Hola Everyone!
I have officially finished my first week of language school in Cuernavaca so I figured I would give an update of a day in my life here and some things that I’ve learned!
A Day at School
Each morning classes begin at 8. Luckily, I only live a 5 minute walk away from campus. For meals, we all have assigned seats, and in the morning Isabel leaves us fruit, cereal, and yogurt. Always yogurt, I guess the bacteria is supposed to help protect our foreign stomach’s from other evil bacteria we might come across in Mexico. For the first three hours of the day I meet with a girl named Ana. I’m not exactly sure what her credentials are, but I’m thinking she is a graduate student in psychology. We spend that time talking only in Spanish about psychology and education in Mexico. I love these three hours! I usually do a lot of reading aloud and then we discuss what I’ve read. The first 2 or 3 days we were reading a description of a psicologia de educativo (school psychology). Now, you are probably thinking this was a novel, but in reality it was only about 4 pages long. However, when I have to ask what every other word means it takes a really long time! Ana speaks great English, but only uses it when I ask what a word means, and I then still don’t understand the explanation she provides in Spanish. Each day after class this week I’ve had at least 3 new pages of vocabulary ranging from drug addiction, to thinking, to development, etc. At the end of our time together she has this “game” that we play. She turns over a bunch of cards and I choose one. Whatever the card says, I have to discuss the effect of the topic or the relationship the topic has to healthy childhood development. The first card I turned over was cloning! Wow - I really struggled with that one. The next one was anorexia and bulimia, which was a little easier. It takes so much energy for me to come up with the words I need to communicate my opinion, but it is really fascinating to have exchanges with Ana. She tells me about her own beliefs or the beliefs of the culture regarding these issues. Anyway, I really enjoy that time. The last two days we’ve been reading various articles or passages about theories or development. Last night, my homework was to summarize Piaget’s stages of development in Spanish! Ay!
After my three hours with Ana, I go to Spanish Class, which is really a grammer class. There are four other people in the class and all of us are very different! One girl is an undergrad at Texas Tech, one woman (who is likely in her late 60s) is from Arkansas and works a lot with the Mexican population there through her church, another man is from Dallas and is here with his wife (he’s probably in his 50s), and another guy is in his 20s and is a firefighter in Phoenix. There are people here of all ages, many are college students but there are also people here for lots of other reasons. Spanish grammer class is usually a good time as well, the maestro (teacher) that I have is really nice and loves to sing! He’s always turning something into a song. Classes finish at 2pm and I usually check my email quickly or do some chatting, and then we have to be home by 2:30 for la comida (basically lunch) which is the largest meal of the day in Mexico. I’m always excited to see what she has prepared for us! We always have soup and then the meal. Today, we had lentil soup and then fajitas…mmmm. Poor Victor (the dad) is on a low sodium diet and he always gets a really simplified dry-looking meal, then there are Ariel, Juan, and I all stuffing our faces with this really great food! Oh, one more thing about school. On Wednesday afternoons I meet with a clinical psychologist for an hour who speaks to me in English. Praise God! Actually, it’s nice to have a mix of English and Spanish because the English fills in the gaps that I miss in Spanish.
Teachers on Strike in Morelos
Cuernava is in the state of Morelos and I’ve learned that the teachers here are on a huelga (strike). I believe it’s lasted for about 3 to 4 weeks (after the summer break). People are not happy! From what I can gather, one of the main reasons seems kind of unbelievable to me. In Morelos, when teachers retire they get a pension and they traditionally have passed their job on to a son, daughter, or other relative. If they do not pass the job on to a relative, they can SELL their job to another teacher!! Jobs are not easy to come by in Mexico and there are many people unemployed, so of course a steady job is in high demand. Anyway, apparently the secretary of education in Mexico City has helped pass a law that this is no longer allowed. The law also included requirements for credentialing and continuing education. In public schools here, there really aren’t stringent credentialing requirements for teachers. Take all this with a grain of salt because I’ve only received information from two people and one of those people was relaying the information solely in Spanish! Anyway, fascinating stuff huh??
Ok, enough for now. Tomorrow I’m going on an “excursion” to Taxco, which is known for it’s silver mines and thus for it’s silver jewelry. Any requests, let me know!!
Hope everyone is well!
