More Geocahing with Al

So, Al had a phone with a GPS and we set off looking for the cache. It was supposed to be in an ammo box, somewhere near the ruins of an old house. We found the ruins and then Al triangulated an area with his phone so we just walked around and looked. I found it! Yay me! It was hidden pretty well, in a hole and covered with leaves and sticks. It must be all my woodsy skills that enabled me to penetrate the disguise and find the thing. Since you are supposed to leave something, and we weren't really prepared, Al left an Istanpitta card and I left a picture of Sayed :)
It was totally fun to find the cache. It had a lot of weird things in it: a little kaleidoscope, a few tiny rubber animals, a small robber statue, a couple of pens, and just random small things. But it is SO COOL to find buried treasure! I might be addicted, except I don't have a GPS cell phone.

Geocaching with Al

Al came to Atlanta because his band Istanpitta was playing at a church downtown on Sunday, so I met up with him on Saturday to hang out. We went to Sweetwater State Park to hike around and that's when Al hipped me to this wonderful thing called geocaching! It's apparently very popular - so how have I not heard of it before?!?!?! Anyway, people hide random things in weatherproof boxes in the woods and in other public places and put the coordinates online so if you have a GPS phone, you can track them down. And when you find a cache, you open it and sign the list. Some of them you can take from and some of them you are supposed to add to. I found this one!

Justicia, Tierra, y Libertad

I keep forgetting to post this. I went to visit Mariana in Tepoztlan. I think I've blogged about that hideous experience before. But on the way back I passed this sign. I thought it was worth a picture :)

Masked Children

These kids were re-enacting something in the town square one day last week. I always walk through the square on my way home and usually something is going on. That day there were a lot of kids in various kinds of costumes.
I had my hands full of heavy sacks of groceries so I only stopped long enough to get these 2 pictures. I kinda wish I'd gone back for more photos. There were kids dressed in what looked like pirate costumes, too. But I think they might have been Benito Juarez.
The people here sure know how to make good use of their public spaces. They never do anything this cool at home and here it's commonplace.
I wish Tuxtepec would spiff up their big band and play concerts in the bandstand :) Maybe that's asking a little too much though.

Mercedes in Regalia

Not one of my students, but a student whom I got to know while working here. Her name is Mercedes and she is a little strange. Quirky, really. I like her a lot.
She had this picture as her FaceBook profile pic for a little bit. She is in traditional dress here, for a dance that the school sponsored. I'll try to post pictures from the performance sometime.
Mercedes has a friend named Melina and both of them decided that they loved me and always stopped by my office and talked to me and followed me around. The worst moment came when they asked me if they could call my "mommy." I was HORRIFIED!!!
They were sweet but, really, I need my space.
And I'm not anybody's mommy.
I didn't want to hurt their feelings, though, so I was kinda stuck for awhile. Finally after basically ignoring them a lot when they would come by, they maybe got the message and stopped trying to hang out in my office. I felt like a heel, but dude. I need my space.
That's why I live half a world away from my husband.
:)

Monkeys

I saw a few articles this morning about this monkey (a crested black macaque) and some of it's buddies grabbing a dude's camera and taking pictures of themselves. The pictures are darlin' and I wanted to save this one because it's so damn cute!

Rock Stars

So, I don't have any actual photos of ME with Ruben, the lead singer of Cafe Tacuba. But I did meet him several times and hang out with him. I have been to his house many times and we even participated in a group therapy session together one afternoon (family constellations - interesting but with an evil, patriarchal perspective). I didn't know he was so bloody famous when I met him and he was actually more interested in my work in Egypt and what I knew about the revolution that I was in his work. Then I found out how bloody famous he is. Incredible.
Still, I never got up the nerve after finding out how famous he was to ask him for a photo of us. So I can't prove that he's one of my homies. However, I did manage to steal this picture of Ruben with his wife and kids picnicking with some of my friends. Is this proof enough of the exalted circles in which I roll?

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!!!!!

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 :)

Earthquake Signs

I can't remember the exact day, but one day last month I was sitting at my desk in my office in the morning, talking to my mother on the computer, when the floor started to slide back and forth a bit. The building was shaking and I thought it was a big truck going by outside, but there aren't any roads or big trucks. So I realized it was an earthquake and probably a big one. When I heard something crash and break in the hallway I told my mother I had to go because there was an earthquake. I ran outside. The motion had stopped and there weren't any noticeable aftershocks.
I later found out that it had been over 6 points on the Richter scale and originated in Veracruz.Scary, that, since there is a nuclear power plant in Veracruz.
Anyway, when I got home, I documented the movement with this picture. You can see the little camels and bottles overturned and you can also see the clean spots where the coins had been lying until they got sloshed aside in the quake.
Thank goodness for my slovenly dread of dusting or I'd have very little evidence of this earthquake.
For the record, I've felt three earthquakes since I've been here, but there have probably been more than that.

Vote for Isis - Win some whiskey!

I didn't win the liquor. But I thought this was about the coolest illegal maneuver anybody could pull at a popularity contest voting booth. As you came into the Chico y Chica UNPA finale dance venue, you had to put your ticket into one of these receptacles to vote for your favorite. One of the contestants, Isis, had a crony holding this sign: After you vote for Isis, Ariadna will give you a ticket for the whiskey raffle!
Of course you must know how I voted...

my favorite student named Heidi

OK, I shouldn't say I have a favorite student, but I do. Her name is Heidi and she rocks! She studies quantum chemistry. She is totally cute and awesome. I do have other favorite students, I guess,, now that I think about it. And I have many many lug-nut idiot students that I hate. But I don't have pictures of them.
Here is Heidi in traditional dress, for a Chemistry Fair the school did. She had to usher some local school kids around the exhibits. And she, and everybody else, got out of class for it.
That's something I could complain about - the fact that nobody bothers to tell the English Department about ANY events so we don't know that our classes won't be happenening until we are the only ones that show up. I say I COULD complain about that, but anytime I get to spend a day without teaching, is a good time for me!

Giza with Sayed

We went to Giza to the pyramids!!!! It was Sayed's first trip there but it was my 4th so I felt like an expert :) But we did go into the burial chamber of the Khafra pyramid - something I had never dared to do before. We wanted to go into the Khufu pyramid but they ran out of tickets while we were waiting in line.
But the BEST part about this trip to the pyramids was that we had out marriage papers and I got to pay the EGYPTIAN price to get in. It rocked my world. 5EGP instead of 60EGP.

I'm such a slacker

I can't believe I haven't updated this in FOREVER! I spent this past summer in Egypt, working at the Museum and hanging with Sayed. I took him to Alexandria where he walked in the sea for the first time ever in his life and he ate seafood for the first time ever. We couldn't stay in the same hotel room because the marriage papers we got in Aswan at the lawyer's office weren't legal. But it was so cool showing him Alexandria! We went to the library there :)

Talkin to Sayed

So how sweet is this, Sayed goes into Aswan to use the internet cafes to talk to me. This morning he surprised me because I thought he would wait till Friday. It was really cool to have morning coffee with him. He's really the best. And I'm not biased at all, no.
In other news I will not be able to drink green beer for St. Patrick's Day because of thesis work. I have not been posting because of thesis work. I have not been doing anything because of thesis work. Why, again, did I put myself through this?!?!?! I don't know. But I must get back to work.

Valentine's Day picture 2010

Me and Sayed at the High Dam at Aswan. Nice.
Technically this picture was taken on about the 2nd of January 2010. But I'm using it for my Valetines Day picture. Because Sayed is my sweetheart.

My man Sayed

I know this is out of chronological order and all, but I was just feeling happy about my sweet-heart and wanted to post his picture. Probably it's all the romance associated with Hathor :)
This is my felucca captain, Sayed, who has my heart with him in Aswan.

Dendara set 2

The Hathor-columns in this hall are just gorgeous. And I tried to get lots of pictures with me looking cool in here, but it's hard to do because the columns are so tall you can't quite get a close up of a person and still get the full size of the columns. The paint is original and they are in the process of cleaning and restoring this whole temple. There weren't all that many people here when we came and I wonder if it ever gets many tourists? I hope so.
They are renovating, or maybe building for the first time, a reception area with vendors and a cafe and all. I don't really like this "improvement." I think it displaces a lot of people who probably really need the few bucks they can get from selling some beads to tourists, because now the vendors will have to have the money to pay for a booth. They did this in Mexico you know. In Tepoztlan. Before the revolution. You had to belong to the PRI to get a space for your puesto to sell shit.
Anyway, I'd rather deal with hordes of itinerant vendors than asshole shopkeepers. But that's just me. I'm sure normal people would rather have some semblance of order so I guess the new set-up will have fans.

Valley of the Kings

So AJ and I left work one day and bicycled to the Valley of the Kings. As you can see from the balloon picture, our digs at the Casa Italia overlooked the desert beside the VK so we were already right there in the hood. The freaky thing is that the road into the VK is uphill the entire way, but it looks like it is downhill. See the picture of me riding on the bike? It looks like I am facing downhill, right? But NO!!!! I am pedaling UPHILL. The whole place is an optical illusion. Like the laws of physics stop working there at the place where the kings were buried. And the mountains look alive.
Anyway, after leaving and riding downhill all the way, we wanted junk food. So we pedaled to a circle K (or the local equivalent) and bought chocolate and diet coke and made friends with the cashier who said his name was David Beckham :)
I took one illegal picture in one of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, when the guard wasn't looking, so I posted it here. It is not all that great, but for an illicit photo taken on the sly from hip level while walking it's ok.