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Teaching English in Queretaro, Mexico

A typical day


Queretaro , Qro - Mexico


This is where I sleep.

My routine

Monday through Thursday of every week I have the same schedule. This chapter is designed to tell you about the day to day routine I go through.

I wake up at about 6:15 because I have a class at 7AM. This is a photo of my room. It is still dark at 6:15. I usually make a coffee for myself (mmmm- nescafe) and then head out the door. The sun is on its way up as I'm walking to PLI a little before 7. The temperature is usually a bit chilly as well.





Here is a picture of the outside of Professional Language Institute, or PLI, where I work as a teacher. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to walk here from my house in Colonia Carretas. ("Colonia" means neighborhood in Spanish, and "carreta" is the word for an old fashioned covered wagon.)




In this room I have my 7AM Conversation class. All of the students (about 5, depending on the day) are very advanced. 2 of them teach other classes at PLI! This is my favorite class, but its also the most difficult to prepare for, because unlike the other classes, there is no book we follow. I have to come up with 90 minutes worth of interesting things for us to talk about, read, or listen to.

Conversation class ends at 8:30. During this time of day, there is not much going on at PLI, and the computer is usually free. This is usually the time when I do e-mail or update this journal.




Plaza Las Americas

PLI is across the street from the commercial center Plaza Las Americas. This is where I do most of my shopping. Often I stop here after I leave PLI to pick up some groceries or something.




This is a park between home and work. I walk through this park several times per day. My Conversation class ends at 8:30, and my next class begins at 6PM, so I have many free hours during the daytime when the weather is usually perfect. I often go here to go over my materials for class.

Queretaro is a very nice city, but most of it is not this green. They have to water the park regularily to make it look like this.





I am almost home after I cross through the park. Here is a picture me in the cobblestone streets of Colonia Carretas, with the aqueduct in the background. This picture was taken about 2 blocks from my house. (There is a picture of the outside of my house in the "starting out" chapter.)



Dolly

Once I open the outside gate to the house, Dolly, Bertha's dog, usually comes running up to me.

Once I'm home, I don't have much to do until "comida" is ready at around 2:30. Often I make myself something for breakfast. Sometimes I also take a nap or watch TV during this time. Sometimes I go to the park, like I talked about above.





If I'm really bored, or I can't wait to check my e-mail again, I'll walk here to the ciber cafe. One hour costs 15 pesos, or about $1.60 USD. 20 pesos per hour is the usual price around town. There are ciber cafes everywhere in Queretaro, but this is the one I go to most often. (I am here right now as I write this, in fact.) This one actually has coffee availible (nescafe) which not all ciber cafes offer, despite the name.

The biggest meal of the day, "comida" takes place around 2 or 3 PM. Living in a house has been nice as far as that goes, I get to try all sorts of new food. Comida always includes soup to start, lime-ade or tamarind water to drink, a main dish, and rice and tortillas on the side.

I return to PLI, typically around 5 or 5:30 to go over my material before class starts at 6. Both of my evening classes are intermediate to advanced level. Both are 90 minutes long, and they use the same "First Certificate" book. Usually we do reading and listening activities from the book. The book and cassette comes from England, so sometimes they use different vocabulary which I have to explain. The voices in the listening exercises always have some sort of accent from the UK.

I try to break up the routine with other activities sometimes. Most often for this we play games like password, family feud (the "survey says" game), or Scrabble. Sometimes we watch movies too, but most of the movies availible at PLI are action movies, which aren't always the best for learning English. They can help with learning slang- which is actually important.

I just love my students. They are all really cool people. Most of them are adults, but there are some kids too. I would say the average age is, well my age actually- 26. My youngest student is 11, and my oldest is 45 or so. I haven't yet taken any pictures of them, but I definitely will before I leave.



Previous
More pictures, etc.
Next
An interesting weekend
  Joseph M. - Bio and Journals
  Teaching English in Queretaro, Mexico - Intro Average Rating of 128 Viewers
Chapters of Teaching English in Queretaro, Mexico
  Preparations
  Starting out
  More pictures, etc.
  A typical day
  An interesting weekend
  Museum Photos
  Another weekend
  The Awful Truth
  Tequisquiapan
  San Miguel de Allende
  Mazatlan
  Adios Joseph
  The best part
  Epilogue

       

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