Mariachi Weekend

After we finished Friday, the school threw us a graduation party. It was catered with all sorts of tacos (I said no thanks to the cow tongue) and was an all around good time. It was great for all of the classmates to spend one last night together before we all moved on with our different jouneys. After we had dinner at the school, we went salsa dancing! It was SOO much fun. We spun around the dance floor until our feet ached and our heads were dizzy. We took more pictures than you can count to make sure the night was properly documented. :) After we went dancing, Frank took us to this really good hot dog place and then we headed home. Jade's shoes were hurting her feet so, Frank, being the gentleman that he is, switched shoes with her for the walk home. don't worry, I've got a picture to prove it! He couldn't handle the heels, so he just walked home in his socks, which happened to be decorated with a man who had a big afro wearing blue sun glasses. ha only Frank!

Here's some pictures from the party:

Jade, me, Mike, Frank



Azucena, Palloma, Jade
Roomies!

Some of the class

(After being all sweaty from dancing) Mike and I were quite pensive

Making fun of Frank's signature pose!

Sarah and Andrew, the cutest couple ever

Me and Frank

Me and Myk

me and elliot

Jade and I with momma Rose!

me, Sonia, Jade, sarah and elliot

haha told you i had proof!

The annual Mariachi festival started this weekend, so on Saturday we went to the Mariachi Parade. It was pretty cool. That kinda music isn't really my thing, but the exposure to the culture was really nice. It's apparently a really huge deal; there were thousands upon thousands there and professional news crews covering the event. Check out some pictures:

The first float

Confetti is apparently really popular in Mexican parades

Cutest mariachi ever!!

This guy was just passing a bottle of tequila around the crowd.. Only in Mexico!

Surely if a horse can learn salsa, I can learn salsa.

Sunday, we went to church and then just had the taxi drop us back off by the parque de revolution. The city of Guadalajara does a pretty amazing thing on Sundays; they close down some of the streets downtown from 8 to 2 for bike riding, skate boarding, roller blading, jogging, or walking. It's so nice! It's pretty amazing if you think about it. They shut down one of the busiest streets every week so their citizens can enjoy some recreation. Could you imagine if they shut down the boulevard in brookhaven for six hours every week? Guadalajara has a population of 6.5 million, but they have time to slow down and enjoy the outdoors. It's pretty cool. Sunday night we went to a big Mariachi concert. Again, not really my kinda music, but it was really awesome.

The infamous Wing's Army
Today I started my Spanish classes. They will hopefully help me to atleast be able to order at a restaurant without always having to point at pictures. Living in a country without knowing the language is like being a toddler all over again. My ability to communicate in Spanish is so pitiful, but I'm continuing to learn. After class, I grabbed lunch with Mike by a quaint little fountain he had found on one of his journeys through this big city. We parted ways and I headed to the huge, famous cathederal in the center of downtown. (The one in the pictures above with all the confetti) I went in, found an empty pew and read my devotion book for a while. People are constantly coming in and out of the cathederal, snapping tons of pictures of the amazing inside, but it's still so quiet and peaceful. I enjoyed the quiet time and took the chance to sort out all the things floating around in my head and my heart. I took some pictures before I left, but I promise you, it doesn't do any justice to the true beauty.

This was taken in the grotto under the church.

Don't wait for the storm to pass.. Go out and play in the rain

So.. as of one o'clock today, I'm officially certified to teach English as a foreign language internationally! I'll be qualified and recognized for jobs all over the world with this certification. I'll definitely teach in Mexico a while, but I'm excited to see where else I can use my skills. I am actually tied for Valedictorian of the class with Jade and Ginger! Yes, my mom is so proud! Yesterday we had to teach a one on one session as our final project/teaching session.. My student was only 24 and already a medical doctor. He was extremely smart and his English was very good. We went over irregular verbs and I taught him all sorts of common idioms we use in English. It was fun teaching what it means to say "step up to the plate" and "6 of one, half a dozen of the other" He picked it up quickly!

Here's some pictures of us goofing off during our last day of school.

Our mulitlingual farewell

Our teacher, Rodolfo, Jade, me, and Ginger. The Valedictorians!

The Daugthers of the Confederacy with Mike, aka MegaBrain

Me and Gary

Gary and I playing catch for the last time. This what we did when we should have been planning our lessons.

Gary, you catch like a school girl.

After our one on ones, about 13 of us from class all went to grab a bite to eat at Wing's Army, Frank's restaurant. We hung out there for a while, and then decided to go further downtown in hopes of finding some Mariachi's. It was the start of the big Mariachi festival, there's a big parade this weekend and supposed to be tons of live Mariachi bands. We couldn't find any bands so we wandered into a TRUE Mexican Cantina. It was amazing. A definite manly man's kinda place. In fact, they only starting allowing women to come in a few years ago. Frank had convinced me that women weren't allowed to pass a certain part of the bar, and that there was a table in the back that you could only sit at if you had some major battle scars to boast about. I bought it hook, line, and sinker. I didn't realize it til then that our group probably had 8 of the 13 women in the entire place! They had men playing trumpets and everyone was singing and clapping. It was such a cool atmosphere. I danced with this old Mexican guy, we did all the twist, turns and the fancy foot work, it was a blast! (Frank took us dancing last weekend, so I had had some practice. That night I met Oscar and he taught me some basic footwork and movements. It was so much fun, we twirled, shook our hips, and he dipped me all over the dance floor. We danced to everything from traditional Mexican music to the soundtrack of Grease!! It was a great time. Frank is actually a really good dancer, too! It was a night to remember, for sure.) Anyway, back to the story at hand... We had a guy come over and sing at our table and I swear it sounded like he was singing through a loud speaker. He had a fantastic voice! It was so deep and loud! We really had a lot of fun, kind of a last hurrah for all our classmates. Some are going back home, some took jobs in other cities in Mexico, and a few are staying here in Guadalajara.

All of us at the Cantina

The two funniest people I know, Frank and Gary.

Quick: Ugly Contest!

Frank, the contest is over... Don't worry, you win.

Isn't this guy amazing!?

Frank, Jade and I left the Cantina around 11:30 and started walking the 10 or 12 blocks back home. A few blocks into our walk, it started raining. It was light at first and then the bottom just fell out. We decided to stop in and do some grocery shopping, hoping by the time we finished, the rain would have let up some. So we shopped for groceries at midnight, and can't even wait til we check out to start eating our snacks. We had to pay for an empty box of cupcakes, we had eaten all of them by the time we got to the register! The clerk had a strange look on her face as she scanned the box, but she didn't ask any questions. By the time we have our groceries bagged up, I realized maybe it wasn't the best idea to buy heavy stuff like milk and OJ. We've still got 7 blocks to go, and now the rain is coming down in sheets, the lightening is popping, and the streets look like rivers. We tried to wait a bit longer so we huddled under the awning, and passed around one coke and one sandwich, each taking turns having a bite and a sip... we looked totally homeless! We finally had no choice, so we just started walking in the rain, each of us with an arm full of groceries, getting soaked to the bone. We laughed and splashed, it was one of the most fun times I've had since I've been here! It doesn't get much better than playing in the rain well past midnight with your two best friends, all the while doing your best not to drop the jar of jelly or smush the bread. The rivers flowing down the streets were atleast 4 inches deep; we sloshed all the way back home. When we were about 3 blocks from the hostel, I remebered I had an umbrella in my purse the entire time.... but it was more fun playing in the rain anyway :)

Not all those who wander are lost

When I woke up this morning, I knew something wasn't quite right. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, but I just felt...uncomfortable. Two hours later I was doubled over in pain with my head in the toilet. I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't drink the water. And no, I hadn't been eating tacos off the street. It was a feeling all too familiar; I had a kidney stone. I asked Jade to go through my drawer and get my pain pills I brought from home because I literally could not get up from the bathroom floor. I finally just couldn't take the pain anymore and asked Jade to call the school doctor. Then, almost as quickly as it had come, the pain was gone. Apparently the stone had found a comfortable resting place and had quit mauling the inside of my kidney. The doctor came anyway and gave me a prescription for the pain. I took the meds and happily ridded my body of the tiny little stone a few hours later. It actually wasn't too costly, which was really nice. It cost me less than 40 dollars for a house visit from the doctor and the generic pain pills costs less than a dollar. But still, what a way to spend my precious Saturday!

Besides the episode today, this week has been pretty good. It's been crazy busy, but good. I taught everyday but Wednesday this week, and taught twice on Friday. Yesterday I was at school from 8 am to 830 pm. It was one LOOOONG day. When I got home, Mike and Jade were waiting on me to go the movies, or the cinema as Frank calls it. We waited a few minutes on Frank, then the 4 of us caught a cab to the VIP movies. Yes, that's right, they have VIP movies here. You don't sit in a uncomfortable, regular chair. You get your own lazyboy! They also have a waitress to come and serve you Sushi or whatever it is that you want. You get all that for only 100 pesos, less than 10 dollars. It cost about that much to go to the movies in the states, and you definitely don't have your own servant included. We've heard so much about the VIP's since we've gotten here and couldn't wait to experience the luxury first hand. A 120 Peso taxi ride later, we arrived at the cinema only to find out that all the shows were sold out. Apparently everyone in this city wants to feel like a VIP. We walked around some until we came across a really cool Sushi place and had dinner. The four of us laughed and had a blast enjoying one another's company. We told Frank story after story about school. about how Gary calls Jade and I The Daughters of the Confederacy, which Mike has shortened to DOC's. And how Gary told a story that made one of our classmates throw up. Literally. She jumped up in the middle of class and ran to the bathroom. Poor girl..But it was hilarious! ha Mike then told us about when he was in a band and lived the rock and roll life for about 5 years. They toured all across the US and Europe. He said he made a very modest living but, hey that's pretty awesome. They had a record deal,an agent and even made it on MTV2 once for an interview. Pretty cool. Frank told us all about his world wide travels as we all just passed our plates around. Everyone ordered a different type of sushi roll so we all could share. We really had nice time.

It's amazing that I've only known my new friends a little more than three weeks. I feel like we've hung out more times than I can count and with some, I feel strangely emotionally comfortable. Maybe it's just being in a foreign land together, we are all sharing an experience that outsiders just can't understand. No matter how different we all are, we're united by a common love for adventure, a hunger for travel, a lust for new places, a need for novel experiences, an appreciation for alternate cultures, and a thirst for a different walk of life. By wandering the globe, we're sculpting our originalities and nurturing our curious spirits. Whatever the reason for the connections, I'm very thankful for the new friendships that I've formed here. I just finished video chatting with my family in Baton Rouge, and my Aunt Dede asked me who was the most interesting person I'd met so far. I had to stop and think for a second because I've met so many amazing people with so many different backgrounds. It's really been a life changing experience already, and I've still got 6 more months to go. I can only imagine what else God has in store for me here!

After I had fully recovered from my stone incident, Frank took us out on the town. We went to a cool Cuban place where you could sign all over the walls.

They had a live Cuban band playing right in the middle of the restaurant.
Look, a sign written in English!

To me, Pesos are like Monopoly money

"Our Cathedral"
We live just 2 blocks from here

So, this week has been SO busy! I had a paper and two assignments due this week, along with being scheduled to teach every day! One of my classes was canceled, but only after I had already planned all the lessons, so that was a bummer. I taught mostly beginners this week, which is much more of a challenge than teaching intermediate and advanced learners. I had to use tons of visuals, drawings, and actions to get my points across in some of the classes, but I think all the students got the main point of the lesson. I also was assigned to teach a conversation class, which is basically open to all level of students, so you never know the ability of your students. you also never know how many students you'll have. A girl from class was assigned to teach it before I was, and she had no one show up. I was having my first really stressful day since I've been here, so I was hoping nobody would show up for mine, either. I had 15 students come! The room was packed out. The classrooms at the school are so tiny, we barely fit! So, for conversation all the teacher has to do is pick a topic and get the kids to talk about it. It's a chance for the students to use their English in real life situations, using authentic language. It's really a great thing. It was fun too! We laughed and had great discussions. I was actually really glad I taught it afterwards, it took away some of all the stress! Teaching has been going okay. Each time I teach, I get more and more comfortable in front of the class. We are graded on a 10 point scale and this week I got a 9.0 9.2 and today I got a 9.5. So I'm getting better!

Today we went with a group from school to the Guachimontones Pyramids in Teuchitlan. It's supposedly one of the most important archaeological zones of Mexico. It was built somewhere between 200 BC and 400 AD, but was only discovered and restored in 1995. The pyramids are round though, they are unlike anything I've ever seen. The next to biggest one is 13 steps up, then a landing, then 4 more steps up. The top 4 steps is believed to have been an altar where they did human sacrifices. It's interesting too that it's 13, and then 4, because 13 x 4 is 52. With there being 52 weeks in a year, they believe it may be their statement of some sort of calendar. They have uncovered pretty much an entire ancient village. They had a pyramid in the center with slabs built up encircling the pyramid. On the slabs were believed to be houses. There were several pyramids, all of different sizes and all encircled with slabs for houses. The bigger the pyramid, the "nicer the neighborhood" so to speak. The largest pyramid was where the priests and such lived. The next to largest was where the warriors lived. Then the really small ones were perhaps for farmers and such. It was actually quite interesting. They are built high up on the mountain, right next to a volcano, so they've uncovered all sorts of tools made from when the lava reached the water of the lake. They uncovered tombs filled with all sorts of artifacts. Their tombs were boot shaped, meaning they dug straight down for about 9 feet, then over to the right. They also discovered an amphitheatre, that actually works. We had some guy go to the very back and he could hear us at the front talking just a tad above normal volume. It was amazing. Believe it or not, they found a court used for soccer matches too! They believe it was like an actual court that settled disputes by a game of soccer because of sculptures they have found. So for instance, if two families were fighting over ownership of a cow, they would duel one another in a soccer game. Winner gets the cow. They also found human remains buried in the "goal" areas of the field. The bones, though, were removed from the body, which suggests that sometimes they killed the losers and ate them!! ...Geez how's that for the death penalty?

The second largest pyramid

Sculptures they've unearthed that show the soccer court

Those blue-ish colored plants are what they make tequila from.

Getting energy from the sun, just like the natives here used to do. Everyone grabbed hands and leaned back, supporting each others weight.

Trying out the ampitheatre, those dots way in the background could hear us talking.

We went to eat at the Brazilian restaurant tonight and now I know how a Queen must feel when her servants are at her beck and call. The restaurant is a buffet... but it's a buffet the comes to you! You have a red and green stick on your table, and when you want more food you simply turn it to green. When you don't need to be served anymore, you turn it to red. We had 11 of us from school go and it was so much fun! It was really good food and a fun atmosphere. They had tons of amazing meats: ribs, turkey wrapped in bacon, filet mignon, sirloin, all kinds of chicken, and pork. Everything is grilled and they just come to your table and cut meat right off the shish-kabob for you. I got to try new and different foods that I never would've tried otherwise. I know none of you will believe it since I'm so picky, BUT I ate****drum roll please****a chicken heart! It actually wasn't half bad, but I just had to hurry up, chew and swallow before my mind had a chance to realize what I was eating and set off my gag reflex. We all stuffed ourselves to the max, which caused Gary to proclaim, "For God's sake! Why didn't I wear my elasticated pants!" He's English and apparently thought we Americans call our sweat pants elasticated pants. Then he explained that a buffet is really just a battle between you and the restaurant and he intended to win. Ah, Gary is so funny. After dinner, we walked down to the area of Zapophan where the big cathedrals and arches are. It was absolutely beautiful!! I really was in awe, it's gorgeous. We had a great night!

Best part about this picture is the big chunk of meat in Jade's cheek

"I can't believe I'm about to eat this chicken heart."
(I actually whimped out and only ate half the heart)
Me and Mike eating our chicken hearts... Jade just stealing some camera time

Gary's attempt to get at least one of every animal on his plate onto his fork.

Gary says this picture looks like a senile old woman (Jade) and her patient granddaughter (me) "Yes grandma, it is 1972, and yes, you're right, Nixon is president."

The whole crew

Whoa, that's a steep bill, even in monopoly money.

Me, Mike and Gary's bets on which obscure and random 80's song the band would play next.

Beautiful archway entry of the square

This is one of the newer cathedrals in the city, it's only about 200 years old.

Can you believe I live here!?

The meat tonight was a true luxury for me because the only protein I've had in the last week has come from scrambled eggs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! It's actually bizarre how obsessed I've become with PB and J sandwiches. I eat them for lunch everyday,and some days I eat them for supper, too. You would think I'd get tired of them, but some mornings I wake up craving them! ha I REALLY need to learn to cook some real food. I'm trying not to eat out too often, because I need to save money. Everything is pretty cheap here, so you tend to buy more and before you know it, all your money is spent. It's been hard for me to put values on pesos, too. I mean I know its about 13 pesos to a dollar, but they still seem like monopoly money to me. I guess the values will become more natural to me with time.

Oh, and by the way, they've got some mack daddy mosquitoes here. They are huge.. and always hungry. They eat us up all the time... They're vicious! We have to stay sprayed with bug spray, or else they'd carry us away. Another thing here that's so different are the street light performers and vendors. Especially at night, people will stand at the street lights at major intersections and wait for them to turn red. Then they run out in the middle of the street, in front of 4 lanes of traffic and start doing their tricks in hopes of some tips. We've seen everything from jugglers, guitar players, flame torch jugglers (seriously!) men painted completely silver, and this guy who lays down a cloth full of broken glass, takes off his shirt and rolls around in the shards. His trick is he doesn't get cut. It's really strange. I mean, the first time I saw the guy laying in the street in front of 4 lanes of traffic, I just knew he'd get run over, but he always gets up just seconds before the light turns green. It's bizarre, really. They also have people selling things at the stop lights. They sell EVERYTHING from water, cokes, and candy, to stuffed animals and tupperware. It's so crazy. Everybody's just trying to make a peso/monopoly buck.

The beast-like mosquitoes attacked Jade's back

Well, on a sad note, I ate my last pack of peanut butter crackers today. They are my absolute favorite snack but they do not sell them here. I brought a box with me from home, and tried my best to ration, but I ran out. *Tear* I went to a get together last night where everyone was Mexican. I got really hungry so I got a pack of crackers out of my purse to eat. I thought Juan Carlos would have a fit! "Where did you get those cookies!! I love those cookies! I can't find them anywhere in Mexico, only when I go visit family in the states!" haha we bonded over our mutual love for Ritz, and I promised to share if mom sends me a box. On a peaceful/productive note, I practiced Yoga this week on my rooftop with some of our neighbors. We did it at 6 am (I still can't believe I was up that early) The stars were still out, the moon was shining down, and it was actually almost quiet... almost. You'd hear the occasional bus drive by, but for the most part it was very peaceful. And now for the most random thing you'll hear all day... There's a woman at school named Shavon, from Vermont. She's in her mid 50's and drove down here with her husband. We were talking, I told her I was from Mississippi, and she said they stopped a few times through MS on the way to Mexico. She said yeah we stopped in this little town, Brookhaven and ate at Mitchell's. WHAT??! How insane is that? I can't believe what a small world it really is.