i just read this as i signed out of hotmail, so i have to put it up here because, sometimes real life is funnier than we realize.
¨ask a dating expert: 1. should she tell his wife? 2. loves him, hates his kids 3. torn between two lovers¨ i am not really sure if i need to make a comment about this or let it ride. i mean, wow. i think i am just going to let it be.
cline- i am sorry to hear about reagan, but i am glad to hear that she is recovering. sullivan has always been a good friend when it comes to eating something. i still recall this summer when i bought a breakfast sandwhich and placed on the kitchen counter (easily over 4.5 feet off the ground) and walked to the bathroom. when i returned the two were lounging in the living room, torn bits of wrapper barely hidden underneath their hides. less than two minutes, i am guessing about bites each, maybe less, and they had eaten the sammy and most of the paper. good times.
cuban, good to hear that all is well in flag. no snow is sad. and you have added a new job, which is interesting. what happened to carla? hopefully she is not ill but rather is gearing up for baseball season. who knows. ok, you do, but anyway.
let me tell you something julia, just bc i was living in san fran does not mean that i ordered the fresh and fruity. good try. where were you that night? i think megatron was there, which lends some credibility to your white night out theory, but i also remember paul, gerobe & meyers, mo-sleazy and a few other asian persuasions. fresh and fruity. if anything i ordered the truck driver special and was given the fresh and fruity, but i doubt that as well.
the heat has returned despite my protests. i awoke to a muggy morning and realized i had been living in a fantasy that would soon end. needless to say, i am nonplussed about it all.
i gave my level 5 students an exam this morning. when no one had finished it in the alotted one hour, i realized how long it had been since i actually wrote a final exam. five years ago when i was teaching in the o.c. virginia that is. swimming pools, movie stars (hum the beverly hillbillies theme with me). ok, there were not that many pools and even though my father claims to be ¨worldwide¨ because he landed a few seconds of screen time in a movie i have still never been able to sit through, ¨hush,¨ i dont think the movie stars tag fits either. so it is all lies.
my students were quite unhappy, so was i. oh well, i guess i should lower my expectations on that front as well.
30 January 2006
27 January 2006
bacon is the truck driver´s sausage. how have i let that one slip from my memory? i got an email from mafia the other day and he reminded me of this wonderful catch phrase. it made me start thinking of that trip to ihop in san fran so many years ago. those of you cali kids who read this might also remember that interesting evening where the staff scammed me and gave me the fake menu. beware. i still firmly believe that there are several menus stored at the host stand and that each one lists different items that come with breakfast combos. fool me once: shame on you.
no longer so sure about brazil now. i have months and months to figure out what will go down but i hav e been reading some sketchy stories online about people who had visa problems. it seems i could take care of that by signing up for a headhunter agency, but i would rather go the independent route. that may not work after all. also, i will definitely need to learn some portuguese before i go or at the very least take a two week (most likely more) immersion course once i do go. we shall see.
another option i am going to look into is taking classes at unam, the national university of mexico. it is one of the largest in the world, about 300,000 students and 40000 professors, and i could possibly take some latin american literature courses there which could transfer to a doctorate. or, i could try and get my doctorate from unam directly. my mexi friends tell me that i could more than likely get a scholarship and i could probably also teach literature classes in english while i am there. these are the same people who tell me that cow head, cow stomach and intestine and fried pig skin are really really tasty. while it all might be true (ok, cow head is actually good with lots of salsa and seasoning), is it worth the price? the price being eating those things and living in mexico city which has some of the worst polution problems in the world as well as one of the highest crime rates. absolutely anyone i have ever met who has lived there, and this includes mexicans, has been mugged at least once. most more than once. vale la pena? who knows. i am going to start emailing grad programs in the states and ask them if they accept transfer credits from unam and what a phd from a foreign university would look like (i.e. can i get a tenure track position at a usa university with this degree).
no longer so sure about brazil now. i have months and months to figure out what will go down but i hav e been reading some sketchy stories online about people who had visa problems. it seems i could take care of that by signing up for a headhunter agency, but i would rather go the independent route. that may not work after all. also, i will definitely need to learn some portuguese before i go or at the very least take a two week (most likely more) immersion course once i do go. we shall see.
another option i am going to look into is taking classes at unam, the national university of mexico. it is one of the largest in the world, about 300,000 students and 40000 professors, and i could possibly take some latin american literature courses there which could transfer to a doctorate. or, i could try and get my doctorate from unam directly. my mexi friends tell me that i could more than likely get a scholarship and i could probably also teach literature classes in english while i am there. these are the same people who tell me that cow head, cow stomach and intestine and fried pig skin are really really tasty. while it all might be true (ok, cow head is actually good with lots of salsa and seasoning), is it worth the price? the price being eating those things and living in mexico city which has some of the worst polution problems in the world as well as one of the highest crime rates. absolutely anyone i have ever met who has lived there, and this includes mexicans, has been mugged at least once. most more than once. vale la pena? who knows. i am going to start emailing grad programs in the states and ask them if they accept transfer credits from unam and what a phd from a foreign university would look like (i.e. can i get a tenure track position at a usa university with this degree).
24 January 2006
there was a huge earthquake here the other day. ok, that is an exaggeration because no buildings toppled over or anything, but my whole office shook and things fell off my desk. it was wild. there was about a 5 second build up where i noticed my body shaking a little and then there was about 4 seconds of really powerful tremors when things fell of my desk and off my bookshelf.
it is amazing how often we have earthquakes down here. some are kind of small, but this one was one of the biggest in months.
the weather has been phenomenal. it was in 50´s at night the other week. people here were freaking out as you might imagine. i was loving it. i got to use my thermal underwear, which i have only worn in puebla and san cristobal, to sleep. i only have a sheet on my bed, so i needed a little warmth. it worked perfectly. gotta love capilene.
but the weather will soon get scorching i am sure. i was told that the highs are around 45 degrees c. i think that is about 110 or higher. so phoenix in the summer, basically. i never lived in phoenix, however, and did my best to get out of there asap whenever i went in the summer, so it should be interesting. in the end, i am soft when it comes to heat.
classes end next tuesday. i cannot believe it. as of tomorrow i have been here five months. that is pretty amazing considering how i felt back in august. i thought time would never move forward. now it seems like each week just flies by.
all is well; i was looking online at a job in brazil (ya, i am back to the english spelling) and noticed that i was actually able to understand a large part of it though it was in portuguese. not sure if this is just luck or if it portends something wonderful about my ability to learn portuguese. probably not but you never know.
anything interesting going on in the usa? my news consists of the msn homepage whenever i sign out of hotmail. so basically i know the top 7 things to get a guy for christmas, the top 5 resume errors, 6 signs that your relationship is over and how the stock market is doing. plus all the enterntainment news about people i dont know. brangelina? i am a huge fan of nicknames, but this is pathetic. is this how brain-dead people are? well, i remembered it, so i guess that is the point. even names are a form of branding now. cant wait for the next brangelina movie to come out. what kind of soda do they drink? where do they shop?
i am worried about the usa. are you?
it is amazing how often we have earthquakes down here. some are kind of small, but this one was one of the biggest in months.
the weather has been phenomenal. it was in 50´s at night the other week. people here were freaking out as you might imagine. i was loving it. i got to use my thermal underwear, which i have only worn in puebla and san cristobal, to sleep. i only have a sheet on my bed, so i needed a little warmth. it worked perfectly. gotta love capilene.
but the weather will soon get scorching i am sure. i was told that the highs are around 45 degrees c. i think that is about 110 or higher. so phoenix in the summer, basically. i never lived in phoenix, however, and did my best to get out of there asap whenever i went in the summer, so it should be interesting. in the end, i am soft when it comes to heat.
classes end next tuesday. i cannot believe it. as of tomorrow i have been here five months. that is pretty amazing considering how i felt back in august. i thought time would never move forward. now it seems like each week just flies by.
all is well; i was looking online at a job in brazil (ya, i am back to the english spelling) and noticed that i was actually able to understand a large part of it though it was in portuguese. not sure if this is just luck or if it portends something wonderful about my ability to learn portuguese. probably not but you never know.
anything interesting going on in the usa? my news consists of the msn homepage whenever i sign out of hotmail. so basically i know the top 7 things to get a guy for christmas, the top 5 resume errors, 6 signs that your relationship is over and how the stock market is doing. plus all the enterntainment news about people i dont know. brangelina? i am a huge fan of nicknames, but this is pathetic. is this how brain-dead people are? well, i remembered it, so i guess that is the point. even names are a form of branding now. cant wait for the next brangelina movie to come out. what kind of soda do they drink? where do they shop?
i am worried about the usa. are you?
20 January 2006
and here i shall remain. the job in puerto angel turns out to be for late march or mid april and there is no way i am going to go jobless for 1 to 2 months. it would be great to have a change of scenery, but not that great. so, as i previously had planned, i will sticking around ixtepec for the next six months or so, which really is not so bad. i have friends, i have an apt with a frigerator, bed, fan, hammock and stove.
all these things may seem pretty trivial to you guys at home,but none of them come with an apartment down here. simply obtaining a tank of gas, a necessity for a stove, is a chore. there are trucks that drive around town and sell gas, but you have to see the truck to stop them. or, you can call them, if you have a phone, as paco and i did, and then they will show up when they feel like it (worse than the cable guy) as opposed to when you ask them to do so. thus, paco and i spent nearly 3 weeks without fuel. sandwiches were getting pretty old, let me tell you. then, when they finally arrived, they looked at our tank, told us that it was the wrong color (i am not joking) and left. anyway. we finally got a new tank and it cost a pretty penny, let me tell you.
i tell you this little story because it has recently come to my attention that some might think that my life down here is kind of a vacation. in no way is this the case. i dont mention the daily tediums because, well, they are rather boring. but rest assured that there are many complications, not to mention how obnoxious my students can often be, which make living and working down here as complicated, if not more so, than in the states. i continually point out that i am happy because i am, but i hope this does not imply that life is a dream and that i have left the usa for an easier existence down here. not that you think all of this, mind you. the language barrier alone, even though i can communicate with anyone who does not insist on using colloquial phrases as the sole means of raport, can be difficult. i can communicate, but i certainly do not know all the little phrases and words that any native speaker takes for granted.
this leaves me looking slightly foolish as i utilize my ¨catch phrase¨skills to describe a word or phrase. you know the game where you can say just about anything to describe a word without saying the actual word? found in the ocean, creatures once lived inside them, people collect them: seashells. right, but if you do not know the word for seashells and you want to use it, or are in a conversation where others are using it, well, a problem arises.
those of you who have lived in foreign countries probably know what i am talking about, but the added pressure of not only living but working in a foreign country as well sometimes makes for a very stressful situation. a student or traveller in a foreign has a lot of leeway because, after all, that is not your home. however, when you begin to work, the people see you differently. you are no longer quaint and interesting, you are accountable. if i did not have to spend most of my day communicating in english, i am sure i would have fewer problems. i met a guy in san cristobal who was telling me that he quit his english teaching job because his spanish was going nowhere. i can totally relate. everyone, at least down here, expects language teachers to be able to pick up the nuances and subtleties of the native language of the foreign country rather quickly. this is not as easy as it sounds when all of your time is spent using another language.
so i was bit by a spider two nights ago in my sleep. this happens every month or so. i am lucky it was not a scorpion, which more and more people are finding in their apartments right about now, but it bit me right next to my eye. i woke up with my eye swollen and searching for the word to describe the bite when paco asked me why my face was red. itchy, swollen, medication for an insect bite, not words or phrases i use often, but words i needed to know. this is not the kind of event that your language book prepares you to answer questions about, let me tell you. anyway, the pain is mostly gone today, but i looked pretty funny yesterday. then, the words i found in my dicitonary to describe what happened did not really make sense to everyone who asked me about, so i found myself trying to figure out what people were saying as they used other ways to describe the situation (as is common in any language, i mean, not many people describe the same event the same way. most use language that is familiar to them). and this is not a sickness that everyone can identify with, it is more obscure than that.
anyway, you get the idea. language is a difficult thing to get a handle on, and it seems like the more you know, the more you need to know. once you start to catch on to some of the little phrases that people use everyday, they start using more and more with you. unfortunately, it is not quite so easy to learn them as quickly as they say them, and as everyone has a different accent, it is even more difficult to understand exactly what they are saying. plus, it gets annoying when you continually ask people to repeat themselves or spell something or explain what they mean. after a few months, both you and the other people speaking just want to have a normal conversation in a dialect that comes naturally to both parties without having to take up a lot of time with explanation. everyone loses patience after so many months, but when that happens, the foreigner just has to sit back and let the conversation go on without him/her. kind of like watching a foreign film without subtitles. you get some of it, but the rapidity and flow eventually make the finer points start to blur. sure, you know the main idea probably, but as for the details, those are fuzzy at best. you start getting used to knowing only part of what is going on and this starts to shift how you yourself communicate. in short, you stop paying attention all the time. no problem if you have all day to listen and practice. but you dont. you only have a few short hours. there is no time for frustration. conversations, and life, are moving on without you. people you talk to stop correcting you all the time because, as a friend recently told me, we would have nothing to say to each other. the entire time would be spent correcting subtleties. this, if you cannot imagine it, is depressing to hear. he continued by telling me that people know what i am saying because i am about 75% right most of the time (this includes pronunciation and grammar and syntax).
so my little comment that i can communicate with anybody now sounds a little bit different doesnt it? what once sounded like a great thing now has a different meaning. this is my point. i paint most things in this blog to be neat and tidy but nothing is. sure, i know what is going on, but how many times can you make mistakes before it starts to frustrate you? i have no teacher to help me, only friends. friends are friends and will help you to a certain extent, but eventually, they stop. you dont go around correcting everyone´s grammar all the time. you could. but you dont. my situation is similar but more complex because grammar holds my understanding together. that is how i learn foreign language, through grammar. if someone cannot explain to me how an example fits in with the rules i know, i feel confused. like any learner of a foreign language, it is the exceptions that make things difficult. why? it just is. i have always hated that explantion (and this goes back to being a child and being told things without explanations), yet i found myself giving it to one of my students the other day. how can i be so hypocritical?
i just can. i just am. that is the way it is.
and so you see my point.
but that is life, in the end, right? perfection is unattainable, but who said anything about perfection? i have a hard time accepting my limitations, but this is one more lesson that i must learn and practice each day. not that i thought i would be perfect, but that i thought i was getting pretty good. and i am, but relatively. compared to the brit teacher? i am fluent. compared to a native speaker? i am the brit. this is deflating when you realize this is your life.
but it isnt because you are also a teacher. those of you who stand in front of people every day, people who rely on you to teach them something, know the kind of confidence you must not only have, but exude. waver, and they know it. falter, and they pounce. mistakes are amplified a thousand times when you are telling someone else how to do something. so you cannot make mistakes. but no pressure, right? this is not english 105 at northern arizona university where i can talk my way out of nearly any situation because i know how to think and respond in english (you might say i can do this is because of other attributes, but that is not the larger point).
i dont write all this stuff in hopes that you will say to yourselves, ¨poor will. life must be hard.¨ no. life is life, i accept that like everyone else. but, as i explained to my friend who told me life must be easy here, i dont waste my time writing stuff like this rant every day because it really does not help me. it also is not relevant to say that life is hard. everyone already knows that, they dont need me reminding them. the point is that i am happy in spite of all the crap that i, like anyone and everyone else, deal with on a daily basis. i have not given up any of the difficulties that are associated with life simply by packing a bag and moving to another country.
if anything, i have just made those same problems more obnoxious because any end that might not have been completely tied before i left, unravels very very quickly and creates a problem for me and, more importantly, others. ask my family about that if you doubt it. have a problem with anything back in the states? you can only solve it with outside help. but you want to be self-sufficient. tough shit. you have no choice because you are not there. but the world is a global community now.
not in the two-thirds world (matthews 37) my friends.
800 numbers dont work down here. email is a great system if the company responds to you. also, email cannot solve all problems. some things, as you may already realize, can only be taken care of in-person or on a telephone. calls to the usa are not cheap down here. how much are you willing to spend while sitting on hold? that concept, ¨hold, please¨ in general takes on a new meaning when you are paying by the minute.
as the months go by and the comments gets thinner and fewer in-between, i wonder how many people actually read this blog anyway. so if you took a few months off and somehow stumbled upon this entry (and actually read up to this point)... wow. bad timing. my advice? go back and read another, an earlier one. it might be funny. it might make you feel good about yourself. it might be as boring as this one. but remember that reading, no matter how tedious, is fairly easy if you know the language. someone actually had to write it and then look over it and think: damn, that was drivel after all.
all these things may seem pretty trivial to you guys at home,but none of them come with an apartment down here. simply obtaining a tank of gas, a necessity for a stove, is a chore. there are trucks that drive around town and sell gas, but you have to see the truck to stop them. or, you can call them, if you have a phone, as paco and i did, and then they will show up when they feel like it (worse than the cable guy) as opposed to when you ask them to do so. thus, paco and i spent nearly 3 weeks without fuel. sandwiches were getting pretty old, let me tell you. then, when they finally arrived, they looked at our tank, told us that it was the wrong color (i am not joking) and left. anyway. we finally got a new tank and it cost a pretty penny, let me tell you.
i tell you this little story because it has recently come to my attention that some might think that my life down here is kind of a vacation. in no way is this the case. i dont mention the daily tediums because, well, they are rather boring. but rest assured that there are many complications, not to mention how obnoxious my students can often be, which make living and working down here as complicated, if not more so, than in the states. i continually point out that i am happy because i am, but i hope this does not imply that life is a dream and that i have left the usa for an easier existence down here. not that you think all of this, mind you. the language barrier alone, even though i can communicate with anyone who does not insist on using colloquial phrases as the sole means of raport, can be difficult. i can communicate, but i certainly do not know all the little phrases and words that any native speaker takes for granted.
this leaves me looking slightly foolish as i utilize my ¨catch phrase¨skills to describe a word or phrase. you know the game where you can say just about anything to describe a word without saying the actual word? found in the ocean, creatures once lived inside them, people collect them: seashells. right, but if you do not know the word for seashells and you want to use it, or are in a conversation where others are using it, well, a problem arises.
those of you who have lived in foreign countries probably know what i am talking about, but the added pressure of not only living but working in a foreign country as well sometimes makes for a very stressful situation. a student or traveller in a foreign has a lot of leeway because, after all, that is not your home. however, when you begin to work, the people see you differently. you are no longer quaint and interesting, you are accountable. if i did not have to spend most of my day communicating in english, i am sure i would have fewer problems. i met a guy in san cristobal who was telling me that he quit his english teaching job because his spanish was going nowhere. i can totally relate. everyone, at least down here, expects language teachers to be able to pick up the nuances and subtleties of the native language of the foreign country rather quickly. this is not as easy as it sounds when all of your time is spent using another language.
so i was bit by a spider two nights ago in my sleep. this happens every month or so. i am lucky it was not a scorpion, which more and more people are finding in their apartments right about now, but it bit me right next to my eye. i woke up with my eye swollen and searching for the word to describe the bite when paco asked me why my face was red. itchy, swollen, medication for an insect bite, not words or phrases i use often, but words i needed to know. this is not the kind of event that your language book prepares you to answer questions about, let me tell you. anyway, the pain is mostly gone today, but i looked pretty funny yesterday. then, the words i found in my dicitonary to describe what happened did not really make sense to everyone who asked me about, so i found myself trying to figure out what people were saying as they used other ways to describe the situation (as is common in any language, i mean, not many people describe the same event the same way. most use language that is familiar to them). and this is not a sickness that everyone can identify with, it is more obscure than that.
anyway, you get the idea. language is a difficult thing to get a handle on, and it seems like the more you know, the more you need to know. once you start to catch on to some of the little phrases that people use everyday, they start using more and more with you. unfortunately, it is not quite so easy to learn them as quickly as they say them, and as everyone has a different accent, it is even more difficult to understand exactly what they are saying. plus, it gets annoying when you continually ask people to repeat themselves or spell something or explain what they mean. after a few months, both you and the other people speaking just want to have a normal conversation in a dialect that comes naturally to both parties without having to take up a lot of time with explanation. everyone loses patience after so many months, but when that happens, the foreigner just has to sit back and let the conversation go on without him/her. kind of like watching a foreign film without subtitles. you get some of it, but the rapidity and flow eventually make the finer points start to blur. sure, you know the main idea probably, but as for the details, those are fuzzy at best. you start getting used to knowing only part of what is going on and this starts to shift how you yourself communicate. in short, you stop paying attention all the time. no problem if you have all day to listen and practice. but you dont. you only have a few short hours. there is no time for frustration. conversations, and life, are moving on without you. people you talk to stop correcting you all the time because, as a friend recently told me, we would have nothing to say to each other. the entire time would be spent correcting subtleties. this, if you cannot imagine it, is depressing to hear. he continued by telling me that people know what i am saying because i am about 75% right most of the time (this includes pronunciation and grammar and syntax).
so my little comment that i can communicate with anybody now sounds a little bit different doesnt it? what once sounded like a great thing now has a different meaning. this is my point. i paint most things in this blog to be neat and tidy but nothing is. sure, i know what is going on, but how many times can you make mistakes before it starts to frustrate you? i have no teacher to help me, only friends. friends are friends and will help you to a certain extent, but eventually, they stop. you dont go around correcting everyone´s grammar all the time. you could. but you dont. my situation is similar but more complex because grammar holds my understanding together. that is how i learn foreign language, through grammar. if someone cannot explain to me how an example fits in with the rules i know, i feel confused. like any learner of a foreign language, it is the exceptions that make things difficult. why? it just is. i have always hated that explantion (and this goes back to being a child and being told things without explanations), yet i found myself giving it to one of my students the other day. how can i be so hypocritical?
i just can. i just am. that is the way it is.
and so you see my point.
but that is life, in the end, right? perfection is unattainable, but who said anything about perfection? i have a hard time accepting my limitations, but this is one more lesson that i must learn and practice each day. not that i thought i would be perfect, but that i thought i was getting pretty good. and i am, but relatively. compared to the brit teacher? i am fluent. compared to a native speaker? i am the brit. this is deflating when you realize this is your life.
but it isnt because you are also a teacher. those of you who stand in front of people every day, people who rely on you to teach them something, know the kind of confidence you must not only have, but exude. waver, and they know it. falter, and they pounce. mistakes are amplified a thousand times when you are telling someone else how to do something. so you cannot make mistakes. but no pressure, right? this is not english 105 at northern arizona university where i can talk my way out of nearly any situation because i know how to think and respond in english (you might say i can do this is because of other attributes, but that is not the larger point).
i dont write all this stuff in hopes that you will say to yourselves, ¨poor will. life must be hard.¨ no. life is life, i accept that like everyone else. but, as i explained to my friend who told me life must be easy here, i dont waste my time writing stuff like this rant every day because it really does not help me. it also is not relevant to say that life is hard. everyone already knows that, they dont need me reminding them. the point is that i am happy in spite of all the crap that i, like anyone and everyone else, deal with on a daily basis. i have not given up any of the difficulties that are associated with life simply by packing a bag and moving to another country.
if anything, i have just made those same problems more obnoxious because any end that might not have been completely tied before i left, unravels very very quickly and creates a problem for me and, more importantly, others. ask my family about that if you doubt it. have a problem with anything back in the states? you can only solve it with outside help. but you want to be self-sufficient. tough shit. you have no choice because you are not there. but the world is a global community now.
not in the two-thirds world (matthews 37) my friends.
800 numbers dont work down here. email is a great system if the company responds to you. also, email cannot solve all problems. some things, as you may already realize, can only be taken care of in-person or on a telephone. calls to the usa are not cheap down here. how much are you willing to spend while sitting on hold? that concept, ¨hold, please¨ in general takes on a new meaning when you are paying by the minute.
as the months go by and the comments gets thinner and fewer in-between, i wonder how many people actually read this blog anyway. so if you took a few months off and somehow stumbled upon this entry (and actually read up to this point)... wow. bad timing. my advice? go back and read another, an earlier one. it might be funny. it might make you feel good about yourself. it might be as boring as this one. but remember that reading, no matter how tedious, is fairly easy if you know the language. someone actually had to write it and then look over it and think: damn, that was drivel after all.
18 January 2006
i have a new job offer. the place is puerto angel and it is about 4 hrs from where i currently live, and about 50 kilometers north of huatulco where i first arrived. the town is extremely small from what i hear and there is not a lot to do aside from going to the beach, hiking, surfing and exploring a new area. in other words, i think there is a lot to do there despite how it is billed. i am going this weekend to check it out and see how much things are there. the lady at the university with whom i am in contact tells me i can rent a place for around 1000 pesos a month, which is more than i pay now but not a lot of money in the long run. we will see.
i was wrong about the assassination i described on monday. the person killed was actually the president of ixtepec, the town where i live. he and two other family members were shot in veracruz last week. apparently he was once a fairly poor man who had a very small house and seemed to fit in well in this community. then, mysteriously, a few years ago, after he took office, he came into vast sums of money, built a huge house with a pool and threw money around all over town. mysterious unless you believe what everyone says and acknowledge that he was part of a drug trade. i have no idea about it really, but i am not sure why he would have been shot, along with a few family members, if he were the simple, modest-living person he was a few years ago. either way, a very interesting turn of events.
i was wrong about the assassination i described on monday. the person killed was actually the president of ixtepec, the town where i live. he and two other family members were shot in veracruz last week. apparently he was once a fairly poor man who had a very small house and seemed to fit in well in this community. then, mysteriously, a few years ago, after he took office, he came into vast sums of money, built a huge house with a pool and threw money around all over town. mysterious unless you believe what everyone says and acknowledge that he was part of a drug trade. i have no idea about it really, but i am not sure why he would have been shot, along with a few family members, if he were the simple, modest-living person he was a few years ago. either way, a very interesting turn of events.
16 January 2006
today feels like a usa today kind of day. so here is all the news you need in tiny, bite-size nuggets. mmm. chicken nuggets.
i saw two films this weekend. akira kurosawa´s rhapsody in august (i think this is the english name). it is in japanese unless you count richard gere´s lines, which i dont, so the whole thing was subtitled in spanish. i was so proud of myself, i understood about 90% reading along. yahtzee. the second film was an excellent french film, ¨monseur n¨, or ¨el señor napoleon¨ in spanish. the movie was again subtitled in spanish but also had some english in it. this was a great movie. i had no idea there was mystery about the death of napoleon.
ok, that was a long entry.
five people were shot and killed in veracruz (a neighboring state) on friday, including the president of the state. one of the people killed was from oaxaca so there was a nearly two hour parade on sunday that went through the street next to my house. fifty taxis drove at a slower than walking pace while simulateneously honking their horns. this, along with the horns from the buses that followed, lasted approx 15 min. there was no hiding from it or drowning it out. amazingly, there were people on street level having to deal with it. i watched from the balcony and wanted to throw eggs and fruit at them. i know, it is a funeral, i should have more respect, but come on. why the obsession with loud, piercing noises? fireworks at all times day and night. the need to honk horns at anyone at any time?
i think we get a little too complacent in the states. not that i am condoning random violence, but an assassination every once in a while might keep these politicians on their toes. at the very least it would give fox news a reason to elevate the terror alert. what color are you guys on today anyway?
ok, the last part about the killing was a joke. but honestly, not that many people down here are that concerned about it. a high ranking official was killed back in october also. no real concern. is that bc the media is so tightly controlled, the people are desensitized to violence, the general apathy of the people or some combination? or that all the people feel all politicians are corrupt so no one cares?
i have been walking home from school for almost a week now. someone with a car figured out it is about 5 kilometers each way. what is that, about 3 miles? almost? i am happy with myself. not as happy as the guy with the car, but i will be healthier than him.
no news on the job front. i should hear today.
i finished my first real book in spanish two weeks ago. it was a book of interviews with gabo. garcía marquez. pretty good. i am about halfway done with my second book. carlos fuentes ¨la frontera de cristal¨ or ¨the glass(clear) border (something like that) - it is about the mex-usa border. interesting but not a favorite so far.
sports? um, marcus vick didnt pull a gun on anyone or get arrested this weekend. i think that is news.
let me know if i missed anything significant in the states. unless it is about marcus vick and his arrests. i have heard enough about con-vick.
i saw two films this weekend. akira kurosawa´s rhapsody in august (i think this is the english name). it is in japanese unless you count richard gere´s lines, which i dont, so the whole thing was subtitled in spanish. i was so proud of myself, i understood about 90% reading along. yahtzee. the second film was an excellent french film, ¨monseur n¨, or ¨el señor napoleon¨ in spanish. the movie was again subtitled in spanish but also had some english in it. this was a great movie. i had no idea there was mystery about the death of napoleon.
ok, that was a long entry.
five people were shot and killed in veracruz (a neighboring state) on friday, including the president of the state. one of the people killed was from oaxaca so there was a nearly two hour parade on sunday that went through the street next to my house. fifty taxis drove at a slower than walking pace while simulateneously honking their horns. this, along with the horns from the buses that followed, lasted approx 15 min. there was no hiding from it or drowning it out. amazingly, there were people on street level having to deal with it. i watched from the balcony and wanted to throw eggs and fruit at them. i know, it is a funeral, i should have more respect, but come on. why the obsession with loud, piercing noises? fireworks at all times day and night. the need to honk horns at anyone at any time?
i think we get a little too complacent in the states. not that i am condoning random violence, but an assassination every once in a while might keep these politicians on their toes. at the very least it would give fox news a reason to elevate the terror alert. what color are you guys on today anyway?
ok, the last part about the killing was a joke. but honestly, not that many people down here are that concerned about it. a high ranking official was killed back in october also. no real concern. is that bc the media is so tightly controlled, the people are desensitized to violence, the general apathy of the people or some combination? or that all the people feel all politicians are corrupt so no one cares?
i have been walking home from school for almost a week now. someone with a car figured out it is about 5 kilometers each way. what is that, about 3 miles? almost? i am happy with myself. not as happy as the guy with the car, but i will be healthier than him.
no news on the job front. i should hear today.
i finished my first real book in spanish two weeks ago. it was a book of interviews with gabo. garcía marquez. pretty good. i am about halfway done with my second book. carlos fuentes ¨la frontera de cristal¨ or ¨the glass(clear) border (something like that) - it is about the mex-usa border. interesting but not a favorite so far.
sports? um, marcus vick didnt pull a gun on anyone or get arrested this weekend. i think that is news.
let me know if i missed anything significant in the states. unless it is about marcus vick and his arrests. i have heard enough about con-vick.
12 January 2006
uncle william. for some reason, everyone down here calls me william. and not how y´all say it, but wil-yamm(with a soft ¨a¨). on xmas eve i went to the registrar´s office and became a witness to the naming of my friend´s baby. my buddy oscar omar chavez rodriguez, finally someone with more names than me, has a daughter, alexia natalia chavez, shoot, now i forgot his wife´s last name, anyway, she has four names too. almost had five. the couple got into a small argument at the office when oscar wanted her to take both chavez and rodriguez and the last name of his girlfriend. i offered my opinion to which she told me that she did not need my help! oscar was loving it and i found it very funny also. anyway, i am a witness to something down here. it was funny how much they scrutinized my documents, but they let me be a witness anyway. now when she grows up and wonders why there is a strange name on her birth certificate, alexia natalia will hear a funny story about a guy who used to teach with her father.
weird.
so oscar and, now i am forgetting his girlfriend-fiance´s name as well, picked me up from the bus station around midnight a few days before xmas. they took me back to oscar´s apt in puebla where i stayed for the next four nights, excepts xmas eve when we all went to his brothers house and ate, drank and played games until 4am, even the little 4yr old was still up around this time, at which time everyone crashed somewhere. i slept on the floor, but there was like a floor mat i slept on. it did not matter. the food was fantastic, and we ate for hours, and his father, twin sisters, fiance, brother and family (wife, 3 boys) were wonderful. my picture of them is screwed up but i am working on getting one to put on the website. there was nearly an hour of toasting, i am not joking, and all the chavez men cried, again, not joking. it was great to see all the women, save one of the twins, dry eyed and the men openly weeping. trip.
alright. got to run, but that is the story for the day. men, don´t be afraid to cry. and if you are a weeper, come on down here and i will introduce you to friends.
the days get closer to me moving. i have not been offered a job but it could be tomorrow. we shall see.
weird.
so oscar and, now i am forgetting his girlfriend-fiance´s name as well, picked me up from the bus station around midnight a few days before xmas. they took me back to oscar´s apt in puebla where i stayed for the next four nights, excepts xmas eve when we all went to his brothers house and ate, drank and played games until 4am, even the little 4yr old was still up around this time, at which time everyone crashed somewhere. i slept on the floor, but there was like a floor mat i slept on. it did not matter. the food was fantastic, and we ate for hours, and his father, twin sisters, fiance, brother and family (wife, 3 boys) were wonderful. my picture of them is screwed up but i am working on getting one to put on the website. there was nearly an hour of toasting, i am not joking, and all the chavez men cried, again, not joking. it was great to see all the women, save one of the twins, dry eyed and the men openly weeping. trip.
alright. got to run, but that is the story for the day. men, don´t be afraid to cry. and if you are a weeper, come on down here and i will introduce you to friends.
the days get closer to me moving. i have not been offered a job but it could be tomorrow. we shall see.
10 January 2006
my time here might be coming to an end.
you read a sentence like that and i guess there are at least four or five ways to interpret it.
1. the person is melodramatic
2. the person is considering moving
3. the person is thinking about taking his or her own life
4. the person is from another planet and is considering going to another one
5. nothing: the word ¨might¨ implies that nothing at all will change.
i am certainly number 1. number 2, check. number 3? not this week. number 4? i still have my hopes. number 5? check and check.
i applied yesterday to another job down here. it is puerto angel about 4 hours from here. it is about an hour from huatulco, the mega-resort where i flew into last august. the university system, umar, is almost exactly like this one and basically has the same parent company. thus, the salary is about the same, the schedule is equal, etc.
after i sent in my app to puerto angel, i stumbled across another branch of umar in huatulco. so yes, i sent my cv there as well. the head lady there emailed me back and said she was sending my cv to all the campuses (umar essentially means university of the sea, so all campuses are on the coast).
this morning, i got another email. this one was from my boss nicole. it read: i am coming to ixtepec today and i want to talk with you. lucky me. is it my birthday? no, that´s right, she knew when my bday was in september and did not bother to say anything to me or to the other english profs in tehuantepec even though she knew damn well i was living alone in ixtepec. did i win the lottery? no, i don´t play. well, then, i thought it was pretty clear why shee wanted to speak with me.
but no, i did not win the ¨teacher of the year¨ award in the annual Istmus of Tehuantepec New Year´s Teacher Appreciation Week. In fact, there is no such week. you can imagine my surprise.
she had received an email from one of the ladies i had sent my cv to yesterday. my my, word travels fast in the land of no telephones.
she asked if i was unhappy (stifle that laughter) with the university. no, i was not. she asked if i was just a traveller who did not really care where i taught so much as long as it was different all the time (i, like you, sensed something deeper in this question). i let that one hang. giving her the same kind of awkward feeling i often have around her made me feel good. she explained that the vice-rector had instructed her (and, of course, this information was not to leave the room) not to hire people who wanted to use the university as a system through which to tour southern mexico. because in the back of every Lonely Planet the universidad del istmo is listed as the number one resource for travellers who want to teach in a no-strings, laid-back commune that stresses love and togetherness. plus large gates with armed guards and a nazi who works in a refrigerator and passes judgement on anyone who dares to read a book (yes, i have not forgotten about her). number two, of course, is eating rez de cabeza (oh yes, that is cow head) and spending a week or two in a run-down, government-sponsored clinic while the worms crawl around in your tum.
after giving one of my best, ¨it´s not you, it´s me¨ speeches about how i just wanted to test the water and see what the other universities had to offer, i ended with the always vague, ¨but i have made no decision yet, and depending on whether i am offered a job, i can let you know in the next two weeks whether or not i will be returning. but know that i am not unhappy here.¨
the look on her face was priceless. i finally had the opportunity to leave her as confused as i have been for the past four months (in terms of syllabus, standards, etc.). i loved it. she countered by telling me she would email the woman who emailed her and tell her that she was very happy with me and would thus appreciate it if the woman would not offer me a job so that i could stay in ixtepec.
witch.
but that is ok, bc i think that if, and that is a big¨IF¨i believe my boss about as much as i believe a mexican tour guide who tells me that all entrance fees to parks are included in the price of the tour package, she tells the other woman anything relatively positive i will get the job. why not be confident? what have i got to lose?
but doesn´t the idea of living at the beach sound great? who cares if the town is tiny(puerto angel is smaller than ixtepec and ¨supposedly¨offers less recreation (hello, there is an ocean 150 yars away)) and in the middle of nowhere? i think i know what that feels like already.
in the back of my mind nicole´s words do sting a bit. because of course she is right and i am just using this university system to travel and learn a language and culture. but come on, i think this getting used deal works both ways. and i could learn to surf and spanish? well well well.
but let us come back to the beginning. nothing is decided and no jobs have been offered. so my time here might be coming to an end. equally, it might not.
you read a sentence like that and i guess there are at least four or five ways to interpret it.
1. the person is melodramatic
2. the person is considering moving
3. the person is thinking about taking his or her own life
4. the person is from another planet and is considering going to another one
5. nothing: the word ¨might¨ implies that nothing at all will change.
i am certainly number 1. number 2, check. number 3? not this week. number 4? i still have my hopes. number 5? check and check.
i applied yesterday to another job down here. it is puerto angel about 4 hours from here. it is about an hour from huatulco, the mega-resort where i flew into last august. the university system, umar, is almost exactly like this one and basically has the same parent company. thus, the salary is about the same, the schedule is equal, etc.
after i sent in my app to puerto angel, i stumbled across another branch of umar in huatulco. so yes, i sent my cv there as well. the head lady there emailed me back and said she was sending my cv to all the campuses (umar essentially means university of the sea, so all campuses are on the coast).
this morning, i got another email. this one was from my boss nicole. it read: i am coming to ixtepec today and i want to talk with you. lucky me. is it my birthday? no, that´s right, she knew when my bday was in september and did not bother to say anything to me or to the other english profs in tehuantepec even though she knew damn well i was living alone in ixtepec. did i win the lottery? no, i don´t play. well, then, i thought it was pretty clear why shee wanted to speak with me.
but no, i did not win the ¨teacher of the year¨ award in the annual Istmus of Tehuantepec New Year´s Teacher Appreciation Week. In fact, there is no such week. you can imagine my surprise.
she had received an email from one of the ladies i had sent my cv to yesterday. my my, word travels fast in the land of no telephones.
she asked if i was unhappy (stifle that laughter) with the university. no, i was not. she asked if i was just a traveller who did not really care where i taught so much as long as it was different all the time (i, like you, sensed something deeper in this question). i let that one hang. giving her the same kind of awkward feeling i often have around her made me feel good. she explained that the vice-rector had instructed her (and, of course, this information was not to leave the room) not to hire people who wanted to use the university as a system through which to tour southern mexico. because in the back of every Lonely Planet the universidad del istmo is listed as the number one resource for travellers who want to teach in a no-strings, laid-back commune that stresses love and togetherness. plus large gates with armed guards and a nazi who works in a refrigerator and passes judgement on anyone who dares to read a book (yes, i have not forgotten about her). number two, of course, is eating rez de cabeza (oh yes, that is cow head) and spending a week or two in a run-down, government-sponsored clinic while the worms crawl around in your tum.
after giving one of my best, ¨it´s not you, it´s me¨ speeches about how i just wanted to test the water and see what the other universities had to offer, i ended with the always vague, ¨but i have made no decision yet, and depending on whether i am offered a job, i can let you know in the next two weeks whether or not i will be returning. but know that i am not unhappy here.¨
the look on her face was priceless. i finally had the opportunity to leave her as confused as i have been for the past four months (in terms of syllabus, standards, etc.). i loved it. she countered by telling me she would email the woman who emailed her and tell her that she was very happy with me and would thus appreciate it if the woman would not offer me a job so that i could stay in ixtepec.
witch.
but that is ok, bc i think that if, and that is a big¨IF¨i believe my boss about as much as i believe a mexican tour guide who tells me that all entrance fees to parks are included in the price of the tour package, she tells the other woman anything relatively positive i will get the job. why not be confident? what have i got to lose?
but doesn´t the idea of living at the beach sound great? who cares if the town is tiny(puerto angel is smaller than ixtepec and ¨supposedly¨offers less recreation (hello, there is an ocean 150 yars away)) and in the middle of nowhere? i think i know what that feels like already.
in the back of my mind nicole´s words do sting a bit. because of course she is right and i am just using this university system to travel and learn a language and culture. but come on, i think this getting used deal works both ways. and i could learn to surf and spanish? well well well.
but let us come back to the beginning. nothing is decided and no jobs have been offered. so my time here might be coming to an end. equally, it might not.
09 January 2006
i forgot to mention that beard contest 2005-6 has officially ended. my friend and coworker arash shaved the beard into a goatee last night meaning i have once again won. he complained of itchiness. rookie.
after only 3.5 weeks, the contest is over. this marks the fifth beard i have had in five years. it will be the smallest yet, as i will now shave tonight or tomorrow, but it makes me feel a little closer to home having one. some things cannot be reproduced in ixtepec, but some can. and that is good news.
thank you james via amy for how to fix the blog. i tried to change all the picture sizes, i use picassa, and i think i did. i may end up switching to the other blog anyway though soon. i like having a new blog for the new year, and i really like the name! nothing will happen to this one, and i will make a link so that they are both easily accessed. if/when i do, i will let you all know.
after only 3.5 weeks, the contest is over. this marks the fifth beard i have had in five years. it will be the smallest yet, as i will now shave tonight or tomorrow, but it makes me feel a little closer to home having one. some things cannot be reproduced in ixtepec, but some can. and that is good news.
thank you james via amy for how to fix the blog. i tried to change all the picture sizes, i use picassa, and i think i did. i may end up switching to the other blog anyway though soon. i like having a new blog for the new year, and i really like the name! nothing will happen to this one, and i will make a link so that they are both easily accessed. if/when i do, i will let you all know.
to continue with the vacation posts, kristin and i had a grand time in acapulco. well, except that the water is dirty. we did not actually swim in the ocean, or bay, because it was kind of gross. thousands of others found it ok, but the color and the smell turned us off a bit. so we went to musuems and historic sites instead. i am a nerd and love stuff like, i still remember going to fort sumpter in south cacky and looking at the old flag and of course the fort itself was lots of fun.
as all profs get in for free, this was a score for me. kristin had to pay 3 bucks. not too bad. we saw the cliff divers, which was interesting. it was hyped as something spectacular, and it was pretty amazing, but i think the fact that we waited over an hour and then it was over in 15 minutes kind of killed the excitement.
the two most interested parts of acapulco, for me, were the buses and the volkswagen beatles. did you know that they never stopped making the old beetle model until 2000? there are thousands of beetles in acapulco; they are the taxis for the town. there are millions of volchitos (as they are affectionately known down here) in mexico in general bc volkswagen made all their cars down here until two years ago or so. then they bolted. they heard wal-mart was coming. wise choice.
so the streets are packed with volks bugs, white with blue fenders as almost all are taxis and this is their color scheme.
but the coolest was the bus system. the owners of the buses personalize them with blacklights and airbrushing. from the chronicles of riddick to the predator to the matrix to every comic book character to the chippendales ¨solo para mujeres¨, they were awesome. at night they are all lit up with crazy lights, the insides are moving parties bc the drivers invariably have huge stereo systems and they bump whatever music they like. also, each driver has his own (there were no women drivers) altar at the front. some have jesus and god ornaments everywhere. others have daffy duck dolls stuck in ever open space. i wish i could do these buses justice. they were amazing. on the side was the name of the movie or comic character or whatever and then the huge back of the bus was a giant mural or action scene. the riddick one super cool but so were many others. it is a cool expression for the bus drivers and they all seemed really happy, so that is cool. a great form of self-expression.
on kristin´s last day, i was heading to puebla to stay with my friend oscar for xmas and to see the city. we went to the airport and then i was going to get a colectivo (collective cab) back to town to save some money (the cabs from the airport were outrageous). as the time ticked by and i waited, i realized i wouldnot have enough time to get back to get my bag and then make it to the bus station. i forked over more cash to buy a private cab ride but bc of my penny-pinching i was going to miss the bus. if i had simply paid for a private cab in the first place, all would have been fine. luckily, my cab driver reminded me of this on the ride back to the city. i informed him that my spanish was poor but i did not need help understanding where my cheapness had put me. he relented and went back to inane small talk. luckily he did pick up the pace a bit, but by the time i got back to the room to pick up bag, i had 15 minutes until my bus left. with traffic bumper to bumper, i was screwed. i ran to the street and found a bug. i did not even bargain with the driver as i got in (normally you must ask how much he will charge first bc fare meters do not exist and white skin automatically implies that your price will go up 20 pesos). he gave me a good price anyway and i jumped in.
i look over at my driver and see a kid about 19. i remember being that age and how much i liked to drive fast. speeding was not really an option with the traffic, but i made a bet with myself anyway. i turned to him and explained my situation. then i pulled out 30 pesos extra and told him if he could get me there in 12 minutes, it was all his as a tip. suddenly, there was a new lane and we were in it. he turned off the crowded main strip, explaining that this way was longer but had less people on it. when we used the oncoming traffic lane to slide through the parking lot of a gas station and past a full intersection i simultaneously knew i had taken my life and placed it in his hands and that i had made the right choice.
yet when he answered his cell phone (all bugs are sticks mind you) and carried on a brief conversation, doubt crept in regarding my safety and the time limit.
i slowly put the extra money back in my pocket.
he immediately floored it and took a hard left up a hill. when i noticed that all the cars were parked the opposite way we were travelling, i heard the honking. there was plenty of room (bugs are also tiny) but a sobering reminder to me of what i had done. we shot out onto a familiar street and in the distance i saw the bus station. he again found a new lane of traffic (bugs are very very small) and whipped us into the parking lot. 12 minutes. amazing.
i handed him the money and looked up at the clock. 2:32. my bus left at 2:30. the driver´s clock was slow or the station was fast. it did not matter. i had missed my bus.
dejected i walked to check in. i looked at where the bus shouldhave been and saw an empty space. next to it saw an anglo-looking person and set my bag down. i looked at my ticket and up at the number hanging over the parking space where the bus for d.f. should have been parked. the lady looked at me, looked up at the number, then looked back at me.
¨i can´t believe it either,¨ she told me, ¨these buses are so rarely late.¨
looking back at her through the sweat that had crept into the corners of my eyes, i saw a large shadow moving slowly toward me from the periphery.
ten minutes later i was on my way to d.f. of course d.f. is the largest city in the world, over 19 million people, 1/4 of the population of mexico, so as we got to within an hour of the city the traffic stopped moving. i had to get to d.f. and buy another ticket for puebla (about 1.45 hrs from d.f.) so this was not good news. but as i sat in the air condition and observed the sea of lights and polution that filled the night skyof the valley, which was once a lake until the millions of people used all the water, i felt calm. it would all be fine. there would be time, there would be tickets and my friends would meet at the bus station.
i was right. but this was certainly not the last brush with missing a bus on my vacation. if vacations should be relaxing, i think i am doing something wrong.
as all profs get in for free, this was a score for me. kristin had to pay 3 bucks. not too bad. we saw the cliff divers, which was interesting. it was hyped as something spectacular, and it was pretty amazing, but i think the fact that we waited over an hour and then it was over in 15 minutes kind of killed the excitement.
the two most interested parts of acapulco, for me, were the buses and the volkswagen beatles. did you know that they never stopped making the old beetle model until 2000? there are thousands of beetles in acapulco; they are the taxis for the town. there are millions of volchitos (as they are affectionately known down here) in mexico in general bc volkswagen made all their cars down here until two years ago or so. then they bolted. they heard wal-mart was coming. wise choice.
so the streets are packed with volks bugs, white with blue fenders as almost all are taxis and this is their color scheme.
but the coolest was the bus system. the owners of the buses personalize them with blacklights and airbrushing. from the chronicles of riddick to the predator to the matrix to every comic book character to the chippendales ¨solo para mujeres¨, they were awesome. at night they are all lit up with crazy lights, the insides are moving parties bc the drivers invariably have huge stereo systems and they bump whatever music they like. also, each driver has his own (there were no women drivers) altar at the front. some have jesus and god ornaments everywhere. others have daffy duck dolls stuck in ever open space. i wish i could do these buses justice. they were amazing. on the side was the name of the movie or comic character or whatever and then the huge back of the bus was a giant mural or action scene. the riddick one super cool but so were many others. it is a cool expression for the bus drivers and they all seemed really happy, so that is cool. a great form of self-expression.
on kristin´s last day, i was heading to puebla to stay with my friend oscar for xmas and to see the city. we went to the airport and then i was going to get a colectivo (collective cab) back to town to save some money (the cabs from the airport were outrageous). as the time ticked by and i waited, i realized i wouldnot have enough time to get back to get my bag and then make it to the bus station. i forked over more cash to buy a private cab ride but bc of my penny-pinching i was going to miss the bus. if i had simply paid for a private cab in the first place, all would have been fine. luckily, my cab driver reminded me of this on the ride back to the city. i informed him that my spanish was poor but i did not need help understanding where my cheapness had put me. he relented and went back to inane small talk. luckily he did pick up the pace a bit, but by the time i got back to the room to pick up bag, i had 15 minutes until my bus left. with traffic bumper to bumper, i was screwed. i ran to the street and found a bug. i did not even bargain with the driver as i got in (normally you must ask how much he will charge first bc fare meters do not exist and white skin automatically implies that your price will go up 20 pesos). he gave me a good price anyway and i jumped in.
i look over at my driver and see a kid about 19. i remember being that age and how much i liked to drive fast. speeding was not really an option with the traffic, but i made a bet with myself anyway. i turned to him and explained my situation. then i pulled out 30 pesos extra and told him if he could get me there in 12 minutes, it was all his as a tip. suddenly, there was a new lane and we were in it. he turned off the crowded main strip, explaining that this way was longer but had less people on it. when we used the oncoming traffic lane to slide through the parking lot of a gas station and past a full intersection i simultaneously knew i had taken my life and placed it in his hands and that i had made the right choice.
yet when he answered his cell phone (all bugs are sticks mind you) and carried on a brief conversation, doubt crept in regarding my safety and the time limit.
i slowly put the extra money back in my pocket.
he immediately floored it and took a hard left up a hill. when i noticed that all the cars were parked the opposite way we were travelling, i heard the honking. there was plenty of room (bugs are also tiny) but a sobering reminder to me of what i had done. we shot out onto a familiar street and in the distance i saw the bus station. he again found a new lane of traffic (bugs are very very small) and whipped us into the parking lot. 12 minutes. amazing.
i handed him the money and looked up at the clock. 2:32. my bus left at 2:30. the driver´s clock was slow or the station was fast. it did not matter. i had missed my bus.
dejected i walked to check in. i looked at where the bus shouldhave been and saw an empty space. next to it saw an anglo-looking person and set my bag down. i looked at my ticket and up at the number hanging over the parking space where the bus for d.f. should have been parked. the lady looked at me, looked up at the number, then looked back at me.
¨i can´t believe it either,¨ she told me, ¨these buses are so rarely late.¨
looking back at her through the sweat that had crept into the corners of my eyes, i saw a large shadow moving slowly toward me from the periphery.
ten minutes later i was on my way to d.f. of course d.f. is the largest city in the world, over 19 million people, 1/4 of the population of mexico, so as we got to within an hour of the city the traffic stopped moving. i had to get to d.f. and buy another ticket for puebla (about 1.45 hrs from d.f.) so this was not good news. but as i sat in the air condition and observed the sea of lights and polution that filled the night skyof the valley, which was once a lake until the millions of people used all the water, i felt calm. it would all be fine. there would be time, there would be tickets and my friends would meet at the bus station.
i was right. but this was certainly not the last brush with missing a bus on my vacation. if vacations should be relaxing, i think i am doing something wrong.
05 January 2006
let´s go back in time. december 16th i left work at the lunch bell (ok, there is no bell)at 1pm. oscar and i went to eat in the swealtering december sun, i think it was around 100 again that day, and then we grabbed our bags and hopped on a bus to juchitan. we left ixtepec at 2:30pm. two busses and two hours later (in what would take a car about 50-60min of driving) we arrived in salina cruz and walked about half a mile to the first class bus station. our bus did not leave until 5:30 so we went to a café around the corner and lounged in the blissful air conditioning for 30 minutes.
estrella blanca, white star, would carry us from salina cruz north along the coast road to acapulco. we would pass through the bahias de huatulco, beautiful resort town where i began my bus journeys through mexico back in august, to puerto escondido and numerous other beach resort town on our 14 hour journey to acapulco. why 14 hours? bc the coast road is in the mountains. if you have been to california, or currently live there, imagine driving highway one from aracadia, or around there, down to san diego. the distance is not absolutely huge in the case of salinas to acapulco, but the bus is ginormous and the road is twisty, curvy and of course there are livestock to dodge.
we boarded the bus a few minutes early and oscar and i settled into the front two seats (we had numbers) while the remaining seats were only sporadically filled. this would change. by the time we reached huatulco three hours, and one bad movie dubbed into spanish about an airplane that crashes in the desert and the people are forced to rebuild it based on some model airplane engineer´s design. filght of the phoenix, or something like that. in huatulco i almost left my seat to go inside the bus station to use the baño but then i saw the mob of people waiting to board.
the bus seats, let´s say, 56 people. when the 64th person boarded, things got tense. it appeared that our lovely carrier, estrella blanca, had oversold the bus. also factor in that as the bus rolled along the coast road we picked up stragglers who clearly had no ticket, but paid cash to the driver (this is where the problems with the bus system really come in). oscar and i shook our heads in disbelief as passengers stood in the aisle and held on to what they could. mind you these busses are not meant to have people standing, unlike the other second and third class busses which regularly fill to the brim (the kind we took from ixtepec to salinas for example). as i was sitting in the aisle seat, so i could stretch my legs, i was even more appalled to find people standing where my legs wanted to go. the nerve. then, one girl just sits right down next to the driver and starts chatting. normally there are two drivers on long hauls like this so if one starts to nod off, well, you get it. this chick just slides right in and takes the ¨cushion¨seat away from the spare driver. bold move cotton, let´s see if it pays off.
it did and while many of the others suffered for the next few hours, she at least had a place to sit.
meanwhile, there were 64 people on the bus and i was in disbelief. that was until the door opened again about 1km from the bus terminal and another man hopped on, reeking of alcohol. the girl in the cushy seat turned to the driver and motioned for him not to allow the man to ride. whatever pull she thought she had, she did not. the driver brushed her off and after a, in my opinion, superficial attempt to tell the man the bus was full, the man pulled out cash. at that point the driver turned back into the welcoming host that clearly he was hired by estrella blanca to be, and offered the man a seat on the floor next to the door. as this new friend was having some difficulty standing, he plopped right down and within two minutes was snoring. fortunately, as i mentioned, it was a mountain road, so after the first curve rolled against cushion girl, she gave him a swift kick which sent his head flying into the door. a laugh was shared by all in the front compartment, clearly confirming that we, 1. felt that drunky should not have been allowed on, 2.were happy we had been let on, 3. would silently condemn estrella blanca for overselling the bus, and 4. were secretly, at least we were not going to vocalize it, glad we did not have sit that close to someone who once he regained full consciousness would start to wonder exactly how he had managed to get such a bump on the noggin.
all was jolly and full of christmas cheer for an hour. then we arrived in puerto escondido around 10:45pm. luckily, people got off the bus. sadly, more got on the bus. one woman stopped right next to my seat. she could have moved further back i noticed, but she did not. she let other people smush and shove to get around her while she held her ground. within 30 seconds i noticed something awful. sniff. cough cough. repeat. no mouth covering, no attempt to blow the foul stench of her breath and whatever vile germs lurked within in some other direction. they were aimed at my head. ten seconds later, repeat. again, and again, and again. it was 2 hour until the next stop. i turned my head slightly, she was less than a foot away and gave her my most unwelcoming glare. she hardly seemed to notice and went right on coughing and sniffing. then she put her head against the side of my head rest. i glanced at oscar, who no doubt was extremely happy i had chosen the aisle seat, and he feigned sympathy. she coughed and sniffed again. no way, jose. i jerked my head to the side and bonked her in the head. she made a muffled sound and rose off her new-found pillow. she made no move to stem the coughing or sniffing and renewed said expulsions with a gusto i found particularly annoying.
at this point i removed the sheet from my carry-on, really just the top part of my pack, which although is a fanny pack i refuse to ever wear as such (i instead use it as a kind of murse- man purse, which i wear over one shoulder, or i wear it crossed over one shoulder so it hangs on my back like a bike messenger´s bag, and draped the sheet over my head. i continued in this manner for the next two hours until sickie finally got off the bus.
somehow, at least 10 people ended up standing for around 7 hours of the journey (this from 1am o 8am) while alternating between sitting on the floor and generally annoying those with seats.
we arrived, oscar fairly well rested, me not so much. day one. 17 more. i doubt the next daily entries will be quite this detailed.
estrella blanca, white star, would carry us from salina cruz north along the coast road to acapulco. we would pass through the bahias de huatulco, beautiful resort town where i began my bus journeys through mexico back in august, to puerto escondido and numerous other beach resort town on our 14 hour journey to acapulco. why 14 hours? bc the coast road is in the mountains. if you have been to california, or currently live there, imagine driving highway one from aracadia, or around there, down to san diego. the distance is not absolutely huge in the case of salinas to acapulco, but the bus is ginormous and the road is twisty, curvy and of course there are livestock to dodge.
we boarded the bus a few minutes early and oscar and i settled into the front two seats (we had numbers) while the remaining seats were only sporadically filled. this would change. by the time we reached huatulco three hours, and one bad movie dubbed into spanish about an airplane that crashes in the desert and the people are forced to rebuild it based on some model airplane engineer´s design. filght of the phoenix, or something like that. in huatulco i almost left my seat to go inside the bus station to use the baño but then i saw the mob of people waiting to board.
the bus seats, let´s say, 56 people. when the 64th person boarded, things got tense. it appeared that our lovely carrier, estrella blanca, had oversold the bus. also factor in that as the bus rolled along the coast road we picked up stragglers who clearly had no ticket, but paid cash to the driver (this is where the problems with the bus system really come in). oscar and i shook our heads in disbelief as passengers stood in the aisle and held on to what they could. mind you these busses are not meant to have people standing, unlike the other second and third class busses which regularly fill to the brim (the kind we took from ixtepec to salinas for example). as i was sitting in the aisle seat, so i could stretch my legs, i was even more appalled to find people standing where my legs wanted to go. the nerve. then, one girl just sits right down next to the driver and starts chatting. normally there are two drivers on long hauls like this so if one starts to nod off, well, you get it. this chick just slides right in and takes the ¨cushion¨seat away from the spare driver. bold move cotton, let´s see if it pays off.
it did and while many of the others suffered for the next few hours, she at least had a place to sit.
meanwhile, there were 64 people on the bus and i was in disbelief. that was until the door opened again about 1km from the bus terminal and another man hopped on, reeking of alcohol. the girl in the cushy seat turned to the driver and motioned for him not to allow the man to ride. whatever pull she thought she had, she did not. the driver brushed her off and after a, in my opinion, superficial attempt to tell the man the bus was full, the man pulled out cash. at that point the driver turned back into the welcoming host that clearly he was hired by estrella blanca to be, and offered the man a seat on the floor next to the door. as this new friend was having some difficulty standing, he plopped right down and within two minutes was snoring. fortunately, as i mentioned, it was a mountain road, so after the first curve rolled against cushion girl, she gave him a swift kick which sent his head flying into the door. a laugh was shared by all in the front compartment, clearly confirming that we, 1. felt that drunky should not have been allowed on, 2.were happy we had been let on, 3. would silently condemn estrella blanca for overselling the bus, and 4. were secretly, at least we were not going to vocalize it, glad we did not have sit that close to someone who once he regained full consciousness would start to wonder exactly how he had managed to get such a bump on the noggin.
all was jolly and full of christmas cheer for an hour. then we arrived in puerto escondido around 10:45pm. luckily, people got off the bus. sadly, more got on the bus. one woman stopped right next to my seat. she could have moved further back i noticed, but she did not. she let other people smush and shove to get around her while she held her ground. within 30 seconds i noticed something awful. sniff. cough cough. repeat. no mouth covering, no attempt to blow the foul stench of her breath and whatever vile germs lurked within in some other direction. they were aimed at my head. ten seconds later, repeat. again, and again, and again. it was 2 hour until the next stop. i turned my head slightly, she was less than a foot away and gave her my most unwelcoming glare. she hardly seemed to notice and went right on coughing and sniffing. then she put her head against the side of my head rest. i glanced at oscar, who no doubt was extremely happy i had chosen the aisle seat, and he feigned sympathy. she coughed and sniffed again. no way, jose. i jerked my head to the side and bonked her in the head. she made a muffled sound and rose off her new-found pillow. she made no move to stem the coughing or sniffing and renewed said expulsions with a gusto i found particularly annoying.
at this point i removed the sheet from my carry-on, really just the top part of my pack, which although is a fanny pack i refuse to ever wear as such (i instead use it as a kind of murse- man purse, which i wear over one shoulder, or i wear it crossed over one shoulder so it hangs on my back like a bike messenger´s bag, and draped the sheet over my head. i continued in this manner for the next two hours until sickie finally got off the bus.
somehow, at least 10 people ended up standing for around 7 hours of the journey (this from 1am o 8am) while alternating between sitting on the floor and generally annoying those with seats.
we arrived, oscar fairly well rested, me not so much. day one. 17 more. i doubt the next daily entries will be quite this detailed.
03 January 2006
well, my sis tells me i am wrong about the limited amount of space i have on this blog, so i will continue posting on this site. i had to erase photos before, so that may be part of the problem, in which case, i may make a new page just for photos, which would make the page load faster anyway.
so, keep going to this addy: wjd22.blogspot.com and i will try not to be any more confusing in the future by posting different places to go!
so, keep going to this addy: wjd22.blogspot.com and i will try not to be any more confusing in the future by posting different places to go!
i have finally run out of room on the old blog page, so all new posts will be found at this address: www.waitingfortherevolution.blogspot.com. it should be pretty easy to remember, just read the last posts to figure out why i named it this. not sure how this theme will carry over for the run of this blog, but i dont need to worry about that now. send me a comment on the new blog and email me at will_i_m@hotmail.com if you have trouble accessing it.
02 January 2006
happy new year! ¡feliz nuevo año!
i am finally able to get back to the blog site and make a real posting. to get a full update will probably take a week or more, but i am well and still in san cristobal de las casas. i leave tonight at 9, and i should get home around 4am before i go to work tomorrow. yippee. i have been travelling for over 17 days and my body is ready for a break.
i love this city! last night there was a peaceful occupation of the town by the ezln or the zapatistas to mark the 12 year anniversary when they occupied the city by force. no one carried weapons but there were over 10000 people with black ski masks and i was pretty intimidated. women, children, old men, the people from the fields and the rural areas turned out in force and sported their black ski masks (a kind of traditional uniform) and or red bandanas. even though there were kids, and women carrying children on their backs, there is something about that many people wearing ski masks that made me nervous. this is the most international city i have been to so far, so there were tons of hippies from all over the world who gathered to show their support. thus, the zapatistas had to push through tourists to get to the front where their leader, subcomandante marcos (also masked) spoke for about 15 minutes. i was told and read in the newspaper that he would arrive around 4pm. around 930 he spoke. that was pretty annoying having to wait almost six hours. the revolution waits for no one, but clearly, the people sometimes have to wait for the revolution. i met and have been hanging out with a really cool couple from australia and they have lots of pics of it all and our adventures over the last four days, but i have to wait until they get home in march and can send me the pics. they left for guatemala this morning so i have been exploring all day by myself.
the weather here is warm in the daytime and cold at night. perfect. the hostel where i am staying is pretty cool. there are only about 4 english speakers out of the 40 people staying there so it is interesting as we all try to comunicate in spanish. i like being around this many learners of the language and it is funny bc if we cannot explain ourselves in spanish,there is no fall back language. the hostel deal reminds me of boarding school. 6 people in one room, shared bathroom (at least there are separate stalls and not the ¨gang¨shower we had at woodberry) for all they guys. there is a common room with a tv and books and a kitchen. it is pretty fun because everyone is a traveler and we just tell stories about where we have been and want to go. there is a french family who got on my nerves bc the four kids needed some boundaries and rules and the parents were clearly not into giving them any. oh well, it could have been worse.
i cannot believe i am actually going home tonight. it seems like just the other day i was getting on a bus and going to acapulco to hang out with kristin. time to get back to reality i guess. i hope xmas and new years was great for everyone. i will write more this week about what i did for mine. i am pissed bc i am still sick, i think bc i keep changing climates, and i have to try to sleep on a bus. i chose it, though, so this is how it goes.
yay, the hokies did not choke!
i am finally able to get back to the blog site and make a real posting. to get a full update will probably take a week or more, but i am well and still in san cristobal de las casas. i leave tonight at 9, and i should get home around 4am before i go to work tomorrow. yippee. i have been travelling for over 17 days and my body is ready for a break.
i love this city! last night there was a peaceful occupation of the town by the ezln or the zapatistas to mark the 12 year anniversary when they occupied the city by force. no one carried weapons but there were over 10000 people with black ski masks and i was pretty intimidated. women, children, old men, the people from the fields and the rural areas turned out in force and sported their black ski masks (a kind of traditional uniform) and or red bandanas. even though there were kids, and women carrying children on their backs, there is something about that many people wearing ski masks that made me nervous. this is the most international city i have been to so far, so there were tons of hippies from all over the world who gathered to show their support. thus, the zapatistas had to push through tourists to get to the front where their leader, subcomandante marcos (also masked) spoke for about 15 minutes. i was told and read in the newspaper that he would arrive around 4pm. around 930 he spoke. that was pretty annoying having to wait almost six hours. the revolution waits for no one, but clearly, the people sometimes have to wait for the revolution. i met and have been hanging out with a really cool couple from australia and they have lots of pics of it all and our adventures over the last four days, but i have to wait until they get home in march and can send me the pics. they left for guatemala this morning so i have been exploring all day by myself.
the weather here is warm in the daytime and cold at night. perfect. the hostel where i am staying is pretty cool. there are only about 4 english speakers out of the 40 people staying there so it is interesting as we all try to comunicate in spanish. i like being around this many learners of the language and it is funny bc if we cannot explain ourselves in spanish,there is no fall back language. the hostel deal reminds me of boarding school. 6 people in one room, shared bathroom (at least there are separate stalls and not the ¨gang¨shower we had at woodberry) for all they guys. there is a common room with a tv and books and a kitchen. it is pretty fun because everyone is a traveler and we just tell stories about where we have been and want to go. there is a french family who got on my nerves bc the four kids needed some boundaries and rules and the parents were clearly not into giving them any. oh well, it could have been worse.
i cannot believe i am actually going home tonight. it seems like just the other day i was getting on a bus and going to acapulco to hang out with kristin. time to get back to reality i guess. i hope xmas and new years was great for everyone. i will write more this week about what i did for mine. i am pissed bc i am still sick, i think bc i keep changing climates, and i have to try to sleep on a bus. i chose it, though, so this is how it goes.
yay, the hokies did not choke!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)