sis amy says that the blog is screwing up about comments, saying there is only one when there are numerous. not sure what the deal is with that, but i will check and see if i can figure it out.

i think i said this but you can comment on any entry and i will receive a copy of the comment(i have them all automatically sent to my hotmail email account). so comment away! this means you, peaches. shiprock. at least give me a hint about when we met. number of years ago? or, where?

my trip to chiapas was great! getting there was obnoxious because, as usual, the bus system down here is jacked. i had to get to juchitan, next town over about 30 mins away, to buy my ticket to chiapas because the station in ixtepec does not sell tickets to chiapas, or really most places. it is a small office, so there are only like 20 destinations. they cannot even tell me, even though there is one computer system that links all the buses(well, three major service lines anyway), that there is space on a bus. stupid. so i had to get to juchitan first, and that bus did not leave until 11pm. but, i could not even buy that ticket until 10minutes b4 the bus leaves. this is ridiculous. some crazy rule they have that only applies to some destinations. it makes no sense they offer no valid explanation.
so luckily there was a spot on the bus to juch and i get there and go to buy my ticket (the bus to chiapas , which is a state by the way, leaves in 20 minutes). the lady takes my name down and then says i have to board the bus and pay at that time. this is not normal for long distance buses but i acquiesce. 7 minutes b4 the bus should leave i try to get through the waiting area, you must go past an armed (machine gun) guard. he laughs and tells me no one enters the bus area without a ticket. but the lady told me... this means nothing to him and he points to the long line at the ticket counter. sweet.

i get there to find the lady who would not sell me a ticket calling out names. what!? had i not arrived when i did, they would have sold all the tickets out and i would have been stuck in juchitan at midnight with my big backpack and nowhere to go.

crisis averted, i board the bus and try to get some sleep on my 10 hour bus ride through the mountains.

i end up in comitan at 10am and the day is gorgeous and sunny. i decide to find shelter in town and wait to go to the lakes on sunday. i find a casa de huesped(this is a cheap version of hotels which is actually a house with rooms rented out) and get a room. it is about 80 pesos a night with shared bathroom but there is hot water! comitan is in the mountains so this is essential.

i tour the town and go to museums for the afternoon. beautiful little mountain town that overlooks the valley, and 70 kilometers away, guatemala. i end up meeting and having a wild political conversation with a 70 year old guy who continually tells his wife he is not ready to go, we are sitting in the zocalo, town square, while lots of young people are performing traditional dancing in honor of the towns 400 year anniversary. hiswife is getting upset because we have been chatting for about an hour. i am loving it because older people speak slowly and generally have a better, read-more formal, spanish than the younger crowd. he finally gets pulled away and i head to my room to get ready for an early start.

i find my way down to the combi terminal(these are conversion vans that run all over chiapas taking people to the ruins, lakes, other towns, etc). as soon as i walk into the parking lot, essentially the station, 10 drivers approach me trying to sell me passage to various places. i say where i am going and my pack is lifted from my shoulder and tossed on top of one of the vans before i can ask about price, etc. a quick note about mexico. prices are not posted in most places. this means you either know or you bargain or they try to rip you off. i told him iwanted to go the lakes and that i wanted to spend the night. he never stops saying, yes, yes of course,whatever you want, b4 i finally tell him to stop what he is doing and tell me a price. he vacilates. depends on where exactly i want to go. no shit. i tell him i want a cheap place to stay. he avoids telling me a price again until i finally climb up on to the top of the van and start to untie the lashings holding my pack down. he has a pained look on his face when he finally tells me the price. 25 pesos. ok. decent actually.

when we arrive at the lakes he stops in the middle of the road and tells me the place on the right is cheap (there are 16 people jammed into the van) and i tell him, though i dont really know where i am, i want to go further. ten minutes later we have entered the national park of the lagunas de montebello, and we are nearing the border of guatemala. he stops again and points down the hill saying there is lodging.

as i walk down the hill a 12 year old runs up and asks me what i want- a boat ride, bed, food, beer, what what? i tell him i am looking to stay the night and he tells me no problem and directs me to a small square building. he shows me a room with two beds, dirty but overlooking a beautiful lake (lake tsizcao). the door has no doorknob. this is a problem. i set my bag down and walk next door to the restaurant where i am told the owner of the place resides. his wife comes out to talk to me, baby slung over her shoulder in the typical indigenous style down here (kind of wild actually. they take a sheet/shawl/blanket and sling it over a shoulder and tie it around the front. the baby sits or lies, depending on the size, in the space on the woman´s back. i wondered about smothering, i mean the kid could get its face flat against the mother´s back and not be able to breathe, but this is something that i guess doesnt happen as this is the traditional form of toting a tyke and has been around for over 400 hundred ormore years. anyway, with the kid in its perch, the woman do everything- cook, scrub the floor, wash clothes, this is by hand and against rocks normally, everything). she tells me her husband will be back shortly. meanwhile about 8 little kids, aged 3-14, have come up and are babbling about wanting me to give them money, buy a bracelet, give them money again, take a boat ride, etc.

finally the owner shows up, his name turns out to be william, and tells methe dirty room is 70pesos a night. i ask where the hotel is. he says there is a boat, and i use this word liberally, as they are really five tree trunks tied together about 30 feet long and looking straight out of the 17th century, that can take me across the lake. but, he says, the hotel is expensive, 125 pesos a night and his room has all i need and is only 60 pesos(yes, the price just went down). i tell him i want some security for my pack and a room with no door handle is not what i am looking for. but he has a restaurant, will cook me anything i want, make me coffee, anything and the room is only 50 pesos a night. i explain that the price is not the important part it is the room. he then tells me he will make me another room with doorknob and that at 40 pesos a night, i will find nowhere cheaper.

i accept and watch as he opens another door, clearly to his own room(which he shares with wife and 4 kids) and calls to his children. the three run up and start moving everything out. yes, he has given me his room. i feel bad at this point but can do nothing to disuade him. his wife appears behind me and asks me how i like my eggs and if i drink coffee. he assigns his oldest son to watch my bag as he takes me around the area and shows me the lake and his facilities. all eyes are on me as the only other tourists are mexicans and are very few. clearly, they are not spending the night!

i am startled by a cute, yet alarmingly dirty, little 4 year old girl, who takes me by the hand and calls me tío (unlce in spanish). tío, tío, can i have a peso(she speaks mostly an indigenous language but her older sis, 10, translates)? i give her a peso and both girls run off giggling. i return to find the wife has moved about five blankets, mattress(the cleaner of the three i see), and desk from one room to another. all this with the kid strapped to her back. they have completely relocated to accomodate me. this goes beyond customer service and ifeel more than a bit awkward, but she quickly tells me my coffee will be ready in two minutes as she hurries off to prepare it in the restaurant 30 feet away.

ok, i will get to the last 2.5 days of my trip next week. have a good weekend!

photo of my campus. you can sort of make out the mountains in the background. that is a statue of benito juarez, revolutionary leader, president of mex. he is from oaxaca so his statue is absolutely everywhere. that is the library in the background. yup. all 50 books are stored in that huge building 

if my sis c-line had a church, this would be it. the church, the walls, the gates, everything is fringed in a beautiful light blue. 

another sunset pic that was more beautiful at the time. this is from the top of the youth hostel where i stayed in san crist�bal 

catedral de san crist�bal in san crist�bal de las casas. this is the huge square where marcos (zapatista leader) spoke in january  

another sunset picture that was a lot more beautiful at the time than it is here. oh well. 

those are the mountains of the guatemalan border. i hiked over there one afternoon. illegal border crossing? 

sunset on the lake where i stayed, tsizcao. guatemala is to the left 

lake pajoj. these lakes are beautiful bc you can see at least 20 down (ok, no lake tahoe, but then again, what is) 

this is lake pajoj 

lake tsizcao, this is where i spent the night. i stayed in a little building (you cannot see it) on the top left side. this is just one part of the lake, it continues around to the right 

we just had our internet reinstated after about a week. long story but basically, two other english profs were downloading a bunch of movies and stuff and clogging the server so our provider shut us down. that is ridiculous. it is like ordering cable but then the provider saying of all the channels you paid for, you can only use half of them. worthless.

i had an amazing time in chiapas. i will be posting pics and such later today.

peaches: shiprock, new mexico? on the navajo rez? yes i know shiprock but this is not getting me any closer. can you offer another hint? i must admit that trying to guess is more fun than i thought it would be, but i still need a little more help.

congrats to cuban b; he was accepted to the phd english program at iowa, where he went for his undergrad degree. way to go brian!

more later.

ames, yes yes yes. i remember those. i also remember the rhyme for the cracks: dont step on a crack, you´ll break your mommy´s baaack (the syllables dont really match up from line to line so u have to drag out the last word kind of awkwardly).

but when you spill salt, which shoulder do you throw it over? and with which hand? i have heard that this is important. any help anyone?

i vaguely remember the one that if you forget something inside a building you have to sit down for a minute.

this was a lesson plan i used with my college kids in the states that i always found interesting (kind of random, but this superstition talk made me think of it). i had my students bring in about 8 dictionaries total for the class. i split them into 8 groups and had two groups each define the following words without the dictionary: ideology, myth, superstition, religion. then, after they wrote their own definitions, i had two groups look up each one of the words so that in the end there were two groups who defined each word.

anyway, then they all presented their definitions to the class and then we discussed the differences and similarities. a very interesting exercise to say the least as it may make you look differently at these words, some of which have a slightly negative association attached to them, yet the definition is related to all the other words.

enough about teaching. so, if any of you have any other superstitions, i am all ears. also, peaches, what up? going to help me out here? remain elusive? i hope you opt for the former.

man, it is hot today. high 90´s already. i fear the 110 and higher days that are fast approaching. the good thing about phoenix is that everything has a.c. that might be all i can say really good about phoenix except for the suns (basketball team) which i came to love last winter. brian and i would often catch a game when it came on the local flag channel or at granny´s. good old granny´s closet. chicken wings, french fries, bar food in general. how i miss you, greasy food. right, i still eat greasy food. just not really fried food.

i think i am going to chiapas again this weekend because it is a holiday. we get monday and tuesday off work. i am going to comitan, and lagunas de montebello, which is on the border with guatemala. the lakes, lagunas, are supposed to be incredible: different colors, in the middle of nowhere, etc. one is called the lake of 7 colors, so i am very excited to see it. i might run into some more backpackers or just hippies in general. i am travelling by myself but the area is pretty crowded this time of year so i will be safe.

hopefully my camera will work and i can get some good pics. i am still thinking of buying a new camera. it might be worth it, but then again, it might also be worth it to save the money and use it to pay off two months of my student loan which would allow me to stay out of the country longer. decisions decisions.

take it easy and root for the acc this weekend in basketball.

one more thing. who is this peaches person? it is eating away at me. i assume this is not some random pop-up add because i cannot really see what this person might be selling. other than the obvious, peaches. who are you? initials. some esoteric nickname. something. please. at the least, a hint?

i have a question for y´all. what are your superstitions? i am going to be talking about them in class next week (see how this lesson plan thing prepares me for the future) and i need some examples. any help?

insults and injuries

so three days without a computer and internet(obviously) has changed me somewhat. i am, at my core it seems, quite lazy. not lazy in the sense that you might think, but lazy in the sense of which someone like my papa might think. i like to read. a lot. i like to read in english. a lot. thus, much of my day is spent on mcsweeney´s (there have been some hilarious entries these last few days by the way). i do not DO so much as i SIT if you know what i am saying. think of someone who has a manual labor job. when you stop for two minutes, people look at you and ask you what you are doing. why did you stop. when i stop and look out the window for five minutes, i am ¨collecting my thoughts¨or ¨arranging my day¨ or any of the other twenty ways i have learned through years of schooling to explain my lack of activity. is education a means to justifying a lack of doing? do those who can, do, and those who cannot, teach? i have always hated that phrase. perhaps it strikes a bit too close to home. kind of the like the old joke, ¨what did the english major say to the engineering major? -would you like paper or plastic?¨ yet i digress.

i am changing this habitual inactivity. slowly.

every morning i check my email, but i make at least 45 minutes available for reading one of my books in spanish. i am cutting out a lot of the screwing around on the internet that i do.

and what do i have to show for it? lesson plans. wow. who knew those were a good idea? i have been planning my classes more diligently. this has not revolutionized anything, the students are the same, but i FEEL more productive. am i? debatable.

this is an ongoing experiment, i will let you know how it works out.

i was telling a prof the other day about a book i was reading in spanish and she recommended another to me. to my, and her, astonishment, i had read the book in spanish. (pause for dramatic effect) (lots of space for dramatic effect)

i know. what are the odds of that? i have read 3 books in spanish. she said it was one of her favorites, la frontera de cristal by carlos fuentes, and we had a brief chat about it. shocking. two days later i was talking to a student about reading and translating from another langauge. i was telling him my strategies, etc. i pulled out my book, los años con laura díaz by carlos fuentes, and showed him a paragraph and explained that i could not translate every single word but i knew the gist. he then reached into his bookbag and pulled out the same book.

so now you are thinking, wow, will, great. there are five books in mexico and you have encountered 2 people who know two of those. thanks smartass. but no.

i started a journal the other day, in spanish, and my friend oscar is helping me with my grammar. i cannot believe i have been this lazy for so long. my last entry was in october. lazy. oh well, i have begun again so that is good news. for me. really all of this is good news. for me. not really for anyone else out there, unless you like to live vicariously through other people. in which, case, woooooohoooooooooo! we rock!

i am also 550 pages into my most recent spanish book, la guerra del fin del mundo (roughly- the apocolypse in english). it is starting to get a lot easier to read. still have problems with understanding certain people´s accents, but then i started thinking about how many people i have not understand who speak english. lots. i cannot get down on myself, although it is easy, if no one knows how to use correct grammar and so i dont get it. they are using the present tense to talk about the past. everyone else gets it, but i dont. this is just one example, but if you think about it, this happens all the time in regular english. verbs nd other words are screwed up all the time, but we understand because it is our native tongue. when people make mistakes down here, it throws me off completely. thus, slang and casual conversations with peeps on the street is still difficult sometimes. all in all, however, i have come a very long way in the last few months, especially my reading ability. that makes me happy.

ok, i will try to write more this week now that i have a compy. but, horror, my laptop is now on the fritz. insult to injury. luckily, i work at an engineering university, kind of, and circuits and such are the specialty of my roomate, so hopefully this problem will be quickly solved. he told me not to worry. why does this always make one worry? if we know it is going to make us worry, why do other people even bother saying it?

well, i am off to do lesson plans. life is good. dont worry.

i have tapped into the one thing that all students, and people for that matter, are into, at least a little bit. but, to tease you all and keep you reading a bit, you shall have to wait. thesis statements be damned cuban b!

and while i am on the topic of the caribbean, let me just tell you that you were indeed one of the astute readers alluded to in that blog and i had a good feeling you might call me on 19th century us literature reference. kudos to you. speaking of kudos, have you ever tried the ones with m&m´s in them? one word: dont. they are deceiving because you think they will be like a normal kudos, covered in chocolate, smothered in goodness, with just crispy crunchy hint of air-popped rice balls, but no, it is a lie. they barely have an all-chocolate bottom. it is like kudos-lite. and i didnt sign up for that camp.

two the cuban´s second comment: i think not cleaning your apartment and maintaining a girlfriend is an accomplishment. keep on reaching for the stars.

big a- i am off the meds. i spoke to a doctor and he told me there are no reported cases of malaria, but dengue on the other hand, is a problem. i also asked the other profs and none of them take malaria pills. i think i am in the clear. i still have my last hep a and b shots to get, i will get those this month when i feel like giving up four hours of my time to go wait in line at the health center.

so guess which prof is sleeping with his student?
this is exactly the kind of question that gets most of us interested, right? well, part of my lesson plan for today in level 5 was all about gossip. they talked about when they made up gossip about other people, when they heard gossip that had been spread about themselves, whether it was good or bad or neither and when.

but the kicker is that i then split then into four groups and had them write gossip, ¨chisme¨, about the other groups. things got aggresssive right from the git-go. the first question one group asked was how to spell ¨pregnant.¨ then, was ¨table dancer¨the appropriate word for a woman who takes her clothes off for money. they were describing a girl who had a boyfriend that slept with all the girl´s best friends. but it was ok bc the girlfriend was sleeping with and pregnant by the boyfriend´s brother. straight up jerry springer. these kids were on it.

much to my surprise, i am the father of at least two children in ixtepec! courtesy of one very mischievous girl, i am also the secret lover of three students. who knew? apparently, marbella knew and has been waiting for an opportunity to call me on it. when i announced that they could make up gossip about each other, i saw her eyes light up like i had told her she had just won $1000.00 dollars. this is the kind of woman to be feared. the funniest part is i never said to include me in any of it. yet somehow, i made all of the lists in some way or another.

i will try to write tomorrow when i have all the juicy details about what i have been up to around here. it should be interesting.

Chapter 11: settling in; or, your hammock and you

My perspicacious readers have a question trembling on the tips of their tongues, “why chapter eleven?” well, dear associates, there is a seemingly valid reason for this heading, like solutions to so many other uncertainties that exist in this life of ours.

Which reminds me of an all too familiar conversation I have with store proprietors down here in mexico. I ask if there is some item, “hay jugo de naranja?” (is there any orange juice?) and their response to this query is often, “si hay,” (sure there is) and then after I stand there looking dumbly at them: “pero aqui no” (But not here). Another nod to my astute readers and even the random clairvoyant who has somehow happened upon my site: I am typing on my lappy at home, which does not have the fancypants accent marks like my school compy has. Thus, when you read the above in Spanish, it does not really make sense. Si, without an accent over the “i” means “if,” not “yes” or “pertaining to” or the five other things that si with an accent means. And aqui without an accent over the last letter is just plain silly and makes me think of acquiescing, a word which I really don’t get a chance to use that much because submitting to something seems a lot like giving up and thus an action I have avoided for the last six months or so.

Of course, you probably guessed that I am typing this in Microsoft word because of the damn auto-capitalization; you gotta love that it automatically capitalizes Microsoft. Beautiful. I loathe capitalizing words. ok, loathe is a strong word and should not just be thrown around like that. One must take care with words or bad things could happen. Especially written words, those little devils are tricky and often lead to problems because they lack spoken intonation and thus are often misconstrued. And no word likes to be misconstrued.

By now another question has replaced the first, which, honestly, if I did not go back and read I would have forgotten about entirely. Is this going to be another esoteric posting that may or may not make sense but will most likely be a waste of my time to read, if indeed I do not decide to get up, go to the bathroom and check my e-mail when I return? Good question.

Why? Because bathrooms down here are often scary affairs with lots of grime, an inordinate amount of creepy-crawlies and no toilet seats. This is quite serious. My first apt. had no toilet seats. When you equip a bathroom with a toilet in the states, you slap a seat on that bad boy, right? Como no? how could you not? Well, it ain’t done down here. I don’t like it, you would not like it, but here we are once again. Thought you were going to toss that t.p. you brought with you, most times there is none supplied, into the toilet and flush? No no. you toss it in the stinking, probably nearly full, wastebasket next to the toilet. Into the toilet and you had better be ready to jet and soon as you flush because if not the fear you feel as the water rises (and how precipitously at that?) will make you trip over your trousers as you head for the door. But don’t touch that door or anything else in the bathroom for that matter because unless you also have soap in your pocket, well, I will let you finish that thought.

As my female readers scoff and sigh, “poor willis, does he not know that women have been dealing with the problem of unsanitary bathrooms ever since man and woman had to share a w.c.?” clearly the answer is that yes I do know this, I mean, I did just write that, but my point is that these are on a different level. Third world you say? Two tickets for the livestock compartment, please.

A picture of sanitization, no? how I long for the days in cali where every public bathroom has that paper seat stuff.

And since I am still, somehow on this topic, get those pansy truck stop bathroom thoughts out of your head right now. You are disrespecting truck stops everywhere totally undeservedly. walking into some bathrooms down here makes you wish you could clean the bottoms of your shoes before walking back outside. Before walking in the dirt. Exactly.

As I sit in my beach chair illustrating reasons for you to fear public restrooms, I realize many of you may already have a healthy fear of such public palaces. This narration only confirms what you already thought. However there is one more important thing. I am also watching a train of ants crawl along my wall: two-lane highway, rush hour, probably the afternoon variety, going to and coming from places I don’t really want to know about. As there is no median they often bump into each other. And hilarity ensues.

Yup, this is what I do with my free time.

As I start month 7, I have many things to be proud of, I will only list 9 to save time: 1) I may or may not have had worms only once. 2) I have read two complete novels in Spanish and am currently reading two more (one at school and the other at home). 3) I wash my own clothes by hand once a week. 4) I walk about 4 miles each day, which is really not that much, but I was much lazier 3 months ago. 5) I have lost over 20 lbs, which means I now pretty much have to buy new clothes because all my pants/shorts come off without me having to undo any buttons and my shirts are ginormous on me. Wow, I was a teletubby before I left. 6) I have been to 8 mexican states. 7) I can sleep in a hammock all night without ever falling out (ok, this is actually much easier than you might think). Aren’t you glad I got back around to the whole chapter title thing? 8) the amount of new vegetable I now eat is startling: tomatoes, avocadoes, all sorts of squashies, peppers-the hotter the better, weird roots, and this is just a list of the ones I know the names of in English. Amazingly, the list goes on and on. 9) my knowledge of central and southern American authors and politicians has more than tripled. And no timmay, this does not mean that I am now backing out of your 2008 campaign. I stand behind you as a candidate and promise to lure and, or cajole whatever Spanish-speaking voters I can over to your side. Assuming there is a population of these voters in the steel and mine country of down-home Pennsylvania.

So I win my own little junior-achievers merit badge. Unfortunately, I have no sewing kit, so like the button to one of my 3 pairs of shorts, it will find itself a spectator with great seats to the marching of the ants which occurs every night. If you would tickets to this or any other event, please send cash or credit card number to the address below. This season is already packed with showstoppers. For example, “the dance of the mosquito, part 2: mixing, infecting, intoxicating: our blood together in the istmus,” or the heartrending “life on the street: dusty, dirty, damn, is that me that’s bleeding? the pack dog’s tale.”

coming back to the hammock again, I cannot tell you how much cooler it is to sleep in than a regular bed. The possibility of 360 degrees of breeze from fan and, with any luck, the air outside, really makes the hammock the preferred bedding here in mexico. A wise investment at the very least.

I really like making lists. I might be making more some time soon. Or not. You know, however it works out.

classes started up again today (it’s is Wednesday, march 1 for those that cant read my mind). I love my new level 5. they are all-stars. I have already dubbed them the fantastic fourteen. Ok, a rip-off, and not a very good one at that, but it is the first day. Give me time to let the magic work. Either way, to deserve a moniker after the first day is quite phenomenal. That’s right: they have nowhere left to go but down. Lower your expectations? Don’t mind if I do.

Level 2 is somewhat better than mediocre. One kid said something in Spanish under his breath, which I shant repeat because it was rude and profane and does not translate well, and then he realized two things: one, there were only 8 other students, fool, so everyone heard him; and two, his present teacher has a much better grasp of Spanish profanity than the previous. If the first realization did not shut him up, my reply that he best be watching his mouth definitely did. He turned into an angel after that.

If I have not mentioned it fifteen times already: the heat has returned. I miss January. True it was never cold but I wore a long sleeve shirt twice and was glad of it. As my Indian friend anish once told me while skiing the poconos (who knows how to spell that?) in pennsylvania over long winter weekend in boarding school: “dude, of course you’re not cold. You’re fucking Nordic.” and here we are.