Im in Veracruz. It is pretty chido. We got in yesterday afternoon. Chilled around, went out to dinner. Me and a few others walked down the beach and ended up having a crazy night. Oh mexico. People here are so damn friendly. Verzcruz is really touristy and a lot of people speak english. They address you in english first which is annoying. Kinda missing Oaxaca. It is a port city and it very smelly but somehow quite nice too. Today we took a boat ride. Went to a fort and I cant wait to put the pictures up, because it was one of the funniest pictures I have taken in my life. We all chilled on top of this tower at the fort and got bored and just got really dumb. Pictures will come later. Went to the aquarium and played with turtles. I was going to get into a shark cage and feed the sharks, but sadly the cage was broken and I probably would have died.
The air here is really warm and tropical. But during the day it makes me sweat mucho. Oh wells.
Two days ago we took a day trip out of the last town we were in, Tuxtepec. It was in the middle of nowhere. Dr. Jack had never been there and we said there was a market there. We pilled in the back of a truck and drove there. We have been riding in the backs of a lot of trucks lately and I really like it. We get into the town and there is no market. I have never been stared at so much in my entire life. The town has one main street and then up a little hill are the town offices and the church. We covered all this distance in about 5 minutes. It was very intense. It was a parade of about 10 gringos through a quite little town. A couple of us made our way around and ended up having some conversations. The town overlooked a beautiful valley that was flooded a few years ago, but still looks cool. Reminded me a lot of Costa Rica. This side of Mexico is very tropical and has birds!! There arent many in Oax and…yeah.
Tomorrow we go to Jalapa and then get into Oaxaca monday morning at about 8 and then have calss at 9 and I still havent started my papers. It will just be a lot of time spent in the library next week. Sweet. I brought all my books to start taking notes…but…
okay bye

I always forget to write down actually stuff I did.
Last sunday or as in yesterday we headed dos horas into the mountains to a widdle town. Went hiking. It was super cool. We could see the whole Oaxacan valley, all the little pueblos and even monte alban in the distancia. Hiked some more. Came back and ate at this cool little comedor and had fresh trout. I hate my life.
Have been going out with my new friend Javier and his friends a lot. We went out for tlayudas on Libres, which is a big Oaxacan thing and chilled. Hung out at his place and watched some peliculas. I had to wake my arse up early and go to the migration office and get my fingerprints, cuz im a criminal, and then I met the group at the bus station. The bus ride here sucked. I almost puked and I never get car sick. There are NO straight stretchs of road. Really different terrain though so I liked seeing that. We are staying in a town in between Oax and Verzcruz. Se llama Tuxtepec. It is a pretty industrial town, thus no tourists go here. It has a different feel from Oax but it is cool to see another glimpse at how regular people live.

When Brazil’s President Lula da Silva showed George W. Bush a map of his country over the weekend, Bush’s response was, “Wow! Brazil is big.”

This last week has been semi-nununutso
Have been meeting a lot of “nice” people. Some of them are too nice to me. Oops.
For once in my life I am having incredible luck in everything. And it all happens at the perfect time in my life. For one, I am in a place were it is all happening in mostly spanish and this is just a crazy transitional period in my life.
On a less “bang my head on the keyboard” note, tomorrow I am going to Veracruz for 6 days. Pretty excited. But pissed cuz my rough draft for my arqeology paper is due not long after I get back. Oh and I have read, well flipped the pages, of one book. Go team ben.
So there is this weekend. The weekend after that is the surf competition. The weekend after that is free and the last weekend we go to the coast again to a Nat´l park. Then school is over and then my sissy and mommi come. This is over. Im so pissed, but so happy with what I have accomplished.

Now back in the states…i am excited to return. I have lots of things I want to do, etc. But there is some new added drama I am not looking forward to dealing with.

Au Revoir

Last night was okay.
Went out to the family ranch and had me some fiesta. Started drinking before lunch and i will just say my shot glass was never empty. It truly was one of the 10 best nights of my life. I keep saying that on this gurnal thing, but its true. The rancho is hawt. I wish i had taken pictures…but i didnt. I talked a lot with the brother and his girlfriend mostly. We started talking about drugs or something and he pulled out some really dark green liquor. Hmmm. Had some shots of that. When it got dark we all headed down the road to one of the uncles houses. I guess the whole street is owned by the family. It is some kinda compounded. Every door in town is open to let the dead fly in and eat off the altars and chill with all the peoples. Aka party.
I remember talking a lot. Laughing. Sucking a lot of limes and chili powder. Ended the night playing with kids and running around in the streets.
¡que vida!….¡la mia!
Kinda sucks that nobody likes Bush anymore. 35% is looking pretty good. God save the queen.
Why does the bible belt have the highest rate of divorce?
Porque guardó un reloj en su culo….fuckin love that shit

Oaxaca is cwzy right now. Much white people because it is the biggest holiday of the year. We went out to a place for Halloween last night. Fun times. Two beers and a shot of mezcal for 25 pesos which is like 2 bucks-ish. Had some cool adventures. I….yes.
Stupid school is getting in the way of my life.
No. Its aight though.
Cant go with my family out to thier rancho cuz i got me some class today. But im going tomorrow. Should be cool.
Thought I had more to say. Oh well
Oh i might have a house to live in when I get back. Thats some good news. There might be a yard and I could bring Woody up. Mmmm Woody.
I got a mexican cellie, so now I can call my amigos without them hating me for calling them internationally (like modern people).
Im pisses that this “cultural experience” in Oaxaca is ending shortly
Im starting to make a list of all the things I am going to miss.
Things coming up are trip to Veracruz with the group. Trip up to the Sierra to go trout fishing. How animal rights of me. Oh and the international surf competicion at Puerto. Then i still dont know my plans at the end. I have ten days. I was going to do a project at a national park, i found a cheap tour to Cuba. $450 US for 7 days, the hotel and breakfast everyday. My mom might come too. So I dont know.
Peace players. Playeras.