wow what a weekend

Last night was so much fun. Paulina and I went to the bar called Boze to meet one of her friends for a birthday party and waited outside for a while until her friend got there. The bar itself had trees inside and growing through the roof and the designers used them as support beams and there were parts that didn´t have a roof so it gave for a neat atmosphere.

The band was very good. They played cover songs of some American and Mexican bands. I didn´t recognize most of the Mexican songs but they didn´t play a song that I didn´t like so I thoroughly enjoyed myself on that part. You could say that I had a sort of religious/spiritual experience at the bar in the atmosphere with the music flowing through me. An interesting side note, I thought that the lead guitarist was incredibly hot while Paulina really liked the lead singer.

I was caught off guard by this guy who came up to me to start talking to me because I was so engrossed in the music. I had a hard time speaking spanish so he thought that I didn´t know any Spanish and proceeded to talk to me in English to get my attention. Long story short, he ended up being quite an interesting guy and I plan to hang out with him some more. Him and his friend that is. Their names are Luis Daniel Martinez Varianas and Jesús Antonio Madrid del Rio but he goes by Chuy (pronounced chewy, like the wookie in Star Wars). No idea where the nickname came from only that he has it. It turns out that they are cousins and it was a semi-family affair there because they were there with several other cousins, one of which is from New York City and is visiting for the summer.

To end the night, I had to take a taxi back to the Lozanos because Paulina left early and I didn´t want to leave yet. Luis Daniel and Chuy offered me a ride but they had been drinking and I didn´t feel 100% safe riding with them at 3 am. It only costed me 50 pesos ($5) in which the next morning Paulina said that they over charged me and that it should have been only 20 or 30 pesos ($2-3) and that he probably did that because he saw that I was a foreigner. Apparently it is very normal for taxi drivers to overcharge foreigners on a regular basis.

I got up this morning at about 8:30 am to take a shower (I smelled like a bar) and then ate pancakes with a homemade banana-syrup sauce--very good! They weren´t quite as good as dad´s pancakes but the banana sauce definitely made up for it. I also had bacon this morning in which is the smell I actually woke up to :) It´s hard to explain but Esperanza cooks bacon quite differently than the way I learned how.

After breakfast, Esperanza drove Paulina and me to Tlaquepaque, a town on the other side of Guadalajara that specializes in artisan shops and what not. I bought some more shot glasses for my collection and some as gifts as well as a hand woven rug. We walked through some shops that had some excellent craftmanship and had I had a lot more money, I would have had a hey day at buying all of the things that I liked. There are 2 beautiful churches in Tlaquepaque, each with a different purpose. One was the "santo sanctuario" where you go for saint´s masses or to pray by yourself to a saint. The other "la parroquía" is the church where regular mass is said and all of the othere normal church things take place. We were able to go into the sanctuario but not the parroquía because there was a mass going on at the time. We also walked through an art museum that used to be a hospital/asylum. I would have loved to have taken lots of pictures but alas I was not allowed to.

We bought some Mexican candy at one of the shops and then ate most of it while waiting on Andrea to come pick us up. I tried Glorias, some peanut thing, and dulce de Tamarindo. The glorias were easily my favorite; the dulce de tamarindo was almost like a jam, good but probably something I wouldn´t buy personally; and the peanut thing I didn´t like because it was lots of peanuts with just enough carmel to hold them together. If there is one that I have noticed, it´s that all Mexicans seem to love peanuts and seem to be confused as to why I don´t. Odd but true.

Originally I had plans to hang out with Salvador in the afternoon but he texted me telling me that he had the flu and asked to re-schedule.

Upon returning to the house, I went straight to my room to take a nap and I slept until suppertime. We ate outside and it was carne asada, chorizo, quesadillas, grilled peppers, and grilled onions. After supper I went right back to my room to rest some more but I didn´t fall asleep this time.

Later we went to Galería Calzado, or the Shoe mall. Yes, they have an entire mall just for shoes. It´s not huge, but it is decently sized, especially for only having shoe stores. Granted, there were stores that sold purses and hand bags or sports jerseys but all mainly shoes. I went there only looking for some sandals (a specific design too) for my trip to Puerto Vallarta next weekend (I didn´t bring any sandals with me) and came out with sandals and brown flats. The sandals were exactly what I was looking for and I actually stumbled across the brown flats while jsut browsing and decided to buy them because I have been looking for a pair for a while with no luck. The sandals were about $10 and the flats $30, both priced well. Apparently I had a lot of luck too because it is usually difficult to find shoes in my size (Mexican size 7).

After shoe shopping, we went to a place for dessert: nieve de garrafa. Basically, homemade snowcones/ice cream. It is similar to both yet different from both but definitely good. Upon returning I started watching a movie with Paulina (Padre Soltero or Single Dad) but quickly lost interest because its the type that I´m not into. Instead I came down here to the computer room to type this for you guys so feel special--I´m spending my Saturday night updating everyone on my life :)

New words:
palitos=sticks (in the context of chicken legs I learned this word)
gripe=flu

Ok so nows the time that I go to bed because I am falling asleep writing this and I hope that you can´t tell. So good night to all :)

Mindi