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!!!