So much time and so much to do

So there's a saying I've heard a few times here that goes "Si comias la chapulina, no quieres salir" which translates to If you eat the grasshoppers(a Oaxacan delicacy), you won't want to leave. I haven't had any of the renowned Oaxacan grasshopper yet but with all thats been going on the last few days, it may not be easy saying goodbye to this city.

It all started this Monday, when after class we decided to go on a hike in San Felipe which is about 20 minutes outside town. I'm not much of an outdoorsman despite(or more likely because of) my years in Boy Scouts, but I caved to the peer pressure and decided to give it a try. First we just stayed to a few roads trying to find a trail up into the area and kept running into dead ends and burros(donkeys) along the road. After a while we found a great trail that Will had heard about from some friends that was supposed to lead to some waterfalls. San Felipe is a lush region with tons of plant and animal life that 19 years in between Tucson and the Dallas suburbs have left me relatively unexposed to. It was a pretty simple hike more or less with only a few spots where you might need help like crossing the stream or going across a medium sized ledge. It was raining most of the time which was great since it was enough to cool you down but not enough to get you soaked. After about an hour or so we reached the "waterfalls" which were definitely pretty but not like anything you'd seen in a movie. Really more than anything it was just one of those moments where your like "Wow look how far we've made it".

For Tuesday we decided to go see Transformers 2 at our local Cinepolis, which I won't comment on other than to say the commercials and previews for Mexican movies are hilarious. Oh and that Michael Bay sucks and whoever wrote the movie should be forced to relearn the English language. That said if you go in looking at it as a comedy you'll be entertained for most of it.

Wednesday night brought us to the hallowed Estadio Lic. Eduardo Vasconcelos to see the Oaxaca Guerreros take on the Tabasco Olmecas. First off it costs about $5 to get in and a little over $1 for a beer so you're definitely getting a good deal no matter who's playing. Second instead of having concessions stands they just have people walking around to see if you want a drink or some donuts, tacos, or empanadas. They also have cheerleaders for the game or as they're called the "Guerrrrrritas" who come out and dance to some Latin pop in between the innings. After about the 5th inning or so they came into the stands and tried to get us to follow them. We resisted at first, but eventually the combination of their persistence and short skirts persuaded us to come along for the ride. We stayed for a little while in their little dugout area right next to the field til the inning ended and they had us play the classic bat spinning game. Now I've never done this on a field before, but one of my favorite stories from freshmen year is when Austin, Gabe, Labonte and I tried this with a few beers in us to hilarious results. So basically what you do is they give you a bat and you put your head to it and spin around for what seems like forever but is probably closer to 20 seconds, and then you run to the other side. Given that we'd all had a few beers, naturally our success was mixed. I'd like to say it was my superior balance and athletic ability that had me win it without falling but really it was more just dumb luck and some experience. Will, Alex and Hannah hit the turf immediately while Nathan ran straight into a baseball player on his way from the dugout. We got some calendars and team guides for our little display and stayed til the rain ended the game about an hour later with the score at 0-0.

One random cool thing about Mexican baseball aside from them having sweet team chants and ridiculous sound effects during the game. They don't use their screen for replays. Yeah, basically they put random videos of people getting hurt or classic youtube videos like Afro Ninja on there in the middle of innings. Good Stuff all around.

After rushing home in the pouring rain, we hung around til 3 new guests arrived at our house. They're gonna be staying here for the next 10 to 14 days, and were in a similar program with our host family about a year ago. We had dinner and then had an awesome time at El Bicho, playing pool and having a few drinks.

Finally, today we went to the home of Gustavo Esteva, just a genuinely really smart and nice dude, and the founder of Universidad de la Tierra(where I'm studying). Now officially I'm taking Geography here but it's that plus History, Culture, and Economics of the region especially of development in Latin America. So over the course of the day he showed his home which is pretty freaking amazing. I've always pictured myself living in a city, but after seeing his place and a few others here I could see myself going the complete opposite direction too. Words can't do it justice, but it's just a gorgeous combination of some farmland he's working on and a house that's incredibly well built and fits in with the beautiful plants perfectly. He's very loquacious(SAT word for ya) and we talked for about 3 hours about Oaxaca and his ideas on capitalism and localization and education. It doesn't do it justice to condense his ideas to just a few sentences, since it's not like he's pulling it out of his ass but in essence he's arguing that the bell is tolling for capitalism and that education only exacerbates inequality, instead of reducing it and that local communites can perform tasks much better than schools.

Again, a lot of his ideas are kinda radical as far as things go here in the States, and I disagree completely with some of them, but it's good to be challenged a bit and rethink almost everything you've been brought up with sometimes. In fact probably one of the most valuable things you can do is challenge convential wisdom. And also he admits that he nor anyone else knows how things are gonna fare with the economic crisis so he's definitely not inflexible on his positions.

Anyways after that long talk, we retired to his house to enjoy some of his wife's excellent cooking. The meal included a really good pasta and salad as well as some deviled eggs, followed by an apple custard desert.

Thats about all for now. Hasta Luego!