Sunrise, Quinta Roo

Sunrise, Quinta Roo

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Bridge is falling down...


So a vital bridge in the region has collapsed.


The Amenca takes people to and from Nayarit, and lots of people take it each day... Amanda drove me in on it when I was staying with her each morning, and there are hundreds of commuters on it daily.


I hope there not people in the river, and I hope they fix it quickly.

Because it happened early this morning, they are unsure of whether there are

cars that are unaccounted for or not.


You can see the story at guadalajarareporter.com ... there is also
a story next to it about a bizarre Accidental (?) letting off of a grenade last week... two 20 year olds (note; not me) lost limbs.


sABADOS (SATURDAYS) failings

So I was trying to write about a classic Maria MisAdventure, which turned into another M MA.

It was about my trip to the Botannical Gardens on Saturday. This will be a cut version of the story that I was happily drawing out until the power dies yesterday afternoon.



The lessons of my experience are :



1. Don{t presume a Botannical Gardens is a local, public, popular park.



2. Don{t presume that when you are told [it is near to..[ by a Mexican, or person from a large country, that the place is actually near to whereever they tell you.

Being from Nelson, for me Nelson College for Girls is NEAR my house, or KFC is NEAR the beach or NayCol is NEAR the airport.



3. Don{t take a bus if you don{t know where it is going. this is something I do frequently, and my brilliant, impatient method of jumping on the next bus to show up has failed me in Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Wellington... I can name at least one huge failure in each city.

I don{t mind however, i always come off the bus with a story, some exercise and feeling little more grateful to finally reach my destination.



I jumped on a bus labelled [Jardines[ presuming the Botans were a frequently visited and close place. This lead me to a community up in the hills. I started back on the highway but a pathless tunnel forced me to walk among the communers (I don{t know how to spell this word as I have never used it.. i usually say [us[ ).. anyways I made my way back and about an hour into the start of my misadventure I had found the right bus stop for Mismaloya.

Mismaloya is the most famous beach around these parts (which, by the way I haven{t seen yet! I have seen all the hotels etc blocking it however), I am going to go this week... hopefully with Camera in tow.


Anyways, Mismaloya is what everyone (aka 3 personas) were saying was RIGHT BESIDE the Botanz. I trusted this. I got on the Mismaloya bus, which is white instead of the usual Blue or green, paid my $5.50 pesos/60c NZ and started the exciting ride. You basically drive high up, around hills that have bays at the bottom, but you can{t see the beaches because they are covered by hotels and mansions... actually I could see a little in the bus, you defs can{t see much walking... trust me, I wasted a good 4 hours one day.

A minute in there was a sign for the Botanz 18km. Wow! I thought, that is quite far,but that{s okay, because it is CLOSE to Mismaloya and that is where this bus takes me... lucky.
The bus drove for about 20 mins, we weren{t going too fast (The driver was texting) so my brill maths detirmined we would be about 1/2 way there.
At the beginning of Mismaloya there was a 2nd road sign.... 5km. Not far!
We then carried on for another 5 mins to the Bay, Boca-something where we caught the water taxi to Yelapa last weekend.
I then started to walk. Speedwalk, on road up in the forrest - very NZ and North Queensland road it was, all familiar. There were a few waterfalls along the way, and for the most part the road was beside Rio Mismaloya, the river that was gushing and loud.
I ran out of water early on, but had a lot of energy... i thought I was making good progress. It wasn{t for an our of power walking that I came across another sign.... 4km. And just like that, I was deflated. I couldn{t believe that it was possible for a 5min bus ride and 1 hour power walk to get me only 1km!
No es possible!
Anyways, I figure that either they got the signs made up and then plonked them anywhere, or that is one km if it was straight, but it follows the hills in a twisty mess.
Soon a ute with two businessmen stopped, they didn{t know where the Jardines were, but were willing for me to jump in the ute boot thing, which is frequent transport, especially for kids and for carpooling to work.
Boy it was cool kneeling in the boot racing along the road with the cliche of having the wind in my hair.

They weren{t sure what to do with me, so dropped me after about 10 mins in a town (which I was suprised to see after seeing no one NEAR for the past hour)

I started to walk when, like earlier, there was no buses in sight. When I passed 2 gardeners they told me that I was on the right road, but it was a far way. I was happy again that I was on the right track. It wasn{t actually far, I guess that the Mexicans-distance-thing I thought now exsisted wasn{t with all people.

But I guess they thought I was a taxi-ing tourist.

Boy it was fab to suddenly spot the large building with [Botannical Gardens*
draped across... no recuerder whether it was in Inglis or Español.

The man who runs the place (as it is a tourist attraction/venue for weddings/club for expats) is a full on cowboy from somewhere Southern US...lets say Texas. The place has a large building with tables and chairs and sofas... es muy bonita - I really must get some photos up. Anyways, they upstairs is a resturant, where I had the most ammmazzzing guacamole (believe me) with Tostado, an alternative to corn chips. The also brought me a cold flannel, which is the best idea ever.

I swam in the river there, which was quite intense in places, but it was the perfect temperature. Slightly icy but after my mission (btw - I left my house at 9AM, i arrived at 1pm), in 30*+ heat, it was perfect.

There are a few walks set up around the grounds, they are really well kept. I just did my homework for a few hours and then walked a bit when I could feel my legs again after my beastly work out.

I stood at the gate of the jardines while 2 buses (they come each half hour) passed me by. The first one, I wasn{t too fussed. But half an hour later when the 2nd one did too, child - hold my weave! I was waving like a madman, the driver looked at me, looked away and didn{t blink an eyelid.
When the staff from the park got off at 6, they offered me a ride - two American expats and a joyful Mexican grandfather, who doesn{t talk with them because he doesn{t speak english and they don{t speak spanish. Anyways, I was so grateful and ended up the driver lives virtually nextdoor to me, so it took me about a 1/12 of the time to get home as it did to get there.

One of the Americans told me about this town that was taken over in the middle of the night by some court-ordered ruling that decided the town should be in the control of a rich business man from Guadalajara. Just a few months ago, the decision was made to close down the town- all businesses and kick out the 1000+ population in the middle of the night! He only heard the story when he went down to stay there for a holiday (it is two hours south of here)...the news didn{t even make it hear originally, he was suprised that CNN wasn{t on this one... it is so hugely unjust.

It{s aparently a beautiful place (Juan, who I live with, talked of the same place because it was him and his friends{ favourite camping spot... / only camping spot), so I guess it is going to become a huge tourist town... Like how Cancun didn{t exsist until rich americans created it... but I don{t know of the history of people there... but I am so curious as to where these people are living now.. the town has been closed off with police barricades!

ending rant.

Monday, August 30, 2010

She{s got a ticket to ride

Okay, I am very upset. I have just been writing for an hour, and the power went out and none of it saved (this is supposed to automatically save every minute but this comp is CRAP)

It was weird becuase I was just writing about how a persons mood can change in a second....

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A few photos stolen from Solexico FB




Hola, ¿Como Estas?

Hey Mum and anyone else who may read this (Dad),

Last night I had to wash my hair twice and cut some bits out because there was sticky goo in it. Don{t you love the beautiful picture of Mexico that I keep painting.

I don{t know what it is, but I presume it came from the deep sea... or else the water in the shower... it was in worse shape than the huge nest in my hair that I covered up with a hair-scrunchie and got cut out in a salon, circa 2000.
But now my hair is lucious.

I also always come close to falling over on the cobblestones, because there is a lot of water at the mo and it comes off the hills, many of the vertical streets are covered in moss. The other day I slid for a good metre and a half at an intersection. Then yesterday it happened - I finally slipped and flew off the pavement onto the road (a good 30cm drop)... all my muscles are still sore and I love my Crocs a little less.

The thing I like about the pavements is that it is up to the person who built the house on the road to build the pavement, so they are all over the place! Some are like mazes, some people made walls around their pavement so it is not possible to actually walk there. You must vacate the pavement, step down anywere from 2cm to 1 metre (exaggeration?) and stand in the line of fire of the buses and crazy taxis.

I am liking the walk to school more because primary schools have gone back after the summer holiday and, I think I{ve mentioned it before, but the kids here are the cuuutttessst in the world. I will hopefully get a photo of little Oswald, who{s parents work at my school, he is four but about the size of a two year old, and he is in his first year. He wears a white blouse tucked into a blue shorts and high white socks. His mum, like almost every mum here, wetcombs his little black hair to perfection. At the school across the road from my school (I didnt know it was a school coz it is a huge, brick unsigned building) the young kids also where these bibs so they don{t get there perfect blouses dirty)
Which leads me to the never ending confusing - how do people in 3rd world countries always outdo us with the clean clothes?
Especially when most of them don{t have machines..... wow
The other thing I love is that they carry a plastic bag with a container of lunch in it... today I saw a 5 yr old girl who was missing lunch but had a role of toilet paper - either she has a cold or the brick school is ghett-o.

Yes, Miss Mexico is Miss Universe!! Even though that [paegant[ was less of a paegant and more of an advertising campaign, I was still very happy.
Even better, she is from this state! Jalisco. I was really happy that I had something to talk about with random Mexicans the next day. The friends that she made me.

Well, I am actually managing to talk a bit now ... my teacher told me today that I{ve massively improved.. I hope she just wasn{t being nice!°!
THe annoying thing about this place, and alike schools, is that they just group people together in semi-similar levels (because of the whole youcanstarteveryweek ything). Because of this my conversation class is getting no where. It was good last week with just me and another guy, but three beginners have been brought in so we are just backtracking.

For the bad news: I was hoping the American man who doesn{t try to speak English and gets the teacher to explain ALL and doesn{t try and use his dictionary is staying.... for 8 more weeks! I was living on a prayer, hoping he was going to leave soon. But nooo, I am going to be in his class for EVERY DAY that I remain!!! Today the first half hour of the class was spent with him asking how to say various meats. This is the grammar class!

I went to the Social bar night again last night, and talked with our tour guide from the Guadalajara trip about his legal wedding on the weekend, his church wedding is in Octubre. Apparently that is quite common here. But anyway, now my Wedding vocab is going gangbusters!!!

adios

Monday, August 23, 2010

Fin de Semana

Was a very eventful weekend!

Was planning on busing to a beach in the South (mi mama was unimpressed with the water in the P.V beach... it isn{t very nice here but is nice to the South or North).
On Friday I started to freak out about how it was becoming impossible to speak Spanish and how I it looks impossible to go to Oaxaca because apparently they want to charge $700 USD for the round trip!! That is NZ $1000.. No gracias!!
But don{t fear, there is another option that I will reveal as the story unfold

I got a call at about 11am as I was leaving mi casa to head towards the bus.
It was the guy who rents me the house.. unfortunately his live in situation with his boyf wasn{t going to plan and he wanted to move back in (and that I could stay with his ex??boyf, who is a best friend of Amanda and really lovely guy).

I expected this, after my let down information about how it is now impossible to go to another city, that I would cry. But a miracle, the softy (aka me) did not falter. Instead, I turned on RA (aka Roseanne) mode and started packing neatly yet efficiently.
I had all my stuff together, had cleared out the fridge and had the sheets ready to take to the lavenderia (laundry aka laundromat), and was walking over to the ex??boyf-Amanda-amiga house dragging my suitcase and carry-on up the coblestone hill with slight unbalance, I looked at amandas-amigas bright blue house and hoped he didn{t regret letting his now ex pick that colour, and walked right in.
I walked right in on the two of them trying to have a conversacion. The guy who{s house I was now no longer living in (who I thought was at work ) later said to me [You looked uncomfortable* and I was all {Hell yes I looked uncomfortable, you two just broke up, are talking and I just interrupted{ (in my mind only, of course). But I did feel really bad.

So now poor Amanda{sAmiga, who I will call Juan, is now stuck with me!! I feel really bad for him because he probs wants to be alone and now I am behind him everywhere he goes!! It is temporary though, but I love being there already.
Juan did ask me about Oaxaca and then told me that I should take the bus.. this man is my saviour in multiple ways. So I am going to be on the bus for bout 24 hours, to Mexico City and then Oaxaca, but he was telling me that the buses are aircon, bathrooms, tilt your chair back (lean back, lean back, lean back, lean back for those of you who get my Fat Joe references), watch movies.. he says it is better than 1st class on a plane, so dammit I believe him (Nb- He has actually been first class on a plane..fancy).

The next day was Domingo aka Sunday aka yesterday, so Juan, Amanda, Amanda{s sister-in-law Julietta (who lives above Juan with Amanda{s bro and her son Daniel who is 7? and my bff) and I went to a place called Yalapa. We drove south for about 30 mins, then got a boat from that bay, then boated to Yalapa which took about 45mins. The boat ride was very cool.
It was a classic passenger boat, but in saying that I can{t think where you{d see one.. apart from in Pacific Islands.. It has bench seats and seats about 40 anyway... sorry that I am so good and the pointless information team!
What you see on the ride is quite similar to Abel Tasman, although there are some MexiMansions along the way, a few townships and there are palmtrees.
The ocean is a beautiful deep green, similar to AT again but less turqoise.
I took a few photos which I will try and put up.

Side note= I don{t know if I already said but my comp has potentially died, but I am going to try and load my photos on Juans comp and then onto my drive thing)

Yalapa was really neat. The water was quite brown unfortunately, due to the river which comes off the mountains. But it is still really nice. It has about 5 restaurants (which is really just a shade with a small kitchen) and then homes around to the left of the bay. The guys who take the boat over also get your chairs, dig an umbrella hole and take your order for the restaurant. I was confused who was paying some of the people, but it is a community thing they have there which I really liked.

I just did my Spanish homework like the cool kid that I am, and we swam for a bit.. there is no walking out till its deep here, it is alarmingly deep instantly. It is like stepping into a pool. We had some Nachos but they were not very good.
They are made with tostado (thick corn chip type chips... healthy-ish), mashed beans, excessive cheese and not much salsa. I wanted some Sour Cream and Guaccy!

On the boat ride back, Julietta stuck her hand in the water and soaked the two people behind her, who were nicely dressed potentially coming from work or too dinner... they weren{t mad of course, it takes a bit to get Mexicans mad... not including insults on Family or drug wars.

Well, I am back at school now for another week.. now happily planning to go to Oaxaca.

Hasta Luego, have a fab day.

Photos from our prizegiving last year




Thursday, August 19, 2010

Guess who is back?

So.

Just had a coooking class on Enchiladas. Fun fact: Enchiladas are not rolled up tortilla with chicken and lettuce, tomato and Old El Paso inside.
I would like to say they are som much more, but they are just different.
I might be biased towards my mother{s Old El Paso magic but it was my favourite blackmail ¨go-to-swimming-lessons-with-the-crazy-pattisons-and-get-prodded with the stick and enchiladas for dinner^ meal.

Here the tortillas are small, semi deep fried (technically shallow pan because Mexicans don{t have deep fri machines.. but trust me, they would be abused here) It is thens dipped in some kind of hot salsa (hot as in temp and taste) and topped with raw onion, cheese (which is white, very soft and dry goats cheese), and corriander. The sauce detirmines what it is called e.g Enchiladas Mole are dipped in a rich, brown spice and chocolate savoury sauce (too much for me to handle) -- is a very popular one. Today we learnt how to make Enchiladas Verde, literally meaning Enchiladas green (although I don{t hve to tell those of you who watch Dora the Explorer that). It is made with green tomatos, don{t know if it will be possible in NZ but I will try.

I got a phone the other day, it cost the equivilent of $30 NZ and comes with $10 credit a month so... sweet as! This was to satisfy my friend Amanda.
The woman at the phone shop asked me if I was married and I was like [Whhhhhaaaaaattt? I{m 20!!* and then turns out she is 22, got married at 16 and wants a divorce. We talked about this in English due to the fact I don{t know such complex words. I was like {Oh... te gusta peliculas? (You like movies?).
But seriously though, I have been noticing very young looking lasses and lads with lots of children. Or they look about 24 and have 8 year olds... that is my biggest fear.

I was going to go to Playa del Carman for a few weeks of school, but now it{s looking like Oaxaca, which is an old town in the hills, away from the ocean. Both schools have a residence for students to live in but the Oaxaca one is, I kid you not, 1/4 cheaper!! nuts I know. I will get to Carman at some stage though coz darnit, I{m not leaving without swimming in the Carribbean!!

My conversation is slowly improving, still very difficult, i go home with the best intentions to study more... but it is just SO draining. Between the walk up a step hill in 35+ degree heat and the listening to a foreign language all day, I{m beat. My teacher today and was telling me how I have to try and speak for a few hours each night and I explained I don{t live with anyone but I watch a few hours of TV in English with Spanish subtitles and he was satisfied. It is good though, I pick up a few new words a day... and notice some very off translating.

I saw Sense and Sensibility the other day.. with Emma Thompson. Loved. it.
Now want to read the book, just like the inspiration I got from Pride and Prej too.. should have known I would like this one too. I wish I lived in those days... as bizarre as that would sound, and even though RA{s voice is in my head going [No you don{t*. The horse riding, the balls, the manners, the language is all just brilliant.

I am aware that not much I have written is about Mexico. Not too much to report. when I go to shops I attempt to speak Spanish and they always just speak to me in English. Is frustrating... like, Just let me try!!!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

en espanol

Hola,

Yo escribo en Espanol porque yo practico necessito. No se que a escribe realamente... Yo vivo en Puerto Vallarta pero vivo en Nueva Zelanda normalamente.
Son las ocho un la noche aqui, de tiempo eso los estudiantes de Solexico salen de la Cafe Social. Yo penso yo salgo tambien porque el oler aqui is muy malo. Yo sento muy, muy infermo aqui.
Es molesto tengo tres pareds porque yo sento todos. Yo sento los perros, basura, ellos fuman ciggar y marijuana, cocina... yo no gusto eso yo no controlo los sentos, el sol, los mosquitos, el rudio, las tormentas.... no. muy. bien!!!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Funnny show

So there is this show that is hilarious and tragic at the same time. It is called THE MAURY SHOW. 

It is the new Jerry Springer... but better . It is all paternity tests and there was this woman who was on for the 8th time to see who babydaddy was and she was SWEARING it was her partners. Maury gets an envelope and goes "Jack, you are ... NOT the father" and every single time this lady ran off screming like a nutcase. 

You watch it and think, I am cool. 

In other TV news there is an ad for a ring that says if you wear it you lose 7 kgs in 24 hours. 
Do you love it???


Things I didn't want to see this weeK...

1. I was running down the highway, trying to get off it because there was no sidewalk and just a ditch, and I almost ran into something I did not want to see... a dead and rotting dog. It really freaked me out and saddened me. 

2. People burning plastic bottles all the way to Guadalajara. So frustrating. 

3. There was a heavily pregnant woman wearing a cut off top and short skirt... it was kinda disturbing. 

4. A Rat in my face as I dove into the ocean

Okay I have already forgotten most the list I'd created in my head. I kept going "I don't wanna see that!" which none of you will recognise but Lisa Kudrow says it a lot on her failed show "The Comeback" which I love and own the complete ONLY season if anyone ever wants to borrow. 

The other day we went toTequila. It didn't occur to me that it was THE tequila until we were driving in through thousands of Blue Agave plants, which we learnt about briefly at school. 

We toured the Jose Cuervo plant, which was really cool actually. We saw the ovens they cook the agaves in and all. 
We went to a restaurant with a killer view over tequila, and I made the awkward decision to order a medium tequila pizza (which turned out had lots of ham on it... no muy bien), thinking it would be small for like $6. 
It was huge and I was really embarrased, because it came about 20 mins after everyone elses food so everyone else was full and no one wanted any. I ate as much as I could but "took away" 3/4s of it, which is now sitting in the fridge. 

I learnt my street name today on a map (it is written NO WHERE, trust me).. it is JAMAICA!!!
Cool aye? The area are all named after LA countries, it is off Nicaragua. 

I don't really know what to do about speaking Espanol... I am good at the school work but fail at the speaking. I just feel like I'm in a lose-lose situation with no one to talk to. 
Not that I really have the energy to practise. I just walk home and lay down and don't move. I don't have the energy to study because of the lack of food and excessive heat. Getting a bit old. 

Yesterday however, I decided after 2 weeks that maybe it was time to actually swim in the ocean. I ended up walking up around the bays for 3 1/2 hours. I caught the bus back when i found myself up on a cliff and it started to rain... like every night. It got a bit old as I got to a point where I couldn't walk around the rocks and it was bay after bay of private beaches that I couldn't even see from the road. 

The gas is now successfully here and the stomach calmed so I made some quesidillas. The cheese (queso) here is SO good.. It i s like mozzarella without the plastic taste. 
My stomach is weird today because it hasn't been the normal tummy - i'veeatensomethingbad - it was like really painful, and was coming on in different places each time. it made me think I may have some kind of bug in it... it didn't feel normal and was bloated. Currently, it is okay though. 

I am contemplating for some of the time of my stay transferring to the sister school/s in different towns.. especially if I am not speaking enough still... because this is the smaller of the schools, and the others have lots of people. One is in Oaxacca, which is in the mountains, apparently really historic and beautiful. the other is in Playa del Carmen which is purely a tourist town, which is why it attracts lots of students from US/Europe who are holidaying... it wouldn't be soon or for long, but it may be a good way to see more of the country me thinks. 

ps -

So feeling sick again today... not sure what has done it... yesterday all I ate were chips with cheese sauce and juice (all from the bottle... don{t see how that could be an issue)...

As if yesterday couldn{t have been more dull, as I was flossing my teeth I rechipped the fake crap off one of my headliners (originally chipped on the school bus with a cookie time)...

yum, I think a cookie time is the only thing I would be willing to eat, even with this upset stomach

The internet doesn{t work though.

Neither does the gas. No food, no internet... listening to the

M;Y class is driving me nuts. There is a new guy so the older american man in my class is suggesting we start again from the start... ummm coool, but I already wasted one week not knowing what was going on... not willing to redo what I{ve done twice... this school is expensive.

My teacher thinks I{m a badass- I know longer give time for others to answer, I just throw it out there to get the show on the road. The american has moved the chairs together so we}re shoulder to shoulder .-.. it{s too hot for this shizz....

it is past 9 now and class hasn{t started ... this annoys me because we start about 15 mins late each day and yet as soon as it turns 2:00 he{s like ADIOS. Not a fan.

I{ve been put down in conversation class... like down to a basic class. THe problem is, I have no one to speak spanish too... so I don{t speak it!
I live alone, all the other students here are Swiss so speak to each other like that...
got to go

Monday, August 9, 2010

frus, trat. ed

So I keep retyping this and it isn't saving. 

The keyboard at my school wasn't working today and my school so I had to attempt to send my mum a crappy email where everything was copied and pasted off Google. It took half an hour to do about 3 lines. 

Last night the internet worked for long enough for the computer to load onto Facebook and me to read the sentence "hey someone I know just posted RIP Zac Tangahau " and that was all I read before it crapped out again. It was a long day and was even more messed up trying to work out the ways this could have happened.. unfortunately this guy, in our Nayland year, committed suicide in jail. He was a complicated fellow, but is obviously very unfortunate. 

I returned to mi casa looking forward to cooking pasta and sleeping. Walking home the torrencial downpour and thunder and lightning wasnot 't joyous hole missing - a wall thinkg. the

Saturday, August 7, 2010

You´re not in Guadalajara anymore Dr Ropata

Kia ORa.

i was going to try and escribe in Español but I am very sleepy.
Today has been the beastyist day ever..it feels like a week really.
It was my largest eating day for a long while and to date, my stomach is not playing up - muy bien.
Guadalajara is SO COOL. It is a short trip place though, you kinda see all you need to in a few days.
Lets have a food diary=
1. Breakfast was great buffet. Luckily with cereal and hotcakes and yogurt and fruit and not just Nachos and various meats. I ate like crazzzyy... the yogurts were v. good, bright pink and bright orange.. I´m thinking strawberry and mango/papaya? i obviously would have taken pix but wierd thing... we are in the same country, the same state even and yet... the powerpoint plugs in the room are differente. So I didn´t have a camera to take pics of the horse and carriage ride (Circa Meet me in St Louis), which I found hilarious because we were on the highway in this carriage, going slower than a man walking beside us!
Anywho I woke early to try and fix this problem ... I hit thestreets at about 8am, knowing in PV there would be a shop with adaptors open at this stage. No success, places open whenever they nothewant really. I then decidedto scrounge the ´hotel´ to see if there was another option.. found one on the 1st floor with the PV holes (I´m stayingon the 3rd) then carried on looking for a better spot. Success came in the form of a plug in the lobby, so I unplugged a light becauseobviously me having a camera takes priority. It wasthen convenientthat I could monitor this plug from my seat at the glorious buffet where I remainedfor about an hour.
Nachos here are different, were a Tex-Mex (which is Texas and Northern Mexican) invention really.
They are healthy chips to start off with..no salt or flava-flav. The sauce is like a thin tomato soup with beans in it potentially (but beans here are all mashed) that they are semi-swimming in. Thee cheese they use on Nachos and on Enchilladas is like goats cheese, so it doesn´t get heated up or melt. This makes vege Enchis muy crappo.
Sour cream is newly entroduced here, people don´t use it on anything - Yogurt is the condiment of choice on Nachos.
When we were done with buffet (NZ $5 btw) oohh Money lesson.
There are 12.5 pesos per AmericanDollar. There is around $1.40 NZD dollar per American money. Confusing!
Especially some times e.g. just before at the market when the lady said Diez y Quince, which I interpreted as $150 pesos when it was 25 and they struggled to get me change.
Then a man wanted $21 pesos for a few postcards and I was thinking they´d be $2 pesos... justecause $21 seemed like way to much... He did actually rip me off but I´m no haggler, my dad would be upset to know.
Okay so fail on the food diary but I will continue later because where we went for for lunch (3pm here) was like the best restaurant I´ve ever been to.

Now that I havwireless on my comp it should be easier to post pics. They only do 5 at a time on this which is crapola.
The wirelessis proving problematic because now it is telling me I must update everything...
Limewire, Adobe, Skype... all the other stuff. Computers suck really.

I will get up pics of Guada too because there isn´t point describing what is already in photos. I just basically wanderedfor quite a bit taking photos. Luckily the battery charge in the lobby was successful, twas a bit awkward retrieving it - multiple elderly ladies were blocking the way, I idn´t want them to have to move so ended up climbing under a table then sliding over the table as they laughed with glee.

I will also talk about my class and my trip around the hood the other day.

Friday, August 6, 2010

YO ir Guadalajara

Aiiiiitt,

So it is 9am only most the students and the teachers are not here yet..... n
Maybe coz they{re all packing coz this arvo we are going to GUADALAJARA...!!!
Yes, that is where Ugly Betty{s family is from. And yes, I am going to try and find one of those
ponchos that she wore her first day of Mode.
For those of you unfamiliar, Guad is the Capital of the state Jalisco I am in, and has....
1 million plus people... which I only learned y-day. I actually thought it was a small town but lets presume Ugly Bettywas from the outskirts.
Unforunately it is only for the weekend and half the time is driving but I am still looking foward to
leaving my house with no gas and a missing wall to loiter around there taking photos and eating all meals.

Bell!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

This is en English for short time span.

Do you know what is weird?

I am finally in Mexico, where the Maria is the Jessica or Matthew of 1989, but for EVERY YEAR, 
and people here think my name is MARY. Usually in NZ i get MariE, but Mary now. 
I thought this is where my name would be properly pronounced and sound bonita. 
But no. People think that I am just Mexicana-ing my name up, a la John> Juan or Peter> Pedro. 
Because I am not Mexican people think I am Mary, so now if they say:

?Maria es un Mexicana nombre? I reply: "No, Maria es una Italiana nombre". 

It is. 

Now for a classic awkward Maria tale. 
Last night was the gathering of the Estudiantes and Maestros de mi escuela, they call it 
"Cafe social" which technically means Coffee date, but I thought it was a meal. 
Especialamente porque (because) they have it at a differente tiempo (time) each semana (week). 
So I bust my ass to get down there at 8pm, starting time, and hadn't eaten since breakfast to prepare for a grande meal. I was sweating like a piiiigggg because I missioned down there from 
mi casa and it was still warm with the sun out (sets at 9pm)... 

Got to the place and there was no one there. No one at all, from the school or otherwise. 
It must seat... 200+ personas??? Anyway, the next  people to arrive came 10 minutes later, two of the teachers who are married. They got Coronas (Mexican beer... That explanation is for Madre) and I got agua (water... which by the way, you can only drink bottled. I buy a 1.5 l each day... need more though really). Water was the obvious choice for someone sweating up a storm and preparing for a grande meal. 
People trickled in for the next 2 horas, I was concerned about when the cocina (kitchen) was going to close. 
If you haven't worked out by now (I didn't until about 11pm), it wasn't a meal... it was drinks!!!
I am still hungry from last night... 

This morn I had bread (no toaster... rariety in Mexico) and now I am having a packet of Ritz crackers with PB (v. expensive coz no one buys it). I will talk of my food items purchase next time but I can not cook anything because the stove (only cooking device) won't work. 
This is an issue and is really getting to me. 
The guy who owns the apartmento is the boyfriend of Amanda's friend. Amanda's friend lives around the corner but I never see the boyfriend because he works 12 hour days and is the only one who knows how to get it going. I think it's out of gas. 

Luckily, today is the day they have a cooking lesson at the school so at about 3pm in 2 1/2 hours I will be a-munching! 

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

En Espanol

Yo decidir tu escribe en Español. Yo escribe porque mi español es no bueno. Es muy mal.
Yo vive en un apartmento solo. Mi apartmento es mucho calor, especialmente porque tengo tres paredes. No cuartro. Mi cuarto es querer exsistencia en la calle. La noche pesada, hay muchos lluvias. Mi apartmento es inundacion... muchos agua todo.
Yo hablo Ingles siempre. Yo comprendo un poco cuando yo oir Espanol... muy dificil to hablo.
Yo en nueva clase, to estudiar primero leccion.
Yo tengo cero personas tu habla con español. Ahora, yo no hablo Ingles porque yo querero muuuyyyy bueno español.

Aye ye ye .

Bello,
Maria

Hilarious life

So where to begin now...

This hilarious thing happened to me on Sunday - I went in the pool (to play zoo with a 5 year old for a good few hours) and then I got out and couldn{t hear anymore. I lay down for a bit hoping the water would run out..it didn{t. So I bust out those Q-tips, which I usually don{t use due to paranoia of eardrum popping, and they were producing BLACK stuff.
I know, sick.
So then we decided this was an issue, Amanda bust out Peroxide which didn{t sound like a good idea, but her dad said to do that and her dad is very wise. It bubbled which apparently means infection.
The next morning AManda drove me and all my stuff into town.. as I was to move into my flat. At school that day I couldn{t hear much... no muy bien.
This didn{t end up happening to the next day, but Amanda{s dad got me an appointment with his ear specialist (at 7pm btw... they work til like 10pm) so we went there.
He was very nice, but unfortunately didn{t use the water gun thing that I was hoping on.. Dr Jolly used it on me when I got that earring but really a bead stuck in my ear aged 10 and it felt coool. I had been pointing to my head all day at school with my hand as a gun going AGUA (water). I guess it probs looked like I was going to shoot myself in the head if I didn{t get a drink.
He went in with tools with a camera actually... it was cool and sick and fun to watch it on the screen. First he went into the right ear. This had... wait..... 2 pieces of unidentifiable object in it. Among that was black wax.
The right ear had only one piece of unidentified object in it, but a lot more black wax had to be sucked out with this sucker thing. That side is red and infected.
I have drops now (after visiting... 12 farmacias?) and all will be well.

By the way, incase yall didn{t get it... The identified objects are pieces of my beloved Earplugs.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Ill - No muy bien

The sick hit me (it apparently does everyone... not being used to bacteria on Veges etc), Don't worry, I haven't been drinking the tap water... But it started mid Thursday, that was probably at its worst... and then my headache was awful in the afternoon and quite bad again on Friday.
Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day I ate 3 meals. Most days have just been one because each day I felt quite uncomfortable, trying to adjust with a trobbing headache, unsettled stomach and stressed eyes.

After lunch, which was cheese and bean Quesedillas, my stomach was upset again, but Amanda gave me some stomach pill (that wasn't actually a drug but just peppermint) so all was well for the main meal (which in Mexico most people eat at 3pm... and just snack twice in the morning and then once at night) which was muy grande buffet that Amanda and her mum Kathy prepared (yes Ma, I did attempt to help, but have very limited skills with their food so just did some grating and stirring).

This is because two of Gerry's (Amanda's dad) friends are visiting from the US (One of which is Italian-American Luigi, so talks like he's in the mafia! He is also 84 but he looks like he's 65.. we can't work it out) but also Amanda's big sister was visiting with her hub and daughter (Natalia, 5..so cute) from Mexico city. I have decided btw that Mexican toddlers are the cutest in the world by the way... Now I think about it, Fijian toddlers are gorgeous too.. and Cambodian... I guess it's that every single one of them is cute, unlike European kids.

Please also excuse my spelling and grammar and key use etc on most the messages, I have been typing really fast - most of them at school which has a Spanish keyboard so some keys are different.

I finally worked out how to get wireless back on my computer. I spent hours in NZ fiddling around on the desktop, turns out it was a physical switch that I had to flick on the bottom of the computer... I wish I had googled it sooner! I can't believe I didn't think of that...