possibly not a surprise...

but yesterday i quit my job. i had been planning to line up something else before i put in my notice, but since i'm supposed to give a bimester's notice (which is two months - but i can't give notice halfway through a bimester) it just wasn't going to be possible. i'm looking to teach in a bilingual high school next year, and they're not really hiring at this point. they still have another month of class and then they have almost 2 months off. so my last day at the instituto britanico will be december 14th. then i'll be hanging out at the beach for a week. and then coming home for a couple of weeks. hopefully by then i'll have a job lined up. that's the plan anyway.

in other news i just paid my first cell phone bill, which i had been waiting patiently for, since i wasn't really sure how much i was really using it (but it seemed like a lot). well, they don't really mail bills here - because they don't really mail anything (i mean my "address" is from this store, 100 meters south, 400 meters west....). so basically you get a text message that tells you it's time to pay your bill. and you either go to a supermarket or pharmacy (these are the places you pay your bills - everything, phone, internet, electricity, water...) or depending on your bank you can pay online. well i had a friend help me set up my online banking yesterday, because apparently my bank does online bill pay (all my utilities are included in my rent, so i don't ever deal with that). entered my phone number and my information came up. my bill was ¢4,545. a little less than $10. :P

and the last thing i have for today is a picture. of things that come in plastic packages. i was terribly amused by this when i first arrived, but really it's for the best here. because they don't really do recycling (at least not very much of it) it's probably better that they have things in plastic bags instead of bottles and jars - less garbage. so here we have: spaghetti sauce, salsa, sour cream, mayonnaise, and ketchup.