El Maestro

Once more far too long since my last post, but still, here I am now, and at least I have a few new things to talk about. I've properly started teaching now - two lessons a day helping teachers from 10-12, and various extra activities in the afternoons to help the students that want to learn (the minority). All that rubbish about how the English don't value their education as much as anyone else isn't true either: It's true that most English kids don't value their education, but nor do most Mexicans. I've got a pretty stress free existence, working between four and six hours a day, four days a week, so I'm left with plenty of time to get out and about, both within Guadalajara and without.

We go away almost every weekend, usually (so far) to beach. That said, I haven't been here long enough to comment on what 'the norm' is in terms of excursions. All I know is that so far I've been to the beach at Manzanillo and to Tequila on the Tequila Express (no really, there is a train specifically for getting hammered on). I'm still loving the country and the people I'm with, and I'm still going out ridiculously frequently, and unlike my house-mate, I've got used to the punishing 6-nights-out-a-week schedule.

Teaching is a new and exciting experience for me. There is the occasional very dedicated and serious student, but mostly they just like to take my photo, ask if I have a girlfriend (girls) or like football (boys), and occasionally throw things at me when my back is turned. Someone even stole my pen while I was writing on the board, which I was wholly unimpressed by. It's also become apparent that I'm sxpected to be able to handle a class of 60 screaming murderous teenagers on my todd, so I'm working on having authority, but so far rather unsuccessfully. The level of English that the students manage to speak here seems to be either surprisingly high or alarmingly low, with not much in between.

I've taken up  a few things here, and even managed to drop some of them already. For example, whilst I still go to the gym three or four times a week, and usually to yoga on thursdays, it only took me one Salsa lesson to be convinced that a) I can't, and may never be able to dance, and b) More important that your ability to dance is the ability of the girl you're dancing with. That is to say, you need to be good at it to lead someone who doesn't know what they're doing, but if they do then it really doesn't matter so much. Thankfully, all Mexicans and most of the other volunteers can dance. They've been here longer than me anyway, I have a (weak) excuse.

I'm almost completely settled in here now (I've even got used to the spicy food), and I managed it, much to everyone's surprise, without being ill. The fabled 'turista' (getting ill just because everything is completely different to your home country) didn't get me at all. In fact, considering how much I've been going out and how little sleep I've been getting sometimes, I'm pretty surprised that I haven't been ill. Along with the other bits of settling in, such as being able to actually find where I live, and learning that you can get anywhere in a cab for half of what they first demand, my Spanish is improving hugely, which is a relief. I had a horrible image of getting here and speaking English so much that my Spanish never got a chance. My French, on the other hand, seems to have almost entirely disappeared; I suppose that's just the way it goes.

I'm going to try and post once a week from now on, so hopefully you'll all be a bit more up to date with it all, but if nobody starts leaving me comments, I might have to give up. Come on, stop being so boring!

Related posts:

1. Dancing in Mexico