And here is rendition one (see original post if you don't know what this is). WARNING: WILL CONTAIN POP-CULTURE SPOILERS! I am not going to go around marking them either, but I'll try to keep them as vague as possible for tender young eyes sake. That said, beware!

Without further ado, Pick Of the Week!

Best Book
Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
Hands down the best book I read this month (certainly the most anticipated). It only works if you're a reader of Jim Butcher's series The Dresden Files (you may know it from a small, quickly canceled TV show on the Sci Fi network -I refuse to use that misspelled name they came up with- that had almost nothing to do with the books at all). If you aren't a reader, I recommend you try them out. They are kick. If you do read them, this is a must! It includes all but two of Butcher's short stories (all very good fun), and one small novelette, not available anywhere else, which occurs 45 minutes after the end of his last book, Changes. It's told from supporting character Murphy's point of view, is very good, and gave those of us still holding our breath after Changes cliffhanger a chance to keep from turning from blue to purple and actually passing out. But, since this is Jim Butcher we're talking about, he doesn't actually answer any big questions, instead leaving his fanbase in the dark until the next book comes out in April (don't read the Amazon synopsis unless you're up to speed. It will ruin the whole series for you). Five months, I don't think I'll last. I swear, some books are like crack...

Best Song
"Temple in Me Heart" by The Hipwips
Not as easy as it should be to get a hold of, I thoroughly recommend everything these guys have done! They have 2 albums out right now, both very solid. This is just my favorite song over all. Good music to listen to in the car (and for me, that's high praise).

Best Joke or Funny Moment
This one was a little more dark-humory than I would have preferred, but it's actually quite amusing in hindsight. See, the local Rotary club has been collecting donations for over a month now for outlaying villages in Southern Veracruz which were hit hard by the massive flooding, thanks to the last 2 hurricanes (yeesh!). The unstable ground around swampy Veracruz coupled with the tendency for villages to cluster around rivers would have been bad enough, but the floodwaters also destroyed large parts of the capitol, Veracruz City, and caused huge road damage and the collapse of several major bridges and roadways, essentially cutting off relief and fresh supplies to lots of outlying arias. In a place where accidentally swallowing to much tap water can kill you, that's not good. We did one run to a nearby village about a month ago (when I say nearby, I mean about 50 miles away, which, with the roads here, means 2 1/2 very bumpy hours) and it went very well.
This time, another club collected even more stuff, and added it to ours to dispense. This is where the fun part comes in: somehow, someone managed to pick a village that was not only outside our clubs jurisdiction (and therefore not our problem), but was over 5 hours away (that's one way, mark you) through some of the most trashy roads I have ever seen (for example, we drove for 20 minutes on something oddly soft which I later realized was just a giant pile of sandbags. The actual pavement had been swept away by the retreating floodwaters. One the way there, one of the cars in our entourage (there were 3 SUVS belonging to club members, and one large lorry-type truck hauling all the donations) got a rock tossed up under it and punched a whole in it's oil pan (which is bad, fellow not-car people). After sitting in the sun for 20 minutes taking pictures and wandering around, everyone split up, managed to cram themselves into other cars (sitting on laps was required), and got the car up to the next village, which happened to have a mechanic. We left it there and went on to the actual destination. Hallmark moments ensued, and we managed to get out around 3pm. We made it back to the broken car to find that the mechanic had fixed the hole. Hurray! (see where this is going?) Just far enough away that there was no way to get back, the oil pan broke completely. Since whoever owned the car did not want to leave it stranded in the boonies of Veracruz (I don't know why. Honestly, it probably would have been safer there than parked on the street back in Mina), they decided to tie to to the car in front and essentially drag it home. Look at a topographical map of southern Veracruz and tell me why this is a REALLY bad idea. So, as much hi-jinks ensued(the lorry had gone on ahead, and since you can't really pull a big car with an equally sized car very fast, we were traveling at about 10 miles an hour), including a rather epic wrong turn:



and constant stops to retie the car and move the increasingly uncomfortable overstuffed passengers around, we went.
I was in a pretty good mood until one of my legs cramped up and the car stopped going again. It wasn't until I was helping 10 other people push a broken SUV up a giant hill on a road that would have been deemed unsafe to drive on in the U.S., in the dark, with a stabbing pain up my right side, no painkillers, no water, and no food that I realized this was getting a little silly.
Eventually, after about 2 more hours of this crap, everyone else figured this out too and banded together to force the hold out car owner to leave his SUV in what was laughingly called a 'parking lot' in front of a 24 hour shop in one of the millions of tiny towns on the road, with the promise they would drive out with someone to fix it in the morning. All 20 or so of us piled back into our 2 SUVs (think about it) and made our merry way back onto the not-really-a-road (by now, it's pushing 9:30). We get back into town by past 10, to find our compatriots from the lorry sitting on the side of the road eating a late-night snack and waiting for us. Not only are they annoyed that it took us so long, they want to know if we 'stopped to help the dead guy'. Turns out, we must have driven past about 5 police trucks parked around a gent who, when they went past, was lying on the side of the road covered in 'some sort of reddish stuff'. We make it home by a quarter to 11, only to find that there's a problem with the hot water heater, and all our clothes that were supposed to be washed that day were left in a wet heap in front of the washer. When I find my school uniform in the pile (bear in mind this is the middle of the week and I need to be up at 5am the following morning to got to school), my host mother announces that no-one is doing anything the next day, and to all just forget it and go to bed. We sleep until lunchtime the next day. Like the bumper stickers say, "Never buy a car you can't push".

Happiest/Best Moment I Could Take A Picture Of


Location: Iglesia de San Andres, San Andres Tuxtla, Los Tuxtlas de Catemaco, Ver. MEXICO

This exact moment was cool looking, but actually a little dull. The day around it was fantastic. If I ever get the money (or the opportunity) to retire to some little relatively hard to reach place, I'm probably coming to live in the Tuxtlas, around Lago Catemaco (use a map, you geographically-challenged internet addict, you).

Best Movie
Sarah Jane Adventures, episodes 'Death of the Doctor', Parts 1 & 2
The name says it all. I always consider Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood to exist for the sole reason of keeping the frankly terrifyingly large Doctor Who fanbase from rioting halfway between the end of a season and the Christmas special, but this episode was just good clean fun. Giant bird people that looked like they escaped from Farscape, the return of the infamous Joe Grant. Gratuitous misuse of the long-suffering Clyde, small blue men with difficult names, a rather obvious setup for a continuity issue they're going to run into pretty soon (hint: I don't think that number is gonna take so well. A plot arc would work better!), and that's not to mention the rather prominent cameo of a very specific character whose name is rather prominently displayed in the episode title (To quote Mr. Twain "The report of my death was an exaggeration").

Best Quote
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - Frank Zappa

Best Obscure Pop-Culture Reference That Most Of You Aren't Going To Understand
I found a way to involve the audience AND make this unnecessarily mean! I'm going to come up with a line, or part of a line, from something. You have to figure out what it is and post it in the comments WITHOUT using Google, Bing, or you're resident nerdy relative. For those of you to culturally illiterate (or lazy) to come up with anything, I will be posting the answer to every weeks question the following week. I'll start with something simple.

"Gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the lockers".

Come on folks, I know at least three of you know this one (and two very specifically don't, for which they should be taken out into the road and pelted with wet Lucky Charms).

Best Dumb Thing
Despite long hours of meditation, I think the subject of 'Best Joke or Funny Moment' was a double header this week. I can't really top that.

Best Random Thing
This won this week, hands down (there is also a picture, but I didn't put it on here, since it's kinda puke-worthy. If you want to see it or to read more, go here).

"The Taiwanese city of Tainan looked like the set of a slasher movie after a 56-foot sperm whale exploded on its way through town. At the time, the whale was dead, having beached itself earlier, and was being carted via flatbed truck to a research facility for autopsy. As the whale lay rotting in the sun, gases began to build up inside its carcass until they detonated in a flood of whale guts."

Looking for these kind of 'accidents' has long been a hobby of mine, although I am not very good at finding them. So far, my favorite one that I found was a 4 car pileup involving an open-top lorry full of ripe avocados. I still have the newspaper clipping in my room back home. For more interesting 'it fell off the back of a truck'-type stories, check out this.

Best Meal



And I'm not kidding, these suckers are good eating (especially the soft bit at the base of the throat).

Best TV Episode
Although there was a solid runner-up this week (Supernatural's most recent installment, "Live Free or Twi-Hard", was sensational -I leave you to guess at their Freak of the Week), I have to give the honor to 'Point Blank', the second season finale of White Collar, if only for finally delivering, with their usual amount of flawless style, TV's first real (in my opinion) use of The Heavy's 'How You Like Me Now' (and in this seasons coolest scene, no less). I hope more of their music is to follow. I love The Heavy, and I've thought their music fit right in to White Collar's aura of glamor, drama and daring heists ever since I first heard them perform on Letterman.



Note: I was going to attach the video of the song on White Collar, but I couldn't find one. Then I was going to attach a recording of their performance on Letterman, but I watched the music video and it was so good it won. You can see their performance from Letterman here (I recommend it. They were the first group on Letterman to get asked to perform an encore ever).

Add to that their stunning cliffhanger (the most shocking I think they're allowed to be on the USA network), and I will definitely be coming back for their premier in January, no matter how bored I was with some of their episodes this season.

So that's it, folks! Comments, questions, criticism and recommendations are appreciated, just click on the little speech bubble with the number in it at the top right-hand corner of the post. Thanks for reading!

I've been considering this idea for a while now, so I thought since I haven't actually forgotten it yet, I should give it a try.
As you may have noticed, I tend to be very opinionated about certain useless things, and I also like to share all the funny stuff I find and that happens to me on a daily basis. At home, that tends to be shared, involuntarily, with whomever I can find first, but here, since I can't really explain things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Spanish (and no one would care if I could), it has to be you, dear reader. At the best, it should offer you a sort of peek into my psyche and give you something to look at as well. At the worst, well, at least it should make me put SOMETHING up here once a week.
I originally came up with the idea of posting, in December, a sort of 'Best Of' for the year of 2010. This became a little unfeasible, however, since I could only think of contestants for the myriad of categories I could come up with from the last couple of weeks, which kind of defeats the purpose. Who remembers January in October, anyway? So I thought some more and came up with this: Every week, sometime around Friday (Side note: I would have preferred it be Sunday, but since posting would require that I am 1) in someplace with internet access, and 2) conscious, Sundays are usually out for me) I will be posting a list of the 'Best Ofs' for the past week. This does not mean that all the things are from last week (as in released/occurred during), it means I found them the best of their sort of thing I was exposed to in the last week. So far, categories include (subject to change):
Best Book (will include things that are old, I have read previously, and may repeat depending on the subject and it's relevance to me)
Best Song (again, may repeat depending on my fancy. Also, may not actually be that good, just really catchy)
Best Joke or Funny Moment (may be a nth-way tie most of the time)
Happiest/Best Moment That I Managed To Take A Picture Of
Best Movie (includes films, Youtube, and home-made)
Best Story (thing that happened to me, thing that I heard about, read about, came up with, urban legend, etc)
Best Quote (may be from literature, real life, funny only in or out of context, etc.)
Best Obscure Pop-Culture Reference Not Everyone Is Going To Understand (if you know me, you know why this may also be a nth-way tie most of the time)
Best Dumb Thing (including dumb things that happened to me, dumb things I saw or heard about, and dumb things that happened in the world at large)
Best Random Thing (this is sort of a catch-all for cultural tidbits)
Best Meal (this may not refer to the quality of the food, it may refer to the type of food, the situation, the company, or some other factor)
Best TV Episode (does not necessarily have to be from this week or even this year. May only be picked for one reason, ignoring the overall quality of the episode/show. May not even be very good. May repeat. <- get the joke?)

What do you think? I encourage comments! I am already working on the list for this week (warning: may include stuff I already posted. Deal with it! I will probably add or delete fields as I see fit, too.
So, without further ado, introducing.....Park In The Rear's Pick Of the Week! (friends should get that very old, not very good joke).

What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
- Dave Barry

This isn't going to be a very long post, since I'm really busy right now and I have to leave in an hour and I still haven't taken a shower (sorry, I'm having a run-on sentence issue today). I just wanted to point out that there are 2 new albums up in the gallery (captions to follow), and there should be a third up by tonight or tomorrow. If you have any questions or comments about anything, pictures or otherwise, you can email me with the 'contact me' button under the About Me section in the sidebar, or comment on this post by clicking on the little speech bubble with the number inside in the upper right-hand corner of the post.
Some random, small space taker-uppers to waste your time:
If you haven't read Side Jobs, you're not as cool as you could be. And for those of you who are making excuses, look at me. I'm living in southern Mexico, learning Spanish, living 3 hours from the nearest bookstore (if you didn't wince, you're a bad person), and living in a house which loses it's internet connection for 10 minutes every time someone turns on the upstairs shower and the back burners on the stove at the same time (don't ask me, I don't know), and I still finished it before you did. Because I have my priorities strait. Hi, Mom ^_^ !
Even if you haven't, but you're a fan of The Dresden Files and have read a good way into the series, you should check out this for fun warm-fuzzies (beware of mild spoilers, it's relevant until the last book -which, incidentally, ROCKED).
In other news, here is life:


Ah, perfection. Coke in one hand, sleepy puppy in the other.

And here it is folks, your moment 'o' zen:

Steven Fry on Language

Since I've been letting things go a bit, and because I'm feeling in a bit of a festive mood, I thought I'd use some variety in this one.
First on the list:
I think I mentioned before that I had written a post on paper at a party about 2+ weeks ago. I can't remember the exact date, but I still have the 'post', so I thought I'd better put it up before I lose it, shred it, or accidentally write something else over the top of it. This was written at about 2am while I was hiding in the atrium, so it was edited slightly for content. I don't really like loud parties at the best of times, but here I was wearing the portable torture devices on my feet, and let's face it, at around midnight I usually turn back into a pumpkin or a pile of mice or whatever (also if my sentences seem a little disjointed, it's because I'm writing on my tiny little laptop screen and I can't see the whole post at once).
Post begins here ->
You know, everyone hypes the learning experience of exchanges, but there are some things I'm learning that I wasn't expecting (free of charge!).
1) I will never take up smoking. EVER. I knew I didn't like the smell, but apparently if enough people start smoking in a small enough space you can run out of air. Who knew? Worst headache ever.
2)The limits of dresses (and parties). So, I'm not ever going to go for the whole big-skirt, lots-of-lace look. The little wacked-out princess who vacations in my head likes the look, but those skirts are just to much work.
Which sort of leads us to: 3) Wedding Planning. I spent this Saturday night (and very early Sunday morning -no, never gonna like late parties, neither) at a Quincinera for a girl in my school. It was probably one of the largest, loudest, and most expensive parties/gatherings I've ever been to. Seriously, I can't think of a wedding which I have attended that could outstrip it. I don't even know this girl. Which, incidentally, brings me to my point: If I ever bother to get hitched (assuming the whole institution hasn't been outlawed as ungodly or something by the time I get there), remind me not to buy into one of these things. Not that I think I would. I don't like going to them, and the very thought of planning one can make me spontaneously break out in hives (seriously, it's cool). But if I ever got married I wouldn't want to: A) spend that much money! Seriously, the outdoors is there for a reason. And two words: open bar.
And B) have strangers there. I would only want people I knew (or who knew whomever I happened to be marrying).
Oh! And the dress. Be it wedding dress or any other option, never let me go strapless! It's not flattering (in my opinion), and I don't like wearing something that can fall off if I jump up and down more than once. And I don't even get me started on the equipment! (cover the ears here, you delicate gents out there) I spent half the night in the bathroom fighting with my bra. Seriously! It's like wearing spring-loaded underwear. I kept thinking "Any minute now, my dress will slip and I'll take someone's eye out". Why don't I just wear a shoulder holster next time? At least it'd keep the dress on.
I'm learning a lot about myself and alcohol too. Don't look at me like that! 'A lot' is all relative. And believe me, I'm a hell of a lot more responsible than, well, anyone else. I pretty much guaranty it. And considering that when I left home, drinking over-fermented Kombucha could make me tipsy, I think of this as a sort of personal growth. Or at least personality growth.
And now:
Beer: okay. I could definitely learn to like it, but I think I'm going to follow in my parents footsteps and be a semi-picky, micro-brew connoisseur. I will never like Corona. Honestly, it tastes like someone mixed a single shot of Tequila into a whole jumbo-sized bottle of bland, sour mineral water. Why bother? Coke tastes better and I don't like Coke.
Tequila: don't worry, not gonna happen. I can't even handle the smell. I tried this on accident the first week I was here. I didn't understand anything anyone was saying to me, and they just handed it to me. If you've ever tried Tequila, you know that this may have something to do with why I don't like it. Of course, I also tried it again to make sure. Yeah, definitely not gonna happen.
Wine: I actually didn't try this one here, I know I don't mind it back home.
Kahlua: good with dairy-based products!
Whiskey: tried this one on accident. Tastes kind of like someone dropped crystallized sugar into a cup of paint thinner. And yet somehow, I think I could be persuaded to like it. Like oysters. Or Blue Oyster Cult, come to that.
Rum: I tried this one mixed with Coke, but I'm fairly certain it's the only hard liquor I might enjoy so far.
Please: If you know me (and if you're reading this, I sure as cheese hope you do), then you know I'm a very responsible, smart person. I know how to handle myself and I know my limits. All of these were tried in stable, adult-supervised situations, and the key word is tried. The only thing I drank more than a sip of has been Corona. I drank half a bottle of Corona in the cafeteria of the Corona plant after I took a tour. I never knew so much work could go into such a bad drink! But at least the tour was cool.

And so ends the post!
Most of the edits were spelling. Everything starts to look blurry (and for some reason seem funnier) when you get that tired. On to more recent matters!

I learned much in school today, I guess. I certainly learned lots of semi-useless things (which is what happens when we have extra computer time and I´m bored.
I learned that on in January of 2008, the world´s coolest wedding took place.



It was sci-fi themed. Among the attendents are: Ming the Merciless, Darth Vader, several Jedi, a Doctor Who Time Lady, and Professor McGonagall. Also in attendance (but not pictured), where Arthur Dent, Dracula, a Ghostbuster, and Jack Skellington. Read more about it here.
And for more instances of George Lucas, Gene Rodenberry (and Klingons. I think they deserve their own mention in this instance) intruding into other peoples happy days, you can go here.

For something a little closer to home, I can promise I am not going anywhere near the Coatza shoreline for a while, not after I found out what they found floating in the Gulf of Mexico:



Anyway, onwards and upwards. If I can avoid getting my head absorbed off by Stygiomedusa Gigantea, I will post to you all later!

Since I want to do a post over the weekend, but I do not acutually want to have to come up with original content, so I thought I would introduce you to two video clips which kind of explain some of my interests. As some of you may know, I want to study anthropology with a concentration in religion. If you are asking ´wtf?´, you are not the first. I thought these two manage to sum up my feelings in a basic, roundabout sort of way. Warning: Contains Funny.
First up, an anthropology major explains her views with a song (I got this off a link on the Smith College anthropology department home page, if anyone cares).

The Anthropology Song



And secondly, probably one of my favorite comedians at this time explains why he, an atheist, loves religion (if you get a chance to watch this whole show, go for it. It is pee-in-your-pants funny).

Sky Cake by Patton Oswalt



Note: If you´re interested, this sketch and others like it can be found on the CD Patton Oswalt: My Weakness Is Strong, available from Border´s everywhere (unless you go to the one in Chambana, which does not really have CD´s anymore for some reason).

BTW: I am not trying to inslut anyones beliefs or anything by saying this is funny, or that this is the reason I find religion so fascinating. I find it fascinating because, in some way, religious beliefs of some kind or another are, in one way or another, generally a base cause of most of the most evil and most good acts in history. How do you define religion? If you stick with something as simple as, say, "a set of beliefs or rules which govern how you choose to see, interact and understand your world", than everything from pop-culture, science, and Oprah could be said to be religious belief systems of some sort or another. Now are you interested?

Since I apearently couldn't think of anything better to do with my time than this yesterday, I thought I might as well post it. I realized I talk a lot about my home life, but I almost completely ignore my time at school. Since this is where I am from 6:40am to about 2:00pm 5 days a week, I thought you could use a view. Here is a relatively regular Thursday:

6:54 - Welcome to Hell

School starts before the sun comes up.

7:05 - Morning Muster

The girl in the foreground with the blue ribbon in her hair is Lulu. She's in my class.
Every morning, the entire school meets in the courtyard for somthing I affectionately refer to as 'morning muster', and might be less kindly refered to as 'lineup' or 'roll call'. Basically, everyone lines up, supposedly with their ties on and shirts tucked in (or at least on right-ways-round), and states the school motto, followed by a short 'mentally stimulating' exercise, usually something like waving your thumbs in a counter-clockwise circle 8 times or something (this week it was repeatedly squeezing the bridge of your nose with alternating hands). Mondays are more strenuous (and longer), as they perform the flag march (I'm sure it's on Youtube somewhere), and sing the -very long- national anthem. It's basically an annoying but kind way to force everyone to get to school at an ungodly hour of the morning without seeming unreasonable.

7:12 - Geographía

Everyone's a little blurry (you have to take pictures fast here, look to bottom of post for reason), but here is everybody right-to-left (please excuse name mispellings): Naohmi, Monica, Oscar (sorry he's so blurry), Amihrany, Alma, Patrick, and Daniel (notably missing is Gustavo, who usually sits in front of me. He wasn't in class this day).

First class of the day is Geography (which also doubles as geology and earth sciences). Since the test was the next day, the professor just supervised the class and answered questions while everyone talked or worked on other projects. I listened for a while and then turned on Creedence on my ipod and went back to translating my linguistics textbook.

8:08 - Historía

The one on the desk is Patrick...


History doesn't interest some people (right to left, top bench first: Oscar, Karen, Saiid, Joao, Edgar, Arnoud, Daniel -the one in the backround in light blue is the teacher)

Recent history is next. There was some issue with the projector...

8:58 - Computadoras

Everyone worked for about 45 minutes, and than the building lost power, automatically wiping the computers and deleting everyones work. Welcome to Mexican technology.

9:44 - How To Eat

A perfect time to avoid the line.


Usually the food is pretty good, but not so much today...

The activity affectionately refered to as 'lunch' here is usually a 3-4 step process which can last anywere from 8am to 1pm. Since there are only 2 cafeteria workers, all the food is made by hand at the time of ordering, and the entire school eats at the same time, it's very beneficial to duck out of class early to get your food on time. To get for your food, first you have to go to the school shop, fight to the front of the line (and I do mean that literally in some cases), and buy little plastic tickets. Than you get in another line at the cafeteria and trade in the tickets for food. It takes forever, and it used to really annoy me until I realized it's kind of a similar system to Parkland, except no one keeps hitting you with their backpacks, and the food is a lot cheaper, and generally better and more plentiful.

9:52 - Francés

(right to left: Professor, Edgar, Monica, Karla)

Seriously, nothing better than not being able to understand what's going on in two languages. I only stay in this class because the professor is trilingual, very funny, and swears more creatively and more often than anyone I know.

10:36 - 'Lunch'

Some people catch up on their beauty sleep... (pictured: Marelyn)


Others catch up on their schoolwork. (pictured: Amihrany)

Since everone has (usually) eaten by lunchtime, there are other things to do. Some people sit in the cafeteria and talk, or play soccer or basketball. I was tired this day, so I ended up in homeroom working on my textbook translations.

10:56 - Probabilidad y Estadistica

Pictured, right to left: Lulu, Amihrany, Maestra, Alma, Naohmi.

This is probably my least favorite class. I don't even understand this stuff in English. I usually ignore it, and work on another online math program back at the house.

11:33 - Mundo Contemporanea

Pictured, right to left: Jose Luis, Christian (in red), Oscar, Monica.

This translates basically as 'contemporary world'.It's kind of a mish-mash of recent history, art appreciation, and philosophy.

12:12 - Sociología

Pictured, right to left: Jose Luis, Oscar, Saiid, Cristian, Pamela (in front of Amihrany)

Next is sociology, another class that I have a lot of trouble understanding. The teacher is currently focusing on schools of philosophic thought in the 1800-1900's. I don't know why. But he didn't show up this day, so we threw the basketball at each other until we got bored and went back upstairs.

12:32 - Antropología

Right to left: Christian, Pamela(?), Saiid, Jose Luis, Monica, Amihrany, Oscar.

Easily my favorite class, and the only one where I even tried to submit a midterm exam. I got almost everything wrong. I knew the answers to all the questions, but I'm not very good at translating the meaning of whole,complicated sentances yet, just the words. It was fun anyway.

1:32 - Teoría de la Communication

Right to left: Oscar's elbow, Maestra, Amihrany, Monica, Pamela.

This class is Theory of Communication. The textbook is actually very interesting, but I have never really seen the professor do more than tell the students off for talking to loud and assign odd homework assignments.

2:01 - Homeward Bound

The exit gate at the back of the school.


Amihrany has her own car, so she can go home when she likes.


The whole school makes it out eventually.


School officially ends at 2pm, although most people don't make it to the gates until about 2:10, and everyone's lucky to make it home by 2:30.

Other Notes:
For those interested, here are my fellow partners in crime, Arnoud and Joao:


And this is what happens in Mexico when you're too slow taking a picture (and why all
my pictures were so blurry):



Special thanks to Arnoud and Cristian for the demonstration.

And that's pretty much a normal day. Today (Friday) is a little different, obviously, but not much. Yesterday was hot and sunny, today it rained all morning and remains overcast. It feels like spring in the pacific northwest. We also have 3 hours of computer class on Friday mornings, which is how I had time to write this. Now if you will excuse me, Saiid found the Muppets performing Bohemian Rhapsody on Youtube, and I'm gonna go watch. ¡Viva Mexicó!

Well, I don't really want to write anything right now. I'm not in a writing mood, I'm more in a 'snap-at-everyone' mood, so don't be surprised if this is a little clipped. There. Thou hast been forewarned. I didn't get to school today, either, so not much to say on that front. Sort of a boring day. Oh! I guess I could use this time to explain something to my ignorant American friends (insert snarky French accent here) so they can stop bothering me. The idea of personal space in Mexico is nothing compared with the United States. For some reason, a picture of a boy from my school and I has everyone freaked out (if you didn't see it, don't worry. It's seriously not worth the fuss.). Christian tripped on the hem of my dress and fell on me, just as my friend Jose Luis was taking a picture. It's actually a pretty funny picture, truth be told, but I knew all my helpful family members back in the states would pull a good old Chicago-style panic, so I asked them to get rid of it. But this is Mexico, so it ended up on Facebook before the day was through. Seriously, there is no such thing as personal space here. You should be able to figure that out from the way people greet each other here: men greet with handshakes and hugs, and anyone greeting a girl or women gives and gets a kiss on the cheek. This counts for everyone, from people you're related too to random people you meet on the street. This doesn't bother me because a) it's an accepted part of the culture, so no one makes a deal out of it, and b) all my friends back home are thespians. Do the math. Anyway, I only say this to point out that all my friends who aren't in Rotary here are from my school, they all like their cameras, and there are several very good reasons why this is a total non-issue. Firstly, I'm me. You guys all know me, lack of responsibility is not one of my defining characteristics. Also, there's another very good reason, which Allan and Cameron should be giggling about already...
My point is, haha, funny picture. Aaaand, moving on.

In other news, I'm trying to plan ahead in my free time right now (no books I can read and no English TV makes free time a little more...interesting...than I would usually like). I only bring this up since this is mainly what I was doing today and I'd like to add more to this post than annoyed venom and I can't really think of anything else to discuss. Currently, sometime in the future I am planning to finish out my gen eds at Parkland and transfer out to another university. But have you ever tried to find a good university with a good anthropology program over the internet if you're a homeschooled student with over 10 hours of dual credit who happens to be living in Mexico (and also happens to have a lot of very exacting criteria)? It's exactly as much fun as it sounds. Ah, enough with the pessimism. I'm going to bed.

Note:
Since this post was so pessimistic, I would check back soon for a new one. I don't like the idea of this being the first thing people read on the site for anything longer than 24 hours.