Vacations are Necessary and Good

Now I get why working people need vacation time...to take care of all the shit you meant to do but didn't have time to cos everything work related was too pressing. In the past 3 days (allowing one day off for crashing after Christmas week of ridic)

• Rooms have been cleaned, including floors mopped
• Laundry has been done
• Fake college IDs have been made and laminated
  

(for serious...bus fares are half price if you travel during vacations with a valid student ID, and once we get out of the state of Guanajuato (where it's obvious we have fake university ID cards) we'll be saving like $100 each on the trip to Oaxaca.)

• Puppy has been given a place to stay until January 3.
• Same for fishie.
• Wrote thank you notes to the kids who got me holiday presents
  

annnnnnnnd...

• I translated a synopsis (yes, 5000 words can still be considered a synopsis) of the boys's explanation of why it's important to study a theory of a mind without a body.

He is setting up a web site (and got a real graphic designer to make it not suck) about this thing, and I just wanted to get the translation out of the way so the site would be DONE. So, I did. My brain almost imploded though. But I'm pretty proud, even though it probably sucks, cos it's my first real translation. And my name will be up on the web site saying that I am the translator!

Anyway, tomorrow it's off to León for Christmas with the boy's mom's family, and then from there to Oaxaca City for real vacation. A trip to Taxco aka silver Mecca has been promised at some point on the way back, so I am more than stoked.

Hodgepodge

I guess when life actually becomes interesting, professionally and personally, there's not that much time to document it as it happens. It's only when everything is over, and there has been time to forget a lot of the details

First and foremost, the puppy is pure, unadulterated awesome. Except for when she pees on the floor. Her favorite games include chewing up empty plastic bottles, chasing her tail, and trying to eat everything in sight. Her name is Malinche, which was the name of Hernan Cortes' Indian translatress/guide/mistress as he set about conquering Mexico in the name of God and the Spanish king. Nowadays, the word malinchista, in Mexican Spanish, is a derrogatory-ish way of saying that someone prefers foreign things to their own native heritage. It's like the opposite of a xenophobe, but not in a good way at all.

The pictures are already kind of old, taken when she was 3 months old. Now she is 4 months old and already substantially bigger. She's an American Pit Bull Terrier, and I was kind of apprehensive about getting a pit bull initally - probably for the same reason everyone is a little freaked out when they hear that someone has a pit bull. But she's only agressive with other dogs, not with people at all, and only when she wants to play. And I can't take her out for a walk without getting stopped literally a dozen times. Awwwwwww what a cute dog! What's her name? What breed is she? Is she for sale?

No, most definitely, not for sale.

At school, in the last 4 weeks, there has been field day, exams (writing of (4 x 2 versions per group), administering of (4 x 2 days each), and grading of (92)), 92 second bimester grading sheets to fill out, the Christmas pagent/concert (setup and attendance), and normal daily class routine. So, needless to say, I have not had much free time. I still really like the job though. The kids are fun, my coworkers are great, and hopefully all my visa paperwork will be taken care of in January.

And now it's vaycayyyyshuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn...going to Oaxaca right after Christmas, back on January the Fifth. Huzzah.

PUPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Pictures to come.

She's a 3-month-old tan pitbull terrier and is so ugly cute. She has light brown eyes that look at you like you're an idiot as she poops on the floor.

Damn Hippies

Today I showed my 3rd graders the episode of Pinky and the Brain where Brain decides to take over the world by becoming a succesful country singer. At one point in the episode, for about 10 seconds, there is a cartoon Kenny Rogers singing a song about playing go fish.

Cartoon Kenny Rogers has, as does Real Life Kenny Rogers, long grey hair. It is not quite a mullet, but certainly could be called one. Cascading waves, perhaps?

At any rate, one of the 8 year olds yelled HIPPIE at the TV.

Good thing some words don't actually get translated.

Attack of the Killer Goats

I took my mom for a 4 hour hike in the hills surrounding Guanajuato. You take the bus about 15 minutes to a town called Santa Rosa, and then there is a dirt road you can walk back on. It passes through a small town, and next to a large reservoir.



We had just passed the reservoir, when I had to pee. I had already peed once on the walk, and it was no big deal to pop another squat. My mom was the lookout to make sure nobody (automotive or humanoid) was coming on the road.

All of a sudden, my mom yelled "Stop peeing, get up right now! There are goats!" I had a lot of pee, and it was at the point where you can't really stop the flow, I was peeing THAT hard. Plus, I figured that there were a couple of goats, and what's the big deal about a couple of goats? They're not very big, they're not very scary, they're just freaking goats.

Except, there weren't just a couple of goats. Nope nope.

There were a couple of hundred goats.


My mom grew up in New York City, and likes to watch animals from afar. After I pulled up my pants are we were a suitable distance away, she asked me to go back, but be careful, because she really was sorry that she didn't have a camera to take a picture of the goats. At this point, they were crossing the creek and it was obvious that the dogs with them were not, as she originally thought, attack dogs, but rather knew their job helping the shepherd.


So, we continued walking, and saw a mule. My mom again thought something bad would happen as I went back and approached it.

Clearly, nothing did.

!!!!!!!!!

Mumsy is here.

Yesterday we went to 1 big statue, 3 museums, 2 candy shops, 1 grocery store, 2 cafes, 2 restaurants, and 2 bars. My feet hurt, and I collapsed into bed at about 10pm. Expect pictures and more extensive commentary when there are more pictures, and time to make said extensive commentary.

However (and I have told mumsy this) the most important thing is that she tries as much different food as humanly possible in the 4 days she is visiting.

Yesterday the foods tried were:

• Enchiladas mineras (cheese enchiladas with onion, carrot, and potato)
• Pollo rostado (nothing unusual, just rotisserie chicken)
• Flautas (unbreaded chicken tenders wrapped inside a fried tortilla)
• Totopes con frijoles y queso (nacho chips with beans and cheese...the cheese is crumbly, like feta)
• Cocoada (a stick of sticky coconut)
• Media galletita (half a cookie...this one was a sandwich with butter cookie, raspberry jam, and lots of powdered sugar on top)
  
• Rolla de guayaba (dried guava drenched in sugar)
• Beso Negro (super concentrated hot dark chocolate, served in an espresso cup)
  

The day before yesterday, the foods tried were:

• Tacos from a taquería
• Coke in a glass bottle
  

The Faithfully Departed

Now the internet at home is working great! Which is fortunate, since I accidentally got locked in this morning. At least I had some way to entertain myself.

Yesterday I saw a posting for my old job on one of the notice boards in the town center. It was with another posting, at the same school, for a nursery aide. So I guess someone else quit too. I felt a little guilty but not guilty enough to regret switching jobs...

...Especially since the new job is actually fun. There are a buttload of kids, but I like it. Some of the parents came around on Friday with pan de muertos (dead bread) for us, to celebrate Día de los Muertos, which is on Sunday. They had a really nice altar set up, and the computer lab teacher was dressed up as a skullhead and explained the altar to the kiddos. Some of the kids dressed up for Halloween but not a lot. I think it's a much better way to join the two holidays than what the old school had planned.

The old school had planned basically an American Halloween, without any kind of Día de los Muertos celebration. It's pretty unfortuante, since Día de los Muertos is one of those regional traditions that people from all over can look at and go - Hey! That's pretty cool!

The idea is that there is one day a year where spirits come back up to earth from the underworld. Families set up altars with pictures of their dead relatives, and their favorite foods and alcohols, so that the spirits will know they are back in the right place. They also put skulls (or skully substitutes...masks, or styrofoam skulls) and candies to attract kids to the altar. Basically, it's celebrating the cyclical nature of life and death - remembering and honoring dead loved ones, and reminding the living that they too will die. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. The altars are in the houses, and then on the actual day families go to have parties in the cemetaries.

The end result is a much more relaxed attitude towards death. I think a big part of it is knowing that you won't be forgotten, that there is a special day set aside for people to remember and have fun with the memories. In Judaism, there are special religious ceremonies to remember close dead relatives a few times a year, but that's not exactly something fun or something to look forward to.

Too Good to be True

Unfortunately, the internet didn't work at home today. Le sigh.

Whoa, Dude

There's, like, internet at home. What. The. Fuck.

Gnarly.

New job is going well...it's a lot more work than I thought it would be, but that's OK. A big part of the work is just getting used to the students and the new environment. But the teachers are way more friendly, and more professional, and more on top of things in general. AND there is a free bus if I come and go at normal school times. Woohoo.

Also the kids don't scream all day. I never thought I took normal speaking tones for granted before.

Mumsy is coming in less than two weeks, so I also need to get my shit together in that respect too...making lesson plans, figuring out work the kiddos can do for 2 days while I'm gone, and making sure there is stuff for her to do to keep her busy and happy. I have a good idea of a mixture of touristy and cool things to do though.

• Day 1 - Walk around Guanajuato, go to a museum or two that I've been too lazy to get to on my own.
  

• Day 2 - Hike down to town from one of the villages further up in the hills

• Day 3 - Bus trips to Cristo Rey (GINORMOUS statue of Jesus on the geographic center of Mexico) and Dolores Hidalgo (next town over, "Cradle of Mexican Independence")

• Day 4 - Either/or 1) More museums in Guanajuato 2) León shopping for leather goods, then San Miguel de Allende (cute little American retiree enclave) possibly for dinner and walking around.

If anyone out there is reading this? Anyone? Thoughts? Would your mumsy like the aforementioned activities?

An Eventful Week

On Monday, when I checked my phone after work, I had three missed calls and a text message from a girl for whom I had bent over backwards over the summer.

A friend of mine down here had to go back home because her mom got cancer, and she would be leaving behind her job. Her job was teaching 3rd through 6th grade English at an affluent private school. I shadowed her for two days, taught a class, and then went back to the school another day to teach another class. You see, they had two people going through this "interview" process and couldn't decide who to hire. And so I spent 3 days more or less working at the school, unpaid.

My friend went back to the US and I still hadn't heard about the job. I was going to go back to the US for my cousin's wedding and to see family, and had to book tickets. So I called my friend's co-worker, the English coordinator for the school, to ask about the job situation and explained my situation. This was about three or four weeks after my friend had returned home. The girl told me that everything was fine, to do what I had to do, and if it overlapped with school things it wasn't a big deal. She made it sound like I had the job, and they just had to confirm it.

Then I ran into her on the street a few days later and she told me they gave the other girl the job.

I was kind of pissed. I went back to the US, and literally days after I got back to Guanajuato I found the job at the preschool. So, needless to say I was pretty surprised to see the missed calls from her. And out of curiosity I called back.

The girl they had hired instead of me ran away. She sent an email to the English coordinator saying she wouldn't be there, and disappeared. So the English coordinator called me.

At first I was a little annoyed that they would think that I was just hanging around without anything going on. I met with the girl to talk to her, and to hear the details. Maybe I would be able to finagle a raise at the preschool...

I met her at a cafe close to my house, and was pretty surprised that she was really nice, and seemed like she genuinely wanted me to come and work at the school. So that was nice. But the main incentive was that they would pay me twice as much for something much more organized, with less hours.

I went back to the preschool the next day, and pretty much had a horrible day. One of a series. I was still getting over my cold, I had to yell, the kids were a mess and out of control. All in all, a normal day. But I was fed up, and at least I had another option. I called the English coordinator back at the other school, and told her I'd be taking the job. And I told the academic coordinator at the preschool that I was sick and would be going to the doctor. Then I called her later and told her that the doctor didn't know what was wrong, but wanted to do some more tests. And the next day I called again, and told her that they should probably find a new English teacher, since I wasn't sure what was going on with my health.

I felt kind of bad for doing the same thing to them that the girl I was replacing had done in the first place, but not bad enough, given the circumstances, to not do it.

So now I have a new job. I had my first official day on Friday, and it went pretty well. The classes are much shorter - 50 minutes each - which is really easy to fill after having an hour and 50 minutes to fill at the preschool. And the kids know how to behave. It's partly the age difference but it's also the fact that this place is, well, a real school. Not some kind of real life experiment in educational philosophy. I think I much prefer this.

Consumption

I came down with a bad cold and subsequently lost my voice. I can still talk. I just lost my voice. I sound like a 60 year old who has smoked 4 packs of cigarettes per day for half of her life, when I'm not hacking up a lung or three. At least the weekend gives me time to recuperate, because talking loudly and/or yelling all day does not exactly rest one's voice. I can't remember the last time I had a cough this bad, to be honest. I'm half expecting to see blood on a handkerchief, at which point I'll be packing my trunk for the sanatorium.

Cough. Cough.

In the meantime, I've seen half a dozen or so movies, none of which have made a particularly lasting impression (call The Devil's Backbone a light Pan's Labyrinth) and read a bit. I haven't been going out, and the idea of doing so just makes me tired.

Hack.

Something that I've been putting off is writing reports about the behavior of all the kiddos that I think could potentially have issues down the line, so the director knows what's going on, and the school has a paper trail if something should, unfortunately, go wrong. Now, if it were only a few kids, I wouldn't be procrastinating. But after I did the tally, the number was somewhere around 15.

Fifteen fucking kids who could have, or maybe already do have, either academic issues or social issues. What the fuck. Fifteen out of about fifty. Thirty percent goes beyond any kind of reasonable measure of behavioral issues...it means there's something systemic, either about this group in particular, or the school, or the home environments (which is probably a function of society - overworking parents, not much supervision...)

Coughcoughcough.

Anyway, when it gets to such a ridiculous, endemic point, it just really gets me thinking about the market the school is trying to pick up - who are so out of control, even at such a young age, but they have money so it's ok. And I wasn't conscious of growing up like that in the US (maybe I did?) so seeing how the whole situation makes these kids weird and self-centered, with the attention span of goldfish. There was a great Onion article called "Wealthy Teen Nearly Experiences Consequences" that, at the time, reminded me of the area where my ex boyfriend grew up, himself, and his friends. Now it makes me think about me what these kids will become.

Snarf.

The Good and the Bad

Good: The new principal at the school actually seems to be doing his job, and things at work were a lot smoother this past week.

Bad: Someone stole my camera. I brought it into the school to show a few co-workers pictures from the Mexico City trip. Later that day I realized it wasn't in my bag, but my wallet was, so obviously nobody stole it from my bag. My guess is that I left it carelessly sitting on a cabinet or a bookcase, started a class and forgot about it, left the room later, and then someone took it. It wasn't an expensive camera to start with, and I took pretty crappy care of it so its condition wasn't great, but it still sucks. I don't have money to replace it.

Good: There is a gigantic international music, drama, dance - arts in general - festival in the city, which started on Wednesday. The big show each night has free bleacher seating, and it goes on until the end of the month.

Bad: The big name shows (e.g. Cafe Tacuba) sold out of tickets months ago, and lines for the bleacher seating already have people camping out.

Good: I didn't check my email for 5 days, and didn't feel a compulsion to do so.

Bad: I missed an email from one of my best friends, who is in Tunisia, asking when I was free for a phone call.

Good: It's a gorgeous, sunny day, not too hot yet, and I'm enjoying the time to catch up on the news and things that go far beyond the daily ho hum of small-city Mehico.

The Sexxx Scandal

Two weeks ago, there was a meet-the-faculty night at the Guanajuato Holiday Inn. The school at which I work invited the parents to a presentation - the school would present its pedagogical ideology, and those who work to fulfill it (i.e. the teachers.) Very respectable and hunky dory.

Except, after about an hour of the meeting, the microphone was turned over to the parents in the audience. And something the administration had neglected to tell the staff at large, is that there were pending allegations of sexual abuse against one of the teachers. Apparently, a kid had told his parents that one of the teachers of "touching" him. In the middle of the classroom, in front of other students. At that point, no charges had been filed, the teacher was still working at the school, and the child had been withdrawn about a week after the accusations had been made.

We found out later that the accuser generally had issues with both teachers and the kids in his classes. We found out later that he had accused another teacher of choking him, a report that was later shown to be completely unfounded. So I guess the school figured that a) the kid was a liar and b) the whole thing would blow over.

Not so much.

Parents at the meeting demanded the immediate suspension of the teacher, which occurred, although he had not been formally accused of anything. The other teachers, who had had no previous knowledge of the situation, were pretty much left confused and upset with the whole situation. Upset for not knowing what was going to happen beforehand, upset because of the castigation they felt, even though nobody had done anything wrong.

So, fast forward a couple of weeks.

Charges still have not been filed, but the teacher in question quit, because he felt that a) the administration was not behind him and b) if he came back, he would be pretty much ineffective. There was a meeting with the parents of the other children in the grade of the student who had unofficially accused the teacher, and the administration told the teacher that he would have an opportunity to give the parents his version of the story.

When it came time for the meeting, they did not even let him into the room. He was, understandably, annoyed.

So, today at work, we had a whole day's worth of meetings to address all this crap. Lots of touchy feely how-do-you-feel-about-the-situation mumbo jumbo. It's a crappy situation all around, but I think what it shows above and beyond all else is administrative incompetence.

If you're trying to teach kids morality and ethics, you really should be the ones to set an example. Instead, the administration has zig-zagged and tried to hide behind itself on technicalities on BOTH sides of the issue; first underreacting and figuring the issue would blow over, then overreacting and suspending the teacher. I'm pretty sure the teacher has a right to sue the school for suspending him based on hearsay, and I think he ought to - especially considering the disrespect the school showed him by not letting him into the meeting where he was the main topic.

Politics as Usual

Since I hadn't really updated in ages, I was looking back at old entries and was struck by the one about John McCain I wrote about a year ago. A year ago, I was disgusted with the Democratic primaries and fed up with the election even before it got started.

I'm still fed up with the election, especially since the process has now started, but at least Obama makes responsible, informed decisions. It may be boring and lame and elitist, but at least it's sensible. McCain, not so much.

He may, and hopefully still does, listen to ABBA. But I guess he can do so just as well in the Senate as he could in the White House. He'd probably have time to watch Mamma Mia! while in the Senate, and definitely not while in the White House. Really, it'd be for his own good if he weren't elected. At least then he'd have time to enjoy his non-retirement.

Scandalous Preschool

I'm not sure how to approach this topic, because I'm probably breaking confidentiality rules. If I don't name names, it will probably be a lot easier. And, frankly, names don't need to be named, because it would just make the situation that much more ridiculous.

I have been working at a preschool/quasi-primary school for about six weeks now. During this period, there has been a sex scandal. About a dozen children (more or less 15% of the school) have been withdrawn by their parents. The reasons for this vary depending on who you ask. If you ask the school administration, it's because another parent wanted to open up her own school. If you ask the parents, it's because they don't trust the school's administration. And they don't trust the school's administration because of a) the aforementioned sex scandal and b) the fact that an assistant gave a sleeping kid to the wrong adults at pickup time.

Now, you may ask, how the hell could an assistant give a kid to the wrong parents? In the six weeks I have been working, there has been a 100% turnover of assistants. They are stuck dealing with, and trying to discipline, a bunch of spoiled brats who don't care about much except Spiderman. Not all the kids are like that, of course. There are a lot of really good, cute, smart,
well-behaved students.

But the ones the assistants get stuck with are the ones who, frankly, suck. Who will grow up to
be the smartasses who frustrate everyone who has to work with them, who may or may not straighten themselves out (despite or because of Daddy's money.) And, here at least, these kids hit their teachers and their assistants. I've been hit by 3 or 4 kids, and the assistants have it much, much worse. I don't know what their pay is like, but I imagine it's a lot worse than mine. And I am getting four thousand pesos per month to put up with this crap. So, say the aides make three thousand, which is reasonable enough as a wage for fairly uneducated labor, but absolutely not reasonable considering their actual job.

I would agree with the parents that the administration is incompetent. I get no help, and they hired me knowing that I had no teaching experience. The on-staff psychiatrist and academic coordinator have offered to help, but they are never around. There are staff meetings once a month. Last month's included an hour-long presentation from a bank. The agenda is not determined by what we need to talk about, because, frankly, the administration does not ask us what we need to talk about.

So, what should I do? I should probably also mention that my immediate supervisor quit regarding the aforementioned sex scandal (which deserves a whole entry of its own, and will have one soon) and they now need a primary school English teacher. So, I'm the only full-time Englishy teacher on staff for a school that offers “bilingual” education.

...In happier news, I slept a combined total of 23 hours this weekend.

A Pretty Walk

Went for a walk over one of the hills a few weeks ago, to a little town close by, with the boy and some of his friends. As frustrating as it can be to be here sometimes, it's still pretty awesome, and pretty pretty.

Mexico City Police

Words do not begin to describe. Normal cops, cops on ponies, cops on Segways, and lady cops in tight pants. I heart the Republic of Mexico.

Minesweeper

I can't say that I'm proud to be a minesweeper addict. When I think about it, I get depressed. There are literally countless hours I have wasted on a game that isn't even a good party trick. The only thing minesweeper actually does is let me procrastinate. Which I do a hell of a lot more than I would like to admit.

Oh, I'm good at looking busy, and can show on paper just how productive I have been so far with my life. Yet, when I think about how often I have played minesweeper at the slightest provocation, I am rather ashamed. Uh oh, here I go again.

...Back. In that game, I had tagged fifty-seven of the ninety-nine mines in a minute and twenty-three seconds, before I inadvertently activated a spot that I knew was a mine the moment after I pressed the mouse key. Those kinds of deaths are annoying, but ultimately my own fault so I don't mind all that much. No, what is really frustrating is when I have taged ninety-six of the ninety-nine mines, am about to break one of my records (or at least get on the top ten list again...on the computer I currently type from, every single one of the high scores is marked 'Niña Anita.' If I were a dog I would have run out of pee long ago.) and...voilá, it's down to a scenario where there is no logic involved, just luck. That's the horrible thing about minesweeper. More often than not, after a breathless two-and-a-half minutes, you come to a point where logic no longer holds. It is a matter of sheer luck. And it is rather insulting, after having spent so much time where the game was all about logic. Boo. Hiss.

But that does not stop me.

...Back again. This time, I tagged twenty-one mines in thirty-nine seconds before I mis-tagged one mine and therefore exploded on my next move.

I write much faster on a computer than I do longhand. A few months ago, I had extra time and not all that much to do. I would spend six or seven hours sitting in front of the computer, ostensibly writing. I churned about 25,000 words and an uncompleted (but clear in my mind where it was going) story in four weeks, more or less. Not so bad. But, when I think about that, it is my time spent playing minesweeper and trying to make myself write that rises to the crest of my brain, ready to be plucked as a memory. I probably spent more manpower hours exploding, and if minesweeper were real, I would have, long ago, been blown to my next life as a bloody pulp.

I have played three games since I finished the previous paragraph. The first one ended after I had tagged forty mines in one minute and thirteen seconds. The second ended after I had taged fifty-five mines in two minutes and eight seconds. The third (and fourth; I lied, I played four games. True confession of an addict.) I didn't even bother to look at the score. I was too ashamed that I compusively pressed the little smiley face on top of the screen.

Jesus Christ I need to un-install this game. This is ridiculous and pathetic. I am an adult. I have important things to be doing. Thinking. Or something. I need more discipline. I will never get anything done if I can look at the clock and an hour has unknowingly gone by, in two or three minute increments, punctuated by explosions. Winning is a sense of relief, feeling that the past x (where x = large) number of minutes have not been entirely in vain. No, I have won one! I have triumphed over logic and irrationality! I have survived all potential explosions.!

Unfortunately, this is the execption rather than the rule.

Thirty-nine mines tagged in fifty-two seconds. I think I need to bury my head in the sand, like an ostrich. It's dark down there, right? There's no way I'll be able to see the iridescent monitor?

Kindergarteners

My first full week of being a kindergarten teacher is over. I remember why I stopped babysitting. Although, honestly, teaching kindergarten is less boring than babysitting because you are not at the beck and call of one of two children who know that you have to entertain them in order to make mommy and daddy happy. No, instead, you have more than a handful of kids who get into fights as soon as your back is turned, or run over to play with toys, leaving their work behind, or poke their heads outside the door to helpfully yell to the administration that so-and-so poked them in the nose.

I have three groups of kids, and each group for a little less than two hours, consecutively. I was thinking about it, and when I was that age I was in school for about 3 hours per day. I don't know how these kids did it - 6 hours of class time, plus some of them hang out until 5pm because the parents are working and the school also has day care. It seems like an awful lot.

Also, I need to come up with ways to keep the kids busy because we're not allowed to use the books for the first couple of weeks which is seriously too long for "re-adjustment." They have a pretty good idea of what school entails at this point.

Back in Gto after an interlude back in the US to see my family and go to my cousin's wedding...and this time, I brought my laptop with me. I didn't bring it down in the first place because it's ridiculously and obscenely heavy, and I didn't realize that all the cafes in town have free wifi access. So, most likely blog posts will become more frequent as I will actually have an outlet if I want to say something.

Globalization at its Finest

I had a phone interview today with a nonprofit outsource of the US Department of State, focus on international education, Latin America HQ in Mexico City. The web site is very comprehensive - nice and shiny, with success stories and lots of smiling faces.

Over the course of the interview, it was revealed that what they will be focusing on this fall is information and resources regarding scholarships not for American universities, but rather for this university that is being built in Saudi Arabia, in the name of the king, that will have the 6th largest endowment in the world and therefore lots of money for international scholarships for people who really can't afford to study abroad. So basically the US state department will be pushing well qualified Mexicans to study in Saudi Arabia.

OK, it makes sense, but I'm really taken aback. I guess the Saudi government must be calling in favors. It could be really interesting, but I'm not sure I want to get personally involved. This could all be a bit premature, since they haven't offered me anything yet, but the interview went really well and I'd be surprised if they didn't want me to come.

Live from the GTO

Whenever I'm on a computer here for a long enough period of time, I'm tired and out of it and writing emails - and don't really know how to generalize how things are here.

It's an absolutely gorgeous town, with a conscientious self/UN-imposed mandate to keep it cultural and attractive. Contrast that to Leon, the nearest city, which is an industrial/commercial wasteland that could be anywhere in the Southwestern US...dusty and pollution ridden with wide streets and shopping and chain stores and nothing attractive what so ever. So, being in Guanajuato is an oasis in terms of aesthetics.

I've been meeting fantastic people, having a great time, and my Spanish is definitely improving. Definitely the most fun I've had since the graduation week of ridiculous last May. I haven't started to figure shit out so much yet, but I'm much more relaxed and it's OK that I'm chilling out, because all in all this is a completely unforgettable place, in so many different ways.

I Am John McCain, And So Can You!

I voted yesterday during Massachusetts' first-ever experience as a Super Tuesday state. Luckily for me, it was during the week I was at home. I leave for Mexico tomorrow, and am taking a break from not-packing to write this.

Something that really bothers me is the proliferation of students supporting Barack Obama wanting "change" but without a concrete idea of what that change may be or how to implement it. The Ogroupies, if you will, but also the assumption that all people of my age range with any globalized point of view also want this "change." Yesterday evening I was catching up with an acquaintance as the polling results were starting to come in, and she was annoyed that Hillary Clinton carried Massachusetts. I said "Well, that's not my fault," at which point she continued the conversation as though I had voted for Obama without actually asking.

No, not so much. I was very excited when I filled in my little bubble next to John McCain on the ballot.

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Whatever rhetoric all candidates are currently spewing about how electing them will change the face of America as we know it - it won't. Whoever is elected in 2008 will have the unenviable role of mopping up Bush-induced diarrhea for at least the next four years. Whoever is elected will have to deal with the residue of a president with 30% approval ratings and a congress with 20% approval ratings who are at loggerheads and get virtually nothing accomplished as the economy hits an inevitable downturn and international opinion continues to be lukewarm at best.

There are two things that the next president will have to do, and they are also pretty much the only things s/he will be able to do. #1 is deal with the economy. #2 is make nice with the world - with Iran and Europe, with China, with the quagmire in Iraq, with all the environmental stuff. The most important skill for both of these issues is a pragmatic, bi/non-partisan approach to actually getting treaties and legislation passed and implemented. Of anybody running, John McCain is the person with the most experience actually working in this manner.

No matter how inspirational a speaker Barack Obama is, the fact remains that he is three years into his first term as a senator. Over the past Senate, he has missed more than 1/3 of the votes for which he should have been on the Senate floor. It's hard to have a platform with the votes to show you stick to your platform if you're not actually voting. He doesn't have the experience that even a full senate term would give him.

In the past week or so, there have been a lot of parallels drawn between Obama and John F Kennedy, since the entire Kennedy family has also hopped on the Obandwagon. If Barack Obama is elected, he will run into the exact same problems that caused Kennedy to be in over his head during his two and a half years in office, for the exact same reasons. International issues will come to the forefront (only it will be militant Islamists instead of communists with the nukes) and his similar lack of experience in these matters will cause major fuck-upages to ensue. People seem to forget that, if you look at what actually happened while he was in office, Kennedy was actually a fairly middling president before he was martyred.

~~~

I am a registered undeclared voter in Massachusetts - the same thing as an independent. Yes, I am lucky that Massachusetts is one of the states where independents can vote in primaries. I would have changed my affiliation (and then immediately changed it back to an independent) if you had to be registered with a party. Mitt Romney, as the last governor of a Republican legacy in Massachusetts, was painfully disassociated from Massachusetts as a whole while he was governor. It was obvious that the only reason he was a governor was to groom himself for a presidential run. Even if I didn't like McCain, I would have wanted to cast a vote against Mitt. So voting as a Democrat in the primary was never really an option.

There are many ways to use a vote other than just supporting a candidate of your choice.

~~~

Also, John McCain likes ABBA. I like ABBA. I hope that at his inaugural ball, John McCain can get ABBA to regroup and perform. That, my friends, would be beyond awesome.

A comment on an aspect of my recent travels: The one redeeming thing about Portland Oregon is that it has the best bookshop I've been to in my entire life. Three stories and a square city block, arranged in its own order that works really well...go Powell's. This visit occurred after re-visiting The Word, my favourite used bookshop in Montreal (conveniently located around the corner from my old apartment) and walking out with $20 worth of I-meant-to-read-that, and finding an all-the-good-bits abridged edition of Tale of Genji at The Barrow, a used bookshop in Concord, about 10 minutes from my mom's house.

So, today, while running errands, I remembered that I wanted to get Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, and was also looking out for Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion, and wouldn't say no to After the Quake by Haruki Murakami and really did want to read The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing even though I didn't have time to read it after I took it out of the library and returned it unread. If I had a copy of it forever, I could read it whenever! Instead of going home, a-detouring I went, first to Willow Books.

Willow Books is Acton's answer to the Borders/Barnes & Noble megalopolis - a locally owned version therein; not quite as big with a small cafe. I went to the classics section fully expecting to see at least the best-known book by the first English language Nobel Laureate. AT LEAST. Nope, 6 titles by Jack Kerouac, then One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest, then straight on to the L's. I went to the information desk and asked if they had Kim by Rudyard Kipling, and the woman smiled as she told me if I hadn't found it there, she guessed they didn't!

Fine.

At that point I was too annoyed to look for other things I wanted at Willow Books, and figured I might as well drive to Concord since I didn't have anything pressing. I went into The Concord Bookshop before I went back to The Barrow. To put this bookshop in perspective - Lois Lowry had a book signing there when I was 12 or 13. They had a huge Harry Potter party every time a new one was released, that always made it into the Boston news broadcasts. With Concord's literary tradition and old money, they are a pretty classy establishment and certainly afford to have something classic sitting on the shelves for a few months before a random weirdo (i.e. me) comes in and asks for it. It's a local bookshop, to be sure, but it's always been fairly highbrow.

Kim? No. Three Murakami titles, all of which I'd read. No Slouching Towards Bethlehem. No The Good Terrorist.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, the lack of The Good Terrorist could well be because it's been flagged by the Patriot Act because of its title.

If bookshops that sell new books have lowered the standards for what they stock merely to what is new and bright and shiny and can be sold only to people who also just seek that, they deserve what's coming to them. They deserve to have potential sales usurped by Amazon, which does have anything you want if you are willing to wait. If these owners and managers stock crap, they are basically giving those who would be their repeat customers no other option than going somewhere else for their various and sundry needs - as good literature is wont to be.

(Un)Packing

I tend to leave packing to the last minute. It has to get done sooner or later, so it always does. It ends up not taking all that long when you just throw everything into the case and boxes, do a quick once-over to make sure you haven't left anything too egregious.

Unless I'm motivated, though, unpacking can take me a lifetime. Motivation includes, and is mostly exclusive to, a place where I want to be. After moving into new apartments, I'm unpacked within a day or two, with my closet the most organised it will ever be, dishes washed, shoes lined up under the coat rack.

My suitcase is still sitting in the foyer, chez maman. Five days later.

Mormon TV

I returned chez maman to the discovery that the 70ish channels that existed the last time I was back had been replaced by 200+ channels.

There are now 7 different MTV's 5 different VH1's, 3 gospel channels, Korean news, and 9 public access channels.

But my new favourite TV channel? BYU TV. That's right. For some ungodly reason, channel 265 is Brigham Young University TV.

For the past hour, I have been watching Randy L. Bott, inspiring lecturer, talk about how the power of optimism and happiness can be applied to marriages, and with the power of the Book of Mormon, can solve any marriage crisis. Even one involving disobedient children. Who seem like they may have come out of left field. Gollee, where did these durn y'urn rascals spring forth from? You can have five kids who are well behaved, but that one who's trouble - who's a challenge put before you by god...

God bless and save the USA.