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!

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 :).