Profesores de Inglés: M.A. Wiliam J Dawib, M.A. Arash Farzaneh, B.A. Sally Lindsey Kernick.

huh, so where is my name? oh yes, they managed to spell every other name correctly on the list printed out for all students and faculty, but somehow they screwed up william and davis. really. farzaneh? how did they get that right? i had to check twice while i was just typing it.

dawib. wiliam. william is even a name used by some people down here. dawib. what is that, pakistani? indian?

it is times like this, and when i think about how pissy i was yesterday, that i have to realize that i am here to learn spanish, have fun, and teach. yes, in that order dammit. so the administration is crazy? i won´t be here in a year, maybe not in six months, so who cares? i do like the people and the students are generally good, so really i have no big problems. i guess i am so used to bitching about something that i have forgotten why i am here. i need to stop doing that.

revelations book2: i have been reading a spanish literature reader geared for 3rd year lit students of spanish in the states. last night i picked up more everyday type of magazine, a readers digest for spanish speakers, and got into it. i am going to put on hold the high-brow reading and just get the handle of everyday language. i gave my lit book to some of my friends who are teachers and they just laughed. they had to look up words too! i like reading literature, so i will come back to it, but i think it is time to just try the casual approach. i will become more familiar with common terms and just get more comfortable with the language i think. yay for readers digest! never thought i would say that one.

life is good. the worms have either left or found a way to co-exist with me. i don´t care because my stomach has settled some and i am eating better and sleeping less than 11hrs a day now. i actually stayed up until 11pm last night. big deal considering there were days i went to bed at 8:30pm to wake up at 7am. and i was taking a 1-2 hour nap each day. i won´t go into specific detail about my bowels, but there has been some improvement there. i may visit the doc once more for that, but otherwise all is well.

i only have 4.5 months left on my contract. wow. i think i will stay,but honestly, who knows? ¿quien sabe? i may head off to another city in mexico and peddle my teaching wares there. or i may take the lazy route and stay here where the money is easy, the weather is stifling and i have a great base of amigos. time will tell for this gringo, so i am holding off decisions.

yes, my boss is crazy. so what, lots of bosses are crazy. at least mine is at a distance and in reality has absolutely no say over what i do. life is good.

i was thinking about this last night as i tucked myself, and my bug friends, in to sleep: i need no longer try to prove people wrong. i remembered a conversation i had with a grad school friend from last fall (you have no idea the random thoughts, dreams, experiences that course through my mind each night). we got quite heated and we both came away pissed off a bit and our friendship never recovered (to be honest, that friendship had taken negative turns months before that, so it was not the turning point by any means). we both refused to accept the others position. i can say that i gave much more than the other person by way of accepting concessions (i mean, i am writing this, i can say whatever i want), but i think the fundamental problem was that i was unwilling to completely admit to being wrong and the other person would not even back down a bit. there is no absolute. i still deny that if you showed a picaso painting to a school boy from somalia that he would recognize it as ¨Art¨. i do not believe in these types of absolutes. i think there are levels, of course, especially with literature of what is high, middle and low, but that determining those is no easy task and cannot be delegated to one person. my boss, and this blows me away, thinks english is crass and an ugly language. i wanted to smack her in the mouth when she implied this to me yesterday in front of some students. i was ready to scream at the no good little french-canadian fool; but then i realized how sad her life must be if she believes it. she teaches english. she hates it? i am a vegan and a butcher. good god.

all i can really do is explain my position and hope the other person(s) listen(s). if not, tough noogies for them. it is like a debate about religion. why? does talk radio really change any minds (i should footnote that but i cannot remember the author fromt the Atlantic Monthly- dutch, any help?)? no, it does not.

if i ever collect all this crap and try to publish some for of it, i want some stupid sub-title like ¨y-rant?: bitching from a different chair in the room¨ oh well. if you read this far, i guess i should apologize.

peace in the middle east.