Cool and Interesting news!

I personally know the lead flight director for NASA's next mission to space. Here is what Karin wrote in her blog because I am too lazy to re-write:

My dad has these dudes that he's been friends with since his football days at SVSU. They used to babysit me when my dad was at class. I've always thought of them as family - I guess Uncles of sort. They are all pretty incredible guys - teachers, coaches, FBI dudes, safety equiptment, rocket scientists. Yeah! A rocket scientist. Well, not really. A mechanical engineer.......he has had some pretty impressive career success as of late - he's one the lead flight director for the Space Shuttle Launch scheduled to take off on Saturday. Yeah, thats like Ed Harris in Apollo 13. Pretty cool, eh?

Here's a few more details, if you'd care to endulge.....The front page of the Saginaw News (lower right hand corner - Anthony (Tony) Ceccacci), or the full story on MLive.com - Shuttle Job 'A Dream'. It makes me pretty proud to know him!

And, if you'd like, here's a link to watch the launch live at NASA.gov (2:49PM Saturday July 1, weather permitting)

Mexico loosing and Valle De Bravo

Great weekend!

Friday was a chill night.

Saturday we were having Fernando and his family over to watch the World Cup game between Mexico and Argentina. As we were preparing for our guest I got a call from Ofo, one of me teammates with the Wallabies. He was driving through Toluca to Valle De Bravo and wanted to see what we were up to. I invited him to our place to watch the game as well. It was fun. We had smiley face fries, chicken nuggets, and I grilled some Arranchera (marinated steak) on the grill. Good thing Ofo was there because I was having a hard time getting the grill started. They use a different kind of charcoal here. They call it Carbon and it is basically wood that has been burned before. It is really hard to get going but Ofo showed me some good tricks. By the time the Arranchera was done, nobody was hungry anymore because Mexico had just lost.

It was a fantastic game. Argentina scored the winning goal in incredible fashion in the first overtime. It was an amazing goal and there wasn’t much Mexico could do. They lost 2-1. Mexico was an underdog but there was a lot of hope and they put up a good fight. A lot of people picked Argentina to win it all.

Ofo asked Karin and I if we wanted to go to Valle De Bravo with him for the night. I took up the offer but Karin had previous plans with her friend Veronica and some other chickies. Valle de Bravo is a resort place. It is a lake (dammed up river) up in the mountains with incredible views, cabañas, waterfalls, forests, and fancy hotels.

We booze cruised with a sixer on the way down. The road is extremely curvy and you often find yourself behind a truck or something and you have to go really slow. But without obstructing traffic, you go really fast and whip around the curves. It’s a little scary at first but exhilarating once you get used to it.

We got to his apartment and it was one of the most coziest places I’ve ever seen. It was decorated in rustic Hispanic everything. The walls were all sorts of bright colors, and wood and tile covering everything. It was big, it had 4 rooms, 3 full bathrooms, kitchen, dinning room, living room, and an open patio that overlooked a waterfall and had orchids surrounding the railings. I wish I had a camera but Karin wanted to use it so I was out of luck… well your out of luck because you don’t get to see what I saw. Next time we go I will for surely bring the camera to show you the wonderfulness. I did manage to find a pic online to try and show this magnificent place.











We chilled, listened to some tunes, and had a couple beers. We were drinking Tecate, which I do not like at all. It always gives me a headache and makes me feel like shit, all on top of tasting like butthole. But I tried to suck it up. We showered and headed to a bar in town. It looks like a it would be a happenin’ place but it is still early in the year and there wasn’t that many people there, it was a little early as well. I was fighting a headache and what better to try and resolve it but with a double shot of jager! That didn’t set to well. Then we took another shot, why? I haven’t the slightest idea. It was called Muerte Cerebro, Brain Death. I was not feeling good at all. I stated that we bust up so we did after Ofo paid the bill. As we were walking out I felt it. I puked… but I held it like a champ, cheeks puffed, hand over the mouth and all, until we got out of the building and until I crossed the street to get behind a truck. I could not remember the last time I puked the night of drinking. It is always the morning after. But I had no choice, I just let her go. Them I looked up and saw a police, he just shook his head and headed the other way. We went back to the apartment and I crashed.

The sleep was amazing. It was just the right temperature and the serine sound of the waterfall just outside my window was heaven.

We woke up the next morning and I started breakfast, eggs and sausage with tortillas. As I was cooking, Ofo’s dad came in. I was a little shocked at first just thinking what he was thinking, who is this dude in my place. He introduced himself as did I, Ofo was sleeping. I was speaking my broken Spanish then I realized that he spoke English, but I still tried to speak Spanish because sometimes I like to.

We got ready to head to the lake. We went to their country club and had a couple beers while they were getting a little sail boat ready for us. We couldn’t use Ofo’s because the lake is like 5 meters lower that it is usually so they couldn’t put it in the water so they let us use a loaner. We sailed for about an hour and a half or so. It was sweet. The water was somewhat warm, the sun was out, the wind blowing, and the scenery was incredible. I really wish I had a camera.

We returned to the dock and had another beer while watching a futbol game on the tele, then we busted up to one of Ofo’s favorite restaurant for lunch. I got a torta and Ofo got a whole artichoke! It was wicked huge, I tasted it but I am not a fan. Then we went back to pack up and busted back for Toluca.

The return trip was kewl with the winding roads, the scenery, and I busted out some Mitch Hedberg as well. All was well until my ass was going to explode. At first I tried to hold it…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WARNING, MAY GET A LITTLE GRAPHIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… but I couldn’t anymore, my sphincter was having a seizure! I never had to go this bad EVER. We found a little turn off and I jumped out of the car, headed up a little trail, threw my pants off and… use your imagination, I won’t get into anymore detail. Good think Ofo had a box of Kleenex in the back seat of I would have come back with one less T-shirt. It could quite possible be the nastiest thing I have ever done. To make it worse there was trash thrown all over the place and the minute my bouncers couldn’t work the doors anymore the insect population swarmed…

I was extremely relieved and we finally got back to my crib, took a long shower to get the filth off and now it is time to chill.

I was also invited to their place in Mazatlan! They have property there too, ocean side! We are definitely going to hit that up this summer! Its good to have frinds with property in tropical places!

We’ll see what’s up.

Drag...Back to the Everyday Grind

What up homies! Just doin’ the every day grind again. Well, not really. I did about 30 hours this week but will only have 25 a week from now on. It is going spectacularly (is that a word, that’s right folks, since I am an English teacher I can make up my own words). I did a class all by myself and it was fun as hell. My students loved it. I did another encounter (the toughest class due to the concentration on grammar) today and got some great feedback, my boss said that she was thoroughly impressed and I improved tremendously from the first encounter I did, which was awesome because she is on vacation for three weeks and I didn’t want her to leave with doubts. She is going back home to Wales for her sisters wedding. It is a lot of fun and my days go be quicker and they are cooler to due to the interactions I get to be involved in.

I went shopping the other day and spent about $1500 pesos on a couple pair of dress pants, shirts, a belt, new T-shits, socks, and undies (I have officially weaned myself off of whitey tighties and have moved completely to boxer briefs, with the exception to Rugby training and games, and exercising). That is the most I have spent at one time for clothes in… probably since I was a kid and we went school clothes shopping, I can remember playing those games they had a kids-r-us with the chincy music and the lights, and also when I first had to get my pants from the “Husky” section. Those were the days. It was also fun because I got to get my pants hemmed up right there on the spot. The problem was I had to speak Spanish. It went well and everything went smoothly and they were all done in a half hour. SWEET! For free too.

One of the receptionists at Wall Street, Monica, asked me for some help yesterday. She is applying to an English university and she wants help for the entrance exam. We chatted over coffee today o talk about it. People here who want to learn English for employment purposes try to get a certificate that says that they know it. There are 5 different levels of certification. So, if you are applying at an American or English company and they ask if you are fluent in English, you can show them a certificate that says so. Turns out that some people lie about how much they know. The certificate just makes it official. She will get the outline in a week or two, when she does I will be going over it with her to prepare her. There are a couple sections in it; written, spoken, conversational and there is an interview as well. She needs a lot of work in pronunciation and also written. She is very nervous but I think she will do well. It isn’t until the end of September. I am more than happy to help her, but I will probably ask her to help me with my Spanish as payment.

Not sure what sister has planned for the weekend but on Saturday Mexico plays Argentina in the next round of the World Cup. USA didn’t make the cut. If they would have won their last game against Ghana they would have (but then they would play Brazil so they would have gotten their asses kicked by them). I am really interested in futbol now. I watched two games yesterday!

I don’t think that I will be making it home in July. Just the new job and all, I don’t want to ask for time off quite yet. I’ll maybe make it back for the annual Brethren Day’s trip over Labor Day or sometime in August. I would have really liked to make one of the three Diaz family weekends coming up (canoe trip, reunion, or BJ’s wedding) but I don’t think I can do it.

We’ll see what’s up.

Shitty Horse Ride and Ixtapan de la Sal

I had to go to work Saturday morning for a talent show that was put on where the students and some of the teachers showcased their talents. There was dancing, singing, showing photographs, making food (deserts and appetizers), and one person showed how to make a White Russian. I did not have anything prepared to do so I was a judge. I though of playing one of my saxes but I didn’t have any good reeds to use and I also thought of finding a good story to do an interpretive reading, but I just didn’t. The girl who won did a dance to one of Madonna’s new songs, it was pretty good. She is a dance student at a studio so it was somewhat professionally done.

As I was at work Karin took Pat and Heidi to Cosmo Vitrales. It is a Botanical Garden in a building surrounded in stained glass windows. They picked me up and we went home to watch USA play against Italy in world cup action. It ended in a tie but the US got a goal taken away so they should have won. Italy is a good team too! I actually get excited about watching football (I call it football now instead of soccer) games on T.V. It’s exciting to me now, which I think is cool. I always thought that it was the most boring sport ever.

After chillin’ for a while we decided to try and hit up a place where you can ride horses. I knew of a couple places off the beaten path so we drove down there. It was really nice all day and at that point we pulled in the ranch, but as we left a big black cloud came rolling over the mountain. So as we were entering the forest it started to thunder and lightning, and then came the cold ass rain and not to far after that was HAIL. It sucked hard core. There were two spells of it too! After the first one came and went we thought we were in the clear, but then it came again… worse! We didn’t like it and the horses felt the same way. They kept trying to turn away and chill, but we made then go on. The ride back was cold and wet. It really sucked ass and was not a good experience but a good story none the less.

We finally got home after fogging up the windshield and blasting the heat and Karin made lasagna for dinner. I ate a big piece even though I wasn’t even hungry which made me really tired. Heidi and I were going to try and hit up a bar but I got crabby and wanted to sleep early, but I couldn’t fall asleep, just couldn’t get comfortable. I just laid around until I did.

We woke up early Sunday morning for a trip to Ixtapan de la sal. It is a city about an hour south of here and is home to a big water park build on hot springs. It was a fun day, we got some sun, ate some good food, and got to go on several kinds of water slides and lazy rivers. The pools that they had looked gross due to the color and the smell of the water. but they felt nice as hell to chill in. They were heavy in minerals, especially calcium so there was a brown covering of calcium all over anything that was touching the water (the sides and rails and what not). The water for the slides, lazy rivers, ad wave pools must have been treated because it looked normal. Then we left for the stormy drive home.

We’ll see what’s up.

New Jay-oOo-Bee, Visitors and What Not

I have been training at the Wall Street Institute all week and to my surprise I got paid yesterday as well, and it was a lot more than I expected, and I found out that I can cash my checks at the bank right next door and don’t have to go through the hassle of opening an account. The job is going really well. It's a lot different waking up every day and having something to do.

It is not a traditional school, it is very different. I will be doing a class at a business three days a week with about 10 students which is a traditional type of class but when I work in the center it is a different story. For instance, the students are introduced with the new material on a computer in a lab, once finished they book what we call an “encounter.” An encounter is when the teacher checks the students work and goes over exercises with them to practice what they learned, there can be up to 4 students in an encounter (each encounter is a specific level) but mostly there are only one or two. So it is more like tutoring than teaching a class. There are two other types of classes as well, a conversational class and a social class. The CC (conversational class) is a informal class where you pretty much talk all hour but it stresses the vocabulary and grammar that the students learned recently. The (SC) social class is really informal and you just pick a random topic and talk about it or you do things like word games. Those two classes are the most fun because you can really get to know the students.

Next week I will start planning and teaching classes on my own, I am pretty nervous about it because I really don’t know many of the specifics about the grammar if a student asks a question. I am studying a book with all the verb tenses so I can answer those questions. That is the most thing I worry about doing well, all the other stuff I am comfortable with (interaction with the students and keeping things interesting).

I picked up my friend Heidi from the airport last Wednesday and Karin’s boyfriend Pat came in yesterday. It won’t be as cool as I hoped (‘cause I have to work) but we have some cool things planned for the weekend. Last night I worked late but we bought a couple beers from a drive through place that was in the shape of a beer can, then we played a couple games of “scene it,” had a couple more beers and went to bed. Today we went out for lunch to watch the World Cup game between Mexico and Angolia. It was a very exciting game but it ended in a draw. Mexico pretty much was kicking their ass the Angolia’s goalie was playing out of his mind. I’ve found out that futbol is actually a very exciting game now that I have watched a couple from start to finish. USA plays tomorrow but they got their asses handed to them last game by Croatia 3-0.

We got plans to go to the club, downtown Toluca, and a hot springs park a couple hours away on Sunday.

We’ll see what’s up.

Rugby Semi-Final and What Not

I decided to sport a mohawk for the day. When I woke up it was like that and I thought it was cool so I didn't wash my hair and just redid it like it was after my shower. I thought it was cool.



The Wallabies had a semi-final game against Tamania. I didn’t get into the game but that was cool, I am in no condition to play at all and I was kinda hoping not to play ‘cause I was tired and sore from practice on Thursday. It was a good game but I do have to rant about the ref. They say that there is only one god ref in Mexico and he doesn’t like to ref that much. They dude we had was terrible… Two examples, When the scrum would get spun, he would blow the whistle and redo the scrum, it is supposed to go to the defending team, and when there was a penalty and the defending team is not 10 meters he would allow them to do a quick tap as many times and they wanted, you cannot do a quick tap if the sir awards another penalty for not being 10 meters off. It really frustrated me. And he played like 6-7 minutes of injury time (way more than what should have been played) and the pinche Tazmanians scored a try with no time left to win… off a second quick tap off a penalty (like explained above). It was shitty. So the season is done and there won’t be very much 7’s this summer due to the World Cup, and they only play one season that starts in February.

One of my teammates Bruno had a party after the game in Mexico City. It was sweet, we went to cosco and bought $300 worth of food and alcohol. They grilled Arranchera and chorizo with bread and tortillas.





It was SUPER good. We ate our asses off. The party was fun as well. There was a bunch of peeps there and a lot of rum, Spanish rum, vodka, mescal, beer, beer bongs, and tunes. There was a stereo that an ipod hooked up to. I played some of my “party tunes” from Karin’s ipod but they don’t really listened to of music here. People were dancing and having a good time with the “spring break” music.

We drank, we danced, we did beer bongs, it was a fun night. I am quite proud that I am not hung over, I stayed away from tequila!



This morning I dragged myself out of bed to go to Fernando’s house to watch the Mexico vs Iran World Cup match. It was cool hangin’ with his boys and watching the game. I fell asleep on his couch for a lot of the second half… I was just really tired. It was cool hearing the whole city bust out the car horns and fore works for every score! Mexico won 3-1!

Now I am home chillin’. I work tomorrow! I got my official e-mail welcoming me to the team. That was cool. But now I will have to be at the school for a couple hours a day while our visitors are here at the end of this week and next week (Pat and Heidi). Oh-well it’l be awight.

See more pics at my photobucket.

Jay-Ooo-Bee, whut you got on dis!

I got a J.O.B.! One of the teachers at the school I was trying to get into had left abruptly over the weekend. The powers that be went to Guadalajara (several English training schools) to interview some candidates. There not happy with any of them. The called me in for today to see if I was interested in taking over the persons class who left, and I confidently said yes.

I will be training for two weeks and then take over the class for a local business here in Toluca. I can’t remember the name but they are involved in food coloring and several other types of coloring. It will be three days a week for an hour, from 7:30-8:30am. It may be tough getting up that early but I will adjust. The lady who brought me on is taking care of the classes until she leaves for a vacation back home in England, so I will shadow her for the two weeks as well as other types of classes and the computer programs that the students use. Hopefully they will see that although not qualified, I am capable and will do well. Then it will give me more opportunities down the road.

I finally went to Rugby training tonight in Mexico City. I didn’t go before due to the cold I had and pure laziness. It’s really hard to psyche yourself up to go to training that is over an hour away, more with traffic, and I don’t get home until after midnight. It sucked because I haven’t done any training since two weeks before I left for home (the beginning of April). I am in no condition and add the altitude. I guess it wasn’t that bad, I took some needed breaks and what not because I knew I needed to take it easy so I don’t put my body in shock.

It’s also a good thing that we train indoors because I don’t have any cleats yet, I am going to have to go buy some tomorrow at the market. I looked at some at the mall but they were all wicked expensive, like between $100-$200 American dollars! I can get some cheap ones at the market for like $30 bucks. My team, the Wallabies, won their first playoff game and the second one is this weekend against a team that we lost to in March. We looked a lot better than I remembered from before I left, so I am optimistic for a win in the Semi-finals. But we’ll see what’s up.

Be cool like me!

Interview and Birthday Party

I had another interview at the Wall Street Institute yesterday and it wet well. I meet with Kate (the person who I have been communicating with) and also Walt who is the head hancho there. He had many concerns at first, like my commitment level, if I was just looking to stay busy, that I have no prior experience, and that I have no English language background beyond speaking (grammar wise and such), which are all understandable.

Throughout the interview I totally flipped him sighting several examples, assuring that I am committed, that I view this as a great opportunity, and truly will take pride in my work. I think I impressed him a little. He asked if I can sign a contract for a year, I totally would but I am not sure how long I will be here ( I also stated that if I have something going for me here I have no problems staying). I said that I have to talk to my sister, and he said that he would like to meet her. So we will go in next week sometime to talk more about dates and what not.

Kate is really all about bringing me onboard, she mentioned one thing that she wants me to do is do a summer program for children. I would be extremely interested in that and I let her know how excited I was about it. I love working with kids!

We’ll see what’s up this week.

Last night Karinski and I went to Mexico City for Veronica’s birthday party, she works with Karin. It was sweet! There was a lot of tequila, beer, mariachis, and dancing! I have several pics at photobucket and a couple movie clips (not too good due to lack of light. We had planned on staying the night there but we ended up driving back (2 hr. trip). Karin has this thing about staying at peoples houses, ever since she was a kid. I ended up getting nice and drunk and I was dancing all night. Karin and I were jamming the whole way home to my party tunes on her ipod, it was cool. Here is a pic of the Mariachis, I love me some Mariachis!




I’ve been lying around all day feeling pretty shitty. Tequila does that to me, I don’t know why I keep hittin’ it up. I tried somewhat to keep it cool but I ended up doing a couple shots of it at one point and that was a bad idea. I did my typical hung over shower pukes and what not. I fell normal now, finally at 11pm. The whole day I thought it was Sunday and just realized that it was only Saturday. We were supposed to go to my rugby game to day but I felt too shitty and it was rainy. They won though against the Rhinos of Guadalajara 57-7. Hopefully I can make a training this week, however I need to buy a new pair of cleats because I left one at my brothers house…

We got a couple cool things planed for tomorrow with some friends. I think another trip to Mexico City is planned, but I don’t know. I’ll find out then.

Be cool like me!

Confused about rugby?

Check this out, it does a good job of explaining the basics.