We had two days of serious duststorms this weekend. Think tropical storm, but sand and dust blowing in the air instead of rain… quite intense. I went to a party during all of this and by the time I got to the front door from the car, it looked like I had used myself as a dust mop. It was a apparently a cold front blowing in because it’s turned quite cold. According to my thermometer, it’s finally warmed up to 51 degrees now that it’s 1:30.

Teaching is still going wonderfully. I asked my student how he felt about things so far and he said that he’s pleased, is learning, and feels more comfortable speaking English. This week, we’ve been working on reported speech. I’ve been taking news articles, simplifying the English, and throwing in a few useful vocabulary words. We take turns reading them and asking each other questions about who said what. He’s getting good at picking up the tense I use in my question and responding in the appropriate tense.

I’ve spent the last few days working on a new logo for the Men Who Knit site. It’s not on there yet, but it’s on a whole bunch of merchandise folks can now buy. I think it looks pretty sharp.

Speaking of knitting, I really need to get moving on that. This weather change has made me need scarves again and I’ve never kept one for myself. I really need to be more selfish about my knitting every now and then. All I have are some fingerless gloves and you know, it’s cold here… I need fingers on my gloves.

I also started a new Mountain Essence blog to begin posting ideas on how people can use essential oils and aromatherapy in creative ways. It’s fun writing in a different style and I hope that through it, people will find little things to do for themselves that make them and the space around them feel special, things that make them smile and feel good.

I was supposed to go over to El Paso and have Thanksgiving dinner with my friend, Joe, but wasn’t able to get him on the phone.  The thought of making my way back to Juárez in a food coma became less and less attractive as the hours passed, so I took Jesús up on his offer to eat dinner with him and his friends.

It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I celebrated things Méxican style.  I made Matt’s famous corn salad and aside from the turkey, we had some other side dishes including this delicious pasta made with a jalapeño cream sauce.  There was no pecan pie for dessert, but we had this dish made from marshmellows, cream cheese, pecans, fruit cocktail, and whipped cream.  It looks and sounds wrong, but it was really quite good!

Jesús and Gustavo are new friends. We went dancing at La Madelón last week and I tried out the video feature on the new camera. I recoverted it to up the brightness a little bit, but the sound and video were degraded in the process. Check it out! I’m waiting on my dance lessons.

I hope everyone else had a great day, ate yummy food, and enjoyed themselves. Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: If you’re on a slow connection, start playing each video, then pause them. Each video will continue loading while paused. The video is completely loaded when the grey bar extends all the way to the right.

Work is going well.  Based on his progress, I’m actually teaching effectively.  Within the first week, we conjugated regular verbs in the past, present, present progressive, and future.  He studies and it shows.  I’m whipping out some new vocabulary for us to work with tomorrow.

There’s a magical moment where this flash of understanding shows on a student’s face and tke responses come more quickly and with more confidence.  I’ve experienced that as a student, of course.  It’s a beautiful thing and I imagine it’s the fuel that keeps teachers going.

I’ve also learned how to ride the bus!  The city is mine.  I haven’t yet ventured as far as Las Misiones, but that trip is going to come soon.  The weather has gotten quite cold and I’m short on winter clothes.  The temperatures are ranging from the low 30’s to mid 60’s these days.  It’s almost time to pull out the thermal underwear!

There was a parade today celebrating the Mexican Revolution, but I knew nothing about it.  I always miss the good things… and I wasn’t even hungover this time.  I’m starting to see advertisements for Christmas festivals.  I imagine a country full of Catholics must do it up nice and I’m looking forward to it.  Soriana has a giant Santa Claus that dances, or rather shakes his ass from side-to-side, to American holiday tunes.  I’m not quite sure what to make of it, but I truly pity the woman who stands at the podium next to him to mark receipts.

I’ve redone my personal photo gallery, so check out the link in my sidebar that says "My Photos" for some old and new pics.

As of tomorrow at 7:30AM, I will be an English Teacher.  I nearly twisted my ankle because I was jumping around the living room with so much excitement!

I haven’t done anything at 7:30 in the morning in such a long time except go to bed, so this will be a good change.  It also means that I am not forced to ride the bus.  A friend of mine told me which one to take (Ruta Amarilla 4-A) which will get me within a few blocks of the office from my house all for 4 pesos, roughly 37 cents.

I’m nervous, but not in a self-doubting way.  I have a lot of work to do today and should get started. I just wanted to share the good news!

I interviewed today for an English-teaching job at the Mexican office of a big, global professional services firm today. It went very well and I’ll hopefully be able to start sometime next week once the paperwork is in order.

At first, I’ll be doing a 1:1 class with one person and then later begin a class with a small group. I proposed one our a day which, in my Spanish studies, I found to be much more effective than taking a day off. I think daily exposure is vital and I plan on giving him lots of homework and testing out my theories on using various media forms in second-language aquisition. I’m a creative person and you can bet your ass my teaching will show that.

I made up a placement test of sorts to evaluate where he is in his current ability and what “could be right” based on the rules he’s intuited so far. It’s all multiple choice and tests various verb tenses, grammar usage, idioms, etc. It was a lot of fun putting it together.

I’ve got so many ideas! There’s a book I want to buy from Cambridge that’s used in all the teacher training courses to give me something of a formal background of what it is I’m doing. I could use some left-brain involvement, too, and Cambridge is a great source.

I believe that grammar happens naturally, if it’s introduced in a proper flow. Children are generally spoken to in the present tense until they’re old enough to be disciplined.. then they experience the past tense to understand why they’re getting fussed it along with an aspectual grasp on the future by being told not to do things again. After a few years, the little bad-asses really get evil and they learn the conditional and simple future through “if you do that one more time, i’m going to…” constructions. And so the natural progression of grammar goes. *rim shot*

And the great joy of all this is that I’ll finally be a worthwhile contributor to TEFL Blogs, a site Frank and I started awhile ago for teachers of english as a foreign language. It’s mostly been dormant, but the phoenix will rise!

Oh hey… I didn’t mention that my interview was in Spanish! When the big boss came in, we spoke English, but everytime I paused and made sure I was being understood, my question was returned with eager nods. So… yay!