Pre-semester funfuns

I feel bad for taking forever to post anything, so I'm going to try to make up for it. Also, today was a pretty fun one, so it deserves being written about. Some friends from the Tec international program and I were planning to go bike riding en el centro, but we sort of ran out of time since the whole event only goes till 2 and we hadn't realized that the rental place is approximately eight years away from our bus stop. I think it's hosted by the University of Guadalajara, and they block off streets and rent out bikes; you just have to leave an ID with them. I thought it was just going to be a couple streets blocked off with a few bike-riding tourists, but one of the city's main streets was blocked off, and there were a bazillion bike-riding tapatios.

Instead, we just found some place to eat lunch, where we had an awesome buffet and sat outside watching everyone go by. Other plusses of that dining experience included reggaeton playing and fun servers. Megan, who speaks Spanish quite well, asked one "Donde estan los banos?" but really choppily for whatever reason. Julio, who told us his name was Alejandro, promptly repeated her in a mocking fashion. Naturally, we proceeded to pick on her for the rest of the day.

When we were done, we walked the rest of the way to el centro, where we walked around and basically saw the same stuff we saw on the tour that Tec took us on last Wednesday. We also went to some old, famous building that looked the exact same as one from the other day, but with different murals. Then we went in some museum that used to be a convent that had a really weird exhibit of paintings of modern, mostly gringo singers. Speaking of which, today it was explained to me that nobody but me says "estadounidense" (United States-ian), just "gringo." Walking around this time, I felt a little bit less touristy, in part because there were 7 of us instead of 70. Either I'm mexicanizing myself or just feeling less self-conscious, but I generally feel a little less out of place. Some girls from the int'l program have proudly reported that they've been asked for directions. Mmm, I'm not quite there yet. I don't even understand the bus routes on the way to school, which is like 15 minutes away with a couple turns, tops.

After wandering aimlessly for a while, we met up with Nacho, who showed us San Juan de Dios, the biggest market in GDL and smaller only than some markets of D.F. (Mexico City). Christie wanted to buy a Chivas jersey so we went hunting. I do too, but I didn't have much money on me. Nacho wanted to know why we, and most other international students, adopt the Chivas as their team, since Atlas is also a perfectly good team from here. More famous, cooler jerseys, have won more games, and--something neat--all the players are Mexican. No Argentinians shipped over to join the team. So that's my defense. Now I just need to learn how soccer works...

We also went to Plaza Mariachi, which apparently has muchisimas bandas mariachi every night, but we were there too early. A bunch of them were dressed up and everything, just hanging out, smoking cigarettes, talking on the payphone... We took some pictures that I'll post when people upload them. :)

Being estadounidenses/gringas, we got hungry circa 6, but there were few places to eat that were open. As I understand it, Mexicans' meals [ha--mom] are a light breakfast (desayuno), a huge lunch around 2 (comida, which means meal; they don't really use the word for lunch), and a light dinner (cena) around 8. So Nacho drove us around forever to see if the good places to eat were open till all of a sudden he remembered an awesome one where we promptly went. I don't really remember the name, but they say it has the fastest service in the world. I was skeptical, but as soon as we were seated like 3 guys came over to drop off plates and ask us what we wanted. The way it works is you just pick your drink, the size of the meal you want, and whether you want your salsa to "bite." Anyways, each person gets a plate of meat in broth and there are communal plates of caramelized onions, raw onions, cilantro, limes, refried beans, and adorable little tortillas to make DIY tacos. Tacos are pretty much the only Mexican food I've had (three times) because Zabel isn't letting me eat much fun stuff yet. I'm definitely amped about trying tortas ahogadas, or "drowned sandwiches," which Jalisco is famous for. They're baguettes filled with beans and pork, drowed in a pool of chili. Mom made a valiant effort on Jeremy's birthday, but Nacho maintains that, when cooked outside of Jalisco, they just don't work. Oh yeah, and I had some rockin' horchata. Sorry, I just wrote a whole lot about food. Anyways...

Then Nacho took us home, which was oh-so-kind. Being here makes me want to try harder to befriend international kids at USC, and I think that's why he is such a buena onda. It rained a few minutes after we got back, as it has been doing every night. Whatevs. Eva even brought our laundry in. :) The absense of a dryer is ok, except that everything is wrinkly. Maybe that's why Nicaraguans iron everything. For those of you who didn't hear that story, one night in Nicaragua, our host mom made a huge fuss over my roomie's wrinkly clothes and wouldn't let her go to church without ironing. Speaking of churches, Christie and I were going to try some out tonight, but we got back too late. Maybe next week.

Oh yeah, I should also mention that yesterday I just layed around, which was awesome after having been so busy. Jessie, who lives with Zabel's mom, came over and we watched "Perfume de mujer," or something like that--Scent of a Woman. We have a pretty sweet pirated movie collection. Then around 9:30 we got a craving for chocolate chip cookies, so we speedwalked over to the Bodega Aurrera, the super(market) like 4 minutes away from our house. That place was hoppin'. Anyways, they didn't have it, but they do have cake mixes, which is good to know for bday parties. We also wandered around and found some awesome pinata fillers which will hopefully be incorporated into some birthday celebration of mine... Then we went back to Jessie's house and hung out with Fanny (sp?), who explained good places to go and comforted us about our various fears of being abroad.

Well, I guess that's the end of my randomness for today. Classes start tomorrow! I'm trying not to think about it because I will probably get scared. Maybe since we've been on the campus for a few days, it'll be less intimidating. Ooh, I forgot a fun tidbit, unless I mentioned it yesterday, but I don't feel like checking. I don't have classes Wednesdays, which means I can go to the visa place, which is only open in the mornings, AND take advantage of Tuesday salsa nights at this club we've been hearing about. (I'm hoping those USC lessons will kick in...) The Tec is renting out the place this Friday night for all the international kids. It seems chido, but it's also known for having a lot of extranjeros (int'l kids), who are great and all, but we're all pretty ready to meet Mexicans. Not that I plan on forming valuable relationships in a club, but whatevs. I guess it's good that classes are starting soon...

Good heavens, I just wrote a lot.