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Tequila Town!!
And la iglesia where the funeral(s) were held. I met
Jack Daniels; but we've decided it's not going to work out.
I have learned that
it only takes four shots of tequila to knock me down. It's an improvement of sorts - in weeks one and two of being here, it only took three.
Also, much like salsa, I have learned that
tequila goes well with anything (soda, orange juice, cranberry juice, etc). No one has ever told me this; I feel like I've been misguided for a significant portion of my adult years.
I turned 27; officially my late twenties!! Oooh myyy goddd!
I have
conquered my fear of motorcycles and speed! Joshua and I rode out to a nearby town and reached speeds of 170km on the highway!!! If I can handle that on the back of a bike in Mexico, I can certainly handle it in my Integra in Canada, no? 😉
The town in question would be Tequila (oh yes, you know what they do there!), a town about 45 minutes away. It is quite touristy, but at the same time definitely cute and
quaint and very "Mexican." We had planned (I think) to check out a distillery, but ended up sitting down for some drinks and just kinda wasted the afternoon away. The table next to us was full with Mexicans enjoying their afternoon (read: really drunk men) who had paid a band to play for them. I guess that's a thing here ... if you're planning to spend an afternoon drinking, you grab a few musical guys and pay them to follow you from pub to pub. I just sat there, sort of in awe (these men were very drunk and one of them was eyeballing Josh), listening to the music and watching Joshua sidestep around the crazy man. There happened to be a funeral (well either two or three funerals or just one with several bodies, we weren't sure) in the church across from us, and every 25 minutes or so, a casket was driven around the block, followed by a procession of mourners. This made the sitting in the sun listening to music while drinking beers and socializing with really drunk Mexican men a little awkward, but it was still one of those "Whoa, I'm definitely in Mexico!" moments.
Cervezaaa
Tequila, Mexico My birthday turned out to be a little bit of a disaster. Long story short, a group of us headed out to a club, accidentally separated, some of us got in, some of us didn't (I was among the "didn't" crew). One of the girls with us got caught using a fake id and those of us who hadn't gotten in were then punished as a group for trying to trick them. She left with a few others to get her id, so that left three of us (Kathrin, a German girl I go to school with, Mike, her Mexican boyfriend and myself, el Canadiano), but the damage was done and we were made to wait for almost 2 hours. TWO HOURS! It was incredibly insulting!! We stood there fuming; it was definitely one of those "get madder as the time passes" moments. We kept thinking we'd give up ... but stubborn pride can be a beautiful thing! Eventually a little "Please Senor, it's my birthday, I just want tequila" worked and we were let in. A few shots of tequila later (at 70 pesos each!), our moods were miraculously lifted and we ended up having a really good time.
Lesson in morality learned!!
School has been alright. Truthfully I feel irritated with the new stuff I've learned because it means I have to stop and actually think before I speak! Hahaha! Before, I could only speak in present tense ("I go"), have since learned past tense ("I went") and imperfect tense - which I still really don't understand, it's something like "I went a long time ago." Spanish is driving me CRAZY with all the prepositions (english equivalents of: in, with, of, on, for, from, etc), and with all the tenses you can speak in. Each verb can be conjugated in about 20 different tenses and there are rules for everything and all these irregularities and so much of it just seems illogical to me and I have many days where I'd like to have a little chat with the man who invented the language!
Embarrassing "I don't speak Spanish" story: Every day I walk past 'El Super Tako' on my way to school. The guys who run the stand usually smile and nod at me as I wander by and sometimes we have awkward conversation, one day it went like this:
El Taco Boy: "Bonita,
por que no comiste tacos?"
Soon to be Embarrassed Canadian Girl: "Siii, tengo un novio, pero gracias!"
Translation:
Him: "Pretty girl, why didn't you eat tacos?"
Me: "Yesss, I have a boyfriend, but thank you!"
Oh God. Upon realizing that my response didn't fit the question, I can assure you that one of us turned a lovely shade of red! Clearly someone needs to work on her listening skills!!!!
I'm down to the last week of school now! I have really enjoyed both of my professors, one of them is quite the odd ball and has spent endless class time teasing me about being Canadian (not as bad as what Josh gets for being American though!), teaching me to buy drugs, looking up Mexicans with fake breasts or bum implants, and discussing "who's hot and who's not" in Hollywood. A little random, but he's funny and dramatic and really makes me laugh. In my other class, I am the only student, so my professor has sort of begun to feel like a friend. She's very sweet and everyday we talk about the ups and downs of life, our thoughts on the world, dreams, childhoods, etc. When I
Most Expensive Thus Far
Purchased at a liquor store called "At the Beach" for 73 Pesos. Far too much in my opinion! say "talk" though, I mean that I stop every freaking 30 seconds to conjugate another damn verb in my head, or use the phrase "Que significa?" more often then I'd like (but not as often as I used to!), which then means we stop to play a mini game of charades because she doesn't speak any English. So it's a little slow going, but still, it goes!
On the weekends, we've been going out to different bars and clubs each night. Last weekend we tried a karaoke bar on Friday - definitely another one of those "OMG, I'm definitely in Mexico!" moments! I don't do karaoke at home, so I definitely wasn't about to do it here, but it was an interesting experience to just be there. The first hour or so it was more of a night club with dancing, but then the microphone came out and the cheesy love songs began! And at some point, a giant fuzzy chicken appeared; I still do not understand why. Ooh, Mexico! It was actually a lot of fun and with a little help from tequila and margarita shots I found myself singing along like it was nobodies business.
Saturday
Raul!
Worlds funniest Professor. FYI Daffy is up because we were practicing our "describing words" such as "he has a big nose." night was a completely different experience! Andres has been inviting us out with his friends from law school to various parties or clubs or whatever, and on Saturday it was someones birthday at an 80's club. I learned something completely fascinating about Mexico!! In Canada, when it is your birthday and you go out with friends, you don't buy yourself a single drink. In Mexico however, when it's your birthday and you invite your friends out, you buy all the drinks!! Crazy!! They also have this thing here where you can either buy drinks by the glass/shot or you can buy a bottle of whatever you're wanting (at extortionist prices!) and they'll bring you ice and mix and whatnot. When the birthday boy arrived, he started the night off with two bottles of Jack Daniels. And then two more. And then potentially a fifth, I'm not sure, my ability to count was lost somewhere in the first bottle. For the record, I have never had whiskey in my life. I've heard countless stories of "my evil twin lives at the bottom of a Jack Daniels bottle," but didn't heed the warnings. I should have; it's been many years since I've
El Noche de Karaoke
Con Andres! P.S. The tan lines are a gift from Mexico. Thank you Mexico, thank you; they look really nice with this dress. woken up on a bathroom floor. Another lesson learned - but that one was actually fun!! And tacos never tasted as good as they did when I woke up the next morning! Haha, you know you're in Mexico when you get out of bed and head straight for the taco stand. 😉
Trevor is coming on Friday (
FRIDAY!) to spend the last week with me; we're going to head to Puerto Vallarta for four nights and then back to Guadalajara for the last three. We just decided together that he's been working SO hard to support us, (and me, while I'm in university while at home) and that he definitely could use a break too! Our time in P.V. won't be at a fancy resort though, we'll be hosteling it like the olden days and I am SO excited!! It'll be like a mini trip down memory lane - but this time with tacos and tequila! I've definitely missed my Canadian boy and can't wait to see him.
I left a bunch of things that I wanted to see/do/buy until this last week, so now I'm feeling like I need to run around and cram it all in!
Margarita Shots
Tasted better than it looks! A little sweet, but who would have thought you could do shots of margarita? I didn't end up going to the Nacho Libre thing, or to a futbol game, so hopefully one or both of those will materialize in the next two weeks. Also on the To Do List: try mezcal (but not the worm!), find a donkey, wear a sombrero (maybe wear the sombrero while riding the donkey?), and listen to Mariachi's while eating a taco/drinking tequila!
I still loooove this country!!!
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cabochick
Andrea
a day in a life of a canuck
Dear Canucka. I think they may have pulled one over on you with the buying of cumpleanos drinks. lol But telling the taco stand man you have a novio is hysterical. I blushed for you.