Back, but with what to write?

I have heard that some folks have been checking my blog hoping for an update, only to be disappointed. Well, some folks, be disappointed no more. I am writing another blog.

The problem is that I don't know what to write. It's been so long since my last update that there is too much to update and I just don't know where to begin. I continue start and delete each entry. But here goes...

The most exciting things to happen recently were that today it was cold and I made gingerbread cookies. Big deal, say you americans! Yes, in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the land of eternal 90 degree weather, we got down to at least 60 last night, I feel, and I was wearing a long sleeve shirt all day yesterday. I had a friend, Katy Wade, come to visit me in january and she had kindly brought me a gingerbread cookie mix, and what with the cold-for-Tuxtla weather and nothing to do on a sunday afternoon, we baked them up. This is a huge luxury, as I don't have an oven, and Edwin's family praised their deliciousness, his business minded mom exclaming we could have a successful cookie baking business at Christmas, if we packaged them and put a bow on them, people would buy them right up, and she's right, because people eat Christmas cookies in movies, and everyone wants to be like the movies, right? Next year.

You would never believe how much I think about the weather. I am always exclaiming, 'its dry! it feels humid! there's a nice breeze!! Do you feel all the dust in the wind??? My hands feel chilly! The sun feels strong!!!' I never thought this was strange until recently, when I commented to a collegue (thats right, i have collegues, im a professional), 'hey it's february,are you ready for the dusty windy afternoons like last year???', to which my collegue responded, 'what? I've lived here for 3 years and I've never noticed there to be an increase in wind nor dust...' (okay, he didn't say NOR, shoot me.) Edwin doesn't seem to notice or care either way about the weather; he investigated and found that scientists discovered that redheads are more sensitive than other people to temperature changes and changes in sunlight; they discovered this doing some sort of whatever kind of test they would do (putting innocent redheads in various heated cages?). Whatever, its probably true, which makes me an rare and sacred weather reading oddity with magical powers like albinos in africa (see movie 10,000 B.C., in theatres now, you might not like it, that was just for reference purposes).

So I've been teaching and I love my school, I love the other teachers, I love the students, and I love the atmosphere: relaxed, well decorated with plants, happy faces, no stressed rich kids...a contrast to former whitewashed walls, wooden desks, and kids with a lot of homework and behavior problems because their parents gave them cell phones and ipods for their 6th birthday.

But the BEST part is that I'm working with kids; one class of 6-8 year olds and another of 9-11 year olds. The 6-8 year olds are so halarious. They speak to me in spanish and can't seem to understand that I want them to respond to me in english. For a long time I was frustrated by this, I felt like they weren't learning anything and expressed my greif to the director. He assured me that kids at that age don't need to speak in english just yet, but if I can just talk to them in english and they understand a lot, then we have succeeded. So, so far they can do like 60 commands, everything from 'touch your shouders!' to 'crawl on the floor like a crocodile!' (what purpose those have in adult life, you tell me, but for my kids they seem perfectly relevant.)

I am learning kid humor, which I had forgotten, and I'm becoming a much sillier person. For example, I have learned you can draw a picture of a man lifting weights, or you can draw a picture of a man lifting weights with LOTS OF UNDERARM HAIR!!!!!! ewwwwwwww!!!!! Likewise you can draw a father or you can draw a father WITH HIS TONGUE STICKING OUT!!!! Look at his tongue!!! Did you see the arm hair!!! I bet it stinks!!! Hahaha!!!!'

I am also getting a halarious secret look into little kids' minds. I break the class up into 10 minute segments so they dont get restless, and for one of those segments we have 'worksheet time'. This means they all sit at the table, color their energy away, and have silly adult like conversations. One day I asked them to draw what they want to be when they grow up. One little girl said she would like to be a mother, to which a little boy, completely alarmed and serious, responded, ' don't you know what happens? You stomach blows up like a balloon and then, do you know why you have a little hole in your belly??? Because a baby explodes out of it like an ALIEN!!!!! Bwahghuahaaa (alien exploding noises!!!) Of course, the little girl, alarmed stopped drawing, only to hear another boy's explanation, 'no, that's not it, a doctor takes his knife and slices you open and takes the baby out and then sews you back up!!!' 'Yes, it's true, my mom has a scar!!'

Somehow I'm not certain it would have benefited the girl to know the painful terrifying truth of childbirth, so I just kept my mouth shut and enjoyed being with these silly kids, 'my kids'. I have grown quite attached to them. They bring me presents and hug me and get excited if I give them a 'star'. They also call me Miss.

My class of older students is quite content if I let them pretend they are pokemon characters, and even happier if I let them sit on the floor or simply write their sentences with colored pencils. They bring me mandarins and chocolate.

Basically my life is pretty awesome.

Good god, there's too much to write. That's all for today though. Pictures to come soon. My BF Mckinley and her BF Oscar are coming to adventure next week! Mckin if you read this, i have so many fun things planned!!!!

Paz!