teacher presents

teacher gifts for holidays.

i've gotten lots of chocolate. a cool coffee mug. some trinkets. christmas decor.

but -

here's the best present anyone could ever ask for:
monogrammed bathrobe. "megan" in fancy cursive writing.

being a teacher is hilarious all the time.

reasons why i love mexico

so, counting down the days until i go home for christmas makes each day seem like it's going slower than watching paint dry.

i just finished up a shower in which the water went FREEZING just as i put conditioner all over my hair. i then come downstairs to watch a movie and watch a mouse come in the back door & walk AROUND the mouse trap with cheese that we have set up. i proceed to make a sandwich and the bread has probably been molded since last week.

here's when i decided i needed to reflect on the reasons that i LOVE mexico..

reason #1: FOOD, food, anddddd FOOD.

there is no food like food in mexico. i'm convinced of it.

cemitas, tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, tortas, chalupas, sopas, comida corrida, alambre..

don't forget fresh fruit. everywhere.

and the list goes on..and on..and on.

reason #2: walking to work.

i don't know that i'll ever have another time in my life when i am expected to be at work at 7:45am, i can wake up at 7:00am and leave my house at 7:35am and make it to the office to sign in and to my classroom before 7:45. walking to work is probably the best thing, ever.

reason #3: the corner man and toothless laundry woman

these 2 people make my life. the corner man is the man who owns the little corner store. he sells basic needs - fruit, bread, drinks, water..the essentials. and everytime i go, things are a different price. but regardless - they are cheap. and he's hilarious. if i get more than 2 things, he has to take out a pad of paper to add the prices. he's great. and he always asks the same questions. 'are you going to rest from work now?' (this is the question if i go after school) and then 'off to work? have a great day!' (this is the morning question)

THEN - there's the toothless laundry woman. her title pretty much explains her but she's really sweet and everytime i pass her laundromat she's sure to say hello. just a sweet little woman. bless her.

reason #4: being Brittan's roomie

i love this about mexico because had we not come here together we probably would never have been roommates. montgomery and atlanta aren't that far but both of us ignore phone calls from everyone and never seem to be able to plan time together. so gracias mexico.

muchas gracias.

reason #5: markets

cheap. CHEAP. treasures.

i love the markets.

reason #6: mountains & mexico skies

coming from alabama, mountains pretty much just amaze me.

add an active volcano right outside and i'm in constant amazement.

when we cross the yellow bridge on the way to work in the mornings, these mountains make for a really beautiful sight. some mornings it's too foggy to see but others it's picture perfect. it's also really nice when the sun is going down - mexico skies. love.

reason #7: the MOVIES

wednesday night is movie night.

if i'm remembering correctly it's 35 pesos.

and there's hotdogs, nachos, popcorn, ICEES, candy..

anything you need to make you feel like you're at the rave in montgomery, AL.

that's about all i've got right now.

i'm a little distracted because i have "Elf" playing on the TV.

soo hilarious.

2 weeks & 2 days

but who's counting?

:)

-meggie

navidad

december 22nd can't come soon enough.

besides that, the only other thing i'm thinking is that i would probably

give my pinky toe for this box of nilla wafers to never end.

.meggie.

family, funfetti, and festivities

well, here we are. it's almost december. what?

that can't be true. but it is. time is FLYING.

week to week. they go by so fast.

so, i've decided that mexico has the prettiest skies. pretty much every single day. and i don't know if i just notice the sky more here than i do at home? but i catch myself thinking 'man that sky is beautiful' almost everyday here. what's up with that?

brittan's family has been here this week. and it's been so so sooo great. they flew in on saturday and they stayed until today. they did SO MUCH for us. i can't even begin to explain it all but a few things they did is cook dinner two nights (spaghetti once and hamburgers the other) which was DELICIOUS. they finished the painting that we had not finished, they bought us lots of things of our house that we didn't even know that we needed. they loved us. brought some family time to mexico. and it was wonderful. they are amazing people. and we had lots of fun with them! we went to Teotihuacan the first Sunday they were here and saw lots of pyramids and an ex-monestary. the trip was really fun & we laughed a whole bunch. and took cool pics.

Thanksgiving was this week. It was super weird going to work on Thanksgiving Day. My kids didn't know about Thanksgiving but all month we had been talking about what we do in the United States to celebrate and what kinds of things we have to eat and traditions we have. So, on Thanksgiving, we had a small celebration in the morning with the 6th graders. It was nice. I sent paper home with my kids and they made Indian hats. We acted like the 6th graders were pilgrims and they were coming into our land (even though the 6th graders were too cool to make hats). Anyway, the kids enjoyed it and I thought it was neat teaching them a tradition we have that they did not know about.

Then, that night, our principal Miss Carol invited us over to her home for Thanksgiving dinner. HOLY MOLY. it was delicious. there was nothing that I did not like. it was all splendid. and we ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. and drank wine. and just talked. There was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, hashbrown casserole, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie, cakes and oh so much more. (the special thing was that mexico doesn't sell pumpkin or fried onions so these things that we had were even better and made with more love) it was so nice of her to open her home up to us that were far away from home to help us feel more 'at home' on Thanksgiving. She really is wonderful.

we have a mouse in our house. we've bought two mouse traps and i'm hoping that we catch that sucker soon. i was watching tv the other night, just mindin my own business on the couch and he went scampering across the floor into the kitchen. and one day, brittan came home to find him walking across the KITCHEN COUNTERS. he needs to find somewhere else to go. i'd rather it be a roach. a mouse? yuckkk.

I'm not sure if I've written about my room yet.

but I love. love. my yellow room.

well, 24 days until I'm home for Christmas.

but, who's counting? :)

love ya'll.

-meggie

new week in puebla

job 8:21

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy"

welp. it's wednesday. hump day. middle of the week. tomorrow we can say that 'tomorrow is friday'. is this a bad outlook? probably so. this week has been a little rougher than any others. i don't really know why. i can't pinpoint a specific reason. maybe it's because i've had a lot more alone time this week than before. alone time just to think. which i have enjoyed. it's not really negative emotions that i'm feeling - i think just wanting something comfortable. family, maybe? friends back home? probably a combination of the both. but family & friends - know that you are dearly missssssssssed. and december 22 will be here before i know it! :)

it's F R E E Z I N G here. i don't feel that i'm overreacting when i say freezing. it's COLD. i've been checking weather lately and it's been the same coldness here that it is back home in alabama. the kicker here is that we don't have a heater. and we have tile floors. and these 2 aspects = unbearably cold house. the mornings are TOUGH. it's hard to move. the good news is, i'm going shopping this weekend. and i'm going to check on prices of space heaters, sweatshirts, and winter boots :)

tutoring

so this week has been INCREDIBLE as far as tutoring goes.

i've added 2 students to my weekly tutoring!

one of the students' moms wants me to help her with english as well

so, technically i've added 3 students :)

this is great, great.

what's the deal with cam newton? i'm actually really glad i'm not in alabama to hear about all of that all the time. i get enough from facebook. is it really that big of a deal?

brittan's birthday was monday. people from la casa had a big dinner for her for her birthday - it turned out really great. everyone did so much to make it a success! monday night, we went out to dinner for her birthday & then i came home to start painting our living room! i bought paint and wanted to paint the living room for her birthday. i want her to feel more at home here, and painting would be a good step! but i ended up not finishing. the living room is HUGE. but i got more finished than i thought i would. it's really BRIGHT. it was supposed to be a burnt orange with a light turquoise. but the orange is pretty much brighter than anticipated. i actually really like it though. it looks really mexican & awesome. i'll post pictures when it's all finished and pretty.

i've still been gymnasio'in it up lately. the walk to the gym is getting easier and less of a hassle but nights like tonight - i wished it was super close. it took a lot for me to get up and go to the gym. however, i'm sure even if it was close i would have felt the same way. but my running is improving! hooooray.

that's about all i've got, yawl.

now just some pictures.

some of the biggest pan i've ever seen.

this is pan from dia de los muertos from oaxaca

a gift from one of my students :)

i realized this blog had a lot of negativeness in it.

here's some happy things.

presh.

dear december,

if you could come quickly, i'd love you.

with all kinds of LOVE from chilly mexico

-meggie

halloween, amoebas, acapulco, and parent citas

and the winners for Acapulco's Who's Who Awards...

*highest GPA*

*most likely to succeed*

*best hair*

*best body*

*best dressed*

* * * A C A P U L C O * * *

seriously, BEST vacation ever. for several reasons. i think we were in desperate need of a vacation so the timing was perfect. and then, the fact that we planned a RELAXING vacation at the beach - who could ask for anything better?

our bus left from puebla at 11pm on friday night & we got to acapulco around 6am.

we checked into our hostel & napped for a few hours before hitting the beach.

rewind: the hostel.

the hostel was by NO means anything like the hostel experience we had in oaxaca. our standards were set pretty high - so this hostel just did NOT add up.

*free internet = 30 minutes of free internet.

*air conditioning included = AC is turned on at 6pm and off at 6am daily.

*free breakfast = a bowl of cereal.

needless to say, the hostel was not everything we had anticipated.

BUT - the location, location, location. it was PERFECT.

it was right near the beaches, the restaurants, clubs, bars, everything AWESOME.

the location made up for everything else that the hostel lacked...

our vacation consisted of lots of beach hang time, napping, eating seafood, dancing at night, exploring the area & laughing. OH laughing. we did a lot of that.

acapulco is not a huge "dia de los muertos" area of mexico so we really didn't do anything traditional as far as that goes. we didn't even see an ofrenda, not that i remember at least? but the bars were all having halloween celebrations and we did see a few people dressed up! some mermaids and pirates. nothing too crazy!

this place was absolutely beautiful.

HALLOWEEN

well, we had our halloween celebration at the american school. it was really a fun day! all of the kids were dressed up in their expensive costumes & we had TONS of candy. we had a parade for the kids in each grade level to walk and then a time for teachers & parents to walk. it lasted for about an hour - and it was fun to see all of the different costumes that were in the other grade levels! after the parade, my class went "trick-or-treating" to the other 2nd grade classrooms and then we had a pizza party in our classroom. needless to say, the kids were HYPED up on candy and drinks and pizza. all we did was play board games and halloween activities all afternoon.

here are some pictures of our halloween celebration day:

"miss megan! get a picture with the pirates!"

one of my classes & their lovely costumes.

miss brittan, me & miss colleen at the halloween parade.

football playa - nerd - barbie

wow, creepster in the back....

"miss megan we need un foto"

<---AMOEBAS--->

i'm not sure when it happened, but my stomach got invaded by amoebas. i'm still suffering, somewhat. imagine the worst stomach ache you've ever had and multiply that by 50 and that's about what it feels like. i don't even know what these suckers are doing inside my tummy but it huuuuurts. a staff member at my school gave me some homeopathic medicine to help with the amoebas but i'm thinking i will have to ask her for some more meds. these suckers are bad. i'm thinking NOW would be a good time for them to leave my tummy and find somewhere else to invade.

*please pray that these little creatures find somewhere else to go

and that my stomach heals.

last but not least i wanted to mention parent meetings. we've been having a lot more of these lately because parents know that it's getting closer to report card time. basically, the meetings all go the same. parents are concerned about their child's grades and basically they just want to hear us say that they are doing okay. (at our school, parents can request 'citas' or teachers can also request one with a parent. but pretty much, we have a slot of time open every wednesday that is open to parents conferences - if any parents request one). but today, we had an interesting parent cita. the mom was genuinely concerned about her child's attention span in class and at home and the fact that he seems very unmotivated to do anything to do with school (study, read, parties, field trips...it all bored him) but it was my first experience with a crying mother. i didn't know what to do. we just comforted her and told her that we would figure out the problem and see what it is that her son is lacking in motivation. maybe there are children in his class that are being bully-ish to him? maybe he doesn't understand and feels stupid? maybe he's bored? it's interesting - and i'm eager to find the source of his apathy towards school. this was definately something to add to the list of things teachers deal with - crying parents.

ok, that's about it!

i love you all! :)

-meggie

sleeping in

S U N D A Y

it's okay to be lazy

and sleep in way too late

and sit around

all day

and not really accomplish anything.

so it's dia de los muertos time in mexico.

tradition here is people build alters to people in their family who have died.

with their favorite foods/alcohol/pictures and such.

colleen's neighbor built his alter to michael jackson. rip.

this week at school was definately a roller coaster. Monday was probably the worst day at school i have had so far. BOTH of my classes were really really disrespectful and did not listen and frustrated me so much. i'm sure it wasn't all the students though. i was probably not very patient from the beginning and hence the students not being very respectful. at the end of the day on Monday i just sat at my desk and came up with all of the reasons that i have wanted to be a teacher my whole life. i had to remind myself that there WILL BE days like that and it's part of the job. and i have to learn to overcome the bad days because the good ones are more frequent :)

then, on the other end, thursday & friday were 2 of the best days! complete opposite. i actually got to TEACH new things and we did lots of fun activities and the students had fun and so did i! days like this remind me why i'm a teacher.

two of my students told me that their moms set them up emails and they wanted my email address so they could send me an email. of course, i gave them my email. this year is "the year of technology" so i think it's special that they are learn

ing email at such a young age. anyway, they emailed me that night. here are the 2 emails i received. so presh.

1. Hello Miss Megan,I wanted to sed you that I Love you from hear to the stars.goodby

2. hi teacher megan you are the best teacher in the world, you are star you are beautiful.

i loved it.

it's funny how little things can make your day :)

on wednesdays, i always write a sentence on the board and the students copy it for their morning work to practice handwriting and spelling words. this sentence said "inside the box, i found lots of new pets! i found some dogs and even a baby turtle" (spelling words were box, pets, dogs, turtle) but this sweet lil' boy obviously found some dogs and a baby boy inside his box....

i really love where we live. the little community around us is really cute. i realized this when i walked home from school the other day. i've made some new friends with the workers who live near us. for example, there is a new healthy food restaurant and the owner told us that whatever we want, we can just tell him and he can make it for us. (um, do i hear a personal chef?). there is a little corner store and the man that owns it is PRESH and he always has a greeting with a smile. then, there's the ladies at the laundromat. one older woman, she has one tooth in the front. and her daughter, i'm assuming. but everytime i walk by they greet me by name "hola meegan!" i love it. it's really great.

well, yawl please pray for:

- laiza's family. her brother was killed on thursday in mexico. pray for comfort and peace in their lives as they struggle with the loss.

- our trip to acapulco (this friday through tuesday); safe traveling and exploring the city

- ty & erin, ty as he's starting a new journey in his life in the military & erin as she works hard to be at peace with him gone from alabama..

- my students

that's all, folks.

-meggie