Good news on the job front -- I'll be starting a new gig soon! So now I'll be spending the foreseeable future replenishing my savings! Sadly, this may have been the last time I could take time off to travel -- it's just an age thing, and I suspect that the next time I take time off will be to actually retire!

As usual for one of my "Sabbaticals", I'll do a summary to compare what it was like compared to previous times.

***
Walking at the park yesterday, I saw this (presumably) newly emerged dragonfly sitting on the side of a tree. At first, I didn't even realize it was a dragonfly because the wings were folded in, and he was arching his tail sharply. As I watched, he exercised his wings, and started crawling all over the tree. Here is a pic of a brief test flight. He's out of focus, but you can see his legs dangling.


Damselfly silhouette --


***
I've been reading a book called Roman Homosexuality. It's pretty dry, but I have an interest in things Roman, in Latin, and in LGBT subjects. I like to puzzle through the Latin on my own - realizing that I have forgotten most of my declensions and conjugations, and realizing that I have to look up a lot of the words.

You can see the author's translation in the picture below:


And here is my attempt. I was generally happy that my translation approximated the author's.

In the still of night, when a fair skinned boy was warmly hidden away, lying at my bosom,
My genitals were quiet, nor did my lazy old penis raise his head in a manly way.

The weekend was pretty social...had a friend over for dinner Saturday evening -- for what seems to have become a re-occurring dinner and a horror flick evening :) Nice, pleasant evening. We both disliked the movie we watched, lol!

I spent Sunday at a wine festival with another friend -- also a very pleasant time. I was wiped out when I got home, although I think the wine interfered with my sleep a bit!

One of my sisters is going through a rough time, so I'm headed down to visit with her next weekend. I visited last weekend as well.

***
Now and again, I deal Tarot cards for fun. Today, I shuffled and asked the deck 'Who am I?' -- just for play. This is the card that came off the top, and I laughed aloud when I saw it! The Hanged Man is definitely descriptive of me -- someone hanging around, waiting for some insight, not trying to force things. It's especially apropos as I am currently taking a Sabbatical from work!

This was a good trip for me...I am taking time off from work, and I needed to do another trip out of the country. I needed the 'disruption' of not being able to understand the language...I needed the 'disruption' of not being comfortable. I needed to learn to exercise my caution again. I needed to mind my Ps & Qs again as I interacted with another culture.

(Actually, I take 1 thing back -- I WAS able to read many of the signs, and understand maybe 20% of what was being said, just because I can speak a little Portuguese!)

The proprietors' of the guest house were lovely souls, and you can see the 2 of them here as we say our final goodbyes and as he is giving us a gift of some crystals to take back home with us --


Final goodbyes -- I think there were 1 or 2 of us not here --

What I Lost

I lose something in every international trip. I'm not sure why, and it's not some deep, emotional thing -- it's usually a very tangible item. For example, in Brazil, I set aside some really nice hand-painted souvenirs that I bought for people, and then forgot to re-pack them! So everyone got airport keychains as souvenirs from that trip, lol!

In this instance...I lost something on Day 1! I was in the airport where I was supposed to meet my group, and I went to an airport ATM. When I travel, I use a separate travel account at a different financial institution. This is something that I do in case of 'skimmers' at the ATM, so that if my account is compromised, then it doesn't cause any problems with my primary financial institution.

In this case at the ATM, I asked for MX$4500, which is about US$250. I got my money, and then my receipt and walked away. What did I lose? The card itself! The machine was one of the old style machines that gives you the card last, so I forgot about it!

There were 2 additional transactions at the ATM for about MX$1000 -- about US$57, so I imagine someone walked up behind me (perhaps watching me all along?), and conducted 2 transactions. And perhaps the ATM requires a password after 3 transactions? Who knows why there were only 2 additionals.

As the group was gathering, I suddenly realized I no longer had the ATM card, and I realized what I had done. So from the airport on day 1, I called that bank and got the card cancelled! The bank eventually credited the 2 fraudulent transactions so no harm no foul from my perspective.

But what a way to start the adventure!

I was surprised by the variety of murals that are still on the walls at various places we visited. Many of these were not part of the main Teotihuacán site, and many of them are in pretty bad shape, some still exposed to the elements. I believe that many of the murals have been transferred to museums for safekeeping.

A friend thought this one looked like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, and I don't disagree!


The one below is said to represent human genitals, and I could clearly see the Fallopian tubes...but I had to ask about the others. I was told they are stylized testes -- or like the vas deferens --

The day we climbed the Pyramid of the Sun was also the balloon ride day. So we left the guest house at 6:15AM for the balloons, came back and had breakfast and crashed for a 1/2 hour or so, and then off we went back to Teo!

Even though there were several more levels on the Sun Pyramid, I found it easier to climb than the Moon. For 1 reason: The Moon was the first that I climbed and at first, I was not sure how to handle the steep steps. I eventually learned that going up, I would lean very far forward, and actually touch the step above as a way to steady myself. Coming down, I learned to either walk in a sideways-zigzag down, if there was open space on the stairs, meaning I was facing to the side, and moving forward a bit each time I went down a step -OR- I just went directly down but sideways. Partly that is because I have a weak knee, but also, the steps were just steep and I had a heavy-ish backpack on!

The story the leader told was of seeing a woman once, probably from Mexico City, arrive in stiletto heels and a white tube dress, who climbed the Pyramid of the Moon as easy as if she were out for an every day stroll! Very impressive and with lots of style!

The leader asked us to pick someone to climb the Sun Pyramid with, presumably to call for help if we fell or something. By this time in the trip, I had already buddy-ed up with a particular guy for these kinds of activities, and this same guy and I ended up hanging out in the airport on the way home since we had the same flight back to the states -- it turned out we traveled well together.

We climbed and climbed again, rested at a level, then climbed and climbed again. I was somewhat out of breath, but it wasn't too bad. There were butterflies at the top -- the leader said they were drawn to the energy of the pyramid, but I suspect it was the wildflowers growing on the sides of the pyramid.

Lots of space to walk around on the top level, and there is a further climb of jumbled rock / concrete to climb to the 'very top'. This is where we ran into a dude from Italy, who had already pegged us for gay because he asked if the buddy and I were together, and then proceeded to tell us how he was in a long distance relationship with a guy from Chicago. Diego was his name, and evidently Diego and his boyfriend travel transatlantically once a month to see each other -- that's a very hard thing to do, and I think eventually a couple has to decided to fish or cut bait. Diego was cute and softspoken. Seemed a nice guy!

This is a shot of the Sun Pyramid a couple days before, on a Sunday when the site is free for Mexican citizens -- it was PACKED! The shot is taken from one of the plazas in the center of Teotihuacán.


The day we were there to climb it, things were less crowded. Here is the approach --


The top was fairly crowded, but not horribly so. Here's a pic and of me and the buddy --


I found the view to be less impressive than the Moon. I think that's because it is slightly offset from the rest of the site. Here is a view (looking towards the Moon) from the Sun --


Compare that to this view from the Moon (looking towards the Sun), where you can see other buildings in the site --


So we climbed 2 actual pyramids -- the Moon and the Sun -- and we climbed what is termed the 'citadel' up one side and down the other to get to the foot of Quetalcoatl.

So, my bucket list item of seeing pyramids is definitely checked off!

Room and board was included in the price we paid to attend this trip. We stayed in a place called the Dreaming House -- the proprietor and his wife were very good people, and we were well treated and fed the entire time we were there. The man is an artist, and I bought several souvenirs from his shop.

The guest house was actually walkable to the pyramids site, but the roads were not great for walking -- both from a security standpoint, and also from a muddy standpoint. Also, once you got to the site, there is a ton of walking. The Dreaming House provided transportation each day to where we were going.

Cute courtyard -








Huge Century Plants --


Cute room --




Remember toilet paper does not go in the toilet, but in the trash can next to it --


One thing to keep in mind...this guest house is about simplfication, and no distractions. So there is no TV in the room. And there is only hot water in the shower, not the sink. I rather enjoyed the room -- except for maybe the TP thing, lol!

Our last night at the Dreaming House, there was a celebration of the Lady of Carmen, who is evidently the patron saint of the Meatizus -- mixed race people -- of Mexico. (Brazilian Portuguese also has that word, but it is Mestiços in Portuguese.)

First we were given these sort of crosses -- they had a word for them, which started with an X, but I can't remember right now. There's a picture of the Lady, and a bag of bread, which we could eat later. We danced a conga line round and round the compound with these crosses bobbing up and down...then the main event started.


The Lady was positioned in the courtyard to face El Toro -- the Bull -- 3 times. Each of the 3 Toros (someone who has put on the Toro costume) lights up the fireworks attached to his costume, and charges the Virgin (our Lady of Carmen) while selected women stand to guard the Virgin and withstand the sparks, and while the crowd runs away so as not to get burned. After the attached fireworks burn out, Toro bows before the Lady.

Here is a video of one of the 3 Toros. The reason for pointing the phone down 1/2 way into the video is because the crowd was pressing into me as they ran away from the fireworks sparks!

So let's talk about the group I was there with. It was a New Age group that leads (mostly) gay and lesbians on travel adventures. Fits very nicely with me and my desire to travel, yes?

The folks in attendance were all very nice. The leader got us into various sites which were not open to the public (or had public sites closed just for us) by showing the right amount of 'gratitude' (read: the right amount of pesos) -- palm to palm gratitude. The place we stayed was also nice -- more about that later.

But one problem I had was that we had a nightly check-in after the days activities, and that check-in really was a group therapy session. The leader encouraged people to talk about their feelings, and why they had come to Teotihuacan, and what issues 'Teo' might be able to help them with. There was lots of talk of energy, which is not too far off from my own belief system, but the group therapy was not something I was prepared for nor wanted. Think: lots of tears and discussion.

Another thing that bugged me was the at the leader conducted very visible (and for me quite uncomfortable) group ceremonies at each of the sites. For example, consider that at the top of the sun pyramid, all 12 of us gathered in a tight hug of a circle to pray to the Divine Mother (Earth), and sing and chant Om...again, not beyond the pale belief-wise for me, but I found those activities uncomfortable, and I'm afraid my energy was a distraction from the group.

It felt very religious, in a syncretic way, and I don't really want another layer of religion. I already have the layer I grew up with, and I use Buddhism as a sort of tool-set to help me work out emotional stuff.

The example I came up with for how to explain my discomfort is this: what if you had some problems you wanted to talk about in group therapy, but you were placed into a religious group therapy for a religion you didn't follow? Let's say it was a Hindu group, and as people are discussing their problems, the group responds with talk about Parvati or Shiva? It was kinda like that, except it was more talk of energy and the Divine Mother, etc.

Again, nice people -- just the group check-in thing was not for me!

Back from a week in Mexico visiting the pyramids at Teotihaucan to kick off Sabbatical 4! Teotihaucan is about an hour outside of Mexico City. It was my first trip to Mexico, and it was a good, if a bit odd sometimes.

I met some good souls...what I described to my Brazilian friend as 'gente boa' -- good people. I remembered what it was like to be in a place where the sewer system can't handle toilet paper, so you have to put the dirty paper in a trash can next to the toilet. I remembered what it was like to understand almost nothing of the speech around you. I remembered how it was to have something negative happen on the trip but to have been prepared for it!

I met a culture I had never known.

I prayed very uncomfortably and visibly on the top of a pyramid with a group of New Agers. I met a guy from Italy who was in a long distance dating relationship with a guy in the US. I ate prickly pear. I participated in a festival for the Virgin of Carmen. I climbed several fricken' pyramids! I had brunch with myself in a dream. I had a quick visit from Sr. Montezuma. I made at least 1 new friend. I went on a hot air balloon ride.

I sent this picture to a friend as how I felt about all the Spanish! I was pleased at how far my Portuguese got me - I could read the placards in the museum, and generally understand signs, etc. But it only got me so far!


I'll post some more when I have had a little sleep...

It's been a long time since I posted! Mostly it's because work has been such a drag...which causes me to come home tired and irritable, and I don't feel like posting.

So.....
So....
So...
So..

I gave my notice. I have about 2 more weeks, and then I'm free! At least for a while.

I have a checkered work history, lol! Three times, I've taken what I called a 'Sabbatical' -- and the last one in 2015 was really, really nice, and I did NOT want to go back to work! Sadly, I'm not independently wealthy, so off to work I went!

This time, I'm not sure it's really a Sabbatical because it's not as planned as usual, but I still intend to enjoy myself. The first order of business is a trip to Mexico to see some Toltec pyramids!

Then, I'll goof off a bit while I look for another post. It will be VERY nice not to feel so irritable all the time!