adventures in mexico

My Last Day

2008-07-11T18:16:00.000-07:00

I got everything packed last night except for the stuff I was going to need today and the stuff I am bringing with me on the plane. Somehow I got it all in my suitcase and bookbag and the 2 carry-bags. I just hope it doesn't go over the weight limit because there is absolutely no extra room in any on my bags.

I woke up this morning before my alarm and went through my morning routine. I rode the the PreTren today instead of Cardenal because i only had 5 pesos (the cost of the PreTren) and not the 9 pesos that are required for the Cardenal. It's a much longer walk both ways which is the reason I usually don't take it. I missed the stop I was supposed to get off at so I got off later and walked a lot more than I should have which was ok because it went passed some places where I have some good memories. What caught me off guard was that as I was walking to work down a cute little street I passed a little store. Normal right except that Chava was inside waiting to buy something. I think it surprised him as well. Since he works only a block away from where I work, we walked together until we had to part ways.

My last day of work. Really it was quite typical except that everyone had to give me a hug as either they left or as I left. I exchanged contact information with them so that we can keep in contact after I leave.

After work I met up with Chava for a second time and we exchanged contact information too and reflected upon the last 6 weeks that we have known each other and then said our good byes. I will say this much, that was the hardest good-bye that I have ever had in my life.

I got back to the house and got online to confirm my flights. There was some kind of issue with my flights. Mexicana, my first airline said that I wasn't registered with them and that I needed to call United Airlines because my ticket is owned by them. When I called United, they told me that I wasn't on Mexicana at all and all 3 of my flights were with American Airlines. Well whats interesting is that when I called American Airlines, they told me that none of my flights had changed. I'm really hoping that everything is ok and that I am on the Mexicana flight.

For anyone interested, these are my flight numbers and airlines:
Mexicana flight number 7475 -- leaves at 11 am and arrives at Mexico City at 12:15
American Airlines number 1110 -- leaves at 1:35 pm and arrives at Dallas at 4:15
American Airlines number 1760 -- leaves at 5:35 pm and arrives at Indianapolis at 8:45 pm

The websites for the airlines are here: www.mexicana.com and www.aa.com if you want to check flight status or anything.

I am kind of nervous for my day of travel really. First of all for the mix-up confusion thing that I came across tonight in trying to confirm my flights. Second of all, the airport in Mexico City is HUGE and I only have an hour and a half to get from one gate to the next. Third, when I get to Dallas, again, I will only have about an hour and 20 minutes to go through customs and get to my next flight. I am going to ask the crew at Mexico City if they can send a message to my 3rd connecting flight that I might be running late because of customs so that it doesn't leave without me.

As for tonight, I was originally going to go out for one last bang here in Guadalajara but seeming how I had spent all my money yesterday and actually had to borrow some to ride the bus I'm not doing anything. Instead, I am going to rest and reflect and triple and quadruple check to make sure I have everything packed.

Farewell Mexico! For I leave you tomorrow but I shall return someday!

Mindi

and its all coming to an end

2008-07-10T20:20:00.000-07:00

Pretty typical day again. I got up a little earlier than usual so I could continue on my mission to pack up my stuff. Man only one more real day left . . .

At work I continued researching my new project of different places and banks and what not that can help Mexican businesses with exporting. This research project is more difficult than the previous but i like a challenge :)

After work I hung out with Chava. We went to a little bar/restaurant because I barely ate anything for lunch and he still hadn't eaten. We drank some beers and ate some food and talked about different things, like his birthday party that I'm going to miss. :(

When I got back to the house I continued on my quest to pack my stuff and then decided it was time to write this. I'm not sure if I will be able to get on tomorrow to write anything because I'm till not 100% sure what I'm doing. I know I am going to work for the last day here and then going to hang out with Chava one last time and then I think I'm going out with Paulina but I'm not sure yet.

Ok well it's bed time and I'm kind of sleepy and beginning to get sick :( Hopefully I'll be able to give a quick update tomorrow but if not, I will be back in the states on Saturday.

Mindi

another 2-day post

2008-07-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

my past 2 days have been quite busy. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a typical work day overall. The coolest thing that happened during the day was that I finally finished researching trade fairs and making the database! Yay me!

After work and coming back and eating, I left with Andrea and Paulina and Osvaldo and Chi to go to the Lucha Libre, aka Mexican wrestling. Lucha Libres are very popular here for some reason and so I had to go to just one to experience it. And I will say this much, one is definitely enough for me. I'm glad I went but I know that I probably won't accept a second invitation.

To say the least, you don't go to the Lucha Libres to watch them wrestle--which by the way was the WORST acting I have ever seen in my life. Yes worse than soap operas and horror movies, which makes it pretty damn bad. You go to the LuchaLibres for the crowd and the atmosphere, of which I will say was entertaining, but only for the first 2 fights. There are 2 levels, the upper balcony level is cheaper and the lower floor level is more expensive. What happens is that the upper and lower levels take turns "yelling" at each other various insults and what not. They were actually pretty funny but after about the 3rd or 4th time of hearing "Ei Ei Guerito, a ti te gusta pito" and other insults, it gets old. By the end I was wishing for some originality in the shouts so it wouldn't be so mind-numbing.

Afterwards, we went to a little taco stand for tacos. I actually had a gringa instead which is like a combination of taco and quesadilla--aka very yummy in my tummy. By the time we finally got back, it was about 11:30 and I was tired and crashed.

I got up a little earlier than usual this morning so that I could shower and wash off the stink from the LuchaLibre. I took the bus to work and then got my new assignment for the next 3 days. It is to research different international organizations that can either aid Mexican exporters with services or money. Should be fun and interesting.

After work I hung out with Salvador a bit. The original plans were to hang out and then go to a bar with my co-workers but he wasn't feeling so well so he stayed back and went home to rest. He always gets sick when the rainy season starts (or so he's told me) and his eyes looked it. So at 6 I left him so I could go hang out with my co-workers. We went to a bar in downtown Zapopan of which I can't remember. I talked the waiter into some free nachos and we also ordered this cheese stuff that we ate in tortillas (like all Mexican food).

And now I'm back at the house writing this for all of u lovely people. After logging off, I'm probably going to start packing my bags. :( I'm really not looking forward to Saturday and have honestly wished a few times that time would just stop right now so I would never have to leave. And honestly as well, I wish that maybe I could just stay one more day because on Saturday I would have the opportunity to have my make-up done professionally (Flor is going to a cosmetology school and needs someone of my complexion on Saturday) and go to Salvador's birthday party. I looked into it but it is not worth the money to stay just one more day. Alas, I guess that I must leave sometime.

Well I really need to get started on packing so I will see you on the flip-side

Mindi

Two-and-a-half days worth of a post

2008-07-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

The “Ballet Folkorico” was a lot of fun. I enjoyed all of the colors and the different dances. It started with an Aztec dance where the dances hadhuge head-dresses on that are pretty hard to explain unless you've seen them. It then featured traditional dances from 5 different states in Mexico (Chiapas, Fandango, Michoacan, Veracruz, and of course Jalisco) As a transition in between each state, a chorus came on stage and sang a song dedicated to the new state. The song for Michoacan was in an Indian dialect but the rest were in Spanish. I really enjoyed the dances from Jalisco the most with Fandango as a close second.

From this it seems that most of the things I have always closely associated with Mexico are native to Jalisco (the state that Guadalajara is in). For instance, the giant sombreros were only worn during the Jaliscience dances and the music for Jaliscience dances was mariachi (Chiapas was with marimbas for a tropical feel, banda with Fandango and Veracruz, banda and chorus for Michoacan).

Esperanza told me that this dance troupe is from the University of Guadalajara with many of the dancers being students there. These dancers have performed around the world, showcasing the best of Mexican folkloric dance.

After the Ballet, I went with Andrea, Paulina, Osvaldo, and 2 of Osvaldo's friends (I think one of their names was Rafael but I could be wrong) to a relatively new dance club in Guadalajara, Cherry Lips. When we got there we had to wait to be let in. We met up with some more of Andrea's friends once inside. Lucky for me the night didn't cost me a thing because Saturday's are free for ladies and then I was gifted my drinks by friends there.

It was raining pretty hard when we left so Andrea and Osvaldo took a taxi to the car (we parked a good 10 blocks away) and then they came and picked us up in front of the club. The ride to and from the club was fun because we stuffed 6 people into a car that only fits 5 and on the way back I actually ended up sitting on the lap of one of the guys. We finally got back at around 3 am and I crashed.

I woke up this morning at about 9 and laid around a bit and finally got up because I needed to take a shower because my hair smelled like smoke from the club. I only got up that early because Paulina and I had plans to go to San Juan de Dios, a giant marketplace that sells nearly everything. We left around 10:30 and took the bus and then the train. I was looking for some gifts for people so we walked around a lot and it took a long time to find exactly what I wanted for a certain someone. We returned home at about 2:30.

I started cooking my meal at around 3. I made meatloaf, homemade scalloped potatoes, and green bean casserole. They enjoyed the meatloaf and green bean casserole and we have yet to know how the potatoes turned out because we have yet to eat them. For some reason they didn't cook as fast as they usually do and were finally ready to eat after we had eaten dessert. So instead we are going to eat them tomorrow for dinner.

We watched a “Definitivamente, quizas” later which is the Spanish title for an American movie that I have never heard of. We watched it in English with Spanish sub-titles and I noticed quite a few times that the sub-titles were off a bit or didn't say what was said in English. It was an interesting love story movie and would recommend it to anyone. Well that's if I knew the English title . . .

It was pretty late (well for me who needed some sleep) after the movie so I didn't get on Internet to publish this post until tonight. I woke up late again this morning because the electricity went out again so my alarm couldnt go off so I didnt eat breakfast. Instead I got dressed and basically ran out the door to the bus stop. I was about 15 minutes late for work because of this, but it was ok.

Moni came in late because she went to the doctor first because she couldn't turn her head in any direction. It turns out that she pulled a muscle in her neck and won't be able to work for the next week. I went with Adriana to drop Moni off at her house so I could say good-bye. We also stopped by Adriana's new house which is quite nice, something I wouldn't mind living in.

After work, Chi (nickname of one of Osvaldo's friends that went to the club with us Saturday night) called me and asked if I wanted to hang out a bit. So he drove to my workplace to pick me up and we just drove around, listened to music, and talked before dropping me off at the house.

Good news, they liked the potatoes as well. Esperanza reheated them and served them with chuleta (piece of pork) for dinner today. I am going to bring in the leftover meatloaf, green bean casserole, and scalloped potatoes to work tomorrow to share the flavor of America with my co-workers

So that was a long post and I'm glad if u were able to make it through the whole thing.

Mindi

What did you do on Indpendence Day?

2008-07-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you what I did: absolutely nothing American. Boy do I feel patriotic.

The day started as usual, which officially makes it the only 4th of July on which I have ever worked. I left at lunch time because Paulina wanted to bring me to a Tiangui's that is only open on Fridays and only until about 4-ish. This Tiangui's was HUGE! Definitely the biggest one I've been to yet.

Came back to the house and ate a taditional Mexican soup and tostadas. Very delicious. I hope Esperanza gives me the recipes for both the soup and the tostadas (I've already asked for recipes of the food she's made).

I went with Paulina to her University because she needed to sign some paperwork. While we were there, it started raining. I only metion this because as we were driving back and waiting to merge a bus passed by and hit a big puddle that splashed us inside the car (we had the windows open because it was on the hot side). Pretty amazing if you ask me.

I only went with Paulina because we went to Wal-Mart (okay, so I guess I did do something American) to pick up the ingredients necessary for the meal I am cooking tomorrow (meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole). Something I found interesting is that they have never heard of french fried onions, the kind you use in green bean casserole. When we asked a Wal-Mart clerk where to find them, he thought we were asking for onion rings to fry. We are actually going to go today to a store that specializes in foreign foods and ingredients to buy them.

I later went out with Paulina to a Chariada, another traditional Mexican thing. The easiest way to describe would be to think of a rodeo, but its definitely different. First of all, its only with horses. They work in teams of 4 or 5 usually to try to rope a colt and make it fall down. 4 of them ride around to get the colt to run fast in the circle and the 5th person is usually on foot and uses a lasso to rope the colt as it passes and then has to hold his ground and rope so that the colt trips. That's the basics of it really and it was fun to watch.

The guys all wore the traditional Mexican clothes, the kind that we stereotypically think of when we think of a Mexican, with the white button down shirt, tight pants and chaps, cowboy boots, and of course the large sombrero. They were all quite talented as well, especially the ones on foot. As they were warming up or waiting for the chase to start or for the right moment to lasso the colt, they would be doing tricks with the rope, like jumping through it and other cool things.

There was also two teams to try the “Paso del Muerte” or Pass of Death. This is obviously the most dangerous one. Same number of people to a team except that instead of trying to rope a colt, one person tried to switch horses during the run. One team failed because the riderless horse simply got away and the other team succeeded.

The whole time there was a live band playing traditional Mexican music and at one point there was a Mariachi band playing as well. The live band wore typical street clothes but the Mariachi band wore the traditional Mexican outfits that we stereotypically think of. With the more popular songs, people would all be singing the words and there were always people dancing. When I say dancing, I mean traditional Mexican dances, not salsa or cumbia or any of those. It is definitely but hard to describe through words without motions.

One thing that I found interesting was that as a way of saying “good job,” the audience would throw things into the center, like their hat, their boot, their shoe, basically anything. The more things that got thrown into the center, the better the crowd liked it. All the things were returned to their owners by the riders in the ring by simply throwing it back to them.

Another interesting thing was that the crowd was full of young people, most in their 20's. There were hardly any people there older than 30 nor any kids. And there were quite a few people there as well, all watching, talking, drinking, some dancing, overall just having a good time. It was a very fun atmosphere.

We hung around after the show was over because the place becomes a giant party. The band continued to play and it was a very fun atmosphere. We finally left around 2 am to go to Las Papas, a restaurant that is open in the late hours and is famous for its potatoes. I order a half Pa'payork which was half a baked potato with carnitas (small pieces of meat), some creamy sauce, and cheese melted on top. It was probably the best potato I have ever eaten. I also had an horchata, which is a sweet drink with cinnamon.

We finally got home around 3:30 am and I changed into my pajamas and crashed. I slept until about 10 this morning when I reluctantly woke up to some truck making lots of noise outside on the street. I laid around for a while until finally deciding to get up because I wasn't going to fall back asleep. I ate breakfast and then cleaned my room and then took a shower.

That's all I have for now. I'm going with the family tonight to el Teatro Degollado which is the oldest theater here in Guadalajara located near the Cathedral. I already have pictures of the outside of it. Luckily Paulina is letting me borrow her camera to take pictures of both the Chariada last night and the theater tonight so I will probably post them tomorrow on Facebook and give you guys the link.

Mindi

need . . . sleep . . . now . . .

2008-07-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

So once again I'm feeling quite tired. What happened this time is that I had planned to go to bed early and rest up but a friend signed on needing to talk to someone because he was feeling a bit depressed so I stayed up entirely too late trying to help a friend out. For this reason, I felt even more unmotivated to work today and needed to take even more stand up and walk breaks so as to not fall asleep.

After work Salvador and I hung out again but not for long because we were both feeling quite tired. We won't be able to hang out this weekend because his brother who lives in California is driving down here to visit the family and he needs to stay home for obvious reasons.

I am now going to go to bed and sleep finally.

Good night to all :)

Mindi

an unexpected but much welcomed party

2008-07-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

So at about 9:30 last night Paulina invited me to go out with her and her friends to a bar for a birthday party. Feeling bored and wanting to get out, I accepted, even though I probably should have stayed back to rest since I had to work this morning. Oh well, it was a good time :)

At about 10, Paulina's friend (I forget her name :/) came and picked us up and we drove to the bar (of which I also forget the name). The place was pretty full especially considering that it was a Tuesday night and there were a good 20 people there for the birthday party. I spoke mostly to just a few people: David, Victor, Paulina's friend that drove us, Estafania and a few others but these were the main ones. I talked a lot with David at first mainly because he studied in Argentina and traveled around parts of South America. He gave me some suggestions for my study abroad in Chile. He said that Chile is more or less pretty similar to Mexico whereas Argentina is very different and also recommended that I take a trip to Brasil if I have time/money because he liked it a lot. I had fun talking with Victor about his study abroad experience as well because he went to Canada (Edmonton if I remember correctly). The thing that stuck out at me the most from this was that he asked me if Americans and Canadians hate each other because apparently Canadian TV makes fun of Americans about as much as American TV makes fun of Canadians.

After about an hour and a half at the bar we went to a club called Wall Street. It was definitely a club aimed at attracting Americans because a lot of signs were in English and they even had US dollar prices by the Mexican peso prices. It was Mardi Gras themed so we all got beads as we paid our cover charge and I explained Mardi Gras to some of the people who were with me because they'd never heard of it (they have a very similar celebration called Carnaval) and also what the beads meant. I really enjoyed myself there. I'm not too fond of clubs in the states because of the way too many take "dancing" to mean many other things but here when you go to a club, everyone is there to dance, nothing more. They also play the hip hop, rap, and techno that is usually played in the US clubs but they also throw in quite a bit of reggaeton, salsa, and other latin dances. I learned the basics of salsa dancing (its quite easy really). It was quite a refreshing experience.

We didn't return home until about 2:30 and I didn't get to bed until about 3 am and then woke up at 8 for work. All day today I felt a bit tired and there were times that I just put everything aside and stood up and walked around so I wouldn't fall asleep while I was supposed to be working. I know it was my fault but I don't regret my decision to go out one bit because it was very fun.

After work I met up with Salvador and we sat and chatted a while. What sucked is that after we parted ways for our respective bus stops I saw my bus pass by and couldn't catch it because I was on the wrong side of the street. So I waited an extra half hour to catch the next bus.

When I got back to the house I decided that I wanted to go for a run since I hadn't done so for about a week. I keep going further each time I run so I'm pleased with my progress. I'm not about to enter a race or God forbid a marathon but I greatly enjoy these runs and will probably continue running upon my return.

New works:
tope=speed bump
Carnaval=Mardi Gras
bostezar=yawn
astornudar=sneeze

Well I am quite tired right now and I really need to go to bed and catch up on some sleep.

Mindi

2008-07-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty normal day today. The biggest news today is that I have to find an apartment once again. I got an email from the girl I was going to live with telling me that she didn't get the apartment she wanted and instead lives in a studio so she doesn't need a room mate anymore. So I'm checking out Craigslist again in hopes of finding something.

There's really nothing else I have to share today so here's to a short post :)

Mindi

another monday

2008-06-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

I wasn't feeling very well this morning to so i didn't eat very much for breakfast but it was the same type of not feel good as its been before when I was dehydrated. So I bought a Gatorade at the Oxxo and then drank that and lots of water all day today and I feel better now.

Work was the same except that I lacked motivation all day (partially due to the fact that I wasn't feeling well). I got stuff done but not as much as usual.

It started pouring down rain in the middle of the day and continued raining the rest of the day. So I got to walk to the bus stop in spitting rain and to the house in a more steady rain. When I got back, Esperanza asked me why I didn't bring the umbrella with me because she thinks I should bring it with me every time I leave the house now because it is the rainy season. I don't like bringing it with me because its big and takes up space and I don't mind walking in the rain and getting wet.

Other than that, its been an uneventful day. I'm just chilling right now and going to continue to do so until I go to bed.

Until next time,

Mindi

the past two days :D

2008-06-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

So I have just passed two days and it has been a good and busy two days.

Saturday: I got up really late because I was tired from the whole week and especially from the night before. I just hung out for a while until about 3 when I went with Paulina to one of her friend's houses to go to a party. The party officially started at 3 but Mexicans never show up on time. So instead we went to the mall and looked around for about an hour and a half or so. We didn't get to the party until about 4:45 of which there was plenty of people already there.

There was food and drinks there and you could eat and drink as much as you'd like if you paid 50 pesos. I tried jicama with chamoy (a fruit with a spicy/sweet sauce), carne asada, quesadillas, salad stuff, and some more.

At first I was a little bored because I was out of the loop but then they started talking to me and it became very fun really quickly. They really remind me of my friends in St. Louis--absolutely nuts. They decided that they wanted to practice their English with me so everyone spoke in English the whole time. Interesting.

We talked, drank, danced, sang, it was a good time. They invited me to go to the block party afterwards but something in my gut told me that I shouldn't so I said no and went back to the house and passed out.

Sunday: I got up at about 8 to take a shower and get ready for exploring Tonala (an area on the other side of Guadalajara). Esperanza dropped Paulina and me off at a bus stop so we could take the bus the rest of the way. However, the bus didn't stop for us and we tried running after it a bit and it still didn't stop so we decided to take a taxi there instead.

Once there, we walked through the Tiangui's. This one was similar to the others except that it had a lot more crafts and art stuff. I have officially decided that when I have a house or apartment of my own that I can decorate as I like, I am coming back here to shop the Tianguis and buy lots of cool stuff.

We took the bus back but confused at where we had to get off and ended up getting off at the wrong part and then getting lost trying to find our way to the next bus stop. We ended up taking a bus that Paulina knew would pass by a different bus stop that would pass close to the house. The trip should have taken an hour or an hour and a half at most and it took us close to 3.

When we got back, some of their relatives were over to watch the Eurocup on TV (kind of like a Superbowl Party). I got to see the second half and the end celebrations. They were all happy because Spain beat Germany. Me, I didn't care one way or the other: I just enjoyed the game.

After the game was over, we ate tortas gemas of which everyone made fun of me for the way I ate the because I was trying not to make a mess. Apparently, you're supposed to make a mess with this food and I was just never told. I continued eating it my way because it just seemed easier to me.

After all the relatives left, Paulina, Andrea, Osvaldo (Andrea's boyfriend), and I went bowling. It was the same as bowling in the US but still fun. Osvaldo beat me by 2 points in the first game and I beat everyone by over 40 points in the second. The holes in the balls were on the small side and my thumb hurts a bit from bowling two games.

New words: boliche=bowling
cruza=strike
esper=spare

And now I'm exhausted and need to go to bed. Until tomorrow :)

Mindi

TGIF thank God its Friday

2008-06-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

I officially love Fridays. The end of my work week and I get to go out and sleep in.

Work today was normal as usual except for the fact that the Internet actually functioned the whole day without problems.

After work I went to meet Salvador at his job because I needed to talk to him and he is currently out of credit on his cell phone. Otherwise I would have just called or texted him. We ended up hanging out for a bit (about an hour) and then he left to go home and I went back upstairs to the office to meet Flor because we had plans to go to a cantina after work. Actually, Adriana made the plans to go to this cantina but something came up with her mom and she couldn't make it any more so it was just me and Flor and later her boyfriend of 4 years Miguel.

The cantina. It's kind of like a bar except different, if that makes any sense. The beer is cheaper and the place is not as nice but it was different and fun. There were lots of people there, all talking at once and enjoying themselves. There was a pianist and a trumpeteer (is that the right word to use for someone who plays trumpet?) who played traditional Mexican music the whole time we were there. Walking by on the street, you wouldn't guess that there is a cantina behind the "doors" (I say "doors" because it was more like a demi-wall with open passages to go in and out of the cantina). We had some fun/interesting conversation amongst the 3 of us and I had a good time.

I am now back at the house and preparing to go to bed. It's been a long day for me and I still need to catch up on some missed sleep from my weekend in Puerto Vallarta.

Good night all,
Mindi

So at work today the burlar alarm decided to go insane

2008-06-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

About an hour or so into the work day today the burlar alarm started going off and for no apparent reason. And man was it loud and obnoxious. It took us a good 10 minutes to figure out how to shut it off because the switch that is supposed to control it no longer functioned either. We finally got it to turn off by finding the power box (the box with all the switches to control the electricity in the office) and just switching everything off. After turning it back on because we thought we were in the clear, the alarm decided to go off again about 5 minutes later. So we flipped the switch on and off again for it only to sound once again. This time we just left the switch off. The consequence of doing so led to us being unable to use the Internet, hence me not being able to do anything until the repair man came and fixed it. So we decided to have an early lunch in hopes that we could get back to work sooner and not waste so much time.

Marcia, one of my co-workers, told us today that she is moving to Madrid with her husband and 2 kids in the middle of August because her husband got a good job there and is transferring. I can't help but think how cool that would be to just pick up and move to another country. Hmmm. Maybe after college :D

After work I hung out with Salvador for a bit. To the wishes of my co-workers, I brought him up to the office so they could judge if he really is as good-looking as the pictures. We devised a plan so it wouldn't seem so obvious. Moni suggested that I leave my bag there and then ask him to accompany me upstairs to pick it up. I however decided that it would be less obvious if I had left my water bottle instead. Yes, I know, kind of cheesy. But you know what, it worked :P haha wow I just had a 5-year-old moment.

Life's been boring though other than those little snid bits so I shall leave you at that (even though good writers always leave their reader hanging and wanting more information at the end of their piece. Oh well, I guess I'm not trying to be a good writer).

Mindi

the kind of normal but not so normal day

2008-06-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

The day started normal right--get up, breakfast, bus to work, all that jazz. But work was slightly different today in that I took a short break from researching online to help Flor do some filing. It was nice to do something different for a bit and change up the mix. That only took me about an hour and a half so I returned to researching afterwards.

We had interesting conversation at lunch today about different stereotypes and what not. For instance, we spent a good chunk of time talking about what I thought about Mexico before coming here and what I think now, what the general American population thinks about Mexico, reasons for these thoughts and then I reversed it back on them, asking what they think of the US and Americans and what not. What I have gotten from a lot of people here is that Americans are racist and too rich. Some interesting generalizations, right? Flor then started asking me a bunch of "what if" type questions, like "What if I moved to Mexico, what would my family think?" and "What would your parents think if you married a Mexican?" and others like that. Like I said, interesting conversation over lunch today.

I left work late because I tried helping Adriana with some English translations but they were too advanced and specific for my knowledge. There were 2 phrases and both had to do with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but they were more specific parts of GDP and I do not know anything more than GDP and GNP.

As I was walking to the bus stop as I usually do, I ran into to Salvador on complete accident. We chatted for a few minutes until his bus came and then we parted. But we did make plans to hang out after work tomorrow.

I decided that I really wanted to run tonight since I didn't get a chance to last night like I had planned. What had happened last night was by the time I was ready to go, it was getting on the late side and I didn't want to be out running when it got dark. I'm confident that I wouldn't get lost but lord only knows what kinds of creepers could be lurking out there waiting for a lone runner out after dark. So anyways, I got back and changed to go running and ate when I got back. All I have to say is that I LOVE BETABEL! (I tried looking the word up in the dictionary and apparently it doesn't exist in English :( I will figure out where I can buy it in the US and I will eat lots of it!).

And now I am resting at the house, getting eaten by mosquitoes. Again. I think that the only part of Guadalajara that I won't miss are all the stupid mosquitoes.

New word:
archivar=to file

And now I am done. Saludos!

Mindi

yet another normal day

2008-06-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

So you could read any of my other posts and probably guess what I'm about to write. Woke up, ate breakfast, rode the bus to work, researched trade fairs, rode bus back, and rested at the house. After writing this I'm planning on going for a run. I just wanted to let the food settle in my stomach really well first. I have nothing else to talk about so this shall be the shortest post ever.

Mindi

ssslllllllooooooowwwww day

2008-06-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today has gone by entirely too slow for my liking. I think it has been because I'm still tired from the weekend and just wanted to sleep all day. I woke up and had no idea what time it was because th electric went out sometime in the night so my clock reset and my alarm didn't go off. I freaked and jumped out of bed to find my phone and saw that I had about another 30 minutes to sleep. So of course, I did.

Work was slower than usual and I actually took a short nap during lunch. For those of you who know me well, you know that I usually don't take naps, but I was just that tired. It took a lot to motivate myself to actually do work after waking up as well and it seemed to go by sooooo slowly.

The adventure of the day was trying to get Internet to write this blog and talk to some friends via AIM. I first tried connecting right after eating lunch/supper and it wasn't connecting so I shut down my computer and disconnected and went to take a shower. I tried again after that and it still didn't work. Paulina took a look at everything and couldn't figure it out so she called the Internet company and they tried helping. All of their suggestions didn't work so I decided to jump ship and go to the nearest Starbucks to use their wireless Internet. I walked to the mall and bought myself a Caramel Macchiato and then finally was able to connect.

New word: crudo=hangover

Well now I'm going to head back to the house before it gets too dark or starts raining. Love all lots,

Mindi

Puerto Vallarta

2008-06-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

My weekend in paradise was simply amazing and I really want to go back.

We didn't arrive at the hostel until about 11 pm. We dropped off our stuff in the security boxes and then went out in search of food. We found a little street vendor a few blocks away and had ourselves some tacos. We decided that it would be best if we didn't go out Friday night because we were both tired and the bars and clubs were pretty far away

The next morning we met one of our room mates (he was passed out on his bed by the time we got there) and got along with him fairly well. His name is Tre and he is from England. He is spending 2 months traveling around Mexico before starting school at some university to study Arabic and Diplomacy. His accent when speaking Spanish was so peculiar, almost as if he was Australian or something.

After eating breakfast, Salvador and I walked to the beach. I looked at maps online of the area so that I would have a general idea of distances and what not and our walk was a lot longer than I would have imagined. It was soooo beautiful and breath-taking. First we just walked along the beach and I of course had to take off my sandals and walk barefoot in the sand and through the water. We found a place to sit and then swim. I actually ended up going in the water 3 different times. And whats a day at the beach without a sand castle? Ours turned out to look more like a cake than a castle, but it was fun. Then we went to one of the many little cafes and sat at a table underneath a shade-umbrella-tree-thing, just sitting, talking, and drinking some beers.

I was really craving pizza for some reason so we found a Domino's and went inside to eat. Between the 2 of us, we ate a medium pizza and a side order of potato wedges. The worst part of my entire weekend occurred here as well. We left and about 100 feet away from the doors I realized that I had left my camera inside on the table. I went back in and up to the table and my camera was nowhere to be found. We talked to the manager and the person who cleaned the tables and they both said that they had not seen it. I'm pretty sure that the lady who clears the tables took it because its the only thing that made sense but I had no proof and couldn't make any accusations. So now I am without camera and without the 2 weeks of pictures on my memory stick. I was really upset at first (obviously) but then after thinking about it a bit, I decided that it could have been worse: it could have been my entire bag or I could have been mugged for it or a number of other things. I can replace the camera and I will have the memories and sights forever engrained in my mind.

After eating, we went back to the hostel and met up with Tre. The 3 of decided that we wanted to drink some throughout the afternoon before going out to the bars later that night. We bought a bottle of tequila and played poker and had a great time. Tre actually ended up passing out again and didn't go out with us later that night.

Salvador and I walked to the area with all the bars and clubs with the intentions of drinking some more but once we got there and to a bar, we decided after 1 drink that we were both pretty drunk already so we went to a little plaza area and sat on a bench, drinking our final drink of the night and watching the different people. I tried teaching him some English phrases of which he had down fairly well that night but could remember any of them the next morning.

We returned to the hostel and passed out. I myself didn't sleep very well either night for several reasons: the beds were quite uncomfortable, it was hot and muggy, the air in the room wasn't moving, and I just couldn't get very comfortable.

The next morning we woke up at around 9 am and ate breakfast. We decided to pack up our stuff and head to the bus terminal. We ended up leaving at around 11:30 am for Guadalajara. It's about a 5 hour bus ride that really sucked for me each way because I can't sit still. On the way to Puerto Vallarta, they played Spiderman 3, Ratatouille, and the first part of The Perfect Crime (all in Spanish of course). On the way back, they played Shaggy Dog, She's the Man, and The Benchwarmers.

I returned to an empty house because they went to lunch with an aunt. After unpacking, I decided to try one more time to plug in my lap top with hope of it working again and surprisingly it did. I was ecstatic but I couldn't help but think about the irony that my laptop starts working again after I lose my camera and cant transfer the pics from the memory card to my hard drive or upload them. But its all good. My laptop works again so I'm a happy camper.

And now I am going to go to bed because I am exhausted and need to sleep a lot before work tomorrow.

New words:
malecon=entertainment district (where all the clubs and bars are located)
ahogar=drown
trago=sip
precopa=pre-game (drinking before the party starts)

Good night to all!

Mindi

im leaving! (well only for Puerto Vallarta)

2008-06-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

I´m writing this in the last minutes of work just to let you all know about my day and my plans for the weekend. Last night I had a hard time falling asleep and then I woke up several times throughout the night because I was so excited for my trip. I´m going to see the ocean! (my first time, haha).

I worked through lunch today so that I could leave an hour early because it is about 5 hours in bus from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta. Other than that, it has been a typical work day for me.

I have already booked the hostal we are staying at. It is called Oasis hostal. The website is http://oasishostel.com/ if you are interested in knowing more about it. It only costs about $15 a night (so only $30 for the weekend!) and gave lots of helpful information.

I am going to meet up with Salvador after work and we are going to walk to the bus stop to go to the bus station. Originally I was going to take the Cardenal to a certain point and then transfer to the PreTren but Moni told me that the PreTren will bring me from here to the bus station and then I won´t have to pay 2 bus fares or wait for transfer. PreTren is also cheaper and is just as nice as the Cardenal. The downside is that it is a longer walk to that bus stop from work than to the Cardenal bus stop, but I think I can handle it.

Once we get to the bus station, I am going to buy the tickets then so that I can get the soonest ones possible. I was planning on buying them ahead of time originally but I wasn´t sure of what time to book the tickets so I decided it would be better not to do so.

We don´t have any specific plans for the weekend except to have fun. So that means the beach, downtown, maybe some shopping, and definitely the bars at night. I will fill in everything when I return on Sunday.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend because I know I will :)

Mindi

Mindi and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2008-06-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

I am in no mood to be writing this right now but am doing so for those of you who wish to remain in touch with the goings on in my life.

Last night I walked to the mall to walk around and just to get out and move. On my way back, I saw the most beautiful sunset but I had a hard time capturing it on film (as usual). A guy came up and started talking to me during one of my photo stops. It was nice conversation for the most part until he kept insisting on walking me home and it was definitely over after he asked me point blank (in Spanish) "What do you think of marrying a Mexican?" Red flags everywhere were flying high in my mind. I immediately decided that I needed to get away. I subtley put my head phones on and started walking at a very brisk pace in the wrong direction to the house. He followed of course and I abruptly turned around and took off down a random street (I knew where I was so it was ok) and ran for a bit until I knew for sure that he was not following. I then walked back to the house and laid around in bed, being extremely thankful for my gift of quick thinking.

I forgot to set my alarm last night so I didn´t wake up until 8:30 this morning (I usually wake up 7 to 7:30) and rushed through the morning routine so I could make it to the bus stop by 9 to get to work on time. I of course missed the first bus, therefore causing me to be late for work.

Work was the usual: research, fight the stupid Internet (it has a bad habit of disconnecting a lot throughout the day), be bored out of my mind. I really have decided that I can´t handle office jobs.

What sets my whole day off even more that it already was is that I had a huge fight with Bob (for those who don´t know, he´s my best friend, or at least I thought he was my best friend) and now we currently aren´t talking.

Officially, life sucks and I need to buy a helmet soon.

Mindi

another normal day

2008-06-18T17:13:00.001-07:00

So this is going to sound like most of my other posts, as a warning to you, the reader. I woke up this morning, went through the morning routine, and rode with Esperanza to work.

At work I did the same as always: researched trade fairs. One difference here is that I used Adriana´s computer for the first part because the laptop I usually use was being used to show a presentation at a meeting that was in the conference room. I also found out that Adriana is going to Puerto Vallarta with her parents this weekend during lunch conversation.

I got home and ate and laid around a while and now I´m typing this. After I´m done, I think that I´m going to go on a walk and probably end up at the mall for a bit, get some excess energy out.

See, I told you it was a typical post for a typical day. Hopefully tomorrow is better or at least more exciting :)

Mindi

there is always sunshine after a rainy day

2008-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

The title is in reference to the fact that today was a much better day. Hence, rainy day yesterday, sunshine today.

I woke up a little late and took the bus to work--you know the same ole same ole. Work was the same as well. After lunch, the Internet stopped working, but only on my computer. I know odd. Luckily, I could still get some stuff accomplished because one of the sites I needed was still up and running (I just couldn´t use any links or find extra information). The best part was near the end of the day when Adriana was cleaning up her office and gave me a whole bunch of books. Most are in Spanish of course, but all should be interesting, at least to me that is.

After work, Salvador and I hung out a bit. We walked to Chapultepec to sit and talk and what not. It turns out that they changed the art that they always have there so we walked through and talked about the different pictures.

While waiting for the bus, a lady came over and started talking to me. Her name is Velia and she lives in the same general neighborhood as me and works in the same general neighborhood as well. She and her husband have a large house and rent out rooms to people, both long term and short term. Her husband has travelled to many parts of the world and speaks Spanish, English, and German. We exchanged numbers and email addresses just in case I want to return (like I already do) and need a place to stay.

I am probably going to go and buy a new power cord for my laptop because it is still not working and I think it might be the best idea.

I officially reserved my bed for Puerto Vallarta for this weekend so all I need to do now is buy my bus tickets. I invited Salvador to come with me so that I won´t be travelling alone. I booked the beds at the Oasis Hostel for 150 pesos a night (thats only $15). For those of you who don´t know what a hostel is, it is a place that has rooms with several beds that strangers share instead of everyone having their own room. This one has storage lockers that you can rent during your stay to keep your stuff in so that it doesn´t get stolen.

That is all the new stuff I have to say for tonight. Good night to all :)

Mindi

not a good day for yours truly

2008-06-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

First thing that happened to me this morning upon waking up was ripping my favorite pair of pajama pants. And not just a small rip, but a large one that is basically not worth fixing. Not a happy camper here.

I left the house a little later than usual and missed the first bus and therefore having to wait an extra half hour which also made me late for work.

Work was normal. Nothing new or special.

I brought my laptop into the shop today after work and it worked just fine as if there was no problem and when we got back, it would not charge in ANY of the outlets in the house. Trust me, I tried each and every one with absolutely no luck

I´m just glad the day is almost over and a new one starts tomorrow. Hopefully better.

Mindi

lazy dayz comin my wayz

2008-06-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Don´t ask about the title so much. I just thought it sounded good. But it really was a lazy day for me for the most part. I didn´t wake up until 10:30ish. After breakfast I called Dad on my cell phone (my US one that is) to wish him a happy Father´s Day. I made sure to keep the call short because it cost 99 cents a minute to talk on it from Mexico. Yikes is right.

For some strange reason I had a very strong urge to go for a run today. I have not ran for exercise in years (sophomore year in high school I do believe) so I have no idea what came over me. I went to the park and stretched and ran prolly about a half mile (can´t be sure though cuz the course is marked in km and I wasn´t paying attention to them very closely). My goal was to run around the entire large loop but soon realized that it was a bit too large of a goal. I ran about half and walked about half (give or take some) and then found a nice shade tree to do some cool down stretches. I actually felt really refreshed upon returning. I might have to do this more often. Well, maybe . . .

After my shower I sat with Oscar and Andrea to watch the Mexico-Belize soccer game on TV. It was fun to watch and more fun to learn about the different things involved and words and what not. Belize´s goalie was top notch but Mexico won 2-0.

I then watched "Father of the Bride" with Andrea in Spanish (it was the movie that played after the game). I´m pretty impressed with how much I understood of it, especially considering it had no sub-titles. After the movie, a really interesting game show was on, nothing that I have ever seen before. There are 2 teams of 3 people, one blue and one silver, and they were full body suits (almost like wet suits but shiny and not as tight) and helmets. They earn points by standing in the positions carved in moving walls and not falling into the pool of water. It makes more sense if you see it rather than read my bad description of it.

We ordered pizza for supper--pepperoni, ham, and cheese-- and ate outside. Afterwards I had a fun talk with Oscar and Esperanza about politics (both US and Mexican), traveling, 9/11, and life experiences. It was a good talk.

New words:
portero=goalie
pedon=bald
extrañar=to miss--I was always saying "echo de menos" which is a very dramatic way of saying "I miss . . . "--so if you want to be a dramaqueen, say "echo de menos", and if not, say "me extraño"
novia=bride

Now I am sitting in front of the computer typing this and checking email, soon to go to bed once all is finished. Hoped everyone had a good day celebrating Father´s Day and Dad, Happy Father´s Day.

Mindi

wow what a weekend

2008-06-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

my stupid laptop causes so many problems

2008-06-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

My laptop is still not charging. Grrrr. I have decided that if it is still not working by Sunday, I am going to have it checked out on Monday after work. Esperanza told me that there is a place not far from where I work that works and fixes computers. I think that it is something with my power cord or my battery because its not charging so it wouldn´t make sense to say it is something else. Hopefully it starts working soon so I don´t have to result to such actions.

I got to work late today because Esperanza was running late. It´s okay though because I was at least 15 minutes early every other day this week so being 20 minutes late today isn´t any kind of big deal. Besides that, no one even seemed to notice at the office.

Besides that, it was a very normal day. I helped Adriana research some stuff because the information she needed was in English and then I continued to research trade fairs. Fun fact: "roof" in Czech is "strechy" I have also learned that I can read French, Portuguese, German, and Dutch well enough to find the information I need from the site (usually just contact information of name, email, and phone number). But I can´t read Scandinavian (Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and the like) or Bulgarian or Russian. Those sights I have to translate to English.

After riding the bus back and eating supper, I had a nice conversation with Esperanza about traveling and Mexico and my future plans. She has travelled to Europe (10 countries) and to parts of the US (LA, NY, Pennsylvania). She also told me that she is impressed with how much I have improved in speaking Spanish since I came (it´s been a month today!) which was nice to hear because sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by all the Spanish all of the time and feel dumb.

Tonight I am going to go with Paulina to a bar that has live music. I have been feeling all day the need to go to a concert or to a place with live bands and I asked Paulina if she knew of any places I could go. It just so happens that the bar that she is going to tonight for a friend´s birthday has live bands nearly every night of the week so I am going to join her tonight again. Apparently its pretty close as well so I could probably go there when I´m bored to watch some live music. This should be a good night.

I don´t know if I will be able to post tomorow because it is going to be a busy day. In the morning I am going to go with Paulina to Tlaquepaque, a little town on the other side of Guadalajara that has a lot of artisan places and what not. In the afternoon I have plans to hang out with Salvador and I´m not sure how long I will be out. But definitely expect a post Sunday describing everything, as always.

Mom and Dad, I´m not sure if I will be able to call on Sunday due to the fact that my laptop is still not charging. If it decides to work, than I will definitely call, but if not, there will not be a way to do so. Hopefully I will be able to but I cannot make any guarantees.

I´m now going to log off and go get ready to go out. I´m going to have fun and I hope you are too! :)

Mindi

bad day

2008-06-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

So my laptop is STILL dead and not charging. I´m really upset about this because I like having my laptop to use instead of one of their computers. I wish I knew what was wrong with it so I could get it fixed. It is still another month that I am down here and I really don´t want to have to use their computer the rest of the month.

At work today, the laptop I always use to research and make my databases was not connecting to Internet, no matter what me, Moni, or Adriana tried. Since what I need to do is research information that is on the Internet, I couldn´t do anything until someone was done using thier computer. I easily sat around not doing anything for an hour and a half until Adriana had to leave for an appointment so I could use hers. Upon her return, I couldn´t do anything once more because everyone was using their own computers. Moni let me use hers when she was done sending emails. While I was on her computer, she worked on rearranging and organizing some things around the office. On top of this, the Internet would randomly stop working about every 20 to 40 minutes and be down for about 2 or 3 minutes in which would interrupt my work and mess with my concentration.

I took the bus home and ate and then rested a bit. I got really restless so I decided to go for a walk, to ease some stress and relax a bit. I walked to one edge of the park and then wandered through the middle when I stumbled upon an area of trampolines. For 45 pesos, you could jump for a half hour. I of course paid (about $4) to jump cuz I love trampolines and it had been such a long time since I had jumped on one. And it showed. After about 5 minutes, I was nearly exhausted. It was a lot of fun and it definitely helped me to relax a bit and feel better.

And now I am on the Lozano´s computer writing this and checking my emails and everything. When I´m done I´m probably going to go to bed. Or draw a bit and then go to bed. Either or, bed is coming soon

Good night to all and hope ur day was better than mine
Mindi

hmmmmm

2008-06-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

I´m not a happy camper right now because my laptop is dead and not charging . . . AGAIN! It died last night and wasn´t charging which is halfway normal but tonight when I tried plugging it in, it wouldn´t charge. I have no idea why and I have no idea how to fix it. Until then, I am using the Lozano´s computer and will be unable to upload any pictures until my laptop decides that it will charge again.

Other than that, today was a normal day--wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work, research more trade fairs, ride bus back, and eat supper. I did have a good conversation with Oscar today on the way to work about poverty and hunger and what needs to happen. At work, I couldn´t do anything for the first hour or so because Internet was down because of the storm from the night before. During lunch, Adriana and I had an interesting talk about boys: what we liked in them, how dumb we think they can be, etc. while Moni slept on the couch.

An interesting thing to note is that there are a lot of restaurants that deliver food and most do not have a minimum amount you must spend for delivery. There are some that will require a minimum of four things or 50 pesos ($5), as Adriana explained to me, but most don´t have such requirements. Case in point, they had some tortillas delivered today that cost 1 peso (10 cents).

New words:
se corre=fired (as in from a job)
me hechas aguas=look out for me. It´s used when you don´t want to get caught doing something. For example today, Moni wanted to take a nap cuz she had a hard time sleeping the night before so she told Adriana "me hechas aguas" for when our boss returned.

Of which another new thing I learned today is that no one at the office likes Carlos Ismael, the director. The old director, Señor Goya, was fired and Carlos Ismael was hired right before I came to intern here. That could explain why it has seemed so disorganized, especially at first, because they just changed directors. Everyone dislikes him so much that they are all currently looking for a different job so that they can quit and move on.

That is all I have for today. Good night to all:)
Mindi

change of season

2008-06-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

It stormed again all night last night and was still raining this morning when I left to walk to the bus stop. Luckily the Lozanos had an extra umbrella so I didn't get soaked while waiting outside.

Work was work, same as always. I did some more research of trade shows in which I finished with all of the Americas and started on Europe. Yay me? I left about 10 or 15 minutes late and got to the doors to see that it was in torrential downpours. I of course did not want to walk in the already semi-flooded streets in a downpour so I waited by the doors where it was dry until it stopped raining. The combination of leaving late and the downpour made me miss 2 buses so I was late in returning to the house.

It seems strange to me that the weather not even a week ago was hot and dry and today it was cool and rainy. The seasons just seemed to change nearly overnight. Apparently thats normal too. I commented on the change at work today and Moni told me that it always changes in the wink of an eye and that today was slightly strange because usually it only rains in the evenings and nights and gets pretty hot during the day. So blazing heat and maybe some humidity during the day and chilly and rainy evenings to be looking forward to in the next month.

new words:
paraguas=umbrella
coquetear=to flirt

Time to go shower now!
Mindi

blah day

2008-06-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today felt like a different type of day. First of all, it was the first day since I've been here that it has been cloudy and overcast. Second, it had stormed the night before and you could see puddles everywhere and it looked like it was about to rain all day. Third, it was the first day that seemed to go by too slow.

Went through my normal routine this morning and rode with Oscar to work today and got there about 15 minutes early. For a large part of the day, I continued with my research of trade fairs. For about an hour and a half I helped Adriana research import restrictions of bicycles to the US and Canada since those pages were more likely to be in English. It was really easy to find information for the US so a large chunk of that time was devoted to Canada. There was a part of the day as well that the Internet decided to stop working so I couldn't do anything for a bit. The highlight of my work day was the fact that I blew up my hot dog in the microwave.

I did get lucky today and was able to catch the first bus so I got back about a half hour earlier than usual. Esperanza had cooked an authentic dish from Jalisco (the state that Guadalajara is in) called tortas gemas. Basically it was buttered bread in a bowl with little meat chunks (carnitas) and a special sauce. It was quite tasty as well. She told me that there is a very similar dish called tortas ahogadas in which the main difference is that it is much spicier. For dessert she served a little cup of (I can't remember the name) which looks like flan but tastes much better. It had a much richer taste which is mainly because it is made with whole milk unlike flan.

After dinner I have just been relaxing and resting from my "strenuous day" and plan to continue doing so after I have posted this blog.

Mindi

the rest of my weekend

2008-06-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Woke up after one of the best nights of sleep of my life. I felt wonderful upon waking up Saturday morning at about 8 am, which if you know me, I usually don't function well until after 10 am or later. For breakfast Esperanza served huevos michiguas (I think I got that right) which amounts to eggs with tortilla and salsa. And then she served cheesecake for dessert. Who has ever heard of having dessert with breakfast, let alone turtle cheesecake?

After breakfast I rested a bit and then went to the Tiangui's cultural with Paulina. It was quite the place! I loved it. There were so many cool things there, but definitely my kind of cool and not your kind of cool Mom :) I bought another set of ear rings for $2, a jewelry set (necklace, bracelet, and earings) for 7, a hat for $9 (I only got this because it was really bright outside and I was tired of squinting), and some other stuff as gifts.

While sitting and resting a bit outside the market area, Paulina and I met a very, well interesting to say the least, man. He came over to us with a crushed Coke can asking for money to help him organize a dinner, and it definitely didn't look like that was what he wanted money for. We told him that we had spent all of our money at the market and couldn't help him of which he then proceeded to ask us for our names and where we were from and sang a little song about Ohio. I only wish I was making this up. He came back about 5 minutes later to ask how old we were and then for our names again. I'm not sure what drugs he was on, but it was definitely something.

Andrea came to pick us up and upon returning to the house I rested a bit until Oscar returned from work when we ate supper--tacos :) Again I rested until around 9 when I went with Paulina to a bar for a friend's birthday party.

The bar was called La Moresca (I don't know if it translates to anything) and was in ways similar to Fitz's for those of you who have been there (St. Louis restaurant/bar). There were 2 floors, the bottom dedicated mainly to restaurant and the upper dedicated to bar but you could order drinks on the bottom floor and food on the upper floor. There was a little section/room thing off to the side where the birthday party took place that had half walls and no windows so it was quite refreshing inside because there was a nice cool breeze the entire night. There were couch-type things all along the outer walls and then little stools that looked kind of like footrests around the rest of the room.

About halfway through the night it started to rain and continued to do so the entire night. Easily the funniest part of the night was when a big gust of wind came and blew the blinds (I guess that's what you would call them) into the room and got everyone who was sitting on the couch wet. Everyone jumped up and screamed and the servers immediately cam over to fix the blinds an dry off the couches--thank God for vinyl right?

Something interesting about the rain here is that some of the streets flood completely where the water is flowing like a river through the streets and is as high as the bottom of car doors. I asked if this was normal and they said that yes it is for some streets but not for others. In other words, the streets flood when it rains in the lower lying areas but not in the higher areas.

It was a fun night but after a little bit I got really tired because it is hard work to be constantly thinking in Spanish and trying to understand bits of conversation when everyone is talking at the same time about different topics. After a little while my brain just shut off unless someone directly spoke to me and then it always took a little bit to readjust into thinking mode. You never think about how hard it is to understand conversation until you're in a different country speaking a different language and in a place where everyone is talking at the same time. I will never again take the English language for granted.

We left at around 2 am with one of the guys who offered to drive us home and by the time we ot back I was ready to crash. I didn't wake up until about 10 this morning and I just laid around in bed for a while at that. We went to a little roadside taco stand for breakfast/lunch and then went to the large farmer's market again but this time with my camera. I'm currently uploading the pictures so I will definitely have a link for them at the end of this post.

When we got home I decided to go out and take a walk because it seemed quite cool and I wanted to see the park after the rain. It still looked a little wet from the storm but nothing really different other than that, but it definitely smelled wonderfullly fresh.

Since then I haven't done much but sit around and rest and plan on doing that for the rest of the day. Tomorow begins week 4 (yeah already week 4) of my internship and after how busy it has been this weekend, I do need a small break to rest.

new words: chaco=puddle
panteón=a giant mausoleum

expression correction: I have been saying "no importa" for "it doesn't matter" which is grammatically correct but I learned tonight over dinner that "no importa" is very strong and aggressive. It is better to say "no desea" because it means the same thing with a much lighter tone.

As promised, here is the link for my pictures.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099794&l=367c8&id=33311182

Hope everyone is doing well back home :)
Mindi

time flies when you're having fun

2008-06-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

So yesterday started slow but became quite the day! I got to work 45 minutes early because Esperanza couldn't drive me there and Oscar only could if I arrived early. I figured that would be best so that I could save 10 pesos for my next bus ride. At work I continued researching trade fairs around the world and making a database of the information. It's nice to have my own project but its getting monotonous for me now. I'm beginning to think that an office job is not for me because I'm either doing clerical work that doesn't require much of a brain or I'm doing the same thing with different information everyday.

After work I met up with Salvador, of which I found out that everyone calls him Chavas not Salvador. We took the bus to the south part of the city because he wanted to show me this huge mural that is on the outer wall of a mausoleum. This mural was at least 10 blocks long. I figured out a way to attach one picture to the blog itself because I feel that I don't have enough pictures to upload for a facebook album yet. The picture above is just one of the many beautiful scenes depicted on the wall. Notice how the dancing fades right into the workers? They all did that too. The wall is an amazing piece of art.

After that we walked to a park and sat and talked and people watched. The park itself was quite small and you could see all the edges of it clearly and everything that was happening from one end to the other. There was a couple with their 2 young boys there who were very amusing. The boys kept climbing on things and then jumping from them and when they found a ball and a piece of fruit, they started throwing them back and forth and kicking them and everything. It was very amusing to watch.

After about an hour or so we walked to an area where there are soccer fields and basketball courts that you can sign up to use and play on. Salvador and some of his friends always meet up every Friday to play soccer. The way it works is that you sign up as a team and then you play a different group that signed up as a team so that you play a different team every time. It was fun to watch them playing so passionately. They played 6 to a team with extras on the sideline if anyone needed a break and there were a few breaks where the teams switched goals. As we were watching I talked a bit with Ana, the girlfriend of one of his friends. She's a nice girl, much like all Mexicans, and we chit-chatted about a lot of different things, from school to work to my shoes. Everyone here seems to really like my white shoes that Maria and I drew all over and comments on them.

He then showed me around the south part of the city a bit more before we took the bus back to where we work. Let me tell you this much: the Cardenal (the bus that I always ride) really is worth the extra money to ride instead of the cheaper public buses. Each time we rode, it was full and crowded and someone always smelled really bad, stinking up the entire bus. The drivers are, I don't know if I want to say worse, but definitely its a much rougher ride. Each stop throws you off balance if you aren't prepared, even if you're sitting down. You are constantly being lurched forward and backward and I would definitely not recommend riding if you get the least bit motion sick.

Once we got off, we walked to where he works, which is a place that stuffs dead animals to have as trophies. It was really interesting and not what I expected. They don't deal with anything but the fur so there is no blood or anything of the like. They have piles of pelts around that people drop off and say what they want done with each one. Some turn into wall hangings while others become rugs and others become mini statue-things. There were a lot of interesting animals there as well: bears, wildcats, ducks, a zebra, a moose, some different birds, and much much more. I of course took pictures and when I have some more I will make an album on Facebook and post the link here.

We then walked around the city a bit not really aiming to go anywhere specific, just walking and talking and joking. I never thought about it, but if you can make a joke or understand jokes made in another language, consider yourself near fluent. As many already know, I make a lot of jokes in English at any given moment but I have found it difficult to do so here, partially because I don't know as many words to make puns nor do I know colloquial versions of words. I have tried a few times and have failed because I always have to explain what I meant and I almost always need clarification when someone else makes a joke because I'm not familiar enough with the language.

Of course, we weren't paying attention to the time and by the time we realized it, my bus route had stopped. The Cardenal stops running at 10 pm so it really wasn't that late but all the same, I had no idea how to get back. Luckily Salvador was there to help me out the best he could since he is not completely familiar with the area I live in (he lives more towards the north and I live more towards the West). We took one bus to the statue of Minerva (which is about a halfway point from where we were to where I live) and then found a bus that goes close to Plaza Galerias (a mall that is about 15 blocks away from where I live). I got lucky here in that the driver decided to stop his route for a bit to drop me off at el Parque Metropolitano. The driver also wanted my number and email so I think he had some ulterior motives in being so helpful. I told him that I didn't have my number memorized (which is true) so I couldn't give him my number. I have no intentions of ever seeing him again but I am definitely grateful for his help.

By this time I was tired from the long, busy day and I greeted the family and went to bed. It was around 11 pm by the time I finally got back.

And now its the next morning and I feel well-rested and ready for another day. Not really sure what's all going on today yet so I will fill you in on my next post :)

New words:
sobrenombre=nickname
apodo=nickname (this is the more formal word)
¿qué ondo?=what's up? literally "what's deep?" but functions as slang for what's up amongst friends

See you later alligator :)
Mindi

normal day=short post

2008-06-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't have to be at work this morning until 11 but I was there by 10:15 because Oscar could give me a ride if I didn't mind being early. So I got there early which was ok with me because I was able to get more stuff done on my database. I worked on that all day again, first on Moni's computer because she wasn't there right away and also because Carlos had taken the laptop with him. When Carlos had returned I switched to working on the laptop instead. And that was my oh so exciting day at work.

An interesting thing I learned today is that the most common thing for Mexicans to put on pizza is ketchup (or as they say "catsup") and yes I am dead serious. Adriana bought a slice of pizza for lunch today and as we were sitting around the table eating, she took the bottle of ketchup and loaded it onto her slice of pizza. I of course commented on how strange that seemed to me and Flor remarked (translated) "Isn't that the way that you eat pizza?" They all thought that it is completely normal to eat pizza with ketchup and that everyone eats pizza like that and were floored by the idea that it is not normal to do so in the US. You learn something new every day.

Took the bus home and ate supper when I got back (spaghetti in white sauce with pizza). And since then I have been resting and not doing anything of consequence.

As a side note, I more than likely will not be posting tomorrow (maybe really late but I doubt it) because I am meeting Salvador after work and then hanging out with him and his friends for the rest of the night. The only thing that I know for sure is happening is the weekly soccer game between him and all of his friends but beyond that, I do not know and I don't think that anyone does. I will definitely fill you all in when I do get a chance to post.

Until then,
Mindi

going for a roller coaster ride

2008-06-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

So today could be roughly compared to a roller coaster because it went up and down all day. First I woke up at 6:23 and couldn't fall back asleep (at least thats what my clock said). But an upper to that was that breakfast was slightly different in that I had Mexican-style french toast for breakfast. From what it looked and tasted like, the bread was made like homemade french toast but was served with cooked apples and condensed milk.

The day went down again once I got to work because the first thing I did was made folders one by one. I thought it was going up once I was done and got to work on the computer again to continue researching until I found out that all my work had disappeared. So instead it went further downhill because I made no progress today since I had to redo all the work from yesterday.

The day finally started to turn around after work because I met up with Salvador and we walked and talked and relaxed which is what I needed. It is definitely nice to have a friend to talk to when things get stressful because it has always helped me relax and feel better.

Then it decided to go slightly down again when I just missed the bus I needed to take to go back to the house. So I had to wait an extra half an hour until the next bus came.

It has now levelled out now that I'm back and have eaten and relaxed and listened to some music. As much as I like roller coasters, I'm glad this roller coaster of a day is done and over.

<3 Mindi

Finally an official project?

2008-06-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

So I was really tired all day today even though I slept fairly well last night. I had my alarm set for 7:30 but didn't get out of bed until about 8:15. Went through my morning routine and walked to the bus stop. While waiting I got my money ready to realize I only had 8.50 pesos and 100 and 200 peso bills. The bus costs 9 pesos. When I got on I told the driver my situation and he told me to not worry about it and just pay the 8.50. Really when converted, it was only a nickel that I was short so it was no big deal. After work though I stopped at a store and asked for them to change one of my 100 into smaller bills to use for my bus ticket.

At work I continued to research more trade shows for US and Europe, and added Asia, America, and everywhere else to the list. This job might actually take me the entire week plus :) Hence making it an official project and uplifting me from simple clerical duties a monkey could do to a job that requires brain waves!

When I got back to the house, Esperanza served me my second lunch as always. It was a noodle and tomato sauce and cheese dish followed by steamed vegetables and chicken stuffed with ham, corn, and swiss cheese. The vegetables were by far the best because they were still slightly crisp and seasoned perfectly. For dessert I had tapioca pudding.

I went up to my room and rested for a bit because I was quite tired. I have decided that it is the heat that is making me feel so tired because it has been getting hotter and hotter and the office did not turn on the air conditioning today. Therefore I did not get a chance to cool down at all like I usually do. The Lozano's don't have air conditioning in their house but it's ok because the house is designed in such a way that it stays cool by keeping lights off and the doors open for the cool breeze that is always going.

For supper tonight I had my first official Mexican tamale. It was not quite what I was expecting because it was sweet and not spicy at all but all the same it was good.

After dinner I talked politics with Andrea and Paulina which more or less amounted to explaining the American political and election process and them explaining the Mexican. It started with me telling them how happy I was that Obama finally won the Democratic nomination and it turned into explaining the difference between the primary elections and the November election and then how the process worked. In Mexico, the president and governors and mayors can only have one term in office with no chance of re-election. Presidential elections occur every 6 years and the parties choose the candidates that will run without consulting the voters. There are lots of different parties but only 3 main ones: PRI, PRD, and PAL. Don't ask what each stands for because I don't know.

New Words:

pestaña=tab (as in tabs in an Internet window or Excel spreadsheet)

pegar=paste (in Office)

eliminar=delete

vínculo=link (as in from Office to the Web)

fabricación=manufacturing

bienes inmuebles=real estate

chicháros=peas
rancharitos=rednecks

And now I have reached the end and it is nearing bed time so I shall leave you all for tonight.

Until tomorrow,
Mindi

not a bad day :)

2008-06-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

It was so hot last night that it woke me up at about 3 am and I couldn't fall back asleep for about another hour and then it was a very light sleep at that. I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm went off (which was entirely too early at that) and went through my morning routine and took the bus to work this morning.

At work I spent the first 2 hours finishing stuff up from the conference. This included destroying all of the extra pamphlets, removing the name tags from the plastic part to throw away and keep the plastic parts, counting the plastic parts, and some other odd job stuff. After the random stuff was done I was given a mini project that turned out to be quite large. I searched the Web for trade shows going on in the US and Europe until around the end of the year and then proceeded made a database out of the results. I'm not nearly finished with this project and it will easily take me another 2-3 days to finish it, which is a good thing in my books.

As I was leaving work today, I found Salvador waiting for me at the entrance of my building. Quite a surprise. We walked around a bit and chatted about this and that. Found out that he dissects animals to be stuffed for hunters who want to make their kills into trophies for work. I lost track of time and soon enough it was after 7 and we walked to our different bus stops.

I wasn't paying very close attention and missed the first bus that I needed to take so I had to wait another half an hour until the next one came of which simply did not stop when it did come. I signalled for him to stop and when I realized that he wasn't going to, I started running after it. This pissed me off because I was delayed a whole hour. Admittedly, the first one was my fault but the second was not. While waiting for the third bus to come, I chatted with a girl who was also waiting for the bus, a different one from mine. I really liked her sandals and asked her where she got them from and thence learned that she is from Chihuahua (northern Mexican state that borders Texas) but has lived in Salt Lake City and other parts of Mexico.

By the time I finally made it home, it was after 9. I skipped the lunch meal partially because I wasn't hungry and partially because Esperanza had thrown most of it away already. I instead drank two glasses of water and then proceeded to shower. By the time I was done it was dinnertime. Oscar had bought some mini tacos from a friend that owns his own little store. I ate 3 of them. I definitely liked the mini tacos moreso than regular ones because they are easier to eat because of their size.

That's been my day and now I'm planning on lying down and trying to sleep. Good night to all :) and good morning to those who are reading it in the morning and good afternoon to those who are reading then and good evening to the rest. Now if I have not said something to you, you must be living in a different world than the rest of us :)

Mindi

since i forgot this morning . . .

2008-06-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ok in my rush this morning to write about yesterday I forgot to write about my lunch/supper and new words. So I'm going to do that part first and add all the new words at the bottom.

Salvador and I ate lunch at a little restaurant called "La Doña" and it served typical Mexican food like tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, quesadillas, and the like. I ordered enchiladas de queso (cheese) and a tepache to drink. Tepache is a very interesting drink with a very strong flavor--too strong for me--and would taste excellent if mixed with 7up or Sprite. It is made from pineapple juice, orange juice, and tamarindo which is a small fruit local to Mexico. I couldn't stand to drink the whole thing because it was too strong so I ordered a 7up. It came in a glass bottle and served with a straw and i kept the bottle.

As for this morning, for breakfast we had huevos rancheros which are eggs sunny side up served with salsa and tortillas and refried beans. Very Mexican and very good :). After wards they went to church and upon returning Esperanza, Paulina, and I went shopping. They dropped me off at a different Tiangui's and then left to run some of their own errands.

This Tiangui's was a lot smaller and was very similar to a giant garage sale. There was a bunch of junk and a bunch of nice stuff and everything in between. Jewelry, books, statues, keychains, old coins, etc. I bought 2 pairs of handmade earrings for about $4, a silver necklace for $10, a homemade rosary for $4, and a hand-stitched red leather purse for $10.

Came back from the market and rested a bit before supper, which was amazing! Carne asada (marinated steak), chorizo (Mexican sausage), sausage and bean soup, toasted jalapeño peppers, quesadillas, and tostadas with cheese. It was very filling and no one actually had room for dessert.

new words: palomas=pidgeons
caballito=shot glass
terciopelo=velvet
aretes=earrings
collar=necklace
descalzo=barefoot
tobillo=ankle
dedos=toes, fingers (its the same word)

Well that's all for now,
Mindi :)

wow what a day!

2008-06-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday was easily the best day I've had here so far. I know that I just said that in my last post, but today was even better. I slept in until 10 and then had a simple breakfast of papaya and cereal and then got dressed to go spend the entire day in the old downtown area.

As I was walking to the bus stop I saw the bus start turning the roundabout and it was a good block until the bus stop so I started running while holding out my hand to signal that I wanted to ride. Luckily the driver was nice and stopped for me well before the bus stop. I rode until 2 stops after I usually get off for work and started wandering around when I found the metro station. I decided that I was going to take the metro somewhere but wasn't sure where so I asked a guy who was down there for some suggestions. He in turn offered some advice and then offered to accompany me which thrilled me of course because nothing is better than a tour given by a local (not to mention that he was pretty cute as well ;D). He showed me exactly how to buy the tickets (which are actually little tokens) and then how to use the tokens to get into the gate and then the art of riding the metro. I probably could have figured it out on my own but I was definitely glad to have someone there to help out.

The metro in Guadalajara is similar to the one in St. Louis. It has one main length and one transfer station where it branches off. It is underground in the main city area where it is much more congested and is above ground as you go further out and there is more room. However, I would consider it better than the system in St. Louis in that you cannot possibly sneak onto a train without paying because it has gates that only open with the use of the token that you must buy. Also the trains are painted in mural form showing many of the main attractions of Guadalajara including the Cathedral, statue of Minerva, statue honoring los Niños Heroes, part of an Orozco mural, etc. Each token costs 5 pesos, the equivalent of 50 cents in the US and it is usually pretty full because there are a lot of people that use it daily even though it is not very extensive.

The downtown area (I like the Spanish word better--centro--so I think I'm going to use it instead) reminds me a lot of Europe which makes sense since Guadalajara was settled by the Spanish and was one of their jewel settlements in Mexico. The architecture and buildings greatly resemble many parts of old Barcelona (at least as my memory serves me). The fact that there are lots of stone plazas for pedestrian traffic only and all of the little stores along the plazas highly reminded me of Europe.

First stop in el centro was the Cathedral of Guadalajara. It was absolutely beautiful! I of course took lots of pictures and I am currently uploading them so I will give you the link to see them at the end of this post. There are large plazas surrounding the cathedral. An innovative thinker designed a parking lot for people who want to drive to the Cathedral (for church, to visit, etc) underneath the plaza so that there would be enough parking and that cars wouldn't clog the already busy streets.

We walked around for a bit and he showed me the Library of Guadalajara (an old building that looks kind of like an old courthouse) and the oldest and main theater of Guadalajara (an equally old building that looks like it should be a museum). There are a lot of fountains in el centro, all of them equally interesting and beautiful. I included a lot of pictures as well in the album.

There is a large market that sells anything and everything you can imagine. It was 4 levels with ramps where they sold stuff as well as you ascended to the next level--great use of space if you ask me. We past jewelry shops (real gold and silver!), lots of shoe shops, American clothing (Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, etc.), food places, a tool shop, cd booth, knick knacks, souvenirs--basically everything you can imagine. I bought two shot glasses to add to my collection: one is more serious and typical with a painting of the cathedral and Guadalajara on it while the other is quite amusing and has a figurine of a drunk passed out person glued onto it.

It had been quite a bit of walking and I had to use the bathroom but did not want to repeat the horrible public bathroom experience that I had had earlier (remember the rules to using a public bathroom in Mexico?). So I lowered myself to going to McDonald's to use their restroom. It was actually an interesting experience. There was a person on duty standing by the bathrooms to check to see if you had a receipt because you had to buy something to use the bathroom. Well I stood in line for a long time to buy a simple drink (agua de jamaica--its a cold drink made from a flower) that costs 15 pesos ($1.50). I only had large bills that equal $10 or $20 each and they could not except either one for a small purchase. Luckily there was a guy behind me that used a 20 ($2) to pay for me since they couldn't except my "large" bills. So I got a free small drink from the deal. I then had to wait in line to use the bathroom because there were only 2 stalls and a sink jammed into a really small room about the size of a closet. But they were clean, and that's what mattered most. This whole ordeal took about half an hour because the lines were so long.

After that we decided that we just wanted to rest a bit and sit somewhere. He led me to a pretty park and we sat in the grass under a tree and talked, sharing stories. It was very relaxing and fun to just watch the different people as the walked/drove/skated/ran by. There were lots of people in the park, some couples cuddling and being almost disgustingly cute, high school kids hanging out, skateboarders, groups of punks and goths, people playing with their pets. It again seemed almost as if I was in the US again except that everyone was speaking Spanish.

So now let me tell you a bit more about my personal tour guide. His name is Salvador and he is 23 years old and lives about 20 minutes away from el centro with his parents (this is very typical for Mexicans to do until they get married) but lived in Cancun for a little bit but didn't really like the people there so he moved back. He works in a store that is very close the the building I work in and has the same general lunch hour and gets off work as the same time as me. He is the the youngest of 10 kids (yes 10!) and is the only one who is not married. He has 25 nieces/nephews and is godfather to 3 of them. He was in a motorcycle accident about 2 and half years ago and fractured his neck and has a killer scar from the surgery to put his neck back together. It looks very similar to Emily's scars on her back from her back surgery for anyone who has seen those.

I took the bus back at around 6:20 and upon returning, Paulina and Andrea invited me to go to Dairy Queen with them. Of course I went with them. I got a Hawaiian Blizzard which was good but it had a bit too much coconut for my taste buds.

After that, I took a shower and sat with Paulina to watch "Queen Elizabeth" the movie with Cate Blanchett. It was in English mostly with Spanish sub-titles but there were parts that were in Spanish and had English sub-titles because of the interaction between the Spanish and the English during her time. It was a very interesting movie and I would like to do some research sometime to see exactly how historically accurate it was.

As promised, here is the link to the album I made as it has finished uploading now.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099102&l=29587&id=33311182

Overall, it was a spectacular day and I hope to have more just like this one. The only bad part of the whole day was the fact that I got a little burnt on my shoulders even though I used sunscreen. It was a very minor burn and is already gone this morning as I write this.

With hugs and kisses to all,
Mindi

a day on my own

2008-05-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

So today was one of the best days I've had thus far, and mainly because it was a day to myself in which I determined nearly every part of it on my own. For instance, I chose not to get out of bed until after 10 this morning (I didn't have to work today because of yesterday's conference). Breakfast was the usual of mango, watermelon, and yogurt. After breakfast I showered and then sat in my room drawing for a while. That's a hobby that I've re-picked up recently, partially because it is something to do and partially because everything here seems to inspire some type of art, be it drawing, painting, photography, etc. So the artsy side of me has re-emerged quite strongly.

Well after that I decided to go to the mall and pass the day away there. It is about 15 or 20 blocks away, so not too terribly far. It was a nice walk just to enjoy the sights and the people and the houses and the cars and everything. I spent a good 4 hours just walking around inside the mall and some of the stores. At the end of my "shopping" (I didn't actually buy anything) I decided that I was going to experience the Mexican cinema. There is a giant theater at one end of the mall and tickets were relatively cheap (equivalent of $5 a ticket). I didn't get a real taste of Mexican cinema because I chose to watch Indiana Jones in English with Spanish sub-titles, but I did experience the general aura of it. That counts right?

The mall. Looking at its outside and the interior, it looks just like an American mall. Most of the stores are Mexican but they sell clothes that are right in taste with American fashion. The food court contained a lot of burger joints and Asian restaurants and the only Mexican ones were really expensive. I felt like I was back in the US except for the fact that most of the signs were in Spanish and everyone was speaking Spanish.

A general note on Mexicans and cell phones. I noticed today in the theater and yesterday at the conference that many do not turn off their phone nor put it on silent when at a speaker or the movies. It was worse at the conference yesterday because cell phone after cell phone after cell phone rang and no one bothered turning theirs off or into silent mode. In the US, typically one phone goes off and everyone immediately checks to see if theirs is in silent mode because they don't want to be seen as the fool who didn't turn their phone off. Definitely not the case here. It seemed very rude to me but apparently not to most Mexicans.

Right before the movie started, Paulina called me asking when I was going to return because they were serving lunch at the house. I told her to just save me a plate and I would eat it when I returned after the movie. She also told me that they would be leaving for the night so I would get back and be by myself until late.

I decided to take a different way back as a way to see new things and new places and explore some more. The way I took brought me by some of the most beautiful houses. There were a bunch along the edge of a small park-type area which I later found out from a posted sign that it was a dog park. You know that you're in a well-to-do area when they have a dog park.

The walk also brought me across a beautiful view of the Parque Metropolitano and the mountains in the background. I decided to try my hand at drawing a bit of it. It turned out to be not as hard as I had imagined but I had only sketched what I saw and did not do anything with shading (mainly because I had to use the bathroom and didn't want to resort to the nearby public bathroom)

When I came back, they had set my plate aside. It was a chicken patty (or what appeared to be a chicken patty, it didnt quite taste like chicken) and a salad. Not the best but it worked. I reheated the chicken patty and ate the salad and then cleaned up my dishes and spot and progressed to my room to do some more drawing (told you, artsy mood lately). Since then I haven't done much but I'd call it a good day.

So I'm going to go to bed now and rest because I did a lot of walking today and am quite tired.
Love you all,
Mindi

P.S. Here is the link to see pictures from the Conference yesterday. I finally got Facebook to work with me long enough to get these posted.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098893&l=77db9&id=33311182

El Foro!

2008-05-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

What a day! I spent over 12 hours dressed nicely in a skirt and blouse, if you can imagine the sight. The conference turned out to be successful and a good day overall.

But it didn't start that way. I set my alarm for 5:30 so I would be ready to go by 6:45 to be at the Chamber of Commerce by 7. However, I set my alarm for 5:30 pm so it didn't go off. I instead awoke to Esperanza knocking on my door asking if I was ready. It was 6:40, 5 minutes until we had to leave. So I hustled out of bed and did my morning routine extra fast, thanking God that I planned ahead for something like this to happen and had everything pre-set-up to go this morning.

Andrea dropped me off at the Chamber of Commerce on her way to the gym before classes. I go to the back doors (they were closest to where I was dropped off) and they were locked so I walked around to the front doors to find that they were locked as well. I the decided that I was going to take pictures while waiting. While walking around the outside of the building, I saw Flor drive in and around back, but further down so I decided to walk in that direction. It turned out that we had to use the worker's back door to get in because the building doesn't open to the public until later (8 I think.)

First thing I got to do was help stuff bags with information for each of the participants. We made a kind of assembly line to get things done quickly. After everything was done, Registration started and I had to use the laptop to check each person off who came in to pick up his/her nametag and bag and what not. It was ok until it got really busy and I was told to stop doing my job to help manually find the nametags of which I couldn't reach nearly half. It flustered me as well that I couldn't understand a lot of people when I asked them for their names because they spoke to quickly and it sounded nearly unintelligible to my gringo ears. On top of that there was a definite lack of organization. The nametags were put into nice lines but had absolutely no order where it would have made sense to put them in alphabetical order so that we could have found the nametags how much quicker.

After the main rush was over I was allowed to wander around and explore the building, which is absolutely beautiful. There are 3 floors (4 if you count the fact that the bottom floor is split half and half). On the second floor there are a lot of beautiful paintings and little lanterns as light fixtures on each of the beams. There is also a restaurant with a baby grand piano in the center where someone is playing at all times and the music fills the entire building. The third floor consisted mainly of offices and a branch of it was under renovation.

During my exploration I came across some booths of the sponsor businesses promoting their products. I noticed that a guy at one of the booths looked just as bored as I felt so I went over and started talking to him. It turned into a good conversation and I came back several times throughout the day when I was bored. The group of guys that worked the booth were interesting people and I enjoyed our conversations.

For lunch they served a 3-course meal. First it was cream of cilantro soup which was okay but I'm not much of a fan of soups that don't have a lot of solid things within. The main course was delicious: baked chicken in a creamy bacon sauce, roasted potatoes, and crisp green beans. And of course for dessert flan was served. I have noticed that flan is the most common dessert in nearly any Spanish-speaking country much like pie or cakes is the most common in the US. I'm not much of a fan of flan because it seems to lack any strong flavors but Mexicans and Hispanics in general seem to LOVE it for some reason.

I attended a few of the presentations and learned quite a bit. The presentations included: farming in Sinaloa (the state just north of Jalisco that is the leading agriculture-producing state in Mexico), tips on entering the US market, the Mexican import-export market in details, and
the Latin American market and some warnings on an upcoming crisis.

I left at 7 with Paulina (she attended the conference too) when Oscar came to pick us up. We drove out to the mechanic shop to pick up the SUV and then I rode back to the house with Paulina in the SUV. Once we got back, I immediately went up to my room to change out of the skirt and blouse into some more comfortable clothes and began to write this blog.

So that's been my day. I learned a lot of new words but didn't write them down so I forgot a lot of new words too. Oh well. Until tomorrow,

Mindi

Work, Wait, Draw, Repeat

2008-05-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely feeling better today than the past two days so I think that Esperanza was right in that it was just dehydration. Note to self, drink more fluids. :) Breakfast was simple as usual, with fresh cut pears and watermelon, cereal, and juice.

Esperanza drove me to work this morning and it was quite a day. The office was crazy-busy trying to tie up all of the loose ends for the trade show tomorrow morning. I got to do all kinds of mind-numbing things today as part of tying up loose ends. First job was working on the name tags. I finished cutting all of them and then had to wait until the stickers with the names were printed of which Moni had to wait until people emailed her back with the list of names to type to put on the stickers. After just sitting for a bit I decided to start doodling out of sheer boredom until I could do something.

The next thing I did was hook the lanyard to the plastic name card holders for the name tags. They hadn't bought enough originally so they had Don Richard (their delivery/pick-up guy) go buy some. He and I tag-teamed the lanyard hooking so the job went twice as fast. Once again, we waited for some stickers to be printed and talked about this and that. Don Richard is quite an interesting guy. He was born in Mexico but has moved around a lot and has seen a lot of places. For about 5 years he lived in Hershey, Pennsylvania with his brother. While in the US, he visited NYC, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, El Paso, and more that I can't remember. He moved back to Mexico because he didn't like how fast-paced American society is. He has also lived all over Mexico. We had a good conversation about music, partially because we both love music and partially because we both like the same kind of music.

Once some of the stickers were finally printed, Don Richard and I worked together to assemble the name tags. After assembled, some of them had to be seperated into groups which were then put in labeled envelopes. Once all of that was done, it was back to waiting. Don Richard left to go pick up some food and run some other errands. I sat and then decided to continue on my doodles, which actually turned intoquite a creation. We ate lunch and then I sat there bored again.

Upon Don Richard's return with copies, I got to assemble small packets. There were 5 sheets in the pack, each sheet in its own pile that was about an inch-and-a-half thick. Yep, I spent about an hour assembling these packs one-by-one. I tried counting them at the beginning but soon lost count so I gave up on that idea.

I did some odd jobs around the office until some more stickers were printed. Mostly the odd jobs were ones in which I fetched different things from around the office to be put in boxes to be brought to the Chamber of Commerce (where the trade show is being held). Once some more stickers were printed, I assembled some more nametags after which it was thankfully time for me to go.

I took the bus home today. The strange part of it was that Andrea came to pick me up about 10 minutes after I had gotten off. Esperanza told me this morning that I should plan on taking the bus home unless someone called letting me know that they could pick me up. No one had called or texted so I assumed that I had to take the bus. And it was true, no one had called or texted mainly because Andrea didn't know my phone number, so I had done nothing wrong.

For supper, Esperanza had made a green bean-egg mix (hot), quesadilla, and chuleta (ham in BBQ sauce and pineapples). It was very delicious. The BBQ sauce was a bit on the spicy side but still quite tasty. For dessert, she served little candy-type squares that I think were apricot flavored but I'm not quite sure (I'm not that good at guessing flavors).

I am going to go to bed early tonight because I have to be at the Chamber of Commerce tomorrow at 7 am to help set up for the trade show. It is going to be a long day tomorrow but it should be very interesting and quite a learning experience worth all the hours of tedious, mind-numbing work I have done thus far. At least I hope so. :) so if I don't post tomorrow, it's because I'm exhausted.

Mindi <3

a short two days . . .

2008-05-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

So this entry is going to be short even though it covers 2 days because I have not been feeling well. Don´t worry, it´s nothing major, just an ongoing headache and off-and-on stomache aches. Esperanza thinks that its probably just dehydration so I have been resting and drinking a lot of fluids. Hopefully this goes away soon.

Monday morning I woke up and felt well. Ate a breakfast of cereal and papayas with lime juice. Esperanza drove me to work but I had to take the bus back.

At work I spent the whole day researching more about non-tariff barriers that the European Union has against Mexico. It was interesting work and I learned a lot. I didn´t quite finish yesterday so I completed it this morning and then began researching the same material except for the United States instead of the European Union. Again, interesting material and I learned a lot, but not as much as yesterday with the European Union.

I didn´t start feeling poorly until about mid-day, right before my lunch break on Monday. Riding the bus back didn´t help at all. I got back and ate the small salad and spaghetti bolonesa (spaghetti with meat sauce) that Esperanza had prepared and then went to bed and lounged/rested/slept the rest of the evening.

Today, I woke up still not feeling at 100% but still went through the motions of the day. I had a slice of toast and yogurt with mangoes and granola for breakfast and then rode the bus to work today. To help re-hydrate, I stopped at the Soriana (a supermarket chain here) that is across the street from my building to buy a Gatorade to drink while at work.

As I was walking from work to the bus stop, Oscar saw me as he happened to have been driving by after picking up the SUV from the mechanic. He honked at me and I rode back to the house with him instead of having to take the bus which was since I still wasn't feeling 100%

For supper, Esperanza made tenderloins, french fries, and pork and beans. Mexican pork and beans are different mainly in that they are not sweet and secondly in that they are served more as a soup but still are good.

I have since been loafing and resting so that I will hopefully be feeling better tomorrow.

Good night to all :)
Mindi

another day, another title

2008-05-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

I had my first "American" meal here in Mexico. Well kinda. It was definitely Mexicanized (is that even a word?) Oscar made hamburgers on the grill and french fries. What was different was the manner in eating it. As I grasped it with both hands to take my first bite, they were taking a knife to cut it in half to make smaller pieces. They also put avocado and cucumber slices on their hamburgers along with the lettuce and tomatoes. For dessert, I had my first taste of a truly Latin American dish: fried platano. A platano is a giant banana (and I mean giant) that Oscar placed on the grill to cook still in its skin. It is sever sliced with whipped cream and cinamon and it was really good.

So last night I didn't go out but still had fun playing games with Andrea, Paulina, and Oswaldo (Andrea's boyfriend). I learned how to play Rummy with instructions in Spanish. It wasn't as difficult as I might have expected but it worked out. After a few games of Rummy, we switched to Dominos. I don't know how many of you know how to play train dominoes but that was the type that we played. I know at home, we play with pennies when we can't play any dominoes but they actually had little plastic trains to use. They had some other various different rules but none worthwhile mentioning.

After playing several rounds of both Rummy and Dominoes, we walked about 10 or so blocks to this little church festival to get some food. I spent 20 pesos (about $2) on a gordita con chorizo which was a flat bread with cheese, sausage, onion, peppers, and beans. I tried eating it with a fork and failed miserably so I ended up using my hands and still made a mess. On our way back we passed an Oxxo (a little convenience store like a 7-11) to buy ice cream treats. For about 10 pesos ($1) I bought the equivalent of an ice cream sandwich. We came back to the house and I went to bed.

Slept in this morning and boy did it feel good. When I did get up, I sat in the kitchen as they all prepared breakfast. I asked if I could do anything to help and they said no so I continued to sit there. We had carrot-orange juice (with lots of pulp), sliced bananas, mango, yogurt, watermelon, and toast. Once again, very good. One thing that I have noticed is that Mexicans like to add fresh lime juice to everything to add some flavor. The Lozanos have a lime tree in their backyard so they actually get their limes straight from the tree fresh.

I learned today that I was using the bathroom incorrectly for the past week. So when you go to the bathroom you usually do your business and wipe and send everything, including the toilet paper, down the toilet, right? Nope, not here. I accidently clogged the toilet by trying to send too much toilet paper down pipes that aren't very good to begin with. Instead, after wiping, one must place the used toilet paper in the trash can. Learn something new everyday.

I did a thorough cleaning of my room today. That is one of the things that is expected of me is that I keep my room organized and sweep, scrub, and dust it once a week. My version of organized is much different from most people's versions of organized and I thought that my room was pretty good (trust me, compared to how my room usually looks, it was looking really good) but apparently it needs to be better. Note to self, keep room more "organized."

I later went with Andrea and Paulina to this market called Tianguis which is a tax free market that sells everything from food to clothes to jewelry to tools. I tell you, we saw it all. And it was all super cheap. Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts only $20, Coach shoes for sale for $25. Everything was priced wonderfully. I want to return later to buy stuff, and maybe on my own so I can explore for myself. If anyone would like something name brand for super cheap, let me know either by commenting or by emailing me at macb.firefly@gmail.com. They had Abercrombie and Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Hollister, various Coach apparel, various Dolce y Gabbana apparel, and som other stuff that I can't remember right now.

I also went to CostCo with the family later and it looks just like any other CostCo you'd go to in the States. A lot of the products had English Labels with Spanish translations underneath. An interesting thing about CostCo is that here it is more of a place where the richer people go because even though it's wholesale, its more expensive than other stores because of most of the goods being American by nature.

Supper tonight consisted of cooked shrimp in a brown gravy, rice with carrots, baked potato with butter and bacon, and bread and butter. Through conversation at the dinner table, I learned that the cheapest meat here is seafood and the most expensive is chicken. A little backward from what we are used to. We went out to Monique's for dessert. It's a little restaurant that specializes in desserts from Europe. I got a simple ice cream because I have been craving real ice cream for a while now. Paulina got crepes, Andrea blueberry cheesecake, Esperanza apple streudel with ice cream, and Oscar a simple ice cream as well.

After dessert, they drove me down to the old downtown where the government palace and Cathedral are. It is the same cathedral that is just blocks away from where I work. Both looked spectacular in the dark with the lights on and what not. I tried getting pictures but somehow a bus or something got in the way each time I tried so I am still going to take that trip there after work someday.

new words: aveja=bee
miel=honey
jarabe=syrup
ficha=card or tab
"se puede ...?"=are you allowed to . . .?
ya=finished when playing a game and your done with you turn
"comiste?"=literally "you ate" but used in reference to if you picked up a card

Ok, so it's my bedtime. Gotta get up tomorow for another exciting day of work! :)

Mindi

The first trip to the park and links for pictures

2008-05-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't go out last night because Andrea had an exam this morning and Paulina had classes. Instead I watched this cool program on TV with Esperanza that only comes on Friday nights thats called "Leyendas de Rock" or for you non-Spanish speakers "Legends of Rock." The host spoke in Spanish but all the songs were in English. They showed videos of Nancy Sinatra, Elvis, The Mamas and the Papas, the Beach Boys, Robert Palmer, The Ventures, Simon and Garfunkel, Elton John, and some others that I can't remember. It was really interesting to watch and talk about the songs with Esperanza. Some of the songs, like the ones by Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel, and Elton John, have Spanish versions.

Woke up this morning and decided to lay around for a while and play computer games. Once I stopped loafing around, I decided that I was going to explore El Parque Metropolitano which is not even a block away from their home. I got dressed and put on some sunscreen and went down to eat breakfast (which was Doraditas--sweet crackers--and pineapples). After that I went out with my keys, ID, mp3 player, and camera and explored.

The park is large. The Lozano's live close to one of its corners. It has multiple different paths you can take to walk, run, bike, rollerblade on. Some are paved while others are dirt. It was quite dusty but from what Esperanza told me, it greens up a lot once the rainy season starts in less than a month. I can't wait to see the beauty of it then :)

I finally figured out a way to share pictures with those of you who are reading this and do not have a Facebook account. Here is the link for some pictures from the park.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098351&l=11f64&id=33311182

And here is a link for pictures of the house, my room, and other stuff.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097787&l=7057b&id=33311182

and here is a link for pictures of my office where I work and stuff I have walking to and from the bus stop and while riding the bus
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098360&l=5292b&id=33311182

Please let me know if any of the links don't work so I can try to figure out a different way to share pics. This is all I have for now I hope that you enjoy the pictures!

Mindi

Are you ready for this one?

2008-05-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Thursday) was a busy day and I didn't get a chance to post so this is going to be an extra long post.

I took the bus again to work. On my way to the bus stop I was taking lots of pictures because everything seemed to be either beautiful or interesting and sometimes both. I was the only person riding the bus for the first ten minutes and only one other person got one before I got off. Fun story here though is that I got off too early—oops—and had to walk about a mile to get to work. It was a good experience though. I got to explore a piece of Guadalajara by myself and experience pedestrian life. Oh and Bob, if you're reading this, I saw a blue Honda Civic Si on my walk and had to take pictures and I will be posting them on Facebook once I get around to it. Definitely a better choice to go with the habanero red because it definitely looks better in the red than the blue.

About Mexican driving and pedestrians. As a driver, imagine driving in Chicago when its busy, not necessarily rush hour though, and all of the craziness of it. Now imagine it being worse. That is how they all drive here. There are traffic laws but most aren't followed. Some roads don't even have lane lines painted on them. As in Europe, people on the little motorbikes, motorcycles, mopeds, whatever you want to call them (I don't know how to distinguish between them) ride in between cars on the lane lines. Randomly drivers will turn the sidewalks into a parking spot/lot. And you can't always depend on the sidewalk being there in the first place or be in good condition either. Pedestrians technically have the right of way but drivers don't necessarily give it to them so often times people will walk across the street whenever they have a chance which isnt always in a crosswalk. Especially on the busier streets, people will meander through the cars stopped at a stoplight to cross the street. Not to mention all of the people who work at these intersections trying to sell anything from gum to windshield wipers to fruit baskets to paintings. There are also some people (usually younger boys) who wash windshields for the stopped drivers for money.

Back to my day. Because I walked longer than supposed to, I was about 15 minutes late for work today but it didn't seem that anyone noticed or cared. The day started with me once again waiting for Gaby to find something for me to do which about 15 minutes later I was counting brochures and putting them in stacks of ten and then labling them as to where they would go. After I was done with that I waited another 15 or 20 minutes for Gaby to find something else for me to do. Oh and while I was waiting in her office, I saw her looking up ticket prices and seats on Ticketmaster. Great use of computer and work time I'd say. Finally she gave me the job of researching the different non-tariff trade barriers between Mexico and the United States. I used Moni's computer until Marcia and Gaby left in which I used Marcia's computer. I spent the first 3 hours searching and finding nothing specific. I searched Google with several different terms and EBSCO host all with no luck. Surprisingly to me I found a great site within the first few sites listed when I used the same keywords at Yahoo. I loved doing this because even though it took a lot of time, I learned a lot from all the wrong sites I visited and even more from the best one. I hope I get to do more research-oriented things in the upcoming weeks. This took up the remaining time for me at work and I actually left about 15 minutes late.

During lunch break I had a good conversation with Moni, Adriana, and Flor. I must say that Adriana is nicer than I had originally thought and I must have met her on a bad day. They asked about my family and friends in the US, things that I like to do, things that I like about Mexico, etc. One thing I find very interesting is that everyone seems to ask within the first questions if I have a boyfriend and after I tell them no, they all want to know why. I usually respond by saying that my studies are more important than boys right now but they usually don't take that as a valid response.

I had to take the bus back the house today and because I left late, I just missed the bus I needed so I had to wait an extra half hour for the next one. It was ok though because I enjoyed watching the people walking by and the cars driving and everything. I guess I was in an observation mode today. Like a good worrying mother, Esperanza called wondering where I was because I had missed the first bus.

When I finally got back to the house, Esperanza had a cream soup, garlic bread, chicken legs in a sweet gravy, and little mini-potatoes. For dessert she had a fruit sorbet that I can't remember the name of the flavor.

The Lozano's went to church because it was a special day for Catholics (Día de Corpus Christi) and I stayed back because I had just gotten home and badly needed a shower from all the dust that I had picked up walking to and from the bus stops. When they returned, Paulina invited me to go with her to a friend's house for a birthday party and of course I accepted.

Paulina's friends seemed a lot like any college age American group of friends, including my own. We all were sitting around the table and they had a chocolate cake with a creamy icing. I had a hard time following conversation because there were multiple people talking and using slang so I found myself zoning out a lot. Like any good foreigner, I mispronounced a word (Coahuila—its a state in northern Mexico where I visited on the mission trip during Spring Break freshman year) and everyone laughed hysterically. Paulina later told it was because the way I had pronounced it is a vulgar term. Later someone asked me if I was bored (he caught me in a hard core zone out moment) and I replied by saying “No, tengo sueño” (No I'm tired) and he then said “Ok ¿entonces cansas?” (ok you're tired?). Well since I really wasn't fully alert, I mistook “cansas” for “Kansas” and thought he was asking where I was from and responded “No soy de Ohio” and everyone who had been paying attention to the conversation burst into laughter. The guy who was talking to me actually fell off of his chair in fits of laughter. In midst of the laughter I realized my mistake and was instantly wholly embarassed. I have always considered myself pretty good at Spanish and able to talk to anyone and I failed at that moment. I can look at it as I was new and tired and it was a good laugh for everyone. But man was I so embarassed. As we were leaving, I made a joke about it, partially to show that I'm comfortable around them and about making mistakes and also partially to help myself feel better. After all, if I can reduce it to a joke, it can't be so bad right?

Upon returning, I went straight to bed and slept like a log. I woke up this morning feeling very rested. I got up earlier than I needed to because I wasn't sure if I needed to take the bus this morning or if someone was able to drive me to work. It turns out that Esperanza was able to drive me to work this morning so I started writing the first part of this blog and I called Wilma (the internship coordinator) to talk about my internship. I have really only been doing monotonous jobs that you could probably train a monkey to do and upon recommendations from Paulina and Esperanza, I wanted to discuss my options with Wilma. She told me that I should talk to them at work and see if they have any projects planned for me in the future and to let her know how they respond. I asked Moni about it during our lunch break and she said that after the Foro is over, I will have my own project. Basically after next Thursday May 29 I should be more or less done with the monotonous clerical duties. YAY!

I had cereal and fruit for breakfast. I was in a daring mood and decided to try putting some mango pieces in with my milk and cereal and it tasted wonderful. I wish we had good mangoes in the US because I would eat them all the time.

I started my day at work making a list of all of the books that Comce's president has in the office. I had to write down the name, publisher/company supporter, and year published of all the books. Thank God that there were only 4 short shelves. These shelves though required 6 sheets of paper to write down the information of every book. After that I spent the rest of the time creating a database of all their contacts in the Tequila making business (Tequilera). They have 85 contacts just in companies who make Teuila! After I made the database, I e-mailed them a copy of the poster advertising the foro and an attachment of the schedule of the foro.

I took the bus back tonight and found out that the bus I need to take arrives at about 5:15. I get off work at 5:00 and it takes maybe 5 minutes to walk to the stop. There is a really neat looking church another few blocks away and I think that I'm going to visit it one of these times after work to get a closer look and take pictures. It is the church that's silhouette is used in a lot of different symbols for Guadalajara and businesses in Guadalajara.

I boarded the bus and took a window seat near the front on the right-hand side so that I could see the sidewalk and buildings better and had a better view for taking pictures. I was the only person who boarded at the stop. I sat down and as the bus is already in full motion, a middle-aged woman sat down in the seat right next to me. I wouldn't have thought anything of it had there not been countless empty seats elsewhere so that she could have had her own group of seats for herself. I did not feel comfortable at all so I kept my bag very close to my chest and my arms wrapped around it. She sat right there by me the entire ride and only got off about 3 stops ahead of me. Creepy.

Supper was amazing tonight. I had a lettuce salad with carrots, betabel (a red tuber that tastes kind of like a potato but much for distinct), homemade croutons, and homemade dressing. Then she served my 3 soft tacos with shrimp, a green pepper, onions, and cheese. They tasted absolutely amazing! Dessert was tapioca pudding. It looks very similar to the tapioca pudding we have in the states but it tastes sweeter and it has peaches mixed throughout. It was quite tasty as well.

I'm not really sure what I'm doing later tonight but I will probably go out with either Paulina or Andrea, depending on what each decides to do. I'm sure you will read about it tomorrow (haha of course I'm sure, I write these blogs now don't I!).

I congratulate you on making it this far if you have because it is a long post. And I promise, I'm almost done. I just wanted to note some interesting things I have noticed the past two days. For instance, KFC delivers in Guadalajara. I saw a guy on a motorbike with a box on the back that said “KFC” and had all the KFC emblems. I have seen several foreign restaurants here including a sushi bar, chinese food (comida cantonesa), an Argentine tango bar, an Indian restaurant, and some random “restaurantes a piernas” (standing restaurants meant for a quick meal) that serve hamburgers and hot dogs alongside tacos. A similarity between Mexico and the US is the blind cane (white with a red tip).

Now for American businesses I have seen within the past 2 days: Compaq, Black and Decker, CompUSA, a Pontiac-GMC Dealership, a Ford Dealership, Michelin, BFGoodrich, Mobil

New words: acceder=sign in (on websites)
iniciar sesion=another way of saying “sign in”
contraseña=password betaleta=red tuber that has a distinctively fresh taste partially similar to a potato and has many vitamins and nutrients
calzados=footwear, usually used in refence to the industry azulejo
seminuevos=used, in reference to cars
Meteoro=SpeedRacer, as in the upcoming movie

Good job on making it all the way! Until next time!
<3mindi

I don't blame you if you don't want to read this . . .

2008-05-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

The coolest thing I saw today didn't really involve me. While riding the bus to work I saw a security guard outside of a bank. I know, sounds lame. But what caught me off guard was that he had a shot gun (or something of the like) slung on his shoulder. He also had a pistol at his side and was wearing a bullet proof vest. Armed and ready for duty! I shrugged it off until we passed another security guard who had the same armaments. So our security guards in the states are relatively ill-equipped when compared to Mexican security guards.

So now onto my boring day. (Yes, I am warning you up front. That's why I put the interesting thing first so you didn't skip reading that ;0) Breakfast was a little different this morning: fruit and cereal, no yogurt but it was still good and filling.

I took the bus to work this morning with Paulina so that she could show me how it works and where to get on and off. They have several different public bus lines that service different areas and have different prices: I took Cardenal, bus 710. It costs 9 pesos to ride which is the equivalent to about $1, pretty cheap, and its one of the middle priced busses. The cheapest one is 5 pesos (about 50 cents) and is always full of people. The most expensive one that they know of is 15 pesos (about $1.50). What's best about Mexican public transport is that you don't have to have exact change to ride like you do in the US (at least St. Louis, I'm not sure about everywhere else). Another nice thing about the Cardenal bus I took is that the seats are comfortable, like nice tour bus seats. We walked about 7 blocks to the bus stop and then about 4 blocks to my office building.

I did basically the same stuff again at work--sent emails, typed lists, made name tags. I'm hoping that it's not going to be like this the whole time cuz it's already boring me. If the work hasn't changed by Friday, I'm going to call Wilma (the coordinator) and ask if I can be moved elsewhere. Paulina recommended that I do so because she heard from past participants that Comce's work doesn't really change whereas BaxGlobal (a similar enterprise handling importing and exporting) has its interns doing more active and stimulating daily. We shall see.

One thing that I have noticed at Comce is that all of the workers seem to be on MSN Messenger, or Facebook (yes they have Facebook here and its just as popular) or MySpace or YouTube or something else that is obviously not work related. Is their work just as mind-numbing as mine seems to be?

During the lunch hour, Monica and I were the only ones who stayed in (mainly because we both had packed lunches). After I was done eating the croissant sandwich and granola bar that Esperanza packed for me, I got out my MP3 player to introduce Monica to my favorite music. We had been talking about music and different bands that we like and I found out that Mexicans are in tune American pop music fairly well but not so much rock. Kind of dissapointing, but whatever. When riding in the car with Andrea or Paulina, they often listen to pop radio stations and I have heard several American pop songs like “Hey Delilah” by the Plain White T's and “Beat It” by Micheal Jackson and others that I can't think of at the moment.

Another thing that I seem to keep picking up on is that most Mexicans want to like Americans. You can see it in the way they dress, the way they act, sometimes in the way they speak. It's quite interesting because I came here thinking that there would be some anti-American vibes but really there isn't hardly at all.

When we got back to the house, Esperanza re-heated what she made for lunch: a dish that tasted quite similar to spaghetti casserole (I can't remember the name) and a cold salad of shredded beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery and feta cheese in oil and vinegar. Both were quite delicious and for dessert I had a caramel jelly thing with a pecan (it's hard to describe but it was good).

American business: Goodyear, Nextel, Apple, Applebees

new words: cuadro=block

sueldo=wages

andar pedo=slang for drunk

<3>

another day passes me by

2008-05-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Another interesting bathroom experience today, although not a public restroom, still interesting. There is a bathroom on the fifth floor that you need a key to get into so that only people with the different businesses can use them (good idea I think judging from what I experienced yesterday). First thing, there was no hook on which to hang your bag on the door like there always is in the US. The better part comes when I'm trying to wash my hands: there were no knobs to turn and the faucet looked like it was an automatic sink. However, I looked like an idiot waving my hands underneath the faucet trying to get it to run water. Thankfully, the cleaning lady was there to help out and showed me that you have to hold the little stick/knob thing over to turn on the faucet and let water come out. Boy did I feel smart then. And it only gets better. To make the air dryer work you apparently need some kind of martial arts training cuz it required so many hits, and hard ones at that.

My favorite thing about living here in Mexico is that I get to have fresh fruit for breakfast EVERY morning. And tropical fruit at that :) I had papaya and mangoes with yogurt and granola and a piece of toast with jam

There was a lot of traffic this morning on the highways and roads this morning, partly because of rush hour and partly because of an accident of 4 cars.

At work I once again did a bunch of odd jobs, many of which were quite tedious. At first, they didn't have anything for me to do so I sat there reading a magazine for the first ten minutes. Once Gaby made the list of names and wrote a letter for me to type, I started working on Monica's computer personally addressing each letter. I then got to put the letters in the corresponding envelopes that I had been working with yesterday. After that I started working with the name tags. For the names we already knew (the ones with the envelopes and letters), Monica printed name, position, and company onto stickers and then I put the stickers onto name tags. The name tags were quite a treat. They required using a large paper cutter to remove about 5 mm of white space and then putting the two pieces formed back to back and then slid into a plastic name tag holder thing (you know the kind that you get at conferences and wear around your neck) and then a lanyard had to be attached to it. Yeah, I only made about 250 today with about 1500 left to go.

By the time I was able to eat lunch, I was starving. That may be the one bad thing about such a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt—you're starving by lunch time. Esperanza made me a sandwich (perhaps the best I have ever had mmmm) and a juice box but I was still hungry. Thank God Flor asked me if I wanted to order something as well from a local delivery place. I had flautas for the first time here. They look just like taquitos except that you eat flautas with lettuce, tomato, jalapeño, onion, cream sauce, and salsa on top. Oh and you eat them with your hands. Not an easy feat, let me tell you that much. I failed at it and actually went into the other room for a spoon to help me eat them. They weren't bad but I didn't like them enough to want to order them again. The best part was that 4 flautas with the lettuce, tomato, jalapeño, onions, and sauces only cost 20 pesos or about $2.20. Talk about a cheap lunch.

About 3 hours later Esperanza was there to pick me up and we went home to eat again. Except this meal was much better than the flautas. She made a vegetable-type soup with potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and onions in a clear broth. I ate mine with bread (it tasted most excellent when soaked in the broth and then mixed and eaten with the vegetables). The main course included pastel de carne, or what we would call meatloaf and potato salad. This sounds very American but trust me, it was different. The meatloaf had carrots and potatoes mixed within and slices of bacon all around while the potato salad had potatoes (of course), carrots, onions, celery, mayonaise, and yogurt. Both were good variations on 2 of my favorite dishes. For dessert she made flan of which I gave a try but did not like.

Since then I have just been lounging around, not doing much of anything productive except talking to people via AIM and Skype or playing mind-numbing games. I didn't have dinner tonight because I was still quite full from my double-lunch.

new words: choque=car accident cinturón de seguridad=seatbelt gafete=name tag etiqueta=sticker (more official than adhesivo) chiva=goat and also the name of one of the professional soccer teams in Guadalajara glorieta=area of land that is in the middle of a roundabout jardín de niños=kindergarten flauta=taquito with lettuce, tomato, jalapeño, salsa, and cream cámara=chamber (as in Chamber of Commerce)

Until next time (probably tomorrow :-D )

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Rules to follow when using a public bathroom in Mexico and more

2008-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

As for the title . . .
1. Don't. But if it is necessary, please continue
2. Make sure the toilet isn't clogged
3. Make sure there is clean, unused toilet paper in your stall
4. Check to make sure there is soap to wash your hands with
5. Make sure the toilet flushes (practice flush before sitting down)
I had my first experience today with a public restroom here and am going to try my best to never have to use one again

Woke up this morning at about 6:45, a half an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off so I stayed in bed, half-consious until the alarm sounded and then layed around some more until about 7:45. I decided to wear my new black skirt with my rose-colored button-down and my black flats for my first day because I figured it would make a good impression. I ate fresh pineapple and papaya with yogurt and granola and a glass of mango-carrot juice for breakfast this morning. We left at about 8:30 and it took us about half an hour to get there.

I wasn't supposed to be there until 9:30 or 10 so I found where I needed to go (the fifth floor, room 507) and then explored the buildin and surrounding area a bit. The building itself is 6 floors and has a parking garage attached--in fact, floor 3 is only parking with no offices. The first floor is for sales: there was a fake plant store, a statue store (painted/un-painted, religious, sports, Greek, etc.), and an appliance store (Importadora El Tío Sam or Uncle Sam Importers). I took lots of pictures of it all. After exploring the building I went outside to explore the perimeter. There is a very cute housing section behind it and businesses across the street. I dared for the first time to cross a busy Mexican street. What's different about it is that the drivers here hardly ever follow traffic rules (some roads don't even have painted lanes) and beep at the pedestrians they are supposed to yeild to. To say the least, I ran across in my nice shoes and skirt.

I explored the supermarket across the street (El Soriano). As I walked in the door, I was stopped by a security guard because you're not allowed to carry in any bags (I had my Trio bag with me). So I kindly went to the customer service desk to check my bag. They have this cool cubby hole system that's numbered so that they give you a laminated number card that corresponds with the cubby in which your bag is placed. Fun things I noticed: 29 different brands of tequila, only 7 different brands of vodka (none seemed to be cheap ones like McCormack); Frosted Flakes are called Zucaritas; produce has a lot more variation and is a lot cheaper (for obvious reasons). Overall thought, it looked almost the same as an American supermarket—the main difference being that the Mexican supermarket seemed a lot more cluttered, like they are trying to fit too much stuff in a too small of space.
My internship office is a lot smaller than I had originally imagined (I actually don't have an official office, I get to work in the break space). Monica is the secretary and first greeted me in English. While she brought me around, introducing me to the other people who work there, she switched to Spanish. She acts like the quiet, shy girl you all knew in high school who is looking for a friend. Adriana on the other hand seems a bit stuck up as if she is better than everyone around her. Gaby and Marcia are like the two popular girls who are always gossipping but friendly to everyone. I get to work most with Gaby. Carlos Ismael is the guy that everyone loves with a hearty laugh and a confident voice (he kind of reminds me of Bob a bit). There are two accountants: Flor and a guy that I can't remember the name of. Flor is very quiet while the guy is more boisterous and easy-going.

First thing I did was stuff two envelopes with flyers for their upcoming event to send to their sister Comces that they work with often and then addressed them to be mailed. Mexican addresses are a lot more complicated and often have 5 or 6 lines for the same information American addresses express in 3 or 4. I then e-mailed a list of people the same information. I learned how to use a typewriter so that I could put names and titles on envelopes of the people who are attending their upcoming event. I screwed up a lot the first time but it became pretty easy once I got the hang of it. The last thing I did there today was make a few phone calls for Gaby. Today I was only there from 9:30 to 1 but from now on I will work from 10 until 5 with a one hour lunch break.

Esperanza and Paulina came in the car to pick me up. While waiting outside, the first Mexican hit on me today, nothing substantial though. We dropped Esperanza off at work and then came home to eat lunch and rest. It was just Paulina and I for lunch today but Esperanza had made it all for us earlier. We had a soup with onions, potatoes, and noodles in a creamy/watery base; some bread, chicken salad on lettuce leaves, tostadas, and mango pudding.

American businesses: Office Max, Office Depot, KFC, Sprite,

New words: estoy caliente=I'm horny, not I'm hot (tengo calor)
sobre=envelope
sello=stamps
maquina manual=typewriter
foro=stage

spanish shorthand learned: q'=que p'=para

That's all for now :)

<3 Mindi

día tranquilo

2008-05-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not know spanish, "día tranquilo" means "calm day" and today has been just that. I finally met the father, Oscar. He is an interesting man with a peculiar sense of humor. It seems that Andrea is closer to her father and Paulina is closer to her mother.

We went to a menudeo for breakfast/lunch at about 11 this morning. They serve this soup called menudo (tomato juice base with cow intestines, oregano, chili, onion and lime juice), quesadillas, gorditas, and mixed juice drinks (non-alcoholic). I tried the menudo and didn't really like it too much but they told me that most foreigners don't like menudo. Instead I ate a quesadilla and part of a gordita and man were they GOOD! The whole place was very open with only a sheer curtain seperating it from the sidewalk so you can watch your food being made. One woman worked the tortilla dough and formed each one individually and then cooked it on the grill. Most of the tortillas were served warm with the menudo and salsa. Some were made into quesadillas upon ordering. They also sliced the cheese from a huge slab right there as well. I can't remember the name for the life of me--I only know that it starts with an A and that it is extremely tasty. I put a little bit of the salsa (it was a really hot salsa) on it and ate it. The gorditas are very different from what I expected because they are served flat. They make the dough thicker than for the tortillas and cook it but the middle is still a bit doughy, but a good kind of doughy. If you get any meat on it, it goes on the center and then the cheese is melted on top of it and then it is served. Not what you get when you order a gordita from taco bell.

After eating we went to an open air market thats like a farmer's market except a LOT bigger. I later learned that it is only open to the public on Sundays and Mondays with the rest of the days only for bigger businesses like supermarkets and Wal-mart. You name it, it was there. Mexico can grow fresh fruit and vegetables year-round because of its climate. We filled the back of their truck with fresh fruits and vegetables. Next time we go, I am going to bring my camera.

Two very tasty fruits are the guayaba and the pitalla. I like the pitalla better but it is much rarer and expensive. It looks like a cross between a pineapple and a strawberry with seeds that look like a kiwi but consists mainly of soft fibers. It grows on a cactus and can only be harvested in May. Because of this, most people preserve it by making it into jams. It is a very healthy fruit that has a lot of vitamins and antioxidants and what not. Doctors are doing a lot of research with it to try to get it grow more and longer but have not had much success so far. It tasted like nothing else I have ever tasted.

I learned today through talking with Oscar that Japan does not grow any fruit at all and imports all of it. 70% of its fruit imports come from Mexico. I also learned a lot about how they make tequila. They actually have a small machine that makes tequila in their backyard. He had a hard time believing that I typically don't drink wine but I told him that I'm German and Germans drink beer. It was a lot funnier tonight at dinner. Apparently, Mexicans typically serve wine with every meal so maybe I will become accustomed to wine. Maybe ;)

Later I went with Paulina to a beautiful park. We met Andrea and Oswaldo at a little snow-cone shop called Moran and got a snow cone. Their snow cones are much better than ours because they use real fruit in real fruit juice and offer a lot more flavors. I had a kiwi flavored snow cone and it was easily the best snow cone that I have ever had.

The park was a bit on the small side but very beautiful. On Sundays artists set up their works to sell along the edge. We walked around and looked at all of the stuff and then walked inside the park. There were two people doing tricks with these cool balls and it seemed that the balls were just floating. Its really hard to describe but it looked really neat to say the least. We sat down on one of the benches, talking and watching the people walk by. A little girl came over with a toy turtle on a string (her mother was sitting behind us). Her name is Gabriela and her turtle's name is Dora. She told us that Dora likes to fly and demonstrated by yanking on the string and basically throwing the toy around. It was really cute.

For supper, they ordered a hawaiian pizza and made spaghetti in a white sauce. Boy did it feel like home then. It was very good. We ate outside in their backyard.

I have a cell phone that works cheaply here now. It a pay-as-you-go type that they had lying around. Apparently it was one of Andrea's old phones by about 3 years. I bought a card to put some credit on it and I will be using it here starting tomorow :)

Speaking about tomorow. I finally learned what time I have to be in. Wilma Prifti (the director of the internship) called to relay the information. For my first day I do not have to be there until 9:30 or 10 am but I will be there earlier so that I don't have to take the bus. I'm excited about it and only a little nervous. More details on my job in tomorow's post :)

On a side note, I am being eaten alive by the mosquitoes here and it isn't even the bad time of year for mosquitoes yet. I have over 40 bites on my body with about 20 of them on my feet alone. I am going to buy some anti-itch cream and bug repellant soon I think so that I don't become a walking mosquito nest. They put a mosquito killing thing in my room that plugs into the wall and emits a smell that either repells the mosquitoes or kills them. Either way I will be happier.

American businesses spotted: Subway, Bosch, Samsung, Aeropostale, Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle (the last three only through lots of people wearing clothes by them), Burger King

new words: toronja=grapefruit
pepino=cucumber
agave=plant that produces a sweet syrup used in making tequila
tejuino=snow cone
picos=bites

Well that's all for now. Wish me luck for my first day at work tomorrow :)

Mindi

the REAL first day

2008-05-17T19:49:00.001-07:00

I call this the REAL first day because I was actually awake for all of it :)

So I already wrote about my breakfast and my morning. After getting off the computer and what not I went on some errands with Esperanza (the mother). We went to drop some stuff off at her workplace and then to pick up Paulina (the older daughter) from school. Then we went to the mall because Andrea (the younger daughter) needed to meet a friend. The mall seemed very American and at the same time Mexican. It was neat to see the two fused together so nicely. Just like in the States, Saturdays are very busy shopping times and it was difficult to find a parking space. We then returned home for supper.

During my time spent with Esperanza, I learned a lot. She works at a place that organizes and plans funerals, which apparently is a prestigious job here. Her husband is an engineer that works with many of the tequila producers and travels a lot inside Mexico. Jalisco (the state where Guadalajara is located) is the only place where tequila is produced. She told me about the process and about a rather inexpensive tour that includes free food and drinks and how everyone returns very "happy" :) I wonder why. haha.

Anyways, we also talked about politics a bit. It surprised me a little how informed she is of the presidential election coming up. She asked me about which candidate is my favorite and who I think will win. Maureen, I think you will be thrilled to hear that her favorite candidate is Obama. I just thought it was interesting how she seemed to be more informed about the election than many Americans (interesting or saddening though?)

I also learned that there are about ten different universities in Guadalajara. The University of Guadalajara is the only one that is free but each applicant must take a difficult test after the application process which is also long and difficult. Today was the test day. Apparently the Mexican government also has a program similar to FAFSA to help poorer students pay for college, but I don't think that it is as extensive as FAFSA.

Another fun thing I learned today is that Mother's Day is one of the larger national celebrations here. Just like in the states, the kids give gifts to their mothers, flowers and chocolates being the most popular, and many stores have huge sales. But there are many more differences. For instance, it has a set date of May 10 (last Saturday) and there are parties in every school where the mothers come and spend the day with their kids. The daytime is spent with the mothers and the evenings are spent with the grandmothers. There is usually a feast of grand proportions and big parties.

Apparently, right now they are nearing the end of the dry season. In June the weather changes a bit and it rains every night and is humid, but cooler, during the day. I'm not sure what to think about this so far. Their coldest month is January but it only gets cold enough to need a sweater or a light jacket.

For supper tonight, Esperanza made salad with homemade croutons and dressing, bread, chicken in a semi-spicy gravy, and rice with carrots and peas. We had a peach half with a sweet sauce (evaporated milk, condensed milk, and starch) for dessert.

I'm a little worried about starting my internship on Monday, mostly because I am unsure of what time I need to be there. I sent an e-mail to the coordinators of this internship and to their contact at Comce (the place I will be working) asking what time and I hope they respond by tomorow. If not, I am planning on being there at the start of a typical Mexican work day, 9 am. Other than this, I do not have any real worries.

The typical Mexican work day is 9-2 and 4-7. Usually the people go home for lunch. Mexicans typically eat a small breakfast at 8, a large lunch around 2 or 3, and a small supper around 8 or 9. Lunch is the biggest and most important meal.

New words: slang chavo=young person
guey=guys, as in "c'mon guys"

American businesses spotted: Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, CostCo, Carl's Jr., Sears, Coca-Cola
Foreign businesses that are also in USA: Lacoste, Dolce y Gabbana, Coach

An interesting side note, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, CostCo, and Sears are expensive and usually only the rich people can afford to shop there. Quite different than in the States . . .

This is all for tonight. I am probably going out with Andrea, Paulina, y Oswaldo tonight but I do not know what they are doing.

Until next time,
Mindi :)

my first day

2008-05-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

My travels . . .

The day started at 3 am (yeah, I know, ridiculously early). We left for the airport and stopped at Wal-Mart on the way to buy a headset that I can use for Skype. I tried sleeping and it didn't work so well even though I only got about an hour and half of sleep the night before (what am I talking about, it was still the night before).

I got to O'Hare thinking that it would be easy to navigate cuz its just another airport. Wrong! I departed the first plane at terminal 2 and it took me a good 20 minutes to find a map to figure out that I needed to get to terminal 5. Since I wasn't sure where I was going, I followed the crowd (probably one of the first times doing that in years). The signs then pointed me to seperate from the crowd and down this hallway that looked like I was going into forbidden territory. Luckily an airport wheelchair guy (for lack of a better description) was also going that way. I asked him if I was headed in the correct direction and then talked with him until I got to the train. I talked with a guy on the train who is from Toronto and does a lot of business travel in the states. I finally found where I needed to go, went through security and found my gate to realize that there was no place there to buy food or drink. So I left the secure area so that I could buy a smoothie. I opened my laptop to get online and found out that you have to pay $6.99 to use Internet at O'Hare. That pissed me off. So I ended up playing card games on my laptop for about 3 or 4 hours.

I flew to Guadalajara via Mexicana Airlines. It was interesting because they said everything in Spanish first and then English. I never thought about it being different but it makes sense since it is a Mexican-based airline. I sat by this nice older couple who live outside Guadalajara near the lakes region who had just returned from Spain (Valencia and Barcelona). I tried sleeping at first and realized that it just wasn't going to happen. I watched the second movie they showed (27 Dresses) in Spanish. It caught me off guard a bit as well but again it makes sense.

The airport in Guadalajara seemed very similar to airports in the States. In fact, it seemed nearly identical. The main difference was the signs posted in Spanish and in smaller print underneath printed in English. Oh, and the random Mexican soldiers dressed in camouflage wondering--not something you see every day. Immigration and Customs were no big deal and soon I was heading out to meet my host family.

Andrea and her boyfriend Oswaldo held a white sheet of paper saying "Welcome Mindi" in turquoise letters. They helped me carry my stuff to their Ford SUV. One thing I definitely noticed was the way that there was not a dominant car brand. I would have thought that American cars would predominate but I saw lots of Hondas and Volkswagens and Suzukis among the Fords and Chevys. The drivers are crazier (or so it seemed to me) in Guadalajara than in the US. People would pass on the left-hand side where there wasn't a real lane and people on motorbikes (there weren't too many) passed in between cars on the lines. I also noted that there seemed to be a LOT more billboards and advertising along the roads and not all of them were in Spanish. There were a notable amount in English which surprised me a bit. Most driveways aren't fully paved and instead consist of a row of cement labs spaced for a car to drive onto. The better off families have gated garages.

The Lozano's-mi familia. Andrea, the younger of the two daughters, picked me up from the airport. Her boyfriend is Oswaldo. I was greeted by the mother Esperanza outside. She is the sweetest woman, immediately welcoming me and telling me to treat her house as my own. I met Paulina, the older daughter who participated in the internship exchange last year, this morning at breakfast. I have yet to meet the father.

They have a BEAUTIFUL house. It has a gated garage area. I say area because it does not have a roof but it is sectioned off by the wood gate doors. I was shown to my room (which is upstairs and to the left) which is nicer than my room at home: regular sized bed, curtained windows, a bedstand on each side of the bed, a closet, a dresser, a large mirror, and a TV. They actually have 4 TVs (that I have counted thus far). It is decorated in beautiful oranges, yellows, and reds. I took some pictures and will post them as soon as I figure out how. All of the floors are tile. They have a gorgeous living room and upstairs they have a smaller living room-type area. From the upstairs, you can look down into the living room and welcome area. It is all beautifully decorated. The office is nice and has some bookshelves, a desk, and two computers. They have Internet, but it is not wireless so I will have to be in the office and plugged in to use it.

As soon as I got in and unpacked my stuff, I decided to take a nap and actually did not wake up until this morning, hence why all of this is a day late. I slept through supper and a "concierto de banda" aka Mariachi music performance, but it's ok cuz I was exhausted. We shall see what I do tonight.

This morning for breakfast, I had toast and fruit and yogurt. Mmmmm fresh papaya and mango :). Their yogurt is different than ours--it is runnier and not as sweet, but still good. They eat their papaya with lime and salt so I tried it and it was very good. Esperanza makes homemade granola which was most excellent, especially in the yogurt.

So far, the American companies that I have seen here have been McDonald's, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Holiday Inn, and Domino's. An interesting correlation between St. Louis and Guadalajara is that they both have a large beer brewery--Guadalajara is one of the main producers of Tecate.

I will try with each blog to list new words that I learn, moreso as a way to help me keep track of them than anything else. New words:
pepinillo=pickle
banda=mariachi music

That's all I have for this time and I will be updating again tomorrow :)

<3 Mindi