Well...the past few days have been suuuuper exciting and full of activity! I'm trying to remember everything that happened...I don't want to write everyday because I don't want to be too tedious and write about things that aren't terribly important, so...I'll go day by day!
Tuesday morning we woke up refreshed from a free night at the HI Express with the free Mexican continental breakfast, all piled in the Suburban, and drove to the American School Prepa (Mexican word for high school) to get copies of our official documents for our FM3 Visa-aka working visa! OH! After the paperwork and lugging 8 bags out of the back of a suburban, Megan and I officially moved into our apartment. We felt like those high maintenance girls who always, always overpack, but we're really not!!
Cecilia, the woman in charge of showing us the ropes here at the American School, is the most amazing woman ever. She's been like our Mexican mom here this week.
She LOVES us too. Because Megan and I have studied and lived in Puebla before, she always asks us where we should eat and what we should do. So, on Tuesday, she asked us if we liked sushi and we responded with a big ole CLARO QUE SI (of course)!!!!! She then asked if we'd eaten at Sushi Itto...which if you know about Megan and I and our sushi experience together, it's our favorite ever of all time...so needless to say, we were ecstatic to find out that Cecilia told us the school was inviting us for lunch! Now, in the states when you invite someone to the movies, for example, that means that you will both go to the movies and will each pay for your ticket...BUTTT when a Mexican says "Te invito" (I invite you) that means that they will pay. Just one of the many perks of Mexican culture. Anyways, it was the highlight of the day...it was 2x1 day, so we ordered 16 rolls of sushi and all shared. DELICIOUS! That's all I can say.
After lunch, we met up with Yuyo and went to Walmart to buy some things for the apartment (pictures coming soon-ish). It's funny because in the states, we go to Walmart to buy cheap stuff. Like right now, I need a bedside table, mattress pads, and lamps. Welllll in Mexico's Walmart, mattress pads are $45, tables are $160, and lamps are at least $50. So Mom keeps telling me to just "get one at Walmart", but I'd be broke!! ha.
I can't even explain what a blessing it is to have Megan here with me. She's really one of my best friends and it's awesome to be able to share this experience-good and bad-with her. We have been laughing and talking non-stop...and it's been great.
Besides finding-and Yuyo and Darius killing-a scorpion in our apartment (which every Mexican we've talked to is like...WHAT?? because they've never even seen one), Wednesday was pretty low key.
We cashed our first check from the school at the bank and went to Mega (kind of like a Walmart). During our time at Mega Megan and I decided we wanted to eat at Karma Bagels. Now, Karma Bagels is a deliciously wonderful restaurant where they have all kinds of wonderful sandwichy creations...all on bagels. They also have yummy salads and desserts-strawberries and Nutella spread alllllll over a bagel...can't go wrong in any way with that.
Later, we met up with Yuyo and Darius (our friend from Ga Southern who is here for about a month) and went to the movies to see Inception. Darius and Yuyo were the only ones who had never seen it, so we get into the packed theater with our popcorn and icees, and hotdogs and sit down. The movie is about 2.5 hours long, and it was a 9:40 movie, so it was getting kind of late. Yuyo nudged me in the last hour of the movie and we saw and laughed that Darius was sound asleep in his seat. In the last 20 minutes, during the most crucial, epic, and silent part of the movie, he lets out this LOUD snore. So loud in fact, that he wakes himself up. We DIEDDDD laughing. hahaha. It was amazing. The funny thing is, he said he never snores in real life. We told him to try to snore, and he couldn't do it. That story probably wasn't as funny in this blog...but just know, we laughed for 15 minutes straight after the movie ended.
Thursday was a GREAT day. We had our first group of real meetings with all of our bosses and administration at the school. EVERYONE at the school has been helpful, organized, and pleasant since we've arrived. We had some friends over Thursday night and just hung out and played cards. It was great fun!
Friday we woke up, walked to the prepa and met the other American teachers and Ceci to go on a tour of Puebla. The school paid for us to take about an 1.5 hour tour on one of those double decker busses. It's funny because Yuyo looooves seeing cities and new places that way...I, however, do NOT like it at all. But Megan and I both decided to make the best of the tour and it was nice. We both got a little sunburned, but the weather was cool and the city really is beautiful. Here are some pics from the tour.
After the tour, we went to the mercado (market) to eat a sandwich called a "cemita". They are only made in Puebla and are like the original subway. You choose what to put on them: barbacoa (like lamb barbeque), pollo (chicken), milanesa (a breaded skirt steak or chicken), carne enchilada (spicy steak), pata (cow hoof) and the list goes on and on. They were HUGE. Megan and I split one and each only had to pay about $2.
The mercado is also full of fresh vegetables and fruits and even fresher meat-beef, pork, and lots of chicken...
Last night, Megan and I both went into the gates of the university we attended as exchange students and ran the paths around the campus. Because Puebla has such high altitude, it was incredibly hard...our lungs were about to cave in. Funny story: we came back to our house to shower and were both drying our hair and it blew the circuit. Not only did it blow the circuit, but we flipped the circuit breaker on and off and the lights would not come back on. We spent about 30 minutes getting ready by the light of our computers. Luckily, the girl living here before us was next door at her friends apartment hanging out, so she showed us how to flip it back on from outside.
So far, it's been a great, smooth transition. We start "real work" on Tuesday. I am OFFICIALLY teaching 3rd grade. One of the new girls from Chicago is teaching 3rd with me, and our next door neighbor is the other English 3rd grade teacher! I'm super excited to meet my Mexican co-teacher and to see my classroom and meet my kids.
Thanks for reading. Besos de Mexico!!
Tuesday morning we woke up refreshed from a free night at the HI Express with the free Mexican continental breakfast, all piled in the Suburban, and drove to the American School Prepa (Mexican word for high school) to get copies of our official documents for our FM3 Visa-aka working visa! OH! After the paperwork and lugging 8 bags out of the back of a suburban, Megan and I officially moved into our apartment. We felt like those high maintenance girls who always, always overpack, but we're really not!!
Cecilia, the woman in charge of showing us the ropes here at the American School, is the most amazing woman ever. She's been like our Mexican mom here this week.
She LOVES us too. Because Megan and I have studied and lived in Puebla before, she always asks us where we should eat and what we should do. So, on Tuesday, she asked us if we liked sushi and we responded with a big ole CLARO QUE SI (of course)!!!!! She then asked if we'd eaten at Sushi Itto...which if you know about Megan and I and our sushi experience together, it's our favorite ever of all time...so needless to say, we were ecstatic to find out that Cecilia told us the school was inviting us for lunch! Now, in the states when you invite someone to the movies, for example, that means that you will both go to the movies and will each pay for your ticket...BUTTT when a Mexican says "Te invito" (I invite you) that means that they will pay. Just one of the many perks of Mexican culture. Anyways, it was the highlight of the day...it was 2x1 day, so we ordered 16 rolls of sushi and all shared. DELICIOUS! That's all I can say.
After lunch, we met up with Yuyo and went to Walmart to buy some things for the apartment (pictures coming soon-ish). It's funny because in the states, we go to Walmart to buy cheap stuff. Like right now, I need a bedside table, mattress pads, and lamps. Welllll in Mexico's Walmart, mattress pads are $45, tables are $160, and lamps are at least $50. So Mom keeps telling me to just "get one at Walmart", but I'd be broke!! ha.
I can't even explain what a blessing it is to have Megan here with me. She's really one of my best friends and it's awesome to be able to share this experience-good and bad-with her. We have been laughing and talking non-stop...and it's been great.
Besides finding-and Yuyo and Darius killing-a scorpion in our apartment (which every Mexican we've talked to is like...WHAT?? because they've never even seen one), Wednesday was pretty low key.
We cashed our first check from the school at the bank and went to Mega (kind of like a Walmart). During our time at Mega Megan and I decided we wanted to eat at Karma Bagels. Now, Karma Bagels is a deliciously wonderful restaurant where they have all kinds of wonderful sandwichy creations...all on bagels. They also have yummy salads and desserts-strawberries and Nutella spread alllllll over a bagel...can't go wrong in any way with that.
Later, we met up with Yuyo and Darius (our friend from Ga Southern who is here for about a month) and went to the movies to see Inception. Darius and Yuyo were the only ones who had never seen it, so we get into the packed theater with our popcorn and icees, and hotdogs and sit down. The movie is about 2.5 hours long, and it was a 9:40 movie, so it was getting kind of late. Yuyo nudged me in the last hour of the movie and we saw and laughed that Darius was sound asleep in his seat. In the last 20 minutes, during the most crucial, epic, and silent part of the movie, he lets out this LOUD snore. So loud in fact, that he wakes himself up. We DIEDDDD laughing. hahaha. It was amazing. The funny thing is, he said he never snores in real life. We told him to try to snore, and he couldn't do it. That story probably wasn't as funny in this blog...but just know, we laughed for 15 minutes straight after the movie ended.
Thursday was a GREAT day. We had our first group of real meetings with all of our bosses and administration at the school. EVERYONE at the school has been helpful, organized, and pleasant since we've arrived. We had some friends over Thursday night and just hung out and played cards. It was great fun!
Friday we woke up, walked to the prepa and met the other American teachers and Ceci to go on a tour of Puebla. The school paid for us to take about an 1.5 hour tour on one of those double decker busses. It's funny because Yuyo looooves seeing cities and new places that way...I, however, do NOT like it at all. But Megan and I both decided to make the best of the tour and it was nice. We both got a little sunburned, but the weather was cool and the city really is beautiful. Here are some pics from the tour.
After the tour, we went to the mercado (market) to eat a sandwich called a "cemita". They are only made in Puebla and are like the original subway. You choose what to put on them: barbacoa (like lamb barbeque), pollo (chicken), milanesa (a breaded skirt steak or chicken), carne enchilada (spicy steak), pata (cow hoof) and the list goes on and on. They were HUGE. Megan and I split one and each only had to pay about $2.
The mercado is also full of fresh vegetables and fruits and even fresher meat-beef, pork, and lots of chicken...
Last night, Megan and I both went into the gates of the university we attended as exchange students and ran the paths around the campus. Because Puebla has such high altitude, it was incredibly hard...our lungs were about to cave in. Funny story: we came back to our house to shower and were both drying our hair and it blew the circuit. Not only did it blow the circuit, but we flipped the circuit breaker on and off and the lights would not come back on. We spent about 30 minutes getting ready by the light of our computers. Luckily, the girl living here before us was next door at her friends apartment hanging out, so she showed us how to flip it back on from outside.
So far, it's been a great, smooth transition. We start "real work" on Tuesday. I am OFFICIALLY teaching 3rd grade. One of the new girls from Chicago is teaching 3rd with me, and our next door neighbor is the other English 3rd grade teacher! I'm super excited to meet my Mexican co-teacher and to see my classroom and meet my kids.
Thanks for reading. Besos de Mexico!!
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