2 Bars

This week started the new semester of daily classes at Boston Academy. I teach 3, hour and a half classes each day, along with a 5 hour Saturday class. When you add the prep time for each class, it is pretty much a full time job. The pay is not very good by USA standards ($10/hour), but it goes a long way in Mexico. My students are fantastic! I love all my classes. My favorite might be my class of all boys ranging from 11 to about 50 years old - they have been with each other for awhile so they joke around a lot and aren't shy to participate.

A couple nights ago it was a co-workers birthday, so we went out to celebrate at El Pantheon - a bar in Leon that is famous for its bullfighting decor. All over the walls there are pictures of famous bullfighters and there are about 6-7 bull heads pinned up also. Another cool thing about the restaurant is that as long as you continue to buy drinks, they bring food out for you. We had chips and salsa, sopes, and fajitas for free! What the bar is really known for however, are its creative birthday celebrations. The restaurant staff put a hat on the birthday girl or boy, who then has to get up on the bar and act like a matador: waving a cape to simulate a bullfight and then dance for a little bit. It is all hilarious until the restaurant staff takes the hat from the birthday girl and puts it on your head next... after the hat has been passed around a few times, things get even crazier. One of the cooks comes out dressed in a bull costume (hairy red tongue and all) and performs a certain "dance" for the birthday girl. I won't ever forget that night... :-)

Let's see, what else can compare to that? This past weekend, some teachers and students went to a Rock bar called the Red Mosquito. One thing that's different between Mexico and the USA is that it is not considered unprofessional to hang out with your students outside of class. I am still getting used to this, but we all had a good time at the bar. The music was performed by a band who played cover songs from the USA and Mexico.

The weather has been warming up a little here, finally. I've tried a couple new foods:

• chiles rellenos (chile peppers stuffed with cheese and fried - mouthwatering)

• caneja (toffee) flavored ice-cream (There is an entire street nearby that is one ice-cream shop after another. It is very cool - all the ice-cream is homemade and sits in the barrels in which they make it.)

• Corona beer served with limes (everyone knows that Corona is from Mexico, and here they always serve it with limes - I love it - it adds such a nice flavor!)

It's been over two weeks and still no stomach problems! My biggest danger so far has been a busdriver who texts on his cell phone while driving.