neon happiness

hola méxico. mucho gusto.

i now live in mexico city,

the fifth largest city in the world,

with a population of 21 million.

(kind of makes nyc seem like small potatoes.)

i live in a cute little neighborhood called condesa.

and condesa is a nice residential neighborhood

with lots of parks and great restaurants.

and it is gorgeous.

parque méxico.

there are tons of beautiful houses.

in crazy awesome colors. 

with spectacular iron work.

and fabulous numbers.

(avenida amsterdam used to be a horse racing track,

now it is my running loop.)

my oxxo.

(aka. my mexican 711)

patriotismo: 

my metro bus stop.

delegación cuauhtemoc.

rcg tried to explain to me the difference between 

a colonia (hipodromo-condesa)

and a delegación (cuauhtemoc),

but i'm not sure i got it. 

the delegación is the smaller governmental part of the gigantic mess that is mexico city's government.

and each delegación is broken up into colonias.

(i'm still unclear on what a colonia's function is.)

westhill institute

the main reason for the big (insane) move: i got a job.

i am teaching at an american school in mexico city --

7th grade world geography and 8th grade early world history. 

westhill institute is a huge complex 

with many different schools on its santa fe campus. 

there is an elementary school,

a secondary school, 

(where i work)

and a medical school.

look at how imposing that building is. 

scary pants. 

 

(and i thought bushwick campus was terrifying.)

this is the secondary school.

it houses grades 6 through 12.

and has less than 300 students.

and all of those kids are rich.

not kind of rich,

but rich rich.

example:

every year they auction off the seniors to raise money for prom.

i got to watch this year's auction

and one girl went for 6000 pesos. 

that is approximately $440.

um, what?

that is more than public school teachers in mexico make in a month.

insane. 

plus, 

every single thing the kids wear in school has westhill somewhere on it --

whether it is a WI on the pocket of their khakis,

or westhill institute on their lab coats.

(yeah, they have their own, personal, monogrammed lab coats.)

but the classrooms are nice

and while my schedule is kind of crazy,

(i teach each class 4 times a week at different times each day. wtf?)

it isn't that bad.

 

maybe this won't be a huge disaster?

omg, i'm moving.

so i may have jumped off the deep end:

i am moving. 

not around the block, 

or to a different part of the city, 

or even to a different state.

i'm freaking moving to mexico. 

what??

insane. 

(obviously.)

moving has it's ups and downs--

the upside: purging.

the downside: stressssssssssss.

jrw came to visit and help me purge and pack,

and holy moly did i purge. 

(look at how barren that room is.)

and i packed. 

but i think i did pretty good. 

i mean, all of my stuff fits into four bags. 

four bags that were stuffed beyond belief, 

but four bags nonetheless.

plus the kittenz,

who, obviously, had to come with me. 

look how flippin' cute they are.

and they were on their best behavior too. 

(i want put them in my belly real bad.)

so yeah, 

i'm moving. 

insane.

(i'm definitely not as bad as this lady.

yeah, seven huge pieces of luggage for one lady and her son.

insane.)

last week

so this week is kind of a big deal.

it was

my last week at work. 

my last week in new york. 

my last week in the united states. 

(for a while anyways.)

um, 

crazy. 

at least i ate a lot of freaking cake.

thanks friends.

y'all are pretty awesome.