Monday, July 03, 2006
School’s out
It’s been raining all afternoon, which is rather unusual, as it tends to rain at night here. When I walked out of the school today the rain had stopped for a while, and the smell of rain here is different. The rain reveals Arandas for what it really is—a big ranch. It smells like wet hay and horse doo-doo.
It rains in my bathroom because there is a hole in the plastic covering the bathroom vent.
Today was the last day of school for the kids. I was busy last night making little cards for all the students and taping candy to them. We had the public class for the primary grades together today, and my English section with them ran really long. I thought it would be cool to show the parents that they can now communicate in English, at least a little. I pretended to call them on the phone, and they were all in a house in different rooms, and I would ask for someone but they would tell me that he or she was busy, and I would ask “Where is So-and-so?” and “What is So-and-so doing?” They don’t answer in complete sentences, and they haven’t mastered the questioning themselves at all, but at least they are communicating! It went long, though, because all of the students wanted to do it, so I had all 30 of them do it and it took a long time. Then we did the Hokey Pokey, which they really enjoyed. I remember enjoying it when I was a kid, especially at the roller-skating rink, but now I think it’s kind of boring, doing the same thing over and over again. I guess I have a lot to learn about child psychology or something.
I am getting more and more excited to study education. The idea of learning about child psychology is very appealing right now, because I’ve discovered I don’t understand kids well at all. And today after the public class, we were working on stuff for the school, and I was reviewing the English science books that came today, to see if next year the students can have an hour of science in English everyday. The books are really cool; I love the sections on animals and plants, with all the photos. It made me so excited to teach science to kids in elementary school. I remembered teaching a kindergarten class I had in Taiwan about water cycles, and they were about six years old but they were using words like “condensation” and “evaporation” and it made me laugh out loud. One reason to become an elementary school teacher is to enjoy all school subjects, because I love them all! (What a nerd.)
Some of the kids asked me today if I am coming back for the next school year. I said no, I’m going back to the States to study education. And some of them and their parents kept asking me to stay. It made me feel good, that they think their kids learn English with me (little do they know, haha). I guess the school year is ending on a good note.
It’s funny, because to many people it’s not a good enough excuse that I want to go back to the U.S. and study for a master’s and eventually to teach there. A lot of them think I am going back to be with my “boyfriend,” so they tell me that they can help him find a job here in a tequila distillery or that I should just get a boyfriend in Arandas (what’s the matter, haven’t you found any cute ones here?). One of the teachers has a relative working for Seagram’s and said he could get a job there. I just chuckle and don’t get into anything complicated.
Yesterday was Election Day here. They still don’t know who has won the presidency, because it’s so close, and they won’t have all the results till Wednesday. It’s between the leftist PRD candidate López Obrador (the current mayor of Mexico City) and the right-wing PAN candidate Felipe Calderón. Everyone at the school today was worrying who’d won the mayoral race in Arandas, whether it was their candidate from the PRI (the old party that was in power for several years before losing seats to other parties) or the PAN guy. It was also very close, with a difference of about 200 votes. I am guessing that maybe you can tell the demographics of Arandas from the parties that are more powerful here. The labor party PRD is not very strong. It may have to do with the low to nonexistent indigenous (or even mestizo) population in this area, but I’m just speculating.
Spent the weekend cooped up again, cleaning, reading, goofing around on the internet, only going out to drop off a roll of film and going back a couple times to try to pick up the prints. It’s the only roll of film I’ve used here in Mexico, and it’s mostly of Palenque’s Mayan ruins. It’s just not that convenient anymore to use real film; everyone else has digital cameras, so I let them do the picture taking and try to get them to send me the pictures over the internet. But also I just hate looking like a tourist, and you know people are sitting there saying, “Look at that Japanese tourist; they’re always taking pictures of everything.” (This is not helped by the fact that another Asian American in my course in Guadalajara did take pictures of everything, annoying everyone on the course. Maybe I’m just proving that I myself am the one with stereotyping problems, but anyway I’m mainly just lazy.)
I’m glad that classes are over. Maybe my health will improve with less stress. Maybe I will sleep better at night, now that I won’t have thoughts about the next days’ lessons running through my head at night. I’ll have my afternoon class, but that’s no big deal at all. I’ll still have to worry about selling all my stuff, but I think most of it has been spoken for.
The transition is feeling a little weird. On the one hand, I can’t wait to get out of here, because the truth is that I’m bored. I can’t wait to get back to Columbus where I can go out dancing with friends on the weekends and hang out at the pool with Tricia and help her paint her kitchen or whatever—to be around friends again. I’d also like to be able to eat lots of food and use tap water without worrying about whether it will make me sick with parasites again. At the same time, I’m probably going to have a hard time readjusting to living in a house with three or four other housemates—I’m going to miss the freedom and solitude that I’ve enjoyed for months. I’m going to have to face allergy problems, what with the cats and Ohio’s insane vegetation. And I’m going to miss the food a lot, of course (even if I do worry about it making me sick).
“You’re going to miss us,” everyone tells me. Yes, it’s true. I’ve gotten along well with most of the teachers in the school; they’re great people, and I will truly miss them. And I’ll miss the kids, too. I’ll even miss worrying about how to get them to learn some tiny bit of English. But it is definitely time to move on to bigger and better things.
It rains in my bathroom because there is a hole in the plastic covering the bathroom vent.
Today was the last day of school for the kids. I was busy last night making little cards for all the students and taping candy to them. We had the public class for the primary grades together today, and my English section with them ran really long. I thought it would be cool to show the parents that they can now communicate in English, at least a little. I pretended to call them on the phone, and they were all in a house in different rooms, and I would ask for someone but they would tell me that he or she was busy, and I would ask “Where is So-and-so?” and “What is So-and-so doing?” They don’t answer in complete sentences, and they haven’t mastered the questioning themselves at all, but at least they are communicating! It went long, though, because all of the students wanted to do it, so I had all 30 of them do it and it took a long time. Then we did the Hokey Pokey, which they really enjoyed. I remember enjoying it when I was a kid, especially at the roller-skating rink, but now I think it’s kind of boring, doing the same thing over and over again. I guess I have a lot to learn about child psychology or something.
I am getting more and more excited to study education. The idea of learning about child psychology is very appealing right now, because I’ve discovered I don’t understand kids well at all. And today after the public class, we were working on stuff for the school, and I was reviewing the English science books that came today, to see if next year the students can have an hour of science in English everyday. The books are really cool; I love the sections on animals and plants, with all the photos. It made me so excited to teach science to kids in elementary school. I remembered teaching a kindergarten class I had in Taiwan about water cycles, and they were about six years old but they were using words like “condensation” and “evaporation” and it made me laugh out loud. One reason to become an elementary school teacher is to enjoy all school subjects, because I love them all! (What a nerd.)
Some of the kids asked me today if I am coming back for the next school year. I said no, I’m going back to the States to study education. And some of them and their parents kept asking me to stay. It made me feel good, that they think their kids learn English with me (little do they know, haha). I guess the school year is ending on a good note.
It’s funny, because to many people it’s not a good enough excuse that I want to go back to the U.S. and study for a master’s and eventually to teach there. A lot of them think I am going back to be with my “boyfriend,” so they tell me that they can help him find a job here in a tequila distillery or that I should just get a boyfriend in Arandas (what’s the matter, haven’t you found any cute ones here?). One of the teachers has a relative working for Seagram’s and said he could get a job there. I just chuckle and don’t get into anything complicated.
Yesterday was Election Day here. They still don’t know who has won the presidency, because it’s so close, and they won’t have all the results till Wednesday. It’s between the leftist PRD candidate López Obrador (the current mayor of Mexico City) and the right-wing PAN candidate Felipe Calderón. Everyone at the school today was worrying who’d won the mayoral race in Arandas, whether it was their candidate from the PRI (the old party that was in power for several years before losing seats to other parties) or the PAN guy. It was also very close, with a difference of about 200 votes. I am guessing that maybe you can tell the demographics of Arandas from the parties that are more powerful here. The labor party PRD is not very strong. It may have to do with the low to nonexistent indigenous (or even mestizo) population in this area, but I’m just speculating.
Spent the weekend cooped up again, cleaning, reading, goofing around on the internet, only going out to drop off a roll of film and going back a couple times to try to pick up the prints. It’s the only roll of film I’ve used here in Mexico, and it’s mostly of Palenque’s Mayan ruins. It’s just not that convenient anymore to use real film; everyone else has digital cameras, so I let them do the picture taking and try to get them to send me the pictures over the internet. But also I just hate looking like a tourist, and you know people are sitting there saying, “Look at that Japanese tourist; they’re always taking pictures of everything.” (This is not helped by the fact that another Asian American in my course in Guadalajara did take pictures of everything, annoying everyone on the course. Maybe I’m just proving that I myself am the one with stereotyping problems, but anyway I’m mainly just lazy.)
I’m glad that classes are over. Maybe my health will improve with less stress. Maybe I will sleep better at night, now that I won’t have thoughts about the next days’ lessons running through my head at night. I’ll have my afternoon class, but that’s no big deal at all. I’ll still have to worry about selling all my stuff, but I think most of it has been spoken for.
The transition is feeling a little weird. On the one hand, I can’t wait to get out of here, because the truth is that I’m bored. I can’t wait to get back to Columbus where I can go out dancing with friends on the weekends and hang out at the pool with Tricia and help her paint her kitchen or whatever—to be around friends again. I’d also like to be able to eat lots of food and use tap water without worrying about whether it will make me sick with parasites again. At the same time, I’m probably going to have a hard time readjusting to living in a house with three or four other housemates—I’m going to miss the freedom and solitude that I’ve enjoyed for months. I’m going to have to face allergy problems, what with the cats and Ohio’s insane vegetation. And I’m going to miss the food a lot, of course (even if I do worry about it making me sick).
“You’re going to miss us,” everyone tells me. Yes, it’s true. I’ve gotten along well with most of the teachers in the school; they’re great people, and I will truly miss them. And I’ll miss the kids, too. I’ll even miss worrying about how to get them to learn some tiny bit of English. But it is definitely time to move on to bigger and better things.
