that's it

our time is up in mexico. my teaching is done and we spent the last week relaxing, reading, and walking around. everyone has been talking up the semana santa weeks - fear and terror of the thoudands of mexican tourists who arrive for the craziest week of the year to camp on the beaches and empty out the grocery stores. most people from the american school leave the city and everyone has stories of muggings ect. we prepared as we were told to - we shopped for groceries and filled our fridge with food, we checked out a dozen books from the library and bought some cheap pirated movies. but it really wasn't that bad. yes there were a lot more people in town. when i walked around the city in the morning the biggest difference was that all the main streets in the centro were lined with cars filled with sleeping families. sleepy-eyed little kids wrapped in tatty blankets sat drinking juice and eating donuts on the tailgates of rusty pick-ups while parents slept in the cabs or in the truck beds with their feet dangling off the sides. on the corners, small bands of young mexican toughs dressed in jeans and sharp, button-down cowboy shirts, and white loafers drink modelo from sweating cans. other groups of of young mexicans, obviously from the city sit along the malacon, drinking coffee, and harrasing joggers and women. we avoided the streets at night when things seem to get a little out of control when the huge crowds of mexican tourists face off with the shirtless, sunburnt and wasted springbreakers from the states. we still hit the beaches and it really was nowhere nera as bad as everyone made it out to be. on thursday my folks come from texas and we eat a little, swim a little and then adventure back to the states. i can't believe the time went this fast.