AND THE DECISION IS?????

Hello hello!

Last week Daniel and I went up to Tuxtepec to check out the city and campus. The campus was absolutely beautiful! Surrounded by a thick forest, it had cobblestone paths that were surrounded by plants and flowers as they led you to all the different buildings. The language program however ... seemed somewhat empty. We spent one more day in Tuxtepec and walked around the city, and it was definitely a different type of Mexican city. It seemed more crowded than Oaxaca and the Spanish accents were so funny! They would leave out "s" from their words and spoke as is they were singing. Also, I was the one and only blonde to be seen (which actually, I forget that I don't look like the rest of the people -- Daniel had to remind me :P). It was interesting because we stayed with one of Daniel's friend who lives up there, and he lives a little outside the city amongst trees and trees and MORE trees filled with bananas! They're called banana macho, and they are HUGE and have a very unique taste. We actually had fried bananas for breakfast one morning, and as we left, his friend's family gave us a bag full of bananas. While the city itself appeared to be a little run down and not taken care of that much, it was a beautiful area.

Then this past Monday, I had to give a demo class at URSE, the university here in Oaxaca. I was so nervous because I hadn't taught a class in two months, but it went really well. It was the biggest class I had ever taught (about 30 college students), and some of them were trying to do other homework during my lesson. (I remember how that goes.) But overall, I had a lot of fun and I think it went fairly well given that I didn't really know that much about the class beforehand. All I knew is that they were intermediate.... Yup, that's it. Right after the class, I was given a critique about my class and offered the job.

So, the decision was kind of hard yet kind of easy. Seeing the program at URSE, it was full of teachers from Italy and France and the US, all teaching their native language plus maybe another, and right away I could just sense a great energy between the teachers. I made a pros and cons list for both of the schools, and while both the "pros" list for the universities were about equal, I found way more "cons" for the university in Tuxtepec. I LOVE Oaxaca. This is my home right now. I spent yesterday afternoon sitting in a park near my apartment just writing in my journal. There was this nice breeze, and it was such a beautiful day. Taking a moment to look around, I felt this sigh of relief that I was going to be staying here. Yeah, there may be lots of tourism here.... yes, Tuxtepec would have been an adventure..... but Oaxaca, in this moment of my life, is my home.

So, I'll be starting on my visa application HOPEFULLY this week, and I'll start teaching for sure the beginning of February, which is when they're semester starts, and I may even be able to give a month class in January. We'll find out!

Can you believe I'm going to be teaching college students??? (Let's just hope they don't realize I'm practically the same age as them!)

Other than that, I'm trying to get mentally prepared to head back to the states! I leave on the 6th of December, flying from Puebla to Seattle, and I'll be spending a week on the west coast to try to see as many people as I can. Then I'll be driving with Laura over to Spokane on the 14th for hopefully a snowy Christmas! (Maybe? Please?) Finally, since unfortunately Daniel can't go with me this year for a vacation in Spokane, I'll be heading back to spend New Year's in Oaxaca. So, that's the plan! Tell me where I can find you and see you!

Also, the B&B job is still going great. With Thanksgiving this week, we've had lots of different guests who have been so much fun to talk with. Lots of great stories to hear! Although with guests, I haven't actually had a full day off for a few weeks now, just half days off. So hopefully I'll finally get my FULL day off (my one and only haha) this next Sunday. I'm needing a day to sleep in!

Ok, well... going off to make cookies and buy some bread and jam for a mini Thanksgiving dinner that my friends and I are putting together tonight. One of the girls, who will be working with me at la URSE, is leaving tomorrow to work in the US for a month before she comes back, so we're having the dinner a day early. :)

So, HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! Eat some turkey for me (we're making chicken haha)!


¡BUEN PROVECHO!