i cannot really put into words how happy my level 5 class makes me. they try really hard, have nearly perfect attendance and make me look like i know what i am doing. yesterday they had to read one particular article on the internet about hurricane katrina and write a brief summary of it for homework. one of the students missed class. i asked the other students to read their summaries at the start of class. the student who missed listened to all the summaries and when the last person had read, he raised his hand. while the others were talking he absorbed their information and wrote a summary of his own. rockstar. i was impressed because i never asked him to do it and his summary was quite good. i used him as the example ofwhat i want the other students to do: take initiative.

happy happy joy joy

then the class had a discussion about movies, actors etc. i had to explain why i do not like romance films to which all the boys heartily took up my cause. then i asked about telanovellas (soaps) and all the girls gushed about their favorites. then they turned in the boys who at first denied watching them. pretty funny.

finally, i made them work in pairs to come up with an idea for a movie or tv show. they needed to pick actors, themes, etc. when i was walking around, one group shut their notebooks as soon as i came near them. being the caring, kind and extremely nosey person that i am, i immediately rushed over to see what they were doing.

the place: ixtepec, oaxaca, mexico. the scene: universidad del istmo. the plot: by day he is a teacher of English, by night he roams the town looking for victims to suck their blood. he is william david jordan III, american vampire. their title is death of the vampire, but i am hoping they make some pre-quels so that my character can star in a few more if the first is popular in theatres. also, they were thinking about keanu reeves or brad pitt to play me. except for the fact that i drink blood and i die at the end, i was pretty flattered.

life is good again. i told the boys we could not be friends last night because my spanish was not improving and i needed to go home and read. they claimed i had misunderstood earlier conversations and immediately took me to buy me dinner. i was happy and i practiced my spanish a good bit. also, i spoke to a couple high school students who work at the restaurant and they are going to bring me some books they use in class: history and dracula (bram stoker). ¡maravilloso!

i also started reading dickens`s great expectations in spanish this morning while i had my coffee with the boys. i am able to understand a good bit of it and in ten minutes read four pages. not stellar, but it made me feel good. of course dickens is a bear to read in english at times, so a lot of his adjectives and painfully long sentences seem even more glaringly difficult in spanish. oh well, so it goes.

happy happy. hokies hokies. good ole con-vick sparked another hokie victory. watch out wahoos, we are coming to town in a few weeks!

happy birthday carolina! the big 30. greg, she is catching up to you!
have a great weekend all. i am going to ojo de agua on saturday and juchitan to look for a clock battery and get a haircut on sunday. i am a little nervous about the haircut. no of you gave me any advice. i really do not like short hair in general because every few months you have to cut it. long hair, believe it or not, is much simpler. it requires no thought. cut a circle around the bottome. easy-peasy.

here is a thought for you all. mexico is big. i think the usa forgets just how large this country is. i noticed because i am starting to think about my guatemala trip in december. the buses only go to the border, then you have to cross the border and get another bus. i guess that makes sense, but i do not see why the bus isn´t like a plane that travels from one country to the next. oh well. there is a lot i do not know so this should not be too surprising.

gooooo, hokies, go.