12/13/2009

Officially ten days until I'll be back in Los Angeles.

This weekend I went up to Puerto La Cruz, even though I should've been at school preparing for the winter break. It was Rafael's birthday, and there was a game of skate at "La Cruz" so I figured there was too much going on to pass up.

I left Saturday morning in a porpuesto, a car crammed with 6 people awaiting the hour and a half drive sitting next to another man in a wife beater. Luckily, I hadn't showered for a good while, so my own body odor matched his, and the battle was on.

Now maybe it was a combination of our combined BO, or maybe it was that nothing in Venezuela works, but the car broke down in a town about 30 minutes outside of Puerto La Cruz. Our taxi pulled over, gave us our money, and just let us sit there and figure out what the hell we were going to do. Luckily, after about 20 minutes, one of the other people in the car rounded up a taxi, and we hopped in.

Because of the absurd traffic at all hours in the pitiful attempts at streets here, the driver dropped us off at the Barcelona bus station instead. Imagine being in the picture perfect setting of the Brooklyn projects in the 70's, only instead you're in Venezuela, and you don't speak Spanish. Someone called one of their friends on the phone, and some dude came and picked us all up.

Now this dude looked pretty sketchy, but I was getting ancy, so decided to hop along. If they weren't taking the other taxi's, I was sure there was a reason. Then when he drove into the barrios, for hours, on his supposed traffic "detours," I began to worry. And by worry I mean seriously worry for my life. Then when I heard some other guy in the car say in a spiteful voice, "El no entiende NADA" I became even a bit more worried. After about an hour in the gasoline soaked car, sweating profusely from all my pores, I found something I recognized. Plaza Mayor in the adjacent city known as Lecheria. At a stop, I just hopped out, and ran to the safety of a nice secure Americanized mall.

That night I met up with Rafael, and everyone who skates at the big cross on Paseo Colon. A friend named Jesus organized a game of skate event, so I figured I might as well enter. I got out the first round, by a series of extremely basic maneuvers, but as Bill O'Reilly would have said, I did it live.

After we all went to Rafael's for his birthday party, and lucky me feeling super tired from my whole day, passed out asleep on the couch really early, but not before being captured in this photo stolen from facebook.



I get to see my family, my dog, and Scott real soon. I will also be able to go to Walmart...HYPE

12/09/2009

There is alot to catch up on, almost too much for what has occurred in the last few weeks.

First I'll start by saying I made some skateboarding friends in Puerto La Cruz, a bunch of really good guys. I stayed at my friend Rafael's house and we skated and hung out until the morning light. Then in the morning, they all started up drinking again, and started the day anew. I sure can't keep up, but I'll blame it on being sick.







The following weekend was Thanksgiving, and Marshall and I came up with a game plan to make it to Playa Medina, supposedly one of the best beaches around. It took us 2 1/2 days to finally get there, and we were able to spend the day there. Because of time constraints we had to leave the following morning, but it was a goal well worth setting.











After, I flew out to the job fair in Atlanta, to try to find an international teaching job. The first day I just hated being there, and thought it was a waste of time. The second day I loved being there, and wanted to move back to the states. I got an offer that I couldn't refuse from a big school in Venezuela, I accepted.

This changes the dynamic here at my school for me. There has been a power shift, and it's for the better. Next year huge changes are going to occur here, some for the better, and some for the worse. I almost wish they would have had their figures in about a month ago so I wouldn't have had to spend the money in Atlanta, but on the bright side I came out with a nice job in a big city.

Now things are falling into place at my school, and I kind of wish I was here to build it back up again. They tried lowballing Jason and Jacques, but gave Marshall and I decent offers. I had to decline, but it would have been interesting to stay to say the least.

I'm flying back to LA for Christmas because I'm still sick, and trying to make the best out of my 3 days off before I do. Isla Margarita here I come!