Sunday Fun Day Uno

Fending for myself food wise today:  I had cereal for breakfast, because that's how I roll!  I had lunch at noon and dinner at six!  What's up now Mexico!?  I went to the cafeteria for lunch to a restaurant that had both Spanish and English on the menu.  I had chips with guacamole, shrimp and rice with a Squirt, which is a really popular soda here.  Cookies for dinner.  (See what happens when I have to feed myself!?)

Today, I woke up late, around nine and showered using the "hot" handle.  Today was a good temperature.  I'm starting to feel much better from being sick.  I probably could have managed going on a bike ride into Guadalajara this morning but oh well.  Better safe than sorry, and there are more Sunday's coming at which time I can go.  Church bells were going off about every 30 minutes until 1pm today. It wasn't a pretty sound, either. It sounded like a hyper small child got ahold of the bell and was ringing it without rhyme or reason. I'm guessing the bells were going off because there is a "big" Catholic church here and it is Sunday, after all.  I say "big" in quotes because it's not compared to the mega-churches in the United States.

I don't know why but I get stared at more than normal if I walk around in basketball shorts or running shorts. It's too hot to wear jeans all the time though, and I'm not a fan of regular shorts, so I went on a mission to buy a dress.  Mission failed.  I will try again later.  When I was walking, though, I saw the Mexican Army which was rather frightening at first but it turns out there was just a ceremony of some sort in El Centro.  El Centro was a very busy place today.

It's weird being white down here.  White with curly blonde hair and blue eyes.  I get looked at a lot.  I don't think people are being racist or anything but they sure do like to look.  Hopefully I'll get used to it soon because it's kind of uncomfortable now. 

I've realized that I have no idea what car this family owns.  Maybe they don't actually own one because there is a different car parked inside every night.  One time it's a BMW, the next a Mercedes, and last night a yellow taxi Jeep.  Also, the kid that I thought was the son of Claudia is not, and her son is a different person I've seen around a couple of times that is 26 like me.  He acts like a boy though so we'll call him 22.  We were chatting in the living-room for a long time while I was doing my homework which was fun.  Eventually we had to use a translator on his phone because we already covered everything I knew how to say in Spanish.  He knows a couple of words in English but not many.  I met his friend, Hector, who is also 26 and we'll call him 26.  He is very nice and speaks a lot of English.  Not "fluent" perse, but pretty fluent in my book, because we can converse relatively easily.  I went to his house with Claudia's son tonight and we hung out on his patio for a couple of hours.  He lives towards Chapala about 15 minutes away and next to a very, very famous singer in Mexico (I don't remember his name.).  The singer owns a lot of land and has a huge house.  We got a ladder to climb up on and had a peek over into his yard.  He has a lot of miniature ponies and his own church. 

When I was at Hector's house, it started raining a lot.  And then some more.  And then it rained even harder.  And when I thought it couldn't rain any harder, it did.  And again after that.  Everything turned into a huge mud puddle and I got a little cold for the first time since I've been here.  A true tropical rain shower.  It was a good evening and I'm happy I've made a couple of friends to go do stuff with.  They both have girlfriends and hopefully we will all go do something together next weekend and I'll have two more friends!

Things I've noticed/learned:
-In general, Mexican people are really short when compared to people in the United States.
-Pemex is the only gas offered in Mexico and at the gas stations there are no prices posted on the signs, which I guess they can do if it's the ONLY gas offered.

Estoy candsada.  Buenas noches!  (I'm tired.  Goodnight!)