School supplies, tooth update and a day at the Guadalajara Zoo

Hola!   

Last day of summer camp 2011

Well, another few weeks has flown by and here I am trying to retrace our footsteps here in Mexico.  So, summer camp is over and we are now in full gear for school to stat a week from today.  Actually went and dropped off all of the kids school supplies and books today.   

Now I am not typically one to vent on my Blog, but I thought a nice change of pace was in order.  The school requests of all the parents to go out and get the entire years supply of school stuff.  Everything from erasers, pencils, paper, ruler, you name it we had to buy it.  Now to top things off, we had to write each boys name on every piece of school gear, yes on the pencils too.  Now the way the purchasing of supplies goes for our school, is you take “The” list to the local papalaria (paper good and school supply store and ours even has an internet café).  Now, the list is given to the person in charge of the store and then you are asked to come back the next day.  Well, we did this and to my surprise it was hugely successful.  Everything down to the stick on eyeballs for art was in the bags.  We took the stuff home and waited for today.  The textbooks were also bought about 4 weeks ago at the school and had to cove every single book in a plastic stick on film to protect them from the hard use by each kid.  Okay, now we are at today, the day that all needs to be turned in.  We show up to the school at our designated time and I proceed to Zach’s classroom and Tracy to Andrew’s.  Once in the rooms, we are asked to start unloading the supplies while the teacher sits or stands and checks off each and every item and book.  All the while making sure that the name is on everything and books are covered with the plastic.  So, my first thought is what an enormous waste of a teacher’s time and then I start to think what a waste of the parent’s time.  How hard would this be for the school to just bulk order all the supplies in one fell swoop and be done with this crap.  Being the person I tend to be, I ask the teacher why such a waste of human time and resource.  How come the school doesn’t just take care of it?  Now one thing I forgot to mention is that they are VERY particular about everything, from the type of pencils, crayons, and these freaking little colored workbooks, which I will get to in a minute.   I mean detail has to be matched up on EVERYTHING.  The teacher is fantastic and she is kind enough to entertain my obviously annoying question and proceeds to tell me that the school did in fact do the shopping in the past, but some of the parents complained and felt that the school was profiting from the supplies.  The parents, and I am sure it was probably fewer then a dozen, wanted to buy there own supplies because they could save money.  Holy crap people, between the time it took to go to the store, write on everything, cover them and still be told that we had still screwed up and gotten a few of the wrong items, I would pay an extra $100 US dollars for the lack of this freaking headache.   For the love of god, we are talking private school here!  You, the school are in charge and it is your prerogative to tell the parents; here is your child’s curriculum, our fees, uniforms cost, rules and regulations and our freaking supply list that we will buy in bulk and you the parent will pay for.  That way, we are certain to get everything that we want, need and require for your child’s school year.   Now, I was involved pretty deep with the Boulder Valley School Board while in Boulder and I have seen the good that parents can do for a school and the district, but come on schools, you have got to draw the line somewhere with these parents.  I am a good Chiropractor, but I know I suck as a schoolteacher and especially as an administrator, so next year, just buy the stuff and make us pay for it.  Save yourself the money and time and make the parents suck it up and pay for what it is you want exactly!  Then there is the plastic coating from hell.  Every book and I mean every book is wrapped in this plastic wrap that absolutely makes these things 100% no recyclable.  Now I know many of you are thinking; recycling in Mexico?  Yes, they do recycle here.  Nowhere near the level of Boulder, but they attempt to do some.  I have even heard the school staff mentions sustainable and recycling.  This just shoots that whole thing to shit.  I can’t be sure how many kids are in the school, but lets say 200.  Now take that and multiply it by say, 20 books and you get 4,000 books with enough plastic to wrap a Boeing 777 Superliner.  That landfill will take millennia to break down all that plastic.  Needless to say, this is a sore spot in my day.  Oh, I almost forgot about the freaking little colored workbooks.  So, I finish in Zach’s class and head over to find Tracy at Andrews school next door.  She is finishing up, when the teacher tells us both that we bought 8 of the wrong notebooks (Oh, one more detail.  We took the list to the store that was recommended by the school, because that particular store had the master list of all supplies that each child at the school would need.  Do you recall the part above about leaving the list at the store and them filling it out?  I do!)  Well, the teacher then tells us that the ones we have will work, but we will need take them home and draw a red line in ink towards the top of each page (100 front and back=200, multiplied by 8 books).  Once again, me being me, I tell the teacher that we just can’t do that.  I have finally cracked.  I then said that if it is that important, then Andrew will be able to help out during class and do the lines himself as needed.    So, that is my little rant and I am so thankful to any of you that just wasted the time necessary to read this.  Now on with the show…

Ajijic

Spanish Class

Our Master Suite with walk in closet :-)

Living room

Guadalajara Zoo

Safari Ride

Andrew feeding our new friend

 School is right around the corner, my folks actually arrive this a week from right about now and I am so excited to have them coming to hang out and visit.  I am really looking forward to showing our new life off a bit.  The last of my “tooth” episode came to an end last week when I finally had my permanent crown put on.  All in all it cost me a bit less then $600 dollar US.  My good friend and dentist back in Colorado (Frank Harmon, DDS) had offered to do the work for me if I could get up there, but I just wasn’t going to be able to get up there soon enough.  Thank you so much Dr. Frank, you are still the best dentist I have ever been to as an adult (my uncle was my dentist when I was a kid).  We went to the zoo in Guadalajara last week and it was super cool and absolutely huge.  Everything from a traditional zoo with hundreds of exotic animals, aquarium, safari adventure, circus (better then the one Blogged about in the beginning of our adventure.  Very much like a Cirque du Sole) and a train that went around the entire park.  My favorite part of the park is that was built on the northern part of the city.  You can actually walk to the edge of the zoo and see the city in the distance to the west, but out in front of you is a sheer drop off and jungle below into a valley and then up the mountains on the other side where nothing has been built there.  It was just breathtaking that the 2^nd largest city in all of Mexico, just abruptly ends and nature takes over again.   Well another trip into Guadalajara and the zoo along with a stop at Costco on the way home made for a great day.   

The house just gets better and better, our neighbors are some of the nicest people that Tracy and I have ever met.  Most everyone here is over the top kind and friendly.  My philosophy is that we are in an incredibly small town with a large population of ex pats and we all just kind of hang together and help however we can and when we can.  You really feel connected to the folks you meet here, because you have something in common, a sense of adventure and a wanting for some kind of significant change in the way things were in your life before moving here.  Whether it be language, culture, art, weather (my favorite), food or something different from what you had, this place has something for everyone and it is truly magical.  Well, thanks again for humoring me by reading my Blog.  I hope you enjoy the photos and videos.  More to come soon…

 VIDEO: A day at the Guad Zoo