"Calme Te, Baby, Calme Te" (Pero yo soy nervioso...)

Do you remember the commercial with the skinny, white, trashy skankator (that's Rachel Leigh Cook?!) that cracked an egg with a frying pan and said, "This is your brain on drugs," then proceeded to go all Russell Crowe on the entire apartment, I guess to make the point that if you use drugs you will defintiely lose your damage deposit? Yeah, well, lately Mexico has done that same thing to me, and drugs weren't even involved. Perhaps my last post (which was like an angsty-emo fifteen year old complaining about contemporary society and how we're all sheep even though they all look like they're long lost gay cousins of Hitler) clearly showed that something is amiss in the Mex.

And it is.

I'm nervous.

"Nervous? You? But you are always so calm and cool and collected, and so suave and seductive and sexy and I want your body because you are so amazingly hot!" I know. It's a shock. (the faux quote and short following sentences were sarcasm - if you took them for anything but sarcasm, insert finger into sphincter and pry open for health purposes).

I am. I am nervous. I'm like Mary-Kate Olsen next to a buffet. A transition to any new setting - be it a foreign country, a new state or city, or marrying a fat girl - is difficult.

(Time for a short break in the action for an award I forgot. It's the "If You Tell Me One More Time I'm Experienceing Culture Shock Because I'm Having A Shitty Day, I'm Going To Punch You Square In The Mouth" award. Rather self-explanatory, with this caveat - when I'm rolling around on the floor repeating "Si, Hola, Gracias, Momma" while intermixing a garbled rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" and sucking my thumb like there's a surprise in the middle of it, you may say that I'm experiencing culture shock. Otherwise, know your role and shut your hole.)

Nervousness - It happened on my first day of elementray school. It happened my first day of college. It happened my first day of student-teaching. It happened my first day of coaching. In fact, just about every day of my entire life, something has made me nervous. It happens - to everyone. It's part of our natural make-up (here is the scientific chart explaining nerves or the fun version). But perhaps, just maybe, this sustained nervousness, this long-lasting sensation of frolicking fluttering floating in my stomach is telling me something.

I like it here. No, no. Check that...I love it here.

Listen, do I understand 99.9% of what is being said around me? No. It's like trying to start a philisophical discussion on the ethical implications of race relations at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Is learning a new language hard? Yeah. It's a bitch. Do I know a lot of people? Not really. Do I know where anything is located, or how to get there? Is school and its requirements overwhelming? Do I have to teach a group of students who speak poor English, at a grade level I'm not familiar with, in a school system that is literally foreign to me, in about 7 hours? And am I at all prepared?

But if you know me, you know this one thing - I crave a challenge. I crave competition. I'm the kid who got suspended for a basketball game in sixth grade for trying to punch a kid in the back of the head. I work best with my back against the wall, with the clock running down. Is it stressful? Yes. It is hard? Yes. And am I constantly nervous, more so than at any point in my life? Definitely. But I'm thriving. I love every last damn minute of it. Because when this is all said and done, whether that be in a year, or two years, or three, or so far down the road I figure I'll be worm meal by then, it will absolutely have been worth it. Because there are two types of people when it comes to doing what I'm doing right now: the "thanks, this has been fun, now I'm going to go back to where I came from and remember this with a picture on my mantle" kind of people and the "if I wanted a picture I could have bought a fucking postcard, so whatever happens, happens" people. I'd like to hope I'm falling in with the later crowd...

A few last tidbits to moisten your palette with:

• Saturday night was El Clasico, the semi-annual rivalry football (soccer) match between the two Monterrey teams - Rayados and Tigres. And while I do own a Rayados jersey, I enjoyed watching the game as a casual observer. Think Duke/UNC if you were a die-hard fan of either program. It was very much for me like the classic IU/Purdue games or even the more recent Colts/Patriots match-ups. Watching a room full of grown people cringe, scream, curse, and celebrate each touch of the ball as if Jesus H. Christ himself were returning to the Earth during the game was, from a sports fans perspective, incredible. I also enjoyed the fact that I think 6 people in the entire city were not wasted, which is always a plus. (BTW - Rayados won the match, 2-1)

• After the game, we ate at one of the many quaint, cheap little taco places that litter Monterrey. I had a campechana, which is like a small taco with steak and pork, with a side of onions and a smaller taco that is made of I-don't-know-what but is apparently like the "desert" taco, all smothered in spicy sauces that burns your mouth like your ass would be burnt by a midget with a match. That means it is hot (I just really like the "that burns my ass like a midget with a match" joke. Classic.) It was delicious and has quickly become one of my favorite foods. It is the second time I have eaten said dish, but as the below picture shows, I clearly do not remember the first time said meal was ingested.

• Finally, as I said earlier, I start school, well, now today. I'll be teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade literature and English, as well as 6th grade spelling. It's gonna be great. I'm as excited as a fat man on his wedding day.