Michelle: Since packing up our lives and getting out of a stale situation in Victoria and waving goodbye to the Navy life, there have been zero regrets, except perhaps not doing this sooner. We absolutely love that we can have a "normal" marriage where we see each other every day and each night be together. After 3 long years in the Navy, we began our married life- not in the conventional way of slaving away at jobs that you don't like and striving to scrape together some money for a mortgage, with responsibilities piling up and enjoyment decreasing.... instead we began a world adventure, taking off in faith that things would open up- having no job lined up and no real action plan, leaving many details to be decided at a later date and going in hope that we could find enough work to keep us afloat finacially... Certainly not your average beginning to a marriage, but for us, it works well. We have basically been breathing the same air 24/7 since we left, we trained together, we worked together, we prepared together, we lived together, we socialized together - we were/ are in the entire journey together, and the best part is that we are loving it!
It is by no means a relaxing holiday, we have had a day here or there to chill and do nothing, but being on the go constantly is extremely exhausting. To go to new destinations, to see new things, to meet new people, to learn the ways of a land, culture and language on an ever-changing basis, it can be hard work. Not the same way as back breaking work building a railway line or building roads before modern inventions, and not in the same way as sitting in a cubicle in an office doing a mundane job that you hate, that pays badly and causes you to be more stressed than a one legged man doing riverdance. No. But it all takes effort, lots of planning and research, a variety of different beds, schedules, time zones, languages, many hours of standing in lines, waiting at airports, changing trains, catching buses, reading maps and tons and tons of walking.
It's worth while and one thing that has definitely come out of this is the certainty that we don't want to return to that life where we were apart and alone for long stretches of time - that's not a life, it's an existance. I want a life, I want my husband, I want what is rightfully mine to have. And so, we will fight against the fatigue and see where our journey takes us. We will continue to explore and experience new destinations, we will continue to put our feelers out for new possibilities and continue to have a blast!!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Eurotrip Part 1 -- London, Oslo and Genova
Jonathan: So after Iceland, we flew into London for about a 21 hour stopover before heading up to Oslo. Whirlwind European travel can be rather tiring, but Norway is such a beautiful country. We really only had 3 days there in Oslo, but if Oslo is a representation of the rest of the country, Norway must be so incredible. We even stumbled across the King of the Netherlands and the Queen of Norway driving by. We figure there is some sort of Royal Scandal taking palce there :).
We had an awesome couchsurfing host, who didn't mind that we arrived at close to midnight, thanks RyanAir for your awesome travel schedule, and airports so close the major cities ... not!! But anyway, wanrdering through Oslo seeing the sights, the parks, the architecture, very interesting. The long nights were quite nice as well, sunrise at 3am was quite handy for our very early departure to get to our 6am flight.
So flying from Oslo to Parma, then it was time to catch a train in Italy. Trains in Italy are an experience in themselves. Fortunately, someone on the public bus we took knew how to get to the train station, and we found an operator who knew 5 or 6 words of English, so we managed to get the right train ticket. Then our train sat around at the station for an extra 20 minutes while the conductors laughed, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes. We sat there fuming because we had a connecting train to catch and only a 6 minute stopover to switch trains. I guess they made up time by skipping a station or two. We made our connection with 2 minutes to spare.
Getting to Genova, (or Genoa in English) we were greeted by our couchsurfing host who graciously met us at the train station, we walked back to his apartment, made us dinner while we showered, then took us on a night walking tour of Genova. Genova is a city of two faces. It can look quite pleasant and beautiful on the seaside, as you would expect from an Italian city, but get into the little side streets and find the heart of the city to be quite different. We were glad to have a guide who knew his way around. We enjoyed walking through the city and seeing a ridiculously pompous Catholic procession involving the Cardinal of Genova, who is apparently next in line to be Pope. We also found the most incredible Granite (graneetay) shop, which is like ice cream with out the cream. We enjoyed our granite while up on a hillside overlooking Genova and the Mediterranean Sea. What an afternoon. After 4 great days in Genova, it was time to head off to San Remo, right on the Border with France.
We had an awesome couchsurfing host, who didn't mind that we arrived at close to midnight, thanks RyanAir for your awesome travel schedule, and airports so close the major cities ... not!! But anyway, wanrdering through Oslo seeing the sights, the parks, the architecture, very interesting. The long nights were quite nice as well, sunrise at 3am was quite handy for our very early departure to get to our 6am flight.
So flying from Oslo to Parma, then it was time to catch a train in Italy. Trains in Italy are an experience in themselves. Fortunately, someone on the public bus we took knew how to get to the train station, and we found an operator who knew 5 or 6 words of English, so we managed to get the right train ticket. Then our train sat around at the station for an extra 20 minutes while the conductors laughed, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes. We sat there fuming because we had a connecting train to catch and only a 6 minute stopover to switch trains. I guess they made up time by skipping a station or two. We made our connection with 2 minutes to spare.
Getting to Genova, (or Genoa in English) we were greeted by our couchsurfing host who graciously met us at the train station, we walked back to his apartment, made us dinner while we showered, then took us on a night walking tour of Genova. Genova is a city of two faces. It can look quite pleasant and beautiful on the seaside, as you would expect from an Italian city, but get into the little side streets and find the heart of the city to be quite different. We were glad to have a guide who knew his way around. We enjoyed walking through the city and seeing a ridiculously pompous Catholic procession involving the Cardinal of Genova, who is apparently next in line to be Pope. We also found the most incredible Granite (graneetay) shop, which is like ice cream with out the cream. We enjoyed our granite while up on a hillside overlooking Genova and the Mediterranean Sea. What an afternoon. After 4 great days in Genova, it was time to head off to San Remo, right on the Border with France.
Iceland -- Land of the Vikings and Midnight Sun!!
Jonathan: wow Iceland, a place we wanted to visit but thought we'd never get there. We unfortunately only had one week, but to fully appreciate Iceland, a month and a rental car would be great. Reykjavik is a very cool city, although we couldn't get used to it being light as day at 11:30pm! Sorry to all you animal lovers, but we ate both whale and shark meat while we were there. Whale meat, delicious, very tender, similar to beef. Iceland's national delicacy: Rotten (fermented) shark meat. Quite possible the most disgusting, horrible tasting thing on earth. The flesh of this particular shark is toxic, so they press out some of the ammonia, smoke and ferment the meat, to make it ... cough--choke ... edible.
But the best feature of Iceland is the incredible natural scenery that graces the landscape. Formed by volcanic eruptions, Iceland is a giant lava Island, where North America and Europe's continental plates meet. So technically a part of both continents :).
Our whirlwind tour took us to the amazing National Park of Thingvellir (Tingvektler -- Icelandic is a very difficult language!!) Here there is a giant rift valley formed by the separating of the European and North American continental plates, and also the site of the world's oldest parliament, so they say. We also had the opportunity to snorke between the continental plates, incredible! The clarity of the water was up to 100m visibility, though the 2 degree temperature was quite literally mind numbing. But you could definitely drink it :). Cool and refreshing! We also jumped into the "toilet bowl" about a 20 foot drop into a little tidal pool whose swirling current could "flush" you through a little rock cave into the area where we went snorkelling. I liked it so much, I jumped in 4 times :).
We also had a visit to the south eastern part of iceland, and visited the area where that troublesome little volcano caused a few hiccups earlier this year. It is funny that people would refer to it as The Volcano, as though Iceland only has one. Heh, Iceland has a lot of volcanoes, and in relative terms this one was a little baby. Ayahfyetlayokult is about the closest I can come to phonetically spelling the word. I was determined to know one word in Icelandic before leaving, and I decided on the name of that volcano :). E-15 is the designation many gave to it. But to see the damage it caused in Iceland was almost surreal. When monster glaciers are melted by volcanic activity, and they cause a river to swell to more than 10 times its normal size, and the government was forced to destroy some sections of the highway to channel the floodwater to try and save the bridges. Everything was an eerie sort of gray/black and white color covered in ash, and ash clouds so thick that you couldn't see in front of your face, but fortunately our driver had been driving these roads for 20 years.
So Iceland was an amazing experience, and if you get the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend visiting, you will not be disappointed!
But the best feature of Iceland is the incredible natural scenery that graces the landscape. Formed by volcanic eruptions, Iceland is a giant lava Island, where North America and Europe's continental plates meet. So technically a part of both continents :).
Our whirlwind tour took us to the amazing National Park of Thingvellir (Tingvektler -- Icelandic is a very difficult language!!) Here there is a giant rift valley formed by the separating of the European and North American continental plates, and also the site of the world's oldest parliament, so they say. We also had the opportunity to snorke between the continental plates, incredible! The clarity of the water was up to 100m visibility, though the 2 degree temperature was quite literally mind numbing. But you could definitely drink it :). Cool and refreshing! We also jumped into the "toilet bowl" about a 20 foot drop into a little tidal pool whose swirling current could "flush" you through a little rock cave into the area where we went snorkelling. I liked it so much, I jumped in 4 times :).
We also had a visit to the south eastern part of iceland, and visited the area where that troublesome little volcano caused a few hiccups earlier this year. It is funny that people would refer to it as The Volcano, as though Iceland only has one. Heh, Iceland has a lot of volcanoes, and in relative terms this one was a little baby. Ayahfyetlayokult is about the closest I can come to phonetically spelling the word. I was determined to know one word in Icelandic before leaving, and I decided on the name of that volcano :). E-15 is the designation many gave to it. But to see the damage it caused in Iceland was almost surreal. When monster glaciers are melted by volcanic activity, and they cause a river to swell to more than 10 times its normal size, and the government was forced to destroy some sections of the highway to channel the floodwater to try and save the bridges. Everything was an eerie sort of gray/black and white color covered in ash, and ash clouds so thick that you couldn't see in front of your face, but fortunately our driver had been driving these roads for 20 years.
So Iceland was an amazing experience, and if you get the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend visiting, you will not be disappointed!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Time to Catch Up on our Blog!! -- Cancun and New York
Jonathan: Wow, it has been way too long since we've last wrote but when things are hectic and you cover 7 countries in 6 weeks, sometimes it feels almost impossible to find time for blogging :). So I don't know if we mentioned Cancun or not but here's the skinny :)
Michelle: Cancun, the land of powdery white sandy, azul beaches, sunshine, all inclusive resorts, american tourists, 2% mexican culture and hundredes of expensive tourist traps! Mmm paradise... almost. If it weren't for the lack of anything to do with Mexico, it would be wonderful! The beach is stunning, no arguments, but the rest is up for debate. We flew from Guadalajara to Puebla, gathered up our belongings, got off the tiny little plane, collected our luggage and turned around to load up on the exact same plane for our connection to Cancun- the hostess was rather amused. So while the budget only allowed for a basic hotel room with no view in an average hotel, it was a great reward when we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom mini suite on the 9th floor with perfect views of the ocean and overlooking the pool. We enjoyed 2 glorious days of weather (though of course those were the days we caught up on alot of missed sleep and we could barely face the humidity so we spent most of the time in our air conditioned room). So once we were reved and ready to explore, we got 1 afternoon in the sun (turns out that was more than enough for the two of us) and then the grey clouds came and rained heavily on our parade and turned "paradise" into soggy wetlands.
Sadly while in Cancun, I received the news that my Grandmother had passed away. It was not unexpected news but it was very difficult to deal with and heartbreaking as it felt like the distance between Mexico and Australia had increased x100. I felt sooo far away from my family and completely helpless, the worst part was not even being able to give my Dad a hug. I'm never very good with death but it does serve as a reminder of how fickle and fragile this life really is. So the thoughts played on my mind that I was 'lucky' I had the chance to say my goodbyes to Grandma, and she is better off now, but I'm sure glad I had Jon around to lean on and give my hug-o-meter a boost! Keep your loved ones close, tell them you love them, that you appreciate them and that you're thankful that they are in your life. Don't wait until their funeral and it's too late for them to hear your words and feel your love!! The time is now, grasp it with 2 hands and don't let go! Don't let the mundane cares of life drag you down and spoil the joy you could have, or cause you to fight with your loved ones. The worst nightmare I could have would be #1 something happening to Jonathan or my family and friends and #2 if the parting had been bitter and there was conflict in the air and all the love was left unsaid, could I forgive myself or live forever with regrets?. Forgive. Love freely.
Jonathan: I got the worst sunburn I have ever had in my entire life in Cancun. 4 months in Guadalajara ... no sunburn. Day 3 in Cancun, I got roasted beyond belief, and I was only out for 2 hours. My skin turned a shade of purple before my entire upper back blistered. I have never felt so horrible and gross in my entire life, not to mention the insane pain. Then my entire torso peeled and it was like having cornflakes under my shirt. After that, once the skin healed and the nerve endings were recovering, the itching was so intense that I wanted to claw my skin off my back with a fork!
After Cancun was New York. We spent a couple of days in Manhattan. New York is an interesting city to visit I guess, loads of high rises. If you want to look at buildings, New York is the place to be, although central park was pretty nice. But everything in NY is pretty expensive, so after a couple of days, that was enough for me.
Michelle: New York was a slight shock to the system, after living with the Mexican Peso, it was hard to adjust back to most things costing an arm and a leg in dollars and the first day we walked around with eyebrows raised at the cost of everything. We generally don't like cities much because the pace of life is so busy. However, as far as cities go, it is beautiful and there's lots to see. We did a mad dash around Manhatten trying to see all the major features in only 2 days, I think we walked for at least 10 hours each day. We couldn't make ourselves stand in line for 3 hours just to see the Statue of Liberty, so we looked at her across the water, she was just a speck in the distance. We were staying at a hostel right near the heart of Manhatten and there was a really awesome group of travellers that we had a good time with. The Korean's took us to enjoy our first genuine Korean cuisine, which was delicious (yes even for Miss Picky-Eater-Me). Times Square was pretty cool and I got a hug from Elmo and we saw 2 stand up comedy performances, they were really funny. I even crossed the no-go barrier that keeps me from being just another dumb tourist to being a traveller, and became one of the millions to buy an I LOVE NY t.shirt. Not because I like to buy tacky tourist t.shirts but because it would make a comfy travel top, for all those hours upon hours we spend on planes, trains and buses. Of course we also rode in a yellow taxi, made so famous through movies, ate New York style pizza and we got some amusement walking around Central Park and noting the ridiculous amount of money spent on dog clothes and baby strollers
After the jostle of the city, we had a visit to the country, hosted by our friend Jess and her family. It was a welcome refuge before the craziness of the following weeks. We had a lovely time, we went to some waterfalls, enjoyed some jazz with the best local burgers you can get, gorged on chocolates and icecream (all the kind you can't get in Mexico that we had cravings for) and had a great BBQ accompaned by plenty of story telling and laughing. The bed we slept in was absolute luxury, it was like a heavenly cloud. I wanted to take it with me, but I thought it might be a little tricky getting a queen size mattress through security. Drat, it was the best sleep I'd had since vacating my very cosy, delightfully comfy memory foam topper and bed in Victoria, Canada 6 months previous.
The first major moment of forgetfulness kicked in when I left my backpack on the train in New York. The one bag with everything really important inside, the most inconvenient one to lose. So then began a flurry of calling lost and found, cancelling credit cards, and getting frustrated every time I thought of another useful thing that was in the backpack, wallet, camera charger, all our memory cards etc. Thankfully the day before Jon had taken my passport and drivers licence to use for ID and had kept them with him or else the inconvenience factor and frustration would have grown by 200%. They have since found my bag and eventually I will see the contents again, thanks to Jess. Phew!
Michelle: Cancun, the land of powdery white sandy, azul beaches, sunshine, all inclusive resorts, american tourists, 2% mexican culture and hundredes of expensive tourist traps! Mmm paradise... almost. If it weren't for the lack of anything to do with Mexico, it would be wonderful! The beach is stunning, no arguments, but the rest is up for debate. We flew from Guadalajara to Puebla, gathered up our belongings, got off the tiny little plane, collected our luggage and turned around to load up on the exact same plane for our connection to Cancun- the hostess was rather amused. So while the budget only allowed for a basic hotel room with no view in an average hotel, it was a great reward when we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom mini suite on the 9th floor with perfect views of the ocean and overlooking the pool. We enjoyed 2 glorious days of weather (though of course those were the days we caught up on alot of missed sleep and we could barely face the humidity so we spent most of the time in our air conditioned room). So once we were reved and ready to explore, we got 1 afternoon in the sun (turns out that was more than enough for the two of us) and then the grey clouds came and rained heavily on our parade and turned "paradise" into soggy wetlands.
Sadly while in Cancun, I received the news that my Grandmother had passed away. It was not unexpected news but it was very difficult to deal with and heartbreaking as it felt like the distance between Mexico and Australia had increased x100. I felt sooo far away from my family and completely helpless, the worst part was not even being able to give my Dad a hug. I'm never very good with death but it does serve as a reminder of how fickle and fragile this life really is. So the thoughts played on my mind that I was 'lucky' I had the chance to say my goodbyes to Grandma, and she is better off now, but I'm sure glad I had Jon around to lean on and give my hug-o-meter a boost! Keep your loved ones close, tell them you love them, that you appreciate them and that you're thankful that they are in your life. Don't wait until their funeral and it's too late for them to hear your words and feel your love!! The time is now, grasp it with 2 hands and don't let go! Don't let the mundane cares of life drag you down and spoil the joy you could have, or cause you to fight with your loved ones. The worst nightmare I could have would be #1 something happening to Jonathan or my family and friends and #2 if the parting had been bitter and there was conflict in the air and all the love was left unsaid, could I forgive myself or live forever with regrets?. Forgive. Love freely.
Jonathan: I got the worst sunburn I have ever had in my entire life in Cancun. 4 months in Guadalajara ... no sunburn. Day 3 in Cancun, I got roasted beyond belief, and I was only out for 2 hours. My skin turned a shade of purple before my entire upper back blistered. I have never felt so horrible and gross in my entire life, not to mention the insane pain. Then my entire torso peeled and it was like having cornflakes under my shirt. After that, once the skin healed and the nerve endings were recovering, the itching was so intense that I wanted to claw my skin off my back with a fork!
After Cancun was New York. We spent a couple of days in Manhattan. New York is an interesting city to visit I guess, loads of high rises. If you want to look at buildings, New York is the place to be, although central park was pretty nice. But everything in NY is pretty expensive, so after a couple of days, that was enough for me.
Michelle: New York was a slight shock to the system, after living with the Mexican Peso, it was hard to adjust back to most things costing an arm and a leg in dollars and the first day we walked around with eyebrows raised at the cost of everything. We generally don't like cities much because the pace of life is so busy. However, as far as cities go, it is beautiful and there's lots to see. We did a mad dash around Manhatten trying to see all the major features in only 2 days, I think we walked for at least 10 hours each day. We couldn't make ourselves stand in line for 3 hours just to see the Statue of Liberty, so we looked at her across the water, she was just a speck in the distance. We were staying at a hostel right near the heart of Manhatten and there was a really awesome group of travellers that we had a good time with. The Korean's took us to enjoy our first genuine Korean cuisine, which was delicious (yes even for Miss Picky-Eater-Me). Times Square was pretty cool and I got a hug from Elmo and we saw 2 stand up comedy performances, they were really funny. I even crossed the no-go barrier that keeps me from being just another dumb tourist to being a traveller, and became one of the millions to buy an I LOVE NY t.shirt. Not because I like to buy tacky tourist t.shirts but because it would make a comfy travel top, for all those hours upon hours we spend on planes, trains and buses. Of course we also rode in a yellow taxi, made so famous through movies, ate New York style pizza and we got some amusement walking around Central Park and noting the ridiculous amount of money spent on dog clothes and baby strollers
After the jostle of the city, we had a visit to the country, hosted by our friend Jess and her family. It was a welcome refuge before the craziness of the following weeks. We had a lovely time, we went to some waterfalls, enjoyed some jazz with the best local burgers you can get, gorged on chocolates and icecream (all the kind you can't get in Mexico that we had cravings for) and had a great BBQ accompaned by plenty of story telling and laughing. The bed we slept in was absolute luxury, it was like a heavenly cloud. I wanted to take it with me, but I thought it might be a little tricky getting a queen size mattress through security. Drat, it was the best sleep I'd had since vacating my very cosy, delightfully comfy memory foam topper and bed in Victoria, Canada 6 months previous.
The first major moment of forgetfulness kicked in when I left my backpack on the train in New York. The one bag with everything really important inside, the most inconvenient one to lose. So then began a flurry of calling lost and found, cancelling credit cards, and getting frustrated every time I thought of another useful thing that was in the backpack, wallet, camera charger, all our memory cards etc. Thankfully the day before Jon had taken my passport and drivers licence to use for ID and had kept them with him or else the inconvenience factor and frustration would have grown by 200%. They have since found my bag and eventually I will see the contents again, thanks to Jess. Phew!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Belated Last days in Guadalajara
Michelle: Our final week in class was one of gladness (that we were finishing up at Imac and having a couple of days off), dread (packing is absolutely the ultimate worst part about traveling, especially after living in a place and making it your home for 4 months and accumulating all kinds of extra odds n ends), sadness (we hate goodbyes), and professional disinterest (when your classes are going to be handed over to a teacher that the school wont even tell you who but still expect you to lesson plan for, and the kids don't want you to leave- who really cares about sticking to the text book, why not have some fun)!
Telling our students that we were leaving was tough, the reaction was complimentary to us but a little upsetting to see their faces fall as the reality of the situation sinks in- away they go again on the whirlwind of instability and uncertainty that is the face of Imac, losing teachers that they like, having classes and schedules changed without warning, squeezing 10 hours of lessons into 5 to make up for public holidays, getting pushed through even when they are flailing and going back to non-native english speaking teachers and therefore learning mistakes and bad habits. There were even some tears, lots of begging for us to stay, gifts given, meals together, photos taken and facebook details exchanged. We asked our students if they were interested in giving us some honest student testimonials and they all eagerly jumped on board and gave glowing reviews. It's uplifting for us to know that we will be missed, it makes everything worthwhile to know that we have made a positive impact and it gives us a confidence boost that reassures us we have made the right decision in becoming teachers.
To our friends outside the world of Imac, it was hard to say goodbye but each with promises of a return oneday, or a catch up somewhere around the globe. If we hadn't already booked the flights to Europe before leaving Canada, we would have for sure stayed longer in Guadalajara. Although we had to laugh when Imac was handing over our reference letters and they asked us when we would be returning, there was a very awkward silence as we looked sideways at each other and um-ed and uh-ed for the best way to politely tell them there wasn't a chance in all heck we would come back to work for them... From the day we were hired the school knew we were leaving and not returning, but even though we were the rebellious ones, not always sticking to the rigid rules, it was obvious that we had fun and our students really enjoyed class. As evidence, on my last class of conversation on Friday, there were 39 people packed into a tiny room, about 10 of them standing as there was no room for any more chairs, it was about 35 degrees with no window or air conditioning and we were all sweating like crazy but having a blast (of course we were not sticking to the given topic, but that's beside the point). To put this into perspective, the average conversation class size is about 3-6 people, my average class size was about 15, this was by far the biggest conversation class ever! As a little nose rub, Jon discreetly brought it to the attention of a few key staff members and had them take a look through the classroom door at the class...They were rather impressed...
It sounds like we are ungrateful to Imac, not true at all. We are very thankful we were given the opportunity for experience fresh out of school, most schools before they take you on want you to have at least 1-2 years of experience, which is understandable from a business perspective. And so we really needed to get whatever we could so we have something to put on our resumes. However the truth of the matter is that we now know what we don't want in a school, what it is we do want out of teaching, and that is the true essence, to help people and have an impact on their learning and their lives and for ourselves to come out of it having a sense of accomplishment, to strive with our students to learn and have personal growth. We loved our classes, our students and so, mission accomplished! Thankyou Mexico!
Telling our students that we were leaving was tough, the reaction was complimentary to us but a little upsetting to see their faces fall as the reality of the situation sinks in- away they go again on the whirlwind of instability and uncertainty that is the face of Imac, losing teachers that they like, having classes and schedules changed without warning, squeezing 10 hours of lessons into 5 to make up for public holidays, getting pushed through even when they are flailing and going back to non-native english speaking teachers and therefore learning mistakes and bad habits. There were even some tears, lots of begging for us to stay, gifts given, meals together, photos taken and facebook details exchanged. We asked our students if they were interested in giving us some honest student testimonials and they all eagerly jumped on board and gave glowing reviews. It's uplifting for us to know that we will be missed, it makes everything worthwhile to know that we have made a positive impact and it gives us a confidence boost that reassures us we have made the right decision in becoming teachers.
To our friends outside the world of Imac, it was hard to say goodbye but each with promises of a return oneday, or a catch up somewhere around the globe. If we hadn't already booked the flights to Europe before leaving Canada, we would have for sure stayed longer in Guadalajara. Although we had to laugh when Imac was handing over our reference letters and they asked us when we would be returning, there was a very awkward silence as we looked sideways at each other and um-ed and uh-ed for the best way to politely tell them there wasn't a chance in all heck we would come back to work for them... From the day we were hired the school knew we were leaving and not returning, but even though we were the rebellious ones, not always sticking to the rigid rules, it was obvious that we had fun and our students really enjoyed class. As evidence, on my last class of conversation on Friday, there were 39 people packed into a tiny room, about 10 of them standing as there was no room for any more chairs, it was about 35 degrees with no window or air conditioning and we were all sweating like crazy but having a blast (of course we were not sticking to the given topic, but that's beside the point). To put this into perspective, the average conversation class size is about 3-6 people, my average class size was about 15, this was by far the biggest conversation class ever! As a little nose rub, Jon discreetly brought it to the attention of a few key staff members and had them take a look through the classroom door at the class...They were rather impressed...
It sounds like we are ungrateful to Imac, not true at all. We are very thankful we were given the opportunity for experience fresh out of school, most schools before they take you on want you to have at least 1-2 years of experience, which is understandable from a business perspective. And so we really needed to get whatever we could so we have something to put on our resumes. However the truth of the matter is that we now know what we don't want in a school, what it is we do want out of teaching, and that is the true essence, to help people and have an impact on their learning and their lives and for ourselves to come out of it having a sense of accomplishment, to strive with our students to learn and have personal growth. We loved our classes, our students and so, mission accomplished! Thankyou Mexico!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Oaxaca 1 - Ruins and Ruins
Jon: Off to Oaxaca (photos), we keep hearing about how beautiful it is, and most likely a pleasant departure from the humidity of Veracruz. Our bus left late from Veracruz, and took longer to arrive in Oaxaca, where our friends were meeting us, but once again, ever so gracious, they were not bothered by the fact that we were an hour later than planned. What an interesting trip through the mountains, we crossed some very high mountains, with long drops to the valley below. Fortunately the buses have controlled velocity, so the drivers can only drive so fast. Coming into Oaxaca, there is a great view of historic downtown, which not surprisingly, centres around a church. 
After seeing a bit of downtown Oaxaca, we took a taxi back to Mitla. These taxi drivers believe all road markings and signs are suggestions and only apply to taxis when traffic is so heavy that they can't break them. So screaming along at 140km/h making a third lane where there is only two lanes, crossing double solid yellow lines, we zoomed off to Mitla. The next day, our friends decided they wanted to accompany us to Monte Alban (photos). This is one of the most important historical sites in the state of Oaxaca, and very interesting ruins to see. We spent our morning exploring pyramids and strolling through the site. We were glad we arrived early, as the tour buses start arriving around 11 or 12, around the time we were ready to leave.
The next day, we spent our mornig strolling through the ruins of Mitla (photos). Very interesting. Not big, but interesting, very intricate stonework. Those nasty spanish tore down a lot of the structures to erect Catholic churches. But from what is left, it is quite interesting. Especially going into the tombs! The Zapotec people were obviously not very tall.
After our time at the ruins, we took a trip to a place called Hierve El Agua. Driving through 18km of high, windy, dusty mountain roads in the back of a truck, we wondered if this place existed. Through dusty little towns with ramshackle houses, seeing these little towns, I was realizing just how rich Canada is. There are a few pictures of these places. Some funny experiences, such as a runaway burro (donkey) in front of our truck! For some strange reason, I find these donkeys kind of cute and endearing, in their stubborn sometimes disobedient ways. They sure work hard when they are forced to. They can carry huge loads! And then there's the villagers who are akin to bandits, setting up a roadblock and deciding they will charge to drive through their town to get to Hierve El Agua (photos).
Anyway, we finally arrived in this high mountain Oasis, overlooking the valley, and the view is incredible. I can only imagine what it would have been like to discover this place for the first time. These incredible amazing petrified waterfalls hanging off cliffs, with bubbling pools of mineral water for swimming in. I have to admit, I felt a little nervous standing on the edge of one of these cliffs, it was a long way down and no safety barricades, and rather windy. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. But this gem is incredible and definitely worth visiting!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Veracruz
Jon: Well arriving in Veracruz, our ever gracious host picked us up at the bus station at 11:45pm, with a huge grin, no complaining about our late arrival, and proceeded to take us to a late night taco stand! Woohoo, tacos con carne y queso (tacos with meat and cheese) ad salsa and hot peppers and a touch of guacamole, and I am smiling huge :). Our friend brought us to his ranch out in the country, near Veracruz, and what a cute little Pueblo. Almost all the surrounding houses are relatives of some description, and they all do something to contribute to the family. One raises cattle for milk and beef, another uses the milk to make delicious cheese, another has a tiny little corner store, another raises chickens for eggs and meat ... and yet another grows beans and other vegetables ... if they chose, they could be almost entirely self sufficient, except for purified water ... anyway, so we were awakened to a delicious breakfast of juevos, papas, y frijoles, con tortillas y pan tostada, and for me, some pickled jalapenos :). The house doesn't have hot water, it is too hot to use hot water in the shower, so with a bucket of water and a yogurt container, I showered myself in pleasant cold water, a great escape from the balmy morning.
We enjoyed an escape to the old Spanish jail in Veracruz. Veracruz is the city where the Spanish first settled, and established a fort/jail to protect ther colony. Apparently they used to execute prisoners by having water drip on their heads, drop by drop until a hole was bored into their skull. What a horrible way to die. The spanish were rather cruel to the indigenous people. Sunday night we returned to the country to another ranch, for an early start monday morning. We started the day off with the farmers to go and milk the cows! Not as easy as it looks, milking a cow! You develop very strong hands! I was rather proud when I managed to get two streams of milk going! .. but you have to be careful, because the cows can start peeing without any warning!! And when a cow pees ... well, lets just say that it is a lot! I have finally drunk fresh milk straight out of the cow! Hmm, interesting, possibly a bit rich, and no refrigerator on the cow! Then our friends made us a drink called ponche, which is essentially a bit of rum mixed in with milk and sugar. The alcohol purifies the milk. The milk is also very frothy, as it sprays out of the teat into the bucket! So kind of like a lukewarm latte with a hint of rum.
After a very chill day, we had a bit of an adventure getting back to our host house for the night, its a bit difficult when you leave the addresses and phone numbers back at the house where your stuff is ... but anyway, we finished up with a delicious meal of bistec and chorizo tacos! Off to Oaxaca next!
Michelle: Another genuine Mexican experience. Life on a ranch, so peaceful, so simple - what a sweet little community. We were welcomed like royalty, everyone wants to meet us and talk with us and have us for a meal, but there are only so many hours in the day and only so much room in our stomachs- even Jon has been filled to the brim and unable to eat any more- and that's a rare thing! :) A breakfast made entirely from farm produce of one brother or another- absolutely delicious. A sombrero and one borrowed skirt later, time for a ride on Senor Caballo (the ranch horse, but I nicknamed him Volvo- coz he wasn't very fast, poor guy carrying me uphill in the heat, I don't blame him for plodding along). We visited the cows and donkeys and met half the town. It's a very unusual experience to have people soo excited to meet you and have your company- in today's world in the western countries, it's so impersonal, so self centered that to have people genuinely reach out and just about trip over themselves in graciousness to give you something or to help you; it's very bizarre. Today I feel very removed from the western culture- and it's a great feeling. There's no insincerity, no selfish means of greed, no political correctness or beating around the bush- I love it!
Away from the ranch, the city is bustling, the holiday week here is a crazy time, the beaches are crammed beyond capacity with people partying. A stage every few hundred meters on the boulevard with music blasting and girls in yellow bikinis dancing. It didn't make it very appealing for a peaceful day at the beach so we only took a drive and avoided the hoards of people. We had come to Veracruz to spend quaility time with our friends so doing the tourist trail was not on our list. Seeing the fort was kinda neat but it was definitely the 2 nights at the ranch with the tranquility and the loving community that was the highlight for me. Milking cows was great, but hard work! What Jon didn't mention was that on the first attempt with the first cow, he got one measly little spray and that and a whole lot of frustrated mutterings, a furrowed brow in concentration and some attempts at sweet talking the cow was all the action there was. It was pretty funny, the pros make it look so easy but in actual fact you need quite a lot of strength in your fingers to get the right kind of squeeze. I'm not sure that I could make a living out of it, sure was a slow process to fill one bucket....
It's hot and muggy here and the mosquitoes are persistant, I think we'd almost keel over if we didn't sleep with a fan on full blast through the night... Unfortunately this Aussie has been softened a little from 3 years in Canada- I still love the warmth and hate the cold but the humidity is still something I'd need to get used to. Without acclimatizing it just wipes me and I feel rather lathargic 24/7. We've met some wonderful people and managed to communicate sparingly with my virtually non-existant Spanish and Jon's limited Spanish. Lots of hand gestures and fill the gap Spanish and (thankfully) some who speak a little English. This is the kind of exposure we need to the language where it would force us try to communicate, and eventually little by little you learn. Instead we normally spend almost every waking hour forced to speak English and so no time to learn any Spanish. I understand a fair bit of what I hear when they speak slowly, but have no reply or response that I can give. I know a word here and there and absolutely no connecting words, so that's where Jon acts as my interpreter and gives my answer, he did really well and I'm sure glad he was around.
A couple of cafes, lots of friends, many different types of tortillas, some awkward language moments, a few genuine mexican experiences, a job offer, an interesting ordeal being lost, cold showers and many mozzie bites later, it's time to wave goodbye to all our new friends promising to one day visit Veracruz again!
Photos from Veracruz
It's hot and muggy here and the mosquitoes are persistant, I think we'd almost keel over if we didn't sleep with a fan on full blast through the night... Unfortunately this Aussie has been softened a little from 3 years in Canada- I still love the warmth and hate the cold but the humidity is still something I'd need to get used to. Without acclimatizing it just wipes me and I feel rather lathargic 24/7. We've met some wonderful people and managed to communicate sparingly with my virtually non-existant Spanish and Jon's limited Spanish. Lots of hand gestures and fill the gap Spanish and (thankfully) some who speak a little English. This is the kind of exposure we need to the language where it would force us try to communicate, and eventually little by little you learn. Instead we normally spend almost every waking hour forced to speak English and so no time to learn any Spanish. I understand a fair bit of what I hear when they speak slowly, but have no reply or response that I can give. I know a word here and there and absolutely no connecting words, so that's where Jon acts as my interpreter and gives my answer, he did really well and I'm sure glad he was around.
A couple of cafes, lots of friends, many different types of tortillas, some awkward language moments, a few genuine mexican experiences, a job offer, an interesting ordeal being lost, cold showers and many mozzie bites later, it's time to wave goodbye to all our new friends promising to one day visit Veracruz again!
Photos from Veracruz
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Mexico City and Chalco
no-one even tried to pick our pockets, even pickpockets like to sleep ... anyway, after about 10transfers, we eventually arrived somewhere in the east of Mexico City, from where we hopped on a collective taxi, which is essentially a volkswagon van with benches in a circle in the back of it ... this managed to take us to Chalco, and we made it to our friends house ... every house in around mexico city seems to be made of grey brick ... and Mexico city is ridiculously huge.
tacos at 1 am, surrounded by crazy mexicans singing and juggling knives ... how healthy these tacos are ... usually a taco stand consists of a grill or a vat of oil where the meat is "cooked" and the tortillas are dipped in the grease before being warmed on the grill ...
So then it came time to head off to Veracruz. Well, this day was running on Mexican Time which is similar to Island time, except even slower ... Arriving at the Mexico Central bus terminal ... what a mass of craziness that is ... well things didn't exactly go according to plan when we went to buy a ticket and the next bus was at 11;30 PM ... I didn't exactly relish the idea of hanging out in the bus terminal for 10 hours and then arriving in Veracruz at 5 am!! Well, after buying our tickets and sitting aorund for 2 hours, I decided to see if there were any cancellations or standby seats on an earlier bus ... well for only an arm and a leg we managed to upgrade to platinum class, and leave at 6:30pm and so here I am writing this on a first class bus, with a smelly man snoring rather loudly, and his breath smells slightly worse than rotting onions!
Michelle: A day in the life of a genuine hard working Mexican family.... 7 hours on the bus to Mexico City with very little sleep, 4 hours of public transit transfers. Arrive home exhausted but stay only long enough to put down our bags, change our shoes, and load the truck. Squeezed in amongst the fruit we head off for a breakfast of delicious tacos (probably some of the best we've tried yet). We get to the Tienges and lucky for Jon & I, we were on the breakfast run and missed the set up and carting of the goods through the market- the others are well under way by the time we arrive. Being new in town we are given the luxury of exploring the market, we came back to a very busy scene. 2 people being run off their feet in serving, so feebly at first we do what we can to help. With limited Spanish and me not knowing all the numbers in Spanish, one person with all the change and a major language barrier between us as she didn't speak English- made for some interesting times. The plan had been for us to go and see the market and return home to shower and sleep by lunchtime while the others stayed to work.... We should never bother to make plans because we never do them anyway. Turns out we were one man down as he left to help attend the other Tienges across town, taking the truck with him and leaving us stranded. We were super busy that sleep simply wasn't going to be an option. I became the expert pineapple cutter and Jon the expert watermelon wrapper and of course it was viewing time at the zoo- people would often look at us like we had 2 heads, it was pretty funny. By 2 o'clock it was evident that I'd had 2 very sleepless nights, that a cold was taking over and I was starting to weary. But with nowhere to go, the only option was to keep working. People would spring from nowhere to feed us, and we'd had our fair share of fruit, we were bursting full. At 3, a clap of thunder being the only warning and suddenly it was pouring, wet and heavy, torrential force rain- everyone was diving for shelter and grabbing pieces of plastic to cover their wares. We were madly scrambling to secure our tarps and pull in boxes, rescue signs and shield ourselves from the rain. Hoping it would pass just as quickly as it came we huddled together under the drips and continued maintaining the flooding tarps. Some people packed up and left but market doesn't end until 5 pm, we're not packing up until then so we continued to serve the brave and determined customers. By now I'm not only tired and sniffly, I'm also cold and shivering, I'm exhausted and my feet are sore, the phone has no service and so we are stuck. Eventually the rain stopped, the sun shone again and we began the tedious task of pack up- over 1.5 hours later everything was piled up ready and the rain came again, quickly this time. Leaving the stock under the supervision of a fellow stall operator we catch a taxi to the centro, only to now man the downtown fruit shop until 10:00pm... I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so I was taken home to sleep off my cold. The others arrived home at midnight ready to do it all again tomorrow!! Yikes and I thought I worked long hours, All this in a days work all seems like too much effort in my eyes. And this is the holidays when the kids are able to help- I can't imagine when there are 3 less teenagers who have known nothing else their entire lives and 2 less (not as helpful) "Gringos" to share the load of 2 markets and a store....
Friday, April 2, 2010
Pyramids, Hitchiking and the Mexican Experience
Michelle: Finally a bit of an adventure worth sharing! We had two whole days in a row off of work and we took advantage of it by going to Tehuchitlan and Guachimontones. Tehuchitlan is a cute little Peublo of about 4000 people and is nearby the archaeological site of Guachimontones, known for its round pyramids that predate all the other pyramids in Mexico! More than 2000 years old, we thought it'd be a fun adventure to go and see these. And what an adventure it was!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Teaching English in GDL
Jon: Well its been ages since we wrote a proper blog post, or at least it feels like it. We are starting to settle into the routine of teaching. My first week was a 43 hour week, a good way to get initiated I guess. Teaching is very enjoyable, especially when you have a good class. I have good classes for now, unlike Michelle, who unfortunately got handed a class full of little terrors! I commend her for trying to teach "young learners" I think I'd be more inclined to throw them out on their ear, based on the stories I've heard. We really haven't had time to explore GDL much, though we are conveniently located in historic downtown. Hopefully when our two weeks vacation comes around we'll have a chance to see more of Mexico. My Spanish remains terrible, since I am constantly speaking English here. I am still at a beginner level. But you can easily get by with basic Spanish and hand gestures here, and all the amenities we could ever need are not very far away in this big city. I wish we had more photos or something, but really, we have no lives. A 48 hour workweek is standard here, working Saturdays is expected. A little different to home, labor standards aren' quite the same :).
Michelle: Yes, life here is hectic! We're not joking when we say we don't have a life. I almost feel ashamed of the fact that we have been here almost 6 weeks and still only know the 3 surrounding blocks, it's rather sad really. We knew teaching would be busy and being a teacher always requires outside hours. But what we weren't prepared for was the amount of excess work we need to do that has zero to do with our classes. They have some twisted rules here and it can be very frustrating. Especially in terms of learning, passing and discipline. Along with a few adult and late teen classes, I have a different class of young learners everyday, each class is 3 hours long- that's a heck of a drag for any 10 - 15 year old!!! Let alone going to school all day and (generally) being forced by your parents to learn English for 3 hours after school! For the most part the kids are pretty good, but my wednesday and friday night classes are enough to send anyone to the loony bin!! They are like no species of human I have ever come across before! By the time I finish with either of those classes, my usual pleasant and happy nature has well and truely fled and I'm left with the grumbles- I hate that!
Michelle: Yes, life here is hectic! We're not joking when we say we don't have a life. I almost feel ashamed of the fact that we have been here almost 6 weeks and still only know the 3 surrounding blocks, it's rather sad really. We knew teaching would be busy and being a teacher always requires outside hours. But what we weren't prepared for was the amount of excess work we need to do that has zero to do with our classes. They have some twisted rules here and it can be very frustrating. Especially in terms of learning, passing and discipline. Along with a few adult and late teen classes, I have a different class of young learners everyday, each class is 3 hours long- that's a heck of a drag for any 10 - 15 year old!!! Let alone going to school all day and (generally) being forced by your parents to learn English for 3 hours after school! For the most part the kids are pretty good, but my wednesday and friday night classes are enough to send anyone to the loony bin!! They are like no species of human I have ever come across before! By the time I finish with either of those classes, my usual pleasant and happy nature has well and truely fled and I'm left with the grumbles- I hate that!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Crazy Busy Life
Jon: Well, its been so crazy around here that there has been no time for writing in our blog. We graduated from our course with distinction, both averaging 98%! So that was on a Friday night, we started training on Saturday for our job, and Monday morning we were both teaching. I've now been teaching 7 hours a day but there is also training and lesson planning thrown into the mix! Not to mention, a split shift with a break between 11-3, meaning early mornings and late nights. We also moved to a different place in town, around the corner from where we were living, once we get settled in and find our camera, we'll have some pictures. Its definitely a step down, and could be described as a cockroach friendly place, but we can survive it for a couple months :). But since it is almost 11pm, and I have to wake up at 6:30am ... I gotta head to bed. Michelle is busy lesson planning, but we'll try to get back to blogging proper once life settles down and we have time for pictures and such :).
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Life's little lessons
Jon: Have you ever stopped to watch something tiny yet amazing in nature? Saturday, while we were sitting on our little rooftop alcove, we were eating our Jon and Michelle special tuna and avocado sandwiches, and we noticed the little ants scurrying like mad to try and gather all our crumbs. It was really amazing, no matter how big the crumb, they'd be trying to pick it up. It's impressive just how much one little ant can carry. However, if ants were as big as us, they would be wimps. But apparently they can lift huge amounts of weight, for their current size. 
It's been a busy week full of more teaching, we're down to the last week of the course, which is exciting. The prospect of either getting a job or having more time to explore Mexico, either way, we're happy :). Last Saturday night, we had the pleasure of watching an Opera which was put on by the church obviously. It was free and one of the fun things was that throughout the show people got up to leave, and we'd move ahead a few rows at a time, so that by the end of the night, we were almost in the front row. I've never been to an Opera/ballet before, and I was surprised that I actually enjoyed it and, bonus, I didn't have my eardrums punctured by an ear-splitting, glass shattering solo from the lead lady singer.
Today, we went to our favorite taco joint and got a handful of tacos and headed off to the Plaza de Armas. It's a central part of the historic downtown, and its got a lot of very cool buildings there, including the government palace. We went inside and found an enormous graphic mural by a famous mexican artist. It was painted during the late 1930's and speaking out against the totalitarian movements happening in Europe (eg Nazi's, Soviets, Fascists etc). In any case, it is a rather impressive, though very graphic, mural.So, here is a few more photos from Guadalajara (last 7 photos in the album), we hope that next weekend we will be able to go to Tonala, a small town that has been somewhat preserved from the tourist hordes, and enjoy a relaxing day haggling at a market or two.
As a side note, I think it would be hilarious if cars in Mexico didn't have horns. I can't imagine what they would do. It's as though they believe that the longer you hold down the horn, the more effective it will be at clearning a traffic jam which has nowhere to go. I suppose it would be funnier if you could be here, but in any case, I picture them frantically pounding their steering wheels, veins popping out of their forehead, because withouth the horn, there is no outlet for them to express their frustration, and if it's at all possible for drivers to get worse here, I think drivers would actually be worse without horns. as for pedestrians, you need eyes in the back of your head when crossing the street because cars or buses will actually speed up if they see you crossing the street. One of the funniest things for us is the little crosswalk signal. It is of a man sprinting! Not the boring stationary white man that we have, nope, this guy is actually animated and sprinting for all he's worth! I guess that's how we are supposed to cross the street here :).Michelle: Isn't that so true. It's the little things in life that make all the difference. We probably watched those ants for half an hour, bemused at how much effort they would put in for a crumb- the bigger the better in their eyes. There was one crumb in particular that they weren't going to give up on. It was a chocolate cake, yummy and sweet, 3 big strong ants dragged it most of the way, until about 6 inches from the hole there was a very steep incline and all of a sudden hoards of ants came to help drag it up the hill! There had to be at least 14 ants come to the rescue and with a lot of pushing and pulling they succeeded. It was such a lesson of team work and unity. In the animal kingdom, this is very common, in the human race this is far from reality. Everyone has their own agenda, their own concerns and their own selfish reasonings. It's really too bad.
Is this why I want to be a teacher? To at least bridge a gap of helping another? I'm not really sure but it's definitely a good feeling to know that your day has some purpose to it. You probably haven't had a life changing effect but at least you've done something good. The kids here are so polite, they ask "may I come in?" when asking questions it's always polite, always with respect and they thank you after each class. Of course this is mostly because they are at a learning center, there to specifically learn English, it's different than normal school because there are often different motivations to be there and learn. However they are still your typical teenagers in that they all have cell phones, all have ipods and listen to music and being that they are paying customers the school is very relaxed about rules about having them / using them in class and coming in late. For us that is one of the most frustrating elements of IMAC (the learning center) is kids dribbling in all through the lesson, it is difficult to prepare your lesson plan when you will constantly have fluctuating numbers and consistently have to stop your lesson for a new person. We've been told not to stop and explain what's happening but instead to have a classmate fill them in. It is still disruptive and can affect the class focus. It has been yet another busy week but we made a point of having a homework-free day last Saturday and as Jon mentioned we went out and explored a little. The opera was our Valentine's outing and it was very well done. Something like that would cost a packet to go to back home. It was probably very religious but we couldn't really tell coz it was all in Spanish so we didn't know any different, the only indication was the cross on the screen above the dancers. It was great to see another aspect of the city, we've been so busy that we feel like we only know and have seen a half mile radius and nothing else. In a city of 6 milion that's not a lot of ground to cover. Come next weekend when we no longer have the constant stream of homework it will be a relief to get out and enjoy without the impending thought that we really should get home to work on our essay or lesson plans or whatever. As excited as we are to graduate I'm quite worried about the final exam, it's all about all the grammar rules that I know how to use in speech but have no idea how to explain them. And afterwards I think we'll actually miss the opportunity to learn so much.
I've got a cold now, probably from overworking my brain and lack of sleep. I'm trying to rest up and have the get-well fairies come and visit. I need to be rearing to go for Monday to stay on top of the game- I can't falter now, not when the end is so close. Had I not had to leave the room for the cleaner to come I probably wouldn't have seen the light of day, but now that i'm out here i'm really glad I came out. The sun is glorious and no doubt boosting my vitamin D intake and that should propel me to get better. Finally the sun comes out in Mexico!! And oh what bliss when it does shine mmmmmmm! Oh and to top it off, I just saw a beautiful little hummingbird come and settle on the flowers- see, the little things in life are so important!!!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Life in Guadalajara
Jon: now that we've been here for a couple weeks, we've been reflecting a little on how life here compares to life in Canada. I can't really say its better or worse, only different :). There are things we miss about home, there are other things I can easily do without. Here's a few photos from around Guadalajara.
The water: In Canada, I didn't like drinking water out of the tap. So many chemicals are added during the process that there is little chance of anything living in the water. You could reasonably safely stick your head under the tap and glug away to your heart's content, you'll just keep your liver and kidneys busy cleaning out the delicious chlorine flavored water. In Mexico, if you were to do that, you're likely to spend the next week flushing out your colon in a rather hurried fashion. In many places in Mexico, they like to go green with the water, let it be, bacteria have feelings too y'know. In Canada, we're able to sing away in the shower for probably a good 2 or 3 songs if not more, basking in the wonderful warmth. In Mexico, by the time you hit the second verse, you're likely to be screaming like an 80's rock star its so cold. A lot of the taps don't put out hot water, they keep it for the shower. I don't know why they don't heat their water with sunshine y'know.
In Mexico, if you say its going to be sunny today, you've got a chance at being right. But thats about as accurate as it gets. Introduce clouds into the picture and the prediction changes hourly. But, its a pretty good bet it isn't going to snow :).
Oh and then there's the bus system. In Canada, the buses are pretty boring, you get the occasional homeless wierdo, the mom with 3 screaming kids, and even the occasional irate passenger because *gasp* the bus was 5 minutes late! But you know the bus is coming, he will stop to pick you up, and he probably won't speed up to try and run that old lady down. If you've read any of the previous blog posts, you'll have an idea of what buses are like in Mexico. Time is totally irrelevant to them. On the other hand, you're pretty safe riding on the biggest vehicle on the road because other than another bus, anything the driver T-bones while running a red light is going to be on the losing end of the collision. You can have the thrill of two bus drivers drag racing each other the wrong way down a one way street, seeing who can pick up the most passengers! Cheer your driver on!!! But hey, for 6 pesos (50 cents) you can have one heck of a thrilling afternoon!!
Michelle: I'm back folks! It's a little hefty all this school work, it's so foreign to me having not been to school in what seems like forever. We're really loving the course, but we'll be looking forward to some sleep once we're done. Teaching everyday and preparing our own materials and lesson plans is very time consuming, add to that essays, assignments, teaching observations and minimum 7 hours in regular class... However all the hard work is paying off, not wanting to jump the gun yet as we are only half way through but we are doing very well so far. Just a few more hoops of fire to jump through and we've made it! So, in keeping with the theme, here are my comparisons.
Shopping: I'm not sure if Mexicans know about the personal space bubble that we each have surrounding us. At least not when you go into a store anyway. In Canada, you may have the rather bored cashier glance up from filing her nails or reading her gossip magazine and unwillingly acknowledge your presence, if you want help, forget it. For minimum wage you're probably not worth the effort. In Mexico, it's not uncommon to have someone so eager to help that they follow your every step, watching like a hawk every move you make. Let's just say it's a little unsettling when your bubble is constantly being pierced by a complete stranger that takes it upon themselves to be your shadow and stare at you very untrusting as you pick up a pencil to admire. It doesn't seem to matter if you walk with the 6 cent pencil in a postion right out in front that clearly shows you have no intention of putting it in your pocket. Then you turn to speak to your husband and wham right into your not so friendly shadow. Wow for minimum wage ($10 a day) that seems like far too much effort in my eyes.
Walking down the street: Generally speaking in Canada/ Australia you can enjoy being completely unsociable and isolated in your little world, happily walk around with a glazed expression of boredom and nobody will try to interfere because they too are walking with their own vacant expression. But minding your own business is not allowed here, you become a walking gawk session. Men openly undress you, regardless if you are attached to a man or not. People pushing perfectly ok children in wheelchairs ask you for money, every door you pass has someone trying to wave you into the store, hands are held out at every opportunity from beggars, someone will try to sell you nail clippers showing a picture of horrid looking toes that wouldn't make you want to touch the clippers with a ten foot pole!
Political Correctness: Back home, we have the joy of restraint and thinking before we speak so as not to offend. Take out anything that is logical and replace it with rules, but when enforcing rules anything that might actually do some good is over stepping the line. We have rules on saying Merry Christmas, rules about the content of children's books, rules on nationality, rules about weight, rules for discipline, rules for acceptance of unacceptable things.... the list goes on. It's a breath of fresh air that they can say it as it is. Here in school, teachers and students can freely discuss the weight issues of someone in the text book, they learn how to say that they are fat and need to lose weight. Getting a students personal cell phone is advised so as to organise a one on one teaching lesson, real names can be used, you can be fired for showing up at work drunk, you can be "discriminated against" in a job because of your age/ sex/ nationality/background/ pregnant etc and unacceptable things are still classified as unacceptable and there are consequences.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
First Days at School
Jon: It was raining like mad for at least 5 days straight!! What's going on?!? We are in Mexico, it isn't even the rainy season, and this??? So to make me feel better, I got around to sorting out the 103 photos Michelle took of our last sunset in PV, since we haven't seen a really nice one here yet. Last Sunset in PV
Anyway, we've now been at school for a couple of days. It's funny going back to school, the course is not a mickey mouse course in any way, it is proving to be a busy, intensive, course, but we will learn a lot, and make great memories along the way. There are 9 people in our class, 3 are native Mexicans, 4 are Americans, 1 Canadian (I wonder who) and 1 Aussie (hummmm). Our instructor is named Rudolfo, and he is very funny :). One of the things we learned about recently was the sound "Schwa" that we have in the English Language. Schwa is not actually the sound, but the arbitrary name given to a sound that we have in the English language. So there's your English lesson for the week.
Friday both Michelle and I taught our first grammar classes. Michelle did pretty awful actually, she only got 98%. Ok actually, we both loved it! It was awesome, a lot of fun, and the kids were very good. Still teenagers, but very respectful. I can see that if it continues like this, we will really enjoy ourselves. We'll post a few pictures of our school as well in our latest little collection. Hopefully this weekend we will get a chance to do some photo taking. There is some very nice architecture here in the city. It's a very cool city actually. We can find everything we need here, and its very safe. There's a very good police presence here, we seen them often on bikes and in vehicles. Speaking of police. we saw a city bus almost t-bone a police truck!! All the traffic was stopped to allow the ambulance and police truck through, and a bus was trying to run a yellow light and came to a screeching halt inches away from this truck!!! That would have been messy, the truck would have been totalled! Looking forward to the weekend though it will be a very busy one :). Lots of homework. But having a great time regardless!
Photos of our Posada and where we go to school!
Last night it seemed like we weren't supposed to fall asleep or something. Sirens, alarms, honking like mad for some reason. And some little moped buzzing around the block, sounding like a lawnmower on helium. Then, there was what seemed to be a contest of people seeing who can ring the bell the most times in a minute (to be let into the hotel), I'm guessing the night manager is deaf. So while lying in bed trying to fall asleep, I was doing some very deep reflection on some of the more pertinent matters in life ... do avocados grow on trees or bushes? I've never bothered to learn that, I'm just happy to buy them from the supermarket. I decided that since I didn't know, in my own little world, avocados were going to grow on avocado bushes. As it turns out, according to Wikipedia (avocados) I'm wrong and avocados grow on trees. I much prefer the idea of avocado bushes, but I guess I can't have everything I want. I found it rather amusing to learn where the name avocado originated. You can find it in that Wikipedia link :). Michelle is frantically trying to finish an essay, so she won't be posting today, but I'm sure we'll have her back for the next time :). Let's cheer her on ;).
Monday, February 1, 2010
First Days in Guadalajara!
Jon: Well, we made it here! We took a first class bus on Saturday to get to Guadalajara. Actually, we rode the city bus in PV to get to the central bus station. As we mentioned before, that can be an adventure in itself :) The bus drivers barely have you on board before racing off, making change for you while weaving in and out of traffic! But its more interesting than taking a taxi, and possibly safer because the bus is bigger. Getting off the city bus is more of the same. You essentially jump off because the bus driver barely stops for long enough! But riding a first class bus, one thing they advertise is "control de velocidad" or controlled speed. Funny they need to advertise that! The bus trip through the mountains was interesting, its neat to see the change in climate as we move inland. Very comfy ride through a relatively windy mountain road.
The best way to learn a language is to get out and go shopping where people don't speak english! We spent monday in an ENORMOUS market, San Juan De Dios (St. John of God) looking for a pair of shoes. Apparently Mexicans have small feet because finding shoes turned out to be a near impossibility. But it got to the point that I would immediately ask what the biggest size of shoe they had. I think we passed 400 shoe stalls selling about 4 million pairs of shoes. This market is huge and crammed!!!. And no one has size 11 Mexican (13 US). Finally, we found a store with a huge pink sign pronouncing the name "Soy Mujer!" (I am woman!) And wouldn't you know it, they had a pair of shoes that fit. It seems the pointy toe style is all the rage here, and not very good for my huge canoes. But anyway I found a nice wide pair of shoes after Michelle prompted me to look in one last shoe store. So there I was, wandering down the streets of Guadalajara, carrying a pink bag that declared "I am Woman!", holding a pink shoebox, with my nice big men's shoes.
To wrap up, we are settled in our posada, and we have quite a nice big room, with two double beds, a private bathroom, wifi internet, and a desk to do our schoolwork at, and its on the rooftop, though we can't really see much from here. We start school tomorrow, and I expect it to be crazy and busy, so blogging may fall by the wayside, but we'll do our best :).
Michelle: Guadalajara is quite a pretty city, it has lots of park squares and nice architecture, of course it has it's dirty streets and buildings too but you can't expect too much for such a big city. What makes me laugh is that on one corner you will find anything from 7 - 20 shops for stationery the next corner the theme might be hair care, the next electrical shops, the next shoes, the next wedding dresses! But the hunt for shoes today, going into that crazy market, it was absolutely insane!! Of course I wasn't even allowed to look at the women's shoes, all those millions of shoes going to waste- what a shame. And believe it or not I'm totally over shoes for the next while, I don't want to see another shoe store for a long time! (Although in reality, I'll probably pass by another 14 just on my way to school tomorrow).
We moved rooms today, away from the stinky toilet, yuck it was rank, so thank goodness for that! We can finally unpack our gear and feel like we have more of a home than a hotel. I think we lucked out nicely in our new joint. We've met some of the other people staying in the hotel, 2 have just graduated from the same course we are about to take and another girl we met tonight is joining us in the morning in our class. In the room we had 6 different nationalities, 6 different accents - American, Canadian, Australian, Irish, English & Mexican. It's great to make some friends and have some in-house support. Everyone we've met that has completed the course keeps wishing us luck, makes us a little nervous- hmm how well do I really know my mother tongue?? I guess I'll soon find out!! Wish us luck.. haha :)
photos from the bus trip
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Last Days in PV
Michelle: I think it's all starting to catch up on us, the preparation to pack up your life and go on a journey with many unknowns is apparently tiring. I think I can get used to these Siestas! We've really needed this time to charge our batteries for what's up and coming. School starts Tuesday and it will be pretty intense so we gotta catch the sleep we can while we can. However on the note of sleep, last night it was extremely difficult to tune out the jet engine we had a few floors away. I'm not kidding, you have NEVER heard anything like it! This was no ordinary snoring, this was incredibly loud, it was like having an F18 above our bed with a constant whirring, and I guess the amusing part is that he (we assume it was a he, no woman could ever rev an engine like that and shake a 5 floor hotel) was a couple of floors away from us and it was still unbearable!! We saw a gorgeous sunset last night, and an acrobat street show, so a fantastic way to finish up our time in PV. Our latest pictures can be seen at: Last days in PV We'll try to get som photos of the sunset up. This blogging business is tough to keep up with :).
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Adventures Exploring PV
Back in Las Juntas, the bus driver passed a street vendor selling corn and decided to stop and buy one, while holding up traffic again. And off we went again. It amazes me how close these drivers race after each other, to quote a description I read, they drive so close the paint is touching. One minute, they're racing after each other, next they decide to pause on a whim. The rules of the road are barely a suggestion :).On the street corners there always seems to be a corner store with a thick blue band and a yellow stripe (Corona). Cheaper than water around here. Then on the middle of a barren country road the bus driver stops, an oncoming bus and tells us we need to transfer to that bus. Hmmm, we already didn't know where we were going and we transfer to an empty bus. Anyway, this driver was doing an even better impression of Michael Schumacher. We eventually hit the highway going back to Puerto Vallarta, which made us feel better, since it was getting dark and we had no clue where we were :). Weaving in and out of traffic, these drivers essentially drag race each other, grinding gears and hammering the brakes at each stop. We're definitely not in Canada now :). We end up bypassing downtown, its now dark out, and we are wondering again where we are going since we're headed up a hill overlooking the city. As luck would have it, we completely bypassed downtown, and ended up 2 blocks from our hotel.
Michelle: Last night and today we are already testing the limits of our immune systems and seeing if they will hold up against genuine Mexican food, so far so good! We are being very careful with what we eat and from where, keeping an eye on hygiene practices etc. We'd love to shop at the supermarket but until we reach Guadalajara we don't have the use of a kitchen. Gourmet meals will have to wait ;)
We enjoyed venturing out of the tourist area and not really knowing where we were going. On the rickety old bus we got chatting to a couple from Kentucky and were laughing at all the things that you would never see back in the States or Canada that are just common everyday life here. It sure is a different world here, that's for sure. Our destination in the middle of nowhere was pretty nice, the beach was lovely and as we waited for what seemed like ages for the bus we watched a man working incredibly hard to salvage just a few pieces of wood from a pile of rubble, probably from a fire. In the hour or so that we watched he had rescued only 4 or 5 pieces of wood and we couldn't help but comment on how much more they are willing to work for a few bucks. Labour is cheap .The buildings are made from every kind of wood imaginable, one of the restaurants even used wood pallets as part of the wall. There's not the same kind of waste like there is back home, no Canadian or Australian that I know would work that hard for the timber, they'd just head down to Home Depot or Bunnings and get new stuff. You can definitely say that the Mexicans know how to recycle, everything from car parts to cardboard boxes to old couches all seem to find a home for themselves long after we would throw them out! 
First Days in Puerto Vallarta Photo Album
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Our Travel Map
- Venice, Italy
- Paris, France
- London, UK
- Dubrovnik, Croatia
- Ephesus, Turkey
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Olympia, Greece
- Ewa Beach, HI, USA
- Bells Beach, Australia
- Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
- Rotorua, New Zealand
- Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
- Lautoka, Fiji
- Sentosa Island, Singapore
- Port Vila, Vanuatu
- Noumea, New Caledonia
- Cardenas, Cuba
- View my profile
- Create your own travel map or travel blog
- TripAdvisor: airline tickets
Our World Odyssey
- jonandmichelle
- Probably Changes Monthly ;), Pick a continent, any continent
- We love to travel and we are sharing our adventures with our friends and family as we go.