More Mexican Adventures

It has been a little while since I got anything up here. Since I wrote last there have been a few interesting adventures...

-Camping in Rayones... 20 or so of us from school headed for a 2 hour drive last Friday to spend the night at a campsite. It was great to get out of the city and just relax. We went to the area because it was supposed to have a good river to go tubing in (i.e ride a tube down the current). This was quite an exciting prospect because there is no fresh water in Monterrey and for lots of us (coming from Ontario and other places), we love the water. The river that we were going to is only actually a river at certain points of the year (if there has been a lot of rain). So, there was water.. but not as much as we were expecting. However, the site we stayed at had a pool that the owners filled up for us, so we spent most of Saturday lounging around the pool on the tubes people had brought for the river. I managed to borrow all the great necessary for camping.. but since it seems like a thing that people do here fairly often, so I may look into investing in a tent and that sort of stuff.



-A Rodeo! On Sunday afternoon some of us ventured out to a rodeo. Unfortunately, we had the start time a little wrong (we thought it started at 4, but it actually started at 6), so we ended up seeing really only the warm-up. Jen (a Toronto girl who went to Branksome and teaches 3rd) and I had to head back home to get ready for our Sunday pot-luck. To be honest, I had really had enough of the rodeo. Seeing men on horses trying to take out little cows by tripping them wasn't exactly my ideal entertainment. Definitely a cultural experience.

-I ventured out on day by myself to go to the grocery store. I thought i should start to become a little more independent and try to use some of my very rough spanish. Though I survived, and made it home with pretty much everything I had hoped to by, I definitely realized that being in this country without speaking the language can be a very difficult and frustrating experience. Not being able to express yourself or ask questions certainly limits the extent to which you can actively participate in the society around us. Spanish lessons have started and I am trying to have some sort of Spanish conversation every day (speaking to the custodian who cleans my room, asking for something at a store...), but my Spanish skills are not coming along as quickly as I would like. I think I need to commit to spending some more time learning on my own.

-We had our school Open House this week. This is when the parents come in to hear you give a presentation about the year ahead. Being in Mexico, the parents were of course dressed up for the occassion, and we had been encouraged to do the same.. Some people went out and got pedicures and haircuts and that sort of thing. I straightened my hair and put on a little make-up and thought that was enough effort. I had put together a powerpoint presentation with pictures of my kids from the first few days of school, and I think the parents enjoyed that. The whole thing went really well and it definitely wasn't worth being nervous for.

Its almost the weekend again, which is exciting. I will definitely need to catch up on a little sleep, probably do some work for school and fit in some fun stuff in between. I know we've got plans to hike at Chipinque again, and possibly someone's surprise birthday party tomorrow night.

Apparently my sister just found out she was picked for a camp directing job, so I am hoping that means she can make it down here before that starts. It would be nice to have some elements from home down here again.

I'm sure there are more stories I'm forgetting, but this is as much as I can put together now. School has been tiring me out. :)