Poor Betty

Yesterday was in interesting day (I feel I keep using the word interesting a lot but no other word better describes our days). Well, I was happy yesterday because it meant that I was finally over with teaching Sex ED. That means I won’t have to hear any more questions like this one, “Miss Stateczny, what happens when you make sex and, how do you say, pee comes out?”…that was the exact wording…gotta love my kids… After school, Kara, Jeanne, and I got into the car to go home and at first Betty wouldn’t start. Finally I got her to start but she started bouncing up and down…something was definitely not right. We figured we should drive her to the mechanic right away. SO I put her in reverse and tried to back out of our spot and she died. We moved just enough to block our boss, Michelle, in. We sat there for a few minutes before we got her to start again. We literally drove across town with Betty bouncing up and down and making a weird noise. We were so afraid if we had to stop at any stop light Betty would die on us and that would be really bad because the Mexican drivers are bad at rear ending others…so at every light I had one foot on the break and one on the gas revving it. We got honked at multiple times and got many strange looks due to the shaking issue we were having. We finally got to the mechanic who speaks no English. Luckily, since the shaking was so obvious we really didn’t have to explain our problem. The guy just really shook some things, mumbled something about the air filter and the shaking and noise stopped. It was magic!!! We asked what we owed and he said nothing. So we went and got an 8 pack of beer and brought it back to him…we wanted to show him we were nice, grateful Americans. Afterwards we shopped for Thanksgiving groceries. The Jeanne and I decided to go have a drink and de-stress. We got to talking and she told me about her and Harry’s theory. They have been misplacing things like crazy since they have moved here. Apparently they weren’t like this she said in Minnesota. She told me that her and Harry don’t like to admit they are superstitious but they both really are. Well she then went on to say that they have felt a presence in the house, and that they think it’s a trickster, house elf and that he is the one that keeps hiding all their stuff. She said that in Northern England where Harry is from they have ways of getting rid of them. That they put money out and the elf will take it and leave. Also, you can buy a small set of clothes for them and lay them out and they will take them and go (it’s not that the money and clothes physically leave, it’s more like Day of the Dead where the Gods take the flavor out of the food, they don’t actually eat it). She said since they put the money out they have felt a change…so we will have to see how they are with misplacing things now…

The old science teacher at our school apparently was horrible. So much of the equipment doesn’t work and I’m sure it’s because she never watched the kids with it. Out of all my microscopes, only one works. Out of all my scales, only one works. So today when I was taking out the glass thermometers I really shouldn’t have been surprised that one was broken and leaking everywhere. This past teacher put a broken thermometer back into the case with all the thermometers…so guess who got Mercury on her hands. I was so mad and frightened since mercury can be deadly even if it only touches your skin. In the states we usually order thermometers that aren’t made with pure Mercury but with a Mercury mixture of some sort. This mixture, if you wash it off fast enough, is not as toxic. So I was panicking, because I was thinking this is MX and this is a Mexican thermometer, who knows what it has in it…there seems to be no health regulations in this country when it comes to anything. So I had to go have my principal call the Mexican company that produces these thermometers to find out what type of mercury was in it. They assured me that it’s safe but if I mysteriously get very ill in the next few weeks…this is probably why…

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We are celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday. I cannot wait. We are having a big group of about 14 people. The only Americans will be just us 4. The rest of them are our new friends and their families. We are giving them their first traditional American Thanksgiving. I am preparing the turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Kara is making sweet potatoes. Harry and Jeanne are making veggies, mashed potatoes, and cranberries. My friend Leoner and her mom are bringing wine and a carrot cake. Erika, her best friend from MX city, and her son are bringing pasta salad, salad, bread and wine. Nora and her husband Francisco (plus their 2 kids) are bring appetizers and wine. Nora says her husband has been putting a lot of thought into appetizers. That he wants it to just be perfect for his first Thanksgiving. Tomorrow instead, Leoner and her mom invited us for dinner. Leoner’s mom lives in MX city but is from Spain. She is making us Paella a traditional Spanish dish. Last night I went and had martinis with her and her mom and they invited us over to make the food with them. So her mom is going to teach us how to make this dish. I’m so excited, it sounds so good.

Oh they finally put our pictures on the schools website the week before we leave…
http://www.elcolegiomission.com/maestros/profesores.html