pay several more fees before actually going to the office to submit the application. Now this is not the application for the work visa—this is an application for a reentry permit so that I can leave and enter Mexico next week when I go to Columbus. I was told that my work visa cannot go through without the originals and notarized copies of my degree certificates from college and grad school. I didn’t understand this at all—what would I need those for? Apparently, someone told us that my certificate from the TEFL course in Guadalajara wouldn’t be sufficient. So I was supposed to go back to the States and bring back my originals and notarize some copies.
However, once there, we asked them whether my TEFL certificate would work for my work visa application, and they said that it would, but that we had to get a Spanish translation of the certificate. Unfortunately, I had left the Spanish version at home in Arandas, since I had been told that that certificate wouldn’t work. We went to the TEFL school to ask for a Spanish translation. They scolded me for forgetting the Spanish version at home and refused to help by doing a simple translation of it for us. This was when my visa helper suggested going back to Arandas to get the Spanish version of my certificate. So off we went, more than a one-and-a-half hour ride each way, worrying at the traffic jams through construction. We got my certificate and came back just in time to pick up my reentry permit and to turn in my certificate copies. Now I probably don’t have to notarize anything back home, for which I am grateful. But what a HUGE mess!
Anyway, now it is Julia’s last night in Guadalajara. We’re beat, though, so we’re not exactly in the celebrating mood. But we just watched “La fea,” and today’s show was very satisfying. Don Fernando thinks Lety has a boyfriend and is exhibiting a lot of jealousy. It’s very cute. Julia and I laughed a lot. Now she is napping (or trying to nap) while I type my blog, because I am now a blog-entry-writing addict. Soon I won’t have time to be blog-writing because we will be traveling a lot. Julia and I are going to Chiapas! We will spend some time in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and also visit the Mayan ruins at Palenque. We’re flying to Chiapas from Mexico City, but everything else will be by bus. Therefore, I have the Dramamine ready—rest assured.
Last weekend, after Lea’s departure, I wasn’t going to go to Guadalajara, but in the end it was just more fun to go. Friday night we went out with Amanda and some of her friends to a club. It was in a mall, and it had a Buddha-Thai kind of theme. It was kind of lame, but what was good about it was that we got in free and had free drinks from the open bar till midnight. We couldn’t stay long, though, because the music was just too loud. It was kind of a pity, because they were playing all kinds of music videos, including one of Soda Stereo.
Saturday we went shopping, but this time not in the malls. We went to the market downtown, where we bought the sparkly belts that are so popular here, and metallic bags, too. I also ended up with a pirated CD of the soundtrack to “La fea,” because Julia convinced me that I would want it for souvenir purposes. We have now ended up knowing more of the words to the show’s songs and singing them at random times.
That evening we went to the Chivas game, the last one Julia and I will attend together this season, and also the last one in Estadio Jalisco with the full Chivas team this season, because soon the best players will be gone to play for the national team in the World Cup. The Chivas scored their first goal against Pachuca within the first couple of minutes, and soon after followed another goal, both by the star player Omar Bravo. It seemed a sure thing, and Julia even complained that it’d be more exciting if Pachuca would play better. Then it did start getting more exciting, because Pachuca began playing better and the Chivas weren’t playing well at all. Pachuca went on to score two goals, leaving the game tied. They might have scored many more if it weren’t for the best goalie ever, Oswaldo Sánchez. Finally, during the last few minutes of penalty time, the Chivas scored the winning goal (a penas, which means something like “with great difficulty”). A very exciting game in the end, and we got our fix of beer and potato chips with chili sauce and lime.
I guess I am turning into a real fanatic, because I felt it necessary to name the favorite players on the team. Many of you will find that pretty boring, so I apologize.
Sunday morning Amanda, Julia, and I went to the University of Guadalajara ballet folklórico show. It was good to pay for the cheapest seats possible and then get moved down to the floor with better seats because there weren’t a lot of people. The dancing was fun to watch, but the singing was pretty awful. Amanda and I kept rolling our eyes and giggling whenever the tuba was off or somebody’s voice couldn’t quite reach the correct note. I call it authentic tuning.
This week was the last week of school before Holy Week, Semana Santa, which means two weeks of vacation. I felt so lazy I could hardly teach. Lucky for me, I had to come to Guadalajara early to deal with my visa situation.
I left Arandas Wednesday evening so I could be here this morning to go to the migration office. The man who is in charge of helping me (he’s an employee of the brother of the owner of the school—see how things work here?) picked me up early this morning at the posada, and we went to fill out several more forms and pay several more fees before actually going to the office to submit the application. Now this is not the application for the work visa—this is an application for a reentry permit so that I can leave and enter Mexico next week when I go to Columbus. I was told that my work visa cannot go through without the originals and notarized copies of my degree certificates from college and grad school. I didn’t understand this at all—what would I need those for? Apparently, someone told us that my certificate from the TEFL course in Guadalajara wouldn’t be sufficient. So I was supposed to go back to the States and bring back my originals and notarize some copies.
However, once there, we asked them whether my TEFL certificate would work for my work visa application, and they said that it would, but that we had to get a Spanish translation of the certificate. Unfortunately, I had left the Spanish version at home in Arandas, since I had been told that that certificate wouldn’t work. We went to the TEFL school to ask for a Spanish translation. They scolded me for forgetting the Spanish version at home and refused to help by doing a simple translation of it for us. This was when my visa helper suggested going back to Arandas to get the Spanish version of my certificate. So off we went, more than a one-and-a-half hour ride each way, worrying at the traffic jams through construction. We got my certificate and came back just in time to pick up my reentry permit and to turn in my certificate copies. Now I probably don’t have to notarize anything back home, for which I am grateful. But what a HUGE mess!
Anyway, now it is Julia’s last night in Guadalajara. We’re beat, though, so we’re not exactly in the celebrating mood. But we just watched “La fea,” and today’s show was very satisfying. Don Fernando thinks Lety has a boyfriend and is exhibiting a lot of jealousy. It’s very cute. Julia and I laughed a lot. Now she is napping (or trying to nap) while I type my blog, because I am now a blog-entry-writing addict. Soon I won’t have time to be blog-writing because we will be traveling a lot. Julia and I are going to Chiapas! We will spend some time in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and also visit the Mayan ruins at Palenque. We’re flying to Chiapas from Mexico City, but everything else will be by bus. Therefore, I have the Dramamine ready—rest assured.
