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.