Thursday, July 06, 2006
Wrapping up
Tomorrow is the clausura at the school, meaning the closing ceremony or something like that. This also means a few hours of, excuse my language, pendejadas. I’m not going to translate that, just so you get the idea of what I think of the school. We’re going to give awards and the report cards to the kids, and of course this requires a flag ceremony (for which the kids have been rehearsing all week). The whole event will take two hours for each the kindergarten and the elementary school.
Today I went to the phone company again to turn over my phone line to the school. Cristina and I had gone on Tuesday but it turns out she cannot have a phone line because there’s nowhere to connect a phone line in her apartment. Unbelievable. So I sold the line to the school. But of course I had to wait all freaking morning for the principal to finish bumbling around with her work to do come with me to the telephone office during the last day it is open before I leave (it’s only open Tuesday and Thursday from 9-2). She had filled out a form incorrectly, so we were at the superintendent’s office trying to fix it. It took her a whole hour to figure out how to count how many students are in each class and how to fill out the form. At several moments I wanted to snatch the pencil out of her hand and do it myself because it was taking her so long to understand what to do.
Yesterday morning all of the teachers were invited to breakfast at the home of one of the kindergarten students, María José. We were to meet at the school at exactly 8:15, the principal said, because we had to be early in order to return in time to finish all our work at the school. So of course we were all there at between 8:00 and 8:30, and the principal still hadn’t arrived. Rocío called me and told us to meet her at the house of María José, so we left the school around 8:45 to meet her there. One of the teachers called the principal, who said she was at the school waiting for us. Yeah, right. The other school staff were at the school, and we had told them to notify the principal that we had left for María José’s house.
The breakfast was very nice. We had fruit and juice and coffee and cookies and very lovely gorditas (like little tortilla-pitas) filled with potato, beans, chicharrones (pork rinds), or chiles with cheese.
Then we had this ridiculous day of meetings where the owner and the principal lectured us about how to be good salespeople (how to treat the parents of the students) and how to have good self-esteem (how to accept our many, many faults). The principal was saying stuff about how we have to treat the kids better than we do. Then she was lecturing us that if we want our students to wear the complete uniform, we have to wear the complete uniform as well, and that if we want our students to be punctual, we have to be punctual ourselves. (Um, hello?! How can she ask us to be punctual when she is more than half an hour late to important events herself?)
In the afternoon today, Rocío and Cristina and I finally got together again. We met at a café and had beers and talked. Aracely had said she would come, but very conveniently she had to go somewhere else this afternoon. I think she is still avoiding me because of the day I stormed out of her house, when her three-year-old wouldn’t stop hitting me. Anyway, we ended up discussing a lot of terrible things that have happened at the school. The principal is pretty incredible in her control-freak behavior. She said to us in a meeting on Tuesday that we make decisions when it’s not our place to make them (because the teachers had decorated a wall with a piece of fabric that they weren’t supposed to use, unbeknownst to them). This was followed by a long lecture about how the school is not a democracy but a hierarchy, just so that she could pound into our thick heads who is the boss (or tyrant, rather). Apparently for the two years Cristina has been at the school, the principal has been doing this for the whole time, wielding her power and getting upset at the teachers by saying, “You have forgotten who I am,” and demanding apologies.
It is truly infuriating all the estupidezas that occur in the school on a regular basis. I think maybe this is related to the crazy health issues I’ve been having—daily diarrhea and headaches. I am happy to be getting out of here, but at the same time sad to leave the wonderful people I have met here. Yesterday in the meeting, everyone started singing songs to me, because I’m leaving, and Adriana, the third-grade teacher, started crying, and I almost started crying too. I will miss Adriana and Cristina and Rocío a lot.
I’m going to miss my telenovelas, too. I’m totally addicted. Every evening I watch two or three, always “La fea,” but also the one afterwards, “La verdad oculta,” and the one before it, “Duelo de pasiones.” “Duelo de pasiones” is really stupid and very frustrating to watch, but I find myself curious about what is going to happen next. I also find myself strangely enchanted by the lead male, but I figured out lately that it’s because he looks like Luis, haha, with strong eyebrows. “La verdad oculta” is not quite as dumb, because there are some exciting things happening, jewel thievery and murders, but it’s still a melodrama. I’m going to miss these stupid shows! I think I’ll probably be able to find them on cable back in the States, though.
This weekend I was thinking of having a big farewell party, but seeing as all the teachers are married with children and have to hurry home to them after all the hours of stupid cursos diplomados, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Well, it won’t happen at night, anyway. I think they have something planned for me on Sunday, during the party at the end of the cursos. I guess this means I have to go to at least some of the cursos, ew. But since I have lots to pack and do before leaving, I have excuses not to go.
Today I went to the phone company again to turn over my phone line to the school. Cristina and I had gone on Tuesday but it turns out she cannot have a phone line because there’s nowhere to connect a phone line in her apartment. Unbelievable. So I sold the line to the school. But of course I had to wait all freaking morning for the principal to finish bumbling around with her work to do come with me to the telephone office during the last day it is open before I leave (it’s only open Tuesday and Thursday from 9-2). She had filled out a form incorrectly, so we were at the superintendent’s office trying to fix it. It took her a whole hour to figure out how to count how many students are in each class and how to fill out the form. At several moments I wanted to snatch the pencil out of her hand and do it myself because it was taking her so long to understand what to do.
Yesterday morning all of the teachers were invited to breakfast at the home of one of the kindergarten students, María José. We were to meet at the school at exactly 8:15, the principal said, because we had to be early in order to return in time to finish all our work at the school. So of course we were all there at between 8:00 and 8:30, and the principal still hadn’t arrived. Rocío called me and told us to meet her at the house of María José, so we left the school around 8:45 to meet her there. One of the teachers called the principal, who said she was at the school waiting for us. Yeah, right. The other school staff were at the school, and we had told them to notify the principal that we had left for María José’s house.
The breakfast was very nice. We had fruit and juice and coffee and cookies and very lovely gorditas (like little tortilla-pitas) filled with potato, beans, chicharrones (pork rinds), or chiles with cheese.
Then we had this ridiculous day of meetings where the owner and the principal lectured us about how to be good salespeople (how to treat the parents of the students) and how to have good self-esteem (how to accept our many, many faults). The principal was saying stuff about how we have to treat the kids better than we do. Then she was lecturing us that if we want our students to wear the complete uniform, we have to wear the complete uniform as well, and that if we want our students to be punctual, we have to be punctual ourselves. (Um, hello?! How can she ask us to be punctual when she is more than half an hour late to important events herself?)
In the afternoon today, Rocío and Cristina and I finally got together again. We met at a café and had beers and talked. Aracely had said she would come, but very conveniently she had to go somewhere else this afternoon. I think she is still avoiding me because of the day I stormed out of her house, when her three-year-old wouldn’t stop hitting me. Anyway, we ended up discussing a lot of terrible things that have happened at the school. The principal is pretty incredible in her control-freak behavior. She said to us in a meeting on Tuesday that we make decisions when it’s not our place to make them (because the teachers had decorated a wall with a piece of fabric that they weren’t supposed to use, unbeknownst to them). This was followed by a long lecture about how the school is not a democracy but a hierarchy, just so that she could pound into our thick heads who is the boss (or tyrant, rather). Apparently for the two years Cristina has been at the school, the principal has been doing this for the whole time, wielding her power and getting upset at the teachers by saying, “You have forgotten who I am,” and demanding apologies.
It is truly infuriating all the estupidezas that occur in the school on a regular basis. I think maybe this is related to the crazy health issues I’ve been having—daily diarrhea and headaches. I am happy to be getting out of here, but at the same time sad to leave the wonderful people I have met here. Yesterday in the meeting, everyone started singing songs to me, because I’m leaving, and Adriana, the third-grade teacher, started crying, and I almost started crying too. I will miss Adriana and Cristina and Rocío a lot.
I’m going to miss my telenovelas, too. I’m totally addicted. Every evening I watch two or three, always “La fea,” but also the one afterwards, “La verdad oculta,” and the one before it, “Duelo de pasiones.” “Duelo de pasiones” is really stupid and very frustrating to watch, but I find myself curious about what is going to happen next. I also find myself strangely enchanted by the lead male, but I figured out lately that it’s because he looks like Luis, haha, with strong eyebrows. “La verdad oculta” is not quite as dumb, because there are some exciting things happening, jewel thievery and murders, but it’s still a melodrama. I’m going to miss these stupid shows! I think I’ll probably be able to find them on cable back in the States, though.
This weekend I was thinking of having a big farewell party, but seeing as all the teachers are married with children and have to hurry home to them after all the hours of stupid cursos diplomados, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Well, it won’t happen at night, anyway. I think they have something planned for me on Sunday, during the party at the end of the cursos. I guess this means I have to go to at least some of the cursos, ew. But since I have lots to pack and do before leaving, I have excuses not to go.
