That's right, I return to the States in less than 2 months. I have done a lot but sometimes it seems like there is so much more I want to do. I spent the last week in Chalchihuites, taking spanish classes and living with the family. I have taken 2 and a half weeks of classes so far with at least a couple more weeks to go. Now I am back in Zacatecas, chillin' in my little apartment. Lemme give a run down of some of the things I have done the last 2 weeks. Keep in mind the week before Easter is the Cultural Festival Week here in Zacatecas and the internet PDF was 32 pages of events. This year also featured the first annual Countercultural Week concurrently.
-To start things off I hiked up to the bluff with my friend Itzel to see the Tibetan Monks. That's right Tibetan monks have returned to Zacatecas after six years to bless the city once again and they brought with them the oracle who told the Dali Lama he needed to flee Tibet for his life. They chanted their purification ceremony as people lay their mentally retarded children on the stage, to be entranced by the bright colors of the robes and the murmuring like a highly caffeinated washing machine. A local orphanage also brought wheelchairs full of grinning, drooling retards to the monks. It was beautiful really. And they gave me a handful of blessed rice, now who wouldn't want that?
-I went to a photo exhibition where 2 of my friends had photographs on display. It was also to commemorate the first anniversary of the opening of the Fototeca of Zacatecas. It turn out to be quite the posh political event, and had me wishing I wore my nice shoes (I shoulda known). There was white wine and appetizers, speeches by the Gobierna of Zacatecas (a lady in charge, how progressive!) and Mayor as well, lots of press, dancers, bongo drum band, and one Rodrigo Moya, who was being honored at the event. The dancers were interesting, it wasn't until afterward that I realized that one of them was a friend who I had talked to the night before. They brought out giant fans and did interpretive dances to the didgeridoo while their hair made art. Then they threw baskets of pastel confetti into the fans until the night sky was clouded with Easter's finest colors and then they danced some more. I waited for the opportunity to exchange pleasantries with Senor Moya (that's right, I called him "Maestro"), who is especially famous for some fotos of Che Guevara and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I got to meet him just a few days after a story by the NY Times came out about him. My friends were on the way to another museum, but I was beat and headed back home. I had been to that one anyhow, part of it was in a tall, long building, but it was very narrow, not very deep. I learned it was converted into a museum from and old prison where inmates had really tiny rooms.
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-I went to a few other concerts throughout the week, they were free in every square in the city. They had concerts in the theaters, churches, plazas, and museums. They had foreigners and locals, drum circles and jazz circles, classic guitarist and modern rockers, orchestras in the streets and symphonies in the park. I got to hear Frenchman Yann Tiersen, who wrote the music for the Movie Amelie. Lots of my friends here (including the 4 frenchies of course) are crazy about him, and he did do an awesome show.
-During all the festivities here in Zacatecas, I went back to Chalchihuites the day before Good Friday so I could celebrate with the fam. The town has a festival on Friday, where the crucify a giant plastic Jesus. There are more than a hundred actors involved and they (and all the onlookers) go to various parts in the plaza and act out their scenes on make shift stages. All of Miguel's siblings were in town and his cute nephews and nieces too. One day we drove out to the country where part of Miguel's family had a reunion of sorts. It basically involved cutting up a giant pig and cooking it in a vat of oil while the kids got lost in the woods. Hmmmmm carnitas! Muy rica!
-I only spent one day at the ranch, as I had school from Monday to Friday. I have been studying mucho espanol. School starts at the ungodly hour of 9 and goes until 2:30. Then I usually go back for 2 or 3 more hours in the evening. I completed all my homework this week, even though sometimes I had to stay up until 1:30 to do so. I have also been working out of a spanish workbook that I brought from the states, so my brain is pretty much fried most of the time. I am taking the next week off to trade stock options, play poker, and recuperate. Then it's back to Chalchihuites to go to school and hang with the Japones estudiantes. I have had classes with 6 Japanese students who are really fun to hangout with. In May they are coming to study in Zacatecas to study at the campus here for 2 weeks, so I can show 'em around town.
-I haven't talked too much about my stock market goings ons. That is basically my preferred mode of work right now. Everyday I am researching the stock market and the economy and I trade options weekly. Sometime I will write a blog about trading stocks and it will be titled "How to turn $2800.75 into Fifty cents in Just 4 WEEKS!" I did this recently, and while I do know how to do it, I actually wouldn't recommend it for most people's retirement portfolio. Most of my investments workout a little better (because really how could they be worse?) and in the two and a half months I have been doing it I have returned better than 35% on my money. Still it was pretty painful to watch my portfolio go from 31k to 14k in a week and a half. Oh well, live and learn right? If you thought my investing was less risky than my poker, then guess again.
Well that's plenty for now, I need to get to the cantina for happy hour. Three delicious courses (soup, salad, and an artfully presented main dish) for less than a dollar. That's right, ten pesos! Provecho!
PS In retrospect this is one of the lamest blog titles I have ever seen, and would like to now state that it is not mine, someone else made me do it, and I am in fact being held hostage by a band of lame-blog-titlemakers. Sad times my friends, sad times.