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Published: August 19th 2006
A Canadian in Vallarta
These are the FABULOUS mountains that have stolen my heart. It was raining at the tiem(yes I do realize I was wearing white pants...) so thats why it's kind of fuzzy. But it was SO beautiful still. Alrighty, so here we go. A full fledge account of whats up down in ol' Mexico ( i would put an accent on that like Im supposed to if I could find the accent button. one of these days Im going to figure out this keyboard). This one is going to be a little long, because I want to let you know all about stuff and I want to keep a good record for myself. I've even seperated it into headings so you can skim, so you dont have to read it all in one sitting or even all of it and I wont even get offended haha, thats the joy of internet. It will still be here later should you feel the urge to read it.
Drive from PV to GDL So last weekend(read weekend as 4 days friday night-tuesday night) we took the GOREGEOUS drive from PV to Guadalajara. The entire way is a giant twisty two lane highway through the amazingly green, palm tree covered mountains that surround Puerto Vallarta. While your driving, all you can see is trees and more trees, and the road is on a cliff almost.. I hope you know what
View of Puerto Vallarta
This is just a picture of the bay and the city. Bonito, verdad? I mean, I dont know how to describe it. You look out the window and its just this giant valley and, (here comes the corny-ness) when the sunlight is shining down on a river running through the jungle, it seriously seems like everything stops. It is so amazingly beautiful I couldnt stop staring out the window for the entire 4 hour drive.
Rotary Meeting Arriving in Guadalajara, (to Eduardo and Lupita's 2nd home, thats right... big 4 bedroom, 2 full baths, pool house, adjoining garage, locked gate community home (dang I should be in real estate haha)), just kinda passed out because we had to get up early and it was already late. The next morning we had a big rotary meeting. I think it was for the whole district(optional). That was pretty interesting. The men were in one room and the women in another. but these were big rooms, probably 70 people in the womens, 100 in the mens.
Mariana, the granddaughter of Ed/Pita was there, so that was awesome, getting to meet her. She is in Edmonton right now actually. She just left for HER year of exchange, so thats super exciting too. Im actually
super excited for her, just because I can tell how different its going to be for her. Also met an exchange student from Brasil, Leyti, who has been here for 5 months. She lives in Tequila, outside of Guadalajara and LOVES tacos (at the time, I was like yah, of course, who doesnt, but more on that later) Also met a guy from Germany here on exchange obviously who has also been here for 5 months. Their Rotary blazers look great, with all the stuff they have already. {let me explain that incase your confused. As rotary students we all get blazers from our home countries. Canada's are red and I must say they look awfully snazzy. Most countries have dark blue or black, australia has green,...and during your exchange you collect things to put on your blazer as momentos. Pins and such things. Im excited for my jacket actually! More about that in a bit}.
Chillin in GDL I went to Marianas house, and then her mom, little sister, her and I went to a big market in Guadalajara. {ps, GDL is very big. 4 million people big, so its a fairly large market} You could buy
The one, the only : La Malecon De Vallarta
This is it. This is where the magic happens. You want the beach, food, jewlerly, clothes, live music, ice cream, performances, art, statues, people, lame souvenirs, cute cafes, loud nightclubs... we got 'em baby! My Fav place in Vallarta. It's fun just to watch it all go on. anything you want there. There were formal dresses (this is actually neat, here, if your a girl, your 15th birthday is a big deal. its kind of a coming out celebration, you get a big dress and a party!) , shoes, school supplies (which I bought), normal clothes, jewlery, candy (mostly all spicy or has incorporated some sort of chilie), live chickens, dead featherless chickens, toys, pirated movies, cds, remote controls, cell phone chargers(no cell phone included)... seriously. anything.
Then Mariana and I went to this museumy thing, which used to be an orphanage but actually looked like a slightly smaller version of a castle. Inside, a man had painted these pictures, which were kinda crazy. For example, there is one on the ceiling, in a circle, and you look up at it, and the blue guy is right on top of you on one side of the circle. then you walk over the other side of the room and look up at the circle, and it looks EXACTLY the same, the painting MOVES !! but not really. its all an illusion. very confusing to see, and obviously confusing to explain. Also went and saw some of the other
Los Arcos
These are in the Bay, you can't see them from Downtown PV, but you can see them from Mismoaloya buildings in the main square. Saw the government building, and theres a bell there that they only ring on independence day (sept 16!), and a big church, so beautiful. Theres this one little, almost casket I suppose, but Its made of glass and theres a statue of a girl in there. Apparently this girl died in a fire way back when, and now, people write prayers asking for miracles or things and put the papers in the casket, and there is a LOT of papers in there. The churches here are amazing. I havent seen one simple one. And for each statue or depiction of Jesus, there is one for the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Religion Now, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the be all and end all here. Its amazing. Religion is so important here, its in all the traditional art and jewlery. City centers revolve around their best church. The Virgin of Guadalupe is who everyone prays to here. She is the mother of Mexico. People wear a picture of her, held up by an angle, standing on a cloud, surrounded by light, on necklaces, bracelets, stickers of her name on their car, have paintings in their
Be an 'Arco'!!
If you know me, you get this. If you don't know me, just shake your head at the crazy lady. houses, or little statues in their courtyard. Marianas father has 60. Thats right 6-0. He has his entire office covered in statues and ornaments and paintings. Its amazing. and you know whats even more amazing? he gave me one! I got to pick whichever one I wanted out of all of them. I picked a little white ornament, with a little wire on the back. I put it on a pin and attached it to my rotary jacket! I love it so much! its so mexican, and its a great personal momento. and Mariana said I was the only one he had given one to before, so I feel very honoured.
Food Then I had another fab mexican experience. I had REAL mexican tacos. Mariana and fam and I went to a stand, their favorite, for tacos. They are SO not what we think tacos are. I will never be able to eat canadian/american tacos again(i think we eat a texan version). Tacos are actually little tortillas with shredded meat (all their meat is always shredded. i have no idea why). You order how many you want. I ate 3 and I was SO full. They give them
Los Arcos de La Malecon
This is the tribute to los Arcos. Its on La Malecon (the big boardwalk thing) over a big .. crevice? hole in the ground? its a performance area, but it goes down... Don't know how to explain it. to you with just the meat on it, and you can order an onion. Its just a half a cooked onion on the side of the plate(it will make sense in a sec). Then theres a table with all the chilies, sauces, and toppings. I dont even know what they are. but i tried three different kinds of sauces. THe green one is pretty good, its green tomatoes Im pretty sure. Theres also lime halves. Limes are also really big here. People squeeze limes over EVERYTHING. Fish, plain tortillas, quesodillas, carnes (mex name, type of meat, have no idea what it is in english), rice(esp=arroz), into water for limonade, into the mugs before they pour beer, everything. It actually tastes really good on most everything too. I really like the taste now, and I wasnt even that crazy about limes before. Anyway, these tacos. Amazing. they give you two tortillas per taco. But I find its big enough already so I just use one, but if you put lots of sauce on you need two. And at the end, usually some of the meat came out of the tacos, so... you use the onion halves to scoop it up and
Emiliano Zapato
This is one of the big fighters for Mexican freedom. This is a statue of him (Mexico is big on statues... ALL over la Malecon) in the bar, Hilo, in downtown Vallarta. eat!! its so good. sure you need some serious gum or toothpaste after, but its SOOO good. I completely understand what Leity was talking about.
The next day we had breakfast with Eduardo and Lupitas son and his family that lived next door. They have three great big dogs, two big golden labs(I think thats what they are) and a sheep dog. So cute, and so good. It was their son(cant actually remember his name, I feel so bad, but they have 4 sons and 2 daughters and they all have sons and daughters and husbands and wives and I met all of them in a two day span), his wife, their son, their daughter and her daughter, Marie Jose(hah, got ONE!). All the meals here are big deal. Especially if you do it with family. There are beans(fricoles) with EVERY meal, and always tortillas in some form, either as a part of the main course, or in a basket with crackers, the way restaurants in Canada serve bread with the meal. Olive garden style with a mexican twist. We had Quesadillas (you know why they are called quesadillas ? its tortillas and cheese which is queso. get it?)
The symbol of Vallarta
This is one of the most famous symbols of Vallarta. A man riding a seahorse. No idea yet if it has a story but I'm sure it does. Everything in Mexico has history. The way your supposed to eat them is to just make them with the cheese in the middle, THEN put the meat and veggies in while your at the table. we had a mix of veggies and meat which was really good, with corn, pork, PUMPKIN FLOWER (which is surprisingly very flavorful in a good way, once you get past the fact that your eating a flower, petals and all, just no stem), onion, and more food. Also had actual pumpkin, I dont know how it was prepared but it was really soft, and very sweet. not too shabby. Everyone keep making me try everything. After/before most meals, you also have some pan dulce which is just sweet bread, lots of kinds, mostly rolls and such.
So when breakfast was over, we all cleaned up and went over to Eduardo and Lupitas house, and the rest of the family began to come over shortly after. And while I was still full from breakfast, they began serving lunch !!! They set out the appitizers first, this crazy nut thing, a little hollow circle with chilie powder on it, plain chips (with, who know, chilie sauce on them). I couldnt eat
La Iglesia de Puerto Vallarta
This is the tower of the Church of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The original crown fell off in a big earthquake about 15 years ago, and this one replaced it. I think it's beautiful. a single thing more, so luckily it was kind of an "are you hungry, if not, eat when you are" thing. They had a pot that was as high as the top of a desk, full of pazole (pass-olay). I guess the best way to describe it is, pork soup? The way they do soup here is they give you the broth and the meat in the bowl, then set out little bowls of veggies(lettuce, onions, etc) and chilie sauces and limes that you put in yourself. Anyway, the family, at least 25 people, finished off the whole pot minus one tiny little container that was left over. To drink, there was lots of beer and pop and fresh made pinapple juice. I dont know how people do it. It seems like Im the only one that drinks water. Im always like,.... aaaggguuaaa. necisitos agua !(i need water!) but everyone drinks pop all the time! After, we had cake, which Mariana and I both got our faces shoved into as a goodbye/hello celebration, and they also sang happy birthday (in esp obviously, which I need to learn) to one of the wives. And that was that for food for the
Just a street...
This is pretty typical street. Both residential and Business. This is in Viejo Vallarta, as you can tell by the cobblestone street. REST OF MY LIFE i was so full haha (notice how the food section was SO much longer than the other ones? haha)
Sports So with all the kids and grandkids and greatgrandkids Eduardo and Lupita had running around, I definatly met some nice ones. I played soccer in their backyard with the older ones. Unless your playing in a soccer field, futbol is actually cascarita (street soccer basically). I showed them pure canadian skill. hahah. Actually I wasnt even that bad but it was SO hot to be playing soccer in the sun. So then we played basketball. They taught me a new game called Bastas, which im not going to explain but Ill play it with you when we get back if you want. I taught them how to play 21.
Obviously soccer is a big deal here, and in GDL there are 4 main soccer teams. The De Leon family cheers for Atlas, because they live in the same neighbourhood as the Training Facility and Club house! The older kids and I took the golf cart out to see it, and just for a little drive. Good times... that was an adventure. (yay. I
Beach in Puerto Vallarta
This is the beach I can walk to in two minutes. Self expanitory bliss.
love that Im having adventures!).
School So I started school on Wednesday because we got back from GDL tuesday night, so I actually started school 2 days late. But thats fine. It works to get noticed. Im in the quinto semestro de prepatoria in the Universidad de Univa. Basically that means im in the first semester of the last year of high school at a University/High School in PV. University starts in September, but they are in the same school as we are. school is SO different here:
-No hallways, all the rooms open to the outside, like a motel I suppose
-the Cafeteria is a little cafe thing with an open air seating area with plastic chairs and table, the patio kind
-We are supposed to wear uniform shirts, red, white or orange depending on the day. Not alot of people do yet, and I havent gotten mine yet.
-There are only 22 people in my class. Thats the ENTIRE GRADE!
-Students dont move classes, teachers move to the students(except for english class, for which all the grades come together and then seperate into their designated levels, and guess what? im in advanced! hey! haha)
-Classes run from 7 am to 2 pm with 1.5 hour classes, and a break for breakfast(desayuno) at 10:15 ish.
-Teachers and students are really chill about time. Twice already in 3 days I have had classes cancelled because of no teacher, and almost half the classes I did have the teacher showed up 15 minutes late. Its so nuts. One time, we just went and played soccer because there was no teacher, and the principal lady just waved at us and the teacher asked us to come in when he got there. In Fort Mac, we would have to write essays on respect if we left while there was no teacher for the first 30 minutes of class............
The way school works here is that you start specifiying your courses for a profession even in high school. Univa runs a program for a career in tourism, so these are my classes:
-Math (we are doing sequences at the moment)
-History (we are doing imperialism)
-Economics(one of the cancelled classes)
-Restaurant Service (today I learned what the roles of a cashier, and waiter are, and discussed the important characteristics of a restaurant)
-Biology (we are doing DNA this semseter, which I actually love so thats alright)
-History of Administration (which I still have NO idea about, but have a paper due about Mexican Administration for tuesday. no clue what so ever. havent caught a single word that I understand that helps me get whats going on, and the teacher talks a million miles a second, so thats not really my favorite class, can you tell? haha)
-Sports (deportes, day-port-ez), where we basically just played more soccer, and the teacher left after 20 minutes and I didnt see him again. strange
-Orientation vocational, which I also havent completely figured out, but the homework isnt that hard, its kind of like religion class, where you write about ethics and stuff
-And one more that I havent had because it was cancelled.
there are 4 classes a day and each of the classes is twice a week, so its not that intense which is nice, considering it took me an hour to write the 10 sentances about myself for OV. haha. Kinda frustrating at first but how else am I going to learn. And one of the girls I sit with knows english really well and offered to help me whenever I need. snaps for kind people!
kjfasdkjflasdkfjlsdk . ok. thats it. thats all I've got. man that was really long. I apologize and completely understand if you didnt read it haha. And I have been taking pictures obviously. but I dont have the cable to connect my camera to the computer. Its coming so you can all see my life and skip the words, soon enough.
But anyway, as always, love hearing from all of you, love your comments, and Ill talk to you all later! peace, all!!!!!! love always
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Beth MacLeod
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I BEAT YOU SAIMA
MWA HA HA, i won, today i was the first! lol... mexico sounds sooo incredible, sounds like your trip is the real deal culture shock, but in a good way, it sounds soo amazing i wished id gone on some kind of exchange! well i miss you alot kristina and i love these blogs (ps i read it all as i always will) lol cant wait to read the next exciting chapter of kristinas life! ttyl! Beth! :)