happy birthday amy! this damn blogger thing is not working again i am afraid.

another update- the last post i wrote over a week ago and have been trying to publish. maybe i will keep this site. i must say i hate blogger right now though.

in oaxaca there is more violence and almost 7 months later there is no solution to the conflict. 7 people died last weekend and it will probably just get worse as neither side appears to be giving anything.

hokies? uva(uva, by the way, means ¨grape¨ in spanish- vt means nothing. not sure what that says). i did not watch the game but read about it today. sweet. action.

i went to a blues festival on saturday. this city is incredibly fun and has something new everyday. i cannot say enough how happy i am here.

hope all is well up there. we are in exams right now so i am at school less but grading more. give and take.

I am done with blogger. i made a few posts that showed up blank over the last two weeks, and it sapped my desire to write more. if you have ever written a document/paper and had the computer not save it before being able to print, etc., then you you know the feeling.

I am going to look for a new blog site that is better and actually works.

it has gotten quite cold here. nights in the 30´s, days in the low 40´s. i have a vest and a rain jacket. slightly unprepared for this weather, but i bought a new blanket which keeps me warm at night. just like air conditioning, there is no heat in this country (outside of upscale hotels where i dont go unless a friend comes in town that works for a big company that will pay all sorts of cash for a huge, comfortable room- yes, for this and other reasons, i want my friend to come back and visit again). thus, most teachers are sitting around in their offices in big sweaters and gloves. the students look like icecubes. for the most part, i love it. when it gets cold i put on a stocking cap and am fine. i love the cold. i cant wait for it to snow (it snows in the surrounding mountains). most of the cold weather has to do with the location i believe. we are well over 8000ft, higher than flagstaff actually, which offsets the fact that we are so far south. chilly.

to counteract this, i have been eating incredibly spicy food. i now make my own salsa, which really has been a long time coming, and doing a fantastic job of it. two of my friends who live in apt building and i cook about twice a week, and one person always makes the salsa (we all like very spicy food). it has been a lot of fun actually. i like cooking in general, but it is more fun with a few friends and a dart board. it passes the time i guess.

i also began making hot wings. really, this was bound to happen as my penchant for our fine feathered friends has exponentially increased each month i went without them. i also make my own sauce for these bad boys, which although does not quite burn your fingers, sets every other part of the skin (and tongue) it touches on fire. not a good idea to touch the wings and then touch any other part of your face (a lesson i learned when trying to blow my nose- the sauce is also a wonderful decongestant.) good times.

yesterday was revolution day. holiday. long weekend. i stayed in town and hung out with friends and actually did some work yesterday. the runner-up in the presidential election officially declared himself the ¨official/moral¨ president of the country and a few parades were canceled due to protestors marching in the streets. good to know that almost five months later there are still problems with the presidential election. no was killed, however, so i think that is a positive.

i have my schedule for next semester. i will not be full-time in name, but will be working almost 19 hours a week and getting paid more. although i wont make as much as a full-time person, it will be more than enough to relieve me of having to do private lessons. i also will have a new schedule- i start teaching at 730am every day. this is good and bad. more good than bad though as i will finish each day at 1330. this leaves my afternoons free, although i will be teaching a small portion of my friend´s university literature classes twice a week. he has meetings during the first 30 minutes of each class, so i will begin with them. pretty good deal, he pays me, and i get to teach the literary theory component of the class- cuban b, who is taking another lit theory class right now knows how much fun this should be. no, i actually like theory and only teaching these kids basic concepts and major theorists should be fun.

i am no longer teaching esl classes. i am teaching 3 literature classes (folklore-mythology from all over the world, including a lot of native american works) and two media and culture classes. the second set of classes should be very interesting as it is essentially a rhetoric and lit course blended together. this schedule is perfect for me. i am actually teaching the courses i went to school to teach. i did not think i would be able to do this in a foreign country. in short, i am extatic. i am also going to start of literature group with a colleague of mine and we are going to recruit other professors and university students to participate. our goal is to create publishable texts: articles, short stories and poetry. this is also something quite exciting as 1 year ago i never imagined anything like this happening.

as usual, i am quite upbeat about everything. a few weeks ago there was ver bad news from my pops, not a health concern thanfully, and though this put me in a bad mood for a while, you cannot live like that forever.

i will extend an invitation to any and all who would like to visit mexico, but i know that it is extremely unlikely anyone will take advantage of it. understandable. if peaches is still out there, please know that you are also invited. do you have any more hints for me peaches? your identity is as unknown to me as the number of times i have died my hair.

and jimmy d, yes, you are correct. i do need a digital camera. let me get through december and once i start getting paid again in late january i will make an investment.

on a side note, i have thought of unplugging my refrigerator to save money. if the air in the house is as almost as cold as that in the frig, it would be silly not to do so (unless you want to argue that the internal thermostat would automatically stop the motor from coming on if this were indeed the case- you would be wrong bc the freezer portion is also located inside the regular frig part. and as the only thing in the freezer is coffee my friend caro brought me in september, i think this would be ok.).

if any of you have any favorite mark twain short story title you want to share, let me know. i am working on the assignments for my folklore-myth class and want to find some good writers(preferable from the usa and also from the south) to introduce the kids to. if these stories can be found online, well, you just made my job that much easier.

this had better work this time.

Happy Birthday Doughman!

i hope you have a great day and a relaxing weekend. If you find out the news today, or by monday, please let me know (not through the blog, send me an email to will_i_m@hotmail.com).

also, yesterday was my god-daughter´s, alexi natalia chavez rodriguez vega, birthday. she is now the big 1.

here is to you both!

today is the second day of the dead. today is for adults, yesterday was for the children. a celebration of the dead and remembrance of the departed. really, it is a lot more healthy than it might initially appear on the surface. the dead are said to be able to communicate with the living, and this is why there are offerings on graves. to appreciate the dead, the living make offerings of the dead´s favorite things- food, drink, clothing, anything.

i must say that in oaxaca this holiday was a lot stronger. perhaps the people in the city have lost some of their heritage. perhaps they have other things to do. i wont judge this, but i must acknowledge the difference. it is striking.

on a positive note, my papa´s birthday is tomorrow! happy b-day doughman! man, 75 years come and go like a flash don´t they? the last time i saw you, over a year ago, you didn´t look a day over 73, so you´ve got that going for you at least. good to hear you are getting the crops up with little problems. are you playing tennis? shooting?

a positive for me is that i will have a slightly different job next semester. i am going to be teaching bilingual students (their english is comparable with an average high schooler in the states amazingly) in an advanced program. we will do literature, cultural analysis (advertising, film, bias, government and media, propaganda, etc). also, i will be teaching advanced writing and critical thinking skills. in other words, this will be like teaching very high level school kids or low level university students. in short i am really excited. my main supervisor and another friend spoke to the main boss and told her that what i am currently teaching (esl) is not utilizing my training and background. i will know next week what my schedule will look like, but this is something i am very happy about for numerous reasons. i like what i am doing now, but as i have said numerous times, this is not really my future. teaching literature and critical thought courses, on the other hand, is exactly what i want to do.

however, until a contract is signed, this is all just possibility. fun to dream a bit.

after a long wait, i have an address. it is very very long, but here it goes.

ITESM-CCM
William Davis
Departamento de Inglés
Oficinas 2, 3 piso
Calle del Puente 222
Colonia Ejidos de Huipulco
C.P. 14380
México - D.F.


yes, there are 8 lines. i recommend doing it just like that and try to remember the accent marks (although if they are missing, it should not be a problem).

i welcome any and all mail and thank you in advance for it. do tell me when you send it so i can tell the secretary to be on the lookout for me.

ok, off to grade exams. just over two weeks left of class and then final exams! wow.

last night was interesting for numerous reasons. a friend from oaxaca (she is from the capital city not feliztepec) came to town for work and called me to go out. as i dont work on friday until 1130, of course i went. we went to dinner in a fancy-pants area, her company put her up in an amazing hotel in the zona rosa (which is, along with roma and condesa, the trendiest to place in the city right now) and then went to get a drink.

she begins telling me about the teacher strike in oaxaca (yes, almost 6 months later, the kids are still not in school and nothing is really being resolved). a rather beautiful colonial city has gotten uglier and uglier as more people live in the street, spraypaint 400-500 year old buildings with childish graffiti (no matter what you think of the cause, the decorations look like the handiwork of the 8 year olds who are not currently in school- save for the fact that 8 yr olds give a good god damn about politics). the kids cannot go to school with professional teachers (i use the word professional quite loosely here) and when a group of parents got together to teach the kids a few hours a day, they were physically blocked by teachers. sweet.

also, the children cannot go to the parks and play because so many of the union members (it is not just teachers who are angry, many other groups have jumped on the pile) cannot all fit into the shit-strewn (this image is literal and figurative) historical center (zócalo) so they have spread to some neighboring parks to, well, protest (read- make handicrafts to sell to foreigners who stand under spraypainted walls that say- fuera extranjeros- foreigners get out and other anti-capitalist propaganda). thus, the kids are rather afraid to go the parks as they dont want to get involved in any of it. also some undesireables are part of the cause, and this worries parents.

one teacher went against the union and stated that he wanted to return to work. he was found with his throat cut soon after. no arrests were made.

can´t you just taste the pride that i feel when i tell people here in the city i was ¨a teacher in oaxaca¨?

if you are caro, or one of the stragglers from oaxaca who is reading this, you will probably mock me (as caro did numerous times) for my new stance. i have turned a bit on this teacher revolution. true. however, i also feel that the initial struggle was somewhat just. i do not think that this continued effort to remove a (corrupt) politician (i think the two words are redudant: you choose which one you want to use) is winnable, nor do i think that this should stop school (keep in mind the teachers are still being paid normal salary).

see caro, you can leave the country but not completely.

my friend visiting from oaxaca who told me a lot of the above wants the govt (military) to come in and bulldoze everything. including the people. i will leave that for you as a sentiment that many in this country have (not all of course).

anywho, enough seriousness for one day.

while having a few drinks, chatted for an hour or two and listened to some incredibly loud enlgish 80´s music, mixed with mexi-rock. as my friend was essentially dancing in her chair, and doing her best to involve me, i asked if she wanted to go find a club to dance (if you have known me before this country, you understand the lunacy of this proposition coming from me). this, apparently, was what she was waiting for, as she finished off her drink and attempted to kill mine as well in an effort to get to the club asap.

we went to one place with a cover (boo), so i hesitated and she kindly assented. we found a second place (they are literally feet away from each other in this neighborhood) without a cover. my my, i mused when we entered, sure are a lot of boys in here. hmm, there seem to be 4 girls, and one of them is with me.

i need not tell you that i was welcomed with open arms and offers of drinks, until they saw my friend holding onto my arm (the moment of confusion in their eyes was precious). we (my friend and i, not the dudes and i) danced a bit, then, shockingly, closed at midnight. i know. how does that happen?

well, the next place had a small cover but live music. we entered.

mistake.

the band, though energetic, was a salsa band. this is not exactly something i can fake too well (dance floor in center, women and men twirling rapidly, somewhat frenetically, in all directions). next thing i know, i am in the middle of semi-professional dancers and making a fool of myself. not to mention sweating like a whore in church. but, i must say i had a grand time. my friend is a good dancer and did her best to lead me, well, into not hurting her or other people in the general vacinity. success.

i want to learn how to salsa dance. it seems like a lot of fun, but i fear it may be beyond me. let´s be honest- it is beyond me.

in case you were wondering, the answer is yes- i have now shaved outside, in front of about 150 spectators. i also shared a sink and shaved simultaneously with a young man who has the beard capabitlities of me at 13(nonexistant). as you might have guessed, there was a free promotion and i received a vibrating razor (don´t laugh as this is quite real and made by gillette), a little towel that i can now use as a sweat towel at the gym and deodorant. there was no way i was passing this up anyway, but all my students (this happened out in front of the classroom building) were trying to get me to go. one of my best students, whose english and knowledge of coloquial phrases is often frighteningly good, told me the hottest girls in the world ¨touched his face¨ and he fell in love. in his words- ¨billy, you gotta go¨.

as advertised, the girls were gorgeous and argentine (south american women, at least from brazil and argentina, what is up down there?). i walked down the steps from the building and found a beautiful young lady speaking to me in italian-sounding spanish- again, i so want to go to argentina- about the beneits of vibrations aloe-vera and vitamin e. ya, i was not really paying attention to the words perse, but then she reaches out and cradles my face in her gloved hands. weird. her hands, oddly, were vibrating (special gloves that imitate the movement of the razor). she asked me if i wanted to try a demonstration, get free shit, lah blah blah. i asked if she would be in line wth me, she said no. as my heart sank, i saw the prize in the crappy box of cereal- free stuff. also there were plenty of other women to entertain us in line (women were turned away, even those who wanted to shave part of their legs, not just get a free razor for their boyfriends). sorry girls. boys only. yahtzee

i will write more about this next week bc it just turned funnier and funnier. have a good weekend knowing that the hokies crushed clemson (after getting whipped twice earlier this month, i know).

do you ever do things to provoke a reaction? i like to ¨tap on the glass¨ so to speak. this was the way i described my personality in the istmo, to a large extent. i brought up politics and almost always chose the opposite side of whomever i was talking with. it was fun. for me. well, my post about ladies from the istmus has indeed provoked a reaction. i thought there might be a few lingering students from there who read this blog. i was right. and apparently, at least one of them is a female. and she seems nonplussed to say the least (that was the comment about me not being able to handle istmeñas and that chilangas (females from the d.f.) were more my speed. touché). sometimes you have to rattle the cage to see if there is still anything left inside.

anyway, that is that.

peaches. we are going in circles here. i again claim that i have never been to the four corners, which means that some of the information you have given me is difficult to place. ok, so it has only been a few years since we saw each other/ spoke. where was this? va? ca? az? co? nm? nv? i need a tad more info because i am still a little lost. also, you could write me using a nondescriptive email addy.

doughman- why are you going to switch from corn in the middle of the harvest? is the corn too moist? that is too bad about butchy. tell antney that if he needs someone to help him run the new business or any help at all to let me know. but tell him that if he needs money, he better talk to a bank. or is the First Doughy Bank still open?

c-line- let me see if i can explain what is going on with me. i work for the tecnológico de monterrey, a great high school/ undergrad/ grad school with 33 campus in the country. there are two in the capital city (where i live now- el distrito federal, d.f., or mexico city to be clearer) and 31 others spread throughout the country. the high school has about 3,000 kids. the uni about 7,000. a good size really. it is one of the best schools in the country, and it is definitely the most expensive. the campus is technologically hooked up- there are power sockets at every bench and table on campus, and wireless internet allows everyone to use their laptop (required) anywhere and at any tme.

the campus is in the south of the city, about an hour by metro from the city center. i live about 15 minutes walk from campus in a residential area with trees, great restaurants, big grocery stores, a movie theatre and just about everything you could want. it even has very little traffic and only light pollution.

i work 15 hours a week. 2 hours m/w/f and 4.5 tu/th. easy load really. i have an offer for next semester although i doubt i will get full-time. my classes next semester should be more advanced and i will be teaching more advanced writing and critical thought classes (there are some incredibly advanced students here).

the kids are good on the whole. quite trendy, a little bit like 90210 as far as dress and fashion go- they make me look like an old man with no taste. the truth hurts i guess.

i love where i live. there is something to do at all times, which is a nice change. also i have some very good friends here.

my spanish is still progressing. i take a class twice a week with a prof on campus- my dept pays for the class. fluent is not a word i would use to describe, but very funcitonal. i can do and explain almost anything i want- although i felt stupid in the grocery store yesterday. i was checking out and put my little basket under the conveyer belt (the store is owned by wal-mart so it looks the same as the usa grocery stores- with many of the exact same products actually). the man at the check looked at me and asked me for something. i had no clue what he wanted; i dont drive-obviously- so i had no ticket for him to validate; i have no savers-card- you know, vip, mvp, whatever. thus, i was stumped. he repeated his question when i asked him what he said. i then blankly, and quite sadly, said a phrase i hate to use- i don´t understand. he then explained it- i want the thing you just put on the ground- ah! the basket. well, at least i learned a new word. i felt stupid, but it wont be the last time.

in other words, i still make mistakes and my vocabularly is not on a par with my english vocabulary. however, i can normally get the gist of conversations and movies, etc. my friends gave me a t.v. so i watch a little at night (the news is easy, so are telenovelas- soap operas- but some humor is difficult. the simpsons, dubbed in spanish, is damn difficult. so it goes.

my job is great; i like where i live; i am reading a lot of books in spanish; i am meeting new people- although i always want to meet more. no complaints really. i could be making more money- i teach 3hours each week of private lessons- but i am doing ok there as well. three months in to this new city i would say i definitely made the best decision possible for me.

i think i answered most of what you asked. let me know if not.

and jimmy, you said it my friend: somebody wake me up when the sloppy joe´s are done.

now peaches, let´s be fair. it has been a long time since i have talked to anyone in the usa, save my father who i spoke toon the phone in april. so, certainly it has been a long time since we have talked. please, feel free to send me an e-mail, stillwill.i.m@gmail, and we can catch up. i have never been to the four corners. as far as long walks, i have been on many in my life, although i must say that the junction of utah, colorado, arizona and new mexico is a place i have never been.

perhaps you have me confused with someone else peaches. although, to your credit, you have driven me somewhat crazy over the last six or eight months trying to figure out who you are. dine´e, hopi?

little blue dune buggy, in the sand. little blue dune buggy, in my hand.

i have a cocktail recipe for you today. first, take one part hillbilly from va (mixer) and add to a pint glass heated to 110 degrees f. , make sure to include 90% humidity (container), mix with 9 hours on a campus with no a.c. and absolutely nothing to do for hours on end (active ingredient). remove nearly all friends and interesting people (mixer).

shake.

serve.

this my friends is a recipe for a successful blog that will occupy large portions of previously unused time. you will find yourself writing inane drivel once, twice, thrice times a week.

the problem, clearly, is that once you have engorged yourself on this concoction, you see no real problem. the drink is good. or if not good, not bad. you begin to change the way you think. there are no more worst case scenarios. you are highly bored and you no longer are really able to know it much less do anything about it.

then you move to a city. not just any city, now, a fun town. lots of people, tons of things to do. suddenly you no longer spend so many hours at work (you are also not required to do so) and you find yourself walking up and down streets you do not know in search of a metro station which may or may not be just around the corner. and you do not care. life, suddenly, is much more interesting. everything you do is fun or will be soon enough.

this is where i am. i really like this town.

not sure if anyone still reads this, but if so, i have a question for you. any suggestions? is there anything you have wondered about this place but never known how to ask? now is the time.

like deaner and geaner always say: i can´t put my finger on it. not sure why, or specically one event, but i love where i work. the kids are, like, totally beverly hills 90210, but the other teachers are tons o fun. today is a great day for no specific reason.

doughman, keep on antney about eating with you. he needs company whether he admits it or not and i can guarantee you he is not getting much stimulaing conversation from his crew. when i worked with him we were always talking and i have the feeling that he does want that, although he will never admit it to anyone.

have a great weekend everyone. i know my sisters are rooting with me for the hokies on saturday against georgia tech (well, i hope amy is with me as georgia state has to be some kind of rival to evil ga tech). doughman will be doughman and probably root for the other tech. ni modo!

poppa doughman, do you ever invite antney up to the big house to eat? how interesting that everything is coming full cirlce. i lived in the cottage for half a year and now your semi-son has taken residence there. did you ever live there doughman or just grandma? very interesting indeed.

truckin on here in d.f. i had a birthday cookout last saturday at my house and it was wonderful. a lot of english profs came, but there were many more mexis there as well. as one of my friends from the istmus, you really can never escape it, mentioned, it was one of the more multicultural parties he has ever been to. of course coming from the istmus, there is not a lot of diversity, but still it amused me.

the istmus. land of 115degree days and 100 degree nights. dont miss a thing about it. except for a place to hang my hammock, i love where i live. the landlord is very nice and i teach her daughter english 3 times a week so i am staying on her good side for now.

i now have a stove, given by my landlady, a shelf, from same, a bed and frame, again the landlady´s, and a frig- i bought a used one on the cheap, so life is kind of normal. a friend gave me a t.v., which is kind of good. i watch the news in spanish and the simpson´s dubbed in spanish as well. i must admit i miss the simpson´s in english, i cannot tell you how much better our version is, but it is kind of neat to hear how they say certain catch phrases- bart in particular is hilarious.

i take spanish twice week with a prof here from argentina. there were once four of us english teachers in the class and now it is down to me and one more. so it goes. not sure if the dept will continue to pay my instructor to teach me, basically private lessons, but he spoke to me about it and will trade me one hour for one hour if they cancel the class. he lived in the usa for about 8 years so his eng is excellent but he just has no one to practice with. sounds like a good trade to me if it comes down to it. he invited me to his house for dinner a few weeks ago. his wifeand kids are really nice and she is an excellent cook. it was fun to speak spanish with people who have totally different accents- the argentine spanish is very very different from mexi spanish. plus there was a colombian there as well, an exprof from where i work now, and talking politics with them was amusing and informative. it is always good to get a perspective that is foreign to your own, andthe south american view of politics is definitely different.

life is good in general here. the smog is occassionally nasty, but the other day i got a view of the two huge volcanoes that lurk on the edge of the enormous valley i live in. they are about 18-19000 ft each, much larger than anything we have in the lower 48, and covered in snow. one is slightly active, a few years ago it belched out enough ash to coat the city, but in general it is fairly tame. i like living in the shadow of those two- they are a husband and wife pair accordig to legend. the male, el popo, stands guard over the sleeping female, la itza. lots of legend and myth here in the city and in this country in general. makes you wonder what would have happened in the states if we had bred with the natives instead of killing all we could and marching the rest into the desert to die. this to me is a key difference. mexico, the name alone says a lot, embraced part of its indigenous heritage. we eradicated most of it. one way to go about things i guess.

enough bs for today. hope all is well in gringo-landia (such a stupid word it is just funny). root for the hokies this weekend. hopefully i will get to watch the game, my first in over a year, this saturday. maybe no one else will get arrested betweennow and then. wishfull thinking, i know.

doughman! i was not intending a slight by that statement. indeed you did have a lot to do with it and have been extremely helpful and supportive of all since that morning 28 years ago as well.

very sad news about gilbert implements. i hope that all works out in his favor.

is anthony your new tenant in the cottage?

i cannot remember the last time i wrote a poem, so it makes sense that i did early this morning. i dont like titles for poems, but i guess this will have one. change is good.



la victoria

we no longer share a language
ni lugar (space/place)
rather the you in i continues
at a clip clearly registered
behind these pale eyes (skin).
smog-choked heavens
bleed tinny-voiced reminders
my South now 13 months away
carries me to a grave
with daily viewers and few mourners
(pocos son los elegidos).
though you fled first
(do i grudge your escape or my emptiness?)
i found the tracks heading west
gentle snows marking an outline at my side
and penetrating cold.
birth days celebrate mothers
not bundles of flesh too fragile yet to feel
so save the band those who hear
paste sloppy phrases on paper
written form is dead, too.
tengo suerte
rain´s voice needs no translation
victoria means triumph here
what did it mean there?
see me for i am you (we)
she
goodnight- buena noche




interestingly enough that is 28 lines. just noticed it actually.
the spanish is fairly simple-
ni lugar- nor place
pocos son los elegidos- the chosen are few, literally, but the religious will see something different in that phrase(as it is intended down here)
tengo suerte- i am lucky
la victoria- could mean victory/triumph or, for example, if i said ¨el will,¨ i would simply mean the person will. people put the article, el or la, in front of names sometimes. it does not mean the same as writing ¨the will¨ for example. it is quite common and is merely a personal reference.

depending on if we ever spoke of this, you might know that i think birthdays should not celebrate the child but the mother. the kid did very little whereas the mother did everything and carried the most risk. again, just my opinion, but i want to make it clear that the above is not sad or meant to be that way. if you believe in duality there is always death in life and vice versa. this is not a depressing idea for me, it is life. life is destroyed to feed people- corn dies to feed animals.

again, not trying to be morbid. i am quite happy today, but i must admit that on my bday i always spend a lot of time thinking about my mom. it is unfortunate i did not know her very well. life is difficult.

i hope you all have a great day up there. i am working all day and then proctoring an exam for 3 hours tonight so i can earn some extra cash. hence, my day is planned. i am having a bbq this weekend to celebrate my and two others bdays. should be fun. second birthday in a foreign country. strange to think of it that way, but here i am.

totally spaced on this yesterday: happy birthday greg bragg! his bday was the 14th, not the 15th, which is today, but as i said, i flaked and forgot. not sure if he has ever even read his blog, but i hear his wife has.

well, today is independence day and i am typing on this blog. that can only mean that i am sitting here at work, and you guessed it, loving every bleeding minute of it. the rest of the country is celebrating while i will be teaching young minds about dependent and independent clauses. yahtzee.

have a good weekend; root for the hokies (not to have any players arrested) and cowboys; and like i said yesterday, head to your local barrio for a wild time tonight and tomorrow.

later jones

first, poppa doughman, i want to let you know that all efforts are appreciated. the new wife, and the kids of course, are quite happy to hear that there might be a station wagon or mini-van waiting upon our arrival (date to be announced). on the down side, none of them speak english. hence, i am hoping that the old saying is not true- can old dogs learn new tricks? one might argue that you are not old. as i see more and more grey in my own hair, i realize that this argument holds little water. i mean after all, you are a grandfather now. nevertheless, i believe that asking you to learn spanish (you are only one person) versus asking the new señora davis (there was no argument over her taking my name without hyphens) and the two chiquiquitos (little dear ones- frist lesson right there), to learn english is a better option. you are one, they are three (keep your fingers crossed for number four!). i was not a math major like my brother, nor did i go to the ivy league schools he went to for undergrad and grad, but i think that even i can comprehend that equation.

good that that is settled.

as far as the richmond times goes, i will forward the picture from the wedding (a bit hasty as shotgun weddings go) asap. i am the really white one in the picture. the little misses is quite impressed that you are so accepting of her and her family. did i mention the new ¨davis¨ clan will be much stronger? think of it this way, we can now field and entire college football team (and i mean all those on the sidelines, including coaches and trainers and back-ups). davis reunion 2010, tentatively titled ¨we are family- somos familia¨ will be held in madison mills- i put the notice out now so that my other siblings, including older brother(s) can also attend.

i also won the lottery (1000 pesos, which, what with the peso likely to undergo a severe devaluation as the ¨shadow government¨ takes effect this week, should be worth roughly 10 cents american). i know. the news just keeps improving.

so independence day is tomorrow. i am working. which rocks as you might guess. tomorrow night in the zócalo (main square in city center with the government buildings and 500 year old cathedral) the president gives the ¨grito¨ (which means ¨shout¨), ¨viva méxico¨ to comemorate the first call of independence that was given 140 years ago (roughly). it is a tradition. he also rings a huge bell. people show up around 7pm for the festivities, which really kick off around 11pm, and it gets crazy. if there is no barrio in your town, then you dont know what a mexican party is truly like. that is sad. if you do have one, go check out tomorrow night. you will be impressed. get a cab home.

luckily, for 50 days there have been protestors, roughly 400,000, living in the same city square where vicente fox, current pres, gives the grito. they claim election fraud, which has been denied but could be true- do you trust politicians?- and have decided to stage their own rival ¨grito.¨ in the same city square. at the same time. should be fun.

on saturday the army marches through the same city square as a show of pride and salute to the country. the president, fox, one of the people accused of fraud, is in control of the army. the people living in the zócalo are against fox. a few hundred thousand soldiers are going to descend upon the area where 400,000 protestors (likely swelling to close to 2 million) are living. the army is bringing tanks. and lots and lots of machine guns. the protestors are bringing 70 years of pent up aggression and distrust of a shitty and dubious government, and the mentality of people who have lived in the streets for nearly two months. if there were pay-per-view for this, you know i would be there. i shall avoid this area, however, and watch the news coverage later on in the day.

did i mention shadow government? that is what lopez obrador (amlo), the loser of the election, is proposing. felipe calderón (fecal- i know, this means shit), the president-elect, has kept his mouth shut. really this is just what méxico needs to solidify it as a nation not ready to be trusted. two governments? sweet. two presidents? perfect. no one trusting anyone else and a denial of the outcome of supposedly free elections? democracy.

viva méxico.

busy busy busy. today i am sick, which sucks, and i was sick the whole weekend, which is even more of a downer, but, there are positives. i now have a stove. i cooked my first meal (eggs, potatoes, peppers- jalapeño and habeñero, and chorizo) sunday morning. sweet action.

i went to a concert in the auditorio nacional on saturday. it is a great venue and some very big people have played there. kind of the kennedy center of mexico. kind of.

i went to a futbol match (soccer for us). it stunk. 0-0 tie. so, my friend c and i decided to go to see something with guaranteed action. bullfights. something is going to die, matador, picador, bull, spectator, something. guaranteed action. it did not disappoint. a bloodly affair to be sure; however, there are many redeeming qualities. i truly enjoyed it. a matador was gored during the first fight (there are six bulls and normally 3 matadors) so he never came back. this left two people and five bulls. the weakest matador got three bulls and it showed by the end. his final kill was horrible and it took 7 or 8 attempts to plant the sword deep enough into the spinal column of the bull for it to die. very bloody and the crowd was mocking the matador fiercely. in the end, it stinks for the bull that the guy can´t finish. weak attempt. either way, this is the rookie season. the varsity starts in november and the best fighters from all over the world come here (it is the largest bull ring in the world). needless to say, i cant wait for november now.

lots has happened. i have a full-time place to live. i give private lessons for about 5 to 7 hours a week to supplement my income. i am buying a fridgerator on wednesday. i have been living out of the country for over a year. i have some fun new friends. i am married with two kids and a mortgage. yup. i keep on truckin.

i need to write more, but i also need to grade exams. grading is going to take precedent here. being sick is slowing down everything i do. however, it is making me lazier so the more exams i grade the better the grades are getting bc i feel like writing fewer comments. kidding. kind of.

this is life actually. we are judged based on the disposition of the person doing the judging. good day? better chances of a positive outcome. shitty boss and your kids hate and wife hate you? yup, you are totally getting that speeding ticket.

one year later. still kind of blows my mind. i am much happier here in the city. i am not saving money like i used to, far from it, but i am able to do and see more. lots of culture and cool activities. this place is amazing. i now feel confident to invite any of you to come visit. ok, wait until early winter after the elections are cleared up. do you guys even know what is the deal down here in mexico city? 400,000 people living on the main artery of the city: it is permanently closed and has been for over 5 weeks. president unable to give state of the union address. huge civil unrest. mayhem. it is wild. plus, i live 12 miles away, so i am close enough to see but far enough away not to be effected. sweet action.

hope y´all are doing well.

well it was bound to happen sooner or later. i went out to dinner with my friend c from texas and my coordinator p, from ireland, and her husband, c, who is irish-mexican. good times.
when i returned home, i turned on the faucet to brush my teeth and guess what?

no water. damn. i dont know how to turn the pump on to get more water, dont ask how i dont know this yet, so i was forced to make a bold decision.

i teach class at 9am today. the gym opens a 6am. the gym has showers. i must shower before teaching all day. yup, my lazy ass was up at 545am and headed to the gym to work out and shower. i like this idea to an extent. it is 815 and i am wide awake and doing work.

but, i also went tobed at 11pm, which is cutting into my reading time (still no t.v.).

on the other hand, the school gym has free hot water. that means no turning on the gas 20 mins before i shower so that the water heats up and then running back up to the roof to turn it off before i waste too much gas by heating water i will not use.

yup, this is where i am in my life. 28 years old. running up to a roof in his underwear to turn off the hot water heater. i will leave you with that image.

happy thursday

We (the royal one) are entering into a new era. It shall be called ¨the sugarless coffee era.¨ this is mainly because I am too cheap/lazy to go buy sugar for my office where I make my instant coffee in the morning. I asked three people if I could bum some azucar from them and they told me they do not use it. Thus, I am led to believe one of two things: they are liars and don’t like sharing, or they have stumbled upon something I should have long ago. So here we go. I will let you know how long this lie will last. I like sugar and am not sure I can give it up so easily.

First week of classes at what is one of the most expensive schools in mexico. The kids are kids. Snooty? Maybe. Trendy? definitely. Teenagers? Full on. They make me laugh. It could be a great semester. Or, I could get sick of them in two weeks. But really, this is the same for any class. High schoolers are a fickle bunch. One week they love you, one week they hate you. Parents of little ones: good luck in the future. Parents of adults: no clue how you did it. Cheers to both.

my schedule is great: mon, wed, fri- 11:30 to 1:30. tues, thur 9-10:30 and then 12 to 3. pretty easy actually. i love the college scheduling system, and more, i love that this high school goes by that system.

My living situation is still somewhat up in the air. I have a roof and a bed so I am cool. It is cold at night, in the 50´s maybe, so I am loving it here. I have a gas heater for my water, which leads to a story that may amuse you. My entire life I have had hot water heaters. I come to mexico and live in the devil´s oven and no longer need it. Then I move to the mountains and freeze as I take cold showers. But, it seems like a waste to leave the gas on 24/7, so I have a solution. If I shower in the morning, I set the alarm for 30 minutes before I want to get up, and go up onto the roof, where the water tank and water heaters are, and turn on the gas and light the heater. I nap for another 25 minutes then take a shower, then run up to the roof again and shut off the gas. If I shower at night, it is much easier bc I just turn on the gas 30 minutes before I want to shower then go turn it off when I am done.

How have I never done this before? It probably wastes a lot of gas to use the heater all day when I only need it once a day. Is this a bad idea? I cannot see any potential problems as the heater could care less whether it is on all day or for 45 minutes at a time. I think it is a gas company scam. Fight the power (company).

We (the royal one) are entering into a new era. It shall be called ¨the sugarless coffee era.¨ this is mainly because I am too cheap/lazy to go buy sugar for my office where I make my instant coffee in the morning. I asked three people if I could bum some azucar from them and they told me they do not use it. Thus, I am led to believe one of two things: they are liars and don’t like sharing, or they have stumbled upon something I should have long ago. So here we go. I will let you know how long this lie will last. I like sugar and am not sure I can give it up so easily.

First week of classes at what is one of the most expensive schools in mexico. The kids are kids. Snooty? Maybe. Trendy? definitely. Teenagers? Full on. They make me laugh. It could be a great semester. Or, I could get sick of them in two weeks. But really, this is the same for any class. High schoolers are a fickle bunch. One week they love you, one week they hate you. Parents of little ones: good luck in the future. Parents of adults: no clue how you did it. Cheers to both.

my schedule is great: mon, wed, fri- 11:30 to 1:30. tues, thur 9-10:30 and then 12 to 3. pretty easy actually. i love the college scheduling system, and more, i love that this high school goes by that system.

My living situation is still somewhat up in the air. I have a roof and a bed so I am cool. It is cold at night, in the 50´s maybe, so I am loving it here. I have a gas heater for my water, which leads to a story that may amuse you. My entire life I have had hot water heaters. I come to mexico and live in the devil´s oven and no longer need it. Then I move to the mountains and freeze as I take cold showers. But, it seems like a waste to leave the gas on 24/7, so I have a solution. If I shower in the morning, I set the alarm for 30 minutes before I want to get up, and go up onto the roof, where the water tank and water heaters are, and turn on the gas and light the heater. I nap for another 25 minutes then take a shower, then run up to the roof again and shut off the gas. If I shower at night, it is much easier bc I just turn on the gas 30 minutes before I want to shower then go turn it off when I am done.

How have I never done this before? It probably wastes a lot of gas to use the heater all day when I only need it once a day. Is this a bad idea? I cannot see any potential problems as the heater could care less whether it is on all day or for 45 minutes at a time. I think it is a gas company scam. Fight the power (company).

first of all, let us not do any sullying, jimmy d williams. i received the mayo email, and i sent a personal, not forward, reply saying congrats on wedding stuff, all that, about 1 week before you got hitched. so, no intentional slamming of mister jimza.

lots of stuff to do, but wanted to set the jimmy record straight. also, i like his idea. anyone who reads this blog, leave a comment and say where you are from. maybe we will smoke this peach out of the orchard or maybe the peaches will simply refrain from commenting (location would be helpful).

so ya, if you read or read (great that the present and past tenses of this verb are the same. my students hate that) this blog. drop a comment.

still alive. mexico city is wild. unbelievable actually. will try to write something later this week or next.

caroline has raised some wonderful questions. the most interesting, and i imagine least pressing, is who, indeed, owns the identity ¨peaches¨?

some ideas:
1. the first person who comes to mind, and who my family knows but few others who might be reading this, is ashley burnett. back in the day, way back over 10 years ago, riding around in gents`s old car, the honda h-ho, ashley, sara/jeanette/other people whose names i forget now, would listen to the presidents of the united states. the most popular of their songs at the time was, clearly, ¨peaches.¨ although i believe ash´s favorite might have been ¨little blue dune buggy.¨ nevertheless, i dont think she has ever read this blog and it has been almost one year since we spoke, so i am doubting the validity of this deduction.
2. a spammer. somebody who just wants to write weird stuff in hopes of some material gain. ya, that is a b.s. answer, but what else do spammers want?
3. one of the two jim´s that i am good friends with: richvegas jimmy ¨i just got married and have been too cool for school to write will back in over two months¨ dougherty, or seattlean tron ¨not from the movie but from the real world sketch on chapelle´s show a few years back¨ saunders. both are candidates, and though i have proof that richvegas jimza at one point read this bloggy, i have no evidence that ¨the colonel¨ (saunders) has ever even seen this thing.
4. someone i met in flagstaff or san fran that somehow got hold of this bloggy site and likes to harass me. given my own penchant for obnoxiousness, this might be considered payback for something i did. however, given that i have no clue which person it might be, and keeping in mind the shere volume of peeps that i met in both places, and that i have done more than enough things to deserve payback, i am at a loss.
5. a person from georgia. i am not sure how many people i know living in georgia at the moment besides sissy, james and this slightly strange young man i met at a conference a few years ago at uga (ames might remember) who seemed to really want to be my friend. i have ruled out the first two for no good reason other than they have no good reason that i can imagine. the latter i just think is weird, so maybe it is him. also brian hooker robinson, but he just moved to vegas, which might be why i have not heard anything from this peaches cat in months.
6. aliens. i have always believed that there are some other forms of life out there. have they decided to communicate with me through the internet instead of taking me into their ship and touring the galaxy? i would be very disappointed if so. note to aliens: i´ll pass on the probing, but will chip in for gas if we get to tool around in the ship for a while. do you accept mexican pesos by the way?
7. this one is pretty obvious, and is not really specific, but someone who knows what shiprock is. who is familiar with the dine´e (navajo) rez in western new mexico? or, who has been reading tony hillerman novels. once again fingers are pointed at sissy(ames) bc now there are two solid links- georgia and knowledge of shiprock. again i strike that though bc it seems a bit random for my sister. ok, it seems a bit random for just about anybody.
8. i dont really know who reads the blog, or who has access to it. i know some of my friends have passed the addy along to others, but how far has it gone? the infrequency of the posts by this elusive peaches character, and the lack thereof in the last four months or so, leads me to believe it was a former friend, one who became quite bored with the posts and just gave up reading. if this is the case, well, dammit, there is nothing i can do bc he or she is not even reading this. and that would be a shame.
9. this is when i just have no idea but need a placeholder because all i really want is to actually get to the number 10.
10. if you have not considered 1-8 a stretch(are we even counting #9?), then this one will be as solid as if i read it in the tarot cards that i stole from seattle jim´s troy mc´clure lunchbox: me. i go through and type my own comments. but i dont do it when i am aware of what is going on, only when the aliens have recently returned me to earth and drugged me so that i dont sell their secrets to fox and rekindle the now defunct x-files. mulder and scully, where are you when your countrymen, albeit x-patriotated, need you?
E. and then there is number ¨e,¨ which as all you mathematicians know, is not a number at all, but still finds its way onto many a standardized test: none of the above.

so the short answer to c-line´s querry is no. but how much fun would that have been.
as for the rest of her questions, i shall save them for another day.

i leave you, and by you i mean peaches, which as we know now could well be me, with an offering, something scattered to the four winds under the watchful eye of a harvest moon: the few lines i can remember from another popular prez of the u.s. song:
¨lump lingered last in line for brains,
and the one she got was sort of rotten and insane. . . .
she´s lump, she´s lump, she´s lump,
she´s in my head.
she´s lump, she´s lump, she´s lump,
she might be dead¨

happy hunting

what up y´all? i am in the city (mexico city, d.f., mexico, whatever you want to call it) and have a place to live, a good job and am making new friends. lots of opportunities to do so many things i have wanted to do before: bull fights, soccer matches, cinema, piano lessons. i know. piano.

well, i will write more later this week, but i wanted to let anyone who might still read this that i am doing well and loving the big city. did i mention i chose the job in d.f. over the one in puebla? well, i guess that is obvious now.

later jones.

i had definitely not planned on writing today. i figured tomorrow, maybe sunday i would send an update. but then, you know, crazy stuff just happens to me and as i am all alone right now, i have no one else to share it with. lucky you.

so i woke up at 330am this morning to catch the 430 bus out of ixtepec. last goodbyes, peace out, all that. so of course i chose the earliest bus possible, mainly to avoid absolutely anyone and to catch the coolest time of day to walk the 1.5kilometers to the bus station with, oh, idont know, 80 pounds or more strapped to my back and in my arms. didnt work. i was soaking wet with sweat after 10meters. lovely.

i arrive at the bus station, if you can remember this far back, this is the exact location where i ate cow head. as you might expect, it is a place that sticks out in my mind. anyone, i arrive 15min early, which is what i wanted, and notice something slightly out of place. there are two regular ADO (just think Greyhound) buses out front, and then a smaller white bus painted with the OCC insignia(another company). if i have not mentioned, ADO buses are awesome. air conditioning to the point where you need a blanket, movies, big seats that recline, bathroom. there are better classes of buses, but there are far fewer in the istmo, so i went with regular first class (again, does not mean the same thing here, but anyway).

right. white bus. old. upon stepping up inside the volvo(most large buses are volvos or mercedes benz), i noticed smaller seats, tiny tv`s, a general crappier feel. anyway, it is 425 in the a.m. so all that just really roles off my back. i wake up 30 minutes later for the first stop in juchitan. goodbye juchitan, which the locals call muxetan(mooshetan) bc muxe means homosexual and the town is like the s.f. of mexico. so i wake up, look around, notice i still have a free seat next to me, and, yup, right back to sleep.

the next disturbance another 40 min later meant i had to move so the girl could take her window seat. whatever, i am in full sleep mode so i crash back out. i wake up a good bit over the next hour bc of the curves and the velocity with which our driver (i mean, buses do not really meet formula 1 racing standards, but try telling mr driver that) takes these turns. then around 745 we stop. strange. no town, no station, so i am thinking the driver was doin his business outside. i look at the girl next to me who has woken up also and ask whats up. she replies that she thinks the driver went for coffee. makes sense.

almost 15 min later we are going again. ok. nappy-nap time. yeah, not so fast.within ten minutes we are stopped again. except this time, the rats are totally fleeing the ship. i notice, too late, a new bus has pulled behind us as we have stopped and mexis are scrambling to get their shit out of one bus and into another.

first, we hear it is engine trouble. i strike up a conversation with a young couple who are criticising the bus comp for buying a crappy bus. one hour later, and after many heated altercations between what i thought was a rather gentle looking woman of about 60 and the driver and another bus arrives. except, we dont get on the bus. instead, a bucket and long rubber hose are produced. after working for antney over the years, i know what is coming next.

we ran out of gas. idiots. happy trails istmo.

45 min later we stop again. this time? la tour de oaxaca. a bike race? indeed. so we went super slow as we were paced by the two leaders as they climbed the huge mountain roads. ridiculous.

a 4hour and 30min trip becomes, what? 9hours. oh. my. god. i was pissed, but then the woman who began bitching before called everyone she knew and in the loudest voice possible (she was 10 feet behind the drivers seat) cussed him. and not just ¨damn him.¨ no, she is mexi, and istmena (a woman from the istmo) on top of it. ¨this stupid mother fucker forgot to gas up. i know, what a dumbass son of a whore. motherfucking ADO is going to hear from me about this. damn right i am complaining, fuck this ignorant bastard¨

of course, imagine a few pauses for her to let the other person on the line concur, and this went on for about, oh, 45 minutes. and when she finally got of the phone, she just cussed him from where she was sitting. dude. this vieja was so mad, i actually felt bad for this jerk driver who forgot to get gas. and i was real mad before this began.

all this before 130pm. i hope the rest of the weekend is less exciting. if not, you will be hearing from me again sooner than i plan.

Like so many library books I finally returned (damaged), a reinvention of myself is long overdue. Billy, version 2.006: new and improved exterior and packaging, updated with a second language for ease of use outside the states, although the adaptation time varies according to climate, altitude and location of Jupiter and its moons Io, Europa and Gannymede.

As I have mentioned to a few people, I have a job interview in mexico city with Tecnologia de Monterrey. Or tec de monterrey. Or tec. Depending on which circles you run in and, obviously, their familiarity with Mexican schools. Tec, and its 33 campuses in the country, is a self-styled bastion of higher learning; they also carry the self-proclaimed title of “the MIT of Mexico.” Ok. Basically, they are the most well-known and most expensive school system in Mexico. Their reputation extends well beyond mexi-land, but you would have to run in the technology circle probably. As I run in the “let’s read a book, talk about it, then write a critical analysis of it and make it relate to current events/culture/(insert noun here)” I had never heard of the place before I came to this land of mariachis, mole, and fried grasshoppers (legend has it that once you eat a chapuline-grasshopper- you will never leave oaxaca (my state). Of course I ate them. along with varying types of iguana, sea critters, and of course, the infamous cow head. Well, barring some unforeseen catastrophe, this cracker is buying a one-way out of this hole in less than 4 days, so I doubt the veracity of this particular mexican legend). Either way, this school, tec, is highly respected, and criticized, in Mexico.

The criticism comes mostly from haters. People who feel that their rep is undeserved. These people call the students fresa (literally-strawberry, but, this word means snob, arrogant, a la mode, condescending). Fresas are everywhere in this world, and some are obnoxious, while others are rather normal and good people. Some prof friends and my students claim that tec is horrible bc the kids think they are better than everyone else. They show up to school (it has a high school and university (-ncluding master and phd programs) in extremely expensive cars and wave bye to mami and papi when the driver opens the door for them. from an early age, these kiddies are told they are the best. The most intelligent, heirs to all that is good and will be good. Cream of the crop, you dig? Thus, the trikes run around like they own the place, and, ok, they probably do. This rubs many people the wrong way. Many believe that the school produces brats rather than elite engineers and business persons. Nonetheless these kids go on to the best schools in the states and Europe. Tec students have been learning English since they were 2 or 3 yrs old. Thus, English teachers teach ESL, which is taught in usa schools, rather than EFL which is what I teach now. In other words, these kids need help with their academic English skills- writing, argument, pronunciation, etc. take a tour through most public institutions in the usa and you will find the same skills being taught-albeit with varying degrees of success. The students also learn german and French as the former is an important language to know for engineers and tec peeps in general (I have heard at least), and anyone with a serious affinity for “ the hoff” (this of course is how david hasselhoff referred to himself last week as he was escorted out of wimbeldon for being a little too sauced for the conservative all-england club) and the latter is important for understanding fashion, snootiness and joie de vive in general (I cant spell joie de vive, but I think you get my point). Of course I made the last part up, but I am sure there is a good reason for French. 20^th and 19^th century theorists? Brie? Bordeaux? I imagine sis ames or possibly, jameson sanderthols IV, currently of seattle, previously of the greater phoenix metro area, could help us (yes, that is the royal “we” I am using) out with that.

Anyway, after all that rambling, let me come back to the point- I have an interview with what many people deem either the best education mexi pesos can buy, or the biggest cash drain in the country. If you were able to follow the above ramblings at all, you might have noticed something very important in my description of the type of students and families that patronize the tec. They are wealthy, exceedingly so, and all that the school offers its student as far as facilities, supplies, etc. are, without discussion, the finest quality. Depending on where you went to high school and to some extent uni, this may sound familiar (especially if your high school was not called a high school, but, oh, I don’t know, perhaps a boarding school, and your uni was, for example, in the northeast and has a vanish collective nickname). Lucky for me, I went to boarding school with a lot of, um, confident people. We also were told we were the best. Arrogant? At times. Condescending? Once or twice maybe. This does not make us bad people, but it does make slightly difficult to get along with at times. I have run into many people in life who have issue with my boarding school background. They bitch that the school are overrated and the privileged kids do not deserve the given privileges. Bollocks (and this british term is important for many reasons here.) Am I defending the snooty? Not really. Do I have a little more patience with this type of person than the average? Possibly.

So let’s get down to brass tacks. My job in puebla pays about 12500 per month. I work 23 contact hours with students and am at school from roughly 8am to 2pm daily. Plus there are the occasional open house, weekend shindig with parents, yada yada yada. Good money for the hours? Fo sho. I am not questioning the position or denigrating it in any way. I can take graduate classes in puebla and the school will pay for it. A sweet deal? Of course.

But then there is tec. I doubt there is an employer in mexico who values a university higher than tec. Their reputation in the professional ranks is unparalleled. Perhaps their students get a little carried away at times and try to buy their way into or out of things, as the case may be. I am not condoning it, but I do recognize it for what it is and do not grudge them their advantages. The mexi system is real fucked up. Lets not kids ourselves about that, however, let us also realize that a few spoiled brats do not mean all of the students are that way.

The pay at tec is, surprisingly at first, low. 10000 pesos a month. Then you look at the hours per week, 15, and realize that is killer salary for someone part time(full time is over 20000, and I could get full time in the next six months or one year). I could easily give 8 hours of private lessons a week (I hope) and charge 150 pesos an hour. That rate would put me well over the 12500ish I would make in puebla. Plus, tec gives you access to their classes, they offer m.a. degrees and a phd as well (but not in literature which is a problem), they give you a laptop, have wireless in all classrooms as well as the most advanced tech teaching aids available (don’t forget, my students in oaxaca cannot afford books or dictionaries and 90% receive a scholarship that pays up to 100% of their tuition) and they allow you access to their facilities, including a gym, which would be quite nice. On the other hand, tec does not pay you when you are not working, the month of December for example, but they do give health benefits and a xmas bonus. The money is less, but I would be able to live in d.f., which is 200 times more exciting (and dangerous, dirty, etc) than puebla. Museums, concerts, cinema, used book stores, parks, ruins, the city is truly incredible. I would be able to take serious advantage of my free time. Also, in case you have not guessed, I am no longer going to central America. I will wait until December and see how much money I have.

Rent, however is a pain. Probably 3000 pesos a month is a minimum, depending on where I live, and I am not going to put myself in some shady neighborhood (1000 people move to d.f. every day of the year, so crime, lack of safety in certain areas is ridiculous) to save some cash. But, food is cheaper, public transport is readily available and the number of things that I could do for free is quite high (any museum is free for professors for example).

Reinvention. I mentioned bc 1 year I cut all of my hair off. Amazingly, startlingly, I have not started growing it back. The beauty of this is that is if I take the job at tec, I will have to change the way I dress. Shirt and tie daily, possibly even suits (I am hoping not to have to wear those though as they are expensive and I just don’t like them. did I mention I have never owned a suit either? Right, I should have said that, too). it is arguable that I should be dressing better anyway (I blame temperatures that stay in the 100’s for 5-6 months a year). The country boy moves to the city and finds all his clothes, (insert noun/stereotype here) inadequate. In so many ways this is an apt metaphor.

Billy, version 2.006. anybody buying this?

i am not one to pile on, but, um, things are not going so swell right now in mexico. on the one hand, i see the benefits of the leftist candidate, andres manuel lopez obrador, but, and this scares me a lot, i also see the advantages of the more right-leaning candidate, felipe calderon. why? because i am greedy(investors in the states trust calderon, he is of the same party as current pres vicente fox and is free trade, pro-foreign investment. amlo heard that bush was building a wall on the border. his response? ok, we will build another one. we dont want our people over there (the usa) anyway. ya. wow.) when it was clear, for about an hour, on monday morning that calderon had won the most votes, the value of the peso shot up. now that amlo(this is how lopez obrador is known down here) is challenging the vote, and going to take the results to the special election commitee, this is shaping up to be like bush-gore 2000. except, gore conceded, amlo did not. quite the opposite, both declared themselves winners.


so ya, i am leaning republican now. greedy is what it comes down to. if i did not have student loans to pay then the exchange rate would mean nothing. but i do. so it does.

i worry about the violence that will most likely errupt if amlo does not win. his supporters, are, well, emotional. volatile. easily excited maybe. imagine, oh, i dont know, 5 million fans at a rage against the machine (rest in peace) concert. then imagine zach de la roccha saying, ¨hey, you see the security guards here? take ´em out. then, move to the closest city and shut it down. i will meet you all there tomorrow.¨ the sheep would fall in line and violence would ensue. sadly, this is quite possible here as well. the people have little trust in public officials, with good reason after 70 years of single-party rule, and now they are taking out their frustrations on the current system. right or wrong this is the deal.

i will try to write more later. as of now, i am safe and should stay that way (there is an army special forces unit in town with tanks, etc. so the people, no matter how restless, hopefully are not stupid.

uh oh. presidential elections were this weekend and things went smoothly for the most part. until the results came back, and then, well, the problems began.

felipe calderon, the somewhat conservative received 36.5% and lopez obrador received 35.6% (roughly). so about 1% serparates them. unlike gore in 2000, neither guy caved. in fact, they both announced that they had won. kind of funny actually. until the protestors began freaking out. then it was not so much funny as scary.

thus we will not know the final results until wednesday. i am a little worried, for numerous reasons, but the main one is devaluation of currency. i am hoping that the peso does not suffer too much bc of this (the exchange rate has recently gotten worse as the elections neared) for i have student loans to pay and thus i have to transfer money from pesos to dollars each month.

that is the news for now. i will let you know when i hear more.

two rather strange entries for you today.

a few weeks ago i was heading to the beach and, as you may remember, what takes 45 minutes by car requires 2hrs and three buses for those of vehicularly challenged. and that is like 90% of the population of oaxaca, so ya, anyway. on my way out of ixtepec, the bus stopped to pick up a few people on the side of the road and as most people come into town once a week to buy food, they had huge crates to load onto the bus. as i had no choice but to sit and sweat (a moving bus is a bus with a breeze, the stationary buses stink), i looked out the window to view all the trash that has been deposited recently.

a quick side story, which i mentioned months ago, is that the open window of (moving or not) vehicle is the trash can. there are litterally piles and piles of trash everywhere(i am talking 5ft deep in places). this bothers no one and i watch mothers teach their young kids to finish their flavored water(this is sold on the streets in plastic bags that are spun around and tied in a knot so that the top around fits snugly around a straw) and then toss it out the window. eat your elote (corn on the cob with chile powder seasoning- again sold on every street corner) and chuck it. your walkman´s batteries are spent? you know what to do. it gets depressing to watch after a while. even more so bc i walk home at night and have to walk in the road bc the ditches are filled to the tipping point with garbage. ah, the istmus of tehuantepec. a lovely place.

anyway, i was sitting on the bus staring blankly at the trash piles when i noticed an elderly woman in traditional dress (80% of all women wear traditional zapotec clothing that has been around for hundreds of years) tossing a rock at the wall. my initial thought was, well, clearly she is not as old as i thought if she is tossing a rock around as if playing a game. due to the sun exposure and nature of life without running water or electricity, a 25yr old woman often looks 50. no joke. as i looked closer i noticed something move next to the wall. a pidgeon. maybe she is crazy, i thought. why would she throw rocks, over and over as she missed, at a pidgeon. crazy is also not new to the istmus, but then i finally got it. she was hunting. urban hunting (as much as ixtepec is urban, but that is a debate for another day). this dirty bird was dinner. startling to say the least.

the last little tale is from yesterday. arash, another english prof, and i were walking home, when we saw a military humvee, replete with large machine gun and gunner, zoom by. as ixtepec is home to a unit of the special forces of the mexi military, i took no notice. after the 15th hummer went by, arash and i looked at each. looking back we saw a huge line of military vehicles full of either soldiers or large guns, rolling into ixtepec. we looked at each other blankly for a second. then we thought of the teacher strike- in its 5th week- and realized that they were coming to break up a riot.

we were wrong. they are here to protect the presidential voting event on sunday. question: if the military guards the ballot boxes, are these same people allowed to vote? the military backs a certain party publicly, soooo... at what point does there need to be another group guarding the military from tampering with the ballots?

good morning all. hope you had a lovely weekend, mine was quite good.

as you might have guessed, i am taking the job in puebla. it starts officially on august 2nd, but i will probably be there a day or so early. all my hopes of getting 2wks paid vacation before setting off from this job have been dashed. economically, i understand the uni´s point of view. had i just taken the vacation and then quit my first day back, this was a serious consideration, i would have been docked pay in my final check. thus, i am bailing early. or, i am taking an extended vacation, depends on how you want to look at it. thus, the countdown has begun. i leave two weeks from today! i cannot believe it is really time to go, but i am not going to cry about it either. i will leave here next wednesday, go to puebla and drop off the majority of my belongings (although my dad was the only one to see me leave, you might have guessed i am travelling rather light) with my friend´s family and head down to guatemala. i am excited as you might imagine. lots to see and do, and i will be updating the blog as often as is possible over the time period. i foresee myself in some rural places so it wont be too often but at least once a week, hopefully more.

i have also decided to invest in a new camera. i am looking on ebay right now to find something relatively cheap(i am going for 200 dollars or less), possibly used, but there are literally thousands of cameras, so i am in a bit of a quandry. does anyone have any brands that they do or do not recommend? i am guessing i want a minimum of 5megapixels. does that sound about right? any advice you can give me would be great. i am going to search today and tomorrow for some websites that list consumer reports about digital cams, but if you can give me any ideas about where to look, that would be great. also, if you or your friend has a camera that has been shoddy, let me know the brand and i will avoid it. seriously, any help you can give me would be appreciated.

i am not planning on taking the cam with me on vacation because of time constraints getting it down to mexico, so i am in no serious rush on this. i imagine i will make the purchase in august or so.

hope you are all well. drop a comment when you have a chance, i like hearing from you and for many of you, this is the only way we communicate, so... let me know what´s up!

hello all. i trust the weekend was splendid, passing the time with fathers or males in general. my weekend was good. i went to the beach and relaxed and enjoyed a lazy few days. there must be a storm off the coast because on sunday there were 12foot waves. no one was getting in the water, but i was able to watch from restaurant.

the teacher´s strike is still going on. my sis informs me that the link i provided is now dead. here is another one from the bbc: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5082778.stm as you might guess, the foreign press have a different take on the strike than the local mexi press does. in my opinion, the story is not as good when the bbc tells it. however, unless you read spanish, you will not get the other versions. such is life, right? one more reason we should all learn at least one foreign language, so we can read the news in other parts of the world without a filter.

as of this morning, the teachers are now blocking the major roads in and out of the state capital. this is not new, they have been blocking roads for over a week, but now they have simply removed the barriers so that cars can pass through the toll booths without having to pay. not sure how depriving the govt of funds is going to help them gain an increase in pay, but perhaps this move will garner more attention.

the teachers are also blocking local businesses in the town center. from people i know up there, they say the downtown is a ghost town. stores are barred and gated, no one is walking around, nothing. keep in mind that oaxaca is a huge tourist attraction. thousands of foreigners pass through every week. thus, for nearly one month, the city has lost all its business. i would say the loss in revenue is easily into the millions of dollars at this point. the residents of the capital city are furious at the teachers.

the snte, the teachers union, is the largest and most powerful union in mexico. according to many mexicans, especially oaxaqueños, they are incredibly corrupt and in no way are a positive example. this is unfortunate. as part of the highest paid group of teachers in the state, i am effectively ¨the man¨ in this case. we are also not part of their union. so it goes.

just wanted to update you a bit on the goings on down here. can you imagine richmond, va being blocked for one month? over 1 million children have been out of school for over a month now. parents are freaking out. also, no one will be able to pass into the next grade level because they have missed over a month of school. if they make up this time, then there will be no summer vacation. this is a dangerous game the teachers´ union is playing. the worst part is that the kids are getting screwed. of course, they do not see it that way, but many others do.

if you have any q´s about all this, let me know. i have read varying reports from both sides, but i am personally leaning away from the teacher´s side right now. there is a lot of corruption within the union and it seems like a superficial overview of this issue does not in any way show the truth behind what is actually going on.

on the bright side, i have a job in another state at a private school that starts august 2nd. thus, nothing about this will negatively impact me or my job. if anything, private schools will receive more students come fall as parents become more and more wary of public education. so it goes.