Guitar and Suit Day

For those of you unfamiliar with Guitar and Suit Day, it is basically a day where you put on a suit, pack up your guitar, and walk around a large city thinking you are really cool all day. Whether or not you are actually really cool is not so important. Come to think of it, you don't really even need to know how to play the guitar. You could probably get away with walking around with an empty guitar case. Anyway, if you can pull off bringing your guitar into the offices of a giant corporation and playing for some employees, all the better, no? Aside from how happy it made me to be playing Weezer on the top floor of an office building in middle of Mexico City, I think that the students really enjoyed the lesson and hopefully learned something.

I am really looking forward to my schedule not changing anymore. After having two classes cancelled and getting stuck with a four and a half hour Saturday class that the students inexplicably thought would be much improved if it started at eight in the morning rather than nine, I received a call from one of my several bosses informing me that they were giving me another class in Santa Fe. At this point, I flipped out a little bit, especially when they told me that they had to do it because I only had 19 hours when I knew full well that I had 22. So I told them they could have either the Saturday class or the Santa Fe class but not both. They chose Santa Fe, and I told them to write my schedule in stone, and ever since then they have stopped calling me every twenty minutes, and everyone is being really nice to me.

Not having to answer my phone every twenty minutes has given me more time to enjoy Mexico's little treasures, like the fact that sometimes there are holes in the road... and sometimes wee little cars get stuck in said holes. Sometimes these holes happen to be in the middle of an important intersection, creating a chorus of car horns which can likely rival any in the world. This pleases me.

But on a more serious note, I have also begun to take more notice of the poverty which is so prevalent here. I mean, just look at this poor, barefoot woman staring longingly through the glass at this zapateria... oh, wait... that's just Irene. Seriously, though, poverty's not funny, and it is everywhere here. It is to the point that you often can't even sit outside at some cafes because someone will come up to you literally every two minutes asking for money, and you can't give it to everybody.

I went to eat dinner at my friend Orly's grandmother's house the other night. It was amazing, and apparently she is under the impression that I am a bottomless receptacle for chile relleno. It is comforting to know that I now have a Mexican abuela nearby.

I have also become friends with some of my students and have gone out with them a couple of times. They seem to be under the impression that I am a bottomless receptacle for tequila, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad but always entertaining. My Spanish has improved tremendously, but I have found that it is exceedingly difficult to follow conversation in a bar with music and so many people talking at once.

Oh, I have one more funny thing. Check out these pictures of my current residence (top) and my parents' house in Austin. It's not quite an exact match, but those are some pretty similar color schemes. I was amused.

I have next Monday off, so perhaps I will get in some traveling now that I have rid myself of my Saturday class. And seriously, can someone explain to me why starting a class at eight in the morning on Saturday, before the school even opens, is a better idea than starting at nine, which is already a horrible idea? In what context does this make sense? Am I crazy here? I can't get over this. This really troubles me.

Corporate Rock

Everything is slowing down a little, and I am finding that my brain can once again produce coherent thoughts. I have grown a bit weary of giving lessons about the importance of time management and globalization, so I have begun creating some original materials. I tried to give a lesson based on Weezer's "No One Else" today, but the computer in the conference room wouldn't read my CD. The IT guy claimed that it had something to do with the speed it was written at, but I am pretty certain that these corporate machines just can't handle the rock that I would like to unleash on them. I am going to test the water with this lesson, and if it works well, perhaps the guitar will be making an appearance soon. I am finding it extremely difficult to decide on songs that I like and can play/sing which will be useful and appropriate in this setting.

I have now had 28 scheduled classes and taught 17 of them. This is not as great as it might sound, however, as I was often already out in Santa Fe (which can take about an hour and a half on pesero) when I was told a class was cancelled. Santa Fe is very shiny, but there is not much to do there and everything is really expensive. This is where I spend my Tuesdays and Thursdays. My Santa Fe morning students came through for me and got me on the company's private bus which is comfortable enough to sleep on. This pleases me enormously.

My two most common answers to students' questions seem to be "because English is stupid" and "because England is stupid." I don't really have anything personal against England, and I don't know if anyone from England reads this anyway, but it would be a lot easier if we could come to some sort of an agreement on which preposition we should use to talk about what we like to do on/at the weekend. I know you spoke English there first, but "at the weekend?" I think I'm going to invite some people from England to read this just to piss them off. And for the record... Well, I think that is settled.

I really like where I live. I have a nice, big, sunny room, though after taking this picture I recognize the glaring need for something to be put on that wall. It feels completely safe to walk here at night, and I am close to supermarkets, transportation, and some other fun areas of town. I have started cooking a lot, and giant tubs of yogurt have replace cereal as my breakfast of choice, as I am not brave enough to give the milk here another shot.

I am a little disappointed that I missed the Great Ice Storm of 2007 in Austin. I can't remember the city ever shutting down for three days in a row. Snow days are awesome. I considered just taking the three days off here. I feel like that would have been okay. Most of my classes got cancelled anyway.

Too Tired for Titles

Tired, yes, but still managing alliteration. I am no longer homeless! I now live in a beautiful 1940's apartment in Colonia Del Valle. I live with a man named Alvaro who is older but is very chill, and we get along well. Irene lives about ten minutes down the street in a house with seven other people from various parts of the world. It is all very chill. I also met a German guy while living in the hostel who just moved into a student residence that has a ping-pong table. This pleases me. It is wonderful to finally be out of the hostel, though I will miss my late night 7-Eleven donut runs with random backpackers like this guy Kiron. One of my favorite features of my new home is the tree out the front window which houses a flock of rare and elusive Mexican Fat Birds. Perhaps their diet is heavy on late night gas station sweets as well. I will get some good pictures of where I live and such soon.

I actually moved into my place the day before I started working. I am thrilled that I never had to try to teach out of a hostel. I had seven classes scheduled for the last two days, but due to vacations, some no-shows, and the complete cancellation of one of my classes, I have only had to teach three of them. I can now fully appreciate the benefits of having a salary, as I get my 9000 pesos a month regardless of how many classes I actually teach (something that doesn't happen with all schools). I am enjoying everything so far, though I can tell that all the traveling around the city is definitely going to wear on me. The early morning classes are a bit of a problem as well. Speaking of which, I must sleep, but I will try to write more and put up some good pictures in the near future.

Give me a home... or at least some churros...

Well, I am back in Mexico and have resumed being homeless. There is now a room available in one of the school's apartments, so the school no longer wants to find an apartment for Irene and me (which is understandable). So we decided that as long as one of us was on the streets, we might as well both be, so we are now both looking for rooms even though there is already a room being handed to us. The main goal of this absurd endeavor is to find Mexican roommates, thus forcing us to speak in Spanish and giving us non-gringo amigos. So tomorrow I will call my boss and tell him that I don't want his room. Why? Because I am stupid! Actually, that room will still be there in a few days if I don't find anything, but I have made some good contacts and I believe I may have found something that will work quite well.

Upon arrival, I was pleased to find that my giant Christmas light piñata was right where I left it in the middle of the Zocalo. It was then that I realized that I had left my giant Christmas light baseball bat at home. I knew I forgot something! Mexico City's famed giant piñata is actually only my second-favorite sight so far. But really, can anything be expected to size up to Playa del Carmen's ancient big fishing net full of chairs randomly hanging a couple of stories up in the air. It is such a powerful sight. Such fine craftsmanship. I hear it was done without the use of metal tools. Amazing!

This hostel is astoundingly cold. The other hostel has nothing but scalding hot water. I really need to find a place to live, because neither of these things make me very happy. The hot hostel also likes to put four CDs into the changer every morning and play them for the next twelve hours. I have always liked U2, but I am pretty sure I will not be able to enjoy it again for at least a year or so. Apparently there is a Quaker hostel, but I am not so sure that is for me either. I would probably just make oatmeal jokes all the time and offend someone's proud heritage.

Another fine feature of the Zocalo is the plethora of traditional healers. For a bargain price of gratis, you can be healed with a smoke emitting device which emits smoke all over you. This is actually pretty cool and spiritual, but it kills my lungs and eyes. It would appear that I am just in the mood for offending proud heritages, but I vote for Healing and Non-Healing sections of the Zocalo (oh, yeah, the Zocalo is the big main square). Then I could hang in the Non-Healing section and focus on eating churros and not dying while this guy Oz gets healed. Everyone is happy!

Anyway, lots of exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks as I hope to find a place to live, deal with a stupid ticket, go to the stupid dentist, start a new job, and not die in any churro-related mishaps. By the way, churros are awesome. They also probably have nothing to do with why I have to go to the stupid dentist. Mmmmm... churros...