Teaching: Initial Thoughts

I apologize for how late I am on posting this. A lot has happened since my last update. But first I should mention a few random things. I discovered Jícama (Mexican Yam) which is very sweet and good when eaten raw. I ate some at home and then decided I would go get more at the supermarket. Also, the cops around here always have their lights on. They never turn them off and it is quite blinding when they drive by.

I began teaching tenth grade very quickly after arriving here at the school. I am teaching a unit on poetry which is fortuitous because I taught poetry at my previous placement. After a couple days I pretty much had all of my students' names figured out, which was nice. As I mentioned previously, I had to create a poetry unit for my time here. I didn't have any of my resources from home so I feel very good about the fact that my lessons have been going well.

This school is a wonderful place to work and a great area to live. Teaching with 80minute periods has been great and I really feel like it enables best practice to occur. About 10 minutes into my very first class, one of the administrators came into my class and sat in the back. Presumably she was there to observe my cooperating teacher but since I was teaching it was pretty nerve wracking.

As I mentioned before, I apologize for not updating this. However, I have been updating my personal journal, and I will be relating the many stories within to you over the next couple weeks.

"Cousins"

I think I previously mentioned how there are many people at the house I am staying in. Well our "host brothers" cousin stopped by to add to those numbers the other day. He took us out to a friends apartment to hang out and then we went out and wandered around Roma. It was a lovely area and we stopped at a nice restaurant eventually. I have been very fortunate to spend a lot of time meeting people from Mexico City. My cousin, as he quickly considered us to be his cousins, introduced us to many of his friends from his university as well as a couple other friends. It was a great evening of just getting to hang out with people and chat.

Today we went to a market and shopped around. The guys and I wandered off and found a very beautiful garden which was actually located in a private neighborhood. No one yelled at us so we didn't think it was a big deal. We then ate some Quesadilla's with Huitlacoche which is a fungus that grows on corn. It was really good.

Later we went on a boat ride in the borough of Xochimilco. Basically you float down a stream in this boat with chairs and tables, and people pull up alongside the boat and sell you beer and/or try and sell you knick knacks and other touristy items. It's essentially a "party boat." It is like a 2 hour ride and fortunately most of the time I was able to enjoy good conversation with some friends.

Some of the others went to a Soccer game but Paddy and I returned home. I hit my head on the roof of the subway when I stood up and a lady laughed at me. It was humorous. Actually, this entire trip has been filled with evidence of my lack of athletic ability. I almost fell down the stairs the other day and my shoulder subluxated.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to go and find a cafe and just sit and work on educational stuff. Another student on the trip is teaching 10th grade English as well and we are hoping to collaborate sometime tomorrow on lesson plans and ideas. I might just chill tomorrow for the most part...read my Bible and then On The Road. I'd like to meet some random people in the city so I think if I do any exploring it will just be for that purpose. I'm stoked to get back in the school on Monday.

Zócalo, Metro, and Condesa (oh and teaching too)

I did my best to fit in. Apparently, unless you are working out or doing something that requires shorts Mexicans are pretty much always in long pants. Many are completely dressed up in a suit and tie. There was a half day at the school so the entire group went on a "touristy trip" to the Zócalo. I decided not to change and just wear my teacher clothes in spite of the heat. It actually wasn't bad. 

In order to reach the Zócalo (the square pictured above), we finally had a chance to ride the metro. The metro was packed to the extent that I actually had to push other members of our group onto the car or they would have missed it and had to wait for the next one. I wish that cities in the US had as extensive of a public transportation system as Mexico City. It is extremely cheap to get around.

My housemates and I were able to split off from the group eventually. We went on a tour of the Templo Mayor (a replica is pictured below) 

Apparently they just continued to expand it. and add levels by just building over the smaller one before it which helps to give it that "stepped" look. After a tour of the actual ruins you then go through a museum which has many of the original artifacts encased within. It is very extensive and although we went through at a relatively slow pace, we could have spent much more time there. 

We rejoined with the group for a bit and just walked around the city and looked at some of the cathedrals. After the rest of the group left to go home we continued to walk around and managed to get a little bit off the beaten path, which was nice. I was starving and we passed a stand that was selling freshly made plantain chips which are the greatest. Even though we had been warned against the possibility of incessant diarrhea from food on the street, I bought some and they were delicious. A day later, and I feel fine.

After returning home and eating an awesome home-cooked meal we went out exploring again. Condesa is a very nice neighborhood near where we are staying. One of our "host brothers" showed us around the area. Often Mexico City has a reputation for being dusty and dry but the streets are lined with a lovely verdant green that adds to the beauty of the area. Next we will check out Roma which is another nice area nearby.

As far as the food goes, as I said, we have been fortunate to have great home-cooked meals. However, eating out here is so cheap compared to the states. There is a stand right outside the school that sells a lot of great food. I can get a sizable and delicious (comparable to a burrito from chipotle but way better tasting) burrito for about 25 pesos (or $2).

I begin teaching poetry and grammar on Monday. I will be teaching 10th grade which is nice because that is what I taught in Pittsburgh. Most of my time in the school has consisted of me observing, getting to know the students, and preparing my unit for the next three weeks. I will try to update this again tomorrow!

Arrival

Finally, I have a spare moment to update this blog as promised. The travel to Mexico City was relatively uneventful, which I suppose is a good thing. We arrived at the airport and went immediately to the American School via a convoy of white suburbans. The traffic is not actually that bad. It is very tightly packed in the streets but the rules of the road are basically the same as the states and it is not hard to get used to.

After getting to meet some of the faculty at the school we were then introduced to our host families. I am staying with three other guys (Paddy, Zane, Matthew) and our host family is an elderly lady with two older sons (late 20's ~ early 30's). Two of their friends are staying at the house as well so we have a lot of people that we can talk to and that are willing to show us around the city. There are also two dogs at our house (Chihuahua and a Black lab). 

Our neighborhood is very nice and there are many restaurants and shops nearby. Paddy, Matthew, Zane and I have figured out the neighborhood for the most part. We have walked around a lot as well as bought subway tickets for our commutes and flowers for our host mom. I am already used to the weather for the most part. It is currently about 70 degrees with a high of 90 later.

I was a bit worried about getting used to the currency, since that wasn't something I really had to worry about in Haiti, but it was really easy to get used to. The Spanish hasn't really been a problem either. I can read most if not all signs very quickly and have already successfully navigated many situations using just Spanish (in spite of the fact that it is probably very hard to understand me). I really need to work on simple past and future tense since those are pretty basic.

I'll talk more about the school at another time when I have a chance to update this again. I will try to update about once a day or so.

New (not really) Blog

In just a couple short weeks I will be leaving for Mexico City to complete my student teaching. I will then graduate in mid-May assuming everything goes according to plan. I also have some plans for the Summer which should be rather exciting. If you would like to keep in contact with me/updated on what is going on then continue to visit this site. I will shortly terminate my facebook account which will just be lovely! Other ways you can keep in contact with me would be:

www.goodreads.com
email: tjp9879@gmail.com

I decided to recycle this same blog steakfriesisgood.blogspot.com because it would have taken me forever to come up with a new title. So along with my new updates I have a bunch of old book review posts as well as posts for a class. I suppose you could read them if the mood struck you but I can't say it would be worth your time.

The Truth About Grace by John MacArthur

The Truth About Grace is short and yet incredibly dense with scriptural references. The book covers the concept of grace from all angles. While MacArthur has a reputation for being a hard hitting preacher this book is incredibly, well, gracious. The claims he makes are firmly rooted in the Bible and he provides the evidence right in the text. Because of this, the book takes on a more conversational style as the reader joins with the author to search the Bible for truth about grace.


Growing up I viewed God as a rather vindictive character. I had no trouble understanding God's wrath but I really did not get God's grace. I still do not fully comprehend it, but this book has really helped me to locate some key scriptures that have to do with grace. While the book does get repetitive at times, it is ultimately a very helpful tool. 


I began trying to understand grace more after reading the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. One of his essays in that book really challenged my ideas about God and his character. While I am a huge fan of Donald Miller, I have become somewhat disenchanted with the hype that seems to have arisen around the idea of Jesus as "my buddy." (I am not saying that Miller states this, I am simply trying to illustrate how some people have a more relaxed view of God and others have a more strict view). I think that might be why I had such a hard time accepting grace for so long; because it seemed like it was not viewing God with proper sincerity. It almost feels as if one is taking advantage of him and thus it just can't be right. 


Anyway, all that to say, that on the spectrum of viewing God's grace I see books like Blue Like Jazz to be on one side and more conservative individuals like MacArthur to be on the other. If you have that mindset in approaching this book you may be equally surprised with me to see the way in which MacArthur deals with the topic of grace. I think MacArthur does a great job of speaking grace, truth and love in this book that will be beneficial for anyone.


I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

The Trouble With Paris by Mark Sayers

Until I read this book, the best analysis of our culture's obsession with materialism that I had ever heard went something like "buy less stuff" and "watch less tv." While this is not bad advice per se it fails to get to the heart of what drives the modern day materialist mindset. Sayers really gets to the heart of the issue in this book without getting caught up in the idea that to solve our problems we just need a list of rules and some accountability so we don't spend too much.

He begins by addressing the fact that Christians tend to be less than satisfied with their faith. They often feel they are missing something and that life needs to be more exciting. Sayers says:

"If you want to blame someone or something for your life not ending up as wonderfully as you were led to believe it would, a good place to start is the cultural phenomenon called hyperreality...meaning that we could now have things that were even better than the real thing. The media-drenched world in which we live has overextended our expectations of life" pg 5.

This is interesting since this is remarkably similar to the lie that was told to Adam and Eve in the garden. They were tempted into believing that they could be "like God." Since we have this idea of what our life should look like, we are upset and even depressed when our life doesn't look the way our culture says it should. Sayer's points out that this inevitably leads to widespread "comparison anxiety." 

Social networking pages are like advertisements for how our life is matching up with the requirements of the hyperreal culture. We compare ourselves to our friends who have traveled extensively or speak many languages and have been on multiple missions trips. Why don't our lives look like theirs? Soon "experiences" become a commodity much like any tangible product. We seek to be the most "cultured" and "experienced" individual with as much fervor and obsession as someone collecting beanie babies (I once saw a fight in a McDonalds over beanie babies!). Life becomes a competition.

Most of The Trouble With Paris discusses the issues that are presented by this subverted version of reality called hyperreality. Towards the end, Sayers engages in a discussion of what God's reality is for us as well as some helpful ideas for combating the influence of hyperreality in one's life.

I have noticed that these types of books often have an "anti-material" message. As if you should not own tv, radio, or a magazine subscription because the material world is evil. Sayer's says however, that

"The Bible does speak positively of things that are material-wine, food, clothing, houses, and land are seen as blessings. But in God's reality these things are given their proper place in the order of creation" pg. 167

Sayers ends with a discussion of what it means to live redemptively in a world consumed with hyperreality. If you aren't convinced to borrow or buy this book I would at least ask that you find it at a bookstore and read the  final chapter. This idea of living a faith which seeks to restore creation rather than condemn it is something that needs to catch on in Christian circles.