being careful what i eat no longer matters, at least for the next six months, so that is another positive i can take away from this. and the fact that worms are much less frightening than amoebas. they have those in d.f. and scores of other places from what i hear. i have no desire to ever meet those crazy critters.

paco and the gang have advised me to make friends with my wormy compatriots. considering everyone down here either has them or some version of them or another at some time, i guess it is no big deal.

bed bugs, on the other hand are still not my friends. they do not actually live in my bed, but they come in my room at night when the light is on and wait on my bed until i lie down. then they like to crawl on me or just fly around my face. i do not like them. at least they do not bite me, normally, like the ants and evil flies and mosquitos. the skeeters have actually chilled out recently. not to worry, however, as i have been informed that they are merely saving their strength for november when they have some sort of million mosquito march and decend upon the countryside like so many of my countryfolk to walmart each weekend. exciting. i shall be breaking out my mosquito net yet again for this new attach.

i bought a frig this weekend. the joy of ice-cold water. really a great thing. and as i was informed by arash, eng prof here, and his girlfriend (a nurse), my gusanito friends cannot live in such cold temperatures. yippee. now i am going to buy a bed frame to raise me up off the floor. i initally balked at such an expenditure, why buy a frame that costs more than my bed itself, but i am slowly giving in to these things. it will make mopping each week with clorox that much easier. i am probably going to be sticking around here for another six months. i bitch a lot about everything here, but the money is quite good for the actual work that i do, and do i really want to deal with picking up and finding another place to live, deal with all the visa stuff somewhere else, etc., just to leave there in another six months? no. plus, i have a strong base of friends and the eng profs here have pretty much made a pact that we are all going to stay here through next term as well. that has never happened in ixtepec before (all the english profs staying for two contracts), which is a testament to, well, our laziness or reluctance to find other work. you choose for yourself.

i have not really updated my spanish ability in a while, which makes me realize i am coming along quite well. sure, i am not fluent by any means, but i have all forms of basic communication down and apart from regional expressions and the like, i understand most of what people say. of course there are many exceptions, but each day i learn a little more and each week i improve. in six months i should be pretty fluent and my reading ability should be great as well. we will see. i speak a lot more english now that the other profs have arrived and since i teach english every day, but i am learning to mix the two fairly well.

i cannot believe i have been here for almost 7 weeks. time is starting to fly a bit. also i am glad to stay here because this place is a good jumping off point for visits to other parts of the country and for my next big adventure, guatemala, which i hope to visit over xmas break. who knows. there is so much to see and do down here that one year really will only provide me with a basic knowledge. oh well. i am excited to think of the next jump, possibly brasil to learn portugues, but that is quite far off and i must learn spanish first.

hope all is well. hokies hokies hokies. go hokies!