I won't try to explain my lack of communication, mostly because I've been gone to long to make a descent excuse. So let's just move past our differences and go on to a brighter future. What do you say?
Although a lot has happened between then and now, so I can't pretend I'm going to remember all of it. The most important bits I can remember have all occurred in the last couple weeks. Some of your may remember the Ruta Maya from back before Christmas. That was financed by a whole bunch of people, my parents and I included. To my Grandpa R., my aunts and uncles, all sorts of people. Really, really bloody cool people. Now, there's a second trip, which goes (or rather, went) north through Mexico City and further. I was not going to be able to go because, frankly, I was broke. Than, miracle or miracles, my grandparents offered to pay for the whole thing. How cool is that, right? Of course, it was about this point when my right eye started to turn red and fill up with blood. After 2 weeks of the most painful sunburn I've ever had, swollen skin, high-fever flu and high-drama international fiasco, I finally made it to a specialist who diagnosed contagious hemorrhagic conjunctivitis. I was assigned 3 different eye medications, one in-eye cream (OW!), and a very stern order not to even leave the house, let alone the city. This was 2 days before the trip left. After 1 1/2 weeks of the most irritatingly severe boredome I have ever experienced, I was released. However, several things had changed. For one, I had completely missed the trip, and any chance I would have of seeing Mexico City on this trip (Side note: the money slated for the trip is going into savings for next spring, when I will be applying to study abroad for the summer semester in San Jose, Costa Rica. Very excited about that!). For another, I found out that the one thing that will really turn me hostile is locking me in a room without books or paper and expecting me to enjoy myself (or even 'hang in there'). I mean, I get honey badger nasty. And for a very wide variety of reasons, several of which I don't want to go in to, I'm coming home soon. I know, I know. I still had a month to go, and all that. But I'm not going to have much time back home before I'm leaving again, off to college, wherever that may be. There are things to do, people to meet, stuff to learn. All I have here right now is a non-existent social life, an unhappy home life, and a school consisting of overworked seniors desperately looking to the horizon for a prom and graduation I'll miss anyway (their school year ends in the middle of July).

So basically, that was your pre-show warning. Look out, U.S.A. Expect me soon.

Note: This is the first part of a giant super-post, but since it was so big I could barely edit it, I cut it in half and posted the two bits seperately. See the 2nd half above. This bit mostly focuses on Mexico, i.e. self-ish introspection.

How was your Thursday? Mine was spent...well, throwing up, actually. So, you know, got that workin' for me. On a related note, you should probably drop my mom a line to thank her for talking me out of posting a picture of the nut that came our of my nose. Pistachio ice cream? Not as much fun the second time around. And you can shut up know, all my immature male readers who've been tittering since the word 'nut'. An are now giggling about 'tittering'. This stuff? This is classy shit.
Anyway, life meanders on. My host mother is a little miffed that I have missed so much school. I've tried to explain that I'm sorry and I actually learn more staying at home anyway. I thought it was a Mexican high school thing, but I now realize it's more of a..high school thing. Yeah. I wish there was something cool to tell you. All I can say is, I realized this morning how much I am going to miss the birds here. You barely see them, but they are loud. And cool. They sound like the 'tropical island' track of one of those relaxation CDs you get from the Target (unless you're boycotting the Target). Except, you know, real.
The sad thing is, I know I am going to miss it here. Just like when I left home I knew I was going to miss it horribly, but it's sort of impossible to stock up on stuff you'll miss, to be ready. At the time, I couldn't imagine missing home, because I was going somewhere new and different and shiny. I couldn't imagine it, but I knew I would. And lo and behold, I do. Now, I'm sort of starting to get ready to get ready to go home, and I can't really imagine missing here. Okay, that sounds bad, but it's sort of in the same way. I like it here, but I live here. It's...normal..now. I miss home. I can't wait to be back. But, before you know it, I'll be complaining about how boring home is and wishing I was back here. Just part of the process. Sigh.
One thing though, I am definitely not the same person I was when I got here. I am now, according to the best experts, at least semi-fluent in Spanish. I've heard about 85% from 2 different sources, which, considering how much I sucked when I got here, and considering my future plans (see below), is a number I can live with. I've learned new customs, learned to handle myself in a new environment. Learned to occupy my time (very good at this one), learned to navigate foreign cities. Learned to play roulette, learned to repair a bathroom drain, learned how to trap a rat. I have new favorites, new likes and dislikes. I certainly have more funny stories to tell at parties.
But the thing that counts the most, I think (if not the thing I got most of) is character and perspective. I'll never think about winter the same way again, because now I know what it's like to live in a place that doesn't have one.My perceptions of things have changed forever: Trees, hiking, bikes, recycling. Fair treatment for animals. Selflessness, kindness, openness to strangers. The bonds of friends and family. Freedom of speech, bigotry and stereotyping. My family and friends are so much more important to me now, now that I see what life could be like without them. I see myself through the eyes of those around me, and if these are eyes of people who don't really know me, I can feel like nothing. It's not a fun sensation.
I'll never think of school as a chore again. I may be weird, but I rely on learning new stuff. Without it, my brain rots. I'll never take geeks for granted again. Nor getting a glass of drinking water out of the tap. Nor my dog. Nor my clothes. Nor Black Dog, nor The Courier, nor good pizza. Nor Hulu.

I don't know if you're getting this ad campaign in the U.S., but it's everywhere here. Sorry this inspirational moment is sponsored by Coca-Cola, but I found this on the back of my soda can in Veracruz City last week, and it was so cool I thought I should share it.

Text in Spanish: Otra razon para creer: Los idiomas pueden ser barreras que nos separan o puentes que nos unen. En la ultima decada mas de 3 millones de jovenes han aprendido epanol en Estados Unidos.
Text in English: Another reason to believe: Languages can be barriers that separate us or bridges that bring us together. In the last decade more than 30 million kids have learned Spanish in the United States.
(any mistakes are proof that I'm not one of those kids ;P )

Man, I really need to get a job as soon as I get home. I am totally broke right now, and I barely use money here. How am I gonna replace my computer and my phone? And remodeling my room? And getting a wardrobe that isn't so last year (<-that was a joke. Mostly). And replacing my Converse? And raiding the Ikea? And fixing up my bike so I can go touring (squee!)?
It's possible I should be thinking about how to pay for school too, maybe, as well. Maybe I should find a religion to join that's not...you know...buddhism.
Is there a Frequently-Rains-Money-From-The-Sky God I can believe in? Oh come on, this is the human race we're talking about. Of course there is.

Well, guess what just happened! There will be a more detailed post that may in fact have something to do with my life up today or tomorrow or so, but I just wanted to share my pleasant surprise. Just when I was starting to lose some faith in our smooth President, he reels me back in! I don't even really care if this goes anywhere, just seeing a politician take a stand by one of his professed campaign values is downright the mental version of a Klondike bar.
Mmmmm, Klondike bar....

I know this is no way to come back from a hiatus, but I am so worried and depressed about this, I just thought I should spread it around. Anybody up on world events should have heard something about the situation in Egypt (that's what they call major...*ahem* incidents nowadays, 'situations). I would like to take this moment to shout out to Cody for his consistent Twitter and Facebook posts on the subject. Mexico is a little starved for major news avents from the rest of the world, so without him I probably wouldn't have found out about this for months. As a lot of the people who've had to be locked in car with me for any length of time should know, it has long been one of my dreams to visit the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, one (if not the) largest collections of Egyptian artifacts on the planet. I have been obsessed with Eqyptology since I was about 6 or so (ever since my mother, god bless her, got me that very colorful and engaging book on the ancient Egyptians mummifing procedures). I also consider Zahi Hawass one of my personal heroes, up there with Gandhi and Rosie the Riveter. If you don't know who Zahi Hawass is, shame! His name shows up in the news a suprisingly huge amount for a lowly Egyptologist. Well, he's not really lowly. He has so many titles and honors I can't really list them all (check his Wikipedia page for a start). He is widely considered largly responsible for the return of a fantastic amount of Egypt's history back to Egytpian soil (a Herculean feat, if you consider the political climate of the age), and while I am sure there are more than a couple irritated buracrates and stuffy British or American professors locked in offices somewhere cursing the very ground on which he walks, I think a very inteligent and learned person who has dedicated so much of their life not just to returning the objects that tell the story of their country's rich and fascinating history back to the land from which they came, but also seeking to display, protect, and study them to learn more about that history and teach the public and the world (at the same time giving the tourist trade a very good reason to detour through a country they might otherwise miss, bringing more valuable money to a country that could certainly use it)is worthy of being idolized.
Jeepers, I think I got a little off-topic.
Anyway, as the complicated political situation turned from sullen sparks into a full-on bush fire throughout the city and the country, I and appearently the rest of the educating world watched in horror as present day political disagreements (and remember, as you watch people tossing Molotov cocktails over the barriers in downtown Cairo, I mean disagreement in a strong sense) threatened thousands of years of one of the richest and most important civilizations in our history.
I may sound over-dramatic, but you need to understand my point of view. For example, of all the horrors and unspeakable evil that have occured over the years in the Middle East, the one picture that can, and probably always will, be able to make me disolve into tears no matter the situation is this one:



That is Mushin Hasan, deputy director of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad in April 2003, sitting in the ruins of what used to be one of the museums prized exhibits after vandals and looters broke in looking for riches to steal and sell. Thousands of years of irreplaceable history from the very cradle of civilazation, destroyed forever in one careless night. To me, this is a crime on the scale of murder. It is a genocide of history, of knowledge. By destroying what is left of the lives of dead people, we destroy the only thing that holds them here. By destroying their remnants, we destroy them.
Hopefully this can convey the level of my horror as I watch, thousands upon thousands of miles and an ocean away, unable to do anything as thoughtless actions destroy irreplacable parts of history, and hundreds of years of hard work and study. Several major news sorces have published something on the break in at the actual Museum in Cairo, but the worry has not abated for the rest of the country. Many if not most of the most important archeological sites (for those laymen among you who won't get it if I start naming any places that haven't shown up in the movies: when I say 'archeological site', think 'The Sphinx') are very out of the way, and virtually unprotected. The Valley of the Kings, for example, not to mention hundreds of smaller and largely remote sites scattered all down the Nile and through what was the Lower Kingdom.
One thing that has, for the moment, restored my faith in humanity are the suprising and quite impressive actions being taken by Egyptian citizens all over the country. The break in at the National Museum, as mentioned in the above article, was relatively small considering, thanks largely in part to a human shield created by locals who linked arms and physically placed themselves around the museum to stop anyone getting in.
I was especially struck by the story of a group of Alexandrian youths who are now being thanked for their actions, which included guarding neighborhoods, directing traffic, and protecting public buildings -including the Library of Alexandria. (Read about it here, about halfway down).
Many remote sites are being protected by local villagers, who have been doing things like camping in the sites overnight to protect them. It's amazing and inspireing to see the actions of a country who is so proud of it's history and culture.
Interestingly,it also seems I am not the only foreigner with a need to help! Among the amazing efforts going on outside the country is a very clever way of getting help to places that are in danger that works around the country-wide technology blackout. A scientist in Egypt will call someone in the U.S. or a similarly equipped country with news of a place that might be being looted. This person will find the GPS coordinates of these sites through the internet, using Google Earth, among other things, and then relay the information back to the scientist on the ground, who will then relay the information to the Egyptian military. Telling soldiers which archeological site is in danger is relatively useless, but giving coordinates ensures they have something to work with.
So do what you can people, please (obviously the most important thing is for the next month or so, don't buy any Egyptian artifacts! The market's about to get flooded with stolen loot, and the best way to deter the actions are to make them unprofitable.) So please, watch the news people, and do anything you can. Also, please join me in a hearfelt thanks to all the people who have been working so hard to protect the history and culture of a country in danger. One people's history is the world's history.
And if anyone's feeling nice and depressed now, I can only suggest a good look at the closest thing I have to fuzzy therapy. That's right, bookstore cats.
Sorry that this post has almost nothing to do with my actual life. But, school's back in session. Expect more updates soon.

If you're interested in reading more, here's somewhere to get started:
'MSNBC- Archaeologists Assess Tut Tragedy'
'Discovery- Egypts Tombs and Temples Under Siege'
'National Geographic- Egypt's Antiquities and Looting (has video)'
'National Geographic- Zahi Hawass and the Egyptian Museum'
'Science Magazine- Archaeologists Hold Their Breath'
'Discovery- Egypt's Treasures: Assessing The Damage'

Now that life has moved on and forgotten me, I am going to finally post the post you've all been waiting for...well, maybe not. But I'm going to try. First of all, sorry for the delay. It seems to happen ever time I want to do a post with a LOT of pictures. Because of the way I have to post pictures through Blogger, I have to do them as I come to them, or risk getting completely lost. To do this, I need an internet connection, and to get that, I have to stay hunched over a work bench with no legroom and a seat that is both uncomfortable AND too small for me. Which sucks. I am now thoroughly able to sympathize with the solitary hillbilly, out in the boonies of Kentucky, who still doesn't have wireless. Groan. Anyway, here's some of my life for the time being: I would like to wish my host brother, Louis Fernando, a happy birthday! I'm glad you liked the shirt so much. I want to once again extend condolences to the family and friends of Senor Herrera. If there's ever anything I can do, please let me know.
As some people may know, the last 2 weeks or so have been a little hectic, in a non-productive sort of way. Firstly, the power went out again for a day, and then the internet went out for another 2 (we don't know what happened, it thought it was working, but no-one could use it. Extra fun!). Also, I was supposed to be swapping to my second family. Let me slow down and explain some stuff here: Firstly, everyone here in this club has 3 host families. I didn't know this until last week, but everyone is supposed to have about 4 months with each family. I currently have almost 6 with this family. We were then supposed to swap on 4 January. Okay, I was nervous but excited, I spent a hellish day trying to get everything I own packed (not especially because I have a lot of stuff, but because I have a lot more than I brought with me, but nothing new to put it in). Then, that night, it turned out that for some reason, the other host families had delayed the process. They weren't ready to receive other kids, because everybody decided now was a smashing time to repaint the house, or go on vacation, or whatever, I don't know. So it got delayed until the 10th (after school re-started, because that'll make things easier <-this is sarcasm).
I again spent a whole 5 hours packing all my stuff, dragging it down the stairs, cleaning the room, putting all my sheets in the downstairs laundry, yadda yadda. Guess what someone finally remembered to tell me by 8pm, after I was done?
Yeah, I wasn't so pleased either. Yesterday was the 17th, obviously, and I FINALLY moved. Oh, BTW, I am typing this in school. I can't use the internet in the new house. So far, in the life of this irritating little machine (NEVER USING WINDOWS AGAIN! AAAAGH!), it has yet to function with the wireless in any private dwelling, here OR in the U.S. In Mexico, the only place I've been able to use it is in this school.
I like my room so far (pictures to follow, when I take them). It is significantly lacking in pink and dolls and little pink, doll-ish knickknacks (and a trash can and a laundry basket, but I'll live). It's definitely supposed to be a boys room (thank god), so it's blue and relatively Spartan. All the furniture got stuffed in there when they started construction on the back of the house, so none of the furniture is in a place where it actually fits, and none of the things that are supposed to be on the wall ARE on the walls. The whole room smells like wood polish (so now I do, which is interesting), and the bed is a twin, but too short so my whole body doesn't really fit on it, which is also interesting. I am so used to sleeping on the freaking giant King size bed, I need to get re-accustomed to the smaller bed. I don't think it will be that hard, I didn't like the big one. Also, the room has a giant window, but is significantly lacking in curtains. I don't mind so far, since I go to bed after the sun has set, and leave before it rises in the morning, but I imagine I will be annoyed by this by the weekend. One more week to go in the semester, and than SPRING BREAK (well, that's how it works here). 5 days to waste (i.e. sleep) how I please. Maybe. More to follow on the new house and, more importantly, the internet situation as it unfolds.
ALSO, mom managed to somehow get ahold of the Amazon.com folks and make them send me a new Kindle!!!!
I'm only telling you this so you'll have yet more proof that my mom is pure AWESOME.

I don't usually like to bring up politics or current events as much on this, because I am not at home so any misunderstandings can't be talked out. But this, this needs to be said:
Why haven't we heard about this?
This flooding started in JULY!! I asked around, no one around here has any idea what I'm talking about. Google it. You get 2 BBC articles and 1 New York Times piece that hasn't been updated since NOVEMBER.
This has displaced over 20 million people. The reported death toll is currently at over 1600 (and this is Pakistan. How well do you think this was documented?). I'll give you an example: Hurricane Katrina, the biggest natural disaster to hit the U.S. in almost forever, killed a grand total of 1836. New Orleans and the entire surrounding area's total population is around 1,360,436.
This is wrong.
I know the U.S. has barely enough money to take care of ourselves at the moment, but this should NOT be ignored like this. If a group of miners stuck down a hole can make worldwide headlines for weeks, why have we heard next to nothing about an ongoing event destroying the lives of millions and millions of people in an already tough part of the world which our government had an undeniable hand in dismantling?
Even if our government is not doing anything, this should not be ignored.


And I'll get off my soapbox. Have a good week!

As usual, I have a plan for a big, long, impressive post, but I haven't slept for longer than 4 hours at any given time over the last 4 days. So, rather than inflict that sort of horror on my poor, innocent, naive readers (sorry, I tried to keep a straight face), I would just like to say this:
I'm back, I'm not dead, Chiapas is awesome, I'm swapping families in 3 days (actually kind of looking forward to that), and a very happy New Year to all you sports fans!
Coming up next, a post which may or may not involve life changing events, retirements, ponies, musings on the future of my mom (don't worry, it's a good thing), many pictures, cave systems, giant-ass waterfalls, dead rabbits, food poisoning (sweet Jesus I wish I was making that up), musings on language, the end of the middle (NOT the TV show), New Years grapes, and where I am going from here.
Scared yet? You should be. Enjoy the symmetry, m4thl33t5, because the world is ending next year according to a badly misunderstood chunk of translations from a group of half-clothed crazy people whose entire system of government hinged on throwing people into large spring pools (that's a little simplistic, but I think the point still stands. Good grief, one of their major deities was the god of suicide, for crissakes!).
Anyway, Welcome to 2011, everybody!

Feliz Navidad, gente del mundo! Va a disfrutar tu nuevo ano?

I actually drafted this (god help me), but I can't seem to come up with something appropriately serious and appropriately festive, so we're down to this: surprise! I know I said I had something to tell you when I got home, but in true American fashion, I got bored (It had nothing to do with the fact that I didn't realize how hard it is to write about your life without including, you know, all of your life).
I'll give you a hint: This tattoo is very pertinent.

Surprised? Well, it's not like it wasn't there, but for about 5 years now I've adopted a sort of 'you ask, I'll answer' mentality, and so far it's (sort of) worked. But after the vanquishment (if that's not a words, I'm declaring it one)of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I started to really think about what DADT stood for and how fucked-up that shit really was (pardon my Portuguese, but sweet Jebus, people). Eventually, I realized that if you turn my policy into a negative, you pretty much get DADT. If I can't stand the idea that other people should have to live like that, I can't make myself live like that in good faith.
If any of my new friends are reading this, I would like to ask you to politely keep it quiet. Talk to me if you want, but, honestly, I really like it here and my life can be really difficult without more people ostracizing me for being different. It's sad, but Mexico can tend to be a lot less tolerant than other places in the world, and you know that's true.

For the world in general, hi! If you love me, like me, or at least have some cursory human interest in my daily personal happiness, please treat this with the passing acknowledgment (rapidly followed by relative indifference) that is really deserves.

On the other hand, if you want something to wig out about, you can have this:
What's going to happen when my host family finally sees what I've been doing to my hair?