22 Jan 2010 - 26 Jan 2010

Friday, 22 January 2010

I was suppose to meet Sofie up at the school. I texted her. She didn't answer. I rolled back over and went to sleep.

I wasn't feeling too well. I stayed in bed until 1 in the afternoon. Then I rolled out of bed, took a shower, and went back to my bed to use the internet.

There was nothing in particular that seemed wrong with me, nothing that could be diagnosed or looked at or medicated... I just felt tired and weird.

heading out to clubs and 4:30 in the afternoon...

I met up with some of my ex-students at 4pm. Aline, Graciella, Naya and I got into a tax at 4:30pm and headed towards Metepec... to go to a club?!

“But it's only 4:30...” I voiced some concern.

In my experience no one is in a club at 4:30 in the afternoon and I would question those who are in a bar. They laughed and assured me that there would be people.

WOW.

5pm and the place is packed! WHAT?!

We walked up to the club and the music was booming. There were people standing around outside smoking cigarettes. We were let into the club and it was PACKED. 4:45pm. It was dark and loud. People were dancing and drinking and talking and making out all over the place. I was feeling tired and realized that this was going to be a long, crazy night so I ordered an energy drink.

Look grandma, I'm a good girl!

We perched at a table on the side of the room. We danced. We laughed. We talked to people. I kept feeling so tired. I finished my Red Bull and started on water.

At one point I got accosted by a couple of Mexican guys who passed me around. I'm not much of a clubber though, so I took several breaks outside in the air trying to get my mind in order.

My invisible sandwich... It's so delicious!!

After we left the club we grabbed some dinner. For some reason everyone else got their food (hamburgers) pretty fast but my SANDWICH took 8 years. I started to feel worse and worse and decided it was time to go home.

I rambled half deliriously to the taxi driver the whole way home.

I went home, got into bed, took my temperature. 37.7. Of course. That meant nothing to me. I was shaking and hot and tired and aching and felt like absolute crap but according to that pharmacist I was okay as long as I was under 38! (I found out the next day that I had a temperature of approximately 99.8. I usually run 98.6 on the nose! So I DID have a fever!)

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I woke up feeling fine! I decided to finally go to the movie theatre in Metepec (now that I had been to Metepec it didn't seem so scary to go back on my own.) I spent the whole day in the mall in Metepec and saw two movies. Not much really happened. I say Avatar and Sherlock Holmes, both in English with subtitles.

The mall was REALLY nice: large, clean, well lit, with designer stores and lots of restaurants. There was even a TEXAS BBQ place on the lower level that I will definitely go visit whenever I am craving home. I hope it's good.

I decided to do the movies 'up right' so I got one of those movie meal deals where you get a giant popcorn, a hot dog, and a coke. They had all kinds of sauces to choose from for your popcorn besides just butter... I got some lime sauce. These people are SO CRAZY about lime!

So that was the whole of my day. I got up late, went to the mall, watched a movie, ate some gross movie food, walked around the mall for a couple hours waiting for the next movie, watched another movie, went home, went to bed.

The end.

Sunday, January 24, 2009

Another day where not much happened.

I wanted to eat some delicious tortilla soup from the cafe next door, El Buen, but it was closed. As I walked around my neighborhood it seemed like, well, EVERYTHING was closed. I made my way to La Reyna (a nice little quesadilla hut) and they were opened. I had soup on the brain so I looked at their soup selection...

RICA Pancita or Pozole. Well, I don't know what either one means but I do know that RICA means DELICIOUS. I ask the guy at the counter about it. He is VERY excited about RICA PANCITA. He smiles happily, rubbing his belly and saying things in Spanish to me about how delicious it is. This makes ME excited!

I take a seat. They bring me my RICA PANCITA and...

Floating around in a red broth are what can only be pieces of intestines.

UGG!!!!

Not only do I NOT get my delicious El Buen tortilla soup but I ACCIDENTLY ORDERED INTESTINES AGAIN.

RICA PANCITA

AKA

INTESTINE SOUP

I try to hide my disappointment and uneasiness.

When in Rome, right? I move the spongy bizarre looking pieces of digestive track around in my bowl. This is TRADITIONAL Mexican cuisine. I am an adventurous eater. I am not a silly American who won't step outside of her box.

I eat a piece. It tastes... weird. Just weird. And the texture is.. weird. And its not what I wanted AT ALL and I keep thinking about what intestines are used for.

I barely touch the soup.

A waiter asks me if I need anything else. I order a quesadilla. A good old american cheese and beef quesadilla. I inhale it.

The waiter asks me if everything was alright and I smile weakly and nod, feeling embarrassed about the reject bowl sitting on my table. I can't even drink the broth to make it look like I at least ate part of it but wasn't hungry.

I ask for the check.

The waiter apparently felt sorry for the silly gringa and decided not to charge me for the soup. I started to imagine the waiter and the guy I ordered from back in the kitchen laughing heartily to themselves about the gringa with her bowl of bowel.

On the way home I stopped by my favorite ice cream stand and got a mandarina ice cream. I sat up on my roof and ate it, video chatting with Lakshmi.

It was a beautiful day. =D

Monday 25 January 2010

Weird as it sounds I have no recollection of what I did on Monday. I'm writing this on Thursday. I usually take notes at night so that I will be able to write a blog later. I have no notes, nothing on my calendar, no pictures in my camera and nothing to prompt my memory. I guess nothing happened!

Tuesday 26 January 2010

This was a frustrating day. I decided to get things going on my student visa. I met Sofie up at the school. We were supposed to go to intercambia (exchange student office) and to migracion (immigration). When I found her she was with her best friend and it became apparent pretty soon that doing silly important gringa things was not high on the agenda.

We went down to Starbucks to get some coffee (which was fine by me because I was so tired!). I needed to ask Kristan a question about my paperwork so I called her on the way. We talked a bit and she said that we should probably meet up. I asked her when was good for her. She told me that she was working on some stuff at the Starbucks. I looked up. I was at the Starbucks. Small world?

I went inside and found her. We talked about things and decided what I would need and where I should go. She told me that I should get started IMMEDIATELY because she was certain that migracion closed early, like 2pm. It was already getting past noon.

I found my friends and told them that I needed to hurry and why. They laughed and said I wouldn't make it today and so why try? Relax... have some coffee.... do it tomorrow!

Well I didn't really know where anything was. I sat down and drank my coffee.

Kristan left the Starbucks to find me, not on my way to getting things done, but singing Mana songs while the girls laughed. She plucked me up and got me going.

First we walked down to migracion. We got there at 1:30pm... they closed at 1. We ran some errands then header to intercambio. We got there at 3. They closed at 2 and reopened at 4.

Intercambio is in...

THE IVORY TOWER OF ACADEMIA!!

(Torre Academica)

It's literally a tower on top of a mountain. Someday I will climb to the top.

Tired and frustrated, I went back home. I could have waited but I just wasn't feeling it anymore. I gave up the day as lost.

Later in the evening I got hungry so I decided to walk down to downtown and get some tacos from a taco stand. I wandered the streets, alone, looking at the beauty of this city and forgiving it for irritating me.

I sat in a tiny restaurant waiting for my tacos to be ready for me to take home, spacing out. I heard my name... I looked up and there was Kristan and her roommate, Diana. I was literally in some sort of dazed-trance from having been wandering around the city in 'receptive' mode. We exchanged some words and I was happy to see them but I probably seemed like I was on another planet because my brain just wouldn't kick on. Sometimes I can work myself into such a daze the world could stop spinning and I would probably barely notice.

My tacos were ready. I got them and headed back home. On the way I walked up behind a lady in a red coat who JUMPED when I got close. She whirled around and looked at me apprehensively.

I smiled and told her that I wasn't a 'bandito'... just a silly 'gringa' walking home. She looked relieved and laughed. We walked together and found out that we live on the same street. Her name is Lupita and she works in the big fancy palacio on the square.

We chatted about pleasant things and she decided to adopt me. She has a son but no daughter. =D She invited me to her home. As I got to her door the thought that she might murder me or something flickered in my mind for a moment but I decided that sometimes that's just the risk you have to take! I got to meet her son, Raffe, and play with her Cocker Spaniel puppy. It was SO nice to play with a puppy for a while and have something be so excited and loving. It made me miss my dog, Lola, so so badly.

My Lola. How I miss her. =(