Class in the morning. My shower is unclogged now, but the stagnant water left a musty smell which I haven’t yet been able to air out. Classes went well, though I lost connection with my advanced class for fifteen minutes thanks to a thunderstorm. After classes I spoke with a friend on the phone for a while and worked on lesson plans. I enrolled in a free, semester-long program for grad students on data collection and analysis for humanities researchers. I’m not quite sure what my goal is with this, but I’m confident it will come in handy. There’s a huge gap in technological know-how at every non-STEM workplace. Having background in text-based analytics would be a complete game changer at any sort of NGO, law firm, or social sciences department. I would run shit.

Writing these has gotten less exciting because my days are pretty routine, but I want to keep this as a daily blog because I enjoy writing and like the practice, so I think I may have to change things up a bit. My friend suggested book reviews; maybe I’ll give that a try. In any case, expect more topical content.

Long day. Lots of coffee, lots of lesson plans. Wrote a pretty long email. The new Kanye album is way too long. It’s been a long while since I’ve had a haircut. Called my parents, long-distance. Now I long for sleep.

An empty mind can be of two kinds; today, mine is of the variety which lacks focus. Creeping melancholia, born of self-cultivated solipsism, grows like weeds through bookworm scaffolding. Attention, stretched, does not snap but dissipates into aether. Everywhere might as well be Nowhere. 

Wherefore this feeling? The damned phone?? Perhaps. A poison which could contain its own cure, if it weren’t Saturday night – Wisconsin friends no doubt busy, debauched.

***Sudden cessation of cricket-sound brings the tinnitus back***

In the morning, Tayde illuminates ghost-tales, but remains herself a kind-hearted mystery. Increased caffeine intake accelerates lesson plan progression, later prompting a parallel plummet.

Sofia stays in San Cristobal. Reluctantly, I delay my visit once again. We have little in common, but it’s nice to feel wanted, if only for the utility of my mother-tongue (an accident of birth, yes, but what isn’t?). Alas, no time yet for flings. Lessons don’t plan themselves.

My mustache endeavor has failed, prompting bald-faced retreat (ha!). In related news, a haircut is needed.

As usual, writing soothes. I am fine. I will be fine. 

Friday Spanish lessons are extra-curricular. Today we made eggs at in Sherrill’s apartment. I learned which brand of ready-made refried beans not to buy next time. Tayde played music, from what I have come to imagine is the one playlist that all the world’s Spanish teachers have shared amongst themselves, including, by mandate, the Carlos Vives and Shakira’s 2016 hit La Bicicleta, which, to be fair, slaps.

Afterward, a four-hour nap made up for lost time.

Classes went well, but by the time I got back I could not find within me the motivation to work on lesson plans. That’ll be a tomorrow problem.

The cockroach has yet to return. Hopefully that means the roach killer is working. I may have sprayed poison gas into the very air I myself am breathing, but at least I took one large bug down with me.

I didn’t sleep a whole lot last night, nor the previous night. After finishing my book Wednesday night (and covering about 120 pages in total over the course of that day, plus feeling good about classes) I felt energized, and despite my best efforts, my mind was racing until about 4am. This didn’t mess me up too badly though, because I have succeeded in finding a TRUE instant coffee, one you don’t have to boil. Now I can get up 25 minutes before class starts and still get a cup of coffee in. Just add to the cup and stir. Lukewarm coffee in seconds. A miracle of modern science.

Thursday Spanish class was good, and the Advanced and Conversation level English classes went well, but I’ve been having some trouble holding the attention of my Beginner level class. 8-year-olds don’t have an attention span that is very conducive to online learning, and we can only do very simple activities, else the instructions get lost. After class I consulted with my parents for a while, thanks to my dad I think I have some ideas for how to make next week run smoother.

For dinner I got some fried chicken at a local chain; they told me it would take 15 minutes, so I got some churros while I waited. Once again a great decision, although they weren’t as fresh as last time.

Then, the cockroach. I had planned on getting things done last night, but I didn’t. The cockroach interrupted me mid-post and I didn’t know what to do (it was like two inches long and flew, so smashing it with something would have been both difficult and messy) so I turned off the lights, opened the balcony door, and tried to go to sleep. I went to bed with a mask on so it wouldn’t crawl in my mouth while I was unconscious. Today I bought roach killer and sprayed the room down. Hopefully this will be the end of them, but I kind of doubt it. Besides, if there weren’t giant fucking bugs everywhere, what would I even write about?

Anyway, the gist of what I was writing when the roach came was the the Zapatistas have been a uniquely successful leftist social movement in the era of neoliberalism/globalization, and anyone with an interest in local democracy and/or sustainability would do themselves well to learn a bit more about them. Most of their present day activity takes place about an hour east of where I am, and while they normally hold a fair amount of educational seminars for foreigners, the pandemic has put those on a temporary hold. Nevertheless, I’m hoping for a chance to talk with some people who were involved in the movement if I ever make it to San Cristobal.

Last night, after posting, I hit a second wave of energy and finished another book (Basta! by George Collier) about the Zapatista movement. This is probably worth writing about more because it’s a large part of the reason I’m here. In 1994, in Chiapas, just east of where I am now, a couple thousand of indigenous peasants decided they were tired of being treated like second-class citizens, having their land taken and their cultures degraded, and that the Mexican government was not upholding the promises made in it’s constitution, so they got some ski masks and rifles, took over half the state, and decided they would do things themselves. Thanks to a first-of-its-kind internet outreach program, these men and women (who called themselves the Zapatistas, after Emilio Zapata, a hero of the Mexican Revolution) were able to build enough support in Mexico and internationally that the Mexican government was unable to respond with military force, instead allowing the Zapatistas to more or less govern themselves. The movement emphasizes localized decision making and sustainability and has worked to redistribute farmland, open free schools and clinics, increase opportunities for women, and preserve indigenous ways of living and knowing. In the twenty-five years since the uprising, the Zapatistas ***BREAK BECAUSE THE BIGGEST FUCKING COCKROACH I’VE EVER SEEN JUST FUCKING FLEW PAST ME, I MANAGED TO CORNER IT INTO THE BATHROOM AND SHUT THE DOOR AND HOPEFULLY IT WILL LEAVE THROUGH THE WINDOW, I’M GOING TO BUY POISON TOMORROW FUCK IT’S BACK WHY CAN’T IT JUST LEAVE I DONT WANT TO SMASH IT BECAUSE THEN I’LL HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP I COULD OPEN THE BALCONY DOOR FOR IT TO FLY OUT BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO TURN OUT THE LIGHTS OR MORE BUGS WILL COME IN…

-THATS THE BEST I CAN THINK OF, GOING TO DO IT I’LL FINISH THE POST TOMORROW GOODYE I LOVE YOU ALL

Now is the time for repentance; I have come to see an error in my ways. For years now (probably 8), I have insisted on writing dates dd/mm/yyyy instead of mm/dd/yyyy. This is how most places outside of the US write dates and it seemed more logical to me, as the units of time progress nicely from largest to smallest. However, today, as I was shifting through my daily plans, I realized that if you have a bunch dates filed in alpha-numeric order, the standard American format makes more sense; when you write dates dd/mm/yyyy, January 1st is followed by February 1st, then March 1st, and so on, which is generally not a useful order to place things in. If you put the month before the date, January 1st is now followed by January 2nd (hooray!). Following this logic, best practice would actually be to write everything yyyy/mm/dd (which is the way it’s done on the paperwork I’ve filled out for the Chinese government), but I don’t know if the West is ready for that yet.

After listening to a podcast on the New Books Network this afternoon, I pirated a book called Sand Talk, about Australian Aboriginal ways of knowing. It lays out an alternative cosmology which sees time as both cyclical and inextricable from the land, yet the book remains remarkably reader friendly, relying in equal parts on legends, personal anecdotes, and historical/scientific knowledge. I would highly encourage it to anyone interested in sustainability and/or philosophy. I’m about 90 pages in since 3pm.

As was requested of me last night, I made a placement test for a new student by noon today (the administrator who would normally do it has COVID), however the student never showed up to the Zoom meeting…

Day 3 of classes ran more smoothly than day two, but I’ve got to find a better way to keep the beginner learners occupied. They are my biggest class and thus spread my attention the thinnest. And to be fair, Hannia has the right instincts; pet turtles are, in fact, more interesting than verbs. The next move is on me.

The shower has been clogged for three days. My bedsheet tore two days ago. Today I flipped the light switch and it fell out of the wall. I’m not a very good house guest.

The first day of divided Spanish lessons went well. We reviewed some more difficult verb patterns and I was able to talk with the Tayde in more detail about my motivations for coming and about the history of Milwaukee. It felt like a big step up from previous classes and I think I will start progressing more rapidly now.

Beginner class was difficult. The buttons on Zoom don’t have the same labels when your default language is Spanish, so I was unable to explain to the kids how to draw or write on the online whiteboard. A lot of blank stares. They’re really funny when they share their thoughts in Spanish, but right now they struggle to say much in English. We spent the day drawing foods (in part because it’s fun, and in part because I think its best to introduce new vocabulary without directly translating every word. Better to just use pictures with English labels).

Advanced and Conversation classes went well. These are significantly easier to teach because the students are a bit older and know enough English to understand instructions and share opinions. We need to give assessments this Friday, so I am having students prepare to give a short presentation of one of their hobbies or interests. No idea yet how I will assess the beginner class.

After classes I finally found a pizza shop. And ate too much pizza. Now I feel sluggish, and I’m sitting in the dark because I broke the light switch. Probably headed to bed soon. I was contacted at 9:30pm-ish and instructed to make some sort of placement test for the students by noon tomorrow, but the instructions are so unclear that I’m just going to wait until my lessons tomorrow to ask about it.

I don’t like to read / But reading is important for the live / Sometimes we need to read

I ran out of fruits last night and I had planned on purchasing more today, but when I arrived at the school, I found that one of this weekend’s storms had knocked a bunch of grapefruits out of the tree, leaving them on the ground, just for me (I don’t think anyone else at the school eats them). This seemed like an indication that I should worry less. Things don’t have to be hard. Plus, Sherrill agreed that it makes sense to split our daily lesson in half, so now I get to sleep in another hour every day.

The first day of classes went well. My Beginner students are a bit hard to hear via Zoom, that class may end up being difficult. It seems like I will probably have to get used to giving all instructions in English and Spanish if I want them to be understood. The Advanced and Conversational classes were both more advanced than I anticipated, so I had to adjust some of the reading material for this week, but this also means I don’t need as many activities to fill the hour because we are able to have more of a back-and-forth than I anticipated. In all, it’s kind of a weird spread; across the three levels, my youngest student is 7, and my oldest is 26. At least it won’t get boring. I’m feeling much better about the year than I was 24 hours ago.

After class, I went to a restaurant whose entire menu was pork tacos. Thirteen different pork cuts to choose from. Incredibly haram. To balance the many porks, I finally cracked and bought some churros at the plaza. It was a heavenly experience, the best decision I’ve made in months. By the time I was done I could barely move. The two courses combined probably took a couple weeks off of my lifespan, but it was worth every lost minute.