There is a movie being filmed in town.
A Jack Black movie and the writers from Nap Dyn.
A couple of us went to the extra casting.
Sadly I wasnt picked…1.) because im not slutty enough and 2.) I dont have a vag.
But my two friends have parts.
They film for three nights. $500 pesos a night=50 bucks.
They go through almost 3 hours of makeup.
Its a 70s film.
I think they are filming a party scene. My friend Terese plays a gangters girlfriend and the other girl, Ana, plays a slut.
We left a note in Jack Blacks mailbox asking if he wants to go out drinking with us. Hopefully we get a call from him. That would be radical.

This morning I took my dad out on my archeology field trip. It was a good time.
I just washed my clothes and tonight I am going out to a bar called Elefante and I am going to wear my elephant shirt. Jealous.

Oh yes and I do shake my pubis if you really want to know.
EMILY…..CESAR!

Life is swell.
Having papa here is good. We have been eating good food. Went on a sweet 4 hour bike ride through the countryside. It was swell.
He is coming on my archeology field trip tomorrow even though he doesnt speaka la spanisha, loser.
Had a rad wednesday night.
Friday night we are going to a house party with some chicas we met a P.Mosh.
Saturday night is the birthday of our spanish teacher. Prolly gonna be another all nighter. Fine with me.
My family is taking me to thier ranch for day of the dead. Its about an hour away. Se llama Tlacolula. Estoy emocionado.
Que esten bien.
Adios
bendejo

Got back form the beach sunday night and picked my dad up at the airport. The beach was sweet. Didnt do to much. Chilled on the beach and ate. One day we took a two hour bus ride down the coast and found a cool beach. We hiked over this little mound and had a small little cove to ourselves.
Bought lots of fruit and tacos off the beach. It was pretty convenient to have ladies come around and wake you up from a little nap and eat for less than a dollar. No complaints.
Now my dad is here and hopefully we will do fun stuff. I think he likes it. We are going on a mountain bike tour tomorrow. Then he is coming over to eat with my family. She is cooking up a special little meal for us. I cant wait.
Im going to try to go out on wednesday with Cesar too. Yeah! Estamos para servirte

Took the overnight bus down to Puerto Escondido, just mi amiga Ana and me. 8 hours. Shitty ride over the mountains. Oddest people on the bus. Got into town about 6am. Found some cabanas right on the beach. 6 dollars a night. I wish all of you could see this place. Hiked out of town to a little hidden beach. It was so RAD. The water is the perfect temperature and….just amazing. Tomorrow we are going down the coast to a set of bays where Y tu mama tambien was filmed. I cant wait. I will have completed my three top goals in Oaxaca. Im a star.
Couple days ago went out with my new family to celebrate a bday. Open bar. Sitting on intense mezcal for a while. Got pretty boozed up and met some friends. Had a great time. I didnt get frustrated with my spanish. What a feeling.
Our classes were canceled…so I have four days to chill and be tranquilo here. Then my parents come. Yes! Go Jill!

Moving was retarded. My old host mom played mind games with me. The day I was going to move out I ask her if she had talked to my program director about the move. She denied all knowledge. I was so confused. She KNEW! Slut.
Its all good, I live in a palace now. I have a private room outside of the house. And get all the fruit, pan dulce and any type of food you can imagine. Seriously it is heaven. Jealous.
Plastilina Mosh came to town. I bought tickets. Me and some buddies went. Got there about 10. Met up with some crazy 38 year old dude who drove to Oaxaca in his Eurovan with his wife and 1 year old. He was really drunk and somehow managed to get us a resrved table and he doesnt speak spanish. Oh later I met up with the band, got some pictures and talked for a while. The concert started at about 12:30 with no opener. Kinda odd. Nobody was dancing so we went down to the front and started it all. After the show I got a personal thank you from the band for doing it. It was a moment. Talked with the band some more. It was rad. They might come stay at my house in Seattle if they come back for Bumbershoot again sometime. I doubt it. Met some friends after the concert got out. People here are nice. They like gringos too.
Saturday was the greatest day of my life. But it is kind of inappropriate to tell here. Inquire privately prease.
Sunday we took a trip up to Hierve el agua which is a natural springs. We went with a group of ladies at a shelter type place. It was fun. We hung out and swam for a couple hours. And now I have an extreme sunburn. I brought sunscreen just didnt rub it all over myself…thus I have a sunburn. Ser naco es chido.
My life is better than yours right now.
Adios putos

I went and looked at a house today to change. It was odd. The people were kinda nutzso. Im gonna look at another one tomorrow. The problem is they are in the same neighboorhood. I would rather live closer to downtown. I found a place with rooms seperate from the house where i could leave and enter easier. But since there are other students in the house, I cant live there, according to my program director. Eat me.
Im chillin in a cafe trying to waste time because I am to nervous to return to my house. My program director called them earlier today and told them I wanted to leave. SO….I have to go home to one of the most awkward situations I think I have ever dealt with. It is one day of awkwardness. I think I can handle it.
School has been piling up too. I havent started my independant project. We got our final project announcements. I forgot I came down here to “study.” Oh wells.
Life is still good in general. Still haven´t talked to Jill about China. She got home two days ago. Nobody likes to answer thier phones. Losers.
I miss Woofy

Saw a brutal dog orgy in the street the other day. It was one of the most grossiest things I have witnessed in my life. There were around a dozen or so dogs around one dog. They were all barking, no clue why, and humping and biting. It was very violent, some that couldnt reach the victum (how do you spell that) where just humping air. Dogs are gross and gross. I think there is something in the water here. But the poor dog being raped could do nothing…but sit there. My heart was saddened. Then I went home and ate food

There was another hurricane passing over. So much rain this week. Luckily today was ubersunny. One night we went out and the streets were absolute river…kinda wish I had a intertube to go drunk intertubing.

Aside from this week of “God hates to have Ben have dry clothes” rain, it has been sunny. And my hair is an odd shade of red, orange, brown. Looks funny when I dont have gel in to darken it.

We couldnt go on our two trips this weekend because of the rain. Kinda pissed. But hopefully they will be reschedualed. The trip is 1/3 over. Kinda bummed, but there is a lot of stuff I want to do at home too.
Booked a hotel room for my parents. It is North of the downtown area off a pedestrian street that doesnt get any traffic so it will be quiet for them. No pets. Woody…

Been getting hilarious comments and email from friends.
No sequins…and eww stop drinking bum water. Josh
And yes only the most presitgious and no more powder. Sissy
I need to hear your reason why you woke up there. Emily C.

What else…
Been hanging out with my cool intercambio a lot. We went out to eat at this classly little dive a couple nights ago. We shared a cake and had lemon ice cream with coke and rum. Oh I love sugar.
We have really random conversations, more fun in spanish, but it is fun to help her with her english too. She invited me to stay the weekend during a big festival with her family up in some village. I hope I dont have any conflicts that weekend.

Had a soccer game today. We lost 6-1. Kinda sucked. But I had a sweet conversation with a dude. His name is pronounced S-I-O. But I have no clue how to spell it. He just got back from Cali a month ago. He lived there for 4 years. Learned pretty good english in that time without learning it in a school.
He lived in Long Beach and worked for some moving company for $12 and hour. That is more than I have ever made an hour.
He told me about the couple of times he got caught by the INS and what crossing the border was like. I think it is one of the coolest conversations I have had since I have been here. That is why I came down here. Anyways…we are going drinking some day. Yes.

I think I am going to move. It is not a horrible living situation. But I think I would enjoy the rest of my stay here more with a different family. They smell like poop too.

Having a lot of fun going out pretty regularly. It isn´t too expensive but it adds up. The bars are amazing though. We usually start out somewhere with a love band and move on the more club type places. There is one band we kinda follow around to different bars. Dont know there name, but they play rad music. Sometimes they play cover songs. Wish You were here, Hey you…good times in spanish landia.
We went out to this place Elefante couple nights ago. It is kinda touristy but it was still fun. After the band left they started playing random music. Disco, salsa, reggae, etc. During “The is in the Air,” our spanish teacher took to the dancefloor and serenaded the entire place. I swear everyone stopped and watched. It was something out of a movie, John Travolta or something. He likes to do the splits a lot. I dont think I have laughed that hard in a long time.

We are starting up regular Spanish classes again. Sucks that I will have less time, but good that I can ask more questions and obviously more practice.

We all went out to the mall as a group to the big theater. We saw Wedding Crashers. Waste of money on a ridiculous movie, but I got popcorn so I was happy. Reading the subtitles was fun to, but sucks for people that dont understand english because humor doesn´t translate well. I saw some chavos from my soccer team there.

There is a hurricane somewhere in the Gulf…and so the tail is hitting southern Mexico. So much rain here. Today is the first day of the three supposed days of intense rain. News is never right anywhere though.
Huge puddles in the streets. I tried to take sideroad so cars wouldn´t splash me, but they did.
Been meeting with my friend Erica for the last couple days. I meet her after her English classes and we usually take her car and drive somewhere. It is nice to have someone I can talk to that is not forced, i.e. class and family. She know a little english, so I help her. Yesterday she took me to her cousins house and we chilled. The family lived in Arizona for the last 8 years and they just got back 3 months ago. They “worked” there, illegally I would assume but I think it would be inappropriate to ask. It was really interesting to talk to them. Cool being able to see immigration in action from both sides of the fence. I talked a lot with the 14year old girl. She spoke perfect english. She thinks Oaxaca is boring compare to Phoenix. I guess I can kinda understand that. She was really american though. It was odd.
What is is with American pop stars? In continuous order I have heard at least 10 songs by female pop start. Grr. What is wrong with Mexican pop music?
There is some awkwardness in my family. My mother is kinda a bitch. I went out to eat Saturday with my brothers. I had a salad and a beer. Came back and putzed around and hit the sack. Ended up vomming and speewing nasties out of my rear all sunday. Mmmm dry heaving. The next day I attempted to eat breakfast and go to my soccer game…dumb idea…puked up my breakfast. Slept it off till about 1. Went down and talked to my mom and to possibly eat. Conversation ensued…blahblah…and according to her I drink to much, that is why i got sick. She says to me…..el alcohol.eso fue. sin duda. Good bitch. I tried to explain I hadn´t drank since wednesday and only had one beer last night. Thanks for feeling bad for me when im vomming.
She is also very gossipy. A couple nights I has a naughty boy and came home kinda late at night/morning. But only a few times. I dont think she approves of this. I dont think I wake her up. She is just suprchristian and lame….thus tells on me to the program director. Thus…my name is and will always be king of awkwardness.
Plus I have noticed my brothers dont talk to me as much since I missed my second game. The first i was passed out….the second I was vomiting. I think I might move…but it might be more awkward to move.

We are going up to the mountain this weekend. Should be sweet.
My parents are supposedly coming earlier, since Day of the Dead is booked 800 years in advance.
So they will be here in 20 days. Crazy

Para siempre voy a recordar el miercoles, el 28 de septiembre, en mi mente.

My uncle lives down in Socal…kinda near the big ole fires. He opens his window at night and his smoke alarm goes off because there is smoke and ash everywhere. That would be a little odd
Sometimes I feel like that when I cross the freeway here on the way to school.

There are two groups that are down here right now. One is mine, there other is a group of 4 grad students that dont speak Spanish. Idiots. Well one of them went down to the coast last weekend for a last hurrah before she went home. She took a couple of friends, etc. They had a good weekend and all and their last night they went out dancing and drinking. A drunk local dude comes in and is being loud and obnoxious. The owner tells his it is a private party for foreigners, even though it is all mexicans. They dude comes back later even drunker and refuses to leave. The owner makes him leave. He comes back a while later, drunker, and with a gun. He stands in the doorway and shoots. He ended up shooting this girls friend and she watched him die in another friends arms. What a fun way to spend our last day in Mexico.

Made a friend. We have hung out a few times. She is trying to learn english, thus our friendship has a point to it. That sounded odd. Well anyways, we usually go out to eat and talk. It is fun. My spanish is better than her english and we dont get far in english, but she has only been studying for three months. I tried to explain the difference between “other” and “another.” I don´t think I would make a good teacher. I started to use tenses and phrases that I didnt know I could say. It was a good feeling.

Went up to Monte Alban finally. It was rad. We met up with the Archeology Director, he is out fucking teacher!, and rode down to a site away from the main plaza. Monte Alban is a huge ruins on a hill south 20 minutes south of Oaxaca. It is only about 15% excavated. We walked off the road a little ways and made out way to a open field covered with plants and a couple mounds surrounding it. We did a little project with mapping the site. It was sweet. The field was covered with these herbs that smell like lemons. Oh, and large spiders too. I watched a spider trap and kill a scorpion in its web. I was happy. Felipe and I were a team. And we explored some of the tumbs around the field. It was cool. Very cool. If you look closely there are still random artifacts lying around. After a couple hours there we headed back up to the main area of Monte Alban. These rest of the group went back to Oax and I stayed for a couple hours and explored the ruins. It was a friday and thus for some reason there were no tourists. I estimate about 20 tourists and the rest old Oaxacan men selling rocks. It was pretty trippy to sit on top of a pyramid and completate the universe. I enjoyed myself. Except in the musuem where they had childrens skulls from the sacrafices. We are going to do the same kinda of field work….but cooler in the coming weeks. There are about 10,000 sites in the state of Oaxaca alone. Most smaller, but still.

My mother is in China right now. I wish her the best and hope she comes back fluent. Or something. I want to go to China.

They just opened a Burger King a block away from the Zocalo here in Oaxaca. They tried for years to block McDonalds, sucessfully!!!!!, from the same place, but somehow Burger King snuck through. What a fucking same. They have gringoland south of Oaxaca with all the American chains, but downtown is basically free of them. Oh well. Inevitable.

Yo….I put some more pictures up if y´all are interested.