Back to School - in Puebla, Mexico / De vuelta a la Escuela

Arriving in Puebla Saturday night, I set out to explore 'el centro' on Sunday afternoon before classes start on Monday. This central area of town is called Zocalo and there is a large square surrounded by shops, restaurants and the cathedral. It's filled with trees, sculptures, a fountain, entertainers, and lots of people on a sunny afternoon.






I had a warm welcome. A couple of police officers were walking by me around the outside of the square, so I asked them if they could recommend one of the restaurants for lunch ('almuerzo'), they not only gave me a recommendation but walked with me to show me which one and we chatted along the way. Then, no sooner than I had sat down at a patio table an adorable little girl at the table next to me came over and said 'Hola'. She was fascinated with talking to a lady from Canada.

I began exploring the rest of the square after a wonderful meal of three enchiladas each with a different one of the traditional mole sauces, Verde, Rojo & Poblano. All were delicious, but I still like Poblano the best, probably because there is chocolate in it!  During my exploration, the officers noticed me and asked if I would fill out a form for their work describing how they had assisted me. I did get a few strange looks as I sat on the bench completing the form with two officers standing over me, though. But taking photos after, likely dispelled any misinterpretations.

I am in a spanish immersion program this week at Livit Immersion Centre, which includes accommodation in a local household. I am staying with Lupita, a wonderful older woman who Lives in the house she grew up in and now rents the vacant rooms. She provides me with breakfast at 8 am, a light supper at 8 pm, and wonderful conversation whenever I am at home and not doing my homework (or my job work). She lives across the street from a lovely park and the neighbourhood has a number of murals including one on her house which is in honour of her years teaching children.




My days begin breakfast with Lupita and one of the 2 young men staying there, then I have a 20 min walk to the school. I have a private class from 9 am to 1 pm when we break for dinner provided by the school. Between 2 and 4, Monday through Wednesday we each go with the guide assigned to us and explore the city while conversing in Spanish. My guide this week was Emilio, a university student.With a few other students, we visited a traditional ceramics factory where they make Talavera, the famous blue & white ceramics that Puebla is famous for.






Tuesday we explored the artisan area and the original cathedral in Puebla. I got a good start on my Christmas shopping and had a new experience. I ate a ‘chapulin’! A fried and salted type of small grasshopper! It was actually good and the texture was crunchy and not at all unpleasant. I was definitely surprised!





I didn’t realize until this week that Puebla was the location of the famous ‘Cinco de Mayo’ battle with France. The hill where the battle took place used to have a church on top, El Templo de Guadalupe. There is now a museum build around and within these ruins in recognition of this important battle. This area of the city now is a huge park with other museums, a convention center and a ‘teleferico’ (aerial tram). We rode this one way to see the views of the city and then caught a bus back to Zocalo.

What a great start to the week!

World Travel 2.0 - or 'Taking Hold of My 2nd Chance'

Hello again,

Well, it's been 2 years since I had to give up my teaching position in Metepec, Mexico and return to Canada. I just couldn't completely recover from the severe bronchitis I developed when I caught the flu. I continued to become tired and short of breath very easily at that altitude (9,000 feet). Fortunately, while I was at home on some powerful med prescribed by a pulmonologist, I received an unsolicited email from a speech-language pathologist in Ontario who had found my resume on indeed and wanted to expand her business to the Vancouver area. (She had also just expanded to Calgary & Edmonton.) The owner of the language school in Mexico was very understanding and supportive of me returning to Canada without fulfilling my contract with her.

Back in BC, I found a basement suite and moved my things from Vancouver Island, where they were being stored, to Surrey (just outside of Vancouver). I began seeing clients for speech and language therapy in their homes. That summer, I was also asked to fill in for each of the SLPs at the hospital that I used to work at in Alberta, for about a month, while they took their vacations. We had hired an assistant and she took over all the children that I had been seeing for the summer while I continued to see my adults who were receiving accent therapy on Skype. There were a few bumps but it generally worked out well.

When one of the SLPs in Alberta went on maternity leave a year ago, I began to cover for her via Skype or Facetime with the assistants in the home with the client and me present digitally for the assessment and later for some supervision sessions. This worked really well and I began working with the assistants we had hired here in BC in the same manner. The practice continues to grow and since I now work completely digitally, I have the the ability to work from anywhere!

I have tested it out during some vacations over the last year. I am fortunate to live between 2 major ports (Seattle & Vancouver) so I have taken a few short cruises (1, 3 & 7 days) building up my rewards level with Princess. These are great little getaways and resonably priced if you wait until a couple of months before the cruise starts. I now have my platinum level which gets me priority embarcation and disembarkation as well as some free wifi on board. (Helpful for reviewing the assistants' clinical notes.) I was in Mazatlan with friends for a couple of weeks earlier this year and was easily able to keep up with work for the 2 weeks away. I have a month long trip at the beginning of next year so we'll see how that goes as a trial for even longer trips in the future. I think that the longer the trip, the easier it will be to fit work in as part of the routine.

I'm really glad, and grateful, to be able to start thinking seriously about how to get back to the goal of longer, slower travel that will allow me to experience more of what the world has to offer!