Ohh, Mexico

I ate brains?!

So something that happened the other day that I feel I should mention... apparently, Carlos tricked me into eating pig brains. That's right. And I thought that nothing could top eating guinea pig in Ecuador. What happened was after the long weeked in Mexico City, I hopped on the Metro and cabbed it over to meet up with Carlos and Mariela and their families so we could head back to San Juan on Monday. That afternoon, though Carlos told me we would get on the road around 3:00 and ending up leaving at 6:30 (gotta love el tiempo mexicano) Carlos and I were hanging out for a bit in front of Mariela's family's butcher shop, right by their house, so I could meet everybody. I've been a little weary of the meat that's eaten here in Mexico, even though I'm sure it's a lot more healthy for you than all the processed garbage we eat in the States, but still it just appears a little too reminiscent of the animal that died to feed you for my taste. Anyway, Mariela's sister offered me a quesadilla, which I thought I had figured out consisted of nothing more than cheese wrapped up in a tortilla, but oh no, not this one. It contained some type of weird meat so I asked Carlos what it was and they just kept saying, "probalo! probalo!" which means, "just try it!" So being polite, I ate it and basically had to choke the whole thing down, mostly because I was suspicious as to why Carlos had a big grin on his face. I found out as soon as I was done eating, I had just chowed down on "sesos," or ground-up pig brains. Augh! It made for some good entertainment though for Carlos and the rest of the family working at the butcher shop.

So today I had my job interview to see about working for another language school here in San Juan, where my friend Mike from OU actually taught, and I think the interview went extremely well and I will most likely be offered the job. However, I'm not sure if I want to take it. Actually, I'm pretty positive that I don't. It's not that I've been unhappy working for Carlos' school, but I guess one big thing that was pushing me to find a job somewhere else is that I know this other school provides housing to the foreign teachers. But I found out today that basically if I got this job and were to begin in March, I would be replacing another American who's leaving and there won't be any other teachers living there. I'm not thrilled about the idea of living alone because I actually like having roommates. It's what I'm used to.

Another thing about this school is that the hours are not ideal whatsoever. Classes are held early in the morning, 7am Monday thru Thursday, and until late at night, 9pm, with a big gap in between in the middle of the day. Fridays are off, but I would have to work every Saturday morning from 9 to 1, which doesn't sound so bad, but 4 straight hours of teaching 1 class would be exhausting! Also, I could kiss my weekends good-bye, which I hope to spend traveling to different parts of central Mexico. So this job isn't sounding so ideal to me anymore.

I am going to meet up with Anne Sophie, the French teacher from Carlos' school, on Saturday to talk about living together. If we decided to do this, I imagine we'll spend part of the day most likely strolling around the city to look for apartments. I really hope this works out because, even though I've only talked to her a little bit about this, she seems pretty cool and I think it would be interesting having a French roommate that I could only speak Spanish with. She must be pretty independent too if she is 21 years old and is here for both her studies and to teach classes, and has been living by herself. Hopefully, we can work something out. I talked to my mom for a long time about this on the phone today, and it was great talking to her and getting her take on my situation. I'm sure she'll be supportive whatever I end up doing.

I think tomorrow night I'm going to my first disco here in San Juan with Ingrid, my 17-year-old Mexican "cousin." She's been wanting to take me out since I moved out of her grandparents' house, so it should be a good time. If it's anything like the dance clubs in Ecuador, I will stick out like a sore thumb but nevertheless, have fun watching other people dance salsa and try to teach me, the "guera," a move or two. Hasta luego.

posted by Rachel @ 2:06 PM