Time Machine

Now let’s go back in time so I can catch up on this here thang.

I’ve just been working all the time, and going to Spanish class up until that day I got drenched and the teacher didn’t show up. My advisor has come to town, as I mentioned, and that greatly increases my workload. In addition to the time-consuming lesson-planning and research, I have to write evaluations and reports about things I’m learning and my theories about pedagogy, and I have to start building a library of language errors.

So I’ve had little opportunity to explore this city. Its downtown area is lively, and there are bands of musicians standing in their glorious regalia with guitars and horns and stuff, hoping for a passerby to come hire them for a party. They cost around 2500 pesos (around $200) or I’d hire them myself. I can’t say that their playing is particularly good, but it has spirit and I’m growing to love it. There are serenaders who wander through restaurants, break dancers in the zócalo, and guys with accordions in empty doorways.

Economic times are hard, and you can see it everywhere from worried faces to closed stores. México’s drug wars have infiltrated this town due to its promixity to La Ciudad de México. Interestingly, the highest crime areas here are high on the hills: what would be prime real estate were we in the US.

I like my students. The group of younguns is a challenge, but they’re cute. The teenaged boys are… well, teenaged boys. In both of those classes I have to follow a set curriculum, and enhance it only as time allows, which is frustrating. My conversation class — four hours long! — is the one I enjoy most. Though they speak little English, they are solid enough that I can get them to play with language. At our last class I designed a project for our remaining weeks. I’m really excited about it. We’re going to make a movie about México. Each student is working on one facet: animals, soccer, folklore, insects, obesity, music and interesting places. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. It’s gonna be a ton of work for me, however, in producing the video. I’ll have them write a script and will record their narration.

I still like being called “Teacher.” One student, Juan, invited me to visit his village a little ways from here, which I hope to do.

Sorry I’m boring. Let’s just get to the pictures.