NEW BLOG

ok, just fyi new blog templesofdoom.blogspot.com

It was all a dream...

Well, I´m attempting to leave Puerto Vallarta, but it doesn´t want to let me. I had the most incredibly pleasant last week. After an additional cancellation of school allowed me to visit my mom the week before, we finally started up again on Monday. It was awesome seeing the kids again. They were as rambunctious as always, but the knowledge that it was my last week let my patience extend further than usual. When I finally told them Friday was my last day, they were all very sweet, asking me not to go, and giving me tons of hugs. My favorite was Victor, Laura´s super ADD buddy, who came up to me and very sincerely told me that he really was going to miss me a lot, but that he hoped i had a very good trip. Kids, for all the trouble they can be, are amazing. I really do not regret spending so much time in PV, because I think they really did appreciate the commitment. Friday Zoey brought her violin too, wowing the kids with her skill. Saturday we had a little going away party at Marco´s house, with too much food and some night swimming in the pool. Sunday Jon and I shared my last beach day, and went to see Angels and Demons. Both were perfect. The hellish muggy heat that has been filling PV for the past 10 days disappeared yesterday, leaving it warm and sunny without the massive amounts of sweat. And Angels and Demons was full of amazing explosions and morbid scenes, so I was happy. I really don´t think I could have enjoyed my last week here any more. So, here I end the PV portion of the blog, and am starting a new archaeology focused one, templesofdoom.blogspot.com .

For those of you who have been struck with the urge to visit PV, a couple of recommendations

- Esquina de los Caprichos, best tapas in life

- Playa Punta Negra, great swimming beach

-The zoo. pay extra to play with the baby leopard.

- Benitos pizza. 

- walking all the way through the isla cuale, especially at night, when the cats all come out. 

- watching the fireworks on the malecon

- buying fabulous cheese at rizos, fruit at the market on lazaro cardenas, and enjoying it all with some white wine by your pool. 

ah, what a life it was.............

Its a Porker.

oh what a frustrating month! this pig flu is ridiculous! I feel like I have a curse that shuts down towns every time I move to Mexico. First Oaxaca, now this. Bars and schools have been closed for 2 weeks and they just issued a new decree to close everything till the 18th now as well. People are really suffering here, tourism is the main income, and without it they are going downhill fast! We had a charity night at Banana Cantina on Wednesday night, trying to get money for our school. Usually regulars come in and fill up the restaurant and you get a few people from the street too. This time the only reason we got ANYTHING was because Josh, the main guy who helps coordinate Children of the Dump, is the smoothest talker in the world. The restaurant only had 2 other tables besides us, so we moved downstairs to the bar on the street (bars can be open till 11 if they have food..) and basically accosted passersby. We made close to $200, which is more than even the restaurant did, but still. It is really sad. I miss my kids like crazy too. I´m only going to get about a week with them when all is said and done, and I hate it. I was supposed to go visit my mom this weekend for Mother´s day, but when I got to the airport, I was told my connection to Mexico City was cancelled. While they were trying to rebook me, my flight from Mexico to Guatemala got cancelled as well. They gave me the option of flying to Mexico 5 hours later, then waiting around for possibly days until I got to Honduras. No one is flying, and flights are having to cancel most of their routes. It really, really sucks. On the ride home on the bus though (while listening to very loud, angry music), I thought about what would make me happy about having to stay in PV this weekend, and I realized that we have yet to go to San Sebastian. It is this 17th century mining town in the mountains, piney, refreshing, and with no electricity. I convinced Jon and we leave early tomorrow morning. I miss fresh, crisp, non dusty air. That, along with a spare bottle of wine, and our neighboring church having its saints festival tonight might make it ok, at least for a bit. I also emailed the SPCA people again about fostering some kittens. Reading and kittens. Yes, that will do. 

And there is more....

Cataclysmic changes!!! We sold our house in Seattle! A little sad, but then I think about our neighbor and I am no longer as distraught. Also, I got my scholarship for Belize! I decided to go to the earliest session, which begins May 25, meaning I only have a little time left here and I have a feeling it will fly by now. I feel bad having to leave school so early, but the other sessions had a week long gap in them meaning I would have to stay over a month, shortening our travel plans. I still have to break the news to our director. ick. I really am going to miss jose though, when we stopped by pre pig flu, he was just so cute and sweet and funny. Jordan is heading out asap as well. He bought his plane ticket for a week from now. So, instead of having to figure out a place for june, jon will be all alone in our nice apartment for the end of may. He maybe will stay with a family at the church or something to save money. Meanwhile, we are trying to quickly get an outline of our travel plans together, while simultaneously trying to figure out an apartment in Mexico once we return, study for the GRE, and apply to grad schools. whew. I am getting really excited for grad school. I think the professors at the field school will be really good mentors and have some advice for where to go etc. ARCHAEOLOGY! woo. Jon and I found a tianguis (outdoor market with everything from clothes to pirated movies to vegetables) and i found some great archaeology pants. it was really just like going to good will, but i havent been to good will in so long that it was a lot more exciting. ok, im going to work on posting these pictures. 

Ch Ch Ch CH channnnges

PIG FLLUUUUUUU. just kidding. well, we had one week of school after our spring break, but unfortunately it was not to be. On monday we found out swine flu had forced all schools in mexico to cancel until May 6th. Unfortunately Jon and I found this out after already having arrived at the church, so we went with them to tell the kids at the school. They made us wear ridiculous masks, and then put us in the back of the pickup for all to see. This was when masks were not quite fashionable yet, and so everyone stared at us like the plague. When we got to school, two people were on tour. These two people just so happened to have photography as a hobby, as well as three huge lensed cameras with them, each. Really huge. Like two feet long. We apparently proved to be amazing subjects, and my face is now plastered all over someones vacation photos. After telling the kids that there would be no school, and consequently Children´s day (and the huge toy give away that goes with) would be cancelled until further notice. It just sucked. I really like those kids. Then we went to go feed the people at the dump. I felt kind of ironic because with the pig flu and whatnot I bet the dump is the place that you  are least supposed to go... BUT, TO THE DUMP we went. And now we are on our second two week vacation in a month and a half, and I may be going crazy. I did sign up for unlimited Yoga though, and have gone every day this week! And wendy comes tomorrow! So maybe life aint that bad. 

Ode to Fireworks

The international firework symposium is in town for the week. Awesome. I thought the pirate ship fireworks once a night were heaven, but I had no idea!! On Monday, Jon and I went to the sports field to watch the ¨castillo¨shows. These are rickety structures about 2 stories or taller, made up of sticks with fireworks attached in fabulous ways. They tend to have parts to them that spin, like huge sparker wheels. The trend these days also seems to be to attach a piece at the very top that will fly off at the last minute. The area was taped off when we got there, to keep the crowd at a safe distance. However, the crowd did not want to be at a safe distance. I think my mexican side is where I get my morbid nature, because I highly suspect most of the people that inched past the tape like I did were a little excited to see what could possibly be disastrous. It was a fun festival, because since it followed the insanely busy Easter season, it seemed like the firework symposium was a festival to make it up to the poor locals, now that the messy tourists were gone. So, Jon and I got a seat about 5 feet from one of these castillos, which I thought was the coolest thing in the world. Unfortunately, I am not as ballsy as I think, and when they lit the one we were close to, and the top shot up into the sky, my reaction was to run (without worrying about Jon, I might add...) very quickly in the opposite direction. I can´t be completely sure but I think one of the fireworks had shot debris straight into the crowd across the field from us at an earlier time... Anyway, Jon had a good laugh at my cowardliness.But I do have to point out that his hair was full of ash.  On our way home, there was a typical fireworks in the sky show on the boardwalk. Also incredible. The other nights this week I spared Jon the trek to watch the smaller works every night, and contented myself with watching the sky fireworks from our house. Tonight, they made a HUGE castillo downtown, visible from our house a mile away. The top of it opened up like a flower into an eagle made of fireworks, who then proceeded to flap its wings, and take off into the sky. Oh, pyrotechnics... Tomorrow is the big finale. I cant wait. 

A whole whopping novel

Well April flew by too! We ended our school with Zoey and I completely giving up on a friday attempt at class and instead just having a big party and easter egg hunt. It went well if quite hecticly. Then on saturday, they invited the whole school out to pizza, so Jon, Zoey and I went. It was fun, the kids really are sweet once you aren´t trying to worry about the amount of English they are learning. I miss them….

Sunday I started my stint babysitting in Lo de Marcos. The first day Jon drove up with me. It was so nice driving! The way up there is gorgeous, cutting through a jungly hill with peeks at extensive mountains going off into the distance on one side, and the ocean on the other. Then I met ZiZi and her mom. No abhorrence of babysitters  in sight! ZiZi was a little shy, but once she saw that I could play like the best of them, we had a really good time. The first day I spent almost all 4 hours in the pool. I didn´t even notice, but the next day I was incredibly sore. All in all the week went really well. Dana and Jordan came up one day and hung out on the beach with Jon while I worked, and then we had a FABULOUS dinner at the next town down, San Pancho. I learned how to pass cars, and that driving through downtown PV is HELL.  All one ways, left hand turn lanes jump from the far left lane to the far right in a block, and tourists take their sweet time walking directly in front of your car. On Thursday Jon met me after work, and we had dinner with ZiZi and Kendall. It  was really fun and nice to have dinner conversation. Friday I said goobye to them, and headed back to return the car and head to Mexico City with Jordan and Jon.

Mexico City has been awesome.  We got here at 6pm Friday, got home to meet Wendy and the cats, have dinner and relax. Blaze ignored me at first and then we were back to normal. I ditched Jon to sleep with Blaze in my bed, and he doesn´t hate me for it, so ten points Jon! Saturday, we went to the Anthropology Museum. It was nice having read more into the Mayan cultures, I felt like maybe I am retaining some information. We speed toured the thousands of rooms, and then had a quick lunch at the restaurant. The museum is located in a huge park, like Central Park almost, so afterwards we went on a walk through it towards La Condesa, one of the areas Jon and I are thinking of moving to. It was a long walk, but we found some cool places. Then we met my sister, and she took us on a speed tour of the downtown monuments via the main road. It was a full day, but I felt like I got to know where some more things were.

Yesterday, we went back into the city for Easter church. Jon and Jordan valiantly made it through the hour and a half service, I think mostly because midway through, Jordan and I left to go hide the eggs. We hid about 180 for 12 kids, so I think everyone was satisfied. When church let out, it was a mad dash, but luckily we had a few good spots and I managed to help some slower moving adults find eggs for themselves too.  And I managed to squirrel away three for us too.  After church we headed to Coyoacan, another neighborhood we were interested in with a weekend crafts market. It was nice walking around and it even started sprinkling a bit which felt incredible. On our way home, we attempted to see the oldest pyramid, a circular one on the south end of town, but after several failed attempts at finding a way in we had to be satisfied with a drive by view.

 

Today we may try to drive to the dormant volcano crater by my dads house, or possibly just enjoy the fact that we have nothing we have to do, and nowhere we really have to go. We shall see.

(INTERNET was out so i saved that last one in word.... heres an update...)

On monday, we ended up going on a little day trip to the hacienda, an old hacienda from the colonial times, converted now into a retreat center which my dad is the president of. It was gorgeous there, and we walked around for a little while and enjoyed the orchards and views. Then we drove on to a couple more towns further down the road, one of them a cute little mining town. 

Yesterday, my dad had to work all day so he dropped Jordan, Jon and I off downtown and left us to our own devices. I beguiled the boys into going to the Templo Mayor, the original Aztec center of Mexico city, built over by the Spanish, and then uncovered during some road work and when they began to build the metro. It was the greatest thing I have ever seen. It might not be big or grand, but it blows my mind that the whole downtown area covers an entire civilization´s core. I got even more excited when I saw that they have a program going on with the school I want to take classes at in the fall. I guess every time there is construction in the vicinity of the known boundaries of the aztecs, the archaeologists get first dibs in digging around to see if there is anything under the house or street or whatever it is they tore up. I CAN DO THIS! AHH! it drives me crazy that i have to wait though, I want to be working on it RIGHT NOW. Anyway... after making my way through the museum while Jon and Jordan waited outside, I remet up with them. We walked around for a little then split while they looked at the monuments and I shopped.

We had a nice dinner with Wendy who was so kind as to let us stay the night with her. It was fun, and I am definitely looking forward to living around family here again. 

Today we went to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. The boys were pretty impressed, and I had fun seeing it again after having visited numerous times when I was little. We got a lot of good pictures this week. Saturday is picture day.  

Avientame

Laura is come and gone. Time really flew there. She got in on the 17th,  and left the 26th. We had fun, she came to the school with me most of the days she was here, learned quite a bit of spanish (to Jon´s jealous chagrin), and we explored the town some. once, when we were walking down the stairs outside our house, an iguana fell from out of nowhere, landed right at our feet, and then scampered awkwardly away. Fairly irrelevant to the overall story of her trip, but still funny to think about. We hung out by the pool some, made some delicious dinners, watched sex and the city and other girly things of which i have been greatly depraved while living with all boys. One of my favorite things was going shopping for the first time since I have been down here (four months and no shopping! goodness!) Even so, I only spent about $20. Needless to say, it was quite a relief to have a female counterpart if only for a week. 

The next adventure to come is Spring break. We already have plenty of US and Canadian spring breakers around town, but next weekend, the the thousands of inland mexican vacationers are supposed to start popping out of the woodwork. I start my babysitting job next sunday, and rented a car to get to the town. It will be pretty exciting to try to drive here, though nothing compared to trying to drive in Mexico City. Im confident I will make it out alive. Then, after a week of babysitting, Jordan, Jon and I have tickets to Mexico City!! I´m excited to see my dad and sister, and of course the cats. Also, I may finally get to see the Templo Mayor downtown, which i missed the last two times due to meetings with the passport people. Boo. 

Once that trip is over, we only have one week in April, then May and June, and we are finished with the school! It may even be earlier, we had some teachers unexpectedly quit, and several had planned to only stay until the end of May, so there may not be enough staff to finish off the year. But we will see. 

Yoga may be in my future as well. In my attempts to keep myself busy, I have plenty of ideas but when trying to decide which to do, none ever seem to get done. Well, tomorrow is a new week. 

Lo de Marcos and San Pancho

Had a cool weekend. It was Benito Juarez´birthday so we had monday off as well. I found a babysitting job for spring break, but it is Lo de Marcos, a town north of here that I have never been to, so we decided to go explore it this weekend. Turns out its quite a bit further than I thought. But the bus ride was gorgeous, it goes through pure jungle. We arrived at Lo de Marcos in the late afternoon. We found a sparse little hotel a bit off the beach, plopped our stuff down and went to walk the beach. However, I was still hurting from twisting my ankle two days before, so it was more of a hobble than a stroll. The most exciting part was when we came across a huge boulder on the sand. When we got closer, we smelled and saw that it was a huge sea turtle rotting on the beach. The waves would come up and spin it around and ALMOST take it back out, but not quite. I took lots of pictures, intrigued by the fact that you could actually see the skin dissolving from the muscle dissolving from the bone. Turtle foot bones are very interesting! As we kept walking, the sun began to set, and we hit the end of the beach with surfers riding huge sunset waves against a backdrop of black volcanic rock outcrops. On the way back to our place, some renegade cowboys were racing their horses up and down the sand. I think they were training them for something, because one of them made his horse moonwalk to some reggaeton. Not normal. For dinner, we got some very disappointing chinese food. We were misled by an actual chinese person running the restaurant. But it was just for looks. 

The next day we got up, had some breakfast, and attempted to make our way to the town of San Pancho, about 10 miles south. We were told busses and taxis frequently passed on the main road, but after waiting abut 20 minutes in the blazing sun, all taxis ignoring us and no busses in sight, and with a failed hitch hiking sign, we were getting irritated. Finally a tour bus stopped for us, charging us $20 pesos each (it should be around 4.....). We got to San Pancho, a very pretty little town. We were greeted by the snack stand owner at the entrance to town, who was incredibly friendly, and gave us a map of the place not that we would need it. We went into town towards the beach, set up shop and enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon there. The sea however was not for swimming. I was tentative to do anything than wade with my sore foot, but Jon went in. By the time he got past the first wave, he had been carried about half a mile down shore. He decided against trying to battle the sea anymore and came in. There were some rocky cliffs we decided to go explore. They were made up of boulders that had fallen down and gotten wedged precariously together. You could be standing on an outcrop and then look down and realized you were 30 feet above roiling sea with nothing below you. Pretty impressive.

When we finally decided to go home, we had a little bit more bus trouble. We caught a bus fairly easily, and were happily riding it into what we thought would be town, when it stopped not in town, but twenty miles outside of town, at the airport. Ok, we thought, well, we will just catch a little bus into town. We get onto a bus headed to town, but five minutes later, it veers off course and starts going completely opposite of town. Next bus, slowest driver in the history of the world, and when we get to the very very very edge of town, he announces that he is going no further. Thanks. At that point we were very irritated, and decided to just walk the mile and a half home. We go a block and find that the streets are crowded with tourists come to see the show set up for Benito Juarez´birthday. Jon had had enough and pushed his way through and headed home, but I was optimistic about the presence of fireworks, and so stuck it out for a minute. The mexican navy sang ABBA, and then the pirate ship shot up its fireworks for us. So yes, it was, in the end, worth it. 

AND NOW LAURA IS COMING!!!!! WOOOOOO

Playing Catch up

Wow, I just realized its been over a month since I was on this thing. Well, mid February Jon headed off to Calgary for his cousins wedding. He loved being in cold weather again. Just kidding.  Jordan, Jon´s brother joined us at the end of February. He loves it down here, and I haven´t heard him complain about anything yet. His friend Dana followed him down here on March 1st. While Jon and Jordan were in Calgary, I took the opportunity to visit my dad at his place outside of Mexico City. It was a great getaway. Cats and movies and fireplaces. At the beginning of March, Jordan, Jon and I moved out to the southern edge of town, to the best apartment in the history of life. Its a great place, with a breeze, a huge tree over the balcony, a view. Both bedrooms are legitimately awesome, so I don´t feel bad that Jordan has the smaller bed. In fact I´m a little jealous. Our bed is so big I feel like I´m drowning in it! A big change from having to share a single in the last place. My pa came to visit for a quick weekend trip, so Jon and I slept on one of the couches, and even THAT was comfortable. Having my dad come down was really fun, to show off my town, take him around. I think his favorite part was Xocodiva, this great chocolate store, though he wont admit it since he is supposed to not eat sweets. He took us all out to dinner as a treat, and when we got to the restaurant we weren´t sure if it would be right, and the hostess thought we were going to leave and so offered us all a free glass of wine with dinner. so we ate there, and it ended up being one of the best meals we have had yet. (ignoring the fact that for the most part we only spend about 10 dollars a meal, and survive greatly on spaghetti and pb and j...). 

On the work front, we have now worked at the school for about 2 and a half months. It growing on me. Zoey ended up coming on as full staff and is a huge help in class. Jon´s help quit, so now he is all alone in class. Every so often Dana or Jordan will show up, and I think they enjoy the work. My class has been fun, we have invented several games in which the stressfulness of teaching is relieved by making the students do things that make us laugh. Last week as a friday surprise, we blasted reggaeton and made them dance with moves that corresponded to the weekly vocabulary. That week was ¨family¨. I think my favorite was the grandpa. 

Jon found a private english student 5 days a week, which he is pretty excited about. I´m proud that he is so good of  a teacher that he can get paid for private lessons. I think I have decided to give up on my job search. After interviewing at numerous places i found that if you aren´t willing to work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and commit longer than 6 months for about 3 dollars a day, then you´re not going to find work. Laura is coming soon (NEXT WEEK!) and after that, we are thinking of going to Mexico City for a week in spring break. So, having to work like crazy just to make enough to eat, and having to give up the ability to enjoy my time here just didn´t make sense. So I´m buckling down and saving what I have for as long as I can. The funny thing is, I found a babysitting job for a week in April. That one week of babysitting will pay me as much as if I worked every day until then. So if I can find the random job every so often, I think I can make it. I wrote to the orphanage, the animal shelter, and the ecotours place to volunteer so that I don´t go crazy in my free time. 

Ill keep you posted on my sanity

Sayulita

We finally made our trip to Sayulita, a little surfing town a couple hours away. It was pretty fun, but the town is definitely too small for anything other than a short trip. We got there about 1:30 on Saturday, and found the crappiest motel ever. I loved it. We asked the woman to see the room and, given our budget, it was exactly what we were looking for. Two twin beds, and a bathroom so small you could pee, take a shower, and brush your teeth all at the same time. Which Tyler proved. The best thing about the place is that our room had a window that looked right out on the beach, maybe 20 feet from the water. When we told the lady we wanted it, and that it was perfect, she looked at us like we were crazy and said "No perfecto. No no." haha. Tyler got a surfboard right away and attempted to ride. Jon had a turn and actually got up a couple of times. Then they convinced me to try, but since I couldn't even lift the huge board, they had to go out with me. It was pretty fun, but I did not get anywhere close to anything you would call surfing. And I think Jon was afraid he had killed me a couple of times. After a funny little dinner at this restaurant on a campground surrounded by hippies, we went looking for something to do. This town could be traversed in about ten minutes. We got a couple of corner store beers and set up shop on the beach. It was Bob Marley's birthday, and one of the restaurants was going to have live reggae music. While we were waiting for it to start, we met some guy named Dan, a mid-30 writer who was living here for a bit. He introduced us to his friend Llave, the epitome of hippie wanderer. We learned the secret to his youth was to drink his own urine, and even saw him the next day with a tupperware case and a nice slice of lime on top, I guess to take away the tang. When the music at the bar started, everyone was bobbing (pun) to the music fairly lamely. Party Animals that we are (ha...right) Jon and I broke out the absolute lamest moves we had, and had a dance off. I believe there was a point I even slid through his legs. Funky Chicken, Shopping Cart, The Twist... all were used. I'm pretty sure most people were jealous. Then this morning we awoke to a cloudy cool day, so we just headed home to relax.

Ok, this is weird. So my bank card stopped working, and when I put it in the ATM it would say "No longer authorized". So I called the bank, and they told me that my card had been compromised. They wouldn't tell me anything else, and when I asked if there was any way I could get money they were just like "mm... no, not really". After about 45 minutes on the phone, I got a new card sent to Mexico, and was just about to get an emergecy visa sent out to me express, and they transferred me and lost my call. I was just pissed at this point, so just wrote them an email online and left it for the day. The next day I check my account, and it is -$670. I call them, get hung up on again, and Jon took over. The woman that he talks to ends up telling him that it is a mass compromise, and that apparently someone hacked into the bank and took money out of a ton of accounts. She promised that the money would be back in there by midnight. Meanwhile, I check my online banking and the email has been answered. The banker who wrote back to me told me that the money missing was from a T-mobile autopayment (even though my account has been closed with them for several months now...) and that it was my fault. However, the money had also been returned to my account by that point. Jon and I think that he lied as a coverup, using something that he had seen as a payment on my account previously to make it believable. Its just kind of scary to me that they have something this huge happen, and then lie and hide to cover it up when everyone has a right to know. I'm sure they are worried about this and the crisis mixing, but still.... shady.

a churro a day....

probably will make me really fat, but unfortunately, they just so happen to be located three blocks from our new place. one of MANY reasons this place might be the best place i ever live in my life. and that is even keeping in mind the fact that no gas meant cold showers the first two days. this place is amazing. you can watch whales from the deck (and the pirate ship that shoots fireworks- two of my favorite things- every night at 9 pm), you can tan on the roof, the grocery store is down the hill, a light breeze blows through the place constantly... need i go on? not to mention the people. our landlord rolando is a HUGE change of pace from benjamin. when we moved in, not only was it fully furnished, but there were romantic candles in the shower in jon and my bathroom, and sewing kits in the drawers! plus the guy is just really nice and a great guy. and our neighbors are great too. i am convinced that they are our european twins... two guys and a girlfriend. i can hear jon muttering about them right now, he is very jealous because they can all speak at least three languages. but they are very cool, very nice, and i am incredibly excited about the fact that iiiiiiii might make a female friend! maybe she likes hannah montana too. or, i mean, the european equivalent. 

now that we are finally out of that hellhole, its kind of funny to look back on. also funny? we have met about 6 people since moving out of that place that also know benjamin for varying reasons. one of the men that works at children of the dump had our exact same predicament. he even stayed in the same apartment! i guess ben has swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars out of people, trying to make his business endeavors work. he has several aliases and has lost a bed and breakfast and restaurant already, and is pretty much about to lose this too. i wonder what the total amount is that he has stupidly lost smoking pounds and pounds (yeah i know, its supposed to be kilos..) of weed. oh, and they have a ten year old son who they bring around too.. dandy. 

well, im really enjoying working at the school. rachel and i are getting into a teaching groove, and i think today we got a new volunteer too, zoe, until june. im getting better at not being awkward, and i think i maybe know 10 names now! jon is absolutely loving it, he spent the ride there and back today speaking in spanish with a 12 year old, beaming all the way. he started taking spanish lessons too, and i think with his continually darkening skin, in no time people will think hes the native, not me. 

i started working at the bakery, quit after the first day, and then was rehired again temporarily. ha. the place was alright, but im exhausted working 8-2 then 3-7. plus $15 a day was not cutting it. however, the lady called me back again today and asked if i would consider working until she found a new person because she had put an ad in the paper saying they had espresso now, and needs someone to work the machine. she negotiated that i can leave at 12, and only stay 2 weeks. so, why not? four hours a day paid, meanwhile i can look for a different job, and still have time for a nap. i guess thats ok. 

well i better get to bed so i can wake bright and early. bleck. 

3 days, 3 DAYS!

Until we leave this apartment behind. I can. NOT. WAIT. I left my clothes on the floor of the bathroom when i got in the shower and forgot to pick them up right away. When I did they were full of about 15 huge black ants. Gross gross gross. Oh, and when we went to talk to the landlord about the internet being out, he came back at us with "well, i'm actually being nice because you were supposed to be out of here on the 27th." Yes, Benjamin, when we said we wanted it for January, we meant only until the fourth to last day. UGH. Enough about that..

Well, Jon and I started our teaching volunteer on Monday. I was put with 3rd and 4th graders (no babies :() and Jon with 5th and 6th. This was supposed to be a trial week, with us helping out the normal teachers, but on Tuesday I showed up to a class of 30 and no Rachel, the teacher. She was out with asthma for Tuesday and Wednesday. I tried to pull some kind of lesson out of thin air, it went alright. Wednesday was better when I actually had time to plan, and I had a good time doing art projects and some games to teach the numbers 1-20. Today Rachel was back, which was a little weird because she took over, but good, because I got a chance to relax. One of the poorer girls has a little brother who comes with, but is too young for any classes. I saw him hanging around outside and went to invite him in. So cute, he comes up to me and asks "Excuse me, where is the classroom for 1st grade, section B?". So I brought him in and while Rachel worked with the class I helped him learn a few words. I like that I found the only 5 year old in the whole place. He is a smart guy too, I drew a sun and an apple and wrote SUN and APPLE  and asked him to read which was which to me and he goes "SUN... and an APPLE but it looks like a sun..." So, teaching is going pretty well. 

I also interviewed for another job on Tuesday. It was advertised as a barista job, but when I showed up, its a little corner bakery owned by an american woman. It smelled amazing. From what I can tell, only one mexican woman works there, baking everything from scratch. My job would be to help work the espresso machine (more like one that you would have at home than an industrial one), and then learn to bake. It sounds really fun, but doesn't pay well. But i got a free cinnamon bun with the interview!! I still may end up doing it just for the experience. 

I feel a lot better about being down here now that I have something to do every day. It does mean that jon and i have become really lame, watching a movie and going to bed around 10 every night, then waking up to plan lessons, but I feel more settled in. Yesterday we found the pirated movie stand, a local grocery store AND tamales. What a good night. 

I'm a little behind on blog posts.. a couple fun things with good pictures happened-

We watched obamas inaguration on the computer!!! wearing matching obama shirts! and then went into town wearing them trying to find other nerdy people like us but none existed!! 

We said goodbye to Jons aunt and uncle (not fun, they were sweet and felt like family! i miss them!) by going on the weekly art walk around PV. there were some really amazing portraits and other things. a lot of gay art too, given the location. but i really enjoyed going. 

The next day was Jon and my's designated anniversary day, and Jon surprised me by taking me by bus to the zoo. (An even greater gesture, because jon absolutely hates the zoo.) The Puerto Vallarta Zoo is pretty well known, and was really fun. We bought a bag that they provide at the beginning, filled with several animal specific foods : carrots, pellets, bread, peanuts, corn. We got to get up close and feed every animal they had! My favorite, boringly enough, were the monkeys. Wait thats not true. I found a new animal, called the coati that has a nose like an anteater and is cousin to the raccoon. The funniest was a cage with a hairless dog in it. I'm pretty sure they had just grabbed it off the street and put it in the cage. All it wanted to do was play chase. I think jons favorite was the zebra. They had learned what a person with a bag meant, and as soon as we got close, they tilted their heads back and opened their mouths. I really loved the zoo, I will probably have to go back several times. 

Our last grand adventure was our attempt at a hike. The zoo was located by a sign that said "hike, 2.5 miles to waterfall", so we decided to go back and do that. Jon and I set out with plenty of water, swimsuits, and walkin shoes. We walked down the road where the sign pointed... and walked down the road some more... and walked on more road... pretty much it was a road through the jungle that led to....... dun dun dun...... THE PREDATOR MOVIE SET! so, instead of being a hike, we kind of just walked 2.5 miles (as tourists passed by in taxis) to get to small waterfalls surrounded by ziplines, a bar and a restaurant. So, we sighed, took some pictures with the sets, had a beer and some guacamole, and jumped in! We were the only ones at first,but as soon as we discovered that one of the rocks was perfectly formed to be a waterfall waterslide, we were joined by many. 

oh, and i saw a manta ray jump out of the water the other day. yessss. 

buzzards and playpens

Jon's birthday was a success, we took the bus out to Bucerias (a nice bus! with padded seats!) which was about an hour and a half of ride. Rancho Banderas, the time share, is a fun place, with several tiered pools cascading down (which we took advantage of to shoot some playboy esque waterfall shots, ha.) We all helped to cook up some shrimp fajitas for dinner, and along with a great chocolate cake, and a couple of jesus candles, jon turned 26! Given the long distance, we left around 7. Getting back was not quite as easy. We waited for a bus on a pitch black empty street. Unfortunately the first one that came by was not as plush as the one we had there, and after jolting terribly finally broke an axle half an hour from town and we had to switch.

The next day, I had a fun time babysitting for a girl from seattle, whose family conveniently decided to come to Puerto Vallarta for their winter vacation. It was great to see her, we watched the fireworks from her balcony, and ordered a fabulous room serviced meal. All these great visitors made it so nice to spend time away from our house!

Finally, yesterday, Jon and I met with this guy for a tour of Children of the Dump. It was a very impressive organization. They started as just a retired couple who would bring hot meals to the families who lived in the dump and made their living sorting through trash. From there, their project meshed with a local church, and they started taking care of the kids, eventually starting a daycare center for the little kids, an afterschool program that teaches english, computers, and math to the gradeschool kids, and has a womens group for the single moms. Whats funny is that the guy that started it does not speak a lick of spanish, and doesn't want to learn even after living here 25 years! Anyway, Jon and I met a few volunteers, visited the daycare and school, and then helped bring meals up to the remaining workers at the dump. It seems like a very welcoming and informal organization, and we are excited to get jobs there. The pay is only $200 a month for volunteers, but I think it will be plenty worth it. 25 little toddlers for me! woo hoo!

whales came by again today. but the stupid jet skiers scared them off. ugh.

the ants go marching one by one...

well, i kind of feel like im exactly where i was last week. still no job, still no apartment. we did, however, find a really awesome apartment for march april and may, that is located downtown with a great balcony that looks out onto the sea. February though, not so much. And we did have some.. progress (?) with jobs. Jon and I interviewed at a bilingual school, but only got a "well let you know". Tyler interviewed at a timeshare place, and then decided he didn't want to be that timeshare guy and didn't take their offer. Jon's aunt and uncle (Norma and Bob) are in Puerto Vallarta for the next two weeks, so we met them downtown for dinner yesterday and are going to their timeshare for Jon's birthday tomorrow. Its a very nice break in the monotony. Who knew lazing at the beach could be so mundane? I guess its not so much the lazing that gets to me. I have a lot of time people watching, and have found iguanas, whales, crabs, and hermit crabs to watch too. I've also caught up on plenty of reading. But at the end of the day, it was exactly like yesterday, and not a whole lot was done that was worth anything. Jon and I are meeting with the administrator of a non profit organization called "Children of the Dump" on Thursday. Volunteering will be fun, and will add something to my day. For today I think my task will be sweeping. fun.

the new year....

well, i decided to wait a while before writing about the new digs. jon had warned me they weren't exactly what we had been promised at $950 a month, as i saw when I arrived. The location is great, about a mile south of downtown, in a quieter more jungly area. And the house DOES have a nice view of the sea, and about 2 blocks to the beach. But beyond that.... The "Huge, fully furnished one bedroom with plenty of room for three" stopped short. The place only has a single door, and it is NOT in the bathroom. The front door locks, luckily, and leads you into our apartment, contained in a single large room. the front of the room is divided from the back by a half constructed wall that doesnt quite reach the cieling, and further back are the kitchen and the open bathroom. Quite lacking in privacy. And upon my arrival, we were still awaiting a second bed, a working stove, and any sort of linens, dishes, pots and pans etc. The owner, this older hippie guy who we have decided is just not good at life, finally showed up about eleven pm. Two pillows (we are three...), one blow up mattress, one blanket and a camping stove were what we were provided with. Jon and Tyler argued forcefully with the guy (while i awkwardly hid in the bathroom) that despite our appreciation of his efforts, this was NOT fully furnished. However, this only succeeded in making him angry, finally leaving with an "this isn't a hotel. i'll do what i can." (which is nothing more, if it requires any effort). However, being the crafty travellers we are, we have made do. Yesterday we made a trip to Walmart, toting Jon's hiking backpack, and loaded up on food, pots and pans, and another pillow. We were pretty comical trying to get onto the bus with a 50 lb backpack the size of me, tyler carrying a case of beer and a cooler, and me with a bucket full of all the odds and ends that wouldn't fit. But we made it back, courageously taking busses the whole way instead of paying for taxis, and I think, once we arrived home, we are all the more comfortable and happy for it. Luckily, the internet was one of the only parts of the ad that was indeed true, so I have been busying myself looking for our next place. Meanwhile, we are bonding and building charachter or something.

New Years itself was pretty fun here. We headed downtown to where the excitement was, had a great dinner at an italian restaurant, and then barhopped a little until 11:45. The Malecon is the main boardwalk where people gather, so we left our bar and went to go find a spot to watch the fireworks. By chance, we happened upon the exact spot where they were going to be shooting off the majority of the city's fireworks. And it being mexico, all that separated us from the men in the hard hats and their tons of explosives was some caution tape. Obviously, I got right up in there, and I think improved the feeling of excitement greatly by never ceasing my screaming. Got some great videos and pictures too. And since then, our time has been spent looking for jobs, exercising (we live at the base of a huge, steep hill. Legs of steel in no time), cooking, and bumming around on the beach. Tyler is looking for a golfing job, and Jon wants to teach, while I really don't care what I do, but i really miss hanging out with kids, so that might play into it.... untilllll next time...