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Rolly

May 12, 2009, 11:32 AM

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An update on my English students

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It’s been a while since I reported on my favorite hobby, so here’s some catching up.

Misael is so busy in medical school that he has not been to my house in several months. His gf Carla has come without him a few times, but her English is so beginner that we don’t get very far.

Nery has been visiting me for two and a half years. I rate him as completely bilingual. Most of the time now we just talk about “ships and shoes and sealing wax.” We sometimes work on uncommon idioms and strange sayings – straight shooter, hit the jackpot, damn Yankee, dead as a door nail, etc.

He is exempt from English classes at his college, but he continues to attend them as the teacher’s aid. The teacher is Mexican who grew up in the USA, so he is, effectively, a native English speaker. For a while last winter, Nery was teaching English at the Lerdo community center, but he gave it up at Christmas because of the time press of school. He is still teaching his older brother and girl friend.

He has set a goal to be number one in his class, Last term he came in third with an average of 93. He was beat by a guy with 95 and a lady with 97. Nery says the lady will be very hard to beat because she is super smart.

He was on Spring break when the virus scare hit, so his vacation was extended for a week. He expects to go back to school next week. The school has a strange schedule; they run all year, no summer break. His next break will come next Christmas. He’s worried about the next quarter because he will be taking calculus, and math is his Achilles’ heal.

Alex continues to improve his English, but this semester at his veterinary medicine college has been a disaster. It was marred by two faculty strikes that lasted several days each time. The college said those days would be made up, but now they have reneged on that because of the virus mess. He has been out of school for two weeks now because of the virus, and the school says they have decided to end the semester now – no further class until next fall. The students were given a lot of home work to be complete by this Friday. There will be no final exams; grades will be based on homework. Alex feels his education has been cheated. He has a chance to make up for some of the loss through an unofficial internship his father (also a vet) has arranges with a colleague in Durango city who has a large horse practice.

Looks like my students will be mostly gone this summer.

Rolly Pirate

Rolly

May 12, 2009, 1:07 PM

Post #2 of 43 (21301 views)

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Re: [Rolly] An update on my English students

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I guess I should supply some background for those who have not followed the story.

Here on MexConnect at http://www.mexconnect.com/...i?post=115590#115590

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Sep 5, 2010, 8:07 PM)

BajaGringo

May 12, 2009, 11:58 PM

Post #3 of 43 (21245 views)

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Re: [Rolly] An update on my English students

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Rolly, I always appreciate your postings on this and more important, the service you provide there in helping these kids. We all eventually leave this earth but it is up to us to decide the mark we will leave before we go.

Yours will be quite impressive my friend....

Our House Building Project in Mexico...
Lomas de San Martin
Loving Life on the Baja Peninsula

julianm

May 14, 2009, 7:00 PM

Post #4 of 43 (21172 views)

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Great post, Rolly. I'm curious about your/Nery's interest in sealing waxes. I've become something of an aficionado(!) in this field due to my work, and sadly can now talk for hours about sealing wax!!

Rolly

May 27, 2009, 9:56 AM

Post #5 of 43 (21025 views)

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Re: [Rolly] An update on my English students

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Alex's semester from hell just got worse. He went online to check his final grades -- all 80s and 90s except one which was 32. Alarmed, he called the professor to find out what happened. Turns out his lab partner had failed to turn in the lab notes and reports for the semester. The team had four guys. They pleaded with the professor to accept the work late and not to penalized those who had nothing to do with the snafu. The professor refused.

Alex is upset about flunking the course and the manner in which it happened, but the real problem is that he needs a minimum score of 70 to retain his scholarship. That is serious.

On the brighter side, he expects to go to Durango in a few days to spend the summer as an intern. He told me a bit more about the situation. The doctor has a large horse practice, and he also teats dogs. He has a veterinarian hospital with kennels for dogs and a corral for horses. It's a high-tech operation with X-ray machines, sonic scanner, etc, and a surgical suite. The doctor speaks English and has agreed to speak English with Alex as much as possible.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on May 27, 2009, 11:26 AM)

Rolly

Sep 5, 2010, 7:33 PM

Post #6 of 43 (19158 views)

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I can't believe it's been over a year since I added to this story. When this adventure started almost 4 years ago, Misael and Carla were still in high school, Alex was a freshman in college, and Nery was looking forward to enrolling in a few months. Today they are in their second and third years of college.

Misael and Carla have broken up. She's now working and going to college, so she has no time left for English practice. The three guys are also pretty stress with school, but we do still get together.

We have sort of accidentally fallen into a habit of going to lunch together one Sunday each month. We've been alternating between a Texas-style BBQ place and a Chinese all you can eat buffet. The BBQ shop is owned by an American, but it is operated by his Mexican in-laws. Excellent BBQ! The only real BBQ joint in Laguna. The Chinese buffet is run by a Chinese couple and their kids. They have a nice selection of dishes. Some are pretty good Chinese, some have a bit of a Mexican flair, and some are just Mexican (grilled jalapeños, etc). This month we are going to try a different place -- an American franchise called Sirloin Stockade. It has an all you can eat buffet with a very large selection. We avoid straight Mexican places because we all get enough of that at home.

The guys continue to do well in college. Misael in medical school, Alex in veterinary, and Nery in computer science. Nery leads with an overall grade average of 99.5. He's number 2 in his class. Number 1 is a girl with an average of 99.9. Nery says she is so smart that he has no chance of beating her. So he has done the next best thing -- she's his girl friend.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Sep 6, 2010, 11:25 AM)

Bethie

Sep 5, 2010, 9:30 PM

Post #7 of 43 (19112 views)

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Rolly
What a pleasure to hear about the kids, it has been a long time since your last update on them. Tell them I wish them well and tell them also to continue with their education, no matter how hard it is seems. We are all rooting for them!

richmx2

Sep 6, 2010, 9:59 AM

Post #8 of 43 (19046 views)

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Nery says she is so smart that he has no chance of beating her. So he has done the next best thing -- she's his girl friend.

If you can't beat 'em... join 'em :-)

http://mexfiles.net
http://voiceofmexico.com
http://editorialmazatlan.com

Rolly

Sep 6, 2010, 11:27 AM

Post #9 of 43 (19021 views)

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I just noticed that I made a mistake in post #6. Here is the correct information:

When this adventure started almost 4 years ago, Misael and Carla were still in high school, Alex was a freshman in college, and Nery was looking forward to enrolling in a few months. Today they are in their second and third years of college.

Rolly Pirate

sioux4noff

Sep 6, 2010, 5:02 PM

Post #10 of 43 (18977 views)

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Rolly it is great to hear about your students. BTW, if the kids like to eat, they will love Sirloin Stockade. At least the one in Puerto Vallarta has a nice salad bar and the food is all fresh and delicious. It is packed with Mexicans most of the time, despite some people scoffing that is was made "for the gringos."
Please report when you can as we all love good news about the youth of Mexico.

Rolly

Oct 8, 2010, 7:37 AM

Post #11 of 43 (18198 views)

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Re: [sioux4noff] An update on my English students

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We made it to Sirloin Stockade for our monthly lunch date in September. Fabulous buffet.
I'm sure we'll do that one again. This month we're planning to go to a Lebanese restaurant.
None of us has ever had Lebanese food, so it should be an adventure for us all.

We have two rules for our lunch parties: Be on time at the rendezvous point (Nery's house)
and speak only English. The second rule seems easier than the first. Since I don't drive anymore,
Nery is our designated driver in my pickup. He has a license; the other two procrastinators don't.

Next month, November, will be four years since Nery stopped me on the street
and asked me to help him learn English. A year later he brought Alex and Misael to my house.
Nery is now truly bi-lingual with a good accent. Alex is doing pretty well on vocabulary,
but his accent is not good. Misael is so busy in medical school that he has little time to study English.
His vocabulary is still limited, but his accent is good. He is so smart that he'd be bi-lingual by now
if he had a little more time to study.

Nery is mi nieto, Alex is Curly Top, and Misael is El Alto (he's over 6 feet).
I feel so blessed to have these bright young guys as my friends.

Here we are just finishing up at Sirloin Stockade.

Rolly, Alex, Nery, Misael

Rolly

(This post was edited by Rolly on Oct 8, 2010, 7:53 AM)

sioux4noff

Oct 8, 2010, 7:46 AM

Post #12 of 43 (18188 views)

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What a difference you have made in the lies of these 3 young men, and that extends far past the English lessons. Good for you Rolly!

Bethie

Oct 8, 2010, 9:27 AM

Post #13 of 43 (18150 views)

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Re: [sioux4noff] An update on my English students

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wonderful update rolly, i hope they all continue to do well.

Rolly

Oct 24, 2010, 10:25 PM

Post #14 of 43 (17680 views)

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Monthly Lunch Party with My English Students

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Sunday, 24 October 2010
We did our monthly lunch date at La Alhambra restaurant in Torreón. It's a Lebanese buffet. None of us had ever eaten Lebanese/Arabic food, so it was a new adventure. The place is comfortable, the food was very good even if we didn't know what most of it was, and the service was excellent. But the prices were a bit high, $750 pesos for four of us. This is the most expensive place we have tried.
Thus far we have done Texas-style BBQ (3 times), Chinese (twice), American (Sirloin Stockade), and now Lebanese.
We elected to do Italian next month. We're still looking for a good Japanese or sushi place. Nery and I checked a sushi place a couple of weeks ago.. Didn't cut it, so we're still looking. Expecting good sushi on the desert may be a pipe dream.

Rolly Pirate

Rolly

Nov 21, 2010, 3:12 PM

Post #15 of 43 (16948 views)

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21 Nov 2010. Another gut busting pig out with my guys at the area's only Italian restaurant.
They had never had Italian food before, so I ordered a variety of things to give them a good intro to the cuisine.
They loved it. Pictures and menu here.

Rolly Pirate

Rolly

Dec 19, 2010, 3:32 PM

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19 December 2010: December's lunch party was at a Brazilian steak house -- very unusual service.
Wonderful meal.
http://rollybrook.com/my_blog.htm

Rolly Pirate

Rolly

Jan 16, 2011, 5:15 PM

Post #17 of 43 (15039 views)

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16 Jan 2011 We went to a sushi place in Torreón. Nery and I had gone there two weeks ago for his birthday and to check out the place. Excellent -- miso soup, giant seafood salad and several sushis. Unfortunately, today's visit was not quite as good. The miso soup was a little messed up with too much scallion tops. The salad was wonderful like last time. But the sushi turned out to be a bit disappointing because the waiter misunderstood what we wanted. Instead of five pieces of traditional sushi for each of us, we each got five sushi rolls -- much too much rice! We had enough left overs to take home.

Since these lunches are for expanding the guys' food knowledge as well as English practice, they learned some new words today -- tofu, soy, scallion, roe, take home box and doggy bag. They also got introduced to chop sticks with varying success. Alex had a Sapporo beer which gave us a chance to talk about Japanese rice beers and Sake. Alex was so impressed with the unique Sapporo can that he took it home as a souvenir.

We'll do Chinese next month.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Jan 16, 2011, 6:50 PM)

smokesilver

Jan 16, 2011, 7:15 PM

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Rolly it looks very neat. I enjoy your stories with your students. thanks. I'll bet that they look forward to them as much as you.

Rolly

Feb 17, 2011, 4:34 PM

Post #19 of 43 (13863 views)

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I have put together some pictures and a few words about each of the colleges my guys attend.
Look here.

Rolly Pirate

tashby

Feb 17, 2011, 5:56 PM

Post #20 of 43 (13842 views)

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Outstanding. Yay you, Rolly, and congrats to them. Just great.

Rolly

Apr 17, 2011, 5:22 PM

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Another Sunday lunch with my guys. This time at Tony Roma's in Torreón.
The food was good as always, but the service was poor, slow and a forgotten order.

More pictures here.

Rolly Pirate

chinagringo

Apr 17, 2011, 5:47 PM

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Rolly:

We have eaten at that Tony Roma's a number of times when staying at the hotel that shared the parking lot. Cannot say that that we felt it was one of the better locations we have tried. Service tended to be as you described. During our last visit, maybe 2007, we met up with a Mexican gentleman who worked for an American corporation in Torreon. He and his family lived in some "country club"area (?) and we got into a discussion about cartels and the inherent problems. I have to admit that the entire conversation was a bit strange and scary!
Regards,
Neil
Albuquerque, NM

Rolly

May 15, 2011, 4:08 PM

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We went back again today. The service was excellent this time, but the ribs were a bit over cooked and dry -- disappointing. The shrimp cocktail was great as was the baked potato soup. My dogs are having a glory day with the bones.

We're doing repeats this summer. Next month we are returning to Pampas do Brasil. In July we'll do fish again, and in August for my 80th birthday, we'll do sushi again.

Having run out of ethnic restaurants in the area, this fall we will begin hitting high-end Mexican restaurants, no rice and beans or taco joints

Rolly Pirate

see saw sallie

May 15, 2011, 4:48 PM

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80th, wow. teach on!

Rolly

Jun 19, 2011, 4:25 PM

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Like you, I hate those damn pop-up ads that intrude while I trying to read something. But once in a very great while I learn something useful. And thus it was while I was reading the local newspaper online when a pop-up for an Oriental Grill caught my attention. I am so glad because it led to an outstanding dinning experience. Real Chinese food right here in Torreón.

Here are pictures and stuff of the major pig-out my students and I did.

Rolly Pirate

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