Well, it's been almost a month since I last wrote and a whole lotta life has happened in the meantime.
I have a lot to catch you all up on, and I'm going to start with explaining what exactly brought me to Toluca, Mexico.
I'm here on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Fulbright grants are given out by the United States federal government to encourage education and diplomacy around the world; the particular grant I got is usually given to young adults recently finished with their undergraduate or graduate work and allows them to serve both as teaching assistants and informal ambassadors in another country.
I've known that I wanted to apply for a Fulbright ETA for a few years now, but I was originally intending to apply for the program in the West Bank. Due to escalating violence in Israel/Palestine, that program was canceled and I found myself searching for a new option. Before long, I landed on Mexico. It made sense linguistically (I've spoken Spanish to some degree my whole life), intellectually (given my interest in migration and the large amount of movement through the country), and culturally (much of my own identity as a San Diego native is informed by the international border.) So, in the summer of 2012, I started my application, and after a campus interview, submitted it in October. The waiting game began and, finally, a little after Easter, I found out that I'd be going to Mexico.
Now, I realize that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, despite the homesickness and culture shock and everything else that goes along with moving to another country. I want to work in adult education and being here allows me the unique opportunity to work in a college without an advanced degree, giving me the chance to really discern where I want to work in the future. And as far as I feel from home, there are plenty of familiar things, especially food-wise, and I love that I'm deepening a cultural relationship that will always be important in my life. I know there will be some loneliness ahead of me, but I am immensely grateful for the divine providence that guided me here.
I graduated in May and then spent most of the summer in Boston working at an ELL summer school program in Jamaica Plain and eating quite a lot of good food. I left Boston in mid-August, headed home to California for a few days, and then made my way to Mexico City for orientation on August 19 (more on that in my next post.) I spent about week there, and then I drove an hour to my new home: Toluca, the capital city of the Estado de Mexico. I've been here for about three weeks now and I'm just starting to settle in, so I don't have anything super exciting to report, but here are the basics.
I'm living in an apartment with another American assistant and it looks something like this:
And I'm working at the Escuela Normal No. 1 de Toluca, a teachers college. Since we're technically only part-time, I work about three full days a week, teaching one class, assisting in another, and running a few conversation workshops (more on that later, too.)
That means I have my weekends free to explore Toluca and the country in general and I can't wait to really get started. I did make it to Puebla last weekend, and this weekend, I'll be celebrating Independence Day (September 16) back in Mexico City with Eugenia's (the woman I lived with in Tijuana) family. But, as long as time and money allows, there will be plenty more trips in the future (and photos, too.)
That's all for now, but more is coming soon, I promise. I'm too culturally isolated to not stay in touch, ya know?
(And visitors will be gladly welcomed.)
I have a lot to catch you all up on, and I'm going to start with explaining what exactly brought me to Toluca, Mexico.
I'm here on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Fulbright grants are given out by the United States federal government to encourage education and diplomacy around the world; the particular grant I got is usually given to young adults recently finished with their undergraduate or graduate work and allows them to serve both as teaching assistants and informal ambassadors in another country.
I've known that I wanted to apply for a Fulbright ETA for a few years now, but I was originally intending to apply for the program in the West Bank. Due to escalating violence in Israel/Palestine, that program was canceled and I found myself searching for a new option. Before long, I landed on Mexico. It made sense linguistically (I've spoken Spanish to some degree my whole life), intellectually (given my interest in migration and the large amount of movement through the country), and culturally (much of my own identity as a San Diego native is informed by the international border.) So, in the summer of 2012, I started my application, and after a campus interview, submitted it in October. The waiting game began and, finally, a little after Easter, I found out that I'd be going to Mexico.
Now, I realize that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, despite the homesickness and culture shock and everything else that goes along with moving to another country. I want to work in adult education and being here allows me the unique opportunity to work in a college without an advanced degree, giving me the chance to really discern where I want to work in the future. And as far as I feel from home, there are plenty of familiar things, especially food-wise, and I love that I'm deepening a cultural relationship that will always be important in my life. I know there will be some loneliness ahead of me, but I am immensely grateful for the divine providence that guided me here.
I graduated in May and then spent most of the summer in Boston working at an ELL summer school program in Jamaica Plain and eating quite a lot of good food. I left Boston in mid-August, headed home to California for a few days, and then made my way to Mexico City for orientation on August 19 (more on that in my next post.) I spent about week there, and then I drove an hour to my new home: Toluca, the capital city of the Estado de Mexico. I've been here for about three weeks now and I'm just starting to settle in, so I don't have anything super exciting to report, but here are the basics.
I'm living in an apartment with another American assistant and it looks something like this:
And I'm working at the Escuela Normal No. 1 de Toluca, a teachers college. Since we're technically only part-time, I work about three full days a week, teaching one class, assisting in another, and running a few conversation workshops (more on that later, too.)
That means I have my weekends free to explore Toluca and the country in general and I can't wait to really get started. I did make it to Puebla last weekend, and this weekend, I'll be celebrating Independence Day (September 16) back in Mexico City with Eugenia's (the woman I lived with in Tijuana) family. But, as long as time and money allows, there will be plenty more trips in the future (and photos, too.)
That's all for now, but more is coming soon, I promise. I'm too culturally isolated to not stay in touch, ya know?
(And visitors will be gladly welcomed.)
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