New House New Friend

Thursday...

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. 

Week 3

It's like a giant insect Apocalypse lately.  If you know me, you know this means I'm in a living nightmare.  (It's not really THAT bad, but there has been a lot more mosquitoes and BIG insects around lately.)  There was a GIANT dead cockroach in the kitchen sink at school all day.  Whenever I went to wash my hands I was sure it was going to come back alive and attack.

Other than bugs, it's been a pretty simple week.  Seems like just another school week like in college except I'm in Mexico.

Monday....

Breakfast: eggs and tomato     Lunch: meat and rice     Dinner: cereal

The handle for the hot water on the bathroom sink hasn't been working for a few days so I've been washing my face with cold water.  Recently I started brushing my teeth using tap water and so far I've remained healthy. 

There was a new lady in my class today named Janine.  She is 50 yrs old and super duper nice.  I like her a lot.  Unfortunately, she knows a lot less Spanish than I which prevented me from learning anything new today. After classes I asked the school owner, Wouter, to please sign me up for one-on-one classes instead.  He said he would.  It's more expensive but I think it will be worth it. 

After lunch I went to a cafe with the two new girls who arrived this week, both 50 yrs old, and just like Janine, Nancy is very nice.  She's from Canada but is only here for one week.  I think she is just trying it out and if she likes it she'll come back for longer another time.  We each studied our own things and drank coffee and talked.  The interesting thing is that it seems the majority of people who come to learn Spanish are ESL teachers.  I'm in the minority. 

I take refuge in hanging out with dogs and watching sports.  Both don't require that we speak the same language and so it's a nice rest from reality.  I watched a documentary about the 2006 NFC championship game between the Colts & Patriots with Brady vs. Manning.  It was a good conclusion to another good day in Mexico. 


Tuesday....

Bug infestation has risen its stakes.  There are now giant flying bug/wasp things.  It's not looking good for my survival here.  One landed on my back and another one I had to get out of the shower before I could get clean.

Today I still had group classes.  My one-on-one classes start again tomorrow.  

This bed is killing my back.  I cannot wait to be back in a normal bed again.  One that doesn't feel as though I'm sleeping directly on a box-spring covered by merely a sheet. 

Tonight I went to the cafeteria in El Centro to have chips with guacamole for dinner and I ran into Bradley, the guy who arrived the same week I did.  It was nice to hang out and talk.  He was a pastor for a Vineyard church for 32 years and so we got to have some good conversation and I really enjoyed my evening. 


Wednesday...

Some kind of bug has eaten a hole all the way through my roll of toilet-paper.  What kind of forsaken creature does that!  Blech!

I think my head might explode for over-learning today.  All circuits are on the verge of being fried.  Today was definitely a take-a-nap-after-school kind of day.  I'm very happy about being able to learn so much information.  I look forward to being able to master the lessons once I get time back in the states.  I think I'll sign up for a Spanish class at a local college/university and then join some sort of group that meets and chats a couple of times a week.   I might have to take an English class once I am finished also because I cannot spell in English at all anymore   (Thank goodness for spell-check!) and grammar is quickly falling in line.  Basically what is happening is my English words are getting said with an accent, getting spelled phonetically and adjectives are switching positions with nouns.  It's silly. 

Tonight, I plan to Skype with my little sister in California and so I am happy to say that it will be another great conclusion to another good day in Mexico.


Things I've Noticed/Learned:
-The observance of which side of a man a lady needs to walk on to be considered "not for sale" is still practiced at night in certain areas of Guadalajara.  (FYI:  Ladies on the inside, hookers street-side.)

Hasta luego!

Sunday Fun Day Dos!

Sunday...

The Sunday morning church bell ringer needs to be fired.  It's not a pretty sound, at all.

I'm always the first one awake in this house but today I was by far and I didn't get up until 9 a.m..  I think everyone must have partied a little too hard last night.  I had cereal for breakfast because I was feeding myself today.  Unfortunately, today there was no purified water in the house.

I really enjoyed myself today!  I studied all morning and then went to a park all afternoon.  I had heard about  a big park from one of the English teachers at my school.  It was exactly 30 minutes walking distance from my house.  You have to pay 4 pesos to get into the park which is nice because it keeps a lot of bums out and people who are up to no good.  The park itself was pretty cool.  It had a 717 meter (.44 mile) low impact track that is mostly shaded by trees.  Needless to say, I was in running heaven.  After I ran for some time I went to watch a soccer game that was going on.  It was fun.  A couple of players got into a shoving match that lead to several players fighting which lead to a couple of mothers shoving each other.  I got to practice listening to lots of bad words again, but this time they all made sense to me.  Mexicans are like pit bulls, they just don't back down.  It made me miss summer basketball when games were intense.  The park also had a BMX course, a soccer field both indoor and one outdoor, four wall-ball courts that a lot of people were waiting in line to use, a few basketball courts that were used for soccer (not cool man), three pitching nets, and several slides and lots of playground equipment.

The walk to the park was interesting.  It's so dangerous crossing streets here.  It's definitely not a place for my step-mom to go running.  Just kidding, but seriously it's not a place for people to run which could help explain why I haven't seen a single runner.  Also, there were no street signs on the way to the park except at major intersections.  I don't understand how people know where they are going unless they all have a global positioning system which I doubt.  Guadalajara quickly gets pretty dirty and ghetto and a little sketchy as soon as you are outside of downtown Taquepaque.  There is trash everywhere, graffiti on EVERYthing, and bad smells wafting up in my face every several yards.  It's a fun experience for me though.

For the rest of the night I plan to study and chill out.

Things I've noticed/learned:
-There are a lot of fairly decent cars here because they are easier and cheaper to get.
-People don't stop at stop-signs, ever.
-People keep their dogs on their roofs because there are no yards.
-Apparently the sewage doesn't flow much at night and kind of settles in the pipes so every morning when I walk into the bathroom it is almost unbearable.  I don't know if that's something a person could ever get used to.

Que te vaya bien!  (Have a good one!)

The Simple Life

I like living in Mexico because it is so simple for me.  I'm sure if I lived here for more than a few months things would become regular again, but for now my life is very basic.  I wake up, shower, eat breakfast, go to school, eat lunch, nap, work out, shower, study/work, dinner, study, bed.  Repeat.  Throw in a couple exploration adventures here and there, and that's my simple life.  I think not knowing a ton of people or having any real substantial relationships helps keep it simple, also not owning a phone helps a lot.  As nice and necessary as simple is sometimes, I don't doubt that I'll be ready to get back to "real-life" when the time comes.

When I go out at night or when I stay in, my preferred perfume is bug-spay. The mosquitoes can get kinda bad here.  Last night was fun.  I was glad I had something to dress up for finally.  We stayed out until about 11:30.  It was less like a concert and more like a band playing in a bar.  Actually, it was exactly like a band playing in a bar...  because we went to a bar and that's where the band was playing.  They were very good and I really enjoyed it.  They were a cover-band and played American classical rock songs like Hotel California.  Some songs they sung in Spanish, some were in English, some were in both.  The best part of the night was that I made a female friend!  And she is close to my age!   She's only 20 actually, but the way she acts, we'll call her 24.  She teaches English at my school.  Her name is Megan.  Megan from Manchester.  Her English accent rubs off easily.  All English accents rub off easily, I think.  We plan to go shopping next week sometime and I will be on a mission to buy a dress and some sandals.

For breakfast I had sliced fruit.  I was relieved to find my plate under a screen cover so the flies couldn't get to it.  It is very disgusting to me that they leave food sitting out, not covered.  I'm sure this has to be some sort of health hazard especially with all of the flies.  They don't leave food out because they are lazy or unsanitary, because they are very sanitary people and Claudia mops and cleans daily; I think it's just different.  Also, there hasn't been any ice in the freezer for several days now which makes drinking water not as refreshing.  For lunch (and dinner because I didn't finish it) was tuna salad with crackers.

I didn't do a lot today.  Went out in the morning after breakfast and then studied ALL day.  No nap even.  I think I'm studying more now than I ever did in college. 

Hasta luego!  (Until next time!)

In the Routine

Thursday...

I've been trying very hard not to compare Mexico to the United States and to just accept it for what it is.  Same thing with the language.  When I don't compare Spanish to English, I comprehend the rules much faster and easier.  I enjoy learning Spanish a lot.  I also enjoy experiencing this culture, but at the end of the day I sure am glad that after my trip, I get to go back and live in the United States.  I'm very blessed to be one of the (few?) people that has many different opportunities to become successful in life.  Living in a "Third-World" or "developing" or "newly industrialized" country (whichever term meets your political correctness needs)  makes me even more grateful for the opportunities given to me. 

The fires back home have made the news here apparently, because both Claudia and Wouter talked to me about it. 

Mexican time:  I thought I would have a hard time adjusting to Mexican time but I've come to enjoy it.  It's much more laid back.  For example, class starts at 9 a.m. officially, but I kind of just go upstairs when I feel ready, teachers trickle in and get coffee around 9 a.m..  There is never a rush to start something right on time.  Except food, Claudia has been very prompt about when meals are served. 

Speaking of food, for breakfast I had quesadillas.  Lunch was gorditas and veggie soup with Squirt.  Gorditas are my new favorite Mexican food.  I've adjusted to the timing and size of the meals.  I'm no longer starving my face off by 2 p.m. lunch time, or super hungry for dinner. 

Today was super calm.  Not much to report.  School, nap, exercise, shower, study/work, dinner (which was cereal of course) and more sleep.  This is my normal routine here and I kind of dig it

Things I've noticed/learned:
-Children are permitted by their parents to stay up MUCH later here.  I'm pretty sure I go to bed before most of the children ages 6 and up.
-Ming said you aren't supposed to tip the taxi drivers but are supposed to tip at restaurants.  I'm going to need to consult a second source to verify this.


Friday...

Breakfast was normal food: eggs and hash browns.  Lunch was steak tacos with avocado and bean soup.  Chewy light brown juice to drink.

School was good.  I'm clicking much better with my afternoon teacher now.  Friday afternoon class was less fun this time.  Dealing with personalities is sometimes a hard thing to do.  Next week a new lady will be in my class.  She doesn't seem to know as much Spanish as I do, and I'm worried it will hold me back.  I've been developing my skills rapidly and I'd like to continue.  Possibly I will sign up for one-on-one tutoring if this is the case, but I'll give it a go on Monday to see.  Anyhow, I plan to study a lot this weekend.

I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon.  Back in the U.S. I very rarely nap but it's exhausting here.  Tonight I'm going to a concert in El Centro with some people at 9 p.m..  Isaias, my speaking partner, invited me to go.  I'm not sure if it was supposed to be just us, but I invited 3 people from my school who would like to go.  I say the more the merrier.

Things I've noticed/learned:
-I don't think I've mentioned, but there is no microwave in the house.  I would starve to death if there was no microwave in my house.
-All the food here is natural.  Very healthy, no additives or any of that junk.  I am super observant of this with my food and so in that manner, I'm in food heaven.
-There is a lot of gay people in Guadalajara which I was surprised about because this country is so traditional.  (It's like the San Fransisco of Mexico.)  Afterall, it is the second largest city in Mexico, it makes sense that it would be a little more modern.
-There are no dumpsters here and there and no one has an outside trash can.  Every morning people with a bell ringing walk on by pushing a big trashcan.  When you hear the bell you know it's time to take your trash out and give it to them.  It's 7 days a week. 

Que tengen un buen fin de la semana!  (Everyone have a good weekend!)

Hard to be a White Girl in Guadalajara

(Warning - this blog contains several Spanish cuss-words.  If you take offense to this, don't Google their meanings.  ...and also a couple in English.)


Tuesday...

Pancakes with caramel sauce for breakfast! Yumm.  A different form of chicken noodle soup for lunch: less soup, more noodle.  Snacks for dinner on the go.

Luz was my teacher in the morning.  She is my favorite teacher because she is young, and energized and has a huge personality.  It's fun to talk to her and hear her stories.  I had another new teacher in the afternoon too.

After lunch I met Ming at the school at 3:30.  We took a bus to downtown Guadalajara.  We had a poorly printed out map with us that was super faded and useless, so basically we didn't have a map.  We got a lot of practice asking for directions so that's good.  (Like 4 or 5 different times).  Ming is funny.  He's very, very nice and very, very Chinese.  Picture the most stereotypical Asian tourist you can.  Tivas, khakis, unaware of other people's personal space, sort of oblivious, taking pictures everywhere...  that is Ming.  He's been in America for 4 years I think.  Two for grad-school in CA, and two in KS. 

Guadalajara is cool, I guess.  It's just a giant Tlaquepaque but they sell more things in the same manner as boarder towns;  a little in your face at times.  For example, at stoplights there are people selling gum in the median and they walk right up to your car and put a pack resting on your driver's side window hoping you'll roll your window down.  They also wash your windshield, even if you say not to, in hopes of receiving a tip.

Lucha Libre was interesting.  Certainly not a place for blonde white girls, apparently.  (Which I wish Wouter would have warned me about, but if he did I wouldn't have gone.)  Lucha Libre is Mexican professional wresting similar to WWE.  They dress up in costumes and put on masks and fake fight.  The people get crazy and roudy and yell and scream obscenities the entire time.  Chants break out of "Chingue su madre" and "puta" and lots and LOTS of very bad words the entire time along with plenty of hand gestures.  There are workers walking around selling nachos, Coronas, fruit, pop-corn with hot sauce on top and other Mexican foods that I have no idea what they were.  It was good entertainment,  HOWEVER!... There were 4 of us guerras (white girls with blond hair) in all of the stadium.  About 5 times that night the whole audience would pick out one of us girls and all point and then would start chanting "Guerra! Veulta!" (Which means they wanted the girl they were pointing at to stand up and turn in a circle to show off their body.)  Keep in mind they ONLY do this to the few of us guerras in the stands.  And as if that weren't bad enough, if you don't stand up you get chanted at that you're a "puta" (Bitch).  And if you do stand up and turn around (which not a single one of us did) you get chanted at that you're a "puta" (whore).  How fun, right?!  I would be extremely offended had I known for sure that was what was going on the entire time but I wasn't totally sure and just thought I was being paranoid or hearing them wrong... that is until Wouter confirmed my suspicions and explained it to me the next day.  Before the show started a really pretty white lady with blonde hair (a guerra) walked in with her Mexican husband to take their seats.  A lot of people were whistling at her and making remarks.  Also, one of the times while they were chanting one guerra stood up to go to the bathroom and everyone was like "ohhhh!!! Puta, puta, puta!"  My hatred for getting "hit" on by groups of Mexican men (like when "my kind" walk by a construction zone in America and get whistled at and made remarks to) has been completely and utterly solidified.  I think I'm scarred for life and if it happens when I get back home I will probably not handle it well.  Luckily, I am armed with plenty of offensive come-backs now.  I asked Wouter the next day why they do this to white girls all the time and he said it's because guerras are naturally pretty and sort of exotic for them.  I asked Luz, my favorite teacher, why this happens all the time and she said it's because they're men and especially at Lucha Libre it's a place for men to express their power and aggression and whatever else needs expressing I suppose.  Luz then began to go over all of the cuss-words I heard while I was there and equip me with several more.  Yet another reason she is my favorite teacher.  I'm not quite sure how to process all of that experience but it sure was an experience.


Wednesday...

Thankfully uneventful.  Eggs and tomatoes for breakfast, soup containing meatballs and veggies with white chewy juice to drink.  Cereal for dinner.  School, laundry, and work (preparing things for my business back home).  Then homework and sleep.

Things I've learned/noticed:
-Driving in other countries is super dangerous it seems.  They are crazy, uncourteous drivers.
-A lot of times the roads are backed up in a traffic jam and if an ambulance needs to pass people start honking and you can hear the honking move rapidly up the line of traffic and by some miracle the line of cars on the left start moving forward quickly.  Very interesting.  I hope to see it again.
-The mother of a family is the most cherished person in the family. Mother's Day is a serious holiday and there is no school or work.  Now I understand better why "your mom" insults are so offensive.

Adios!

Week 2

Today, there is a blue Corvette parked in the house.

Physically, today was a mess.  For some reason my medicine made me feel super weird all day.  Like I was on drugs, or on a really hard come-down off drugs.  I felt tired, high, my body hurt, and I felt uncomfortable in my own skin.  Yuck!  Hopefully soon I will be all better.

Eggs and salad for breakfast.  Mystery meat and rice for lunch with cranberry juice served with a side of some sour fruit with spices on it.  It tasted like I was eating a sliced lime.  Cereal for dinner. 

Claudia and I were able to talk a lot in Spanish today.  It seems like overnight I was able to speak a whole lot more Spanish.  They say the best way to learn is to try speaking it as often as you can, so today I got a conversation-partner.  He doesn't go to the school but he would like to practice his English in exchange for me practicing my Spanish.  We met at 5 p.m. at the school and went to a cafe.  We were only supposed to meet for an hour but we ended up talking for about 2 & 1/2 hours.  It was very good practice.  We hit it off and I made another new friend.  My new friend is a postman which I think is interesting because I've never personally known a mailman before.  He is more my speed. Into the same types of activities as I am, for example exercising and trying new things and just hanging out, not partying much.  On Friday night we will go to a classic rock concert in El Centro and on Sunday we might go bike-riding into Guadalajara since I didn't get to do that last weekend.  I'm a little intimidated because he does triathlons but that's ok, it will be fun.

Speaking of making new friends, I thought four more students my age were starting this week but only one person did.  He is from China and his name is Ming.  He lives in America but he is super Chinese (obviously) and only speaks Engrish, not English.  I need to make a female friend soon so we can go shopping and do girl things together.

School went well.  I have a new afternoon teacher this week who speaks very well in English, not that I get to hear much of it, but she seems to be a really good teacher. 

Things I've noticed/learned:
-When having construction done on the street they don't say "tearing up the street", they say "opening up the street".
-Bathtubs are uncommon in this part (and maybe most parts) of Mexico.

Voy a leer, ahora.  Hasta luego!  (I'm going to read now.  Until next time!)