Kids' birthday parties

Today I went to another student's birthday party, and it occurred to me that I have yet to write an entry about birthday parties here. The first one I went to was in September. It was held at a banquet hall type place, and most of the kids were wearing costumes. I asked a parent, "Do kids always wear costumes to birthday parties here?" "No," the parent replied. "Javier just likes costumes." There had to have been 100 or 150 people at this 6-year-old's birthday party. I had spent less than a month in Mexico at that point, so my Spanish was so-so in talking with my students' parents. Before I went to the party, I asked my coordinator at school if she there would be a pinata. She looked at me like I was crazy, and I thought, "Oh, no, I just made a cultural stereotyping boo-boo, maybe they don't really celebrate with pinatas!" But she said, "A pinata? At least two or three!" And there were three, as I recall.
A week or two I went to another birthday party, and before I left I wondered, how many pinatas and tacos will there be? Two, and a few hundred.
Today's birthday party takes the cake for me, because it was held at ROLLER CLUB!! Brought back memories of parties at Skateland... even though this rink was in a mall basement and was half the size... There's a running joke between Glenn, the third grade teacher, and I, that I'm still mad at him because he wouldn't take me to a birthday party he was invited to that was at Roller Club. Anyhow, I went to this party, and none of the parents were skating, and scarily enough, I'm closer in age to parents than the kids, so I have to pretend I'm mature for hours on end! Painful. So I went over to one of my students and asked her if I should come skating, and hey, she said yes, I'd hate to disappoint the kids... right. So I skated for a couple of hours and managed to teach a few of my kids how to skate. I love the moments I can spend outside of class with my students, moments when I'm not telling them, "Quiet hands!" which is Miss Heather shortcut talk for quiet in your seat, hand raised, or you don't exist to me. Well, it's not that harsh, but you get the idea.
Here are some pictures from today's birthday party! I like the one where one of my students is pushing the birthday boy's head toward the cake. And here is Karla and her mom, who I tried to help skate, but she couldn't stop leaning back even though I told her to bend her knees and lean forward a bit in two languages. :) Cute story about Karla: she likes to draw pictures of us, and she labels me "Miss Geder." This has recently progressed to "Miss Heder", and one time "Miss Heather" when her mother wrote it out for her to copy. Cute kid. Cute story about the birthday boy: when he thinks something is really funny, he doesn't laugh as much as he sort of grunts. There's no mistaking it for anyone else in class. :) Also enjoyable is the fact that pizza is served with ketchup to put on it here. GROSS.

What do you want to know?

So, I've been keeping this page since August. That makes almost five months of adventure-recounting. But, I'd like to know, what do you want to know about life in Mexico? I've gotten a few questions, and I'd like to get more in order to write an entry that answers the question. So, leave a comment, email me, or instant message me to let me know what you question you have about life in Mexico! Gracias :)

November words

I'd like to take a moment to note some of my better Spanish mistakes, which usually occur when two words ressemble each other and yet have little or nothing in common when it comes to meaning.
1. I spent weeks telling people I was from the edad (age) of New York instead of the estado (state).
2. palo/pavo (stick instead of turkey)
3. "un partido del cuerpo del hombre" instead of "un parte del cuerpo del hombre" ("It's a game with a man's body" instead of "It's a part of a man's body")
4. During the first week of school when English failed, I told my students to "Dejen" in their seats instead of "Queden". The first means "leave/let" and the second means "stay". You can imagine the confusion.
5. juego de naranja instead of jugo de naranja... the first means "orange game" and the second, "orange juice".
6. I once confused "piedra" and "pierna", or "stone" and "leg". I was told to get off at a rock, and I said, "So I tell the driver to let me off at the leg?" Yes.
More to come, I'm sure.

Instead of daily words I'm switching to monthly words... that way when I remember more than one in a day and none in another, I don't feel like I'm fudging the data :-p
lapicera: yet another word for a pen (add that to pluma, boligrafo, etc.)
barro: pimple
cachando: horny (sorry if this offends you, but hey, it was a word I didn't know)
caladera: drain
se le cierro: he cut me off
Noruega y Suecia: Norway and Sweden
la tarima: stage
asferas (sp?): ornaments (on the Christmas tree)
reganar: to scold, break up with, tell off, quarrel with
exito: hit/success
Estar asi del precipicio: to be at the end of one's rope/thisclose to losing it
tener ganas ~ avoir envie (I lack a concise English translation, but it's kind of like "to want")
meter la pata: to screw up
fogata: bonfire
palo: stick
pavo: turkey
trapeador: mop
trensas/trensitas: braids
escoba: broom
varicella: chicken pox
apollitas: chickenpox (perhaps colloquial, or the name for the individual spots)
mora: raspberry
tocino: bacon
muneca: doll, or wrist
pastor: shepherd, type of pork preparation, or a cane