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.