so...
let's backtrack back to when i didn't have pink eye.

hallowe'en. i guess the american influence has reached this place after all (not that i didn't have an inkling, what w/ the walmart and mcdonalds and domino's pizzas everywhere). a bunch of kids in our complex came around to trick-or-treat, stomping around in a herd, wearing vague costumes and screaming, "QUEREMOS HALLOWE'EN!!!" they sounded like such a loud, psycho mob that kim and i were almost afraid to open the door for them.
afterwards, a few of us new teachers headed out to a hallowe'en party at a classy lounge spot downtown. i'd somehow missed the memo about the maxim magazine girls that were going to be making an appearance there. the place was madness; bright lights, photographers and video cameras were everywhere, and there was barely any room to move. it was a little too psycho in the mainroom, and the rooftop patio and restaurant sections of the club were swanky, but it all felt a little too soulless for me, and in the end, my friend and i ended up heading over to the new taco burrito king (the wacky thing is that this new franchise started in CHICAGO and decided to open up its third, but first mexican store in vallarta) down the street to gorge ourselves instead.

i forgot to mention that at the hallowe'en festival at school the kids made a gravestone for me that joked about my finger (which, btw, looks a tad better than it did before, now that all the stitches are out and the nail is growing). it was kind of endearing, yet embarrassing at the same time. i took a picture w/ it. ;) a group of us teachers also snuck out halfway through the night for a little beer break at the local hole-in-the-wall bar; i felt like a rebellious high schooler, which is kind of ironic, considering the circumstances.

last week, the 2nd annual puerto vallarta film festival came to town. i made good use of my ISIC and got a student pass (10 films for $150 pesos -- beat that, toronto film fest!) which i tried my best to use up for the rest of the week. unfortunately, i'd very unwisely spent my saturday night partying with my friend lisa until the sun rose and didn't get home until around 11:30 a.m. the next morning (it's funny how when it's 4 a.m., we think it makes sense to stay out until 5 a.m. so that the buses will be running, and then at 5 a.m., we think it's worth it to wait another two hours in order to have breakfast at the pancake house, which leads to stopping off to buy film fest passes afterwards, which leads to not sleeping and feeling like a zombie for the rest of the day...). this directly led to me getting sick and not feeling up to watching all the movies i'd wanted to see.
i did get to watch elizabethtown though, and despite the lukewarm reviews i've read, i liked it. cameron crowe is great at writing romantic-comedy roles. he makes the lead characters watch-worthy. the dysfunctional family stuff wasn't all that engrossing, but it was tolerable, and overall, i enjoyed it. not his greatest film (that would be either almost famous or say anything followed closely by singles), but not his worst, either (that would be vanilla sky, save the soundtrack). it made me want to take a roadtrip.
the festival itself wasn't all that exciting. the films were all screened at the cinema right by my place, so it was convenient, but there wasn't very much glamour or hoopla going on. mostly, it looked like a bunch of trendy, hipster lookalikes had magically appeared in vallarta and were congregating outside the theatres for that week. it was kind of odd seeing them there. sadly, it kinda felt like home at times.
even more sadly, diego luna nor gael garcia bernal showed up. at least i don't think they did, and if they did, i no longer want to know.

so, yes. last thursday, i woke up feeling wonky. i'd gone to see two movies the night before (the constant gardener: good, and roman polanski's oliver twist: loooong) as well as a post-filmgoing trip to subway. maybe i caught it from one of those places. who knows. but after first period, my eyes kept forming disgusting eye guck which i kept wiping away w/ a tissue, which turned my eyes red, and my students started chanting, "miss! you have conjunctivitis! miss, you have PINK EYE!!!" and they were right. so i missed school on friday and monday (there was a huge pink eye epidemic at school last year, so i don't think they wanted to take any chances), which in theory sounds awesome 'cause that made it a super-long weekend, but in reality it sucked 'cause i couldn't really do anything and i felt isolated from humanity the majority of the time and all i did was lie in bed and watch movies and complete seasons of sex and the city. hmph.

alright, this post has turned out semi-long and very whiny, so i'll stop for now. next time, a report on my take on men in mexico (well, i guess mexico is a little broad--maybe just vallarta, but i liked the alliteration).