Conference, part 1

Last week I was invited to attend a teleconference, as part of a larger conference, with students in Pennsylvania. They wanted me there partly to help with any English questions. Unfortunately the conference didn`t go that well. There were a lot of technical problems, which seems to often be the case with these kinds of things. First we couldn`t hear each other, than one side could hear, now both, oh...we lost you again, etc. Plus the time delay is always tricky. There was some exchange back and forth, but it was still disappointing. They were chatting (we typed and they talked), once all hope was lost, and decided to try again the next day, but with fewer people and with a less high-tech approach which might have fewer problems.

Some of the students here agreed to meet at the university and then go to the Pennsylvania professor`s house, one had come here to help facilitate the exchange. It was going to be there because the conference was using all the rooms for other things that day. We met and headed to the bus stop. The first bus was full which means we probably would be later than we said. We call the professor to find out that she had sent one of us an email in the morning saying that she was canceling the teleconference. The problem is the person a) doesn´t have email at her house and b) probably wouldn´t have checked it even if she had. Students here are not obsesive-compulsive about their email like at home. The professor had sent an email earlier in the morning to her students in Penn. asking them if they were still coming and noone had replied either way. Some of our students were already missing class, which is much more serious here and you need some sort of note of explanation, so they still wanted to try and see if the students in Penn. would show up, but the professor didn´t want to. We explained to her that we were on the bus and already on the way, but she basically told us, well...you can get off the bus at the next stop. (I wasn´t the one talking to her, but that was the relayed message) We were a little hurt. It didn´t seem like that big of a deal to see if they were there or not. If they didn`t show up, they didn`t show up. We wouldn`t be any more disappointed and at least that way we knew we had done what we said we would. That is how it seemed to us anyway.

We ended up going back to the school :(

Number 1

I`m going to write a few shorter blogs. I think it`s easier to read that way.

Some little things that you might find interesting.

Things that I like
- my family and friends
- most everyone has been kind and helpful, willing to share what they have or go out of their way to help
- it`s very pretty, especially along the water
- i haven`t been ripped off by a taxi (knock on wood)
- the bus drivers always try to be helpful...even when they`re not sure what the gringos are saying

Things that I don´t like:
- trash thrown everywhere
- sewage smells that come out of nowhere
- the bugs in the house
- things are left uncapped, uncovered (like the boxed milk in the fridge or the toothpaste)
- waiting for things to start or people to arrive

Things I have to remember to do:
- greeting everyone is important, with a handshake and kiss is even better
- tip the grocery store baggers
- use small bills at the small mom-and-pop stores, like the neighborhood "grocery store"

I can`t think of anything else at the moment.

English Class

The class has slowly disintegrated. I'm not sure if I'm not a good teacher, if I've lost my novelty, or they have decided that they don't want to learn English. But they have stopped coming to class, even when they said they would, like today. They have said that their work schedules' conflict with the class, but only in the last two weeks? Maybe that is partly true, but it seems like something else is going on as well. Today, I decided I would change classes and try teaching some of the teachers. That was the originally plan, and maybe it will be better. It's too bad I won't have that much time with them, not sure how much I will be able to teach them.

Mi Familia y Casa

from left... Mimi, Adriana (a family friend), Martha
in front... Joseline

You can see about half of this
room. The other half has a
large sofa in it and
a rocking chair.

Here´s the kitchen. I`m sure a lot

smaller than most of yours, but

it works surprisingly well. You just have

to get used to it.

The bathroom, also a
little different. It is a shower
stall at the back and to the
right of that is a shelving
unit that stores everything
for the bathroom.

I`m feeling better! Yay! I finally went to work this week, my first day. Apparently most of the telemarketers had gone out the night before, so they were all coming in wearing sunglasses. I think they must have known that the supervisor wasn`t going to be there today. Because of that, nobody did a lot of work...everybody was just hanging out, listening to music, talking, etc. I`m not sure if it is a cultural thing to not work when the boss isn`t around or if it has more to do with something else - it`s a strange concept to me. Anyway, I felt weird trying to get anything done, so I ended up having an easy day. My students at the university now have job conflicts with my class, so we can only meet on Mondays - no class either. I still was really tired this afternoon, but at least I`m feeling better.

Hopefully I can upload some photos this weekend. The computer at the school isn`t recognizing my camera.

....

It`s late, but I can`t sleep....my woos continue. This past Saturday I was going to write a very cheerful post about not having been sick for two weeks. That was until I woke up Saturday morning with a horrible pain in my abodomen. I finally went to the doctor on Monday afternoon and got some medicine. It didn`t kick in right away, which made me a little nervious and my mother feel completely helpless. I thought it had finally started working this afternoon. The pain seemed to be going down everything was looking up again...of course, it was teasing me, and, at the moment, I feel like there is a knife lodged in there somewhere. It is almost as if this is not meant to be. I have been sick 5 times already, 4 stomach related, and I don`t know how much more I can take. I`m hoping this medicine will work and I can give it one more chance. Sorry to be so depressing, but I wanted to fill everyone in on what has happened.

Mexican Ingenuity

Normally you have to make things work here, because you probably don`t have everything you need. There aren`t a lot of resources. This past Friday we had a small birthday celebration for one of the telemarketers. Everyone pitched in to buy a cake and it finally arrives, but nobody bought plates or a knife. So, we use pieces of paper folded in half for plates, printer paper, and, to dish out the cake, someone had a small plastic knife to cut and a ruler to scoop it out. It actually ended up working fairly well; I just avoided thinking about what could be on the ruler while I was eating my piece of cake. It turned out to be a pretty good cake...even for me.

The other example happened in my English class, that same day. People kept knocking on the door because there was a conference in the next room and they thought it was in our room. The students made a sign saying "Do not disturb. This is not the right room. This is an English class." It was something like that. There wasn`t any tape though, so to make it stick to the door they used the gum someone was chewing. Not sanitary albeit effective. My examples aren`t the normal maybe, but it helps give you an idea of things.

This past weekend - Sept 27-28th

I`ll try to keep you updated and fill you in on things that I haven`t talked about from the past few weeks as well. This weekend I had fun. I went out on Saturday night with a friend from work. The place was called Oysters and we had fun dancing. Jose was actually born near Mazatlán, but grew up in Oregon. He and one of his brothers moved down here a few months ago; their mother moved back down to take care of her parents as they are aging. Anyway, Oysters is an open-air bar but with club music and lots of dancing too. I probably stayed out too late, but slept in to compensate.

On Sunday I had been invited to a party with some of my "students". That sounds weird to say, but it`s the most appropriate description, I guess. We were supposed to meet at a bus stop at 4pm, so since I`m not sure how long it will take me to get there, I leave a little earlier than I needed to. Plus when I got to the stop to pick up the bus it was there in about 30 secs rather than having to wait 5 or 10 mins for it. I arrive at the meeting spot about 15 mins early, only to find out that the meeting time has changed to 4:30pm instead. It was really hot out, but luckily there was a supermarket next to the stop, so I could walk around in air conditioning for a while. Conde finally showed up at 4:45 and Melissa and Paola at 4:55. I guess I don`t need to worry about being late next time. We had to take another bus to the party and it turned out to be someone`s birthday party. It was a small gathering of friends and we ate sebiche(?). It`s a mix of chopped up vegetables and some sort of fish with lime juice. This one was shrimp and also had some spicy peppers, so it was very spicy for me. They even commented on the spice, so you can imagine what I was feeling. One bad thing about this group is that they smoke a lot, but they at least try to be polite about it. There was also a lot of beer drinking, although not from me. We listened to music and joked around. I didn`t end of leaving until about 9:30pm, but most of them stayed out late...until after 12am (and they had morning classes). So, all in all it was a pretty good weekend.