The Raccoon's Rantings

Last there was a fantastic Lunar Eclipse. From the vantage point on the roof of the hostel, I watched the the moon darken and go completely reddish orange.

Being the only one that rememberd about the eclipse, I let the other residents know what was happening. Us guys climbed a ladder to the roof, the very top while the two German girls only ventured as far as the lower roof. I didn´t care too much for the ladder. It was made of steel and wasn´t in danger of breaking, but had the steps like 3 feet apart. The effect of this was the everytime I took a step, my foot couldn´t step. The ladder only went as far 4 feet or so below the roof, so everyone had to grab the ledge and hope not to fall (the fall would about 15 feet, probably not lethal unless you land directly on your head or something, but breaking something would be no fun either.)Of course, the roof proved to be a perfect vantage point and there wasn´t a cloud in the sky.

Little by little the moon darkened. The problem with some smart people is that they don´t know when to shut up and this was the case. Pointing out the constellations and such is fine a cool at first, but the full eclipse starts to take effect, sometimes it´s better just to be quiet and watch the marvel. But at about the last second, everybody shut up for a bit.

So it was fanastic night. The weather was perfect, not cold nor hot. But I would have gone up even if was cold. It´s important in life to catch the wonders that come your way and gaze at the sky and lose yourself in the splendor of it all.








( Source of images, can´t take credit for them, I´m afraid. The top one is from Mexico City, however. )

Sorry for not posting since Monday. I been so damn busy! I´d usually get back to the hostel at about 6:30, have to read 2 or 3 chapters of homework, do homework excerises and than plan classes to teach

I woke up to find that my hosts had eaten my can of beans that I just bought yesterday and half my new bag of guten. It's real easy when you're eating other people´s food without permission, isn't it. It's real easy to save socialist slogans on the wall when 90% of the food is somebody else´s. This after keeping me up all fucking* night with loud as hell music when I had to come downstairs twice to ask them to turn it down (which lasted about 10 minutes)


* French word meaning I´m very angry

Everyone can pronounce words in their own language properly right? You can say "Hill" without it coming out as "Heel", can't you? You can say "river" without it coming out as "Riber." But how do you teach others the correct pronunciation? Well, it´s not that easy. If you have a student that continues to say "riber", usually just make him repeat after you will not do the trick. So now what? Well, for one, you would need to pay close attention to you own pronunciation. What exactly is happening when you say "river" In the case of river (and other "v" words, when you annunciate clearly, the V sound actually vibrates. In contrast, the "b" sounds cuts off quickly and leaves the mouth almost in a pop.

Strange as it may sound, really have to know what your lips, tongue and mouth and throat are doing when you speak your native language. But someimes it´s not possible show the students how to pronounce the sound, ie it´s not really visible on the lips and face. This is where you might say the word naturally in a sentence or context. Annunciate and isolate the problem sound, letting the student be aware of changes in pitch, etc. After that going back to naturally using the word.

I decided to go to the real supermarket today, instead of the Oxxo so I could get some nice meat and vegetables Walking there I noticed that there was some sort of farmer´s market going on in the park, so I decided to take a look. It´s amazing how good fresh fruit and vegetables smell. I could have lingered there forever. But I decided to just take note of the prices and see what the supermarket had to offer in the way of fruits and vegetables. I thought I was being a good, smart shopper.

Access to the supermarket parking lot is controlled by a gate and people in a both. When the cars entered, they were directed where to park by traffic control people. I guess with the many people, they didn´t want people driving around forever looking for a spot that might be six feet closer to the enterance like people in America do.

Entering the shore, the impression was like a Super Walmart (which they do have, I saw one from the plane ) There was general merchanise, on one side and food on the other. Well, there wasn´t as much general merchanise as Walmart. So I went up and down the aisles seeing what was available for while. The meat was not impressive. It was too expensive. What looks like about 3/4 pound hamburger was about 3.50. And why was the pollo (chicken) YELLOW?! Ok, where are the vegetables? I looked all up and down the aisle, no fresh vegetables. In some corner of the store? No! Unless I was completely blind the supermarket seriously did not have fresh veggies! I wonder if this normal for Mexico?

A lady was demo'ing some guten wrapped in a tortilla. That was surpisingly good, so I bought that, some salsa verde, tortillas and Lift (apple soda) for 49 pesos.

Back at the farmer´s market, I noticed somebody was selling old video game consoles, Atari 2600's, Intellisions, some weird 1970´s Pong game. That was kind of interesting, but I didn´t buy one. What was gonna do with one the novelity wore off in about 5 minutes? I wound up getting a kilo of onions and a kilo of tomatoes for 15 peso´s (about 1.50) So on my big shopping day, I spent all of $6.50. Also at the farmer´s market, there were taco stands galore but I didn´t get a taco. One place was kind of strange though. The seller put what looked like creamed corn into a cup, added some mayonaise and what looked like cayenne pepper and served it to her customer. It´s hard for me to imagine that would actually taste good, but I´m sure there are American foods that Mexicans will say "What the hell?" to as well.

Well, that´s it about shopping for now.