Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

Last night we were walking down the street in the early evening and I noticed this plant against the dark orange(?) wall of a bed and breakfast. I walk by this establishment and plant everyday, sometimes 3 or 4 times a day, but this is the first time I really stopped and admired the color contrast.

I went to dinner with a friend last week and we decided to share a yummy dessert of chocolate ice cream. Well, needless to say when it arrived we started laughing uncontrollably and I said to the waiter "Que linda!" which basically means "How lovely!" It was hysterical and thank goodness there were three scoops of ice cream.

The protest season has begun! Today is teacher's day and instead of holding classes, school is out for the day and the teachers of Section 22 are holding a mega march. The march/protest is an effort to have their demands met by the government. These demands include, the freedom of political prisoners from the conflict in 2006, the cancellation of all pending charges against members of the movement, the punishment of perpetrators of oppression, handing over all schools held by the PRI political party and Section 59 (another teacher's union), and of course the typical demands for salary raises and school food programs. If their demands are not met they will install a protest in the zocalo for 21 days until they are met, which basically means that teachers will camp there for the next 21 days. If you read my blog in 2006 (thanks!) this is how the whole conflict began and the planton, or sit-in style protest, in the zocalo is a yearly tradition of the teachers. Unfortunately after...

I just got back from a quick trip to the United States to see loved ones and renew my tourist visa so I’m legal for the remainder of my stay. It was nice to be back in the States but also nice to return to Oaxaca . I met with my advisor while I was there to let him know how the research was going and find out what I still need to do. The good news is I have a lot of data and can start thinking about the organization my dissertation chapters and the content of those chapters while I’m continuing to interview people for the project. I feel like the worst is over and I’m that much closer to getting the PhD. Now of course I have to start thinking about applying for jobs, a process which will begin in the fall. Perhaps someday I won't be a poor graduate student! I wanted to post a quick mini-documentary about a Triqui family living in Hollister , California . It was created by a student at Berkeley ’s Graduate School of Journalism for a Master’s thesis. I like this video because...

Gail Collins (appears Monday and Thursday) has overtaken Paul Krugman (Monday and Friday) as my favorite NYT Op-Ed columnist. She has a great way of very sarcastically (hmmm...wonder why I like her) expressing the ridiculousness that has become the American electoral process. She said much more eloquently the same things I was feeling about the equal pay bill. I guess she also probably couldn't post a picture of a guy flipping people off in the NYT. I still heart Paul Krugman ( a recent column ) for economic policy columns though....don't worry Paul. Take it away Gail...

The title of this post is the current headline on the Huffington Post political blog and the image is my current response to John McCain. My political leanings are no secret to anyone but this particular quote and his rationale have me so incensed today (as my poor friend Mike found out earlier as I ranted and raved over email) I have to post something. Women do not need more education and training, we need to get paid the same amount of money as men for the same work. Period. If it results in more lawsuits then so be it, we deserve to be paid equally. More lawsuits is just about the lamest excuse for a "no" vote I have ever heard. Why should I go through the exact same PhD process as my male peers (often having to work harder to prove myself because I'm just a girl) only to be paid less. This man is running for president of the United States and has just told half the population that they do not deserve to be compensated at the same level as men. He has in fact told th...

I have now been on 30 house visits around Oaxaca and should finish up with all of them this week for a total of 34. None too soon as it is the hottest month of the year here in Oaxaca and the temperature during the day when I'm trudging up the sides of hills and sitting in houses made of sheet metal is really quite unbearable. The forecast calls for upper 90s the rest of the week so I will no doubt be the sweatiest gringa around. Yes, I do realize that I'm from Phoenix and I shouldn't be bitching but I also don't scale hillsides during the heat of summer in Phoenix. One of my PhD committee members said something to me once about needing to work in rural areas in order to get respect from other researchers because city life is too easy. Well, I feel that I have paid my dues and any rural researcher who wants to go toe to toe, like Dubya, I say Bring 'em on! Ugh, I can't believe I just quoted that fool. Today I went on two house visits, the second of which was a b...