Finally. 6 more weeks to go. I didn't go to my last class today, again. I didn't want to. One of the teachers/office helpers came in here to ask if I had too much homework, or if I just didn't go to class. I told him I didn't want to, so I was taking a break. He said ok. I said thanks, and he left. So here I am. I gave my grammar teacher a bad review for the week - she deserved it.
I'm trying to reset my mind frame that I'll actually be OK here - but it's not working yet. We're supposed to go to Lucho Libre tonight with some people from school. I don't really feel like going, but was told it would be a great experience and it's just one of those things you have to do while in Mexico....whatever...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wednesday #2
Tomorrow, I will be able to write Thursday #3. that means I am that much closer to not being here. I want to thank everyone for all of the kind words of encouragement - I want you to know that I appreciate more than you'll ever know- it's probably the main reason I'm still here. I talked with a fellow student that was telling me that I'm just going through culture shock. So I went and read up on it today and have decided that it isn't culture shock. I don't mind being here. I don't mind the people, the place we live in, or even the dog that barks at us every time we come to or from school. What I do mind is that for some reason, in my head, I had decided when I finished my Master's program that I was done forcing myself to learn in extremely stressful environments - and so now that I'm in this competitive atmosphere, I am so done with it. I contemplated backing out on a week or two of classes and just hanging out at the school on my computer while Drew does his thing. It's kind of one of those random thoughts though that I'll have to ponder upon more. There are just so many teenagers here and all they want to do it compete with one another. It's ridiculous. So anyway, yeah, thank you to those that have written me, I thank you so much!
Since this weekend is fast approaching, and Drew and I have decided to do our own excursions rather than go through the school, I think we aren't going to do anything this weekend. Or rather yet, stay here in Cuernavaca and head up to the market and zocalo, and try to find McDonalds so we can go eat fattening food and ice cream cones. The only places I want to go are Tasco and Acapulco. We have 6 weekends to do things, and 3 will be taken up by those, so that's only 3 more to go, so that's not bad at all. I would have liked to go up to the Mexican Temple, but it's being renovated til October :/
I also decided that this place wouldn't be have bad if I wasn't restricted to time constraints. Like when you go on vacation, you can go and see and do whatever you want, whenever you want, whereas here, it's just going to high school with people you don't understand - I think that's why I hate it. And a bonus today, it's actually a bit chilly in the shade. It's been overcast all day - a first - and I'm enjoying it. Normally by now, I'm all gross sweaty.
I guess that's about it for now.
Since this weekend is fast approaching, and Drew and I have decided to do our own excursions rather than go through the school, I think we aren't going to do anything this weekend. Or rather yet, stay here in Cuernavaca and head up to the market and zocalo, and try to find McDonalds so we can go eat fattening food and ice cream cones. The only places I want to go are Tasco and Acapulco. We have 6 weekends to do things, and 3 will be taken up by those, so that's only 3 more to go, so that's not bad at all. I would have liked to go up to the Mexican Temple, but it's being renovated til October :/
I also decided that this place wouldn't be have bad if I wasn't restricted to time constraints. Like when you go on vacation, you can go and see and do whatever you want, whenever you want, whereas here, it's just going to high school with people you don't understand - I think that's why I hate it. And a bonus today, it's actually a bit chilly in the shade. It's been overcast all day - a first - and I'm enjoying it. Normally by now, I'm all gross sweaty.
I guess that's about it for now.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tuesday #2 - This blows
I had a good all out tantrum at my teacher today. She pissed me off. So here's how it went:
We were supposed to be creating sentences such as Is Maria going to buy tortillas at the store? and rephrase it to say - Is Maria going to buy them at the store? - a simple substitution for the object and make it them/that/it/its, etc. So I didn't get the concept very well, and neither did Kate. SO our teacher goes- make up 10 sentences and rephrase them. So I go...uhhhh...ok... so I proceed to ask where is the dog? He is there. And I made a whole bunch of those sentences cause really, I didn't understand that I had to have a subject, verb, and direct object BUTTTTT the verb couldn't be the ESTAR verb - NO ONE TOLD ME. So instead of my teacher fixing my mistake on the first question I made, she waited for half an hour and I was "done" she says to me, "These are good, but they don't make sense" so I said, WHY!? and she just kept going, cause they don't make sense. So I told her to F*CK it, threw my pen down and sat there fuming. She proceeded to blab out her mouth about something or other and I was so pissed that I just got up and left. I came back about 10 minutes later after a good burst of anger, and about 5 minutes after I came back, we had our first break. I complained to Drew and he told me that everyone in his class has a difficult time with that concept as well. So then after the bell rang to go back to class, a lady from the office came to me to ask if I wanted to switch teachers, and I said no, I hate it here, all these teachers suck, so I might as well stay where I am. I asked if the teacher wanted me to leave and she said no, she's fine, she just thought you might want to? I said no, I'll be fine, the concept was just presented extremely poorly. So at least I have an out, but at the same time, I think it's ridiculous to not stop me to begin with and say, wait, no, you can't do it that way instead of making me feel like an idiot. Assholes.
So after she finally explained that you can do the replacement words (lo,los, la, los) just not with estar, I understood it. Freakin a, it wasn't THAT hard and I don't know why she didn't say that to begin with.
So then we had our lunch break and this stupid girl Briyana kept complaining that she wasn't in book 2 yet, but from what i've heard and understand, there's no way she should even be as far as she is. I keep trying to figure out who she's trying to impress and her only excuse is that her mom paid all this money for her to be down here, and she should get as far as she can. whatever. Just because you're in book 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 doesn't mean that you should be there if you don't get it. What an idiot. I'm proud to say I don't know Spanish, and I'm happy to get as much help as a foundation as I can rather than pretending to understand crap. I'm not trying to impress anyone - and instead, I just have tantrums. No wonder my 1st graders flip out! Maybe I push them too hard... ?
So anyway, Drew is in our pronunciation class while I sit here and type. I didn't want to go to class. In all honesty, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to do this for 6.5 more weeks. Too bad I don't have anything else to do here, and I'm pretty much stranded. :/
I have some movie clips I took, I'm going to try to upload them here.
Tonight, after comida (which translates to food), Drew is going to come back to do an intercambion thing where he speaks spanish with the spanish students and the english students speak english to him. I told him I won't do it, so I'm going to sit here and upload pictures instead.
\---nevermind about the movie clips, they'are ~40megs. It's going to take a lifetime down here to upload them. I'll try again tonight, but you guys just might have to wait for 46 more days and then see them.
We were supposed to be creating sentences such as Is Maria going to buy tortillas at the store? and rephrase it to say - Is Maria going to buy them at the store? - a simple substitution for the object and make it them/that/it/its, etc. So I didn't get the concept very well, and neither did Kate. SO our teacher goes- make up 10 sentences and rephrase them. So I go...uhhhh...ok... so I proceed to ask where is the dog? He is there. And I made a whole bunch of those sentences cause really, I didn't understand that I had to have a subject, verb, and direct object BUTTTTT the verb couldn't be the ESTAR verb - NO ONE TOLD ME. So instead of my teacher fixing my mistake on the first question I made, she waited for half an hour and I was "done" she says to me, "These are good, but they don't make sense" so I said, WHY!? and she just kept going, cause they don't make sense. So I told her to F*CK it, threw my pen down and sat there fuming. She proceeded to blab out her mouth about something or other and I was so pissed that I just got up and left. I came back about 10 minutes later after a good burst of anger, and about 5 minutes after I came back, we had our first break. I complained to Drew and he told me that everyone in his class has a difficult time with that concept as well. So then after the bell rang to go back to class, a lady from the office came to me to ask if I wanted to switch teachers, and I said no, I hate it here, all these teachers suck, so I might as well stay where I am. I asked if the teacher wanted me to leave and she said no, she's fine, she just thought you might want to? I said no, I'll be fine, the concept was just presented extremely poorly. So at least I have an out, but at the same time, I think it's ridiculous to not stop me to begin with and say, wait, no, you can't do it that way instead of making me feel like an idiot. Assholes.
So after she finally explained that you can do the replacement words (lo,los, la, los) just not with estar, I understood it. Freakin a, it wasn't THAT hard and I don't know why she didn't say that to begin with.
So then we had our lunch break and this stupid girl Briyana kept complaining that she wasn't in book 2 yet, but from what i've heard and understand, there's no way she should even be as far as she is. I keep trying to figure out who she's trying to impress and her only excuse is that her mom paid all this money for her to be down here, and she should get as far as she can. whatever. Just because you're in book 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 doesn't mean that you should be there if you don't get it. What an idiot. I'm proud to say I don't know Spanish, and I'm happy to get as much help as a foundation as I can rather than pretending to understand crap. I'm not trying to impress anyone - and instead, I just have tantrums. No wonder my 1st graders flip out! Maybe I push them too hard... ?
So anyway, Drew is in our pronunciation class while I sit here and type. I didn't want to go to class. In all honesty, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to do this for 6.5 more weeks. Too bad I don't have anything else to do here, and I'm pretty much stranded. :/
I have some movie clips I took, I'm going to try to upload them here.
Tonight, after comida (which translates to food), Drew is going to come back to do an intercambion thing where he speaks spanish with the spanish students and the english students speak english to him. I told him I won't do it, so I'm going to sit here and upload pictures instead.
\---nevermind about the movie clips, they'are ~40megs. It's going to take a lifetime down here to upload them. I'll try again tonight, but you guys just might have to wait for 46 more days and then see them.
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