Here's a Bonus Photo: I taught my neighbor to hula hoop today.

This is America. She's 9 years old and lives right next door along with about a zillion other kids but she's the only one we have a relationship with because her mom cleans the school and America helps Michael with chores like washing the dogs and the trucks. She had never seen a hula hoop before and the first question she asked was "Por que no se caye?"(Why doesn't it fall down?)She learned in about 5seconds. Unfortunately it's very likely that someday in the not so distant future that property will be taken over by rich white folks.

Hooray! Un Retiro de Yoga(Yoga Retreat)

Well, I was fortunate enough to have yet another AMAZING teacher enter my life albeit a little late but better late than never huh? She lives in Zipolite which is less than an hour from here so it's WAYYYYY too bad I didn't study with her for the past 5 months! I just spent the past 5 days on retreat with each day beginning at 5am with 2 or so hours of vipassana meditation and then pranayam(in laymen's terms, sitting perfectly still and quieting the mind and then working with the breath)and after a break 3hours of hard core, very deep therapeuticly based asana(hatha yoga)! It was a swift kick to the butt and a much needed opportunity to play the role of student and not teacher. Plus I learned a tremendous amount of innovative new stuff and as always with retreats am cleansed and redirected. Unfortunately I won't have another opportunity to study with her again while I'm still living here as she's off to study/travel/teaching and won't be back until after our visa expires but at least now I know she's here. The beach in Zipolite is quieter and smaller than here even though, funny enough, it's the only beach in the entire country where nudity is accepted. The bonus to the whole thing was that everyone participating except for only 1 person spoke Spanish, Mexican or not and I had tremendous opportunities to practice and I think I can officially say now that yes I am more or less fluent in Spanish which is SO exciting! OM!I'm back once again in the real world but we're so very slow, only 2 students next week, that it doesn't feel so real but we're not complaining too much.

There is some strange research being done in the world.

So it's Sunday and it's the low season and I have nothing to do today but surf. I surfed this morning and before going back out this afternoon, I have been doing some virtual surfing. I checked out Julia's blog
http://www.julitasramblings.com
which lead me through her friend's live journal to find this: http://www.hackerfactor.com (click on gender guesser)
I can't figure out if I think it's interesting or just plain STUPID! It's this program where you can't enter text that you've authored and based on your word choices,etc. it will tell you if you are male or female or...get this...WEAK male or female which according to the gender guesser may indicate that you're European! ha! I entered several pieces of text that i've written and now I'm so confused as I could be a male, weak male, or a weak female. Note that not in any of the text that was analyzed was I considered as a female! In fact, according to the gender guesser I'm more likely to be a male and maybe, just maybe I'm a WEAK FEMALE! I'm sure Mike would not appreciate me writing this but I entered one of his blog entries and it said "weak male." Maybe he'll find the humor in it and flex his muscles.
By the way, somehow I'm just not computer savvy enough to get the links to appear properly. I don't get it. well, you can all cut and paste and who's reading this silly thing anyway, much less following the links?

The Best Cat EVER, in the whole entire freakin universe!!

On April 3 my best friend and the most amazing feline to have graced my life will be escorted out of our mortal world. He's not very old but he got very sick and I am so sad that I am so far away and cannot say good bye to his little black face. I hope that all of you who knew him will take a moment to send him some lovin energy and remember what memories he may have given you. This photos is pretty crappy and does him no justice but it's the only one I have right now and you can form your own memorial image.Om. Peace be with Severs. Now at least one of us really is "withoutcat."