Day 3

I'm very tired this evening.  This constant heat is taxing.

I woke up to a traffic jam this morning.  I don't understand why everyone here feels the need to constantly honk.  It doesn't make the traffic move any faster and it is so loud and very irritating. 

Had pancakes with some sort of sugary caramel spread over the top with coffee.  Food coma.  I wanted to climb back onto my bed afterwards instead of go to class.  Claudia (the mother) and I talked a lot this morning.  Apparently I can converse about directions and activities to do in the villages nearby very well.

School was good.  My first teacher barely knows any English.  I've probably heard her say about 10 words in English, total.  It's amazing that I can understand what's going on most of the time, but I think she sees a blank stare on my face many times during our two hours together.  Today, she wanted to move a picture that was hanging on the wall and kept peeking behind it before she moved it.  I wondered what in the world she was doing but it turns out she was making sure there were no cockroaches behind it.  (Gross, right?)  My second teacher is young, energetic and informal.  We converse a lot in Spanish and she tells me how Spanish is really spoken... She tells me a lot of funny stories in Spanish that happen to her.  It is fun.

I was supposed to go with two girls from my school  to another village close by called Tonala, today.  But it turns out that the giant farmer's market we were going to go to is not until tomorrow.  I told Claudia I wouldn't be home for lunch, though, so I just walked to the center of Tlaquepaque and found a restaurant in which to eat instead.  There is a cafeteria which is a place with many, many chairs and several restaurants surrounding them.  (Maybe about 20?)  I don't really know all of the words on the menu or how to order yet so I just found words I knew and pointed them out.

After I walked around for about an hour I came back home and showered.  There hasn't been hot water in the afternoon two days in a row (maybe there never is) but I am OK with that because it is so refreshing!  As soon as I get out, I begin to sweat again anyway. 

Today, there was ice in the freezer!!  Joy!  I asked if it was purified and Claudia said it was, however, I don't know how because it looks like it's an automatic ice maker.  I used it anyway so I guess if I get sick I'll know not to use it again. 

Claudia and her daughter have been working very hard all day at baking and decorating their pastries.  Everything looks so yummy and is so detailed.  The house has smelled delicious for two days now.

I was told about a big park (5 pesos to get in) in Guadalajara that is about 15 minutes walking distance that has a nice low-impact running track.  I plan to go check it out tomorrow afternoon if I don't go to Tonala.  I'm hoping there is a basketball court there so I can get in a pick-up game.

Just went down to see if there was some dinner laying out and I found Claudia dancing in the kitchen to American music. Nothing else, just dancing.  Happy family I'm with.  (There is quite a bit of American music around here.)  Dinner was cold tuna salad but with jalapeno juice spread over it. 

Things I've noticed/learned:
-There are no drains in the street but people are sweeping them everyday.  I wonder what happens when it rains.
-In the past, I've noticed that foreigners don't understand the American bubble.  My personal space is much larger than those from Europe and other places. Mexicans are normal with this, however, the pigeons here don't care.  They fly literally about 2 feet from your head or body.  It's frightening.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get pooped on by one before I leave just because there are so many; the odds are not in my favor.
-I used to wonder why foreigners who don't know much English would only talk in present tense.  Now I get it, because that's all I know how to speak in Spanish.
-Wouter (the school owner) has a dog.  People here mostly just take in street dogs and start feeding them in order to obtain a pet.  "His" dog sleeps at their house and comes when it is hungry but just wanders around during the day.  Before a special event (like an important political person visiting) they will round up the street dogs and kill them.
-There is a cardinal (Juan Sandoval Iniguez) that lives right here in Tlaquepaque.
- I think I see white people everywhere but it turns out to be Mexicans.  They are very light skinned in this area.  (The only white people I've seen are at school.)