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.