The Castle at night

I love living in the castle. It really makes me want to get on with my life and build my own castle at the farm. Even though it's hot and buggy here, sometimes the beauty is just almost crushing.

Tepoztlan

When I was at Mariana's one of those times that I went to get Firulaisa spayed, I stopped for a sec at the gateway to the cathedral and got my picture taken in front of this wall mural made of seeds. It's pretty cool!
I wish I'd had time to explore more and climb the mountain to the temple. But staying with Mariana is difficult. She is very hard to get along with because she has to be in control all the time, she's a drama queen, she never listens to anyone else, and she smoke ay too much weed - so much that she has no control over her emotions. She says ridiculous things and changes her mind with every stray breeze. She nurses a hatred for the US and insists on sounding off with hare-brained political analysis that she does not really understand. Sheesh. I had to stay because I love the dog. But for real, Mariana's a little tyrant and I never want to have to stay with her again.

Cheaters

My students took their final exams last week and during the first class - the 9am nursing class - I confiscated THIS!
I noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under the test of one student and she was holding her arm over her exam in a suspicious manner. So I walked over and picked up her paper and this little, tiny, cheat sheet was smiling up at me.
I think that more of them had a copy of it. 5 people failed the exam. I think they had just not studied at all because they were planning to cheat and then when I put them in alphabetized seats and busted this one with the cheat sheet, they got too scared to use it. I was proud of myself :)
My only problem was what to do.
I confiscated the cheat sheet and let her finish the exam. I ended up subtracting 2 letter grades from her exam. She failed the course when all was said and done. Hahahahaha!!!!!

Tuxtepec Market

at the risk of making myself crazy hungry, I'm gonna post a few pictures from the local market in Tuxtepec. I rarely shop here because the shopkeepers are very aggressive and they yell at me when I walk in and talk fast and don't shut up to let me think. It makes me confused and I'm likely to walk away without buying anything. So their stupid hard-sell tactics don't do them any good. But still, it pisses me off to go to the market specifically for something and then leave without it because of asshole sellers.

Holy Key

You can even get the Virgin Guadeloupe on a key here.
So you can call upon divine help to get your locks open, I guess :)

Pineapple Jenny

Tuxtepec is a pineapple producing town. And they use the pineapple in a lot of their iconography - although the name really meas Rabbit Hill in Mixtec.
But the pineapples do grow to enormous proportions here. And they use them as props in the most popular and famous local dance they have, the "Flor de Piña."
I'll post pictures of the Flor de Piña later, for right now, here I am in front of the university with out very own small pineapple mascot. And here I am downtown with a bigger specimen.

peaches

Or something like that. They call these birds peaches. They must be in the corvid family, because a guy was telling me this morning that they can really tear up a corn field.
But they look to me like dinosaurs. I'll try to get a good closeup eventually, but this little group was pretty cute. The people here don't really like them. But to me they are totally precious. And dinosaurish :)