i've moved.

Moved my blog over to Word Press. You can find me there for new updates from now on:

www.erinlm.wordpress.com

Peace out Blogger. It's been real.

i don't sleep anymore so here's my latest project

This is what happens when I don't have a set work schedule - I'm up til 4AM, sleep until 11AM and my days are completely random! Anyway, I've been doing more self-educating on photography lately and learning more about photo-editing, which is fun. My friend also just recommended some photography classes and one-day workshops you can take on the cheap at the Botanical Gardens here, which I think I might start soon.

Anyway, some fun foto projects for you. The plan is to make some cheap little wood boxes, paint them black, have good ol' Kinko's print these on matte board, and then spray glue the fotos onto the boxes to give my poor empty walls some dimension. I'll post more fotos of the project soon, assuming it goes well.

amazon river, peru 2008

bondi beach, summer 2003

new zealand roadtrip, summer 2003

sydney bridge, summer 2003

These are just some of the older fotos I've been playing with. I may use more recent ones for the actual project, but these ones were good for practice.

Peace.

tales of the funemployed

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Or something like that. Since I hear it's a recession, I decided it would be a good time to quit the old J.O.B. There were many reasons: weird organizational changes (see previous post), issues with the administration (sometimes I like to be paid for the work I do, crazy I know), and unmet expectations (I was promised the opportunity to have a home, and that was quickly taken away).

Maybe it wasn't the best idea. Maybe it was a little impulsive. I'm not gonna lie, there was a glimmer of regret for the first 48 hours, thoughts of crawling back, pleading temporary insanity and begging for my job back. But then I got to thinking about what I could do with all my free time and suddenly the regret was gone, replaced by sparkly ideas of beaches and bike riding and more traveling traveling traveling. =)

The more people I talk to, the more stories I hear of others doing similar things - people who have been laid off and are taking advantage of the opportunity to do things they wouldn't normally have time to do. Oaxaca Lindsay was a great example - lost her job, spent three months in Mexico, learning Spanish and backpacking around. You can do it on the cheap, and what better time to do it?

The funemployment* plans are already starting. I'm technically still employed through mid-September and then have a few options for September - December contract work, either with the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (school programs coordinator) or the National Youth Leadership Forum (faculty advisor in DC).

That means the funemployment doesn't technically start until December, but I'm still excited. Luckily my friend Vanessa is also funemployed starting in January, so we'll be finding some adventures together. Right now the plan is to WWOOF ** in Kauai during Jan/Feb, then head for New Zealand to work in a vineyard that Vanessa knows of, and finally finishing in Thailand, hopefully shacking up with my friend in Chiang Mai before heading back to the states.

So stay tuned for upcoming tales of the funemployed! I leave you now with this video of some surfing chica in Kauai. Give me 4 weeks and I'll be making surfing videos of my own. =)



Peace and aloha (that means Hawai'i love, right?).

*Funemployed: I've heard others use this term, but google searched it anyway to see what was floating around on the interweb, and apparently it's an actual thing - check out the LA Times article for more.
**WWOOF: WWOOFing or Willing Workers on Organic Farms, is super popular right now. In almost any country throughout the world, people can exchange 2 - 4 hours a week, 4 - 5 days a week of farm work for room and board. I've been dreaming of moving to summerland forever, and I have failed for 26 years. Funemployment might be just the thing to kick my butt into gear and WWOOFing would be a great way to get to Hawai'i and figure some things out.

a lot is happening

So a lot is happening with work and things here. It's very frustrating, because while I love the heart of what I do, the bureaucracy is completely messing with things (doesn't it always?). My organization, which has set itself apart in the international education industry as a service-learning and international development organization focusing on sustainability, is completely abandoning everything that makes it good in order to make money. Which sucks.

I understand we need to make money, and especially now, with the economy as bad as it is, some sacrifices may have to be made. It's just sad that they are willing to sacrifice the integrity of our projects.

We have always prided ourselves on the fact that our projects are sustainable - that we are onsite year round to work with our host communities, become a part of our host communities, to collaborate to come up with innovative and culturally-appropriate solutions to issues and really promote true grassroots development. It's been a huge learning experience for me and a great intro to development.

Now that we've teamed up with this generic study abroad company (which shall remain nameless, but it's pretty much the anti-us in every way), our integrity is going out the window. I was recently working on the design of some of our new promotional materials, and noticed that in addition to our seven regular host countries, they wanted me to add on about 10 more countries for our group opportunities - countries which we have never had projects in, where we don't have staff, etc., etc. I asked my boss today about this, and he said that the execs feel that we have strong enough relationships with other organizations that we'll be able to offer "quality" programs, despite the fact that we are not planning on opening offices in any of these countries.

It's just hard for me to believe that this goes along with our mission of "sustainable development." We have always said that we are not like Cross Cultural Solutions or Projects Abroad or those other organizations because of our program model - we don't just come into a community with a group of students for 10 days and then leave; we are there 365 days a year, working with these communities, gaining their trust and respect, and because of it, creating some great projects. We are highly respected by our host communities and countries - the Pan American Health Organization funds our projects in Latin America; the Belizean Prime Minister came out to applaud our efforts to improve education in the Cayo District; National Geographic named us in the Top 10 Best Adventure Travel Organizations on Earth based on our sustainability model; the Environmental Protection Agency recognized our work to reduce carbon emissions in Peru. When I wear my gear around in Mexico or Peru, or I mention where I work, people know who we are. Community leaders come to our office, asking to work with us. How can we say that we're going to deliver the same "quality" projects and programs in countries where we are doing the type of "development" that we have shunned for the past 11 years?

Again, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and the execs, I'm sure, know what they're doing, but it just seems hypocritical and sad that this is the direction that we're moving towards. I really hope that it's not, but if it is...well, I'm not sure how I feel about that. Sigh...

Ok, I'm done with my rant. Off to a wine and cheese party. Hopefully that will lift my spirits a bit.

Peace.

reunited and it feels so good

No, really, it feels really good. For the first time in four years, the ladies of MSU were fully reunited. It felt great to see everyone all together for Jenny's wedding and crazy to think we've been out of the E.L. for FOUR YEARS. In those four years, five have married, three are homeowners, one is engaged, one has a kid. And then there's me and Rosemary, who have a lot of stamps in our passports, but not a whole lot else to show for it! Haha. But it was good seeing all the girls and dancing the night away.

Oh yeah, and Jenny and Jeremy got married. Congratulations to them!
Peace.

it's sad having to miss people all the time

I know, I know, I've neglected the blog once again. And I feel bad about it, I do.

Nothing super exciting has been happening. Living the life in Chicago, trying to enjoy my time here. It was a really hard adjustment coming back this time - I left a lot of good people in Mexico. Tuesday night, my Mexican beach co-pilota, Lindsay, was in Chicago for a conference, so we went out salsa dancing and had a blast. Kate just got back to the states and hopefully I'll get out to NYC before she heads to Ecuador in October. It's just sad having to miss people all the time. But I'm trying to stay positive.

Anyhoo. Summer, thus far, has pretty much been focused on weddings and engagements, which is fun! Crazy how many of my friends are getting married! I'm in another wedding this coming weekend and then one the weekend after that, plus it seems like there's an engagement every other day. Yikes!

Here is a rather large homage to the last wedding I went to in Asheville, NC. Congrats to Mel and Phil for throwing an amazingly awesome and very Mel-and-Phil-esque wedding!

Armstrong '01 and May '02 Roommies Reunited!

all the friends stayed in 3 "cabins" on the property for 2 nights, which was a blast

the scene of the weddingthe property

random chairs by the river? i liked them.

more from random walks around the property

phil, brian and jason

x, mel and nish

carla, mel and libby...libby is getting married august 15!one of my favs of khalid

mel's cute

bride and maid of honor

what's a wedding without some cornhole?aw...all the msu kids reunited! bryan and i are the only ones still sporting our msu gear apparently.

The end. I'll try to write more about my summer adventures (hopefully there are a few more!).

Peace.

dear oaxaca...

Dear Oaxaca,

Our time was short....too short, really. I hope to someday return to rekindle our love affair, but I'm not sure when that will be, as my life right now is somewhat unpredictable. Though I only knew you a few short months, my love for you is strong.

I will miss so much about you: your delicious food - mangoes and Pechote sushi and quesillo and endless stacks of tortillas; how you can tell when I am tiring of your heat and you respond with a cool thunderstorm; your amazing art, whether displayed in galleries or sprayed on the side of buildings for all to see; the people who, no matter what their opinions, good, bad, right, wrong, voice those opinions openly; your beautiful beaches and mountains and hot springs and jungles. You really are everything a girl could ask for.
You introduced me to so many things and people as well: Kacki and Augustin and Lloyda of ProMexico; salsa dancing Ney; Julio, the surfing wonder; my partner in Mexican crime Kate; crazy Nacho, Blanca, Kayla, Josiel and Osmar; Lindsay and the handful of other travelers who passed through Oaxaca and became part of my little circle. Sigh, I miss them already.

And even though I'm returning to an old and familiar love known as Chicago, know that I will always hold a special place in my heart for you and that I will be thinking of you while I'm gone.

Much love forever and always.

E

why yes. yes, i am a rockstar.

So the pinche swine flu kind of put a damper on the whole guitar lessons thing, but thanks to the magic of YouTube and Chordie.com, I've been teaching myself. So far, I've got a whole 5 songs in my repertoire, which includes:

• Sea of Love - the Cat Powers version
• Forever - Ben Harper
• Gray or Blue - Jaymay
• Hysteric - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

Kate and I worked on our act while hanging in our cabana in Zicatela, so hopefully we'll be ready for our farewell open mic night at Nueva Babel. We shall see, we shall see. But I'm digging the guitar. After our July honeymoon at Sea World, I think we'll be ready to take our act on the road.

Peace.

surfing o.a.x.

The backs of my legs are burnt, my knees, hips, and ribs are bruised, my shoulders and back are more sore than they've ever been, but it was definitely worth it.

I've attempted to surf before - Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Peru, Florida, New York, California - but I think Puerto might be my new fav spot. I didn't actually surf Puerto or Playa Zicatela because those were for the super hardcore crazy Aussies that were on a surfing pilgramage or something - Zicatela is apparently big time - but I did surf Playa Carrazilillo, the beginner beach, and it was crazy fun.
Kate and I took 3 days of surf lessons with Roger and Julio "Herpules" Soto at Carrazilillo. We'd get up in the morning, eat some mangoes, buy some bread from Cafecito, an awesome panaderia, and taxi it over to Carrazilillo. We did 3 hours in the water the first 2 days and after that, I was rocking pretty hard, or at least as hard as you can rock Carrazilillo. I was standing up on every wave and by day 3 Julio was attempting to teach me some style - walking out to the end of the board, doing fancy turns, handstands on the board, etc. I didn't quite get the handstand thing down, but whatever, I was new.
The last day we only got in an 1.5 hours because Julio was dying to get to the Punta. It was so funny because the night before, no one was out in the town because the big waves were coming the next morning at the Punta. The whole town revolves around surfing. Anyway, we let Julio peace out to go get his surf on. Not gonna lie, we were pretty exhausted anyway, so it was good for everyone.
And now I'm back in the ciudad for my last few days in the OAX. Sad face. I'm going to miss you, OAX...

More pics of Tulum and Puerto on Flickr.

Peace.

la buena vida

How can you not love it? I did the conference thing in Florida, which was actually really fun and quite productive for work. Got to hang out with the boss man a bit, whom I see maybe once a year, got to meet all of our Bonner partners, some reps from other cool organizations (check out the Pulitzer Center for news coverage of international issues and RESULTS which is an advocacy organization).

And now I am working, poolside. I took a real live vacation Monday - Wednesday, heading to the secluded beach cabanas of Tulum, meeting Oaxaca Lindsay over there for a few days of complete bliss. It is absolutely insane to me that places like Tulum aren't populated with massive resorts and things. Obviously there are, but where we were was pretty abandoned (partly because of the pinche swine flu, but even if there were more tourists at the cabanas, there just really weren't that many cabanas to be occupied).
We spent the first few days riding our bikes and checking out the local sites. The water in Tulum was seriously all kinds of greens and blues and it kills me how unbelievably clear it was. It also kills me that I have not found a home someplace like that because I really think I should. Perhaps tourism is my calling and I need to take up residency at such beaches.
Anyway, aside from the beaches, my other fav part of Tulum were the cenotes, which are scattered around the region. I've never heard of these cenotes, but apparently they're all over the region. Supposedly some meteor hit and created these underground caverns, which have since been filled with rain water and are great for diving. Some scientists believe this meteor played a significant part in the extinction of the dinosaurs. We just went to one, but it was INCREDIBLE. The fotos don't do them justice.
When not biking around checking out cenotes or frollicking in the crystal clear waters, we basically hammocked it up a lot, read a lot (I'm reading Even Cowgirls Get the Blue by Tom Robbins - love him), and chatting it up with random people. It was such a great few days.

I bid farewell to Lindsay on Wednesday, and went on sola, flying from Cancun to Mexico City to Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Coast. Kate and crew are meeting me here tonight, so I'm working from my hotel pool. The beach here doesn't really compare to that of Tulum, but there is a pool, hammocks, delicious mangoes, and tomorrow we start our surf camp, so I'm super excited. Although, yesterday I went out and watched the surfing a bit and it seemed pretty intense, so I'm also a little nervous. Hopefully we don't die.

Anyway, I don't think it gets much better than this. I've already done two conference calls today, all while sipping on agua de mango and taking intermittent dips in the pool. =) Hope your week is going as well as mine!

Peace.

P.S. - So tourism is still slow and you can tell it's hurting these communities. Especially traveling sola, the Mexicans are loving talking to me, mostly about the conspiracy that was the swine flu and how it's hurt the economy. Tulum was insanely empty and most of the beachfront restaurants were completely closed because there was no business. Some of the cabanas too. If anyone is looking to take a quick break from life, flights to Cancun are cheap. You can take a bus from Cancun to Tulum for 100 pesos (2 hours, less than $10) and cabanas are cheap and they're usually willing to bargain since occupancy is so low (we stayed in a really nice one for 300 pesos, which came out to about $12/night).

Our cabana at Diamante K, which is apparently owned by some famous telenovela star!It seriously is one of the most amazing beaches I've ever seen (and I like to think I've seen my share of beaches). Plus, you can rent a moto, take a collectivo, or ride your bike to cool ruin sights (either the main ruins on the beach or Coba ruins, which are super cool, situated in the jungle). I think the Department of Tourism here should hire me up. =)

crazy travel story #7910

It started with a storm. I was in Florida for a conference for the past few days and it stormed the entire time. I had a 3PM flight out today, flying through Houston and on to Cancun to begin my beach week.

First, the storms in Orlando caused my flight out to be delayed by 2 hours. By the time we got to Houston, I had missed my connecting flight, but they put me on the next flight to Cancun. After making my way to my new gate, they immediately announced that they were heavily overbooked and were offering a $300 travel voucher, first class upgrade, free hotel and 2 free meals for anyone who volunteered to fly tomorrow.

Since I really don't have anywhere to be anytime soon other than on a beach somewhere in Mexico, I figured I'd be generous and give up my seat on the plane. I went up to the counter, and turns out they were having a lot of trouble getting 7 people to switch their tickets, so they were offering $500 travel vouchers. Not a bad deal. I took it, happily.

After collecting my new boarding pass (first class boarding pass), I made my way to the hotel shuttle. I'm staying at the Double Tree, which is pretty swank. Not only am I staying at the Double Tree, but I'm staying at a suite at the Double Tree. When I tried to check-in, the only non-smoking room they had available was a suite, so, due to my asthma and general disdain for the way smoke-y rooms smell, I was upgraded to the suite.

All that, and I'll still be lying on the beaches of Tulum by noon tomorrow. I seriously wonder when the travel gods are going to realize they've been treating me a little too good. It worries me a little.

So now I just have to figure out what to do with my $500 travel voucher and try not to get too used to flying first class. Thailand? Ireland? Brazil? Or I could save it up for my flights to India? Blow it on my Austin tickets in October for Austin City Limits? Who knows. But I like it.

Peace from Houston.

pauly meets oaxaca

Paul came to visit! It was great to see him and let him see a little bit of my life. Sometimes I feel like my family and friends really have no idea what my life is like, which is fair, since I feel like my life changes on a regular basis, if not daily. But it was great that he came down to explore for a few days.

Since he only had a few days, we literally did a whirlwind tour - Monte Alban, Hierve el Agua, Tlocalula Market, Sierra Norte, etc. Some pics from our excursions.

Hierve el Agua (Boiling Water) - Natural hot springs outside of Oaxaca City. Nature's very own infinity edge pool.

Mountain biking in Cuajimoloyas in Sierra Norte.

I heart tiny flowers. I can't help it.

More on Flickr.

Tomorrow I'm off to Florida for a 4-day conference, then back for some beach adventures. Tulum for 4 days and Puerto Escondido for 4 days of surf camping. =) Life's pretty good.

Peace.

sometimes i make posters

Some posters I designed recently for a conference thing. I've been trying to get more into the design stuff when I have time, I just never seem to have time...


Oh, and p.s. - Paul arrives today! Let's hope he doesn't end up in Bolivia or something!

Peace.

summer lovin

I know, I know, I'm obnoxious with my Mexico-life love, but I can't help it. I just booked a whole bunch of flights and hotels for the summer, and it is gonna be a pretty blissed out time.

• May 27 - June 1: Paul's visit! All the local hot spots, most of which I have never seen - Monte Alban, Hierve del Agua, Sierra Norte, etc.
• June 2 - June 6: Florida conference
• June 7 - 10: Tulum beaches, Maya ruins, snorkeling and general great times with Lindsay
  
• June 10 - June 14: Puerto Escondido for 4 days of surfing camp with Kate
• June 15 - June 18: Oaxaca for a quick Mexico despedida
  
• June 19 - July 1: Chicago Summer!
• July 2 - July 16: East Coast Road Trippin -> Boston, NYC, Baltimore, DC
  
• July 17 - July 20: Asheville for Mel's wedding
• July 21 - July 30: Detroit?
• July 31 - August 3: Seaworld Conference (no really, I'm going to a conference that's being held at Seaworld in Florida...kinda weird, but excited to play with the dolphins...plus, it's me and Kate's farewell honeymoon)
• August 4 - August 9: Detroit for Jenny's wedding
• August 10 - August 21: Thailand? Ireland? Brazil?
  

And then who knows where...I'm supposed to come back to Oaxaca for a few weeks in August/September, but not sure when exactly or if I'm going to really want to (I tend to like to nest after a busy summer), so I might just chill out in Chicago for the end of summer/beginning of fall.

Anyway, that's my summer schedule. Happy hump day.

Paz y amor.

stuff white people like #72

During a meet and greet session at a conference last spring, this woman came over, and started chatting me up. She was fairly new to the international education field, and after a few minutes, she was like, " Do you realize we're the only non-white people in this room?" It was true - at a conference of about 300, there were probably less than 10 minorities in attendance, and while that conference was all industry people, the general demographic for students going abroad is pretty much the same. It even made the infamous "Stuff White People Like #72".

I also met a woman there who works with the TRIO program, and who is trying to help expose her students (all 1st generation college students) to all the opportunities that they have. We've been working together to help build programming targeted specifically for multicultural students for the 2009 - 2010 academic year, which I'm really excited about and can't wait to get more into once the summer/fall hits.

I'm currently building one of many workshops that I will be presenting at a conference hosted by a foundation for low-income and 1st generation college students in Florida in a few weeks. My workshop is on international civic engagement for multicultural students, which matches up well with their overall theme of service and civic engagement. I am stoked to go - other workshops include topics on building advocacy campaigns and social marketing strategies. They also have one that is all about the benefits of and how to implement community garden programs, which are so great. I think I'm more excited about attending the other workshops than I am about presenting mine. And I think even more than the other workshops, I am excited about the end of conference talent show and dance party. I mean, come on, who doesn't love a conference that ends with a talent show and dance party?

Anyway, that's all I got. I'll be in Florida from June 2 - June 6, so that'd be a GREAT time to call and catch up, as my cell phone will be back on.

Lots of love.

Paz.

just another weekend in the oax

I'm seriously digging life in Oaxaca. I had another wonderful weekend, complete with a Oaxacan baseball game (rained out), cumbia dancing, a postponed mother's day performance by my little sister's school (also rained out), and another temescal outing (although, I took my turn hanging with the kids, while Blaca did the actual temescal). I seriously love it. I know, can I say it one more time? Maybe. I love it. Seriously.

@ the estadio de Los Guerreros (warriors)

and then it rained...

went to Kayla's school for a postponed mother's day show. so cute.

and then another temescal day

pre-temescal dancing (me, playing with lighting and silhouettes)

temescal necesities

i sat this one out so that Blanca could participate, since she didn't last week. instead, i got to babysit mis sobrinos and I taught Josiel how to do shadow puppets =)More pics on Flickr.

Paz y amor.

"...el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.”

In the spirit of today, a quote from the ever-wise Benito Juarez:

"Entre los individuos como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.”
Between individuals, as between nations, respect for the right of all is peace.

Today is el Dia de los Maestros (Teacher's Day). I don't think the US really celebrates it, although we probably should because teachers put up with a lot of shite, but here in Oaxaca, there is a lot of history and a lot of tension that comes with it.

The teacher's strike in Oaxaca in 2006, turned into a huge civil uprising, and from it, the APPO was born (caution...wikipedia says that the neutrality of these articles are being disputed, but you can get the general idea). Here's another article from 2006 that tells a bit about what was going on at the time.

It's been almost 3 years since the end of the violence related to the strikes, and it seems that Oaxaca, in particular, is still affected. Tourism has never fully recovered, and it seems with the news coverage of the border violence and drug cartels, and most recently the N1H1 business, it doesn't look good for the Mexican economy.

So a shameless plug for Oaxaca, because it's quickly winning my heart: please remember that Mexico is a big country, just like the US - just because there was a civil uprising 3 years ago, doesn't mean it is still unsafe for tourists; just because the border towns are having issues with drug wars, does not mean the entire country is under siege; and just because less than 50 out of more than 100 million people in Mexico contracted and died from N1H1, does not mean that the entire country is a cesspool, just waiting to infect visitors with disease.

(It's frustrating that one week's worth of hyperbolized media coverage of the N1H1 virus has so irrepably crippled the Mexican economy. The US news outlets don't even mention it anymore. It's pretty much obsolete, and yet, it will continue to affect Mexico's economy for months, if not longer.)

And that's the end of my rant. I'm off to watch the professional Oaxacan baseball team and then practice my new salsa moves at some swank salsa bar.

Paz y amor.

best show in the WORLD

I just got really excited because May 21 is the beginning of season 6 of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE! Not to be confused with those other lame dance shows like Dancing with the Stars, which is completely bogus. So You Think You Can Dance is way legit. I mean, crazy Mia Michaels choreographs for it and the dancers are friggin amazing. Ah, so excited!!

This is one of my all-time favorite numbers, choreographed by Mia, danced by Allison and Ivan, who were my favs. Quality is bad but whatever.



And with that, I am starting salsa class tonight. Super emocionada.

Paz.

hot child in the city

That I was. This weekend I missed the bus to la Sierra Norte for the hiking expedition. It was an 8AM bus, so I don't even know why I tried. Instead, I had a rather relaxing weekend in Oaxaca city, complete with a temescal.

When I was in Oaxaca in December, I had helped lay the foundation of a temescal in Teotitlan del Valle, but I really had no idea what it was. They just kept saying it was something of a sauna used for Aztec ritual ceremonies. Sunday, Nacho, who has been trying to get us to help promote his temescal as a tourist experience in Oaxaca, took Kate and I on an excursion to test it out.
Nacho, his wife Blanca, his three kids Kayla (7), Hoseal (5), and Osmar (3) came to pick Kate and I up in a hot wired Mustang. For reasons unknown to us, Nacho did not own keys to this Mustang, but used a pocket knife to start the thing. He also invited the duenos of the apartment complex and their ENTIRE family - 7 total. The duenos family, Kate, Kayla and I all piled into the back of the duenos' old pick up truck - 3 riding pretty in front and 7 of us hanging on for dear life in the truck's bed.

It was about 30 minutes outside of the city to this temescal. The environment wasn't that great - it was randomly situated on the side of the "highway" in the middle of nowhere. But the temescal itself was made of nice stone and there was space enough to do our pre-temescal business.
I had no idea what I was in for. The point of the temescal as explained by Nacho, was to cleanse the entire self - body, mind, and spirit. The temescal is basically a domed sauna made of stone. The whole thing went something like this:

• An hour of stretching/yoga/chanting/praying/painting your face with a mud mask/spraying yourself with some herbalwater
• Strip down to your skivvies
• Throw a piece of wax on to burning rocks, say "omateo" (no idea how to spell it...it's a náhuatl word that I was told means "welcome" or something along those lines), and go into the temescal
• Then comes the throwing of water onto the hot rocks until it gets almost unbearable
• There is chanting, praying, lashing with herb bouquets (to help with circulation), more chanting, more praying, more lashing, rinse, repeat for 30 minutes
  
• Finally there is pineapple and hot herbal tea (probably the last thing I really wanted to eat/drink in a 110 degree room, covered in my own sweat, and herb leaves, but it was part of the process)
• Leaving the temescal, you are immediately sprayed with some heirbal water of some sort to help cleanse your body further

And then it's over and you eat a lot of delicious food.

The whole thing was intense and a little uncomfortable at the time, but I did feel really good after. Plus, I liked hanging with a family for the day(even if it wasn't mine). More pics on Flickr.

Paz y amor.

mango currency

I know, I know, so much talk of mango, but I can't help it. My co-workers and I have discovered the Mango Man, who sells mango off of his bicycle in front of the church near our office. For 10 pesos, you get an entire mango, chopped, drenched in lime juice, chili powder and chili sauce stuff. So delicious. We've officially started using mango as currency - when we go to dinner or out to a bar, to save us from confusing our server, one of us will pay and add it to our "mango tab." We've got a white board that we should be using for work, but instead use to keep track of our running mango accounts - who owes who how many mangoes. I find it hilarious.

On a sadder note, el Pechote is still closed. Looks like another llano taco Friday instead of delicious Mexico sushi Friday. Not that I don't love the llano tacos, but it's been two weeks now and I really want some delicious Mexican sushi...

Have a good weekend. I'm off on some overnight camping trip tomorrow morning. Don't know much about it - my friend Rachel is my official activities coordinator and she plans all of this stuff for me. Hasta Lunes.

Paz.

the good life

To celebrate the re-opening of things yesterday, I decided to skip work and go live it up at the country clubs of Etla, Mexico. Etla is about a 20 minute/40 peso colectivo ride from el central, and while the majority of it is full of rural homes and things, there are also these random balnearios (very high end community pools/country club-type place). You pay 60 pesos (about $5 - $6) and you can spend all day there. We went to one called Vista Hermosa, which had about 10 pools and was pretty much vacant. Eventually more people came, but it was good fun.
After our pool party, we went to the buffet, which is this giant all you can eat buffet filled with all the deliciousness you could possible imagine in Mexico. For 120 pesos, you gorge yourself for as long as you want. The place was huge, and had a playground and waterfalls and a random plane that you could sit in and watch little kid movies. I knew immediately it was very high end because the airplane had real live air conditioning (first time I've been anywhere in Mexico with air conditioning) and you were allowed to throw the toilet paper in the toilet (kinda gross, I know, but that's seriously an indicator that you are in the presence of the rich and famous). We went through 3 rounds of tamales and mole and papas and tostadas and tacos al pastor, etc., went out, took a walk to digest, took a nap in the airplane, and then went back for rounds 4 and 5.

And then we waddled back to town to get a colectivo home. All in all, a good day. More fotos on Flickr.Peace.

the meatrix

Hilarious/educational video on farm factories.  Check this out.  

swinefluapalooza is almost over

Hopefully. Tomorrow the schools should be re-opening and things should be getting back to normal. I can't wait.

This weekend, in light of everything being closed, some friends decided to go hiking at San Felipe del Agua, which is supposed to be a pretty decent day hike which ends with a waterfall (which is the "del Agua" part). It was a great day hike, and even though the waterfall was not so impressive (it doesn't get good until the rainy season), we still felt pretty victorious by the time we got there. We had heard from some other hikers that you could climb up the main waterfall to find other baby waterfalls, so despite it looking rather trecherous, we decided to try it. We failed. And nearly died. But it was a good time despite.

Some fotos. I've been taking a lot of walks with the camera to pass the time. Here are some rando-s.

Rachel chilling in the "swimming hole" at San Felipe

Random couple taking wedding fotos on alcala

The rainy season is creeping in

The graffiti artists are getting clever here

One of my fav buildings in the neighborhood. There is literally nothing on the inside, no walls, no ceiling, no nothing...

Peace.