I hope one day soon I will have the opportunity to be taught how to administer and score a speaking text for English language learners. This time, however, I was flying by the seat of my pants.
Evening
When the sun goes down and the lights go up even the least lovely town starts to look better.
Changing Directions
All summer, while I was mostly without internet, I was thinking that I wanted to take the blog in a little bit different direction when I got back to Mexico. Then when I got back, I was immersed for the first month in getting settled into school and classes, but the question never left my…
Changing Views
I told myself I had plenty of time to write a post summarizing my year, and here I am on the morning of my flight out of Torreón hurrying to pull some thoughts together. Here we go. In work: During this, my first year teaching a full grade of students two different subjects, planning and…
El Curandero Parte 1
The witch doctor mixed medicine for me today. Ok, so she's not really a witch doctor. She's only a chiropractor. She was recommended to me by my yoga instructor, and what with the foot injury and the ear pain, I was really happy to follow up. The place was a long way from my neighborhood--clear…
Now and Then, Here and There
When I was really young, only a toddler, my dad had this dream of becoming a dairy farmer. So he leased 80 acres of Louisiana piney woods, parked an Airstream trailer on it, and bought some heifer calves. Since baby calves take three or four years to grow into milk cows, he needed a job…
Paseo Colon
Every Sunday morning Clazada Cristobal Colón, one of the main avenues of the town center (el centro), is closed to motor traffic for about eight blocks and opened to pedestrians, skaters, and babies in strollers. Starting at 9 a.m., there are art exhibits, music events, car shows, and an antiques market. There are kids' basketball…
La Plaza Mayor
"La Plaza Mayor" just means the main square of the town. The one in Madrid is one hectare (10,000 square meters) big. The tourism website for Torreón describes this main plaza as 12,000 square meters. I didn't measure it, but I guess it is about like a square city block. It was finished in 1914.…
Evening Storm
In Louisiana, it rains a lot. In El Norte, not much. In fact, from November to February, there was one evening shower at my house. But one evening, I was caught in a storm. As I was getting ready to close the kitchen for the night, I realized that I didn't have enough coffee for…
Sunrise
The morning after the karaoke party, having been awake since three o'clock, I was ready for breakfast by seven. And I was out of eggs. So I got dressed and went to 7-Eleven. When I stepped out into the street, I could feel the sea. It was like being next to a beach. Of course…
