Mexico Breaks Stuff

A lot has happened since my last post. I will get to all of that, but what consumes me at the moment is that I am going to flip out if one more thing breaks. My guitar case, my flip-flops, and my camera have all been casualties of the last few days (though I must thank Isobel for discovering the other zipper on my guitar case). Apparently sand is not good for cameras, and the life expectancy of Old Navy flip-flops drops dramatically to about five weeks once you cross the border.

On the last night of the course, class gave way to a pretty intense party in the courtyard of the school. The lines between students, teachers, and course tutors suddenly no longer existed as the nearly unbearable pressure of the past month was finally released. Eventually the party moved to the beach. Things get a little hazy at this point, but I did wake up the next morning (afternoon) with the ability to fake my way through salsa dancing.

The following week was all about the beach. Sometimes it rained, but the rain made us sleep now and then. We finally got to do a lot of the things that we talked about doing all the time but never had time for during the course. This included things like not freaking out all the time and watching the sunrise over the ocean. We also decided that we missed our students and began stalking them after class and making them come hang out with us. Some of them are now close friends.

Our friendship soon bore some pretty amazing gifts. First Irma took a few of us snorkeling in a cenote (basically a cave with water in it. Wikipedia informs me that it is actually a type of freshwater-filled limestone sinkhole). The next day Guadalupe invited us to have beach and fish where she works about half an hour from Playa. I sware it was the most amazing meal I have ever had. I ate three whole fish by myself. They just kept putting fish in front of me. I think I could have eaten five.

With all major travel plans being constantly pushed back by indecision, five of us set off to Tulum with a three person tent (oh, yeah, the tent was also broken). Tulum is about an hour south of Playa and is absolutely beautiful. I volunteered to sleep outside of the tent (though that is more of an inevitability when you travel with four girls) and was rewarded with some amazing stars and a lot of being really cold. Also, in case you were wondering, sleeping on sand is not nearly as comfortable as one might think. I am doing it again tomorrow night for some reason, though. After the threat of rain pushed us off the beach, we walked over to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. The city was built on the cliffs overlooking the sea which creates a pretty spectacular effect.

I have plans! Well, I have plans for the next four days at least. I am going back to Tulum tomorrow for snorkeling, fishing, and fish partying. From there I will head back to Playa for a couple of days, and then Karen, Irene, and I will be flying to Mexico City on Saturday. I hope to spend parts of the next couple of weeks in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, some city that I can't remember the name of, and Puebla. This is the point where things may get a little nutty. At this point I am hoping that I will have a better of idea of how long I would like to travel and when or maybe where I would like to teach. I plan on passing out resumes along the way, and if I really become attached to one place, I may just stay there. If I have had no such revelations, however, the tentative plan will be to pass through Queretaro and then take a long bus to check out Monterrey. From there I hear that there is this town called Austin that isn't too far away that might be a pretty cool place to be for New Year's.

This is all just speculation, though it is a pretty feasible plan. Returning to Austin will certainly not mean the end of my adventures, but it will let me relax, think about what I really want to do, and get rid of all the crap that I brought with me that I don't want to lug around anymore. There are any number of directions I could go from here, most involving the purchase of a proper backpacking backpack and going to see volcanoes and monkeys. One of my favorite scenarios involves driving my car back to central Mexico, though that would be much better if I had some company. Takers? Mexico? Donations? Good times for all.

Freedom

My course is basically over. I have taught my nine lessons and turned everything in, though I do still have class tomorrow. My drive to work right away has been steadily diminishing, and my plans tend to change from minute to minute. The plan of the moment involves staying in Playa del Carmen for about a week and then going to Guatemala for a few weeks. Then I hope to meet Goldberg, Scott, and Beth in Belize for a bit and to go to Honduras for a little while after that. I would like to travel some here in Mexico as well. Really, I want to go everywhere and see everything. That seems like a good goal. Maybe I will find a job along the way.

Teaching has been great. I feel like I just go up there and talk to my students for an hour. I don't really get nervous at all, which seems a little strange to me. For our last teaching practice, we had the option of basing our lesson on authentic material, so I found an article and did a lesson about the bat colony under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin. The bats actually migrate from Mexico, so it was a good connection.

Planning for teaching is not so great. It takes forever and it is exhausting. The CELTA course also has a very specific way that you are supposed to write up your lesson plans, and this can be very frustrating at times. I am relieved to be done with that. I am trying to convince my friend Irene to get a CELTA tattoo. Seems like a good idea.

My favorite tacos of the moment are from the taco bus (pictured). I have no idea what the place is really called, but I would still call it the taco bus even if I did.

Tonight is the last teaching practice, so everyone will finally be done. I really want to see what everyone is like when they are not under such extreme pressure. This course just looms over you, even when you are on the beach. It's difficult to even enjoy your margarita. I am just now beginning to feel like a real person again, and many of the others have expressed the same sentiment. Rumor has it that there is actually a beach a few blocks from here, so hopefully my next post will include some pictures of la playa.

Tortas Galacticas y Tacos Locos

I have a new system for ordering food here. Basically, I have taken to always just ordering the menu item that sounds the most hilarious to me without reading what it is. I must recommend the Torta Galactica (pictured at breakfast with Barbara (pictured) and Caroline) over the Taco Loco. This can only end well. I have also recently discovered that 10-peso tacos are closer to my residence and are easily two and a half times better than 4-peso tacos. Someone was marveling that there was no Taco Bell. I can't imagine why anyone would ever set foot in a Taco Bell here.

I am still enjoying teaching, but I am also still so tired of being buried in nothing but this course that I still cannot stand to write about it. I will reflect on that once it is over. (Just to give you an idea of how intense this is, there have been 12 class days so far, and I have already taught seven times. It's like going to school and teaching school at the same time while writing all of your lessons from scratch somewhere in between. One of the trainees actually withdrew from the course ten minutes before a class yesterday. It is crazy. OK, I have to stop or my head will explode.) The picture is not the jungle, but rather is the courtyard at the school.

If it doesn't stop being sunny when I'm in class and then rainy during my breaks, I am going to break something.

I bought a guitar the other day for 690 pesos (less than $70 US). It is cheap, came in a big plastic bag, has several minor visible blemishes, and sounds beautiful. It is pretty much the only thing keeping me sane right now.

It would appear that I have some connections through the school that may land me a job pretty quickly. I am waiting to get more information, but there are positions available at the International House (the organization through which I am taking this course) in Monterrey and Queretaro. They want 1-year contracts, which is a bit intimidating, but there is the bonus that if you work for them for a year, it is possible to transfer to Europe. This is huge, because it is nearly impossible for Americans to work leagally in Europe. I do like the idea of being in Spain a year from now... More to come on this front.

I promise these will be more interesting at some point. That point will probably be in about two weeks when my life becomes interesting again instead of consisting solely of me getting the CELTA teaching method pounded forcefully into my cranium for twelve hours a day. Hasta luego.