Training in Deigh Effeigh (D.F. or Mexico City but you have to say the letters in Spanish)

Long ass week. I had been training in Mexico City, well if you want to call it that. I have been teaching for two and a half months now but they finally decided to send me to training… for new teachers. Now, it wouldn’t be that bad and I didn’t mind going but it was pointless… for me. There were 4 of us, and me and another dude have been teaching. For the other two new teachers it was effective and I would have loved to do it in my first week as well. But it was terrible.

I would have taken pictures but I didn’t want to have too many things of value incase of an incident on the metro (Mexico Cities Subway) or something. Although I had a driver there in the mornings, I needed to take mass transportation back to Toluca. I was very hesitant at first but after I did it the first day (my driver was there on the first day to basically hold my hand through the process to get me to the bus station). Just a couple blocks away from the center where we were at (La Zona Rosa, known for gays) was the Metro station. Tickets were 2 pesos. It was the first time I had ever been on a subway before outside of an airport. It was pretty cool, I had no problems taking it. It was clean and there was always somebody trying to sell something like burnt CD’s (they would play the CD as they were talking about it) and just about anything else you can think of, very entertaining. And on the bus they always showed a movie, although the last two days were dubbed (not subtitled) in Spanish. I got to read a lot though thanks to Heidi sending me a good book (the 5 people you meet in heaven by Mitch Album). I was able to get off the bus fairly close to our house and got a cheap cab from there.

Yesterday morning I left earlier because I had to see our lawyer (Wall Street) about me leaving the country. My tourist Visa expired on the 22nd, if I was to just renew it or extend it, it would have negated everything I did in the process of getting my FM3 (Work Visa) so I had to do some special stuff and gat a temporary visa that will allow me to leave and return without affecting my FM3. It took forever but I finally got what I needed.


The Training:

First of all there was no structure, time table, anything, and most of the classes were canceled (not too much of a problem because that is how it is). But we spent more time talking with each other in the social room than actually doing things for the training. AND they gave us two hour lunches which were completely ridiculous when we could just get it over with and leave early.

There was one thing that I did manage to get out of it, that was follow ups. It is when we look at a printout of the students profile and we can see if they are on track or what not and talk to then to see what they need to do. I was familiar with the forms before but the process of what to tell the students was reinforced and that was OK. So that was 1 hour that was useful out of 3 days traveling to Mexico City leaving at 8:30am and getting home 12 hours later. The training was from 10-6.

A very cool thing was meeting the other teachers. We clicked very well and that was fun, also because we were all from different places.

Florence – She is 22 and from France and she has been teaching French in a school in Liverpool, England. She came to Mexico 3 weeks ago to live with her boyfriend. It was interesting because her accent was British with a hint of French because she learned English in England.

Craig – He is 28 and From Scotland, West Scotland where they have extremely hard Scottish accents. He sounded almost identical to Groundskeeper Willie on the Simpsons. He had been teaching a month longer than I have in another center in Mexico City. He was really tall with long black greased back hair. We got along great.

Braum – Not sure his age, maybe mid 20’s, from the Holland, and yes his last name was Vander something! He was super tall! E was going to be teaching in a center near Veracruz. He just got to Mexico like the weekend before and was staying in a hotel.

We had a lot of time to get to know each other watching TV in the social room and our two hour lunches. We talked a lot about our respective country’s stereotypes and had lots of laughs. We talked about the dirty French, cheap Dutch, obnoxious Scottish, and lazy Americans. We also talked a lot about traveling and our experiences and what not, it was very cool. Because of this is why I was somewhat glad to go. I meet a lot of new people.

I did manage to get out of the last day, today. But I will be going back to work as normal, 4-9. We are going out tonight because my buddy Omar is leaving to go home next week.

I am bustin’ up to MI tomorrow morning! We went shopping the other day and I got my usual trip home things, a 3L bottle of Tequila and a carton of cigarettes (only like $16 bucks!)

We’ll see what’s up.

Toluca Red Devils!

I finally got to go to a soccer game! Karin, Omar, and I went to the “bonbonera.” That is what they call the stadium here in Toluca, they played Querertaro and kicked their asses 3-0. It was an awesome experience, we drank some beers, saw people go crazy three times for the goals, and felt really safe due to the million or so State Cops in riot gear! There was a ten foot fence with barbed wire at the top between the stands and the field as well. There is a section called “el sol,” much like the bleacher seats at the old Tiger stadium where the people went even crazier. It was really exciting and we will definitely be doing it again, probably next Sunday in Mexico City where Toluca travels to play Las Pumas.

They had the most beautiful hot chicks dancing around the field. Some were like the cheerleaders for Toluca and others were Corona girls. They had on the tightest full spandex suits and they were typical Mexican hot chicks with curves! They were so hot, I wish I could have taken some pics.

Oh-yea, one of my students (he just started so I haven’t meet him yet but seen him) played for Toluca. He was a reserve and didn’t get to play but it is cool knowing (or will know) someone on the team.

We did bring the camera but no memory chip, so… no cool pics. Next time!

Then we had a good ass home cooled buffet at a restaurant in el centro de Metepec with some bomb ass chicken mole that I ate the hell out of. Now just maxin’ ‘n’ relaxin’.

We’ll see what’s up.

Kids Ballet and what not

Friday was another dancing night, there are pics at photobucket under “La Gora” (the name of the club)

Saturday we went to el Palacio de las Bellas Artes (the Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City with the Belmont family to see a ballet. It was a ballet that was made for children. It was actually pretty cool. It was a bout a fable about a king with seven daughters and how they get to hook up with seven princes after the princes kill the evil step mother. It was nice and short as well.

Here are some pics, you can click on them to see the whole folder.








Crazy spagetti thingie









After we drove in some shitty traffic and also a bad part of town known for sex and drugs… I got to see some real hookers! There was all types; tall, short, big , small… but they all had one thing in common… They wuz NASTY!

We went to the part of town where Fernando grew up (Coyocan) and got tacos, coffee, and donuts while chillin’ in the city center. The place was full of people, the streets were packed and there were huge lines for some of the coffee joints due to their famous status. It reminded me of the soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

It was a long drive back and we got back to the crib about 11:30. I got a couple calls from some friends but I was just all about chillin’ on my couch watching movies.

Changed Travel Plans for Labor Day

I got an e-mail from AA (American Airlines, not Alcoholics Anonymous, even though it wouldn’t be a surprise!) about scheduling changes. The changed my original flight to Chicago from Friday September 1st at 9pm to earlier that day at 3pm, but my connecting flight to Detroit was still set for the next morning at 7am. Originally I was supposed to work on Friday morning that’s why I wasn’t to leave until 9pm, so I would have gotten into Chicago after midnight and the next flight to the D wasn’t till 7am which I could handle hanging out for 6 hours, but not the 12 hours it was changed to.

So I called yesterday to bitch a little. I actually liked the change to earlier because I had an excuse of being screwed to get out of work and get home earlier so I didn’t want to bitch about that. I wanted to get my connecting flight to Detroit changed. The were going to put me on a 9:45 flight to the D from Chi-Town and I gave the OK, but then he said that it would cost $150 to change, I was like hellllll no! I ain’t payin’ extra for nutin’. Then I explained to him again that the reason I am changing my flight is because yall changed it first.

Then he hooked me up with an even earlier flight. I am now leaving Mexico City just after 1pm on Friday and going through Dallas, getting into Detroit just after 9pm. Which is way cool because I have an extra night. But it will still only be for the weekend, I leave Monday night.

Originally the plan was to go to an annual camping trip to Brethren, MI to their annual festival called Brethren Days. This would have been our 7th year. We will not be attending this year for a couple reasons. We have drained all the energy out of our hosts (one of our friend’s families) by breaking things and keeping them up all hours of the night, basically we overstayed our welcome, also some of us are getting a little too old to be doing some of the things that we do up there which is basically nonstop drinking from the moment we get up till the moment we pass out.

This year we will still try and get together but possibly renting out a cottage/cabin somewhere on one of Michigan’s great lakes or a camping/canoeing/tubing trip on a river and instead of camping somewhere in the middle of the woods without electricity and water, we will probably opt for those luxuries. I would also like to be somewhere close to where my family will be so I can see them as well.

We’ll see what’s up.

I busted the Fridge

Oooops! I busted up the fridge yesterday. I was defrosting the freezer (the ice buildup needs to be removed every so often), and I punctured the wall of it releasing the coolent used. The frame of the freezer is made of aluminium and the coils are built right in. So the slightest knock with my screwdriver and hammer busted a hole in it resulting in a hisssssssing sound.

Here is a pic of the fridge with the built in freezer


This is the freezer with the built in coils


The hole I put in is in the front left corner of the ceiling, the gasses that were comming out (could be freon, could be some other gas used for coolant) is harmless and inflammable. The only bad thing about it is that when the freon reaches the upper atmosphere is reacts with gasss present there and eats away at the o-zone.

Good thing that we have a smaller "beer" fridge in the back room. I had to transfer everything there and throw some things out in the process. But not very much fits in there so we have to hold off on shopping untill we get a new one. It is fixable but it would cost way to much.

We'll see what's up.

Some Pics From Last Night and the Market Today

Not much back stories here. Just wanted to share some pics. Just lick on the pics to go to the Photobucket folders.





A little car outside of a pharmacy



Chillin' at the fountain in Omar's neighborhood



Some food pics from the Market


























Peace and Bootie Grease!

My Old Motorcycle (Now It's Inferno's)

I just got some pics that my buddy Inferno took of my old motorcycle. It looks AMAZING! I sold it to him a little bit after I left for Mexico. He fixed it up and painted it himself (Cartman helped him fix it up, probably most of it...). But it's all running and legal to go crusin'. Here are the pics, I wish I had a before pic to show you but it was in really bad shape. It hasn't run in about 3-4 years, ever since I had my problems with the Michigan Secretary of State and liscence issues. Let me know what you think if you remember what it used to look like. It is a 1984 Kawasaki 440 LTD, check it out! He still has to put the stars on the top of the gas tank in the blue area, he has a helmet to match as well!














We'll see what's up!

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!!

Last Thursday we picked Pat up from the airport and headed into a really nice part of Mexico City where the nice hotels are to meet his brother who was here in business. We had a spectacular steak dinner with some wine and went to a cool Irish pub down the street. I really wasn’t that drunk but I woke up with a nice hangover, pukey and all. I think it was a combo of the wine, Mexican dark draft beer, and a shot of Jager, plus the fact that we had no water in the room for me to suck down before bed.

Karin, Pat and Mike went to a museum that morning while I stayed behind to sleep a little more. While I was lying on the bed and I felt a very slight gradual shaking, like a small child had jumped onto it. Then I saw the lamp shade move ever so slightly and then the curtains. Then I started thinking… EARTHQUAKE! Should I do something… Stand under a door frame… go downstairs (I was on the 20th floor)… wait I better take the stairs… I looked out the window to see if there was any wide spread panic in the streets but everything was normal. I mentioned it to Karin later and she said that they didn’t feel anything so I wasn’t sure what the deal was. I didn’t find out till earlier today when Karin sent me an article about it.

Earthquake Rocks Mexico City

I felt really pukey as we were dropping of Mike at the airport, the stop and go traffic and the smoggy smogerton didn’t help much either. I was deeply meditating in the back seat in order not to have to stick my head out the window. As we pulled up to the airport Pat suggested that I run in and use the bathroom there, so I did and ralfed violently in a crowded bathroom full of grossed out people. I even heard a few gag themselves. It was cool!

We made it back to Toluca in time for me to go to work, which was pretty cool, my last class of the day was “beer tasting.” I went right home after due to working early the next morning. I am not doing that hungover again.

We’ll see what’s up.

Aguas Locas, K-Paz, and Spooperman

I’ve been a little lazy in typing up this weekend’s activities. It was a good weekend and I did a lot of things but nothing was “to write home to mom about.”

Work has been going well, we are down to three teachers now so I have been a little bit busier while I am there. And they have a list of stuff for us to do while we have a service hour or a cancellation, which some of the chizzy is retarded but all I have to do is look busy and I sure can do that, my work history and consist of working really hard for about a month of two, just enough to get the powers that be not to look after you because they think you are doing an exceptional job, then slack off a little and look busy when there is nothing of worth to do. Although I did find a cool new thing that is a legal way of keeping busy, chatting with WSI students all over the world. They have a website where you can log in and chat. It is pretty cool. Today I chatted with a 19 year old girl in Hong Kong, a 33 year old dude in Turkey who plays rugby, and girl named Marta of unknown age in Portugal.

Sergio (co-worker) and I closed up shop and headed to the bowling alley/pool hall in the mall by the ice rink (just wanted to throw that in there) for a drink to wait for a couple peeps (Moni, Omar, and Karinski). We were going to a party at Sergio’s cousin’s pad. A Aguas Locas (crazy water) party! I took the explanation of aguas locas to be jungle juice but it was a little different. It is a big jug of water with a flavor of Tang (rice water, I can’t remember the name) and topped off with several liters of Mescal (cheap nasty ass tequila, and alone it taste like gasoline). Enjoy a pic of the mixing process.




We chilled, listened to some music laughed at some jokes. It was cool but really chill. Just think of a night with a couple buddies over your house where you just chill and catch a buzz for the night. When we busted up we gave a couple peeps rides home all around town. By the time we got back to the crib my bladder was at 110% capacity. I literally had the longest wiz ever in my life. I wish I had timed it because it wasn’t so different from when Austin Powers got un-cryogenically frozen and was going through the waste removal phase of the re-animation process. I was quite impressed!

I chilled all day Saturday until we were to meet at a restaurant for dinner before the K-Paz de la Sierra baile (concert where everybody dances all night). It was a pretty sweet experience but there were too many people, it was wet and rainy, and it was really long. But still way cool.


The ticket booths were the sides of busses with the tellers hanging out the window






View of the stage



Karinski, Monsi, and Me.



Here is a short clip



Then on Sunday I work up bright and early at 1pm. I made some chorizo with eggs and loved it. Karin didn’t so much, I think she just likes the Americanized stuff we get from Maria Elena’s (Mexican Bakery in Carrollton). This stuff has way more punch to it!

I convinced Karin to go and finally see Superman at the IMAX (just under an hour drive to Sante Fe where the theater was). It was way cool, I loved it. Something about John Williams music and Superman saving the day sends shivers down my spine. Plus there were several parts in 3D which were way cool! The only part I didn’t like was the anorexic chick who played Lois Lane. They could have got way hotter chicks and I also thought she was way too young. The dude who played Spooperman was good and the little dude looked a lot like my nephew Austin. My favorite part was at the beginning where superman saved the plane from crashing on a baseball stadium infield. When he stepped out and the crowd went crazy, number one that Superman saved the day, and umber 2 that he is back (he has been gone for something like 5 years or so). The place was packed but we ended up with decent seats even though there was only 8 tickets left when we got ours.

We are supposed to be going to Mexico City on Thursday night to hang with Pat and his brother (who is here on business) but I don’t know what the deal is with all the protesting and what not. I was also asked to go ride some bulls… Actually ride them not just watch! I might be too afraid of my two little guys suffering severe concussions!

We’ll see what’s up.

Some Crazy Shizzy happenin' Down Here

Check out this story:

Crime, unrest hurting tourism in Mexico

I would love to go check out all the campers in the center of the city but it will be very hard to get there and I don't really know how safe it is. It would be really cool to say that I was part of a political movement. I also think it would be cool to run into a severed head on the beaches of Acapulco... Then I could pretend I was a CSI on the new hit TV show CSI Acapulco!

We'll see what's up.