After having some great times living in Argentina we wanted to end our trip on a travel binge (note the important difference between living somewhere and travelling somewhere). So, we headed north on the so-called "Gringo Trail." After spending months reading various travel books and getting excited about the trip we set off. Who knew that in a few months time we would hate those travel writers for the inaccuracy of their data and the exaggeration of their prose?

I have been drive-by groped many, many times by men on bikes. Usually they ride up from behind and before I know it they are cupping my nalga. I have tried to react a few times, but usually I am wearing heels and wind up falling or just knicking their tire, not really doing anything but adding fuel to their dirty, self-satisfied chuckling. Well I finally made good. This morning, on my walk to work, a man on a bike was riding TOWARD me (fool!) and veered over toward me while putting his hand out, palm out, and down toward my areas.

So, Heather, I was eating my burrito and reading Forbes about Chinese painters who mimic the classics and sell them. It seems like a great idea for these Chinese painters. The story claimed that they work in painting camps as a big group, so I was curious if maybe you've seen one and what the conditions were like there as opposed to any other industries. It's a little less polluting than a chrome factory or something like that, but paint can also have it's downsides depending on the c

I was teaching a 3rd grade class the other day where most of the students were native Spanish-speakers but were all mostly fluent in English.  In case you were wondering, the new favorite 3rd grade song is Shakira/Wyclef's new "Hips Don't Lie", or as one of the students corrected the other students with his understanding of the song title, "Hips Don't Mind".

I gave the students an assignment to color and write their name on a cardboard building.  One student decided to call his building "chingate" and thought he was pretty sneaky and showed his building to his surrounding friends.  By third grade, you should know a) that if you're going to be sneaky, you need to use a sneakier word than chingate and b) more people speak Spanish than you think (even if they don't look like it).   When I asked him (in Spanish) "what did you write?", I've never seen a marker scribble out a word so fast.  He was so shocked that I busted him, that his fear ended up being punishment enough (although I did give him the old don't-do-that-evil-eye).  Also in case you were wondering, 3rd graders don't have a filter and will make fun of your accent in Spanish.

Chinese Party Invitation

Last week I received a phone call from a man named “Wallace” (his English name). He told me he was good friends with a foreign teacher who was here last year and was a student at a nearby University. He also wanted to invite me to a party at his university that was celebrating the English language. I agreed to go to the party and asked when the party would be.

He said, “How is Tuesday night?”

I said, “I can’t, I teach on Tuesday.”

Then he said, “But I already wrote your name on all the flyers!”

Flyers? I thought, what kind of party was this going to be?