A Special Present

Ramon, one of my students, brought me this present for me today. I don't know if you ever did see where chocolate comes from, but here is the origin. He brought me three cacao pods. As you can observe, once opened you can see cocoa beans. If you are interested in learning more about how the process works, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacao_bean for an extensive description. I found it very "sweet" that he brought me this gift because in ancient Mayan civilizations a gift such as this was expensive and considered an honor to receive.

College Teaching

Last week I started teaching at the UPCH (Universidad Popular de la Chontalpa). It's been quite a difference experience from teaching at the high school level and I have been loving it ever since I started. I teach English V and VI to students who are part of the Alternative Tourism Degree. I'm very amazed at how much English they know. Some of them have a great pronunciation and others try very hard. In order to have the right to take their exams, students must have 80% of attendance. If they do not, they can't take any exams and will not pass the class. This regulation is extremely strict and I understand why after teaching there for a week. One of the reasons is that students do not arrive on time. They have no notion of what punctuality really is, so a regulation must be in place. If a student arrives from 1 to 15 minutes late, they are considered tardy (3 tardies = an absence). If a student arrives 16 minutes late, he/she is absent and can come in to observed the class or leave. It's very simple!!!

Tomorrow I begin teaching at the Language Center. I will be teaching English I and III. This center is for UPCH students and/or for community members who desire to learn English. At the center they also teach French and Chontal (A Mayan language spoken in Tabasco by 44,000 people in this area). I will try to register in this class for next two semesters. We will see.

A Movie Experience

Wow... We never thought that watching a movie in a theater would be such an adventure of its own. In the morning, we checked the movie theater's schedule for Los Pitufos (The Smurfs). According to this amazing website, it was supposed to start at 11:00 am, so we walked towards the cinema and took a taxi on the way there. We arrived there at 10:55 am, but the doors were locked and nobody would come to open them. Finally at 11:15 a man unlocked the doors and told us that the theater would not open until noon. I said, "But according to your website, this movie starts at 11:00!" So we went to the supermarket next to the theater and did more school shopping for an hour. At noon, we happily walked into the theater only to find out that this movie would not be played until 3:25 pm. We couldn't believe it!!! We went back to the supermarket and did more serious shopping, took a taxi back to the house, had lunch, and then went back to the theater. At 3:25, we were sitting in one of the theaters ready to finally watch this movie. Well...It was 3:30, 3:40, and finally at 3:45, they decided to start the movie. Jorge was a little anxious as he is Mr. Punctuality, but we couldn't believe we had this experience prior to watching the movie!!! We now know what to expect when we go to the movies and that's not punctuality. :)

Colegio Latino

We have survived the first week of school. It's amazing how well our children are doing. I personally had a meeting with Emma's teacher and her principal and after sitting with them for an hour, I have to admit that we have enrolled our daughters in one of the finest schools in Tabasco. The teachers do care about them and are doing whatever it takes to integrate them into the classroom and the school. In order to help them understand Spanish better, they have created a special Spanish as a Second Language class from 11:00 to 12:00 that will be in place just for them. Emma's teacher asked her classmates to write a Welcome letter to her. Today Emma came home excited and immediately showed us the amazing letters they gave her with encouraging words and extremely sweet words of love and friendship. We were completely amazed!!! The level of education is completely different here. I was in shock when I saw the content of each subject, so we are going to have to do some teaching at home because unfortunately, our children did not study the advanced material Mexican students had last school year. Every day, they have had homework. They arrived at 1:00 pm, had lunch, and then homework until 4:00 or 5:00 pm. In order to have a balance, Gina does basketball three times a week and the kids have swim practice three times a week as well.

Lucas' Second Day of Kinder

Lucas is wearing his regular uniform, which will be worn from Tuesday to Friday each week.

Lucas' First Day of Kinder

Lucas will have two uniforms. He will only wear the white one on Monday because they have a special Flag Ceremony on that day and white is the color to wear at school when the flag is being presented to the entire student body. Here is Lucas wondering whether he should be happy or sad on this day. He did great!!!

The Girls' First Day of School

As you can see, our girls were the same uniform. We personally believe it's the way to go as there is great uniformity when worn in a school. School starts at 7:00 am and ends at 12:30 this week. Next week will go until 1:00 pm. They have one 30-minute break in the middle of the day.