kids say the funniest things.

our unit right now is "i'm cool because i follow the rules"

these are some cute journals that my kids have done.

just to make you laugh :)

enjoy.

no piss? oh...wow

he's just goin' to the club, that's all.

this one's my favorite.

number 3.

with the illustration and everything.

:)

LOVE YOU

.meggie.

needing vacation from vacation

VACATION.

ohhh, vacation.

dear, OAXACA, MEXICO, you're amazing.

here was our vacation spot.

after 4 1/2 hours of riding on the ADO bus,

we arrived at the lovely city of oaxaca.

so so so *SO* much happened on this trip,

i'm not sure where to begin. forgive me if this blog is a big scattered!

there are so many stories to tell.

overall - we had a LOVELY time in oaxaca and are planning another trip back!

so, mexico celebrates independence on september 15th. this year, the 15th fell on a thursday. our school originally gave us that wednesday and thursday off work (meaning we had to work on friday - WHO does that?) but, eventually, the word was passed that we also had friday off work.

the reason being - this year was the 200th year of mexican independence. sort of a HUGE deal in mexico. needless to say, we were PUMPED about a 5 day weekend and immediately planned our vacation. colleen, a 3rd grade teacher at my school, and i planned the trip in about an hour. we picked out our bus & hostel and booked them both. then began planning what kinds of things we wanted to see in oaxaca.

so, we left on Tuesday after school. our bus left at 6pm and we arrived in oaxaca at about 11:00pm. our hostel was about 5 blocks away from the bus station so colleen and i got off the bus, got our luggage, and began walking to our hostel using the directions she found online. we found a few of the first streets we were looking for but could NOT find one of the streets. we walked up one street and back down, then up again and back down again. just-a walkin.

(story #1) then, out of NO WHERE this woman appears with what seemed to be her son. literally, out of NO WHERE. like she just popped up. she said to us "hablan espanol?" (do you speak spanish?) and our reply probably sounded a bit jumbled and unsure because we were a bit startled but we got the point across that yes, we speak spanish. she proceeded to ask us what we were looking for and what streets we needed. she gave us perfect directions directly to our hostel and then told us that it is not safe for 2 girls to be walking around alone in that area of town. colleen and i then turned to each other and had the same reaction "was that an angel!?"

so, we find our hostel and check-in with the sweetest, loveliest, most hilarious little mexican man. our hostel was called "hostel don nino" and we immediately named our sweet landlord "don nino" (by the end of our trip, we were real close to good ole don. we had a secret handshake and even took some pictures with him)

us. with our buddy, don.

so, we are all checked in and we are in our BALLIN' hostel room. i just get so excited about how wonderful this trip is going to be that i locked my keys to my locker inside my locker. oops. but it ended up great, good ole' DON helped me out.

we just slept that night & miss kami burns came and met us in the wee hours of the morning. and our other friends adriana and genevieve came and met us later in the week. needless to say, we had a great time exploring the city. we went to tule tree, monte alban, mitla and lots of other fun places. here are some pictures from our explorations around the city!

with the founder of monte alban.

me, genevieve, adriana, colleen.

tule tree

huuuuuuuuuge.

(story #2) at the GRITO (or the huge celebration in the zocolo of the city, on the night of the independence celebration) someone stole my wallet. SUPER sad. it had a substantial about of moolah in it and my working visa as well as my mexican debit card. SO, my lovely friends and i spent the grito in the bathroom of a resturant on the phone cancelling my debit card. it ended up being a good night but in those moments i was not a happy camper. VIVA MEXICO, no?

we met up with our friend Vero who is from oaxaca. she is such a WONDERFUL tour guide and so incredibly hospitable. her family picked us up one night for dinner. her mother looked super familiar but i couldn't figure out where i would have met her. (story #3) HER MOTHER was our beloved street angel. her MOM was the woman who helped us find our hostel on our first night in oaxaca. can you believe it? it's such a small world. her sweet, helpful mother not only helped us find our hostel on our first night but she also bought us 3 meals and drove us all around oaxaca, showing us things we should see and telling us all about the history/culture/and food of oaxaca. we were truly blessed by this ANGEL! :)

so the week consisted of lots of naps. free breakfast every morning at the hostel. and lots of other small funny stories in between. we laughed so much. and danced a lot. we also ate a LOT. we walked around the city a ton & shared lots of good memories together. it was a wonderful, wonderful vacation.

(story #4) one day while walking near the zocolo, we witnessed a sight that we hope to never see again. a straight up naked mexi man walking down the street. well, he wasn't completely naked. he was wearing a cut off sleeveless shirt. and that's all. we called him the naked caveman.

(story #5) one afternoon we sat in the park across the street from our hostel and people watched. we also ate quesadillas. probably the best i've had. they were mushroom and spinach quesadillas. oh, and children played in the fountains. it was cute.

OH YEAH.

and the tuesday before we got out for vacations, we had an independence celebration at our school. the children dressed up in traditional clothing and we had tamales and esquites outside on the patio. there was also a celebration outside with dancing and horses and a flag ceremony. it was a fun morning! the children really enjoyed it.

some of my LOCO homeroom class :)

dressed up in their traditional mexico gear.

had to let my camera charge but here's a glimpse of some of the cuties in my 2nd class.

they loveeee taking pictures.

now back to el mundo real. the real world.

responsibility hits again.

time to go back to being a teacher :)

to the "praying for megan in mexico" prayer warriors :)

pray for:

-patience with children

-patience with children

-and..patience with children

-financial stuff (stolen wallet doesn't help that, huh?)

*psalm 33:4*

for the word of the Lord is right and true;

He is faithful is ALL that He does.

loving you bunches!!!

-meggie

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