sorry a, my b-day. i went to dinner with the roomie and lilia (another prof, super nice, invited me velas, etc). then, on the walk home from an excellent and amazingly cheap dinner, we ran into a new teacher and his wife. they were apparently waiting for others. we chatted them up for a bit, then other profs arrived. vic walked them to a good little outdoor eating place (there are about 8 wood-fired grills all lined up in the centro area) and the next thing i knew, about 7 of us were chatting. i met my current new roomate francisco, who is from la paz, baja, and is awesome, and about five other guys who i hang out with every day now. very mellow, but a great time.

met the newbie today. his name is arash and he is from iran via canada. fluent spanish, lived in costa rica for 9 months prior, and has a girl friend. they met when arash got sick from the food in costa rica and she took care of him in the hospital. anywho, he is cool, laid back and fairly quiet.

another prof came today to help administer the oral exams. her name is caroline and she rocks. too funny. as she is the only blond gringa for a hundred miles, every single, and i mean EVERY SINGLE student/teacher/gounds crew member/ security guard/bum on street whistles, stares or makes a rude comment. i die laughing because she has grown quite weary of it and no longer finds it even slightly flattering. it cracks me up. the other females at the university hate it. absolutely hate it. not her, but the guys. i, still, cannot stop laughing. she left this afternoon and now will not return on friday for the other 45 students. my boss emailed me this afternoon and asked if i minded handling the oral exams without her on friday. why? who the hell knows, but my boss makes caroline do everything in tehuantepec because she is competent and speaks spanish. oh, the wonderful life i lead in themiddle of nowhere.

so ya, me arash and if any of the other teachers show up will be running the show from here on out. i still need to learn ¨the blind leading the blind¨ in spanish.

i can definitely promise that even though this page has turned into a forum for me to complain, i am having a great time nonetheless. that said, what is going on here?

tomorrow and friday and are the oral exams for incoming new students. they have taken an online test and now they have a verbal, conversation skills, test to see where they are as speakers. the two scores are combined and the students are then placed in a level. how do i know this? i have a magic 8-ball that tells me things. it certainly isn´t coming from my boss.

ah, my boss. she told me yesterday there would be oral tests wed and fri. sweet. how do i grade those? oh, it should be obvious. i will send another teacher who has done it before to help. ok, sounds good. obvious? no. so then the students start knocking on my door this morning, profe (fairly informal greeting, i like it better than ´teacher´which is the main title that most of the students, and some of the faculty for some odd reason, use) what time is the test (all in spanish, so luckily i am up on my communication ability)? when, where, what is on it, what if i don´tknow, how hard is it . . . general q´s that anyone would want to know. sadly, i had to actually ask for this info. why would i be told such important things anyway?

so a new prof arrived yesterday. did my boss bother to bring him by my office? no. but he came to ixtepec to look for housing. there are two main roads into ixtepec. the main highway from tehuantepec, which she would have used, goes directly by campus. can´t miss it. big fences, guards with guns, etc. so great, she did not even bother to bring him by campus. i will meet him at night. oh no, he is staying with some lady from the school. i should meet him tuesday. no, wait, check that, no maybe wednesday. what about the other two profs? well, i might meet one on wednesday or thursday. the other guy who taught here last semester? he will arrive this weekend or next week. class starts monday. he will arrive next week. hmm. interesting.

any nervous feelings i ever had about teaching are gone. my boss is clearly not fit to be in charge of anything save her ability to communicate, although often poorly, in spanish and english. she has absolutely no people skills yet is in charge of hiring, and, by some strange order, orientation. good luck. at this point, i am really considering stayinghere next semester because at the very least, i have absolutely no pressure to perform. of course i will do my best and all that, but it is not like there is some standard here i need to live up to in any way. teaching without pressure. i guess it is kind of nice once one gets used to the complete lack of structure, consistency, help, explanation and texts.

i just fixed the link. it should work now. well, by my clock it is after 4pm on the day the first of the english teachers was due to arrive. my my, i seem to be the only english speaker on campus. what could that mean? maybe some of the other teachers read the article and decided this might not be the place for them. hopefully tomorrow will be the lucky day. i will update some new picks later this week. victor took a bunch of pics this weekend of the new teaching crew (four new teachers and a wife) when we went to ojo de agua (eye of the water) which is about as close to a water park as you will get in the istmo. basically, there are mini dams that block up this natural spring on weekends so family and people can come and play in the water (this particular playland is never deeper than about five feet). it is great because the water is constantly moving: kids, no chlorine, you get the idea. the weird thing is that since is a natural creek, there are lots of fish. these fish like to bite, i am not kidding, which is only a minor annoyance until one of the big ones singles out your leg and goes in for a snack. no blood is drawn but it never failed to freak me out when the big ones got hold of me. there are two such places in this area, and i hope to go to the other in the next few weeks.

to explain a little better, people actually dug out the creek bed to make larger pools. when the water is stopped up at one end, the `pools fill up, but eventually the water spills over the top. there are two runoff points which keep the water fairly fresh and people are not allowed in the actaully eye of the spring. kind of an interesting place until about 2pm (when we got out and made our way to the food huts) when the kids and families hit full force. in that sense, it is like any water park.
a vela and a wedding are on tap for this weekend, but i think i am going to skip the vela. i need to buy my own guayabera and some black pants. i don´t really want to have wear the same thing two days in a row (just contemplate the smell at the very least) and i am not sure if i am ready for that kind of partying. plus, i like the new teachers and want to hang out with them some as well. who knows, there may even be english teachers here as well by then. school starts in a week, they had better be here!

mainstream media and la universidad del istmo. it seems this new system in oaxaca has attracted a good bit of attention. read this article to learn more about where i teach. the universities named in the article are sister-schools to us, so we are run, and from the sound of it, look exactly the same.

http://www.geocities.com/jonclark500/utmstory.html

absolute idiocy. here´s a riddle for you all: how do you know what books the library has if the only way you are allowed access to the titles is through an online database located in the library that does not search broad categories (such as, books in english)? i have never heard of such a stupid policy in my life. not only do i have to check out the books i am going to use for my class, i have to physically renew them every two weeks for the next five months. i am not kidding. now, the obnoxious library lady will not even let me into the dinky little room where they might have 1000 books to see what they have. what, am i going to fill my arms and flee the building and campus? the guards would probably shoot me. am i going to set fire to the tiny little collection? she can pat me down before i enter the room and remove an incendiary devices. will i take a magic marker and deface copies of the books, or bring in ten gallons of coffee and just spray it around the room will-nilly?! i am a professor at a university and i had more rights as a four year old at the orange county library. this is beyond ridiculous. the other campus? oh, they can browse through anything they like. hell, they can probably even, gasp, bring a water bottle into the building.

it is so good to know that there are people out there protecting books and keeping them away from students, teachers and the literate public in general. universidad del istmo, ixtepec campus, the alcatraz of library systems: books come in, they don´t go out.

what is better is that this veritable nazi of a librarian sits in her air conditioned shell while the patrons swelter in the heat of the lobby trying to figure out names of books they might, no way to know to for sure, have. does anyone wonder why the library is never used or is the administration pleased by this large, expensive, empty building? truly, this is an enlightened and forward thinking institution. viva méxico.

speakin the lingo, finally. so last night i hung out with some of the new prof´s again. jorge, jorge (roomates, no less) y francisco. francisco may soon join ole victor and i in the apt.

i realized when i was in oaxaca last weekend that i would rather avoid native speakers of english than seek them out. what fun is it to come down here and speak english all the time (this clearly does not include classes!)? anyway, i hear the other two prof´s will be here early next week. it is about damn time. i must confess that this month, and nicole was right on this one, has made my transition so much easier. i cannot imagine having to deal with lesson plans, the language, the place, everything in general, and then having to start teaching 5 or 6 days later. no thanks.

so anywho, back to my point about the lingo. i spent about 3 hours last night talking with the three other profs, they were drilling me about the u.s. why do the estadounidense (us people) only refer to the u.s.a as america? america goes from alaska to tierra del fuego in argentina! why does the u.s. think central and south america are a giant trash can? why do people like george bush? a big one which bothered me a bit is that most people down here feel that the sept 11th attack was fabricated by the u.s. govt. (my roomate did not even believe that the pentagon had actually be struck by a plane! he thought the govt made it up). they blame bush and say that he creates enemies from thin air. i admit this is possible, but i also realize that those who dislike us are very real. i also see why other nations dislike us, why do we use them as puppet states simply as suppliers of oil, for example. anyway, enough of my political thoughts.

the best part is that all of this was in spanish (i have been reading the newspaper and learning about the mexican govt as well, so a lot of the jargon they used i understood). they also readily admit that their own govt is totally corrupt and out of control. good, because i got that impression from my own investigations. either way, they spoke slowly, but not as slowlyas before, and when i did not understand, they often explained their meaning in spanish without using english. and i understood it! sometimes, they used english, but even then i was able to help them when they did not know the english word. i am super stoked. finally, i am making some serious progress. i still don´t like telanovellas, but i may give in and watch them more just for practice.

one month in mexico. five months to go on my contract. i already have offers to visit about ten cities (jorge:veracruz, you have to go, the best city around; jorge2, no d.f. (mex city) is the best, so much culture, soccer, the university (u.n.a.m the biggest university in latin america, has over 300,000 students. no joke. they even have a pro soccer team. there is a nearly an entire city within the city just for them.) francisco says la paz (baja cali) is a place i must visit. we will see if i can actually make it to three of these places. either way i am excitedi also learned a ton about other places, ideas, etc.

i just had a conversation with a new prof who i just met, totally in spanish regarding incorporating english articles for his class into my class. i understood most to all of what he said! and i think he understood me pretty well! this is great. the more i just force myself to do it, the better i am becoming. i am still nervous halfway through the conversation when i realize that he has said two sentences and i did not understand them, but then he brings the talk back around to words, phrases etc. that i know, and i am able to predict the meaning. i test out this feeling by answering with what i think he meant, and it turns out i was close. sweet. i cannot convey how happy thismakes me.

ok, better go do some work. hope all is well up north. and remember, the next time someone says america, make sure they realize that america is all of the americas, not just the u.s.a. one at a time we can make the country a little less arrogant and a little more accepting and tolerant of the neighbors to the south who share the same wants, needs and values as we do. ok, that´s my cheesy lesson for the day. peace in the middle east.

always read something before you sign it. i am a firm believer in this idea, in fact i have even told my classes something to this effect when i taught in arizona. this does not always work in another country.

yesterday, i forgot my passport when i went to immigration only to realize this fact when i got off the bus an hour and a half after i left. there would not be enough time to go home, return to salina cruz and get to work by 4pm (really ample time in general considering i left late, finished early and still made it back home 1:30pm). what to do? i decided to put together the best excuse in my best spanish about how i was robbed the day before in oaxaca and my passport had been stolen. sure, there are lots of questions that need answering with this kind of story, but as long as i faltered with my pronunciation enough, i assumed it would work.

not only did they never ask for my passport, they barely spoke to me as they handed me my 225 dollar, ¨even though you have lived and worked here for three weeks, now, you are legal¨ passport looking set of papers. i am an official non-immigrant allowed to work for profit in the united states of mexico. yeehaw.

i returned and decided to cash my check because the banks are really only open about 5 hours a day around here (this insures that they never actually have to give you money) five days a week. i received my paycheck in, essentially, 5 dollar bills. yes, 100 50peso bills, plus some other change.

then i went home, met some new teachers who were actually impressed (probably lying) with my spanish, took a nap and went to school.

first i had to sign in and fill out a form explaining the time i returned from screwing around all morning. then, because i am legal, an office lady (she is probably only 23 or so) explained to me how i can get a bank account so that it does not take 20 minutes to actually cash a check. also, i think i get direct deposit (key word: think). so she explains to me the form. right. then she has me start filling it out. my spanish is improving, my knowledge of banking jargon and other terms is not. one mistake on the form, even a stray line, and you must start all over.

on my third form, she filled it in for me and told me to copy what she had done. sweet. my kind of paperwork. after explaining to her that william jurdan davis jr. is, in fact, not my son, we both realized that i had just named my father the recipient of funds in case i die. morbid, yes. vague, of course. i mean, i wrote only his name. how would he even know i had a bank account?

anywho, i think i might be getting a bank account. the form read banomex, but most of the other info escaped me. so i signed something and hopefully in aweek or two i will get a check card. then, i won´t have to walk back to my house with my pocket bulging with 100 bills in it (picture: gringo, bank, alone, lots of people around, cash practically falling out the pocket). thank you banomex and the lady who helped me whose name i still don´t know after almost four weeks.

i wonder what i will be signing next?

without hair.

ok, for everyone who wants to see what i look like without hair, click on one of the very first pics (from like sept 5 or so) ; it is the pic of me in a white shirt. i know the pic is kind of hard to see because of the lighting, but there i am with no hair. and you have had the opportunity all this time and did not know it.

this is the only pic from mitla (means place of the dead). this area replaced monte alban when it was abandoned after being utilized for over 1300 years! the spanish destroyed most of mitla and used the stone from the grave sites and grand palaces to build a church. obviously, i did not take a picture of the church. don�t forget to start at the bottom of these pics and read up. it will make more sense. 

keep going left 

keep going left. all three together get most of the pyramids and the whole area. some think it was kind of like a united tribal council area (think u.n.), with about 13 or different representatives or more 

view down into the sunken platform from the highest point. i just realized all the comments will be posted backward, so start at bottom and read up! 

center square. sunken platform, possible sacrifice altar in the center. there are numerous carvings of defeated enemies, castrated and bleeding profusely. very bloody, but interesting 

ball court. the game was played with hips, elbows and knees moving a hard rubber type ball back and forth trying to score a goal (not shown). the sloped sides were covered with thick moss so that the ball would slide right down. 

same view again, more to the right 

view from big pyramid further to the left 

view from south pyramid (the big one in first two pics). the structure in immediate foreground is shaped like an arrowhead, the only structure with more than four sides.  

view from top of mountain into valley (the city is oaxaca, pronounced huahaca, sort of) 

same level 

monte alban, ground level looking at big pyramid in distance 

what up oaxaca! so i am in the capital of the state and loving it. live free music each day and night, incredible cathedrals, ruins and museums, cheap housing, this place rocks. the best, might be the fact that it is actually cool all night and then until about noon the next day. no joke, my nordic ass has finally come to the right place!

my first thought was how to get out of my current contract so i could move here. i still really love this place, but i know realize that the mountains (the town is a little over 5000ft) are the place to be in mexico. i thought the beach would be what i would really get into, but i am soft and the heat will probably never be my friend. cutting my hair was the most responsible thing i have done in a long time. i just realized that this hair cut was the first time i actually wanted to cut all my hair off (let us not forget the trial in summer of 95 that never actually happened until 96, and then the southern states interview in september of 2000). memories. i miss my hair sometimes, but right now i only need a haircut. my roomie has a great stylist in juchitan (all the best male stylists i have ever seen are gay, and this one is no exception). the mexican, gross generalization to follow, people seem to be fairly ok with homosexuality. of course, i am talking about university people, and haven´t we always been openminded? anywho, i am probably going to just tell him to take his best guesson what would look good. i still don´t have any clue how to deal with no hair, so if anyone has any suggestions, c-line, amy, anybody, please send them my way.

i am leaving tonight a little after midnight from oaxaca and should arrive in good ole ixtepec by about 6am. the bus is uber comfortable, by far the nicest i have ever been on, and all the movies are in english with spanish subtitles. i had better get some sleep because i ahve to work tomorrow. i don´t care how tired i am because in the morning i go to salina cruz and i will be damned if i come back to work because siesta at 2. which means i really don´t have to work until 4pm. yahtzee.

it is almost my birthday! thank you mom.

well, i hope you all watched the hokies rip ohio this weekend. i wish i could have. the braves are slipping. i miss sports, as you can tell. oh well, there has been so much to do and see here it has been amazing. i will go into more details this coming week as i hope my pictures will upload and turn out great. i saw my first pyramid and got to climb on some this weekend. now i really want to check out more ruins in central and south america. of course, i would like to see the papas in egypt, but that might be many years away. either way, i have had a great trip and wish i could stay in this gorgeous city instead of going home to hot-tepec. oh well, just over 5 months left on my contract. i cannot wait for my next vacation so i can check out other places located over 4000ft!

doughman, i am thinking about you. good luck over the next two days.

two hours to kill. i think i will go listen to some music in the square! peace.

and i thought to myself, why do any work today?

first, i want to let all of you who in any fashion enjoyed, respected, laughed at the writing of the late hunter thompson that there is a free resource of some of his last journalistic endeavors. oddly enough, it is on espn.com. there is something called page 2 on that website, locate it, go to archives of all the writers, and find his name and pic. obviously, he was an avid sports fan and rabid gambler, among his many, many other attributes. his last article that he wrote for them is about a conversation he had with bill murray involving the invention of a new sport. it is a mix of golf and skeet shooting. absolutely hilarious. also, he has over 50 articles on the site, some of which are too funny for words. ok, check it out if you have a chance.

i just got my first pay check! with the check i got 200 pesos (don´t forget the divide by 10 rule) in vouchers which can only be redeemed in certain stores throughout the state. govt stores. social security stores. strange, but they ahve cheap groceries at the issst, the name, so i shop there.

anyway, i eventually found the lady to talk to about my check. she speaks a million miles a minute so i caught about half of what she said. essentially, i have to use a passport for id. next check i might get direct deposit, but it might be later because i will only get my social security number, basically what it is, on monday. so they take out money automatically for my savings account. then, my imployer matches the amount that i take out. kind of cool. kind of like an ira? bankers? hello? this is a question, not a statement. anyway, i think they take a lot out, because they do, but i should get it back at the end of the year. doughman, ever get my taxes done? anyway, the year does not end until next july, so wherever i am in july i should get a fat check. then i will convert it into the currency of whatever country i am in and realize it is not so fat. oh well.

so anyway, my net pay was almost 8000 pesos (two weeks plus a few days in august), but i only get 5500. shaft! damn the government and their taxes. well, i guess since it is indepence day i better only type this and not say it.

i am getting the biggest kick out the 200 pesos in redeamable form. it is like giving someone 50 bucks and a check on friday, saying I know you can´t cash the check, but what the hell, go ahead on down to the 7-11 (circle k or am/pm for the west side), buy a few 40 oz´s and have a great weekend! absolutely hilarious. did i mention that every store who will take my vouchers sells liquor and beer? if not, then the joke is only fun now, and not when i wrote it. oh well. read this paragraph again. ha ha. get it now?

ok. time to try and do a little work. have a great weekend! go hokies! go braves!

ya, so i changed the title, too. i am thinking of having a new one each week. that might be a bit ambitious, so maybe a new one every now and then. a good one would probably be ¨time on your hands: what to do when you don´t speak the language and no one speaks yours¨ or maybe even ¨could you repeat that? slower. again, please.¨ i could do this all day. maybe that is one in itself.

¡el día de indepencia! ¡feliz! what does this translate to in english? half day of work! woohoo. no, it is independence day. i heard the first fireworks around 6am, and the party in ixtepec is supposed to really kick off tonight around 9pm or 10pm. another teacher from here, jorge, is going to oaxaca tomorrow for the weekend. i asked him when he is leaving and he said 4. i assumed 4pm, but it is 4am. what about the party? oh, that is why i am leaving at 4, he replied. thus, i imagine, this will be one great big bash! i am not sure if i will be in town tonight or if i will go to juchitan with the roomie. i am sure he wants to see his little chica, and i like hanging out with people who actually will speak slowly to me.

i got in a slight tiff last night with roomie. i usually study at night (i have a spanish workbook from last summer that i have been reworking, and i only have 50 pages out of 300 left, so i am learning tenses and vocab through that. he comes home and says something incoherent to me. i ask to repeat like 5 times and finally he tells me that i need to get out more and talk to people instead of studying. i don´t disagree necessarily, but i feel like until i am ready for all the tenses again, and there are about 15, i will not understand anything anyway. also, without vocab, what good am i?

clearly, my view is debatable. i see the other side very well, and thus listened and agreed with ole vic. it is just that sometimes i get a little tired of his slightly condescending tone, ¨what do you mean you don´t understand, are you listening?¨ yes, my speaking is behind my reading, and my listening ability laggs even further, but i know this and do not need reminders. he wants me to watch soap operas with him at night. i explain i am not a huge fan of t.v. in general, and certainly not telenovellas, but he thinks it will help me understand the language better. and maybe it will. so i did. but really, i did not gain too much new knowledge except for words like bodyguard (the name of his fave) and reincarnation (some character on another has come back to life five times). silly if you ask me, but i do agree that in general i need to interact more because it will help me learn faster.

so this weekend i am taking a trip. not sure where yet, but i am getting on a bus tomorrow and not returning until sunday. maybe to the capital, oaxaca, or maybe to chiapas (state) and the city cristobol de las casas. both are high in the mountains, so i can escape this oppressive heat. two weeks to get used to it. sure. the heat is not a constant problem, but i just get tired of being sweaty all the time. maybe two months is more apt. we will see. so anyway, i am going to the big station in juchitan tomorrow and finding two tickets, one for friday, one for sunday. hey, if i cannot get back, then what was the point? it is possible that my roomie might go (i secretly hope he doesn´t) or that this guy alex from tehuantepec might go. maybe i am a too finicky, but alex is not someone i would choose under regular circumstances to hang out with either. not sure why, just one of those things. either way, having someone to hang out with while i check out ruins could be really cool. or i could be better off alone. either way, i will probably flip a coin at the bus station and decide which way to go. i still like traveling this way. if you knew me in college or after, then you know this is the only way for me to travel. i hope that doesn´t change anytime soon. the ability to adapt and change plans at any moment has been something that, especially as a teacher where this is necessary daily, has been a quality i prize in myself. i believe that this expedition to mexico has helped to solidify that idea. although sitting in va waiting for my documents to arrive i was definitely nervous! what a joke. my boss hiring someone else to take this job. good luck! i have been here over three weeks and i still don´t see another soul that looks like me or speaks english really well. sure, the 24th of september. so why did i need to be here five weeks prior to that date? oh well, bitching does me no good. at least i have a jump on the language and the area in general. those poor suckers who will arrive, and oh, how i pray they do arrive, in a week or two will be quite lost and out of sorts. there is a positive side to everything, although reminding myself of that is often tedious.

so i used my mosquito net last night. it rained in the evening and thus was super muggy and all sorts of bugs came out. ya, victor laughed a bit, but who gives a damn about his opinion. he has screens on his windows, so he does not have the problem i do. anyway, it worked really well and slept free of bug bites. i may start using it more, we will see. i also felt like some bride when i woke up and there is a crown of white, seemingly lace, cascading down over me and around me. definitely a strange feeling to wake up to, kind of like, where am i again? oh yeah. setting it up was a problem because th ceilings are like 11 feet high, but i figured out how to do it. true, my light bulb now needs to be replaced, but i see that as a minor inconvenience compared to a restful night.

i am stoked that i get a half day off on my b-day. i am going to salina cruz in the morning to pick up my work visa from immigration. as i will be going alone (i mean really, why would my boss think it important to accompany me to an office where the only english is written on a card in the hall?) i will worry about the logistics of that scenario on the bus ride in to town. then, i will proceed to dawdle, screw around and maybe have a nice breakfast before returning to the country.

i think i will have a few stories by the end of this weekend. here´s hoping they all are ones i can laugh at in the moment and not days later! ¡ viva méxico! ¡viva independencia!

happy birthday greg!!!!!

caroline, i just emailed greg yesterday because i thought i had missed his b-day on the 12th. trip. either way, hope you guys have a great day and that greg has a particularly wonderful day. maybe he even gets the day off?

some of the best food i have had down here has been paella (rice, crab, shrimp, chicken) and then just seafood in general. we are so close to the ocean that everything is fresh and brought in daily. i eat mostly granola, apples, tuna fish, corn and breakfast bars for lunch and dinner during the week to save money (and because i have no way to cook anything), so on the weekends i eat great. the most amazing drink i have had is called bupu(roughly). it is made by zapoteca women and served in the market in juchitan. basically, for about 50 cents you get a bowl with a liquid made of corn and something else which is warm or hot depending on how you ask for it. then, on top of that, there is this big vat which the women stir and stir to create a foam (like the stuff on top of a ice cream float) and then they scoop the foam onto the top of your bowl. as you drink the liquid you drink the foam as well. the foam is made from flowers and is EXTREMELY sweet (amy d you would absolutely love it). it is pretty filling and super super good. i thought it would be weird at first, but the two tastes mix together pretty well. the sweet overpowers everything anyway. then, you hand the ladies your handmade clay bowl back and pay. amazing stuff.

there are also all sorts of fruit (cherries for example) that they soak in mezcal and other liquor type liquids. i am wary of this type of concoction because i am not comfortable enough to know what has a lot of alcohol in it and i don´t want to act the fool in front of people who are already staring at me. but, i have had a few cherries and they are pretty good. they sit in big huge pickel jar containers (which is unnerving to start with) and are sold on the street in juchitan and othe places.

well, iam off to give a competency test in english on the computer to incoming freshmen. yesterday i was told i was giving it 10 minutes before it started. sweet. love my boss who absolutely refuses to prepare me for anything!

happy b-day greg!

hey big a, yes my roomie and some others know my b-day is on monday. they are probably going to do a little something for me, i think heard mention of a piñata, but with my spanish, who knows!

going into the big town (salina cruz) is about an hour and a half more or less depending on the amount of livestock (goats, cows, horses) in the road and the number of broken down vehicles that could not or would not get out of the way. so, by the time i would get to salina cruz after work it would be about 9pm. the last bus leaves for juchitan from salina cruz about 10:30pm. maybe 11:30 and it does not go all the way to my town. from there i would have to take a taxi, 100 pesos, to my town. unfortunately, there is no midweek travel for me. it takes far too long to get anywhere.

i was supposed to go to oaxaca this weekend, leaving friday because we have a half day on thursday and do not return until monday (mexican independence day on thursday or friday), but his family will not be around. i just found out yesterday so now i have to find something to do pretty quick. not sure yet, but i want to check out some ruins or maybe go to this other big city in chiapas called cristobol colon de las casas. not sure yet, but i am definitely doing something!

carolina, as far as your last comment goes, yes my roomie can read english fairly well. i have definitely not informed anyone here about this blog, or at least how to get to it. i am seriously hoping he never finds it. i am not being mean, but to be honest, sometimes, one needs a little privacy. hence, his never reading this allows me to be honest about him whereas otherwise i would want to be careful of his feelings and would thus bend or distort the true situation.

i mean at this point, privacy is when i shut my office door at school. still, anyone walking by outside can see right in to my office, but there is no walkway near my window so the main people who i see out the window are the workers who upkeep the hundreds of non-native plants, trees, etc that have been imported to make the campus beautiful. they have done so, but it requires so much water just to keep them alive....

so ya, i hope these blog things are not the easiest to find by just randomly searching the internet. if so, uh oh!

jacob l! thanks for checking the blog out. i am glad you found some amusement and also shared your experience with your student. i guess one nice thing about teaching down here is that it might be a long time before i have to grade another essay. hope your semester is going well so far!

doughman, thanks for the update on the car. i should tell you that i did not change the oil before i left so it definitely needs that (sorry for sticking you with that!). also good to hear that the crops are doing well. have you been getting a lot of rain in virginia? tell linda and anthony i said hello. as for a return date, i have no idea.

carolina and greg, i am glad you have taken over the tailgating duties. i definitely hope i can make it back for the tech game in a few years, that would be great!

this weekend i attended my first political rally in mexico. a prd candidate for their july 2006 elections spoke to a crowd of thousands in juchitan on saturday evening. i went with my roomie victor and we met another prof from here, his friend lilia who invited me to the vela (party) last weekend. as soon as we arrived, he wanted to find lilia (open space, thousands of people, good luck!). i thought i would stand in the back away from most of the people (the candidate and about 20 other people were standing on the flat beds of tractor trailers in front of a huge government building and overlooking the central park, market of the city. victor motions me to follow and for the next ten minutes we are winding our way through all these people, mostly older and mostly farmer/indigenous people.

don´t forget i am taller than about 95% of these people, so me winding through the crowd effectively blocks the view of at least three or more people every time i stop, get pushed and bump into others, etc. on top of it, others are making their way through this mass of people. i watched as old women gave strong forearms and hard shoves as they pushed their way through. it was funny until i felt a sharp elbow in the small of my back and turned to find people explaining to me that i would not be able to stand where i was any longer. finally, after some angry taunts by a few members of the crowd, i made my way to the back and safely listened from behind a tree.

all in all, a very vocal and loud affair in which the people cheered and hissed and on a few occasions quite loudly cursed at the stage. i could understand a good bit because the politician used brief, clearly pronounced phrases (typical political stump stuff) mainly to gain the favor of the crowd.

afterward we went to a french style cafe and had crepes (although with salso and mexican ingredients) which were pretty good. i was able to follow the conversation (victor, lilia, her sister mavis and another women whom i had just me) for the two or three hours we were there. they spoke slowly and victor helped a good bit, but finally i am seeing some serious progress with my speaking and listening abilities.

sunday we went to the morning market to get fruit and veggies for the week. this place was huge! probably three hundred yards long and about thirty yards wide. they sold absolutely everything there, from food to clothes, to dvd´s (most of movies that are still out or just left theatres in the u.s.). pretty crazy as there were so many people who come in from all over the place to sell and buy goods. i bought some apples, carrots, bread (pastries) and grapes. again, no frig or place to cook so raw is the only stuff i can really buy.

we went back to juchitan on sunday afternoon to look for a chair for me and to meet lilia and mavis (both of whom have husbands and children but who never bring them when they go out with victor- maybe they are watching the kids?) at a great seafood restaurant. the fish and shrimp and crabs were great and fresh (the ocean is less than 30 miles away), and super cheap. i had a shrimp coctail which is shrimp with some type of sauce including onions, avacado, etc. surprisingly good although i avoided as many onions as possible. five bucks for about thirty shrimp (they are the medium size). great deal. the fish are cooked in holes (the kitchen is right next to the tables and all is outside with only a roof and one wall) and prepared head and all (the guts are removed). the ovens are essentially woodfired pits. excellent food.

we found no chair in juchitan that was within my price range (100 bucks or 1000 pesos). the closest they have to what i want is a recliner. just a simple arm chair can only be bought in a set (love seat, couch, etc). the recliner is about 4000 pesos. i was bummed because i envisioned another week or more on the bed. when we got off thebus last night in ixtepec, victor spotted a chair across the street. the chair is, for my family, like the uva chairs in the basement. for everyone else, they are similar to ones at hotel pools or at the beach. wooden, collapsable, with a cloth that serves to support your body. victor talked the guy down 100 pesos and i know have a chair that only cost 30 bucks (300 pesos). pretty sweet deal. my entire bedroom set was 930pesos, or 93 bucks and includes bed, fan and chair. now i am complete. maybe i will buy a hammock in the near future (they handmake the most beautiful ones down here, incredible colors, designs, etc), but i am going to relax my spending for now. i get my first paycheck on thursday but still have about 500 or 600 of the original $1200 i came down here with.

my rent is 800 pesos per month and i think electric is 25 pesos per month. i only make about 8000 pesos each month, but that should be more than enough for me to save some cash until i have to start repaying student loans in december (can´t wait!).

well, i will write more tomorrow. hope you all had a great weekend and are doing well. write a comment if you get time.

some responses first. james, you are cracking me up. your view on life down here is definitely right on; grunt, point, shake your head, toss a few hand gestures and you are in there like swimwear. the mountains are pretty steep around here, but i hope to hiking maybe this weekend or next. i cannot find anyone around to roll with me. ¨what? mountains? coffee? silly american, why would you want to go up there? no no, hill people live up there, no one else goes!¨ some things do translate, people down here are scared of the hill people too.

ames, we do have a movie theatre in town. currently the film is the longest yard. will firefly make it? highly doubtful. in salina cruz there is a slightly larger selection, but i am still doubting it because they only play the biggest movies (they are dubbed i think). other than that, everyone in america should go see firefly! maybe it will come back on t.v.!

cuba, thank you for the page of arrested development quotes. i spent over an hour laughing and laughing and laughing. i can still picture and hear each person as they say their lines. A little over two weeks without even seeing a t.v. has been great. i miss movies. i have not had cable in about two years, so i really only miss movies. and the flag library. they had some great mysteries! morse, poirot, where are you?

as for the dancing, well, pretty much you need to get me in a group of people who i am pretty much guaranteed i will not see again. or, a group of people who can say whatever they want and i cannot understand. when both those situations occur simulataneously? yahtzee.

a large part of me wants to go to salina cruz this weekend and hang out with the other prof´s. but, it just means i will spend more money and speak less spanish, so i may just hang out here again. also, i really want to buy a comfortable chair for my room. each night i study for about three hours and i have to lie on the bed and it gets pretty uncomfortable. i do like the evenings because i go for a walk around town when i get home around 7:15 or so and then victor does not return until 9 mon thru thursday because he goes to a gym in town. i am tempted to join but i like having a few hours alone in the evenings with him. i go to bed by 10:15 or 10:30 nearly every single night and i get up around 6:45. i think i am just so tired from reading all day long. i am either typing some sort of lesson plan, finding a lesson plan/activity on the internet, checking e-mail, or reading and practicing writing spanish for about 12-14 hours a day. i read through lunch even.

also, i do not watch the telenovellas(spanish soap operas that come on at night) with victor. i can hear them in my room. predictable, high-tension music, loud talkers. it is actually kind of nice though because they speak without accent and quite clearly (drama!) so i can often understand them. i am almost to the point where i can predict what some will say next, and i can tell what kind of music will come on next. pretty funny stuff. i can´t believe he watches them. well, maybe i can. he is super nice to me, but what exactly does he have going on? nothing. not to be harsh, but seriously, how can you only have a microwave and nothing else. no hot plate? even in college dorm life i had a hot pot thing. i guess most single guys eat out down here. oh well.

back to the chair idea, i am bummed because there is nothing evening resembling a used furniture store around here. victor made me repeat what i was asking like five times in different ways before he even got what a used furniture store was. so, needless to say, nothing round here. i emailed all the profs and asked if they had an old chair they did not use. i have not had a single reply. there are numerous furniture stores in ixtepec, but they are all pricey. what do people do for cheap stuff? i have not figured that one out yet.

did i mention the earthquakes yet? the first time i visited campus exactly two weeks ago, yeah, two weeks, i was here for ten minutes when i noticed a small disturbance. i had not eaten anything in about 12 hours or more, so i assumed i was just hungry and dehydrated. then the two ladies who were with me asked me if i felt the shake. there are small earthquakes here fairly often. most i don´t even feel. as of today i have really only noticed 3. pretty weird, huh?

i think i a going to the city of oaxaca (an old, colonial city, capitol of the state i live in and supposedly an incredibly cultural place) with my roomate in a one week. we get the 16th off for holiday here, indepence day or something similar, and so a three day weekend. victor´s brother lives in a town just outside of oaxaca and we will have a free place to stay with them. the bus ride into the mountains will be interesting because the town is at around 8 or 9 thousand feet. there are some big mountains in between with, from what i hear, very very narrow roads, so the bus has to go slow (i hope). it should take about 5 hours one way, so i will have plenty of studying and resting time! i am pretty sure the bus we will take is one of the really nice ones so it should be very comfortable indeed.

i brought my own lunch today because the food is somehow getting worse. cheap, but worse. so granola and an apple it is!

have a great weekend, write me something if you check and have time, and go hokies!

quick funny story, then i am off to lunch

i started teaching four profesores this week, a few weeks before students start classes, so that they can review. they also don´t want a book and are more pleased with me talking about grammar and writing on the board. so we meet in one of the prof´s oficina, and the first day they don´t care anything about english except how well i can explain my sisters, my dad, why on earth i left all three of them behind in america to fend for themselves in such a big, strange place, etc.

at the end of class, hour session, araceli meekly whispers that she wants help with the past progressive, or passive voice in general (passive: the president said: mistakes were made; this sentence means essentially that the president admits there were mistakes, but i am not ready to blame someone. ) essentially, the passive voice, in my opinion, shifts emphasis onto either an unknown agent or places more emphasis on an undeserved subject (the president is protected by the c.i.a.; this sentence places emphasis on the president when really the c.i.a. is doing all the work)

no more grammar talk. promise.

so i am digging this lesson yesterday. we are all prof´s, working for the man, just little people, i am thinking socialism at its best here. unite, comrads! i am making fun of the president of the u.s., mexico, talking about the university policy makers down here (and why don´t i get more photocopies, print pages, etc?; damn the man!)

right. so the four teachers (who cannot be more than 30-38 yrs old) are the heads of their respective departments. ya. damn the man (or them, as the case may be). one of the prof´s walked me back to the building and enlightened me. i knew their jobs, their respective departments, but when they told me i failed to understand that they ran the departments.

he laughed and said that they all thought i was basically giving them a hard time and that none of them really took me seriously. oops. luckily, my spanish is bad enough and their english is bad enough that humor unites us more than anything else.

and here i thought i was making a great point. no, i was making an ass of myself. nothing new, nothing new.

i also have some other funny stories about today´s visit from my boss (what classes am i teaching? how many? i am giving what kind of evaluation for new students? how do i evaluate them? next week?). good times here in ixtepec. luckily, everything is tranquilo. very very tranquilo. (slow, at your own pace, soft, tranquil, you get the idea).

i got it! thank you amy for cluing me in to ebc. sorry i did not recognize the initials blair!

today another teacher from tehuantepec came up, along with my boss, to discuss the section of english that we both teach (level 5, the highest). i also found out that i am only teaching 2 sections, one level5 and one level2. they are supposedly hiring 3 more teachers. i count only one here, but . . . .

my boss, who is french canadien but has lived here for about 20 years, does not really get that it is difficult for new people to adjust here sometimes. alex, the other teacher who came up today, told me he felt the same way. i think she has lived here for so long she does not realize that it is quite difficult to adjust. for example, today she tells me i can use an overhead projector in class. great. then she moves on to something else. but wait, where is this projector? who do i talk to? where do i find this person that i should talk to?

an office worker came in and explained my health plan to me today. she spoke so fast andthere was so much noise outside that i got very very little of it. my boss sat next to me the whole time and when the office lady left my boss moved right on without helping to explain. she knew perfectly well i got almost nothing out of the explanation (because i laughed with alex that neither of us could understand her) yet seemed to care less. i am not sure how to describe her, but warm and helpful would not be the adjectives. i must be very agressive with anything that i want, which makes me feel almost like a jerk sometimes because i have to almost demand certain things from her (well, can you call migration because i won´t understand what they tell me and if i don´t get my workers permit i won´t get paid). but once i do, she acquiesces and everything is fine. then she tells me all about these programs and files for the students to use. aren´t they great? ok, but they are not on the server here in ixtepec so they are of no use to me. but i can use them in a few weeks. i need stuff to use right now and she does not seem to get it. she tells me she has a disc of sound files but that the content won´t work for my students. so why give them to me? so i can make my own. alex jumped in today at this point and said that i probably did not know where this function might be on the computer (everything is in spanish) and that she would have to show me first. oh, she says, sorry. alex later told me she does the same thing to him all the time. lucky for him, she is right next door to office. i am isolated in the middle of nowhere with no one to help me with anything.

ok, enough bitching. anyway, almost done for the day! i might venture to the market to buy some fruit tonight. i love that every little trip is an adventure in itself. what fruit is that? who knows! maybe it tastes good, though! for those who know my eating habits, things have changed a lot. i try just about everything now (i still don´t like a lot of it) because i realize it may be a while before i eat again. i have lost a fair amount of weight, but not too much. i walk a lot and sweat a lot so that has helped too. not to worry, i am eating and healthy, just slimmer now that most of my fatty quick food has been removed. i eat a lot of rice and noodles and soup, oddly enough, at lunch. of course, tortillas with everything just about.

so is katrina still all over the news there? people here still talk of it a little. cali, az did you guys even know there was a storm out east? kidding. write me!

hey everybody! hi dr. nick! i miss the simpsons sometimes, sorry.

ok, so i need to make two requests from everyone. please please please write comments. you think i am dumb, silly, amazingly witty and charming (well, i just assume you all think that), something! i love hearing from you guys. seriously, it is the highlight of my day to get a little comment from someone on here. i check this thing like five times a day during the week (no internet at home, lo siento).

the second thing is that unless your nickname is one quite unique, trevor greenphyr, por ejemplo, i need to have a little more. so, anyone know who ebc is? sad that this has become my obsession for the day, but i cannot figure it out (eddie clark is my only guess). so if torment is your game, don´t leave your name. otherwise, i get these ridiculous comments from web advertisers disguised as messages (these are the comments you see deleted) and i get excited for nothing.

you have no idea how much little things mean down here. hope all is well up north. go hokies!

another tehuantepec campus foto. mountains in distance, fairly empty 

another view from kitchen window. cloudy morning, mountains in distance 

view from residence at tehuantepec. beautiful but isolated 

tehuantepec campus where i stayed first two days, sunset 

view through middle area into kitchen(thru door) 

view from middle common area into outdoor-indoor patio (open air in middle of apt.) this is where the washer and clothes lines are. also, leads to open bedroom that we don�t use 

the other side of my bare room 

view from kitchen window out back 

mi cuarto 

primera fiesta 

i found the very first thing i wrote when i got to tehuantepec the first night. this was about 11 days ago and amazed me because i was so down when i wrote it. things change quickly down here.

Ok. So I put up a strong front, and I guess that is all it is. Had I my druthers, I would be back home immediately. But then, where is home exactly? Madison? Not the for the last four years. Working for antney isn’t hell but it is not what i want to do with my life. Would I be content in Madison? How can I make that decision sitting here in faculty housing in tehauantepec, oaxaca, thousands of miles away from my old blue ridges. yet, when I look out the window, I see mountains, beautiful, green, rising. That is where I need to be: rising. Allowing myself to sink into an abyss would be rather easy and also rather ridiculous. I told myself, and everyone else, I would be gone for years. Come back in two days? Hell no. why would I when nothing as far as a career waits for me in va? dad sounds like he is done with the business. what, am i going to ask him to start back and teach me? what about the thousands i spent on my education to be where i am? give all that up?

Six months. About 180 days. Then what? Will I still want to be here? Maybe not. So where to next?

The plain ride in to mexico d.f. was amazing. How can a city stretch for so many miles?

A large part of me wants to weep and quit. But where would that get me but wet, more dehydrated and broke? Keep going

¡Fiesta!

How can I describe the single most culturally ornate and marvelous event I have yet experienced in my 26 young years? El coliseum, no resemblance to those wild romans, yet I cannot delete this whole latin descriptor from my brain and this title does not help, is huge. For you yuppy gringos (I am scribing this description, so what does this say about me? don’t get offended just yet I have much more obnoxious material to follow), think maybe 12 volvos long by about 18 wide. Or, for those sports enthusiasts, imagine 2 basketball courts long and three wide. Why won’t I relent and use yards, feet, etc? because no one down here uses them and I am forcing you to join me in my incoherence.

Since I refuse to stick with one topic anyway, here is something for all of you to try at home. I have no way really to explain how my ignorance of language, customs, etc. impairs my daily existence. So as you cool in your refrigerated rooms, offices, whatever, begin doing everything for the rest of the day with your left hand (lefties, you get no easy out here, switch it too). Insert key and open door with your left hand; brush your teeth tonight with only your left hand; open the frig (my roomie victor and I have a frig that does not work but looks nice supporting the microwave) and grope for food with your left hand; dial numbers on your phone (again, I have none) with only your left hand. You want to cheat don’t you? No one is watching; go ahead. But remember, I cannot. When I get stuck for words or simply don’t know what is happening (why is that everyone understands my Spanish when I am paying for something and during rare other instances?), I cannot simply revert to the comfortable. No choice. Deal.

Ok, back to the event that you may actually think might not be so important now. You are wrong. My first fiesta in juchitan, neighboring city, was more than invitation only. The event, sponsored by one of the wealthiest families in the area, and believe me, juchitan is incredibly important in the history of the istmus of tehuantepec (where I live), was simultaneously the most formal, foreign and yet familiar affairs I have ever attended. La familia lopez hosts this annual event for the benefit of friends and family. the occasion? Celebration of life, love, food and friends. Ok, and inebriation to some extent.

To get in the front door you need a few items. First, the men must, absolutely must, wear a guayabera and dark, preferably black pants. I hate black pants, my legs are skinny enough as you all know, so I certainly brought none with me. So I wore dark green pants. Did I stick out some? I am white, remember? Silly question. I have my pants, black dress shoes and victor loaned my a guayabera, which is a lightweight white (or white-ish) longsleeve or shortsleeve shirt that one normally does not tuck in to the trousers. Don’t forget, I am over a foot taller than victor, and most everyone here, so hopefully the picture I took turns out. Either way, the shirt hangs down well below the belt (when the size is correct, which mine was definitely not!) and in my opinion, looks damn snazzy. I want one. Anyway.

I have my clothes, thus I only need one more item. Each male who enters the fiesta carries a case of bolletas de cerveza, or the little 6oz version of corona, xx, modelo, etc. where does one find such a commodity and if one takes public transport, how does one transport it? This particular Zapotec family like numerous others I hear, (did I mention that the family is an extremely old and well-connected group indigenous(zapotec is a culture, native lengua) to the area), made the genius decision of hiring an entire tractor trailer of corona and placing it right outside the front door. No joke. That is a lot of beer my friends. each male, as I was writing, carries this case like a u.s.a. waiter carries a tray of food, drinks, with one arm about shoulder level or higher. All males enter like this, no exceptions that I saw. Once inside, the male approaches the particular patriarch who has extended the invitation and hands it to him with many thanks for the invite. Case of corona botellas? 80 pesos(8 dolares).

Men, we have it easy. The female variety of our species have a slightly more involved routine, but when it comes to looking elegant, they often do. I did not bring my camera, though I wish I had, because I stick out (again, white, taller than every other person there, bad dancer, no hable) and did not want to look like a tourist at an obviously non-tourist event. The ladies were incredible. I have never in my life seen more meticulously designed and crafted dresses. Imagine every color you can. You cannot even imagine close to the myriad colors worn by these damas. Imagine floral designs. Hawaii, arguably, has something on them here, yet all of us estadounidense (a particularly difficult word to pronounce) have nothing similar (I should say that like many Hawaiians, I respect the desired autonomy of the Hawaiian islands) in our culture. Think hand-stitched patterns with lace, silk, velvet, fabrics I don’t even know about, and you are on your way. Incredibly ostentatious, but in a positive way because this is a celebration where you show off a bit how wealthy you are, or how skilled you are at sewing and creating. Floral arrangements (my only name for something this incredible), real and faux, imbedded in hair pulled back away from brightly painted faces, that all somehow highlight each other. Some have different colored hair weaved in as well, but in a manner that looks incredibly refined and beautiful.

All of these ladies, and there were some young girls (four years old) dressed just as elaborately bring something as well. Be it a bottle of fine tequila or other liquor (mainly tequila) or just simply cash, they present their gift to the matriarch who has graciously extended an invite to this incredible evening.

To set the scene a little better, and I like putting setting, character description et al out of order to give you an idea of how completely exotic this occasion was to me, we arrived around 9:30 or so and there were probably about 150-200 people already there. Now the coliseum, remember the Volvos, has about 500 or 600 chairs arranged around a large central area in a horseshoe shape so that everyone can see the newest arrivals. Above the entrance is a huge balcony (the ceiling is about four-five Volvos high) with a staircase separating two large open spaces. No longer open, the spaces contained equipment for the two (dueling, in my opinion) bands containing roughly 10-15 members each. Horns, bass, sax, drum sets, singers/dancers. Rocking music that played almost continuously the entire time.

Getting back to these chairs, they were arranged in about 24 sections. Each section had a main food/alcohol table at the back where the women and wait staff took control and the men were shooed away from in most cases. In front were oh, 10- 15 or so rows of about six folding chairs wide. If you like math and have decided to count, stop. I hate math and have no use for your helpful input about dimensions. Next to the six rows is a small isle and then another set of chairs two wide. Next to these chairs, perpendicular to them actually (think of a street that dead-ends into another), is another row that runs the entire length of the other rows. I refuse to go back and check to see if have created for you an accurate picture of these dimensions. Use your imagination.

Victor and I enter with the family husband and wife who invited us. Each of these 24 or so separate sections contains a different family and their friends. oh, but I know this person over across the room, let me go say hi. No. unless you take that family a case of beer, the boys stay where they are until invited (especially guerros). So we find our group, sit and immediately find cold beers thrust in our hands. A minute later, the first plate of food. Delicious foods, foods with names I don’t even know, were delivered throughout the entire evening/morning. I was introduced to about 15 people, stand, hug, shake, single kiss (right cheek to right cheek only), sit, stand hug kiss. Violet, one of the younger heads of her particular branch of the family, particularly enjoyed introducing me to everyone (show off the guerro). She also lavished alcohol on me. In the first hour she handed me at least ten coronitas. I could not drink them, but she seemed not care. The fact that the family could give me these drinks was the point.

Come back with me to the stand, sit, hug kiss shake part. The aisle,is wide enough for small children, not women in incredibly long, flowing dresses. My legs, to return to one of my least favorite subjects, stick out pretty far in chairs made for people much shorter than me (picture the knees about a beer bottle higher than the hips). I knocked into everyone around me, and no, I was not drunk, I just had no room. No one cared.

The first hour I simply sat with a huge smile on my face as I gazed dumbfounded at the costumes. When one band starts playing, the song is often fairly slow and without words and the women dance first, sometimes they ask men to join them. They move very slowly around in slow circles and raise their dress up. Before you think the zapotec’s scandalous and more ancient roman (Caligula) than anything else, keep in mind that under this outer layer of embroidered perfection, lies more lace and other stuff (I know nothing of women’s clothing) just as long. So they sashay in circles while moving their dresses in unhurried and deliberate motions. The lucky few males who are either patriarchs or invited, dance around these damas in larger, quicker circles. The feet do the talking here. Not quite riverdance, but something like that. Then more songs, more dancers, more alcohol, more food.

Luckily, the first band took a break forty-five minutes in. ready to relax? No, the second band starts up immediately. Repeat first dance sequence. Got it? Now imagine this happening every forty-five minutes or so. The whole night. Non-stop. How long did it go on? I will get that quite soon.

Violet snatched me up and pulled me onto the floor early on in the evening. We laughed (I could not talk or hear because the music was so loud, ok, and because I cannot speak Spanish too well, but you knew that) and danced around for a few songs. I sat. another older woman grabbed me and out again I went.

Is the coliseum cooled effectively? No. the few windows are located about three Volvos up, and the puny ceiling fans might as well have not even been on. Luckily, everyone was sweating. Of course, the ladies had the perfect accessories, elegant fans. They either had their own or were given some. No fair, the ladies get party gifts. They also have to wear uber-hot dresses and make-up and . . . you get the idea.

Food. Drinks. Dancing. Over and over and over.

Victor, by the way has a little novia, although I am not allowed to call her his girlfriend for reasons which I don’t quite understand. He has barely noticed I am there for much of the night, so if you guessed how much I stuck out by looks alone, imagine me unable to talk effectively to people, for several reasons. Sweet.

When he turns and declares vamonos, I am quite ready. Due to the sweating and dancing and eating, the 24 coronitas I have consumed don’t seem to be doing too much damage to me. As I contemplate this on the way to the cab to take us home (the police and army, guns and rifle often drawn, are keeping order outside all night, along with the beer truck and other vendors who showed up for the occasion), I ask for the time. We arrived at 9:30pm. Victor tells me it is a little after 3. wow, that might be why I am not drunk, though everyone did their best to get me and every other person there that way (and there were many many many people who were, let me tell you). No no, says a fellow partier next to us. 4:30am. Good god.

We get home around 4:45 or so (the cab ride itself deserves its own story) after a drive down back roads that takes a bus about 45 minutes to an hour to travel. Bed.

I have done no justice to this momentous gala, but I hope you get a vague idea. I am still amazed that I was invited and had the chance to take part in this, probably for me (insert cliché here) event. If I ever doubted living with a local, that has gone completely. Without victor I would have been in salina cruz at some discoteque. Words, although I have valiantly tried, do little justice to this experience. On top of it all, I was treated as part of the family, albeit a family of about 500, and to be included in something like this truly shows me the welcoming and gracious demeanor of a culture (I know I lose all credibility generalizing here) that I am slowly getting to know. Extraordinary, staggering, zapotec.

my roommate teaches business administration stuff, i think. his english is pretty decent, but he, and i agree with him, would rather speak spanish, mainly to force me into learning. when i really cannot understand something, then he puts it into english. our levels are about the same, but he has more english vocab than i have spanish.

no one in town speaks english, which is pretty normal. the indigenous community resents the fact that they have to use spanish, so the inclusion of english as well really rubs many people the wrong way. as the community is forced to become more global, the indigenous attributes start to become stronger. it makes sense, as new ideas are introduced, people realize what they are giving up and try and hold onto traditions. the same happens all over the world. there are some kids here at the university during the day. they are high school grads who are trying to test in to the university. this university is free for them; all they need are good scores to get in (my campus is business, accounting and computer science). all of the courses are taught in spanish, so some students have no english ability at all. i really have no contact with them right now (or anyone else for that matter) because i am working on my own lessons and i have the building to myself.

next week i am going to start teaching english to four faculty/employees at the university for three hours or so a week. it is part of my work day, so i do not give up lunch or anything, because the university wants to get all they can out of me. i am going to try and use these same people to help me with my spanish, which i am sure they will not mind.

as of now, i am the only member of the language department in ixtepec. my boss just told me she is going to hire four teachers instead of three, and that another teacher is expected to arrive the third week in sept. i will believe it when i see it.

i still feel pretty isolated here. the people are very nice and friendly, but we have no real way to communicate other than in spanish. i have seen a lot of improvement in my spanish abilities over the past week and i continue to work on it through the books i brought with me for about 2 to 4 hours a day. it is difficult to work all day in english (making lesson plans, messaging the other teachers about class stuff) and then transition into spanish at lunch and after school. oh well, that is what this is all about. at first it felt kind of defeating: if i do not figure out how to make two languages work, i will be very unhappy. now, i just see it as something that must be done. do or do not: there is no try. thank you yoda. where would the world be without star wars (kate, brian can you tell me?)?

oh well, back to work!

i think i have decided to avoid hanging out with the other english teachers. i need to work on spanish and this area should have lots going on with festivals all weekend. plus, i like the beach, but i don´t know if i am ready to just go sit in the sun all afternoon. there is so much for me to see and do, i am going to take advantage of this are!

i got a little sick yesterday evening, it was bound to happen, but my roommate came home last night and made me drink this vile children´s mixture (essentially eloctrolytes) and then made me dehydrated milk and heated some pieces of bread. i told him i was fine and he completely ignored me and watched me eat it all. i normally eat only a large lunch and a snack at night (the heat has made me lose my appetite) so i was pretty much choking down the bread in the end. but, i woke up this morning feeling great so it looks like victor (roomie) was right. i think i just got really dehydrated yesterday, combined with the food maybe. i thought i would be sick much more than i have been (i really hope saying this doesn´t backfire again) so i have been lucky so far.

lunch a la universidad. lunch is fairly good (well, sometimes) at the university, although my roomie won´t eat here. i go into the cafeteria (small orange and yellow circular building with probably twenty tables, differnt sizes, wooden, clean, fairly empty when i usually arrive) and order whatever the lunch specail is for the day. i almost always am surprised by what i get. i know the main words for types of food, but the variations throw me. today i had what were essentially taquitos, some sort of green soup, noodles with an almost parmesean sauce, tortillas on the side and fresh watermellon juice. 23 pesos. 2.3o u.s. dollars. great price, not bad taste, although green soups disturb me. something about a soup that looks like algae.

i sit with los profesores, today only one, and wait to see how long it takes for them to get tired of talking to me. it normally takes about 5 minutes but the adventurous will continue to try througut the meal. i have met everyone, but all at the same time in the span of oh, about 20 minues, so there are thirty or forty names which completely escape me. that, as you might guess, is the least of my worries. so they prod me with questions: where am i from, why am i here, where have i lived, when have i been to mexico, aren´t i hot. if it only takes the person two or three times repeating the same question before i get it, i feel great. everyone now and then the interlocutor will simply look at another profesor with a smile and a shrug and in my mind i hear the bell for the next round. i turn to the next contestant and ask my own question, which normally comes out jumbled.

a point of clarification here. when i jumble words it sounds silly. when a native jumbles whole sentences, it is supposed to be normal communication. it is like ventriliquism in a way, sometimes the speaker does not ever seem to open his mouth (i use the masculine pronoun because there are only a few female profesores, and they do not sit with us).

the men can be jocular and use many hand jestures and strange noises to get their points across. exactly. my kind of communicators. it´s like they know perfectly what i need. you are talking about how big something is compared to something else? sure, move your hands around and mimic something else. talking about the past? hell ya, point over your shoulder to really get the point of the preterite tense home to my sensitive anglo ears. i love it. eventually, however, they tire of repeating themselves as a group and move into what must be conversation but sounds like a tape recorder stuck at scan forward.

and then, silence. once a person finishes eating, he sits there and looks around. ten minutes later, the whole table is fairly silent (we all order separately so the food is staggered when it comes out of the cocina). right again. time for me strike. i jump in with a few questions about the weather around here or something like that, and suddenly, lunch is over. they are all very nice about it, but i can tell that the bout is over. i have not won their respect but i have extracted some amount of patience out of them. i feel strange because i have sat there with a smile on my face for about 30 minutes. were they laughing at me? who cares! how would i know?

i dread lunch a little bit because most prof´s leave campus to eat. i don´t feel like spending more money on a bus back into town to spend more on food, so i stay put. today a few of my standby contestants bailed out and sat at a table of six made into eight. feeling snubbed that they seemed to have purposely made it so that i could not squeeze in at all? no way, i found the odd man out and harassed him for awhile.

lunch is an adventure. then again, so is going to the main offices to get more water (as i say this i have not been really sick yet, please please please don´t let this jinx me).

¿mi officina? ¿el centro de idiomas? ya, i am the only one in it. well, the computer people have the office next to me, but they bought an a.c. unit and so keep their door shut. i leave my door open yet have had no visitors. my boss works 30 miles away along with the other english speakers. here i sit in a brand new campus less than three years old. everything is just constructed or under construction (they are digging a well because my building has baños but no agua), and sort of empty in way. or maybe it is just my building. i will try to bring my camera next week and take some picks for you to see this place. nearly surrounded by green, lush mountains that no one at this school ever goes into for fear the critters living there. but, they grow coffee up there somewhere, so i hope to go in the next month or so.

hey caroline,
thank for your concern. i will be fine without the a.c., i am already getting used to everything. i wil let you know how to send me stuff, it may be easier to do it through my university. also, send me your email because i do not have it at school. i am online all day. if you have msn messenger, we can talk through that. my hotmail account is will_i_m@hotmail.com.

it is now 1:56pm (i am one hour behind east coast)

amy, caroline, tim,
sorry i just deleted your comments. i was trying to get rid of multiple copies of the same entries and, as i might have mentioned, this whole website is in spanish, i accidently hit the wrong button. i promise i won´t do it again, so please make more comments!

amazing how fast things change. i am starting to like it a lot more down here now that i have a place to live and am getting along better with the language. the first month will be damn difficult, there will not be another english teacher in town for about 28 more days, but with no one else to talk to, i have to learn the language. this is an interesting experiment for all you tesl people. how fast can the guerro aprendir español? we shall see.

the town i live in is quite small, but starting last night, september is festival month, so every day there is a party at night. cool except that i have to work in the morning. fireworks, dancing, music all last past 1am or 2am every night (the days are separate indigenous festivals, so when one group sleeps, the next prepares for the following day).

i love the food here, but the town is kind of expensive in that respect. no competition. where else you gonna go, guerro? exactly. all the people are curious and quite friendly for the most part. the other prof´s here are patient with me but deep down i can tell they are disappointed my spanish is not better. in a few months, it should be. the hardest part is getting down the dialect. they slur and don´t pronounce so many syllables i have to keep asking them to repeat themselves. ah, what the south must be like for a foreigner!

caroline, when i say no one speaks english, i mean except for my roomate, no one knows much more than simple greetings. a.c.? if i did get it next month, when i have enough money, all the locals would laugh at me even more. that is their number one question right now: are you hot? my roomate asked me if i had gripa(flu) because i sweat so much. jackass. no, i am a gringo remember.

anyway, all is much better than last thursday. reading my first blog seems like reading someone else´s feelings. i am much happier now that i feel more comfortable with my job. i do communicate with the other english prof´s in tehuantepec(location of another branch of this university) through instant messaging. no phones! they are extremely helpful and i might go to the beach with them this weekend. i probably should stay here and work on my spanish, but we will see.

well, i am getting paid to teach english to non-native speakers, so i guess i should go learn how to do that. i told my boss i don´t know what i am doing and she just laughed. apparently, no one does until they start down here. the students? we will see if they resent me as much as i hear they did the last teachers. kind of like teaching in orange, except i won´t know what they are saying about me! yeehaw.