WHEW!

Ok, so times are really really really busy here... yet they are not busy at all at the same time!  My days are quick and dirty here.  I wake up at 5:45 and I wait by the highway for my one of my wonderful new friends, Adriana to pick me up every single morning.  I feel like a 'highwaywoman' if you know what I mean.... Anyhow, we get to school at approximately 6:45 and I have 15 minutes to get ready before the morning guard.  Thank god I only have morning guard twice a week.... School starts at 7:15 and goes straight until 2:20.  STRAIGHT! Yes, the kids do have a lunch break at 10:30 - 11:15, but the teachers do not, we must be on guard duty at that time.  We can eat, but we must be on guard watching the kids.  There is no recess here.  This is considered recess.  So, I must try to use the bathroom and eat and work and do everything at that time. Unlike guard duty in Canada, I am allowed to sit down and to leave my post to use the restroom. There are days, when my students do not have any specialities, where I do not have even one minute for rest.  So, at the end of the day, I feel like I have run a marathon.  Canadian teachers, never complain about lunchtime meetings, nor about prep time. Even during my prep time, I will be sitting in my classroom and my director almost always comes in and has impromptu meetings with me....

The kids here are really really active. Discipline here is different.  I am doing my best and they are learning my ways.

Last night was parents' night.  The parents were so excited to have me at the school to teach their children English, when I was introduced to the school, everyone cheered.  The parents here are really really lovely and extremely supportive.  I even have a little group of mothers who are Jewish who are already planning a Rosh Hashana dinner for me.

Now is where I take the opportunity to apologize for falling out of touch and not writing.  But so many things have been happening all at once here!  That, along with the fact that my internet at home is dodgy at best, have left me with not much time to really sit down and write.  I did two weeks of staff training at the school before the kids even started. Then, the kids started and it was quite a whirlwind of activity.  And then, this past weekend, I moved! I moved to a much larger, nicer, closer to work, more permanent place.  It is actually rather lovely.

Yes, that is a balcony with a hammock.  I plan on spending many many many hours there...

Now, I mentioned that I have a friend Adriana. She is awesome. I have actually met many new friends here, but Adriana and I do tons of stuff together.

 This is us at our first 8:00 am Saturday Vinyasa Yoga class on the beach

And this is the view from where we do our Yoga.  I have also been going to the Wednesday night Ashtanga Yoga class, also overlooking the beach.... So I get to see sunrise and sunset.

It rains here. It rains alot.... but then, it will be sunny again. I was swimming in the sea last week....It started out as hot and sunny, then it clouded over, got extremely dark and started pouring rain which quickly turned into hail (YES HAIL) then back into sun, all while I was swimming! I now carry a rain jacket and an umbrella in my purse... everywhere I go!

Ok... I think that is enough for now... I will blog later all about the Judo and my trip to Chichen Itza and Coba....

Enjoy!
Love to all,
Tami

My first week in paradise

Ok, if you are reading this, it is because I want you to. Or, you were really bored while surfing the net and came across this blog... So, here it is....

I landed one week ago today, Saturday, August 3, 2013. I flew into Cancun and got right onto a bus to take me to Playa Del Carmen and then into a taxi to take me to my new home, well at least for now.  The studio we are in is a good size for a studio apartment and is very clean with hot water, air conditioning and wife (sometimes). The area it is in is very interesting. It is at the end of a neighbourhood called Colosio, which is on the outskirts of town.  I am about one block behind the big Paradisus resort and in fact, that is the beach that I go swimming at.  It takes about ten minutes to walk to the water from my front door.

What is very interesting about this area of town is that it looks like a slum, but it actually isn't.  You see places that are all run down and falling apart right next to big beautiful homes behind large walls. Also, home that from the outside might look like shitboxes, are actually not... I am learning.  We are hoping to move closer to the centre of the city, but just need a chance to get there to look.

My school.  My school is also an interesting place.  First things first. The campus is amazing. Check it out
Instituto Tepeyac Xcaret
And the other teachers are phenomenal people.  They are all like a family.  Everyone hangs out together, helps each other, goes to the beach after work together. Even the directors and principals are all supportive and familial in a way that I have not seen before, not in any school in Canada. Almost immediately, one of the teachers realized that she drives by my neighbourhood, so I just have to walk to the federal highway and she picks me up and drops me there every day.  I have already been invited out to the beach and to people's homes without question.  I have yet to do that as I am still settling in and doing my chores around here that must get done in order to be able to start working in one more week with the children.
Education in Mexico is... different.... they are only now beginning to think they should teach in a more similar way to the way that I learned how to teach in teachers college 11 years ago.
This will be an interesting year.....

Another interesting thing I have noticed here...
In Toronto, when it rains, it cools everything down.  Here, when it rains, everything gets hotter...