Update

     The last month has been absolutely crazy here. I can't believe it is already almost December! My classroom has started the shift from Thanksgiving to Christmas. As the turkeys and pilgrims come down, the snowflakes and Christmas trees go up. Thanksgiving was great here. All of the American teachers worked together to host a big Thanksgiving dinner for our closest Mexican friends. We all cooked traditional foods in insane quantities, and they all brought extra dishes and drinks to share. It was a great way to spend the evening, even though we had to get up early for work the next day. All of my friends at home were so surprised that I had to go to work on Thanksgiving - I think they forgot that it is an american holiday... and Mexico is not the United States.
     It is crazy that I have been down here for over three months. The time has gone by very fast. I am coming home in less than a month for Christmas! Thankfully, I will get a taste of the holidays here before I leave. I have been invited to a few posadas and we will be hosting a gringa posada at our house. Looking back on the last three months, I am very satisfied with my experience here. I have some good friends, my Spanish has improved, and I love my class. It is amazing how fast 5 year olds can learn a language. I am so jealous of them! Most of what they have learned is just from listening to me speak. I refuse to speak to them in Spanish. They think I don't know how to speak Spanish at all. One of my little boys told his mom that he wanted to come with her to parent-teacher conferences. He said, "But Mom, you won't understand her. She doesn't speak Spanish. I will go and translate for you!" Every now and then they hear me speaking Spanish with the Mexican teachers. I have convinced them that I'm not really speaking Spanish - it is a special teacher language. They are just so adorable, and they have learned so much! Even my kids who are new to the school and had never spoken English before already understand everything I say and can respond in very good spanglish. Some of my kids can have entire conversations in English with no problems. I am very happy working with them every day.
     The violence here doesn't make me nervous anymore. I (sadly) have become used to the militares and federales standing guard with their guns. I have gotten used to hearing gunshots outside. It is hard to say if things are getting better or worse, but there are still a lot of issues in the city. On Saturday, the new president will be taking office. A lot of people think he is a complete idiot. They were very unhappy when he got elected. No one is really sure how is presidency will change things, but hopefully it is for the better.
     There are a lot of fun things going on in December, so I will try and post some pictures and keep things updated!

Día de los Muertos

     I had been looking forward to spending Día de los muertos in México since the day I took the job here. When I heard that there are no celebrations in Torreón for Día de los muertos, I was extremely disappointed. However, I ended up having a great time over the weekend and seeing a lot of what Day of the Dead is all about.

     The school acknowledged the day on Thursday, the 1st of November. The 2nd of November was a day off for teachers. On Thursday, every teacher in secundaria had their students make an altar in the gymnasium, and prizes were given out for the best altars. They were very elaborate with flowers, papel picado, candles, pictures, sand, food, and other little trinkets to remember the person to whom the altar was dedicated. In kinder, we also made an altar. Each class was in charge of contributing something different. My kids made papel picado and brought pan de muerto. The kids from maternal sang a song about the day, and the teacher talked about the celebration with the kids. Our altar was for Walt Disney. After the presentation, all of the kids ate pan de muerto and orange juice.

     Other than the altars at the schools, there was very little mention of día de los muertos around the town. A few places built altars, but there were no parties, parades, or festivals of any sort and no one went to the cemeteries because it is way too dangerous. On the other hand, Halloween was a huge event. Kids were screaming at the door all night long, "Queremos Halloween! Queremos Halloween!" There was a Halloween party at the mall and several of the kids at school had parties at their homes as well. It was much more celebrated than Day of the Dead.

     On Friday (the actual celebration of Día de los muertos) I went to Zacatecas with two of my friends. Zacatecas is a much older city and it is located father south of Torreón. As soon as we got off the bus, it was obvious what day it was. There were people walking around the streets with their faces painted like skeletons, papel picado covered the streets, and their were altars everywhere around town. After we checked into our hotel, which was located right downtown, we went shopping. We found lots of beautiful calaveras and Catrina figurines. While we were walking, kids were going into shops chanting something about día de los muertos asking for candy - similar to Halloween. That night, there was a huge parade. The floats were beautiful, each dedicated to something different. It was fascinating! After the parade, their was street entertainment and contests for calaveras, altars, and costumes. Late into the night there were people in the streets partying and celebrating. The newspaper in the morning showed pictures of music and celebrations in the cemetery that were going on all day long. There was also a special bullfight for the day.

One of the floats in the parade - death!

Another one of the floats - she was followed by a group of girls in black singing about her death

This was one of the simpler floats with beautiful papel picado

They were dressed up for the celebration and let us take a picture with them - so cool!

     The rest of our trip in Zacatecas was a lot of fun. We were all out tourists and went sight seeing, shopping for souvenirs and Christmas gifts, visited a mine, and took a ride up the teleférico to see the city from a high hillside. At night, we went to a discoteca deep in the mine, which was a great experience. Overall, it was the most fun weekend I have had since I've been here. Even though I spent my entire paycheck, it was worth every peso.