Xalapa

Xalapa was definitely a whirlwind trip, we arrived around 12.30 on Friday night and went straight to Coatepec and fell into bed. The next morning me,
Jose, Jose's brother Juan and his mum went for
breakfast and it was so nice to have real Picadas Veracruz style, realy good start to the day. We then went to see both his grandparents, and a few of his aunties-lots of Spanish practice! We then wet to the house of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who was the presi dent of Mexico on 11 non consecutive occasions for 22 years. He was born in Xalapa, Veracruz and was the son of a respected Spanish Colonial Family.. Jose's mum's mum Guadalupe claims that he was the grandfather of her grandfather.. who knows, maybe its true.. Jose's mum's family name is Lopez but then again there are many families with the name Lopez, beautiful house though.
In the afternoon I helped Maria make dinner, we made letter soup which is my favorite and then Aztec cake which was so tasty. That evening we went to a club called Rio with some friends: Eunice and her sister and Zazyl, it was really fun and so good to dance again! A really good mix of pop, reggaeton,
salsa.. exhausting. Of course afterward we went for hotdogs at Farmacia Plus whcih were amazing and I have a video where all I hear from me is "con mucho queso!" haha lots of cheese!
Sunday I was quite tired, but we went to see the grandparents again and we saw a movie.. something to do with Avatar, I'm not sure, I thought it was really boring and i fell asleep for most of it.
All in all it was a good trip, nice to be in Xalapa again, so familiar, I felt like I could have gone back to my apartment and all of our stuff would still be there.
Anyways I will put some pictures :-) xx

The week

Just a quick blog, I feel like I don't have too many things to report. I have finally started to get my own groups, so far i have three which works out to about 17 hours a week so far, and I will get another 2/3 groups in the next month. I have 2 beginners groups and one advanced group and so far they all seem really nice and I am quite enjoying being Miss teacher Leanne :-) I went to a yoga class on Wednesday which was amazing. The girl is from Russia but she speaks really good Spanish and I just loved her style of yoga, first time I had done a handstand i a long time, I could definitely feel it in my shoulders the next day! Jose is coming with me today and I think he will like it. We are going to Xalapa tonight so he is taking a half day at work, we are gyming and then taking the bus around 5. I think I will have some Xalapa things to blog about next week. Okies well have a nice day! xxx

Gym

So the gym is going really well, exhausting and painful but I can already feel a difference. And I have more energy during the day, I sleep better and I wake up easier... I do 40 minutes of cardio at 70%, 20 more minutes than Jose, I have 20 more minutes of fat to burn than him! I like going because Will and Grace is on the tv at that time and i forget that I am exercising because I love that show. 3 times a week I do legs, 2 times a week i do arms, Jose is the other way round. We are also going to do this yoga class on Saturday and Sunday is rest day! There is a man that is always at the gym when we go, he seems quite normal but he sings out loud to his music.. but mostly to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and he is probably 40. He was with a woman yesterday who also seems normal so i guess he just can’t help but sing “You drive me Crazyyy” and “Thank for making me a fighter”” yeahh and pumping his hands in the air. It is actually quite entertaining! Tomorrow I am going to do another yoga class during the day, but this time Hatha yoga.. I don’t know what the difference is between Ashtanga and Hatha?

Work!

WORK! I have my first real class. The company is Canadian, based out of Toronto. My student is the assistants manager, called Rafael. He reads and writes really well but has problems speaking and reading... I think this is always the problem!. The class starts at 7.00 so I have to get up at 5.55, leave by 6.20 and then i take the metro bus, which is just like a normal Canadian looking bus that has its own lane and is 50 cents more expensive than the normal bus. I have to travel all the way alone a street called Insugentes and the company is in a nice business area in the south of the city. It is an early start and after the gym in the evening I am ready to go to bed at 10!

Buenos dias

Right now, Starbucks and I are spending some quality time together. I love my local one, you can sit outside and they have plugs so you can do things like update your blog! I am drinking a mocha Frappuccino, with soy milk, a shot of mint and no whip... really good. So on Sunday Jose surprised me and took me to the zoo, which was so lovely because every time we drive by the zoo i say “oo I would love to go there one day”. I actually already had an idea where we were going... it seems impossible to keep a secret from me haha. It is free on Sunday, and it is an outside zoo so all of the animals are not locked up in cages, apart from the gorilla which made me really sad. There were so many people looking through the glass and it was shut in this big room, he sat down and was wrapping his arms around his knees and just looked like a really human being that was frightened... made me very :-( but all of the other animals looked really good! I love the pictures we took, and I can’t decide which ones to put up, so I may put up lots! This weekend we also went to a yoga class on Saturday morning, I was quite surprised at how 1. How good Jose is 2. How inflexible I have become... but the class was great, it was Ashtanga yoga whatever that is haha but at one point we had our hands on the ground and our legs up on the way doing bridge handstands so it was quite challenging. After we did our gym session and after this I was completely exhausted! We then did our laundry, went for Korean food at this restaurant where they can only speak English and their attempt at muchas gracias was “mucho grac..s haha crazy how you can live in a Spanish speaking country and not be able to say thank you to your customers. Anyway, we then went to Chedraui and bought groceries, lots of fruit and veg! We had decided to go to a club in the evening but we were too tired and had an early night, so boring haha Sunday was the zoo, then we watched “Inception” which after the second time I actually understand now and it is an amazing movie. We then went home and watched another movie called “Always by my side” (mum watch this). It is about a dog... and I won’t say what happens.

Wednesday and Thursday - midweek stuff

Hola Hope you having a good week :-) I think it's gone so quickly! I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow. Anyway I finished covering classes for Jocelyn yesterday, and I get my own classes next week and tomorrow is pay day, first Mexican pay cheque so all in all the job is going well. I am really excited to have my own groups so I can teach in my own style, which includes lots of pictures on the white board and acting out things, yesterday I was trying to explain the verb "to break out" and the only way was to act like an animal breaking out of the zoo... they got it though! Yesterday Jose and I went to a concert that a radio station put on. It's a really popular station called Los 40 Principales, and they had some bands there. We got to see a band called Jotdog, which I really like and then we say 2 guys from Venezuela called Chino and Nacho. They were very reggaeton/latin they are apparently quite famous and I recognized the last song, I liked them though. We went with 2 of Jose's work friends and then afterwards we went for some food..not quite street food more like vendor food haha Today I didn't have a lot to do. I slept in which was sooooo nice, I got up cleaned a bit, showered, then went to the school to give the lesson plans back to jocelyn. I then went to Starbucks and had an Americano and I read 100 pages of my book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime" i absolutely love it, I read half of it for a class when I was in Capilano College a few years ago but I want to read it again. The boy in the story is the most interesting character and i love the way he turns everything into logic, if you haven't read it you must. I was in their for about 2 hours, It was really nice and i had a big comfy chair. Only bad thing was there was a car crash on Reforma, i heard the screeeeeeeech of the breaks then thud.. it wasn't very bad, it was between a taxi and another car, it was hard to see form where I was but no ambulances or police came so I think the cars were just a bit crunched up. Anyway Now I am here in my apartment sitting by the from door so I can get good internet connection. I am going to make some food and then we are going to the gym :-) Okies speak soon! xx

Weekend pictures :-)

1) Saturday night - Hot dogs, and tequila with fresca = good combination!
2) We were supposed to go to an exhibition about The Revolution and movies, which I was really excited about, but it had already changed and was some kind of architecture exhibition, beautiful old building.
3)Jose with his birthday present from me, it's a manual camera called the Dianna mini, it basically just takes really cool pictures, you can do double exposures, half frames and overlapping. I think it made him very happy haha
4) Me in a cafe that we went to, really great view of the Zocalo (Sqaure). I had cold coffee and Jose had some stange kiwi tea infusion.

Hot dogs... serious business

So I think this blog will only be interesting to those who have experienced the Xalapa-dog... I felt it was necessary to sample the competition here in Mexico City.. and oh yes, I've found something very close. I can't quite say they're better than the hot dogs a la Xalapa for traditions sake, BUT here they roll the bacon covered hot dog in cheese... basically there is no escaping the melted Oaxacan cheese, and that is just how I like it. I feel that I will make a more informed choice after a night out, Saturday night's hot dog was tasted under sober conditions so I will have to wait.. although considering this is only my second day at the gym, I should stop talking about hot dogs.

Quick view of the gym

Hola
I made a video of the gym that we joined this weekend, I didnt't want to make it very obvious that I was filming people so it's a bit crappy but I think you get the general idea! We have decided to get fit and transform our bodies, just as the gym promotes (Es hora de transformar tu cuerpo). It's a little bit $ but actually a really good price for what you get. It's really close to use, about a 10 minute walk, you get full use of all the cardio equipment, weights and other strange looking machines. You can attend any of their classes (yoga, pilates, spinning, aerobics, Latin dance and others) they have nice clean changing rooms which personally makes me very happy, good lockers and fitness advisers. Tonight Jose and I are going to meet with one of the trainers to have a routine made for us, obviously we both want different things so hopefully the guy can help us. I would prefer to just go and do my own thing and ignore everyone haha but I agree with Jose that If we are going to do this, we need to do it properly and if this means being weighed in front of people then so be it! haha anyway my arms are very sore from yesterday so tonight's workout should be interesting, considering I can barely lift my arms!

Reforma on Sunday Morning

A tour of Avenue Reforma, on the way to the gym :-)

So on Saturday, i slept in... I really needed it! Then we went to do our laundry which took forever because did it ourselves but the lavanderia ran out of water so we had to fill the machines with buckets of water from the hose, we saved money doing it our selves, but for convenience, I think we will pay the extra 10 dollars and have the ladies there do it for us. We then went to a Chinese buffet, there is a really big Chinese population here so lots of good food, i loaded up on the fruit table after though to make myself feel better. In the afternoon we joined a really nice gym that is close to us. We realize its not cheap but if we r going to stay healthy and get fit, well then it`s a good investment. Its called Energy fit, the monthly fee includes full use of the gym, all the classes (yoga, spinning, Latin dance, aerobics), personal trainer, lockers, towels .. we are both really excited about it. My arms are still so ore from yesterday`s workout.
Sunday, we went to the gym in the morning, then we took the metro downtown and just walked around and had a coffee and in the evening we went to Chedraui (supermarket) where we bought exercise pants, mine were $9 so i feel good about this purchase haha. In the evening I made tuna pasta with tostadas, soup and the strawberry smoothies. The apartment came with a really good Hamilton Beach smoothy machines so we should definitely take advantage of it! Here is a quick tour of the downtown square.. very quick haha

Hello So its Monday morning, this morning i went to Mabe for my class but my student had not come to work so I went home again which was kind of annoying because I had woke up early, Jocelyn, the girl that I am covering for, told me that you have to be really patient at this job and just accept that people will not always show up. Right now I am in Starbucks close to my apartment with a Vanilla Cappuccino, there is a nice outside patio so i have a view of Paseo de la Reforma, which is the main busy street, I can just about see the huge statue of the angel from here. I am going to be here for a while, and then I have a class at 1.30 at a company called Teran, its a publishing company so the offices are really hip, and everyone is dressed so fashionably, I feel a bit like the frumpy English teacher but these ladies do not have to take a bus after, they can get in their cars without worrying about wearing 5 inch heels on the bus, i really do strive for this one day hahaha.
This is a picture of Jose and I at probably 6.45ish am, I might have classes as of 7.00 next week so I will have to get up even earlier!

Apartment tour

This was my first attempt of making a video of our apartment, but I only made it half way through!

I have been feeling increasingly frustrated with the crappy internet connection so I decided to walk around the apartment to see if there was a stronger connection anywhere else... if I sit by the front door then i get 100% coverage :-D ....The downside, I have to sit by the door, and there is not a plug point close by, however 2 bars of internet were not doing it for me.
Also two nights ago I went to observe a class at one of the other schools where we met a really friendly girl from the States, after a few minutes of speaking she asked Jose if he was Mexican, she thought it was funny because she had never met a Mexican with an English accent before.

Here are some recent pictures from the last few days :-)

1) At an italian restaurant called Atenti for Jose's 25th birthday












2)Our first dinner in the apartment.














3) A club we went to called Social Club Rhodesia
















4)Me at a restraunt/bar called Brick.

So this post actually belongs further back, but I just remembered now. When I flew out of Phoenix down to Mexico City, there was a storm. I have never seen lightening from a plane, so this was new experience. How strange.. just as I am typing this, the thunder began out side! It rain and thunders here everday between 4 and 5. I am just glad a brought my North Face Jacket, yea for being from Vancouver and being prepared for the rain haha

Hello :-)

So I thought I would talk a little bit about my job here. Yesterday, I was told to observe two classes so I could see how a typical class from the school (Inter act) goes. I first went to a class at a bit electrics company called Mabe. I was very early so I waited until the other English teacher arrived. We waited 45 minutes before the first student arrived so the class was only about an hour and a half. I just sat and listened and got an idea on how to give a class. I then went home for lunch and was ging to meet the girl again at 1.30 for another class at a publishing company called Teran. I got there and 5 minutes before the class began I was still waiting, until the director from the school phoned me and said that the other english teacher had been held up at the immigration class so could I go ahead and give the class.... Of course I said "oh yes mmhmm no probelm" but I was in a cold sweat thinking omg this is horrible let me go home haha. I then met the 4 students and were shuffled into a room in the building. The class was for beginers so it was really difficult trying to teach because 1) they couldn't understand me 2) I had no preparation or lesson plan for them, I only knew they were studying simple past and they had to practice it. Thankfully they were really friendly and understood that I wasn't supposed to teach the class. Some how we made it through the class and it was actually quite a fun class.
This moring, I had my first scheudled class. I was able to plan ahead and the guy that I was teaching, arrived on time and we did a class of appearance and adjectives. I have to say, my accent has been a problem at time, especially today, i was called to cover a class (bearing in mind, i have no idea really how to teach) for a girl called Laura. I find myself having to repeat myself in a fake american accent although I think by the end of the class she was understanding me better and again, I though the class went well.
Tonight Jose and I had planned to watch the football game but i got an email asking if I could observe some more classes at one of the other interact schools. I have to take the metro and then a bus, but jose will be with me so I think it should be fine. I am disappointed to not watch the game though, I had my mexico football shirt ready to go!
Anyway, I have to leave in a bit. I have just been to office depot and bought my binder and board pens, I have enjoyed organizing everything. Tomorrow I have a new student in the moring at Mabe, I've been told he speaks very good english so I think this will help. The Mabe offices and so fancy, Lots of business people oh and then give free coffee so i like it there. The only downside to this job is the early starts. Jose and I get up at 6.15 and leave at 6.45.. the bus is full of sleeping people, me being one of them. Anyways everything is going well here so I will talk again soon! bye xxx

Hello :-)

So everything is going well in Mexico City so far. Yesterday Jose and I had our hair cut, Jose wasn't happy with his, it was sort of spiky at the back so he said it looked like he had been admitted to a mental institution and they had just shaved his hair. I was happy with mine, i didn't plan to have it cut but the hairdresser basically told me that i needed one haha We then went for lunch, we walked in the park for a bit then we came back to the apartement and i unpacked. We then went out for Jose's birthday, we went to a place called 'Brick' really fancy pants but we had a really good time. I had a gin and tonic, then a shot called a 'Scarf' it was hypnotic and jagger-tasty but $ and then a beer. We then went to a club called 'Club Social Rhodesia' it was very cool inside with a girl dj, we danced the night away.. right up until we ended up in the 24 hr Mcdonalds at 3am :-)
Today we went to Chedraui to do our groceries, food is so much cheaper here, we got lots of stuff, hangers, sheets, 2 pillows all for about $100. We then went for quesadillas, which didn't feel like the healthier choice but so good. Now we are just sitting here, Tonight ia m going to make chicken with tomatoes and onions, potatoes and pasta with alfredo sauce. It is raining again, it startsto pour at about 5 everyday but rain so heavy i keep making videos of it. Ok i am going because the rain can mess with the internet connection!
chau xxx

Hello
So it;s Wednesday August 4th, I leave to Mexico city in 2 days..still so much to do! Yesterday was my last day at work here so now i can really focus on packing! I will blog again once I'm in the city!
Take care everyone.
XXX