Estamos de Vacaciones

I've read somewhere that the anticipation before a vacation is just as good as the actual vacation, but I think I disagree. Anticipation doesn't have enough sunshine to compete, and heaven knows I love my Vitamin D. We left for Puerto Vallarta the day before school got out for Christmas break (ha ha, suckers!), and arrived right about sunset to our resort. We took approximately 897 sunset pictures, so I'll only post one or two. (Ok, ok, in reality, we only have 52 sunset photos, but you still don't have to sit through them all). The resort was awesome.

The view from our balcony.

The all-inclusive resort atmosphere took a little getting used to, though. We met up with one of David's classmates and her husband, who are both a kick in the pants and super extroverted. They had been making random friends for a week already, and kindly welcomed us into their pool-side gang, which already consisted of Canadians and other United Statesians from across the country. Most of the conversation revolved around the crazy antics of a couple from Yellow Knife, Northwest Territories, some of which were amusing, but all of them made me sad. Drunkenness and promiscuity usually do. Especially when the girlfriend was telling stories about the man-whorish behavior of her boyfriend, who just sat there smiling and bobbing his head and looking at her boobs (which, in his defense, was hard not to notice as there were sparkly piercings from clavicle to cleavage). David and I both also overheard a number of semi-racist comments that made us stop and frown. Nothing really overt, but enough to make me want to stop and pull strangers aside. To say things like, "Actually, you are covered in oil and sand and spilled beer. I think you're dirtier." Or, "There are Mexicans in Mexico, turns out. If you don't like them, why did you come here?" I stopped really listening after a while and people watched. And figured out if I switched to glasses of Pepsi, no one tried to bring me more shots because it looked like I was already drinking and I could stop covertly pouring out the shots behind me. After a day, we got tired of the pool and wandered out to the beach. And swam, boogie boarded, went for walks, got massages at sunset for super cheap, and read.

Puerto Vallarta was our honeymoon destination three and-a-half years ago, so one day we took the bus downtown to wander around the neighborhood we stayed in. The city was decked the
halls out, and we had a romantic dinner on the beach at a restaurant we liked before. We walked along the touristy boulevard for a while, and found some fun photo scenes:












David making friends with a stranger on the street.

The hotel had some entertainment, which we didn't take advantage of until our last day. It was Caribbean Beach Party (or something like that), so all the poor entertainment employees dressed up for Carnaval (see below... I think I need to get me some lime green bikini chaps), and gave us a dance lesson. That sucked us in. We love to dance. Then they switched to a dance competition, which we won (t-shirts in the wrong size for both of us, but the pride of knowing we won!).

Take note of the bartender on the left dancing the merengue with a giant tray of drinks.

Anyone want to join us for another vacation? I'm ready to go back.

Warmth

One of my favorite things about winter is being tucked up all cozy in a warm house full of friends. There are very few things I like about winter, but that image stays with me as a comfort. This fall, we celebrated our 2nd annual Practice Thanksgiving, in which every family brings a dish to practice new and tricky recipes before they fall onto the plates of judgmental relatives. This group of people is full of the warmth that is my greatest joy in barren winter, and I am so thankful for their graciousness and fun and adorable progeny and delicious cooking skills.

I don't know who took which photo, but I assume the best ones here are taken by one of the artists. Feel free to give them credit.

Spanish class is (almost) always appropriate.

High school students can make almost anything sound dirty. It's a real battle to keep blush-worthy items out of the classroom, and I have to repeat the phrase, "Spanish class is always appropriate," at least four times a week. I learned pretty quickly to avoid saying things like, "This test is longer and harder than the last one, so make sure to study," because of the snorts of laughter from two or three corners of the room. Snigger, longer and harder, he he he. I'm usually pretty good at thinking about what I say beforehand, scanning the phraseology with my Will-Teenagers-Twist-This-To-Be-Sexual filter, and rewording as necessary. This is a very specific skill that high school teachers develop.

This last week, however, my filter has turned out to be faulty.

How else can I explain saying things like, "Show your Peter to your neighbor" or "There are no double D's in Spanish." OUT LOUD. IN FRONT OF STUDENTS. I must be going insane.

For my curious friends, the context: Peter was the name of a monster they drew as I explained what he looked like in Spanish to practice body part vocabulary. Spanish words don't have two letter d's in a row.

Any advice for fixing the filter? I don't know how much more I can take.

Spelling

One of the glories of being a Spanish teacher is that I don't have to read much of my students' English writing. On the rare occasions I do, it makes me want to teach 5th grade grammar and spelling. To all the 5th graders in the country. I would be the most-loathed teacher in these United States, and dadblastit, they would actually be able to communicate with others in their mother tongue. Instead of curling up under my desk and crying (I save that for meany-pants parents), I have been compiling a list of crazily misspelled words for your reading enjoyment and a fun game.

Because if I think about it to much, its enough too make a girl waist a way in destress. Honestly, there lose cents of grammatical structure is the mane issue, but I could ring their necks for some of the spelling mistakes I've scene. Seriously, it makes me want to dye. Lets take a pique into the sole of the problem:

The homonyms... O, the homonyms. One student wrote he was excited to meat Megan Fox... which might be a fun episode of CSI, but nothing at all what he expected. A doodle on the back of a quiz had someone yelling in distress, "Oh no! A bare!" GACK! A bare what? The suspense is killing me! Back in my student teaching days, a student wrote a persuasive essay about keeping pop machines in schools because of all the prophets that come out of it. Why look, Elisha is only a dollar! Or do I want a Diet Moses Dew?

Unfortunately, reading misspelled words all day plays with one's mind. I just misspelled "dollar" three times.

Ok, here's the game! Identify correctly the following words in the comments, and you might wean a pries! I've even been warming up your brains.

1. annor
2. musten
3. saro
4. baised
5. barry
6. zizers
7. krymet
8. scelotins (an easy one!)
   

Sick Day Diary

I felt seriously ill yesterday - the vomity kind. First period was almost over. We were practicing reflexive verbs (whiteboard markers on the desks - they're colorful and easy to read from a distance. Plus, writing on desks makes them feel naughty enough to like grammar drills... weird). And I was certain if we continued I would projectile vomit all over three or four of them. So I told them to put their stuff away while I stepped out in the hallway to lean over the garbage can. They're good kids. Anyway, long story short, I went home.

And stayed there.

Here I am, still at home. Feeling gloriously rebellious even though I was legitimately sick. I do feel much better today (lightheaded and tired, but no tummy troubles). Here was my day:

7:27 Wake up, check time, snuggle with the handsome husband
8ish Read murder mystery (Anne Perry... good stuff)
9ish (Chapter 5) Get hungry, go to kitchen
9:05 Realize kitchen is a dump and wash all the dishes
9:28 Still hungry, make oatmeal with blueberries
9:38 Eat and read... for hours (the reading... the oatmeal only lasted 15 minutes or so)
12:05 Heat soup. Eat and read... again
3:00 Finish book, watch Bones
4:00 Prep for dinner
5:00 Go to gym (I am feeling all the way better by this time)
7:00 Come home, ice knees, blog.

This was the best sick day ever. Sick enough to avoid severe guilt. Not too sick to enjoy. And my kids watched a travel movie. Everyone's happy! So, thanks, nausea, for coming and leaving so quickly so as to improve everyone's Thursday.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Not for silly old Guy Fawkes, but for my silly daddy, who passed away 13 years ago today. He is still sorely missed.

Overexuberance

Yesterday, I made six mini-apple crisps with apples I picked myself with a recipe I developed. Perfect with the homemade vanilla ice cream. I also made two kinds of cookies for 2nd period because they won a vocabulary contest, dinner for today (late-season eggplant in a spicy Pasta alla Norma with chicken meatballs), roasted carrots and mashed potatoes for dinner that night, and went to the gym. It was chaos.

And I loved it.