Pancakes with caramel spread for breakfast. Yum!!
Two new students, both from outside of the U.S.! One girl my age from Saint Lucia named Charlene. We'll call her 22. One new guy in his early 30's from Taiwan named Rafael. They start classes on Monday I believe.
I invited Janine (the really nice new lady) and Charlene to go to the movies after lunch. We took a bus to the mall, which had A/C!! First time I've been in A/C since I've been here. The mall was super American. The movie we watched was "The Place Beyond the Pines". It was really good.
Bradley has been ready to go home for about a week. I can't decide if I want to stay longer or not. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity the most that I can but I might be kind of over it at the same time. Speaking of Bradley, he told me a super funny story about Ming. When Ming first came to the U.S. he barely spoke any English. He was invited to a wedding and asked to give a toast. His English teacher gave him a cheat sheet to help him out. At the end of the toast he raised his glass and said to the bride and groom "Up your bottoms!" instead of "Bottoms up!". Hilarious.
Friday...
Friday afternoon class was again, a test of patience, but I did get to hear Ming sing in Chinese and it was so beautiful. He is an amazing singer.
After school I moved into a new house. I moved into a house that before, I had taken pictures of the outside because I thought it was such a pretty home. It's very large, nice, and authentic. My room is upstairs off of the main house with its own bathroom which gives it a sort of an apartment feel. The lady who owns the house is older but seems very nice. She has a nephew my age that just moved in with her about a week ago. His name is Augustin and we'll call him 28. I think I will like living here a lot.
In the evening I went to downtown Guadalajara to meet with the conversation exchange guy I met with before named Isais, the postal worker. We stayed down in Guadalajara for a little bit and then came back to Tlaquepaque and enjoyed some night life. We got drunk. Who needs to speak the same language when you've had a few too many?
Saturday...
Sick day. Let's be honest, hung over. I felt really guilty when I came to eat lunch with my new family today because everything I ate I couldn't keep down. So at lunch, after she worked hard in the kitchen cooking, I only had about two bites. She told me she can make something different if I don't like it and I had to try to assure her it wasn't that and it was just that I was nauseous. It was not a good situation.
There was a party at night that a lot of people from the school were going to go to. Here a party isn't necessarily at a house but includes going out to the bar. The school owner and his wife like to party hard on the weekends and stay out until the sun rises. I had enough of that the night before and so I just ended up resting a lot and hanging out with Augustin a little bit in the house. He's super nice and he speaks in English very well. He moved here from a city 40 minutes outside of Mexico City, 5 hours from here, to find work. He, like me, also has a degree in Business Administration but he has experience in purchasing of which I know very little.
Sunday...
Today I woke up early feeling much better. I was starving my face off, obviously, so I walked to El Centro but not much was open that early on a Sunday. I got a chicken sandwich and some iced Chai Tea. When I returned to the house Augustin was up and about and asked if I wanted to do something today. Yes Please! So we went to the town of Tequila which was about an hour away. It was a fun adventure. We did it the "cheap" way, because it wasn't already cheap enough or anything. We took a bus to the downtown bus station in Guadalajara. Apparently the yellow seats on the bus are for old people only. Even if all the seats are taken but some yellow ones are open, you're not supposed to sit there. Good to know! A little late, but oh well. The bus station was of course super ghetto, as are most bus terminals, right? On the outside there was an old man, a bag of bones, laying passed out on the sidewalk with his pants down. He had defecated himself. It was smelly and gross but no one seemed to take notice of him. I was surprised.
The drive to Tequila was really pretty. We passed a lot of mountains and we got to ride on a super comfortable tour bus. Tequila is the town where Tequila is made. We did a tour in the oldest tequila distillery in Latin America, the Jose Cuervo distillery. They try to get you to taste the different stages of the tequila process but smelling it was enough for me. So gross. Before and after the tour we walked around the town a lot. I got an Horchata afterwards which is my favorite drink ever. I had a lot of fun today.
Monday...
Breakfast: Eggs, beans, fruit, tortilla. Lunch: beans, hamburger toppings (I see this served a lot on lunch plates - onion, tomato and lettuce), tortillas of course, juice (the juice here hasn't been chewy! and you can tell it's not from concentrate - delicious!), soup like spaghetti-o's but letters instead and with chunks of tofu, and fried breaded chicken.
School was good. I got to play a board game similar to Monopoly in my first class, and the second one was good too. After school my built-in friend at my house and I went for a walk to the mall so I could look at dresses. While we were walking, a couple of times he would stop and literally, physically move me to the inside of the street. I forget that it's not OK for me to walk on the outside of the street. Unfortunately it started to rain, a lot! We were completely soaked by the time we got to the mall but it was a lot of fun! We were completely soaked on our legs and feet walking back home too.
Things I've Noticed/Learned:
-PDAs (public displays of affection) are totally normal here. I see people making out all over the place. Of course there is no groping but it is really refreshing to see people not be ashamed of showing each other affection. And people walking by of course don't take notice and make a spectacle of it.
-Rumors have been confirmed. Taco stands on the streets sell dog in their tacos.
-Lunch breaks are about 2 hours here for businesses. It's much more laid back.
Bradley has been ready to go home for about a week. I can't decide if I want to stay longer or not. I would like to take advantage of this opportunity the most that I can but I might be kind of over it at the same time. Speaking of Bradley, he told me a super funny story about Ming. When Ming first came to the U.S. he barely spoke any English. He was invited to a wedding and asked to give a toast. His English teacher gave him a cheat sheet to help him out. At the end of the toast he raised his glass and said to the bride and groom "Up your bottoms!" instead of "Bottoms up!". Hilarious.
Friday...
Friday afternoon class was again, a test of patience, but I did get to hear Ming sing in Chinese and it was so beautiful. He is an amazing singer.
After school I moved into a new house. I moved into a house that before, I had taken pictures of the outside because I thought it was such a pretty home. It's very large, nice, and authentic. My room is upstairs off of the main house with its own bathroom which gives it a sort of an apartment feel. The lady who owns the house is older but seems very nice. She has a nephew my age that just moved in with her about a week ago. His name is Augustin and we'll call him 28. I think I will like living here a lot.
In the evening I went to downtown Guadalajara to meet with the conversation exchange guy I met with before named Isais, the postal worker. We stayed down in Guadalajara for a little bit and then came back to Tlaquepaque and enjoyed some night life. We got drunk. Who needs to speak the same language when you've had a few too many?
Saturday...
Sick day. Let's be honest, hung over. I felt really guilty when I came to eat lunch with my new family today because everything I ate I couldn't keep down. So at lunch, after she worked hard in the kitchen cooking, I only had about two bites. She told me she can make something different if I don't like it and I had to try to assure her it wasn't that and it was just that I was nauseous. It was not a good situation.
There was a party at night that a lot of people from the school were going to go to. Here a party isn't necessarily at a house but includes going out to the bar. The school owner and his wife like to party hard on the weekends and stay out until the sun rises. I had enough of that the night before and so I just ended up resting a lot and hanging out with Augustin a little bit in the house. He's super nice and he speaks in English very well. He moved here from a city 40 minutes outside of Mexico City, 5 hours from here, to find work. He, like me, also has a degree in Business Administration but he has experience in purchasing of which I know very little.
Sunday...
Today I woke up early feeling much better. I was starving my face off, obviously, so I walked to El Centro but not much was open that early on a Sunday. I got a chicken sandwich and some iced Chai Tea. When I returned to the house Augustin was up and about and asked if I wanted to do something today. Yes Please! So we went to the town of Tequila which was about an hour away. It was a fun adventure. We did it the "cheap" way, because it wasn't already cheap enough or anything. We took a bus to the downtown bus station in Guadalajara. Apparently the yellow seats on the bus are for old people only. Even if all the seats are taken but some yellow ones are open, you're not supposed to sit there. Good to know! A little late, but oh well. The bus station was of course super ghetto, as are most bus terminals, right? On the outside there was an old man, a bag of bones, laying passed out on the sidewalk with his pants down. He had defecated himself. It was smelly and gross but no one seemed to take notice of him. I was surprised.
The drive to Tequila was really pretty. We passed a lot of mountains and we got to ride on a super comfortable tour bus. Tequila is the town where Tequila is made. We did a tour in the oldest tequila distillery in Latin America, the Jose Cuervo distillery. They try to get you to taste the different stages of the tequila process but smelling it was enough for me. So gross. Before and after the tour we walked around the town a lot. I got an Horchata afterwards which is my favorite drink ever. I had a lot of fun today.
Monday...
Breakfast: Eggs, beans, fruit, tortilla. Lunch: beans, hamburger toppings (I see this served a lot on lunch plates - onion, tomato and lettuce), tortillas of course, juice (the juice here hasn't been chewy! and you can tell it's not from concentrate - delicious!), soup like spaghetti-o's but letters instead and with chunks of tofu, and fried breaded chicken.
School was good. I got to play a board game similar to Monopoly in my first class, and the second one was good too. After school my built-in friend at my house and I went for a walk to the mall so I could look at dresses. While we were walking, a couple of times he would stop and literally, physically move me to the inside of the street. I forget that it's not OK for me to walk on the outside of the street. Unfortunately it started to rain, a lot! We were completely soaked by the time we got to the mall but it was a lot of fun! We were completely soaked on our legs and feet walking back home too.
Things I've Noticed/Learned:
-PDAs (public displays of affection) are totally normal here. I see people making out all over the place. Of course there is no groping but it is really refreshing to see people not be ashamed of showing each other affection. And people walking by of course don't take notice and make a spectacle of it.
-Rumors have been confirmed. Taco stands on the streets sell dog in their tacos.
-Lunch breaks are about 2 hours here for businesses. It's much more laid back.
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