Guanajuato Infinity and Beyond

Yesterday marked one week in Guanajuato, a small Spanish-colonial city in central Mexico that I will be inhabiting until mid July.

Allow me to some up the week in as simple a fashion as I can. 
The 6 of us live at The Caballero house.  They're great.  They have internet connection at one table; the Cafe Caballero:

We eat mamey, a delicious red fruit. 

We eat tacos, a traditional Mexican dish you might be familiar with.  Also we eat soup, chile rellenos, enchiladas and a different type of juice at every meal.  Today was melon. 

The purpose of this program, at long last, is to teach in and get to know Mexican schools.  Mondays and Fridays I teach 3rd/4th grade at an Escuela primaria in a little town called Cienega.  So far, the teacher has been absent, and myself (and a couple others) have been thrown into the class, using what Spanish we know to teach 40 students.  Math, civics, the history of Guanajuato and Spanish.  Teaching certificate?  Control of the Spanish language?  Lesson plans?  Throw that shit out the window.  Pictures to come.  Imagine a school a little John Wayne would attend.  Your mental image is exactly right.  Tumbleweeds included.

Tuesdays/Wednesdays:  Justin and I run a music program at the CAM: Center de Atencion Multiple.  It's a special needs school that has zero music in their curriculum. 

Thursday:  Student teach at Luis Gonzalez Obregon, a primary school in the city of Guanajuato that is miles apart, literally and figuratively, from the other primary school.  It is organized, impressive and expensive:

Most school days are roughly 8-12, as there are so many students in Guanajuato that they can only go to school for half a day, and then for the second half a new load of kids comes in.  It's crazy what a different system is in place in our neighboring country.  That's Mexico.

We have classes that we take as well that occupy the afternoon, and our nights tend to revolve around pretending to Salsa, drinking litros and hustling fools at pool:

I'm up 20 pesos in billar (pool) right now.  That's nearly 2 dollars.

Guanajuato has free concerts going on nightly, of all different styles.  There are always old people dancing in the central gardens, and you can just smell their classiness in the air. 

I was talking with Victor Abel, a man that sold me a watch today.  We talked about Mexico versus the USA in all it's splendor.  "What do you prefer" Victor inquired?  I admitted that the longer I'm in guanajuato, the more I love the relaxed, easygoing mindstate of just about everybody.  In Mexico, schedules are as firm as a worm.  Everybody's late, everybody takes their time, nobody minds walking you to the bus stop, or walking you across town, or giving you a ride to school in the back of their pick-up when you're lost as all hell and hitchhiking.  I could really get used to the attitude.  But, I told him, I can't necessarily live like this.  The school days for half the kids in Guanajuato are treated with as much timeliness, respect and consistency as a lunch date with your sister.  Who you hate. 

There are definite repercussions to the calm.  Still, Mexicans are just a happy people.  Money and education aside, they know how to live lives without stress-balls.