it's over!
my first school year here, that is. it all flew by pretty quickly. i remember e-mailing the staff here asking them for advice while travelling through europe last summer, wondering if i should take the job or not--it doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but i guess i've been working amongst the people i was corresponding with then for almost a year now.

the graduation ceremony is on friday, and at night there is a sort-of gala dinner & dance for the seniors and their families. other than that, my duties here are finished until mid-august! it feels good to be free!

to quickly (and lazily) sum up my experiences here so far in a list:
1) witnessed a pregnant-looking woman fall out the back of a pickup truck on the road to mismaloya
2) had two boats chop off the tip of my ring finger with ensuing blood fest in punta de mita
3) caught pink eye, most likely from a student
4) amassed more mosquito bites than i ever have in the history of my life (yet, miraculously, have not caught dengue yet...a few others have in the past few weeks)
5) enjoyed the beaches of sayulita, yelapa, rincon de guayabitos (dave and i sped down the beach on a four-wheeler and were pursued by the cops!) and barra de navidad (in addition to the ones in vallarta)
6) went up a volcano near colima
7) travelled to the beautiful colonial towns of guanajuato, san miguel de allende and queretaro for spring break, as well as the ever-controversial and cosmopolitan mexico city (i've visited six of the 31 states, plus the federal district, so far)
8) ate my head off in the restaurants and at the taco stands here (food is all i spend my pesos on)
9) hung out with a bunch of crazy people who have more than their fair share of personality
10) attempted to become fluent in spanish (haven't exactly succeeded yet...i can understand quite a bit, but my accent is a total trainwreck)

i head home on sunday, and i'm looking forward to spending a summer in a bonafide metropolitan city. perhaps i'll be recharged and ready to face the rainy season here in vallarta again by the time i return for round two of my adventures in mexico.

may was a blur of long weekends, my brother coming to visit (he adopted a puppy here!), teaching, marking and all the little dramas that occur in ppl's lives when you've hung around them for long enough.

i've been horrible about keeping up w/ e-mails (i swear i'll respond eventually--definitely when i've finished grading the everests of tests i've accumulated this week), but hopefully i'll be able to catch up w/ you all when i head back for summer break at the end of this month. i have a feeling i'll be pretty busy even back in canada, what w/ my brother's wedding, attempting to prepare for new zealand and/or australia in 2007-2008, and hopefully working on improving my curriculum for next year (i'm teaching AP calculus, and i'm scared shitless). regardless, we need to catch up.

also in my summer plans:
i want to do a roadtrip to chicago for either the pitchforkmedia music fest at the end of july or lollapalooza at the start of august (or maybe even both?)...is anybody up for it??? travelling to a cool city, listening to awesome music, and having me as company -- how can you refuse? ;)