El Dia de Maestros

15th May 2008 - It's Teacher's Day! To celebrate I decided I would walk you through this teacher's day...welcome to my building...

At 5:45AM every morning my alarm clock gives me the shock of my life, as soon as I work out what the hell is happening I hop in the shower, throw on some clothes and hop in the Vocho while the sun rises.

At 6:50AM I am walking into the factory and the birds are singing like "la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la." I walk into the darkened office, slide into my classroom and and lie up for half an hour before the students arrive. As soon as that door handle turns I snap into action and after a few disorientated minutes (me) the class is in full swing for a disorientated hour or so (them).

Then it's back to escuela and for the next couple of hours you might find me planning lessons, grading students or browsing the web for conspiracy theories - research!

Gone till September...

At 11 o' clock sharp we cruise to the Centro Historica from where I stroll back to my apartment, pausing to listen to my favourite street musician or to indulge in any of the myriad distractions that may beset me.

Then, one of 3 things will happen: I return home and stay put, in which case I am probably washing up (Eric cooks, I clean), hand washing my clothes, writing some songs or writing this.

More often than not I'll pay a visit to la Acadamia Musica where I spend an hour or so in the company of my good friend Male.

And if I decide to use my time wisely I get some shut eye - ZZZs - and siesta for an hour...that's nap time, I'll hola back at snack time...

Whatever the weather, when a few past two rolls around I'm easily found - this is when Eric gets home to cook a delicious lunch of, Tostadas, por ejemplo.

Back to school...

Hey, Ho, Hey, Ho - feelin' sluggish and slow we hop in the 'cho and it's back, back to work we go.

My 4 o' clock is a good little class to ease back in with, I usually try and schedule something light - reading and conversation are my favourites - but as I take the same classes every day it isn't possible to do this for the entire week. I like to start at the top on a Monday and glide downhill from there all the way to Friday.

At 5 o' clock exactly it's back to the factory, the gang piles in and out of the Vocho like a troop of clowns before dispersing to our various areas.

Then it's finally here, the back of the classes. At 7pm me and my advanced class put the chat amongst the pigeons and set the world to rights in English. We discuss such topics as Global Warming, the Drug Trade and which is the best Lord - of the Flies, of the Rings or of the Dance? (I think Gandalf and his long white beard is better than lot's of boys killing a fat boy on an island).

As the sun sets on Central America it's back to the pad where I spend my evening writing my wrongs with the pen and the papers, put on some songs and let them play for ages, flip a few pages writ by the sages, and too late lay my brain and call it a day did.

And there you have it, a day in the life, through the early moaning and some "tense" moments we never fail to get the jokz in. This is my life, I don't condone it, but I own it.

Buenas Noches.

Tom Wiseman hails from Oxford—the area, not the University—and is spending the year teaching English in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. His blog, "The Tao of Teaching," appears regularly on Gradspot.com.