Wow. I haven't updated at all in the past - almost - week. Oops. It's just that not much has been actually happening. There's been a lot more thought than actual action. And that thought has, finally, come to a definitive conclusion: I'm heading back to the United States.

I decided the matter a few days ago, realizing that I was not going to find a good situation here in Xalapa very quickly and that I would probably be best off returning to the United States and stablizing for a while before heading out "into the world" again. In the end, I'm low on money, energy and enthusiasm. I feel that I need to recharge, in every sense, in a safe place. Can't get much safer than Wichita.

So, the plan is thus: After getting my deposit back tommorrow afternoon (that the gods let it be so...), I'll email home and tell Mom and Bill that we're a go. At that point, Bill will take his rental car and start his long drive down South. I will pack up and prepare to leave. Friday morning, I will get up early, go to CAXA (Xalapa's bus station) and get a bus to Mexico City. Arriving in Mexico City, I will buy my ticket to Ciudad Juarez (on the border with El Paso), and give Bill a call on the cell phone, letting him know what time I plan to arrive in Ciudad Juarez. I then proceed to ride the bus for an ungodly amount of time, arriving in Ciudad Juarez sometime on Saturday. I cross the border, meet up with Bill, who awaits me at the Greyhound terminal.

I'm kissing the saint I've got around my neck as I write out this plan...