The highlight of my morning was ordering coffee. I was able to get through the whole process without having to say “no hablo espanol!” I had una cafe caramel fria con leche and remembered to use por favor and gracias. I accomplished the same feat at lunch. Not bad for knowing only hola a few days ago! I am really excited to see how much Spanish I can learn in the three weeks I’m here.

I spent the majority of the day working in the office that Kristina and I share. As you can see, it is very clean, white, and spacious, which pretty much sums up the entire campus (except the grass fields, which are green, but still relatively clean and quite spacious). I have plenty of work to do, including planning lessons and creating assessment tools. Nevertheless, Kristina and I were able to take a lovely lunch break out in the sunshine, first enjoying some delicious mango-pina-coco smoothies at a picnic table, and then lounging on the grass, resulting in our first sunburns of the trip (tomorrow we will take more care to put on sunscreen!).

Teaching was certainly another highlight of my day. The students and I all enjoyed the lesson. They were especially engaged when I told stories, such as the tale of the Houdini’s death (thanks for that one, Dad!), that related to the content. David was very happy with the lesson as well. I am amazed at how advanced the students here are. The material that these 16- and 17-year-olds are learning is at a university level, and they pick up concepts very quickly. I am also impressed with how hard they work during class. Nearly all the students were on-task whenever I gave them something to work on, and those who finished earlier than others quickly moved on to doing homework from other classes. However, I do not want to jump to any hasty conclusions comparing Mexican students to Canadian students. I think the fact that Tec de Monterrey is an expensive private school likely plays a large role in the high levels of intrinsic motivation and academic proficiency that I see in these students. Teaching here is a different experience than teaching in a BC public school – neither better nor worse, but definitely different.

Today was our first day on the beautiful Tec de Monterrey campus, and the day was a whirlwind of introductions to staff, students, buildings, policies, and our new roles as Tec de Monterrey interns. Kristina and I were each assigned to a chemistry professor to work with, and we discovered that in our respective classes we will both be teaching a short unit on macromolecules, including proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. We met our students today, and we start teaching tomorrow. If Tec de Monterrey will be hosting more teacher candidates in the future, I would suggest that they give the teacher candidates advance notice of the topics they’ll be teaching, as I feel very pressed for preparation time.

That being said, everyone here is extremely friendly and helpful. Multiple staff members have left us with phone numbers and the insistence that we call them if we need anything. In fact, the people of Puebla, in general, seem to be very friendly and polite. Everyone smiles and says hola or buenos dias when they pass one another – stranger or not – on the street. People always seem to be opening doors for us, and they are very patient with us as we try to express ourselves in extremely limited Spanish. For example, when we went out to try some authentic Mexican tacos (which, as you may note from the photo, are completely void of vegetables), the servers spent several minutes helping us distinguish between maiz and harina tortillas, giving us their recommendations, and warning us which sauces are picante. The professor I am working with, David, asked what the people of Vancouver are like, and when I told him how the people of Puebla have impressed me, he was thoroughly surprised to hear that we do not have the same mannerisms in Canada.

David is eager to collaborate with me and hear my ideas on teaching. He is open to all of my suggestions, and seems to trust my judgement wholeheartedly, which is both encouraging and a little surprising. After all, I am not a certified teacher yet. I was provided with PowerPoint presentations for the lessons I am teaching over the next two classes, which is somewhat helpful, but the presentations need extensive editing, as they are extremely content-heavy, have few visuals, and seem to leave no room for learning activities. To be fair, I do not know whether the professors here typically use such presentations to teach, but nevertheless I am excited to bring to Tec de Monterrey some of the pedagogical approaches I’ve learned at UBC. As a simple hook for tomorrow’s lesson on the functions of proteins, I‘ll be having the students savour a piece of bread in order to experience some enzymatic action (the breakdown of carbohydrates by amylase). Then, after going over the three main functions of proteins using some culturally relevant analogies based on my Puebla explorations from yesterday, I will have the students explore some of the effects of missing or dysfunctional proteins (for example, albinism, lactose intolerance, and sickle cell anemia). I’m interested to see how the students react to my teaching style. We shall see!

The more time that passes, the more obvious it becomes that learning Spanish would have been an extremely useful endeavor prior to this trip. Nevertheless, I’m sure that I will be learning plenty as I go! The people of Puebla, in general, seem to know very little English, making Puebla a perfect place to pick up Spanish. First thing this morning, for example, a smiling man at the coffee shop helped me distinguish between cafe fria and cafe caliente. Later, thanks to some miming on my part, and plenty of patience on the part of the Wal-Mart employee, I was able to find some huevos (eggs), which were hiding from me by not being in a refrigerator.

Although we were grocery shopping in Wal-Mart, I still felt that it was an experience authentically poblanos (Pueblan). After all, who knew that Campbell’s made canned tortilla soup? Kristina and I quickly agreed that the produce section, specifically the pile of guavas, was the first good smell of the many new scents we’ve encountered since arriving in Puebla, and we were even feeling adventurous enough to buy a cactus leaf! We will have to look into how to properly eat it…

Our next adventure was to take a cab to the main square, or zocalo, of the city. Apparently Mexican cabs do not have any seat belts, which I suppose makes sense when you consider how many people just ride around in truck beds, but we are still in one piece nonetheless. The zocalo was a bustle of balloons, clowns, music, and soapbox speakers, centered by a fountain and surrounded by colourful buildings.

Although there was no special event or occasion going on, the square was incredibly busy. There were many families with young children, many of whom had their faces painted, and every other person seemed to be enjoying some ice cream coated in ground chilies, a treat I sampled but wasn’t partial to.

Next to the square is a beautiful cathedral, which brought me back to my European travels. However, it has a Mexican touch – the center archway is decorated with an amazing piece of art made entirely of cactus leaves. We couldn’t take photos inside the building, but it was absolutely incredible, from the numerous statues to (my personal favourite) the giant organ pipes.

Continuing to explore, we viewed the fascinating frescas of the Casa del Dean, the oldest house in Mexico, bought some freshly made churros, and wandered the open-air markets, which feature everything from antiques to jewelry to hand-painted dishes. We finished off our little adventure by trying mole poblanos, a Pueblan specialty of shredded chicken in a spicy dark chocolate and nut sauce, in a restaurant overlooking the square.

I’m so glad we had the day to explore Puebla before we begin our duties tomorrow, whatever those may be. I feel at least a little more prepared now that I have practiced handling the language barrier and have seen experienced some of the culture in this new place. Plus it was just lovely to be out in the sunshine!

I am typing this post in my Tec de Monterrey dorm room, so after taking three flights, one of which we were unaware until this morning, Kristina and I have reached our destination! Kristina is a wonderful traveling companion, and though it was a long day, it was an enjoyable one. We exchanged traveling stories, taught each other games, and even practiced our French a bit.

We did almost lose each other at one point, though. When we were boarding the flight from Houston to Puebla, I was allowed through, but Kristina, right behind me, was held back. Apparently they had filled the plane’s tanks with more fuel than usual and were concerned about exceeding the weight restriction, so I was the last passenger allowed to board. For several minutes it seemed as if I would be required to fly to Puebla without my traveling buddy, who in turn would be forced to remain in Houston until the following day. Thankfully, however, there were several small children on the plane, so in the end it was determined that the weight restriction would not be exceeded if Kristina and I boarded together as scheduled. What a relief!

Upon arriving in Puebla, we were met by Paco, a friendly young gentleman who drove us to our temporary home and showed us the surrounding shops, including Wal-Mart and Starbucks (Puebla is much more commercialized than I expected). He also introduced us to the two security guards who monitor the entrance of the residence building in which we’re staying. Though everyone we encountered in the building seemed very friendly, it quickly became clear that we stick out like a sore thumb here – if our appearance does not bring us enough attention, our lack of Spanish vocabulary certainly does. It will be interesting to see how this translates into the classroom!

Welcome here! Through this blog, you are invited to join me in my adventure as a teacher candidate in Puebla, Mexico. The adventure begins tomorrow morning at 3:30 am, when I will be waking up to head to the airport for my departure from Vancouver. I have very little idea what will happen from then, so stay tuned, and we will find out!