Pandas and English

Sunday I met up with a fellow volunteer and his counterpart in downtown Monterrey so that we could go to the Planetario Alfa, a science museum for kids. The real reason we went was that they were showing a short, IMAX panda movie! We all thought it was a documentary, but it turned out to be an actual movie. I didn't realize it at the time, but my mom was telling me that we actually watched the non-IMAX version many years ago. The museum had a lot of hands-on exhibits which were interesting, but the best part had to be the people in costumes walking around. One guy was dressed up as an astronaut, and I kid you not, part of his job was to hang from the ceiling. Yes, there is a real person in that spacesuit! Proof that labor here is cheaper than "stuff".



Since I have not found a place to live yet, I commuted to my new English club after work on Tuesday. For the first class it was just the owner of the local cafe, but she said that she could get a group of people interested. Hopefully there will be more when we show up next Tuesday.

Roller-coaster week

So this week has been full of ups and downs. It started out with a pretty interesting morning of trying to find a tennis court at 7:30 AM on a Sunday. But all the courts we went to (about 30 in all) were full! The people of Monterrey apparently love their tennis! We wound up going to Parque Chipinque to hike, instead. It was a really nice park and had a completely different atmosphere than the city. The trail was surrounded by pine trees, and the morning mist made it a very relaxing, mystical hike. Unfortunately, I didn´t have my camera!

Monday night after work I had my first guitar lesson! I got to learn the basic notes, a simple song, and got lots of homework. I've been trying to practice every day for a little bit, and I am slowly picking up more easy songs (like Mary had a little lamb). Next week, chords!

One of the big disappointments of the week was the complete falling-apart of our housing search. For the first month at our sites, we live with host families again to integrate with the community, and then most volunteers move out afterwards. We wanted to move to this pueblito outside of the city that had a great sense of community. We had found a great apartment complex and had been going through the Peace Corps checklist to make sure that it would be safe to live in. Well, the contract review revealed a lease that was basically illegal according to Méxican law! We even tried negotiating with the landlord´s lawyer. No go. So, I skipped out of work on Friday afternoon and went looking for houses. Again. And I did the same thing on Saturday. Hopefully the alternatives will work out...

On a slightly brighter note, I stopped by the cafe in the pueblito in the early evening on Friday. It's a very relaxing, zen-like cafe that, honestly, we're amazed even exists. So we try to provide a bit of economic stimulus whenever we can. On Friday nights there is someone who teaches Japanese to whoever wants to learn, so I'm hoping that will be something else I can pick up here. The owner asked me if we could start up an English conversation club on a different weeknight--gladly! Just another reason that I want to finally move there...

MARCO and Pixar

Downtown Monterrey has a lot of interesting activities, and last Sunday my host and I headed to MARCO, the Museum of Contemporary Art. They have an exhibit from now til June 28th about Pixar and their animation process. It was a great exhibit! They had some animations from the original Pixar shorts (mid-1980's), which I had never seen before. Also on display were hand sketches, pastel and oil artwork, storyboards, and digital prints from all of their movies. They even had a couple of panels from their new movie, Up! No pictures were allowed inside the exhibit hall, so I could only get limited photos.



Also this week, one of my very nice coworkers took me and another friend guitar shopping! I wanted to learn something artistic while in México, and my top choices were singing and guitar. Luckily, my coworker teaches at a music school, and she is willing to trade guitar lessons for English lessons. I hope to find a singing class soon, so that I can do both. She actually showed me some piano songs last week, and it started bringing back memories. From almost 20 years ago! Some things you just never forget...

Concerts and Fútbol

One of my coworkers in the office teaches guitar and piano two nights a week, so she invited the volunteers to a free concert put on by her music school. It was a chorus of 26 female singing teachers, two violinists, and a pianist, with the theme ¨Songs sung by my grandparents¨. I wound up going with my host / counterpart. The concert was in this theater in the Parque Fundidora, at the end of the riverwalk. The songs were pretty good (though in Spanish), and the theater was so packed that people were sitting in the aisles! My counterpart only recognized 5 of the 20 songs, so just an indication of the era they came from...



Also, Friday after work I stayed late and played fútbol with some of the guys from work. They play almost every Friday, in the grassy area in front of the office on a miniaturized field. There was a wide range of skills, so I fit right in with my non-existent soccer skills. I lost track of the score, but it was good fun.