luna5

luna5
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

here is my fuzzy total eclispe, taken about 8:51pm, click flickr for total

Total eclipse of the moon

 

About 7:45 pm (February 20, 2008) one of the son-in-laws came in to tell us about the lunar eclipse happening. Paul had told me earlier in the day but I didn't really pay attention as most of them are in the middle of the night so I never seen them. Well, here since it was so early within 20 minutes or so the entire family was on the front lawn watching the eclipse. All of us adults in lawn chair watching the moon, while the oldest grandson (16) runs around with all the little ones (2- 3 yr olds and 1- 4 yr old). It felt like the 4^th of July. Everyone out on the lawn watching the sky!! I called Paul as we didn't know if it was a full or partial, it's a full!  So for about a hour we all sat outside and enjoyed nature at it's best.

Meanwhile, Paul really wanted to see it, can't due to the fact it is raining in Houston, but Caitlin went up to Houston to a free rally to see former President Clinton. If I had been in Houston that is where I would have been too. I really encourage the girls to go, how often do you get to see either a future, current or past president of the US. All in all, a really memorable evening.

 

My really fuzzy eclipse photos will be on flickr.

Week 5'ish    20^th of February 2008

 

February 17, 2008, Happy Birthday Miss Melanie, she is entering her final "teen" year, the 19^th birthday! She sounded happy on the telephone and her dad made tuna casserole as requested!! I was able to really enjoy a very nice conversation with her, so that made my day!

 

On Saturday Feb. 16^th I went up to Mexico City with the kids in my program to visit the home of Frida Kahalo and what I thought was the home of Diego Rivera, the incredible muralist. I have been to Fridas house before but we didn't see Diego's home we saw some sort of huge giant lava rock building, sort of castle like that was apparently created by him to hold all of his pre-Hispanic artifacts. This was a building full of rooms with about 20-30 foot ceilings and he made mosaics in each of the ceiling of figures from the Aztec culture. All the floors were made of marble. Up on the balcony he created more mosaics out of the marble, more of the Aztec symbols along with his fave communist symbol. I was a bit baffled as to why a supposed communist would create such a grandiose building to hold stuff that belong in a real museum not personal one. I guess that is the dichotomy of artists…?? Supposedly he died before the completion of this building and so it was finished by his pals, and open to the public free of charge.

 

Sunday, Feb 17^th, I went with Mercedes, (my host Esmeralda cousin who asked me to tutor indigenous college students English). She picked me up at 9am and as we drove the 20 min. to their dorms, I really doubted that a bunch of 20yr olds would be getting out of bed to practice English. Boy, was I wrong. Slowly but surely, there ended up being about 15+. All with eager faces and seemingly genuinely interested. Between Mercedes trying to explain to them in her broken English what I was saying, my Spanish, we all ended up having some really good laughs. About half of the students kinda understand really basic English and the rest don't really understand anything. I tried to engage them in speaking but just like me, they would get all embarrassed and shy about it (although I am way better about that now). They seemed most puzzled about past tense so I practiced a bunch of irregular verbs in present and past tense!

 

Overall, I was there with the students for about 90 min. and I told them that next Sunday, I hope to bring 3-4 friends from my program so that we can break up into small groups for conversations. I was so impressed by their interest, enthusiasm and the fact they got out of bed at 9am on a Sunday morning. For this next Sunday they have requested 10am! I am okay with that too! 10am works better for my friends in my program, I think I have recruited 3-4 gals to go with me next week.

 

School part is going fine. I finally got approval to drop down from Level 4 grammar class to the Level 3. I am very happy about that, less stress. I also just found out that Level 3 is the writing class and had I known that I would have taken it in the first place as I really wanted to focus on my writing skills. Better late than never. So starting next week, I will be writing small essays every week which I  believe will really improve my writing and I hope also my speaking skills.

 

My speaking skills are coming along. Although at times I think that I am caught between basic speaking and intermediate. At times my sentences get all tangled up but somehow I get my point across anyway. This trip I am so much braver about speaking than ever before. I do still get nervous and intimidated but I just push through it and go for it! My supervisor at my internship, Maricarmen tells me that I am improving, so I will take her word for it! She took me out Sunday evening to see a art exhibit, but it was closed, so then we wanted to go to the movie but all the good ones were way to late, so we just strolled the mall and ate some dinner. I just enjoyed visiting with her and practicing my Spanish.

 

I am posting photos on my flickr acct as my internet speed permits….

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentines Day

To all my friends, family, my darling girls and especially my dear patient husband. He wrote me the sweetest card and I got emails from the girls!!
Candy and chocolate was really flowing at school today. Once again I had really forgotten the date again, but my host Esmeralda wished me a Happy St. Valentines day and I thought it was tomorrow!! I am really calendar challenged here.

Hope you all have a Valentines full of love and chocolate!

xxoo
k

Week 4

Week 4- Surprises Sunday, February 10, 2008

Happy 30 years to my darling husband..we met 30 years ago today at
Teen World USA in Redding CA and have been together ever since! I was
greeted to a surprise phone call from Paul wishing me "happy 30
years", I was thrilled and ashamed to admit it, I not only didn't know
todays date was but hadn't even remembered!! I am so glad he
remembered and called me, really made my ordinary Sunday special.

Anyways, I really thought this past week would shape up to be nothing
but school, boring! A lot of it was, but things improved on Friday.
First, after not really having much homework for a week or so, that
completely changed, I now have about 5 assignments to work on over
the weekend all due next Monday, Tues or Wednesday. 3 essays and bunch
of reading!! Not that homework is really a improvement but the other stuff that follows was the exciting part.
Friday was my internship, I took my bus to Unarte as usual, and as I
walked up to the school, I see my supervisor, Maricarmen leaving in
her car! I yell out her name, she sees me and says for me to get into
the taxi that some students are getting into. Off we go and I have no
idea to where!! Soon we approach at large private high school named,
American School. Which coincidentally is where all the grand kids of
my host family go to school, but only one is in high school, the rest the kids
are in the lower grades at different campuses. Soon I am helping set
up a display table. Unarte is part of a college fair being hosted at
the high school. Mostly I visited with Maricarmen and help with
setting up and tear down of the display. Afterwards, she drove me out
to one of the larger universities here, I can't remember the name
though. The campus is quite large, looks like about 5-6000 attend. Has
all the sporting facilities, including a US style football field. Then
back to Unarte to unload all the stuff. Then I was free to go! So I
walked to zocolo just to see what there is to see, took me 45 mins or
so. Then I decided to figure out my way home on the bus. I only got
lost once but the driver pointed to where I needed to go and so I
found the correct bus and made it back home.

Yesterday (Sat.), Mercedes, my host Esmeralda's cousin, who works for
a non-profit agency, asked me if I would be interested in teaching
English to some students on Sunday's. All the students are from very
rural areas, indigenous and very poor. Her agency gathers up the
financial resources and gives these kids 100% scholarship to come here
to go to university. There is about 30 of them, they all live together
in 2 houses (3 kids to a room) and I will be going out to their houses
and I guess, sit in a room and teach or converse in English to whoever
is interested! I am thrilled and I start next weekend. Apparently,
they are all in English classes at their university but they are in
their first year, so none of them speak English. All the kids speak
Spanish and some speak their native indigenous language as well.
I told Mercedes I was very excited about doing this, then asked her
how to say 'excited' in Spanish, she told me that if I said "excitado"
in Spanish it would mean "excited in the romantic way". Oops.. so the
way to say excited in Spanish is "emotionado" emotional! Another new
word and culture tidbit learned.

Today, I was surprised by Esmeralda, she invited me to go out
sightseeing a little. She took me to the central part of the city, but
we went to the part of city that is the very oldest. So we visited a
mall where they have taken the old walls from the 1800's factory and
incorporated them into modern buildings. It was amazing, basically the
frame of the entire mall is the original brick walls from a 1800's
tannery factory. What was the coolest, was this huge glass area in
the floor of the mall and beneath it revealed rooms of the tannery
and stuff that was dug out during the archaeology excavations years
ago. So you can see where the tannery workers worked, the tools and even a water
system. It was like a museum under the floor of the mall! It was
really fascinating and interesting. After visiting the mall we walked
around a bit, wandered across the street to a little restaurant with a
live jazz band where we enjoyed the music and lunch. The area around
the restaurant seemed to be the art district. Paintings, drawings, and
other art were displayed and for sale up and down the street. I am
planning to go back another day!

Time to get back to my tarea (homework)…it is always looming….

Italian Coffee Company

DSCF2122
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

The largest coffee chain in Mexico. This particular one is on my way to and from school. I pop in almost daily to get a Moka Frappe and use the wireless internet. It is the strongest connection I can find.

Red Blue and Green

If there was a theme to this weekend it was the colors "red, blue and
green". I went to Jalapa, not Oaxaca. As it turns out, violence in
Oaxaca turned up again a day or so before our trip and our director
suggested we not go there at least for now. So we went to Jalapa.
Guess what the citizens of Jalapa are called??? Jalapeños!! Yep, you
got it, guess where the pepper gets its name from… the region of
Jalapa. Small world!!

What about red, blue and green??? As it turns out, I was with 4 other
students, Amanda (Washington State), Kathy (Univ. of Nevada, Reno),
Lloyd (Cal State, Humboldt) and Richie (Univ. Nevada, Reno), ages are
19-22. Kathy and Richie are taking photo classes here in our program
and their assignment for the week is to take photos with the
subjects/objects containing the colors red, blue and green. Soon after
we arrived as we wandered the streets, we were all spotting this color
combination everywhere. So there was lots of stopping and
photographing going on. It was quite fun actually and really gets one
to think about what is around them. So I was even trying to get artsy
shots too, finding colors, textures, lines etc to photograph. I have
put my few attempts at art on my flickr page.

We arrived into Jalapa around 1:30pm on Fri. 2-1-08 and checked into
our hostel, Hostel de Niebla. All 5 us had a room together, 3 sets of
bunk beds. I had my doubts about this hostel but all were unfounded.
The rooms and bathrooms were extremely clean. The hostel provided a
free breakfast or we could cook ourselves in the kitchen. My top bunk
was comfie and I can't complain. All for around $10 a night per
person. The hostel was right in the center of town so we were in
walking distance of all we wanted to see. Friday was just wandered
around to see what there was to see. We found a nice art museum and a
café outside. The café served the best ever cappuccino I have ever
had. I didn't know it, but the state of Veracruz, of which Jalapa is
in, is known for coffee. OMG, is it good!!! I saw several coffee
roasting shops so I had to buy a pound or so of coffee, $3.80, I
couldn't believe how reasonable priced everything was.

We had the best dinner ever on Friday night at a local Italian place.
I had a very yummy plate of pesto pasta and salad. So so good! Went
back on Sunday for lunch as well. I think, just about everything on
the menu was under $5.00, in Houston these dinners would run easily
over $15-20 a plate. The quality and flavor was just incredible.

Saturday we all visited the Anthropology Museum. The state of
Verazcruz is where the famous "Olmec heads" were found and are on
display in this museum. It is believe that the Olmecs were the first
civilization in the Americas. The information in the museum is
overwhelming at the least but just seeing all that history is amazing.
How did these ancient cultures create such large detailed carvings.
Since Richie is a archeology major and Lloyd is a geography major,
both of them had lots of additional facts and experiences to share
about some of the stuff we were seeing and that helped make some sense
of it all.

My travel companions are really delightful young people. All of them
take their education seriously, all want to go out into the world and
make a difference. I wasn't sure I was going to fit in with them, but
we all had very interesting conversations, most of them have traveled
quite a bit, so we had that in common as well. We nickname Richie
"Meriwether Lewis" from Lewis&Clark as he is such a explorer type. He
spent last summer working in the forests of Alaska doing some sort of
archeology surveying or something, so he had earned the role as the
lead explorer in our pack. He and I both had a copy of our Lonely
Planet book with us, so we would find something of interested and head
out. His edition was newer than mine and had much more interesting
descriptions of places. Our favorite was "the fertile drinking
grounds". Friday night, they all went out looking for a club/bar that
was described as "fertile drinking ground". They showed me it the next
day, was a pretty scrappy looking nightclub.

All in all are really successful trip and lots of fun and laughs.
Hopefully we will eventually make it to Oaxaca. Back to reality and
school tomorrow.

Jan. 31, 2008, Week 3 just ending….

Tomorrow I leave for 3 days to visit Oaxaca. I have heard it is very
colonial and beautiful. Last year there were a number of protests and
such but supposedly that is all done now. I am going with 4-5 of the
other students, all around 20 yrs old. Funny to think they are the
same age as my girls but I don't feel at all motherly towards them!
They are all planning to stay in a youth hostel as it is very cheap,
but I will have to wait and see. If the quality is below my standards,
I will be at a nearby hotel. I can rough it if I have to, but if I
don't well… I don't. Sleeping in a huge room with 15 people just isn't
appealing. Some perks do come with age!! Not sure what I will be doing
there but I hear there are museums and ruinas (pyramids), zocolo and
incredible craft markets to visit. By Sunday, the question will be
answered.

Things at school are going well enough. I have so much I should be
reading to prepare for various classes, but I can't get motivated.
One, the deadlines are still a week or so away and it is just boring
stuff, puts me right to sleep! I have decided that level of Spanish
here, is much higher than anything I taken a Univ. of Houston. Much of
the time I feel like I am treading water…..

My one of my favorite classes is Seminar of Spanish, it is really just
a communication class. How is the language used in advertising,
literature, plays, newspapers etc. Today we went on a field trip to
the local office of the largest regional newspaper. Very interesting.
Computers everywhere. We toured the various departments that cycle
through all the various sections of the papers 24 hours a day. Least
newsworthy stuff like social, entertainment go to press around
midnight and throughout the night the various sections based on
importance go to press, then at 3 am is the final section, the front
page. Then the around 4-5 am it is delivered locally and outlying
areas. Some areas as far as 4 hours from here. One cool thing the
local paper does here is that it publish every Sunday a magazine full
of ads of high dollar condos, cars etc and photos of the social elite
of Puebla. The proceeds from this ritzy glossy magazine goes towards
publishing a small version of the paper that is delivered for free out
in the very rural areas, not sure if it is delivered daily or weekly
but it is nice that they want to make sure all economic levels get the
news.

Congratulations go out to my Melanie, she got her drivers license today!!!

Los Lagos in Jalapa

Los Lagos
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

2 big lakes with large walk ways all the way around them. To see more photos hit the flickr link on the left.

My casa

My casa
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

The front house is my house and the 2 houses behind belong to two daughters and their families.

Universidad de Iberoamericana

DSCF2044
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

Here is looking at the building with some sort of statue in the front of the school. My university here is a Jesuit school therefore there is a catholic church on campus and few statues too.

Check flickr for more photos

Looking into my bedroom

DSCF2033
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

Here I am standing in the door way. To the left is the bathroom, to the right is my bed. Outside the windows, to the right is my "private patio" that is really a walkway. Although the cute little dog, Pamela, stares at me through the window!!

More thoughts...

Yesterday I bought air time for my cell phone. I gave the guy at the
cell phone store, $200.00 pesos ($20) and went off with my little card
with the the code that I put in my phone to update my airtime. Well,
the little number wouldn't work. Kept saying, "incorrect" numbers. So
after walking to 2 different cell stores today, I found out that my
card is a stolen card. I ask them "does their cell phone stores
normally sell stolen phone cards", of course no. Since the clerk at
yesterday's store failed to give me a receipt, I have no proof I
bought it for a refund. Lesson learned. From now on, when I buy the
card, I use it then and there. If there is a problem it can be get
fixed.

Cell phones are so frustrating. I bought a new $100 USD cell phone
the other day in the hopes that when Paul calls me, the reception
would be improved. NOPE!! Still is always gamble if he can even get
through to me at all and if he does,"will the quality be good enough
to carry on a conversation or not?". Just never ever know.
Fortunately, I have Skype. Oh, and if I call home with my cell phone
here, the quality is perfect but only cost $3.00 a minute or so. Back
to Skype.

I went to my internship yesterday. We had a nice chat about what I
doing there, my jobs etc and we got it all worked out. So I am helping
Mericarmen, she is their marketing director, I am helping her by creating a student
directory. So I am to go around on my day there getting students
names, etc. That gives me a opportunity to use my Spanish. So I
started that yesterday, then she took me out to lunch, then we went to
Walmart, bought stuff to make a Postolé, a type of soup/stew, went
back to school and made soup. Did some more work, then ate soup and
went home. Over all, it was a very enjoyable day and totally in
Spanish!! I change my hours there from twice a week to only Fridays,
so that makes my schedule easier.

Occasionally, Mericarmen goes on trips to various other cities to
market this art college to high school students and she said if any of
the trips work out to be on a Thur afternoon to Friday she will invite
me. Sounds like fun to me!!

Homework is starting. Here it is either you have none or a ton. No in
the middle. This weekend I have a 14 page packet to complete, read a
40 page story written 100 yrs ago in very old, complicated Spanish and
write a 1 page essay on a legend that comes from my hometown. Since I
couldn't think of any, I have picked Paul Bunyan. I know he isn't
really a CA story but visiting Trees of Mystery on the CA coast when I
was kid made a impact on me. The huge statues of Paul Bunyan and the
Blue Ox were just so cool and seemed so real.

Okay, back to my tarea (homework)...

Week 2

Week 2- Adjustments

I am finally settling into a routine and feeling more comfortable
about what I am doing here. My classes are going well. I really enjoy
my cinema and seminar of Spanish classes. Both relate directly back to
my communication degree that I earned back in the day at Chico. Cinema
is watching movies made by various Latin American (all countries)
directors, generally about social issues. Which I am learning is the
trade mark of a Latin film- documentary form about some social or
political issue.
Seminar is about using the language to communicate in advertising,
writings in books, newspapers, magazines etc. We are going to be going
to visit a newspaper office in the next couple of weeks.
My days are now set. Monday is school till 1 pm than off to the
internship till 5pm. Tues, early day, out at 2p, Wed. long day, out at
5 pm, Thur. early, 2p and finally Friday. No school, just internship
all day 9-5.

Over the past weekend I spent a good deal of time learning the various
bus numbers in my area so that I could use them more comfortably. (I
know Linda….TAXIs!!!). I walked around a lot too. Writing down bus
numbers and watching where they went. I finally figured out.. any bus
that has "Zalvaleta" on it will be on my main cross road and will get
me close enough if not exactly at my cross street. I finally figured
out…if I get on the wrong bus, don't panic, just get off and find
another!! I haven't used any taxis here as they are considerably more
expensive here than Cuernavaca. I hear it is pretty much $5.00 or more
to go any where and apparently there is a big issue with overcharging
foreigners. I am sure I will use them eventually, but not sure why, I
am just a walking/bus kind of gal!! I like the exercise and the
challenge of the buses, maybe I am just strange! So far, I am never in
a hurry, so I have the time for exploring.

In my walking/bus adventures, I found 3 large shopping malls and
Walmart! They have the nicest malls here and on the weekends they are
packed. Also, as part of my work out (walking) I take my computer
everywhere with me! So I am always packing a 8lb or more backpack. I
gotta burn those calories somehow! I digress…I take my computer so I
can surf the internet or use it to call home on my Skype phone.
Mexican businesses seem to be ahead of the internet game than the US,
wireless is everywhere. In the mall when I check for wireless signal
there are so many to choose from. Some, like Starbucks (my old
Starbucks in Cuernavaca was free) want to charge but many others are
free. Italian Coffee Company, the largest coffee chain in Mexico is
free internet at all locations. Fast and efficient too. They are my
main source and the university as well. Many restaurants here have
wireless but only for customers, meaning they provide a password. So
when I am in the mall, I can't use those, only the free connections.

Home life is also settling down. Now that I am adjusting to Esmeralda
ways of doing things, I am starting to feel more comfortable and
visiting with her and her family more and more. She different runs a
different kind of household than my last family and that was kind of a
culture shock in itself. I was so used to being the honored guest and
here I am a guest but I wash my own dishes. My last family kind of
dotted on me, so I felt more of a obligation to go home a lot. My new
situation allows me to come and go more freely, which is a nice
change. Having the grandkids around all the time is okay now too. Time
really does help the adjustment process!! The last few evenings I
have had the nicest long conversations with Esmeralda or her
daughters. It is nice to get to her/them and her/them me, but to also
practice my Spanish. Some days I think "wow, I can really speak
Spanish", others, I think what I am doing here!! I will never get the
hang of this. Today is a good language day!!!

Now lets hope the my adjustment at the Internship takes a turn to the
positive. Monday I was there 2-5p. I was assigned to this lady, named
Mericarmen. She took me to her office, on outside of the building,
somewhat removed from the main part of the school. Had a nice 20-30
min. visit with her. Then she showed me some papers that she wanted
typed into a word document then left. So I typed for 3 hours in a very
cold room, ALONE. Tuesday I went to my program director and told him I
wasn't comfortable about being alone all my time there. Of course, he
said "give it time" and he will talk to them. What is hard is that all
the other students doing internships in my program here are in a
orphanage teaching English to kids, and they are frustrated as they
don't know how to go about it since they are told to just do it. I
could really get into developing a mini program to teach English. That
would be so fun!! Darn it….. Being a teaching major, it is difficult
that I can't be in place working with kids and teaching. Oh well, I
will give it more time and if I continue to be the lone typist I will
rethink things. Hopefully next week or so things will be much more
interactive and enjoyable. Oh, and the lattes aren't free after all.
Not sure why that one was free but the rest are a $1.20. Still can't
complain and they are tasty!!

Overall, a successful week of adjusting…

Spanish tidbit: You know what puzzles are called in Spanish?
Rompecabezas….which means "broken head". I thought, how appropriate..
puzzles always made me head hurt which is why I don't like them!!

Paul and I

Paul and I
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

We took a 2 day trip to see Austin and San Antonio before I left. Here we are visiting the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.

Main Cathredal

Main Cathredal
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

Main Cathredal

Most every Zocolo has a cathredal next to it. This is Puebla. Puebla was the first city established by the Spaniards when they invaded in the 1600's. Since they were eager to convert the locals, there more churches in Puebla than any other city in Mexico.

Zocolo in Puebla

Zocolo in Puebla
Originally uploaded by kmallory59

Every Mexican city has a central square that is called "Zocolo". It is generally a central meeting place for lots of activities. Yesterday when I was there, lots of people, venders selling whatever and several bands playing. Always a great place for people watching!

My Internship

Ignacio the director of my study abroad program drove me over to my
new "job" yesterday (Fri 1-18-08), doing some sort of technology at a
small art college called "Unarte". I tried to explain to him my tech
experience at Alcott Elementary in Redmond was over 10 years ago. I
have no idea what he has told the school owners. He kept saying I am a
expert! I am thinking what on earth is he telling these people. I
asked him why he didn't put me in a school with children since that is
my most current experience but he said once he read my resume and saw
that I had computer experience he saw a place for me!!

He told the ladies of the school they had to help me find which bus to
take home after work. So one of the teachers drove me home. Sat in her
car on the corner of my street and the main blvd, watched for a
passing bus and when she spotted one, we followed it! Fortunately it
went in the direction of my new job! I now have a way home!! Question
that is still unknown is how do I get to the art college from my
university! I guess, that is Mondays problem.

So I spent my first afternoon entering book bibliography type info in
a computer in the school library. One of teachers asked me if I can
"make programs", is that what Ignacio told them??, that I am a
programmer?? I said NO, I only use them!! She left, I return to
entering book info into a word document. If this day is any
indication of my future there, I don't think I will be doing much,
since I am not a programmer!! But I did find out I get FREE lattes at
the snack bar!!

The school does kinda have a cool, eclectic, artsy atmosphere.
Students are doing; photography, plastics, jewelery making, painting,
metal works of some sort. The ages of students vary from young to
older than me. That was nice to see! Since I am the only "mature"
student in my university that I have seen.

I will be working Monday afternoons 2-5p and all day Fridays. I will
try to take photos next week of the school. It is a pretty cool
looking building.

I sure hope I am not the school librarian!

Week One

Week 1


Once again I have gotten through the first week whirlwind of things happening all around me and not even sure what I am doing.

Monday (Jan 14, 2008)The flight down was fine. I met a few girls on the plane heading to the same program. My biggest concern was if Mexican Immigration would write the correct number of days of my trip on my tourist visa. If they wrote my days in Mexico less than my trip, I would have to go to the Immigration office here. I haven't heard a good thing about that process. Fortunately, the woman at the immigration desk was friendly and I suggested 150 days (my trip is 120) she asked me what I was doing, I told a student for a semester, so she wrote 180 days!!! Wow, I was thrilled! I later found out that if she had written 150, I think I would have had to go to Immigration anyways. She saved me a lot of headaches.

I met my "mom", Esmeralda at the school around 9:30pm. She seemed like a very nice lady. Hard to tell much after only a few minutes! I went to bed pretty much right after I got home. School the next day was very long. 8am-6:30pm.

Tues- Orientation about all the rules and regs of the school, how things work in Puebla and the school. Tour of the school, tour of Puebla on one of those double decker buses. At the end of the day, I was exhausted and still didn't know what my classes where or how the schedule worked. During the orientation I took a Spanish placement exam! Those generally don't bring me good news!! If I place below my level that I signed up for then they want me to drop down or sign a contract saying I understand I am in classes above my level, I accept whatever bad grade I earn!! Isn't that nice!!!

Wed.- Finally find out about my classes. I have registered for 4 classes via Univ. of Houston. 3 are required for my bachelors, the 4th is a spare! Due to time conflicts I had to drop the spare but since I still open times in my schedule, I added 2 more classes, which is really one. It is 2 advance grammar classes, one is 7 weeks the other is the following 7 weeks. So once I got my schedule all worked out, I have classes Mon-Thur but different classes on M-W and Tu-Thr, with gaps between classes so I can email or do homework.

Mon-Tue-Thr I get out of school either at 1p or 2p, but Wed. I am there till 5pm. I have Fridays off!!

Oh, my placement exam place me at level 2! I am signed up at Level 4!!! Oh well!! I am staying at level 4. If I wasn't in over my head then it wouldn't be normal!! I told the director, my testing issue is that I don't write very well as the program at UH doesn't really have a writing component . Consequently, I have done very little writing, therefore, my grammar isn't that great. But I will do level 4, work very hard and I will survive!!! So far he hasn't presented me with the contract, maybe today!! I found out I won't have to sign the contract (I think) since this advance level 4 classes is audited. Meaning I receive no grade!! Just experience!!

All of my professors stress how "advance" these classes are, the level of Spanish required is very very high!! It seems to me, every step of this process is very advance and if it wasn't advance it wouldn't be worth taking. My disadvantage is my small vocabulary and grammar weakness but I can make up for it in hard work. Today in a state of mild confusion, I decided this is my education, my money and my time. If I want to be challenge than I will do it! There!! So I get a C- in these classes so be it! I will know I tried my best and that is all I can do!! But I won't quit!!

I found out what my internship will be. I will be the 'tech lady" at a small art college. I was stunned. Apparently after reading my resume, that I submitted, they saw my job at Alcott Elementary and decided that I would be a fit! Yikes, my time at Alcott was 10 years ago!! Once again, hold my breath and jump! I go over to the school tomorrow (fri) to meet the owner/boss. More to come!!

There are about 25 students in the program from all over the US. Including one guy from Humboldt State and a Japanese exchange student who attends Chico State! Small world!
Also one of my professors told us, her husband is a PhD from Univ. of Texas, Austin, she has one daughter attending Chico State, one in college in Germany and one in college in Scotland! Her 4th daughter is here in high school.

I am the only student in the program (and I think the whole school) over 25! Other tidbit, of the 25 or so kids here in my program only 4 are guys!! Lots of girls!!!

Time to head to school.

Miss Wilson Marie

Miss Wilson Marie
Originally uploaded by kmallory59