I finally got my IFE (voter ID card). Well I didn’t actually get the card, but I
got approved for the card, and on the 23rd it will be ready for pick
up. Once I have my IFE I can get into
museums for free on Sundays, and open a bank account other than an “express”
account, and get my passport, and get my social security number for free
healthcare and stuff. Finally! They make you jump through hoops to get stuff
here, and there are so many services in Mexico you can’t access without you
IFE. So yay!
Los maestros de primaria
I also got an apartment!
I don’t move in until January, but it’s BEAUTIFUL! My friend lives there now, but he’s moving to
Guadalajara at the end of the month, so I’m going to take his room. His roommate had a party, so I went to it to
meet her and she was super nice, and said that the other roommate is leaving as
well and there’s going to be a French exchange student living with us.
My Secret Santa present with my Secret Santa!
So I have my IFE, an apartment, and…3 jobs? Yea, I’m not quite sure how that happened,
but now on top of working at the school and the private classes outside of
school, I’m also working on an iPad app. Miriam had been doing it back in Toronto and recommended
me to the people for more work. It’s
actually pretty cool, the app has all these different children’s books, and the
kids can touch anything in the illustration, and a label will come up saying
what it is (table, girl, window, etc.).
So my job is to go through each page of the books and highlight and
label everything. It’s kinda boring, but
I can sit outside where there’s wifi and work on it, and it’s fairly simple, so
more money for travelling! Yay!
The grade 3/4 Spanish teacher taking a swing at the piñata
December at school has been full of interruptions with the
kids practicing for the Christmas play and doing other Christmas activities
(because you’re allowed to celebrate Christmas at school in a Catholic
country). The students from preparatoria
put on a Christmas play about a church group putting on a nativity play, and
they had the kids from primaria sing various songs throughout. They were so adorable! My kids did Silent Night, and then the Justin
Bieber version of “Santa Claus is Comin to Town,” and I even choreographed a little
dance to it for them, which was super cute.
The final week of classes half my grade 3s were away, so it was super
calm. We had to make a piñata with each
class for the posada, and then the kids had to make presents and cards to give
their parents. And the kids that were in
dance or theatre were constantly being pulled from class to rehearse for their
end-of-the-year show. So I was
essentially a babysitter for the last week of classes. On the final day we had a big
pic-nic/potluck, and then the posada, which is a Mexican Christmas
tradition. First you sing some
traditional posada songs, and then you get to break open the piñata! All the
kids were very excited that it was my very first posada. Also during the last week, there was a lunch
for all the teachers, and we all exchanged our secret santa presents. The grade 5/6 English teacher had me, and
gave me this beautiful handmade shawl from Oaxaca!
El Zócalo all lit up for Christmas!
Outside of school, has been pretty quiet…I went out to
celebrate one of the teacher’s birthdays one night, and then one day I went and
saw the final fútbol match of the season at a bar. The team my Mexican friends were cheering for
lost to Léon. Aside from that just getting
super stoked for Christmas vacations!
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