i.love.fridays.

i never valued the weekends as much as i do now.

fridays make me such a happy girl!

not because i don't like my job or because i hate going to work. i actually love my job and when i go to work, i'm not dreading the day. but at the end of the week i am DRAINED. completely and utterly WORN out. any other teachers out there reading this can relate. after a week of constant interaction with little 7 and 8 year olds,

i'm ready for a kid-free weekend with lots of rest!

the good news is: next week, we have TWO DAYS off of work.

viva mexico! yay for mexican independence :)

SO, speaking of weekend.

friday lunch is our chance to hang out with the other american teachers and just enjoy each other's company and vent about the week and all of our frustrations with mexico or the school or the kids or the parents. before friday lunch tomorrow, caitlin is showing us where a park is that is a good place to run. we're pretty pumped about this because we've heard it's a good place to run but we can't find ittttt. hopefully we will also find a bus route to the park. it's a little too far to walk there but a taxi would be silly.

saturday, i'm determined to paint my room!

i'm not sure what color yet.

but i will post some pictures when i'm finished :)

i've been going to church on sundays with girls from la casa. it's SUPER cerca (close) to my house. it starts at 11:30 on sunday mornings and since i can walk there, i don't have to leave until like 11:25. it's really perfect. the people at the church seem really down to earth and nice and welcoming. so, i'll probably be there again this sunday.

well, this is a short & sweet update.

i miss and love you! :)

-meggie

i will give thanks to the Lord

because of His righteousness

and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

-psalm 7:17

cravin' some chicfila

sooo...i am having some serious cravings for chicfila right about now.

all of you back in the states, eat some of that yumminess for me!

i feel like i haven't updated in a while..

my camera cord is still missing. i don't think i'll be getting it back. so i have been having to upload pictures on brittan's computer and e-mailing them to myself so i can upload them onto my computer. i don't really have any pictures for this post, so words will just have to do :)

SCHOOL

well, we're in our third week of school now. it's hard to believe it's already the third week. however, brittan and i both agree that we have never been so excited for a weekend as we are on fridays here! on friday afternoons we are two happy girls! :) my classes are really sweet kids. they are understanding more of what i am expecting from them and our schedule. we do the same morning routine everyyyy single day so they are learning that and it's becoming a part of the day that they are accustomed to. i'm also learning each student and their strengths and weaknesses and how i can help them this year. overall, the school days are good. the afternoon class is always more hyperactive because they come straight from recess.

so..recess. let's talk about that. it's really a funny concept. at 10:30, music plays over the intercom (we have music instead of a bell). when the music plays, the kids are allowed the leave the classroom and go outside to the playground without supervision. this was a wild concept to me at first but now i'm learning that the kids really do gain some responsibility from it. BUT you don't want to get caught in the hallways when the music plays for recess. you'll get trampleeeeed!

my partner is still amazing. she's so helpful. and nice. genuinely a nice person. she's good with the kids too, she interacts well with them and sometimes it's nice because she still gets frazzled and annoyed and confused just like i do. and it's comforting because she's been teaching for a while now - and i'm still not alone in my frazzledness :) have i already posted about the cookies she made me? she gave me a china plate & cup overflowing with danish cookies with strawberry filling that she made. it was precious. and they were yummmmy. i left them in my classroom that week because i munched on them throughout the day and i'm pretty sure some of the janitors ate some, haha. i don't mind. they work hard! our rooms are DISGUSTING at the end of the day!

and PS. no, we did not have labor day off work.

you lucky dogsssss! :)

things i am missing

besides the obvious answer of friends and family, i am also missing:

*TARGET

*chicfila

*my clothes. a lot of them. that i accidently left in my closet.

*a washer and dryer

things i am loving here

*moyo (our new favorite yogurt)

*food, food & food

*the funny things my kids say or write (today for example, we were writing rules that we follow at home. a little girl wrote "no rum at home". she meant "no run/running". they really are presh..)

*walking to work

*new friends

*fayuka (a huge market with lots of amazingness where i recently bought a light blue coach watch (completely REAL, ha) and 5 movies...one of which is not in theaters here, yet....)

*fruit

*making travel plans

there are more things i'm sure for both lists but i'm out of ideas at the moment.

the 15th of september is mexico independence day! it's a huge celebration. i'm not sure what i'm doing yet but am planning to do something! we have 2 days off work and HOPEFULLY they will cancel that friday too and we'll have a 5 day break! that would be oh sooo lovely.

Viva Mexicooooo

i've been feeling kind of like i'm coming down with something. it's just a little stuffy nose issue. hopefully it's nothing big, i'm sure it's just from being around 50 germy children all day long. we've gotten into a routine of taking naps EVERYDAY after school. i've gotta kick that habit! i need to find somewhere to run. it's just not easy. we have found a cute little gym that does spinning every night from 7-8pm or 8-9pm. it's 15 pesos. so that's awesome. there's also a zumba place but it's a little too far to walk and well, taking a taxi means money so somehow we always talk ourselves out of that one. OH and the saturday zumba session is at 8am...that one is out of the question.

so, kami & i went shopping this sunday after church.

it was a great day.

i pretty much need every piece of clothing i see ;)

but i contained myself and got 3 shirts and a skirt.

i also have bought a jacket here, it was much needed.

the trip home in december is going to consist of an empty suitcase so i can bring the clothes that i meant to bring the first time :)

well, i'm going to have dinner with some friends.

hopefully the next post will have some pictures!

*besos*

-meggie

just some pictures, yawl.

ok, for all of you who have been anxiously awaiting..

here are some picture updates

:)

*MY CLASSROOM!*

when you walk in! desks, my desk, and white board :)

our classroom library :)

our calendar/morning warm-up board

word wall

and our good work display!

and some other updates...

our beautiful view.

just lovin' life with mexico mountains kinda life.

here's my NEW BED! whooooo hoooo!

and new dresser.

i almost have a whole new room! :)

thanks to caitlin & kristen!

welp, that's all i've got for now!

keep praying for:

*my lovely students :)

*my patience, with my lovely students :)

*relationships that are formed here

*good communication with team at work

*new opportunities come my way!

LOVE. & a whole lot of it.

*meggie

just miss megan

miss megan.

that's what the kiddies call me.

or just miss. more like "meeeeess".

OH they're presh.

so, Monday we had children and parents running around the school like crazy animals. well, maybe that's not a good description. it wasn't THAT crazy. but still, lots of parents - lots of kids - lots of people not knowing what they were doing. i met 21 of my 23 children. i also met the children that are in my co teacher's classroom (which will be my other class). many of them already speak a moderate level of english but there were a few that did not seem to speak a lick of english. i also had to remember that these lil' babies were nervous. it's only their 2nd grade year AND it's their second language. the parents were interesting. most of them were SUPER nice & very excited for their child to learn english in my class. my spanish was FLOWING. most of the parents did not speak english so i told the children "today is the only day you will hear spanish in the classroom, enjoy it!" i wanted to make sure the children didn't think that they could get away with speaking spanish in my classroom. i'm going to TRY to be suuper patient this year in understanding that they need LOTS of encouragement to try and speak english. i need to remember back to my first spanish classes and how nervous i was to speak it out loud to the whole class.

so far one of my favorite quotes from one of mis alumnos (students) was:

[when looking at our class list] "YESSSS, look mom! she is in my class again.

my girlfriend is in my class again! miss megan, can i sit by her?"

after school on Monday we went to eat at a comida corrida place near our house. it was the epitamy of deliciousness. comida corrida places are places where you get soup, rice, beans, tortillas and a main dish (usually a choice between chicken, beef, or something else yummy). i had a chicken with a cheese broccoli sauce and it was soo yuuuum. then they gave us a dessert that was like a fried pastry with fruit in the middle with sugar on the outside. it was like a little slice of heaven.

side note:

brittan and i were talking yesterday about culture in mexico and how there are SO MANY things that define the culture here and make it different than anywhere else. we couldn't come up with much for the united states as a whole. we did come up with flip flops. they are so american. we thought about like pizza, hamburgers, french fries...but all of that really didn't come from the united states like ROOTED in the US. ya know?

anymore ideas?

we'd love to know what you guys think.

So, remember Cecilia? Our mother away from mothers here in Mexico? Well, first of all, remember that she's amazing. and we LOVE her! but she absolutely made brittan and my day today with an email asking us to come over this weekend and have dinner with her. she's going to make tortilla soup and show us how to make it. that email was seriously at the PERFECT time. we both came home from our first day, tired, our brain's FRIED from spanish, and just worn out. and her email was a huge encouragement to us! we can't wait to get some good hanging time with her. also, learning more about culture in mexico with someone who is from here is super exciting :) i wish i had more interactions with families here. maybe that's something i'm going to strive for.

so, i spent Monday night skyping with friends and watching Finding Nemo. i put the spanish subtitles on. it seems to help a lot in learning new words and verb tenses. there's a lot to freshen up on and still to learn!

TUESDAY

was the first day of school. school starts at 8:00am and ends at 2:00pm. we are supposed to be there at 7:50am, but those of you who know me, know that i'm in my classroom at 7:30am getting ready for the day. so, the kids were pretty good for the most part. you know, there's always a few that just don't listen but i will learn how to tame them :) one thing that is totally different and i'm going to have to adjust BIG time is that culture is sooo different. like even in our teacher meetings it's not a big deal to hear people talking while someone else is talking. it's the same in the classroom, the children aren't taught to be QUIET. so constantly, there is noise. it's just culture and i'm going to have to adjust but i'm tellin you - this first day was a TRIAL! i kept wanting to tell them to be quiet but that's expecting soo much from them especially since they have not been trained to do so. the day went by pretty quickly, overall. i remember looking at my clock at 12:30pm and wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD am i going to do until 2:00!? but it all worked out. and i learned a lot about my kids & am excited to see where the year leads.

parent meetings two dreadful words for teachers. we had a parent orientation night tuesday night where i spoke in spanish in front of a group of about 50 children's parents. i didn't say much, but i spoke. and it was INTIMIDATING. i told them about my expectations, showed them our books for the year, and told them about testing and homework. WHEW, i'm just glad it's OVERRRR.

well, the rest of this week is going to be more get-to-know-you games and activities and preparing ourselves for LOTS of learning. these children are PRESH. i just have to keep them busy...one minute with nothing to do and they go crazyyyy.

WEDNESDAY

so, i promise i'm not going to update EVERY single day. but wednesday was the 2nd day of school and it was drastically different from the first. i started the day off RIGHT. we had a morning meaning with calendar and announcements and then we shared some more about ourselves and they were actually QUIET and interested and worked hard. i think the first-day jitters had them hyped up on tuesday. the afternoon class consisted of computer, music then library. we had no class time in the afternoon. we had some meetings with the other teachers and talked more about our outlook for the year.

so, i went to high-five a student because he spoke a pretty difficult sentence in english and he thought i was going to hit him or something, he kind of flinched. hahaha, it was really funny. little things like this happen a lot - things are just so different here!

so i went like 4 days on the cereal/sandwich diet. i am SO GLAD i went to the store today. i got pasta and yogurt and granola and fruit and broccoli and i'm EXCITED! i regretted buying the grape juice because lugging that thing back to my apartment was a PAIN. but i had a great dinner with leftovers for tomorrow :)

i want to hit up the movies tonight. maybeeee it will happen :) for now, it's naptime

con amor a todos :)

-meggie

dye-cut machine & free water

first things first, my friend courtney has my memory card for my camera at the moment. this means i have no pictures :(

the title of this blog is: things i wish i had. i never realized how much i love dye-cut machines until i had to cut out and trace every single letter or shape that i wanted to use in my classroom. seriously, this week has consisted of tracing, cutting, gluing, retracing and some more cutting. brittan and i have spent majority of the nights in this week at home watching "it's always sunny in philedelphia" or watching movies while tracing, cutting, tracing, cutting, anddd some more tracing and cutting. i think we both are glad that decorating our classroom only happens once a year :) now, we look forward to the 2 weeks of freedom we have with our bulletin boards outside our classroom, then we get to re-do those! don't get me wrong, it's FUN. it's really fun. seeing your hard work pay off to make for a cutesy classroom. but it is time consumiiiiing and it has definately consumed our vidas this week.

onto the free water thing. here, when you go out to eat, a bottle of water is the same as a coke. or fanta. sooo, most of the time you're not drinking water because who wants to pay the same amount for the water when you can have a yummy fanta? so, that's something i miss. free water.

school starts officially on tuesday. on MONDAY, tomorrow, the students and parents are coming from 8:00am-11:00am to meet the teachers and pick up their books. our school is HUGE and there are going to be a TON of students. it should be interesting. the parents have a checklist to check off the things that they received. hopefully, i can communicate with them what to do on the checklist. some of the administration told us this week that they do not have our class listing, yet. keep in mind school starts officially on TUESDAY and they don't have our class list yet. those of you who are teachers in the states may feel the frustration that went on when we found out we won't know our class until the first day of school. the reason for this is; parents come on Monday to get books. when they are at the school, they may see a teacher that they want instead of the one they currently have. this being the case, the administration may change some class lists. different, huh? one of the english teachers said "i'm going to look really ugly so none of the parents want me" it really is shocking that the lists can be changed based off of a meeting, huh? well, hopefully i KNOCK everyone off their feet and they all want to be in my class :)

we don't have computers in our classroom :( BUT the good news is one of the maintenance guys told me i had an internet cord in my room. so maybeee i can skype with yall and show you my lovely classroom!

my "companera", or spanish co-teacher, is amazzzzing. i brought her a cookbook of southern flavor dishes and a spice that is made in alabama. when i gave it to her she was SOOO happy. i told her if there were some things in there that she didn't understand (the book is english) that i would love to help her out! and she said that she couldn't wait to make some of the things and bring them to the school for everyone to try!

so, we have our daily schedules for our students and i have never seen a school with so many specials. these students go to PE, recess, library, computer, music and art. i have one class from 8:00am-10:30am (really, 10:15 because the at 10:15 the students eat their "lonch" before they go to recess) and then another class from 11:00am-1:50pm. with the specials interrupted throughout the week, i can already see that time is going to be a struggle for me! and making sure that both classes are on the same page. while the students are in their specials, we have meetings with different people. some are with the english department, some are with our group of 2nd grade teachers and some are with my partner or with parents. it will be interesting to see how the schedule plays out. i'm anxious to see!

some fun things we did this week

*yuyo took us to a taco stand with carne asada tacos. HOLY MOLY. they were amazzzzing. and only 10 pesos, each.

*we went to the movies and saw los industructiables (the expendables). and ate a TON of palomitas (popcorn). i mean, a TON. it was delicious.

*we discovered a frozen yogurt place that brittan says tastes just like "Yoforia". i've never had yoforia but i know this place is THE BOMB. you can get as many toppings as you want. it's like TCBY on crack.

(i just realized all of these have to do with food...)

*we got our work visas! we are no longer illegal. we're legittttt.

*we went shopping at IDEA. it's the mexican version of IKEA. it has everything you can imagine for a home. we may or may not have gone a little crazy in there...

*we got our first paycheck! (i'm not sure if i've written about that yet) but it was nice getting some dinero. the school actually prorated the check for an extra week which was awesome. we get paid twice a month, on the 15th and on the 30th. so we'll be getting one more check soonish.

*i SHOULD be getting my double bed this week. i've been sleeping on a temporary twin bed since we got here.

ladies & gents,

i will post again soon with pictures! :)

keep praying for us.

and our alumnos (students).

and our cuerpos (bodies).

besos! :)

-meggie

ohh, mexico.

"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

rain rain go away

i wish i'd bought those rainboots...

it's rainy season right now in mexico. and i knew that coming into it. i LOOKED and looked at rainboots before i left and never bought any. mainly because of suitcase space. now i'm wishing i had brought some! it's rained almost everyday in the evening. around 7ish or so. and it's not really just a mist. it's a POUR. the streets flood because it's so much rain in such a short period of time. it's not bad when you're inside somewhere though :) what IS bad is when you're walking around the downtown area, the zocolo, and the thunder starts then the rains come pouring down and your ride is about 2 miles away. our solution? find the closest ice cream shop and eat some yummy goodness while the rains pour and the streets flood ;) it's going to rain like this probably through september. when october hits, we shouldn't have this kind of rain.

i also wish i could attach the smell that i'm smelling right now to this blog.

one of my neighbors is cooking breakfast and i wish i could prance over there and they would invite me in for some of that yumminess.

SO, some good news. we got our ceilings fixed! no more moldy patches or leaking roofs. our landlord came saturday around 12ish with a man to begin the work. that man worked SO hard for a LONG time. we heard him up there just a workin away.

speaking of our HOUSE here are a few pictures

this is my bedroom. i still have some work to do.

these were taken the first day..

currently looking for curtains so i can take down that dreaded sheet.

and the suitcases are now unpacked.

and the shelves a little more organized-ish.

oh, and my bed is made.

and THIS ladies and gentlemen is our favorite room.

el bano.

isn't it cute?

Cecilia took us on a Puebla city tour bus on Friday. Brittan and I have taken it before when we were here studying but it was nice to take it and relax and hang out with the other teacher girls. It was a different tour this time so we got to see some new parts of Puebla. It was a little cold, surprisingly. But we still managed to get a little sunburned. Here is a picture I took from the double decker tour bus.

after the tour bus, Cecilia took us to a market for CEMITAS

cemita (wikipedia) - a cemita, also known as a cemita poblana, is a Mexican sandwich and street food that originated in the city of Puebla. It is distinguished from a torta by the fluffy sesame-seeded egg roll that it is served on. Additionally, the ingredients usually are restricted to sliced avocado, meat, white cheese, onions and red sauce (salsa roja).

in other words, pure goodness in sandwich form.

Hungry?

That's about all I've got for you as of today. We have been staying busy organizing our house, meeting with the school, and hanging out with friends. It's been lovely having time to relax. I'm excited about meeting our co-teachers tomorrow and learning more about what our year is going to look like. Tomorrow is our official first day of work which means responsibility starts in t-minus 20ish hours. We get to see our classrooms on Wednesday which is going to be SO lovely. I've only been waiting about 23 years for my first VERY OWN classroom :) No more playing school. I'm the real teacher now!

Pray for relationships here. That I can form some solid relationships with people and learn more about this country first hand. Pray for spanish - that I continue to practice and improve. Pray for Brittan and I as we begin this year, that we start it off on the right foot and can encourage each other when we have those discouraging "off" days. Pray for the students, health, money. And lastly, pray that God use me in big ways. BIG ways.

Sending love from Mexico! :)

-meggie

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a

great cloud of witnesses,let us throw off everything that hinders

and the sin that so easily entangles,

and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy set before him endured the cross,

scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men,

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3