"B U E N O S D I A S"
those of you who are non-Spanish speakers, this means "gooooooood morning!". here's what's up with that. in one of our meetings the other day with the other teachers, culture differences came up. we started talking about how the culture differences between mexican teachers and american teachers can easily cause a split between the faculty at our school. which is something that you don't really think of, you think a split would be caused because people just aren't getting along. wrong. one culture difference that can easily cause a split is "buenos dias". here, it is custom to greet EVERYONE when you walk into a place. for example, if we go over to a friend's house and there are 10 people sitting on the couch, custom tells us that we are to go and do the "cheek kiss" to every single person there and greet them with your name. well, at the school, it works the same way. one of the teachers mentioned that it is something that she noticed that gives her an instant sense that we are not friendly. when you walk into the office and there are people in there having conversations you are agreeing with customs here if you tell everyone "buenos dias" in the morning. if you just walk in without saying anything to people, it is seen as sort of...rude. SO, us americans are adjusting :) because in the states, if you walk into a room and interrupt people's conversations to tell them good morning, you're seen as "that girl"..."HEY everyone look at me and notice that i'm here" kinda girl. but not here. here, in mexico, you are to GREET everyone and SALUDE everyone when you leave. period.
well, this week has been interesting! we've had meeting after meeting after meeting. we had a FOUR HOUR LONG seminar on 'bullying'. yeah, not kidding. needless to say, after those hours of racking my brain to translate the spanish, i was worn slap out. during one of our full-day meetings, the students on the dance team did a performance in the middle. when i heard they were going to do a performance i thought "this is going to be cute. a bunch of kids not really knowing what they're doing but still looking cute anyway". um, negative. this dance team is nationally recognized and award winning. i'm not sure if these pictures even give it justice but maybe you can get a sense of how amazing this show was!
the STARS of the show. seriously, they were presh.
the costumes were so ornate & lovely
so far, i've created a class website and made an outline for a class newsletter that i will send home weekly! we got to see our classrooms and are currently decorating and arranging to get ready for the students to come on august 23rd! HOW EXCITING! i will post pictures when i'm finished decorating. here are a few i took friday, to give you an idea :) i LOVE LOVE LOVE my classroom. it's huge. and i have so much board space & BIG BIG windows for lots of fresh air!
i started tutoring yesterday. i will tutor every sunday with Gabriella. i met her mother and she drove me to their home which is SOOO nice. the mother speaks english, she learned it in england when she was younger. and she wants her daughter to have more practice with a native speaker. this is where i come in :) basically i will just be helping her with some of her struggles and talking, asking questions, and talking some more! she's precious. she has blue eyes and curly curly brown hair. next week i will be taking a bus to her house which will be interesting. it will take about 30 minutes but it will be some good down time. i considered not jumping on this opportunity for a few reasons: sunday is a lazy day and spending an hour on a bus doesn't sound appealing & it's a commitment that will keep me in town on sundays. but i talked to her mom and we have the understanding that some weeks we won't meet for that very reason. but i look forward to working with them and getting to know her and her family. after we finished yesterday, Gabriella's mother gave me some "pie de nuez", nut pie, and it was amazzzzing.
our house is coming along. we now have a coffee table and an end table in our living room! they are nice and add a little more of the 'homey' feel to our house. i'm still lacking some storage in my room but i'm working on that :) curtains are still in the works. one day i'll get some of those. brittan and i are also still wanting to PAINT our bedrooms. we did find out that paint is 'fairly inexpensive' (erin, i used that wording just for you sister!).
TODAY, we spent four and a half hours in the visa office to get our working visas processed. if there is one thing mexico is teaching me, it's patience. patience with other people, patience with my time, and flexible with my plans. i have been sure to keep Colossians 3:12 fresh in my mind:
therefore, as God's chosen people, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and PATIENCE.
Tomorrow, we have more time in our classrooms and we have meetings the rest of the week. Our meetings will be more content-based and we will be learning more about our expectations for the year rather than preparing for situations that could happen (earthquakes, bomb threats, bullying in the classroom...). We will also be meeting with our grade level teams to discuss the next 6 weeks and let the planning begin! (Yeah, they are just now allowing us time to plan for teaching...3 days before school starts). Also, we don't really have a set school calendar. They kind of make it up as they go. So for the Mexican's an announcement like "Okay, tomorrow will begin Christmas break" is awesome! But for those of us who have to buy plane tickets, it's difficult to plan. SO, eventually we will have a ballpark idea of when breaks may begin and we can buy a ticket. Praying then, that the date we have is in fact the days of break.
frustrations: laundry mat being closed, forgetting to exchange my dollars to pesos (and then when i did remember the guy at the bank told me that my american dollars were not "new" enough...what's that even mean?), the mexico stomach "rumble" as we've called it
highlights: skyping with friends back home (jay, katey, jfree & jbrown, it was good "hangin" via the computer), spinning class with colleen, meeting new people, making fun travel plans
to my faithful prayer warriors :) pray for: healthy bodies as we enter into LOTS of close encounters with little germy children, finances - that we can budget our spending, good communication with our co-teachers
ok, one more time :)
therefore, as God's chosen people, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and PATIENCE.
and i know lots of you are DYING to send me awesome packages
and letters and fun stuff in the mail because you know i love getting mail.
i'm just playing, sort of. :)
ok, but really. if you do, here's the address to send things to! :)
Megan Killen/Primaria
9 Poniente 2709
Colonia La Paz
Puebla, Puebla 72160
Mexico
lots of amor.
-meggie
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