I think I will change to the following blog. Adventures will continue, but it is high time for a new address, I would say...

www.HanahHanah.blogspot.com

Holiday update

Happy holidays everyone!!

I hope you're all having a delightful time, with lots of good friends and great food!!! I'm enjoying life to the fullest this semester. Trent is such a wonderful break from UofT for me! Small classes, beautiful nature all around, interesting courses, amazing people!!! I've never been happier!!

I've been taking anthropology with an emphasis in linguistics, as well as keeping up with Spanish. I decided to take a first year Spanish course so that I can really learn the basics of grammar so when I go back my students will be proud of me!! (I promised to return to Sahuayo within 5 years, so I've got some time to get really good!!) Linguistics is fascinating! I wish it could be my major but Trent doesn't have a large enough department, so I'm doing anthro which is also really interesting. The first year (intro) course, not so much, but I'm loving the second year course. The professor is a really interesting woman who's travelled to many different places and has lots of life stories she brings to our seminars. My linguistics prof is this really awesome guy who obviously LOVES linguistics! It shows in each and every class. He also wears really cool/funny hats every day, and gives funny examples which adds to the entertainment factor of it all.

I'm working on campus at Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC) as the KWIC-TIP (Trent International Program) Liason. I'm currently leading with a working group which is organizing Global Education Week at the end of January, so things are going to be REALLY busy when I get back to work next week. I also update the community calendar and send out monthly e-mails to our distribution list about different things going around in Trent and in the Peterborough area that have to do with global education and awareness. It's a non-profit organization, and it's the kind of job that I would do anyway, but I end up getting paid for it! I've also been cleaning the midwives office which is a great way to make a few extra bucks each month. School is expensive!!! It's soooooo hard to imagine ever paying off my loans!! The plan is to teach in Asia when I'm done my BA and then go to teachers college, so hopefully someday I will be able to get out of debt. Not for a looooong time though!!

Otherwise, I'm meeting some really amazing people! I'm playing with some of my friends, and we've put together a kind of jazz group. Hopefully we'll start making some tunes and I can get them up on my Myspace (www.myspace.com/hanahmuck)

It's sooooooo wonderful to be back in Warsaw, living on the farm. My parents and I are getting along better than ever, and it's so nice to have good food around all the time! I see my friends wasting away, or eating junky food, and I feel soooooo lucky! I end up doing a lot of shuttling around of Naomi to and from ballet and school, but she's worth it.... I guess... hahaha, just kidding. We still have things to work on with each other. We get into silly arguments all the time, and it is really awful sometimes to realize what we're arguing about, and think about how much it can affect our moods! But we're working on it! I'm sure we'll be the best of friends someday.

This has been a pretty good winter so far, with lots of snow (something like the biggest snowstorm in 10 years hit a couple of weeks ago) so we've been making the most of it, getting out on skis at least a couple times each week. The forest is sooooo beautiful and I feel so spoiled!!! Only a princess should have such a wonderful place all to herself! I really feel like the luckiest person in the world whenever I step into the forest, or head down to the river. It's also so great to be able to bring my friends out here and have so much room for everyone!! I've been teaching friends to ski, and we've been having lots of good feasts (as usual).

As well as meeting so many great folks who I play music with, or cook with for Food Not Bombs each Monday night, I've managed to keep in touch with some of my old buddies from high school and before. It's sooooo good to see some of them coming home for the holidays. Peterborough feels sooooo much different when Trent's in and when it's off. The city has a totally different atmosphere. Everyone says they don't feel like they're at home when they're back in town, but for me it really does feel like home! After getting a bit of travelling in, I realize how much I love this place! I think I'm the only one of my friends who actually sees themselves settling down in this area someday. I plan on having many more adventures before that, but when it comes down to it, I think I would be quite happy with a bit of land somewhere around my parents!

Mom's family is coming tomorrow for our late Christmas celebrations, so it's yet another feast! I can't wait!!! But also, it will be good when school starts so I stop eating cookies all day!!! Anyway, I really hope everyone is having a wonderful time, and that 2008 brings much more peace than last year to everyone!

Cheers! Salud! Hanah.

Musica

I've posted some tunes at www.myspace.com/hanahmuck

Check them out if you like.

Otherwise, life is fantastic!!! School is ridiculous right now, and I should be writing a lab, so I'm gonna run for now. I'll post again one of these days, I promise!!

Hope all's well.
Hanh.

mas picturas

More pictures can be found at http://utoronto.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185116&l=e54a1&id=28113104
Enjoy!
Hanah.

Goodbye Sahuayo

Hello all!
Well, it´s been a long time since the last post, as usual, and I have LOTS of news.. Let´s see if I can remember it all, and get it typed in time to get to my last class of the night. My students didn´t show up this hour, so I have some free time, which is nice.

Ok, backtracking a bit... The rainy season DID start... The weekend we decided to go to the beach! Friday rolled around, and it started POURING buckets from the sky, including some hail, which is almost unheard of around here. The street filled up with rain (and we have HUGE high sidewalks) but that is pretty common I guess. The rain started coming in through the doors and windows, and beacuse our school has an open courtyard in the middle, the rain started filling up the school! The real trouble started when the power went out. We had screaming children, (who were supposed to be writing tests) and if we opened the windows to let light in, it only increased the flooding problem! So we pretty much gave up on the last half of the class, and we all gathered in the biggest classroom which has no windows, closed the door, and tried to tell ghost stories, until everyone´s parents had come to pick them up. Then, all the teachers got brooms and sweegies and started sweeping the water into the middle of the courtyard, where there is a drain. Because of the heavy storm, most of the students didn´t come for the last 3 classes, which was alright with us, because it was a Friday afternoon!! We sat around talking, and I joined the 1 student Lauren had in her conversation class. It was fun!

Ok, so you think that´s bad... Just wait! After class, 2 of Lauren´s students(one´s a heart doctor and the other is a teacher at a school nearby) had promised to take she Jen and I out for dinner, so we all got in his car and we drove to Jiquilpan, which is the next town over, and has much better restaurants, culture, nature, EVERYTHING!We had a nice dinner and shared some good conversation, then went home, where we found... our apartment had been flooded! The water had poured in through the front door, the windows under the doors into our bedrooms, and Lauren had her window open in her bedroom, with her computer nearby. So her computer didn´t work at all for awhile, and now everything seems to be working except the keyboard (which is a bit of a problem, because it´s a laptop, but at least it´s replacable!)

We mopped up the mess, spread out all the papers and books that had been drenched, and I went and hung up a bunch of my clothing that had been soaked. (That will teach me to not leave my clothes on the floor!!) Then, after we´d tried to sweep away some of the water, we got a few winks of sleep, and I think I woke up about an hour later (which is more sleep than anyone else got.) We got up and headed off to Manzanillo with Victor (our friend from the music store.) We decided to leave early in the morning (2am to be exact) so that we could have the full day at the beach. We drove through the night and listened to lots of music, and had lots of good middle of the night talks to try and keep Victor awake. When we got about an hour from Manzanillo he was practically nodding off, so we decided to switch drivers. And since Lauren and Jen both don´t drive stick, the lucky winner was ME!!! It was fun, except for the CONSTANT speed bumps!!! Soooo annoying because you have to gear down to 1st every few minutes, and then back up to 5 and back and forth sooo often. The drive was soooo nice once the sun came up. Tons of forests of palm trees with coconuts and everything. SOOOO cool!!!

The weather was bad when we first arrived, but we yelled at it, and asked it nicely, and did every superstitious ritual we knew of to get rid of the clouds. Once we had found a good hotel which backed onto the beach, and had a short nap, we woke up to a beautiful afternoon! I laid on the beach and swam in the huge waves for most of the afternoon. We drove into town to have dinner, and then came back, played some guitar and hung out on the beach late into the night, chasing waves, and racing along the shore.
The next day, we got some coconut drinks (inside the huge green coconuts) and had a delicious fresh shrimp lunch! Then I laid on the beach for awhile longer while everyone else packed their stuff and got ready to go. We bought some beautiful jewlery and then headed home. It was such a wonderful weekend!!! Everything I had hoped the beach would be!!

The last few weeks have been a blur! We´ve been busy wrapping up classes, giving final exams, marking, marking marking, and finishing up report cards.

For those who don´t know, Naomi was in an accident and was hit by a car, but she´s doing remarkably well from what I´ve heard. She has no broken bones, and no internal damage, so she just has to heal the wounds on her face (she needed 17 stiches!!!) My poor baby sister. I wish sooooo much that I could be there right now to take care of her, but it´s only a couple more days now, and I know she´s being well taken care of anyway.

Ok, well we finished recording a few songs, so the CD should be ready to come home with me. Tomorrow night all my friends are going to have a goodbye party for me at the apartment, which will be nice. tonight I´m going to see a band practice for the Patron San Diago celebration that happens in Sahuayo in July. It´s a huge famous party, and I really wish I had known about it when I booked my ticket, but alas...

See you all soon, I hope!!!
Love, Hanah.

scorpions, recording studios, yoga on the roof

Alright, to catch up...
I went to the massage (and another one since then) and they were nice, but not anything too special. It's kind of like a good backrub. But ahh well. It's something, and it's cheap, so I can't really complain!! The sushi was DELICIOUS and I think we're going to go again this week. The concert was interesting. It was more like a play (in Spanish, obviously, so I didn't understand much) with a bit of operatic music. That part was good!

For the past week or 2 I've been doing yoga on the roof each morning when I first wake up. It's a really nice way to start the day, by greeting the rising sun, over the mountains in the distance. I could really get used to it. This past weekend I went for a coupld of long walks. One to the next town, and beyond, (and I would have kept going, if I didn't have to come back to go to the music store with Jen.) There were lots of cactus, but unfortunately I missed the flowers. They were, however COVERED in these prickly fruits called pitallas, which are delicious!! On Sunday I walked up to the Cristo Rey, which is the huge statue of Jesus (the 3rd largest in the world, if I haven't already mentioned it) at the top of the hill in Sahuayo. It was great to be out walking, and I had a bit of cloud coverage, which was good because it meant it didn't get too hot.

I'm afraid the rainy season may be coming along shortly. Last week we had a couple of days in a row where it was CLOUDY!!!! Now, if you knew Sahuayo like I did, you would know that 2 days in a row without consant sunshine is WEIRD!!! And it rained for a few minutes each day. I said to my roomates "what is this foreign substance falling from the sky??" But I've heard it gets much worse! It won't rain all day, but when it rains, it POURS! The streets (which all have very high sidewalks) fill with water, I'm told. I'm NOT looking forward to this! I much prefer pure sunshine!! But ahh well, hopefully it won't be too bad until after I'm gone. Lauren says she likes the rain, so she can have as much of it as she wants... after I've left!!!

I have an interesting story to tell! My student Florencia couldn't come to class last week, but guess why! I've never in all my months of being a teacher (haha) heard such a good excuse. Her mom called Ana, our administrator/principal, and said, "Florencia can't come to school today. She was stung by a scorpion-like thing. I can't remember the exact name, but it's like a small scorpion, I'm told. She did come the next day, and told me all about it. Apparantly it really hurt, and continued to hurt for the next few days! She had to go to the hospital and get an injection so that she wouldn't DIE!!! Kind of scarey! So I let her off the hook... hehe

Oh yes, and on Saturday, Jen and I went to practice music, and start recording. Victor has promised to send me home with a CD and perhaps a music video if we can get our act together in time! So I recorded a couple of songs, and you'll just have to wait to hear them till I get home! CDs will be onsale beginning June 26th. hahaha...

Alright well I guess it's time to go to the market. I'm all out of veggies and fruit. The countdown had begun, though! I'll be home in about 25 days, I believe!

Be sure to check out my photo site! I posted pictures from Guanajuato, and soon I'll post pictures of cactus' and such, from my weekend walk.
http://hanahbananza.spaces.live.com is the website. Enjoy!

sushi, Mozart, masajes

It's Friday!!! Hooray! The weekend again. This weekend Jen and I plan on walking up to Cristo Rey (the huge hill with the huge Jesus statue on top) and also to the next town over, El Rincon, to see if the cactus' are blooming with beautiful flowers yet! I'm excited to see them. I'll post a picture if they are!

Well, not too much news this week. I was sick in Tuesday, which was Teacher's Day here, so that was too bad. I skipped the afternoon, in favour of sleeping and going to the doctor. I ended up sleeping from 12:30 until 9p.m. (minus an hour or so where I was awake) And then, had a full night's rest. I awoke feeling much better, but I still have a throat infection. I am taking medicine for it. Since then, I've found it really hard to tell if I actually have a fever, or if I'm just hot, cuz it's sooooo hot here, that it's honestly hard to tell which it is, and I don't have a thermometer. But I don't think I have a fever anymore...

I've been eating really delicious food these days. For breakfast, I usually have a bowl of strawberries with cereal and milk on top. Hehe.. The strawberries are soooooo cheap here! half a kilogram for 5 pesos! (like 50 cents!) And I also bought 8 mangos for 10 pesos and nearly had a heart attack! I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm back in Canada, and will only be able to buy 1 mango for the price that I used to be able to buy 8... And limes!! 1 kilo for 10 pesos as well. That's a LOT of limes for a dollar! Yesterday I had tostadas with guacamole, onions shrimp, hot sauce, and this ketchupy sauce they have here for lunch. That was tasty!! For dinner, I used the rest of my shrimp, plus tomato sauce (and of course limes and onions!!!) and made a pasta. The onions here are like candy!!! When I was in Canada, I didn't really eat onions raw, but I'm wondering if it's just because I hadn't tried them. All I know, is if Full Circle Farm onions are even HALF as good as the ones here, mom and dad had better watch out! I now LOVE cebollas!!

Today is going to be a big spending day. I've decided to go for a massage, now that I've figured out where to go. I'll try not to get too excited, but I hope it's good! It's only 100 pesos for an hour though, I think, so that is pretty ridiculously sweet! After class, I'm going to go to a Mozart concert, although I'll arrive late, because my last class goes until 8:30, and it starts at 8. But, this is the first pieces of real culture in Sahuayo since I've arrived, so I HAVE to go!!!! I'm very excited! I'm going to take my Spanish teacher Evelia, because she's been a wonderful help, in learning how to adjust to living in a different culture, so it will be my way of saying thank you.

What else... we have a new cleaning lady, I think. We used to have this girl who was about 15, and I taught her English for awhile, but she stopped coming. And this week, she stopped coming to clean the school and our house. So I don't know if she's been fired, or if she quit, or if she's sick, or what... But there's a woman, who's now at our house. We are soooo spoiled to have someone come every Friday to clean our kitchen and 3 bathrooms! I always feel soooo weird on Fridays.. I never really know where I should go in the house while she's here, cuz I don't want to get in her way. I also hate leaving a messy kitchen for her to deal with, so I usually try to at least rinse the dishes, and pick up some of the mess that's on the counter, before she comes. I'm really not accustomed to having a cleaning lady!! It's still so weird for me. Well, the only good thing about it all is that I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to afford a cleaning lady again, so I won't have to be put through this awkward feeling. It's soooo common here though! Every one of my students has someone who cleans at least once a week, sometimes twice, sometimes every day! And the crazy thing is that the mothers are homemakers, so I don't really see the need... Anyway, just a different custom. That's all.

Ok, well Lauren should be getting home soon, at which point we're going to go for SUSHI!!!! Horray!! I'm very excited! Sushi, massage, Mozart... What more could I possibly ask for on a Friday???

Still missing home, and all my peeps. Only 5 more weeks, though!
Love, Hanah.
P.S. for those who don't know, Full Circle Farm is getting 2 goats at around the time that I get home!!!!