Se fin.

It's official: Oaxaca XIII is officially over. I'm almost home and I need to wrap this up, but I've been thinking for days about what I want to say and I'm still not sure.

Let me start with the departure scene in Oaxaca and take it from there. After a last trip to the organic market for breakfast, Bill and Maria walk me to the bus terminal, where James, Rob and Shayna are already waiting. I'm glad to see Shayna there, as only two hours earlier she had been comatose and missed our market date. As we prepare to board, I hug Bill and Maria goodbye and finally burst into tears, as I knew I inevitably would. I should have warned them ahead of time, but I didn't have it in me: I'm a crier, I can't help it. After losing a battle with the bus attendant, I'm forced to put my precious calavera under the bus and I board, close behind James and Rob. One last wave to Bill and Maria through the window as I take my seat. But where is Shayna?

Outside the bus (and out of my view), Shayna is having her own battle with the bus attendant. They seem to have objected to the bottle of mezcal in her carry-on, despite numerous assurances that it's not meant to be consumed on the bus. The fact that she's clearly still intoxicated  from last night is probably not working in her favour. They want the mezcal to go under the bus, but she no longer cares and leaves it instead on the curb. As she turns to wave at Bill and Maria, they both look back over their shoulders, pretending not to the know who the drunk girl outside is waving at. She finally boards the bus and hugs me for the next half hour as I cry all the way out of Oaxaca.

The last month was exhausting and now I'm sitting in the Mexico City airport, anxious to get home. We tried to explain to someone at the hostel why we were so tired: trabajo y fiestas, trabajo y fiestas, y mas trabajo. The seminar was exhausting and I got nothing else done, but no-one else did either. Long days were followed by long nights, staying out til midnight and getting up again at six. But it was worth every minute and I wouldn't give it back for anything. It's a rare thing when you meet someone that you connect with immediately and on a profound level, and never before have I made so many close friendships in one place. Over the course of the last week I've had to constantly remind myself that this isn't the end, it's the beginning.

As I tried to decide what to write here, I was once again trying to figure out how to cover another week's worth of events - a curandera, the botanical gardens, lucha libre, the good-bye dance party, and three crazy days in DF - but I'm going to leave all of that alone. If you want stories, you know where to reach me. All you really need to know is that Oaxaca was an incredible experience and that, on some level, I'm going home a different person than I was when I left.

To close, I'll leave you with a couple quotes that I felt the need to write down over the last week. I wish I had recorded more, but oh well.

Hasta luego.

"I wanna be put in a quesillo prison and have to eat my way out." - Al Nochecito

"Hopefully we get diarrhea." -Shayna

"No te ahuites Micheal. Eres el mas guapo." - Martin