Goodbye...

There is a mixture of goodbyes in this post. First of all, I was going to put a bunch of embarrassing photos of Spencer up, but I am not going to get it done, so - Spencer, you lucked out, man.

The first of the news is that Spencer left, Monday, for Indiana. He plans to be there for one and a half to two years before returning to sunny and warmer than Indiana, Ixtlan.

That all being said, I am much more lonely than before. In a matter of a month, less really, I have gone to living with two other guys to living alone. Bleh... Well actually, I haven't had a chance to really see how it is yet. I will be interesting. The house is a much colder, less personal place without other people there. I will have to keep you updated as time goes on.

So, Spencer (yes, I am pointing you out in front of all my hundreds of faithful readers - that statistic might be a little sarcastic), it was a good time. I will probably be talking to myself and have a long beard down to my stomach and not know what the light of day is and have myself locked away in my room as a hermit by the time you come back. If that happens, save me, please.

On the other side of things, I, too, am leaving Ixtlan, but only for two weeks. Yes, "I'll be home for Christmas," but I am not really dreaming of a white Christmas. I kinda come to like the warmer weather. It's kinda nice.

So, I will probably see you all real soon. I hope so anyway. I hear there's a winter storm going through right now. That could be problematic, we'll see.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I should have taken a picture to post as my Chistmas Card. I wasn't thinking. Oh, well.

Paz y esperanza al mundo.

Tortillas and the such-like

So an important endevour on any excursion to Mexico is learning to make tortillas. Really not that difficult, or so it would appear and so the people would tell you. Well it turns out that it is a quick way to learn humility and reinforce the fact that you don't really know everything in the world. The actual making of the raw tortilla is easy, provided you have the little machine that you use to smash them. I haven't even dared doing it by hand. The hard part is getting them on the griddle, fogón (as it is said here), without folding it over, ripping it, putting holes in it, whatever it might be. Then there is the matter of cooking them. You aren't actually making tortillas if you don't use your bare hands to flip the things on the griddle. That means that you are in the constant process of burning off your fingerprints. And of course the tortilla has to be flipped at just the right time so that it "inflates" and you have the perfect tortilla. Anyway, Spencer and I are in the process of learning this. Not as easy as it would seem. Although I do believe that it provides a constant source of entertainment for everyone who might be in the area. Here are the pictures.



Hot, hot, hot.....



I couldn't resist a quick bite.



Impressive, huh?