June 12, 2014

Spanish class!  Brandi and I went to our first Spanish class today.  It is just the two of us and the professor.  They have set this class up to help us with conversations with parents.  The professor began by discussing the beginning of a conversation with parents.  You begin with hello, then ask how they are doing, move on to how their week was, discuss the weather and then get down to the actual point of the conversation.  She said that Mexicans don't care to get right to the point.  They like to have a little "chit chat" (my word) before jumping into the heavy stuff.  I kind of wanted to explain to her that most people are not fond of jumping to the point.  That's not exclusive to Mexicans.  :-)

After some Spanish, the professor moved on to the educational system and how it is set up in Mexico.  You have several modules of schools:  public, private, rural and special education.  All schools have to meet the Secretaria de Educacion Publica (SEP) requirements.  However, the private schools can deviate more than the others.  Rural schools are the poorest of schools.  They may not have electricity.  The teachers are only expected to teach the very basics--reading and writing.  We will go observe one of these schools next week.  It's been a very interesting time learning how the schools are set up.  One of the things that the professors have told us is that many of the people that are migrating to the US are from the rural area.  The children may have been in school but the quality of the education is very poor.

Since we didn't do anything extremely exciting, I thought I would tell you about our routine.  We take a bus every morning to school.  We walk a couple of blocks to catch it.  It costs 6 pesos.  The bus doesn't automatically stop for you, you have to wave it down.  It's best to have exact change, otherwise you have to hold on for dear life while you wait for change--the bus driver takes off as soon as you are on the bus.  We have learned the hard way to make ourselves seen when it is time to get off the bus.  We missed our stop a couple of times.  Once you are on the bus it is best not to look out the windows.  If you do, you will see the bus come within inches of cars, people, other buses, and bicycles.  It keeps my prayer life alive and well!!  I will try and video tape one of our rides.  :-)

Walking is another major part of our daily life.  The minimum we seem to walk is 3 miles per day.  This walking is a lot different than walking down a sidewalk in Tulsa.  The sidewalks are uneven, have unexpected holes, bricks that give way, etc.  Your eyes always have to be looking down so you don't trip or fall into something.

Crossing the street is another talent we have acquired.  Everybody BUT pedestrians have the right-of-way.  It is very dangerous if you are not paying attention.  Seriously though, nobody stops for people. Well actually nobody stops for anybody or anything.  They just lay on their horn and you better move.

We have also gotten used to grabbing a cab.  We are pretty good at telling them where we need to go. Calling a cab though is a real pain.  I can talk my way through saying I need a taxi, at such and such place.  However, they start asking all kinds of questions that we don't understand and we usually give up.  If we are at home, our host mom calls for us.

It is the rainy season here.  That means that you always have to have a poncho or rain jacket with you.  Most of the time though the weather is perfect during the day and around 8pm it storms.  It rains a good part of the night which is wonderful for sleeping.  They told us that in August and September it rains all day and night!  I'm so glad we are here in June.  :-)

The people are very nice and helpful.  They don't seem to mind that our Spanish is broken and sometimes not understandable.  They have been very patient with us.  Most mornings we stop at a convenience store call OXXO.  The same guy is there every morning.  When we walk in he smiles at us, knowing that it is probably going to take some time for us to answer him.  He now knows that we don't want a receipt and we probably don't have exact change.  :-)

We are almost at the halfway mark.  I am feeling more comfortable speaking Spanish but still need to work on vocabulary.  I am so thankful for a translation app on my phone!

Tomorrow is another day of Spanish class and a stop at Chedraui, a large store similar to Walmart.  It's funny the things you get excited about when you don't have regular access to them.   Hasta mañana!