Busy Teaching and Working Hard

It has been about four weeks since we posted anything because if you have not already guessed from the title, we have been very busy since starting work! A regular weekday for us may not look much different than your normal day:

6am wake up (bah, 6 still feels way too early), 7:10ish get picked up from another teacher, 7:45am start work, 11am-1pm eat lunch or at least some kind of snack if we have time, 2:45pm school ends, 3:30 leave work and walk to gym or a coffee shop, 5pm-6pm arrive home by bus, 7ish eat dinner, 7pm-9pm watch 2 episodes of Modern Family and/or do more lesson planning or grading, 9:30pm – 10pm SLEEP.

Even though we are super busy we love teaching and we have some great students. It is a joy teaching them. One thing we both enjoy about teaching is that it allows you to be creative and dynamic every day. No day is exactly alike. It also helps to remember that if you do your job right you are inspiring and motivating the next generation to do great things in Mexico and beyond. I would not be surprised to hear in a few years that some of our students choose to go to university in the States or even Europe. Also, some of our students are very silly and fun, which makes going to work a joy.

On a more somber note, the business of teaching has put a major hault on Spanish language learning. Most of our time is dedicated to teaching and planning, which leaves little time or energy for language learning :( Knowing that it is very important we will still try and make opportunities this though!

Weekends: They look a lot different. than the weekdays. We both got a little sick a few weeks ago so we mostly relaxed all weekend. We went back to the town of Tonala again last weekend to buy some handcrafted goods. This weekend (Sat. the 19th) we are celebrating Naya’s birthday! We are going out to a bar/dance place which mostly plays 70’s and 80’s music (Naya’s favorite). We are going with a few other teachers (I’ll post some pictures next time). Mexican Independence Day was the 16th which was a Wednesday. We went to a party that another teacher hosted. She worked SO hard preparing traditional Mexican food. I can’t even remember the names of most of it but I know there was posole (a soup dish made with corn, lots of spices, and sometimes some kind of meat), black beans, guacamole, some potato dishes, lengua (yes, tongue), and about 5 other dishes! Tenaya made some delicious enchiladas too! Everything was VERY good. It was also great to spend time with other teachers whom we are forming friendships with.

Another note about Independence Day: On the night of the 15th there is the traditional “grito.” The basic outline of this event is that usually a political leader stands on a balcony and shouts things like “Viva Hidalgo!” “Viva Morales!” “Viva Mexico!” and so on. The crowd echos the leader and there’s fireworks, shouting, and lots of cervezas and tequila.

A few days ago I bought a book that describes many different outdoor activities around Guadalajara. There is SO much so much natural beauty to see in this region of Mexico. I will post some more pictures when we’ve done some more exploring.

As alwyas, there is much more that could be said, but we will write more about it in later blogs and when we see you in person!

grace and peace,

Adam and Naya Nunez

ps: The picutes below include our 1st day of teaching, Naya in a pottery shop in Tonala (with so many beautiful goods!), us at our friend's party, the books that I bought. More to come soon!

#zapopan