Can you please direct me to the time machine?

One day I was waiting for some friends outside of Tertulia, a popular bar in the historic center of Mazatlan, with two guys both named Sergio. I was just chillaxing, sitting on some metal electrical boxy like thing. The “Sergios” were chatting away and I was kinda not paying attention, because it’s just so easy to let your mind wander when you really have to focus to understand what someone’s saying in a different language. Then I understood something in Spanish without paying attention because it sounded oddly familiar. Someone asked us where the Time Machine restaurant/bar/disco was. When I looked up to see who had asked, I instantly realized why I had understood. It was an American! (or Canadian…..) It’s really interesting how accents make it so much harder or easier (in my case) to understand something.

One Sergio started to say that he didn’t know where it was, but I interrupted him and told the man that I knew where it was….in ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!! He looked at me quite shocked. He then asked if I was American. Guilty as charged I replied. He then pointed to one Sergio and asked if he was American, he said no…..But then I added that both of them were Mexican and I was the only American….*tear*……Finally I gave him directions to the Time Machine and he left with his group of friends.

After they had left the one Sergio asked the other one if he had understood what the American had said because he hadn’t even though it was in Spanish! Jejejejejejejejejeej……..The other Sergio had understood but had never heard of the place before. I thought I was quite funny that I knew where it was and I had only lived in Mazatlan for 3 months! Well, I had only known because my old boss had gone there and told me where it was because she liked it.

That is one of my favorite memories so far. I think it’s cool that someone thought that I was Mexican!....and in future posts you’ll see that this isn’t the only time someone’s thought that…..

Death by Shampoo

A couple of nights ago, I went to bathroom like I usually do before going to bed. As I was doing my business I decided to slide shut the shower door. As I was doing this I noticed a gigantic COCKROACH! I quickly shut the door. I decided to just leave it like that, since my host mom had told me that she sprays the place with “anti-bug spray”….(not quite sure what the proper name for that is….i’ve lost some English vocab since being down here)….so, even if bugs get in, they’re usually die pretty quickly. So I thought that it would die over night or crawl somewhere else.

The next day, I decided to take a shower, go figure. I got all of my stuff ready and I went into the bathroom. I remembered that I had left a cockroach to die in the shower the previous night, so I cautiously opened the shower door, carefully examined the shower and saw that the cockroach was nowhere in sight. So I turned on the water and waited until it got warm. I hopped into the shower, started to get my hair wet before putting in the shampoo, and felt something slightly feeling like tickling on my right foot. I thought it was just the water trickling down, but when I looked down I freaked out because there was my lovely pet cockroach just trying to get some love.

Needless to say, I jumped and let out a slight yelp. The cockroach was now on its back (with my many experiences with cockroaches here in Mexico, I have learned that they get stuck on their backs an astonishingly large amount of times). So I cupped my hands together to collect water and I poured it on the cockroach, hoping it would drown. I did this frantically for a minute, but the water never collected fast enough and I never got the aim quite right, so the cockroach got back on its feet and started scurrying about in the shower. I was jumping around trying to be as far away from it as possible but still trying to stay in some sort of strategic position to figure out how I was going to get rid of this monstrosity.

Finally, I cornered the cockroach….in the corner of the shower. It tried crawling up the wall. Since I really wasn’t into squashing it (I’ve had bad experiences with doing that here…) I did the next best thing I could think of. I grabbed my shampoo bottle and began squeezing the contents out onto the cockroach. Again, my aim wasn’t the greatest, so for a while I thought he was going to escape his gooey doom. Once all but one squeeze was left in my shampoo bottle, he stopped moving. The site of a dead cockroach covered in a white gooey substance covering a good portion of the corner of a shower is quite gratifying and disturbing at the same time. I finished that shower in record time in fear of it coming back to life or it dead body sliding eerily close to my feet. I can’t wait to get back home and not worry about cockroaches the size of my iPod nano…….

Yo Soy Gringa...

I know I said I would write about Carnaval….but there is just too much to tell and not a lot of time! My days begin at 6:30am and end at 8pm. When I get home I eat and sleep or if it’s the weekend I party! But in 3 weeks I will be done with work (thank goodness!) and then I will do a better job at posting!

So I will share an interesting history/word origin story for you! (Yes, I am definitely my father’s daughter…) So, Has anyone ever been called a “gringo”?!?!?!?!?? Well, I have. I don’t really care if that’s what Mexicans call us (sometimes) because I’m sure we can dish out some pretty horrible names right back at them! But I was recently enlightened as how we became known as “gringos”.

Way back when, when we were fighting with the Mexicans over land and such, the Americans had green uniforms. The Mexicans soldiers would shout at the Americans to go home by saying “Green, Go!!!” So you try saying Green Go!, Green Go!, Green Go!, Green Go!, really fast…….what does it sound like?!?!? Gringo!!!!!!

Hah! I love it! Although now I’m not sure if I like being called a “gringa”….

Me Muero

Been really busy lately……My schedule consists of getting up, going to school, going to work, doing homework, sleep. I eat somewhere in there, don’t worry! :P
So, the other day I got one of the best compliments of my life…the Kristin glorifying went a little like this….jajaj……

I work for a company that is using some of the office space of a different company. They both happen to be friends. One of the owner’s of the other company works in the conference room, where the other intern and I futz around on the internet…..so, I work with this guy that I don’t really work with….jajaj…anyways this guy usually gets done at the same time as me so he takes me home, because I live kinda far away…..

Obviously, we listen to his music on the way home… but sometimes it’s bad….:P the other day he had been playing songs that described how he was feeling, which was depressed, so I played him songs that I had that gave him advice….great fun…..so I suggested that we listen to my music on the way home last night. He agreed….he really liked my music, so he asked if I wouldn’t mind going to a place where we could just park the car and listen to music. I had nothing to do, so off we went.

I had been playing all of my awesome techno music when he decided to browse through my iPod. He got to my “Spanish music playlist” so I played one of my favorite songs….i started singing away like I usually do and he had this strange look on his face. It looked as if he was perplexed or he was thinking super hard. After I stopped singing because of his facial expressions he turned down the music and gave me one of the best compliments ever. He said, “The other day when you were singing a song in Spanish I wasn’t sure if it was you that I was hearing, but now that I hear you now I have to tell you that you sing as if a Mexican were singing.” He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that I was able to sing like that. I told him I was very good at mimicking people when I sang. So I then sang a song in Finnish, Farsi, Russian, and Chinese. Since he speaks 5 languages and has a good grasp hearing the differences between sounds and such……he was very impressed with my very useless skill.

So now all I have to do is learn how to speak Spanish like a native. I can’t just go around singing random tidbits of songs and weave them into conversations…..okay, I could….and have…..but that’s not the point of being here!

So Carnaval started today….it’s going to be 6 days of pure craziness! Unlike most things in Mazatlan, Carnaval is actually like a 5 minute walk from where I live!!!!! I’m pretty excited. Don’t expect a post in a while…but I definitely tell you how it went ….and there will probably be pictures!!!!!! W00t w00t!

V-Day

so last night i witnessed one of the most romantic things ever....i tagged along with a couple of guys who went to some girls house to serenade her!

it all started at 10:30pm when i was picked up at my house by delfin 4. from there we assembled our all-star serenaders...all of whom had studied/are studying to be priests!!!!! i just couldn't help myself think about how well these guys would get along with lutherans.......seeing as i've been around my fair share of seminary students/graduates....*cough, cough* padre *cough, cough*

we drove to a little, itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, town about 20 minutes outside of mazatlan. after getting lost twice, we finally arrived at our destination. we met up with another girl at her house so that the guys could practice their guitar and singing skills before actually having to impress someone.

we then walked to the girls house. we (well, the others......although i very obligingly observed) sang for about 30 minutes right outside of her bedroom window.....no signs of life. we finally moved to the front of the house where she finally emerged. quite out of it...!

the enamored boy then gave the girl a card and a little gift wrapped up in the cutest box imagine able. the rest of us went around the corner of the house so that they could have some privacy...well, as much privacy as we could before we couldn't help but shout out KISS HER! KISS HER!!!!!

ugghhh.....it was soooooo romantic!!!! american boys should learn how to do this. :P

as we all know, tomorrow is valentine's day. here is mexico valentine's day is to celebrate both love and friendship. compared to my experiences of valentine's day in the states, they take it way more seriously here! you cannot escape it!

at school they played "here comes the bride" over and over again during the valentine's day "bazaar/fair"! i later found out it was because you could actually get "married"! they had like the whole altar thingy set up and the girls even got to wear veils!!!!

all of us international students had a good laugh over this....

side note: carnaval is less than a week away!!!!!!! i'm so excited!!!!

vanilla

so, i've been sick. other than that nothing too interesting has happened. i finally started my internship for real....yesterday was my first day of actual work. i'm excited and nervous. i'm not sure what i'm really supposed to be doing....but i'll figure it out.

today i will have to take the city bus from school to work. i'm nervous. i've ridden the public transportation here, but only the "nice" buses. the nice busses cost 8 pesos (roughly 75 cents USD), are air conditioned and a good majority of riders are american/canadian/white tourists. the other busses cost 4 pesos (roughly 40 cents USD) and are very shabby looking.

the bus that i have to take doesn't really go by my workplace, but it gets me close enough. i'm nervous about how to get off. because everytime i have gotten off a bus it's been very awkward. i usually just get up when i get an inkling that the bus is going to stop or when someone else has pressed the button.

the buttons don't always work either. so then i'm afraid that i'll actually have to say something in order to get off! that would be terrible! jajaja....

i'm sure i'll be fine. but i tend to freak out.....

so, it's not a vacation after all.....

The other day I had my first meeting at my internship. After some confusion with getting the date and place right, I arrived. To my delight the office where I will be working is on the malecon. What does that mean exactly? Well, it means that when I look outside the office windows I get to enjoy the wonderful ocean view! How sweet is that?!?!?! Another plus is that the office is located inside a hotel that I had done some research on before I got here. It was my grand and glorious idea to possibly spend one or two nights there with anyone who would want to come visit me…….anyone?!?!?! so, I am quite psyched about working in the hotel that I had my sights set on!

I decided to walk to the office for the first meeting so I knew exactly where it was, so that in the future when I take the bus I know where to get off. As usual, I overestimated how long it would take me to get to the office. I arrived 30 minutes early. So I sat on a bench overlooking the beach and tried reading a book in Spanish. I failed miserably.

At exactly 4:30pm I crossed the street and entered the building. the office was just recently set up so it looked a bit uninviting but the orange walls sure made this office exciting! Once the bosses got off their phones they told me to wait since the other intern hadn’t arrived yet. So I struggled through 20 more minutes of reading my book.

The meeting was intense. Since I’m sick, my brain doesn’t function properly and everything she was saying to me was jibberish. Ok, not everything. I do know that I am going to prepare and complete an online marketing plan to advertise new condominiums that are going to be built right next to the hotel. I would include the link to the website here but then I realize that I need to tell them where we put the links to the sites and I don’t really want them reading this blog…..it’s not like I’ve got anything to hide, it’s just not very business oriented. Although, I will be creating a blog for the condominiums so I might put that link up. maybe not. I don’t know how many of my readers are interested in owning luxury condominiums in mexico....... haha….ha.

Once the meeting finished, the other intern and I decided to have dinner and chillax at his place to get to know each other, since we will be working together for the next 3 or so months. We ate at this sushi place. It was good. That’s all I’ll say. :P after that we went to ley, a walmart-esque store. We looked around for stuffed animals that he could give to his quasi girlfriend. Don’t ask….. After not finding anything suitable to get her we headed for the beer. we picked out the only dark beer we could find. Aren't you so proud of me for not drinking that watery garbage padre?!?! We also bought toni col….i think that’s what it’s called. It’s basically the best kind of vanilla coke ever. Period. And, it’s also pretty much only available in Sinaloa, mexico (Mazatlan is a city in the state of Sinaloa…)

After chatting and watching 2 episodes of weeds at his crib, which is actually a hotel room, I left. I began to walk. I noticed that my feet were very sensitive. I figured I had probably developed a blister and wondered if I would be able to walk the 40 minutes back to my place. Once I got to the malecon I decided I could make it, although my body didn’t agree with me on that because 2 seconds later I felt my blister pop. I won’t describe it though, because I know I can tend to be a little too graphic with my descriptions of bodily functions……mother….:P

A few minutes later I hopped onto a lovely pulmonia and headed home. I think $40 pesos is a fair trade for a nice breezy ride through Mazatlan instead of walking for 40 minutes on a recently exploded blister, don’t you think? i thought so…..




So, you may or may not have noticed that my usual style of not capitalizing anything is not evident in this post. It’s because I am now using Microsoft word 2007 instead of notepad.( I finally found a free product key somewhere off the internet so I don’t have to spend $100 USD on validating my trial software that was running out of free uses! ) I do not usually advocate the illegal downloading of products but I feel that since Microsoft has disappointed me with their oh so stellar vista OS, I’m going to get something out of them that is worthwhile!!!!! so, back to my original point about capitalization. Microsoft word auto corrects everything and I’m too lazy to change it. Plus, it has spell check….and I’ve been having problems with bloggers’ spell check recently…..

Sayanara!

EQUIS! X

so, i don't have school today because of some holiday. i believe it's constitution day. but i could be mistaken. i also happen to be a little under the weather. i have a killer sore throat. i always seem to lose my voice at least one time during winter. i know it may not exactly be "winter" down here but the hot days and cool nights do a number on your throat...as well as gulping down salty ocean water and hanging out with smokers......so, since i have loads of free time, i'll fill you in about my life! doesn't that sound like a wonderful idea!?!??! no? too bad, cause here i go!

nothing interesting happened on sunday or monday, so we are going to skip over those days.

after school on tuesday i went to the beach with delfin 3. we were the only crazies to go into the water. because it was like 5pm and the sun had gone down so it was kind of cold. actually it was freezing, in terms of ideal weather for going to the beach. after we couldn't take anymore of the cold we headed to the car only to find out that non-delfin was working! so we stopped by and chatted with him. he gave us free drinks and later on a free espresso! score! we also made plans to do something the next day. score again!

the next day i had to go to an interview for my internship. it's at a real estate place. the whole interview was in english because the owner's are american and we deal with a lot of english customers from the u.s. and canada. i was kinda disappointed and relieved at the same time. i will have to speak spanish occasionally when dealing with mexican business owners to create a realtionship with them so that we can advertise with them.....so i guess i will be using my spanish skillz after all.

after the interview i met up with the guys and "galleta", a friend of theirs. we walked around one of the plaza in the historic center and drank coffee. we then chatted it up at galleta's house and they made fun of my spanish pronunciation and my lacking of the ability to roll my r's. they also found out i had a tattoo. they all thought it was cool. galleta then said she wanted one. who would have thought that i would be an advocate and inspirer (is that how you spell it, is it even a word?!?!) of people getting tattoos. i bet my parent's are oh so proud....i love you mommy and daddy!

galleta was getting tired so we left and headed home only to see the guy who looks like obama and the "first lady"! so we went into the bar where they were and chatted until 1am. i need to stop staying out so late!

on thursday i went out again! this time only until 11pm. this time we went to an "irish" pub. everyone from the previous night was there except galleta. we chatted and chatted. well, i mostly listened and was there for comic relief because my lack of spanish fluency. it was all in good fun though. although sometimes i get a little depressed that i can't understand everything. but they tell me they don't care and that in time i will be able to communicate with little problem.

at the pub we also got our picture taken. the newspaper takes pictures of people at "hot spots" and puts it up on a sister website about how hopping the city of mazatlan is. i checked the website a couple of days later and i found our pictures up there. it even has my name in the caption! i'm famous....AGAIN! not really, but i would like to think so. i will put the link and directions on how to find the pics at the bottom....there is no link directly to the pics, so you will have to navigate through some spanish mumbo jumbo....but it's worth it!

on friday i went to the beach with the same people as the night before. obama went surfing, the first lady tested the water and found it too cold for her liking, and non-delfin is somewhat afraid of the ocean, so delfin 3 and i were the only ones who went swimming. it was cold again, but i just love swimming so much! i am truly a dolphin! jajajajajaja!

after the beach delfin 3, non-delfin (who's actually delfin 5 now...don't ask...it's a huge crazy mess and nobody really knows what's going on anymore... :P), and i went to delfin 3's house to chill. delfin 3 wanted to see where i live so he opened up google earth and i went on a quest to find my house. has anyone used google earth? if not, i recommend it to EVERYONE! i saw my little house in oak creek so close, it seriously looked like we were 10 feet away from it! we saw it from the ground view, like i was standing in the corn field across from my house looking at it! the picture quality was so amazing! they guys thought it was so cool so see my house. i was so impressed. we tried looking at delfin 3's house, but mexico isn't documented as well, so we could only see the top of his house.

after that, delfin 5 and i went home to shower and change so we could go out and party again!

once we arrived back at delfin 3's house we jammed to music. and do you know what music they were playing? come on eileen and take on me! 2 of the greatest songs of the 80's! but, they were remakes, so they thought that these were new songs! jajajaja! they had no idea that the songs they were listening to weren't the originals! so i enlightened them by playing the originals on youtube. they thought it was sweet that i knew about it.

once the rest of los delfines arrived we went to a house party that was 3 blocks away from where i live. they were playing psycho (like dance/techno/electronic except way cooler!) the guys always try to get to break out of my shell and want me to dance psycho with them. it always takes a while for me to get comfortable but eventually i do. we were probably the only ones dancing, but we had a great time. after dancing we chatted it up with some peeps. everyone always gets a kick out of talking to me. i mean, what is a gringa from wisconsin doing, hanging out with a bunch of mexican guys and dancing all crazy like to psycho? i think it's probably also refreshing that i don't speak in english.

after chatting for a little while the po-po came. they told us we were too loud and that the party was over. so delfin 3 and i went into the house's garage area and danced psycho. we were the only ones dancing. we got lots of crazy looks. one guy said...hey, i know that ballerina! (referring to delfin 3) it was funny, you had to be there. delfin 3 also said that i had great "flow" and all the other delfines agreed that it was impressive. what can i say? i don't think they realize how much i love listening to techno/dance music. i probably like it more than them and when i'm with my sister we just go crazy! BBBLLLLLAAHHHHH!!!!!!! we then went on a beer run. and delfin 1 bought be my customary strawberry fanta! we returned to the party that was supposedly over. we talked outside of some guys house while listening to music that was playing one of the guy's car. at 3 am we finally called it quits.
i slept until 1pm on saturday. i needed it because i was going to beach again that day! this time i went with delfines 1 and 3. the water was cold again. it was really funny because they had goosebumps and were obviously really cold, while i was slightly cool. they don't have the thick wisconsin blood like i do! go WISCONSIN!!!! once we couldn't take the cold anymore we went our separate ways to change and get ready for the night's festivities.

i got ready at delfin 3's house so i wouldn't have to spend money and time taking the bus. his brother and him got were amused by the fact that i brought my hair dryer and straightener. delfin 3 told me i could bring my suitcase if i wanted to....i don't think he realized i actually would! ok, i didn't bring my suitcase, but i brought enough stuff that it seemed like i did......

after getting ready, i fell asleep for 2 hours. i don't know what it is about watching x-men 3 and making me tired, but i zonked out.....or maybe it was running/swimming around in the water and partying too much....but who knows! after waking up i had cream of mushroom soup with some sort of quesadilla thing at delfin 3's house. we then proceeded to get gas, money, and delfin1.

after retrieving delfin 1 we walked around the plaza. we saw these rastafarian drum playing and dancing people. it was cool. we then went to a bar. it was too full so we tried to go to the irish pub that i had been to earlier in the week, but we couldn't get in. it was because i was american and didn't have proof of being in mexico legally...or something like that. they didn't want immigration to come! so, we decided to go pick up delfin 5 at work.

once delfin 5 was in tow we went to a restaurant parking lot near the beach and started to pistear! which means, drinking......it was a little boring and i was pretty tired. so we decided to go to frogs! senor frogs is a huge restaurant/club chain. it started in mazatlan, so we had to go so i could experience it. i almost wasn't allowed in again because of my lack of identification. but delfin 5 pulled some strings (he knows like everyone in mazatlan, it's ridiculous.) and i was allowed in.

once inside they guys got some booze and we found a place to chilax. i saw a canadian that goes to tec with me, so i said hello. he ended up going over to my friends. now, this canadian speaks practically no spanish so it was interesting hearing my friends speak in english since they never speak english to me..at least not in complete sentences. my friends also found it funny when i talked to english to the canadian because i never speak english to them either. they joked that they were really surprised to find out that i did in fact speak english!

it was really smokey where we were situated so we decided to move to the dancefloor. the music had gotten better so we all started dancing. then i found 5 pesos on the ground! we danced like crazy and had a great time! until delfin 3 started showing signs of boredom. it was ridiculously crowded and i usually don't like that type of atmosphere so i understand where he was coming from.

from frogs we went to pick up delfin 4 in his gated community. we had a little difficulty being allowed in, but we finally managed to get in. from delfin 4's house we went back to the restaurant parking lot and chilled. literally...it was a little bit cold! as we were talking we realized that somewhere down the beach there a was a party going on that was playing psycho! we decided to investigate. it didn't take long to find the party and once we got there we just let ourselves in.

that rave was probably one of the best experiences of my life so far. we all danced furiously! i also found 10 pesos on the floor! after an hour of bailando the music stopped, much to our dismay. the guys were so proud that i finally let go and just danced. they said i have become a fine psycho dancer and proud to call me their own......on the way home we stopped off for some hot dogs. mine was free since i had found 15 pesos on the ground! score!

at 6am i finally arrived at my house and i said a "special" goodbye to delfin3 because he's going to school in guadalarja and we won't be able to see eachother in a while. sadness. at least there's still the others and msn messenger! (which happpens to be immensely popular down here...)

now, i am sitting here jamming to my psycho music and trying not to talk. i am actually sucking on halls lozenges, which i never do because i hate the taste! but, that's all i could find without having to ask anyone! heheheheh! :P

so, here are the links and directions. check it out! if you feel brave enough to meander through the cryptic language of spanish websites!

alright, so i thought, i wouldn't be able to get links directly to the pics, but i can! so here they are!

delfin 3 and me! http://www.buenaondaweb.com/galeria.php?idnota=766&idimg=24525

obama and the first lady! http://www.buenaondaweb.com/galeria.php?idnota=766&idimg=24526

obama, the first lady, delfin 5, me, delfin 3! http://www.buenaondaweb.com/galeria.php?idnota=766&idimg=24527

delfin 5, jajajajajja! http://www.buenaondaweb.com/galeria.php?idnota=766&idimg=24529






p.s. a lot of you tell me you are following my blog, which i am deeply greatful for. thanks for staying in touch with me, it shows me how awesome my friends really are! also, if you don't have a blogger account, you should get one so you can officially follow my blog! because i know a lot of people read my blog yet don't have blogger, so do me a favor and become an official follower so i can put a number to how many of you read it....then i may be more inclined to write more regularly. and you can leave comments and such or ask me questions so it's not so one-sided! THANKS!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!

LOS DELFINES! : part 2

as promised, here is part 2!

that night.....i met up with the "non-delfin" and we rode the bus to the house of delfin 3. "non-delfin" and i had a great chat, i enjoyed it immensely, plus he is the only that doesn't speak in english (or try to) so i'm forced to speak spanish. thank you "non-delfin", i am forever indebted to you!

we arrived at delfin 3's house and listened to some awesome technoyish music. delfin 3 turned on his black light and we started raving! well, they did....and i watched! they were very impressed (or surprised!) when they found out that my sister and i own 4 black lights! TECHNO TWINS!!!!!!!!

then we started walking to the party, only to call some guy to pick us up. he picked us up in the most awesome VW beetle from straight outta the 50's! it was awesome. once inside we were blown away by the ridiculously loud stereo system he had. it was probably put in their by the gang from pimp my ride! no joke!

we arrived at the party. no one was there. we chatted outside when the rest of the delfines (including the one who wasn't at the previous party) arrived. we all proceeded to get in our cars and buy booze.....and jammin' to belanova the entire way there!

the party was in full swing when we got back. i was really tired and nervous so i didn't do a whole lot. i talked a little, but most of the night i was just an observer. i didn't mind to much because i didn't want to think in spanish! but, unfortunately my wallflower phase came to an end when they decided to play calle 13's atrevete-te-te AGAIN!!!! no joke, everyone, i mean everyone, started hooting and hollering because they wanted me to "rap" again! they were so enthusiastically loud that i didn't hear the lyrics start. once i felt comfortable to jump in, i did! they loooooooovvvvvvvveeeeeddddd it. i was happy i could entertain them.
after that everyone wanted to take a picture of me shaking hands with "obama". the whole time "obama" was saying "MY FELLOW AMERICANS!!!!!" and "take a picture of me meeting with my fellow citizens of WISCONSIN!!!!" it was hilarious.

after things settled down, delfin 1, 2, "non-delfin" and i went to buy cigarettes. "non-delfin" was driving somebody else's car that had problems driving over the speed bumps. in mazatlan, there are random speed bumps everywhere. the car we were driving in had a "kit" (i don't know all these random car terms!!!!!) that made the front of the car appear lower to the ground. only problem was that it always hit the ground after going over a speed bump. so "non-delfin" was driving so slow and very "angularly" over the speed bumps to try and prevent this. he wasn't very good at it. but it sure was fun to yell "ooooooohhhhh" when the car hit the ground!

we returned to the party to find the door closed and most of the party goers outside. turns out the party was over! we talked outside for about an hour before i finally convinced the guys to take me home. on the way home we had to stop by the infamous dolphin fountain, which was where they were christened "LOS DELFINES!!!!"

delfin 3 got out his phone to take a picture when i told them all to wait. i went back to the car and whipped out my awesome camera. "AAAWWWW delfin 6!!!!!!!!!!" they all shouted at me, very happy to have a properly functioning picture taking device. from there we went on a picture taking frenzy. we climbed into the monument and took lots of pictures and had lots of fun!! then delfin 3 jokingly said we should go to el faro (the lighthouse) since were up and pretty close to it. i agreed. he didn't believe me. i said yes, again. soooooooo off we went to el faro at 4 AM!!!!!

walking up that hill was the worst idea ever! we were so tired! it was so hottttt!!!! it was torture! but then we arrived at the top and it was all worth it! we started taking more pictures, this time though, the guys were shirtless! (they had all magically lost their shirts on the way up the hill.....hmmmmm....? :P ) at 5 AM we decided that we should go home and get some rest. at the bottom of the hill i couldn't stop my legs from trembling! i was so tired and hungry!!!!!!

i arrived home and we bid our farewells with promises of seeing each other some time soon.
turns out it was sooner than i thought because on tuesday i went to the beach with delfin 3 and we ended up seeing "non-delfin" working at a restaurant close to beach we went to, so we stopped by to talk to him. he gave us free drinks and made us an espresso! (again for free). while we were there i got invited to go to delfin 3's house to watch movies with them today! (wednesday!)


crazy! yay! i have friends! you guys were right, things do get better! i shall no longer complain about being lonely! although, i still miss you guys! can't wait to get back and see you all!


p.s. most of the pictures are on facebook.....*smiles mischievously*

LOS DELFINES! : part 1

where to begin? there was just so much awesomeness that occurred this weekend! i guess it all started with being invited to a party....i met this guy on my school bus and we became fast friends so he invited me to his birthday party. on friday he picked me up, because i didn't know where the party was even though he explained it to me. we arrived at his grandpa's house, where the party was being held. it was huge!!!!! there were like 4 stories....maybe not, but it seemed like it. there was really nice marble everywhere and compared to the other homes i have seen here in mazatlan i knew these people were rich.

it was a bit awkward at first because i was the only one at the party and we were just waiting for everyone. there was a huge table dedicated to soda and booze and a table with different meats and fillings for tacos, complete with 2 serving ladies!!!! in the backyard, where the party was held, there was a swimming pool, huge patio area, and a very large grassy area....which means you have it made here in mazatlan. :P the first people arrived. 4 guys with beers already in hand. i became really nervous because it now sunk in that i had to speak spanish. (i don't speak spanish with my school friend because i need a friend who speaks english....!) my spanish skills started out slow and i mostly listened to what the guys were saying, i didn't get most of it. :( then more and more people started coming and i met some more people. the ones i met were all really nice and helped me with my spanish and spoke relatively slowly for me....thanks guys!...then i noticed one of the original four guys wasn't talking to anyone. so i decided to come out of my shell and start talking to him. apparently everyone went to secondary school together except for him so he didn't know anyone....except for the other 3 guys. well neither did i, so we got to talking and stuff.

then a guy who supposedly looks like obama came. they introduced me to him as my president. he asked me if i had voted for him. (i didn't :O) and we had a good time joking about that. then the original party goers came back to talk to us. they told me a story about one of them being really drunk and stripping and waving his underwear around in the air until the police came. that story led them to tell me another story....about dolphins! okay, not really but dolphins are in there somewhere....

one day they were all drunk (except for one of them, but there had been another guy with them that do, so the guy at the party substituted for him....) and it was raining. their clothes got wet so they decided to take all their clothes off except for their boxers. then they started running along the sidewalk along the ocean. they ran to a dolphin fountain, where they may have begun to swim..or maybe not, and people were looking at them like they were crazy. well they were, but we won't get into that. from that day on they became known as dolphins. there is dolphin 1, dolphin2, dolphin 3, and dolphin 4.

it was probably one of the funniest stories i had ever heard in my life. the whole time the guy who wasn't a dolphin kept on translating some of the words into english and used hand motions to explain the story better.....even though they knew i understood the story.
after the story the cd that i had given the host for his birthday started playing. all of the guys loved the songs and thought it was sooooo cool that i liked all of those songs. they said they didn't know any girls who liked listening to dance/techno.

after my cd was done playing, calle 13's song atrevete-te-te came on. "obama's" girlfriend starting singing along, so i started to. everyone stopped what they were doing to look and listen to me. they couldn't believe i knew the words. everyone was hooting and hollering and wanted me to continue. only i didn't know all of the words and i was becoming shy because they were all looking at me. so, after they really wanted me to start singing again, i did....because fortunately it was part of the song that i actually knew!!!!!

after that they raised their glasses and everyone cheered because i knew the lyrics. then they started shouting "chug, chug, chug, chug!!!!" i tried, but couldn't....has anyone tried chugging strawberry fanta? not easy. after that i suddenly became known as dolphin 6. that's when i knew i had now gained 4 more friends!

the rest of the night i chatted away and had a great time. finally it was time to go and the 4 guys offered me a ride home. as i was getting ready to leave, my school friend who was slightly intoxicated, introduced me to another student who goes to tec. his name is yoshi!!!!!! i couldn't help but laugh. and my friend asked me if i knew about mario kart.....duh! that's why i was laughing! yoshi didn't think it was that funny, so i told him i liked his name.....i do, but it's still funny! YOSHI!!!!!!!!!!

on the way home i was extremely excited to find out that they loved BELANOVA!!!!! we sang along to belanova the entire way home, with random shouts of DELFIN 6!!!! and their hands patting the top of my head and messing up my hair. who would have thought that i would have met 4 guys who love belanova just as much as me?!?!?!?! and we actually get along great!!!

at 4am i arrived home and went to sleep only to wake up at 7:30. after i woke up i couldn't get back to sleep. so i spent my day watching amor y tesoro.....or fool's gold. (in english) that movie with matthew mcconaughey and kate hudson finding treasure and love....like the spanish name indicates! after that i chatted with delfin 3 on messenger and was invited to another party that night......


but, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the dramatic finish to my crazy weekend!!! i like to keep my very loyal, but few readers in suspense!!!!

p.s. somewhere in there a professional photographer took our pictures with the host and i had to write my name on a sheet of paper with everyone else so they knew where we were in the picture.......because it was for a MAGAZINE!!!! or something.....i'm not sure really, but that's pretty awesome. i'm gonna be famous now! jajajajajaj :P

lazy bum

so, i realize i haven't posted in a while. i do have a lot to write about, but i'm lazy. once i recuperate from my crazy weekend and i feel inspired to write an award winning blog entry, i will. most likely tomorrow sometime. maybe not, as i'm going to beach! because it's warm and sunny here!!!!!!!!!! suckas!

have fun freezing up there! i miss you all!

What really happened

alright, i lied. my life doesn't suck. after all i am in mexico people! now i'll tell you what really went down...excluding the 3 incidents that made me go into self destruct mode.

my advanced spanish class started like it does every other day. about 3/4 of the way through this huge flying bug appeared out of thin air! no joke. the french girls were freakin' out. it was great! then one of the french girls got up from her chair to escape the wrath of this creature. as she neared the door, so did the bug. she then tried going to back to her seat only to have the bug practically stick to her back! finally she escaped and ran out the door! one of the guys also went out the classroom and "hid" behind the the door.

two guys, both hailing from southern states, were trying to catch it. one was using his hat and the other was using his folder. it was a spectacle. they were really close to getting the bug when it got a little too close for comfort and the guy with the folder flinched and the folder flew through the air!

finally the two managed to get it into the hat and released it into the wild by means of the open window. the two students who were hiding out of the room came back in. we were giving the guy a hard time....he said he had gone out of the room because it was too hot. plus he was a man, so he couldn't have possible been scared.

that was awesome.

the next epic moment in my day was riding the bus. i hate riding the bus home because there are no markings on the bus to tell you which one goes where. usually there are 3 buses. today there were 4. the 3rd bus is usually mine. but alas, the 4th was mine today. i always ask the bus driver if it's the right bus. i'm sure he thinks i'm the most retarded person on the planet, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right? i also dislike the bus on the way home because it's the oldest of all the buses. it's really small and my knees are always bumping into the sheet of metal in front of me. i've never trusted this bus and now i have reason to.

about 5 minutes into the ride we stopped at one of the very few stoplights in mazatlan. the light turned green, the driver had some problem with shifting gears. once we finally starting going, we didn't go anywhere very fast. i think we maybe glided through the intersection at a whopping 3 mph. needless to say everyone was honking at us. all of the high school girls started giggling, they're so annoying!

the bus driver got out of the bus and climbed into the engine! when i say climb, i mean it! he was crawling around and hanging over the entire front of the bus. it was very entertaining. then the bus driver asked if anyone had a phone he could use to call the school. after waiting for about 15 minutes or so, a van arrived. there were just enough seats for everyone. it was awkward.

i sat next to a girl who had eyed me on the bus. you know those looks that you share with someone and you know what their saying without anybody having said anything? well, that's what we had shared and she had "told" me that she knew it must be weird for me to be the white kid on a broken down mexican school bus......well, that's what i would like to think she wanted to say, but who knows. the girl saw my ipod and showed me hers. it was the new nano ipod just like mine, except it was purple. i turned mine over to show her it was a 16GB, she only had 8 GB. after that, we sat in silence. well, not really. the driver had some really bad romantic station on. it was so loud that i couldn't even hear my ipod, so i stopped trying to listen to my ipod.

after everyone got out, except for another boy and me, the driver asked if i lived in playa sur. i said yes. he then said he would just drive us there instead of taking the "official" route, that always seems to be changing.....the boy and i live on the same street, so i didn't have to say anything to get the bus driver to stop. crisis averted!

after i got home, i struggled to read a 3 page story about a retarded boy who had to sit near the sewers to kill the frogs, who were making too much noise, so that his god mother could sleep. he also happened to like the breast milk of felipa, a servant girl. the boy was also struggling with demons and darkness and thought he was going to hell..... and i thought all the stories i had to read in my english classes were strange!

well, thanks for all the kind words. it definitely turned my day around and inspired me to write a more enthralling post!

Ugghh...

my life is boring and has no meaning. i don't even know how i mustered enough energy to write this. all i do is wake up at 6:30. shower/eat. go to school. go to class. try to do homework. come home from school. try to do homework. find all the things the internet (and life at the moment for that matter.....) has to offer are boring. maybe eat dinner. go to sleep.

friends are non-existent. i seem to be the alternate friend or the alternate to an alternate friend. am i really that boring? i know this post probably makes me seem like the most depressing person on the planet....but i mean really? it sucks being rejected over and over again.

whatev.

p.s. sorry for being such a negative nelly.

Isla de la Piedra

on saturday a couple of us, well most of us, went to stone island (isla de la piedra). the plan was that a couple of peeps were going to go horseback riding on saturday while many other people were going to go on a so called "booze cruise". being the straight edge, hardcore person that i am, i opted to go horseback riding. as the two "groups" started conversing on the days leading up the saturday, we were all starting to wonder if we were doing the same thing. both groups were taking a boat to stone island, open bar and a meal was included, etc. my horseback riding group thought that if it turned out to be the same thing, cool. if not, oh well.

after declining an invitation to go out to bora bora (a club) on friday night, i woke up on saturday very refreshed and ready to have a wonderful day. after a lovely breakfast of fruit and pineapple juice i started walking to catch a cab. it turns out that it is very hard to find some sort of transportation, other than public buses (which i have yet to figure out), on a saturday morning. finally, i grabbed the attention of a no-door pulmonia, they tend to be cheaper. i got to our meeting place earlier than everyone else. like usual. my phone then started ringing off the hook! one girl called to ask if she was at the right place, but since she was doing the "booze cruise" i wasn't really much help. then this guy called me to see if we were still doing the horseback riding, i said yes. and told him to hustle on over. then while i was talking to someone, i missed a call from someone else! after the four of us "responsible" people got our ticket we went across the street to take a ride on a truck that has seats in the bed...i forgot what they were called. i think we fit 12 people in the back though.

as we started driving, i realized we were going south, very close to where i lived. i decided to explain to my friends where i lived so they would understand how hard it was for me to get to all the hip-hopping places that they went. i pointed out a monument that indicated where i needed to turn to get to my house. soon after, the truck turned at that exact spot. then i said, once we pass a certain store, my house would be down the street. what would you know, the truck turned down that street. i then showed them my house as we passed it and told them that they had better visit me. i don't they will. *tear* at the end of the street, i showed them where the city bus driver had "kicked me off" the bus.

after arriving to the dock, we got on the boat and sailed away. we ended up going past all these rock formations and i got to take a picture of where i usually take pictures on the coast. we then stopped by a "white" rock covered with bird excrement. later we visited a little rock where sea lions liked to sun bathe. there will be a funny video floating around facebook sometime in the near future about an ill fated sea lion.

on the way to the sea lion rock, a boat going in the opposite direction passed us. it was the other international kids!!!!!!! no me digas! (you don't say!) maybe we were going to the same place after all...

we then turned around and went back to basically the same place we had left from, except this time we were at stone island. we received red strips of plastic to put around our wrists to access the open bar. from there we hopped onto a mexican limo. it was actually a huge wagon with wooden seats being pulled by a tractor.according to the boat mc, it had air conditioning, HBO, and showtime. he was funny. plus he had the sweetest hat ever. (more about the hat can be read later in this post!!!!!!)

once arriving to our destination we were immediately taken to go horseback riding. our horseback riding group included four of us "international" kids and a chinese couple. after getting on my horse it was time for the chinese lady. she started freaking out because the horse's tail was swinging back and forth, hitting her arm. she tried getting up, but wasn't really sure how to do it. so i moved my horse to the other side of her horse and held out my hand for her to grab while the horseback ringleader helped her from the other side. once she got on, she seemed ok. then a couple of horses in front of here got a little "crazy" and she kept on saying she wanted to get off. her husband (i assume) tried to comfort her and convince her to stay on, but it was to no avail. she said again that she wanted to get off, but the horse guy didn't really understand so i said in the best spanish i could muster, "ella no quiere montar" which was understood by the ringleader correctly. so he helped her off. the chinese guy then got on and off we went.

the horses walked super slow except when they didn't get along with each other, but then the guy whistled and shouted at them to stop, so they did. *sadness* i tried to encourage mine to go faster. it did, but not nearly as fast as it could have gone. the horse ride was quite pathetic actually. i felt sorry for the horses, you could tell they were old and tired because of tourists like me. i felt like such a cruel person at that moment......but life goes on!

once we got back, we went straight to kayaking. i got a double kayak. it sucked. it's hard to control a kayak when both people are noobs. as we kayaked all over the place, i saw a group of people a little further down the beach. my kayak buddy and i went over to investigate. at first we saw a naked woman, at least i hope it was a woman, getting out of the water. then i saw the rest of our international students!!!!!!

we kayaked pretty close to the beach and had a little chat with some of them. i was instantly glad i hadn't done the booze cruise. i would have been awkward.

we kayaked back. our shorts and shirts were wet so we decided to lay them out on the sun bathing chairs and i went swimming. oh how i miss swimming. i must promise myself to do it more often.

after swimming, we ate and sunbathed. i got burned. at least i'm not as white as a ghost anymore! my nickname for that day was casper. i kinda like it!
we then headed back to the mainland. the boat mc guy came around collection tips and we asked if he could take our picture. he said sure, why not! then, with some sort of new found bravery, i asked him if i could wear his hat in the picture. HE LET ME!!!!!!!!! i was so excited. i can't wait until those pics are on facebook. TAG!

we got back on our truck thingy-ma-bobbers and i asked the driver to stop close to my house. he asked if i had been on the boat tour.....since i was, he said it was ok.

after getting home, i did nothing. nothing for 8 or so hours. i had been invited to go to the beach at joe's after i got home, but since i had just gotten off of a free truck that would have taken me really close to that beach in order to get to my house instead of passing it and paying $50 pesos to get back, i declined. life's funny that way isn't it....

the joys of returning to school...

so, the first week of school is over with! i have a total of 3 classes, but it's 12 credits. i am also doing an internship but i haven't gotten any information on that yet. i am taking a business spanish class, advanced spanish 1, and introduction to mexican culture (in english). i only have class with international students, so i don't feel stupid if i make a mistake, because they are learning too! the campus has wireless internet, which took a while for the computer "helpers" to figure out. they had to do something extra special to get my computer to work. it was a hassle, but at least i can use the internet now!

homework isn't too intense now, but i have a feeling it will get a little more hairy in the future. i have a one page summary of a story (in spanish, both to read and to write!) due on monday. i'm not looking forward to writing that.

the buses to and from school are tricky to figure out. it turns out the bus passes right by my street so i don't have to search for it, but others aren't so lucky. apparently they changed the bus routes and didn't tell us exchange students.....nice! besides the school symbol, there are no markings on the bus, so when you want to go home, you have to ask the bus driver which route it is. i think they line up the same way after school so i don't think it will be a problem anymore. i bought the bus pass, it was $2700 pesos!!!!! that's roughly $200 USD. the only "problem" is that i need to put a sticker on the back of my school i.d., but i won't get that until i get to school on monday, but i need to take the bus to school! (it's only free for the first week and next monday is in the 2nd week......obviously) i have the receipt, so hopefully all will work out ok.

on the way home, one of the mexican students tapped me on my shoulder. we ended up chatting the whole way home. i got his number and stuff. he told me that he would show me the ropes and help get me acquainted with mazatlan. he doesn't live too far away from me, so i won't have to pay a million dollars to go hang out with someone for once!

i told him i didn't know how to get off the bus because they don't really have specific stops. so when he got off the bus, he told the bus driver where to stop for me! that was really nice of him!
on saturday, i'm planning on going to rock island and go horseback riding and kayaking! i'm so excited! i've always wanted to go horseback riding on the beach, it's so romantic!



p.s. i heard about the plane "crashing" into the hudson. it was a u.s. airways plane. guess what plane i used to get here and am going to use when i go back?......u.s. airways. wish me luck everyone!

Nueva York

here are the details as promised...

my night started at 8pm when i started walking to find a taxi/pulmonia. i was nervous because it was dark, i am white, and i was alone. after maybe 3 minutes of walking, a pulmonia (white golf cart looking thing) drove up to me and i got in. you have to agree on a price before you get in or they will charge you double the amount. i met kristy and we headed towards valentino's. as we walked by we realized it wasn't open yet...it was 9pm.

kristy and i just started walking around hoping to find something to do. we had heard of a place called joe's so we decided to check it out. when we arrived, about 7 waiters were trying to get us to sit in a million different places. it was very confusing but we eventually made our way to the bar. then our server started shouting out all these drinks at us. i got a sex on the beach because according to kristy, it tasted like juice. that was my first legal drink in a bar, anywhere! kristy thought that it was so awesome that she got to share this momentous occasion with me that she bought my drink! we chatted and listened to some strange yet awesome techno remix of random 90's songs, it reminded us of the good 'ole days...they even played some britney spears and n'sync!

then this guy pedro came up to us. he was older, like 30, so it was kinda awkward/creeper-like for me. after semi-dancing with him, i told him i was shy and i really didn't want to dance. it was so weird!!!!!!!!!! kristy and i decided to head back to valentino's despite protests from pedro and his brother.

there are 3 clubs at valentino's, we decided to check out el nivel. it wasn't very awesome. after getting a beer, we went to sit on the patio. there was a group of guys all huddled close together. it looked like a meeting of some sort or a sausage fest...

then some random guy started talking to us. he was 35!!! since kristy is older, i'll be nice and not reveal her age, we i guess we were a targeted by all of the older peeps. it was just uncomfortable for me. after a few minutes of talking, we skedaddled back to joe's.

at joe's we had to pay a cover, which we hadn't done before. they gave us a ticket and when kristy ordered a beer(for some strange reason, whenever kristy ordered 1 beer she got 2...so i always got the 2nd one) we used the ticket to get 2 shots of tequila popper. shots down and beers in hand we meandered through the crowd.

as we walked some guy asked me where i was from. i said wisconsin, but since kristy had kept on walking so did i. i did hear that he was from new york though. after talking for a bit, kristy noticed some white guys sitting at a table being boring. she bet me $10 pesos that i wouldn't go over there and ask them where they were from. since being in mazatlan is all about becoming more independent and less shy, i went over to them. they were from massachusetts. they asked where i was from. once they heard wisconsin they started saying wiscaaaawwwwsin. i humored them by saying wisconsin once more, with the accent that i don't have ;) i also learned of their fondness for cheese curds.

after returning to kristy, we started walking toward the more heavily crowded area. then all of a sudden i heard WISCONSIN! it was the guy from new york! turns out he was really from mazatlan and had only lived in new york for 6 months. we spent the rest of the night with him and his brother.

all i will say about our time spent with nueva york is that it was harmless fun spent with a crazy drunk guy but to go into detail would not really be that, how would you say.... important. a good time was had by all and nothing scandalous occurred, well at least not on my part.
after that we headed back to valentino's. this time we went to bora bora. it's an outside dance club that has some seating overlooking the beach/ocean. it was filled with youngens! i know i'm only 20, but most of those kids were in high school which means that there is a huge gap in the maturity level to say the least.

after getting yet another beer we headed in a random direction. after planting ourselves near an empty bar we observed. i then was asked to dance by an even drunker guy, he was probably 18. after many refusals, i finally said yes. he asked me where i was going, but i later found out he was trying to ask me where i was from. why does everyone have to try and speak english to me?!?!?! i don't want to hear random people mumbling in bad english! i tried to get him to speak in spanish but to no avail. pity.

kristy and i then went to sit near the beach when we were grabbed by none other than nueva york. he dragged us all the way back to the entrance where more beer was awaiting us. kristy and i were tired so we sat down while nueva york was "dancing" with us while we were sitting. it was entertaining. as the crowds began to thin, kristy and i tried to leave. it didn't work out so well because nueva york had already ordered another bucket of beer. after a few sips we finally managed to get away with many fond memories.

i caught a ride with 1 of the 50 or so pulmonias sitting outside of the club. i arrived home at 5am. i never thought i would be such a party animal!!!! who knew!

in summary. i had 1 sex on the beach and at least 6 beer bottles passed through my hands, (don't worry, i didn't drink anywhere near the entire contents of all 6 beers) yet i didn't pay for a single drink! amazing. it pays to be a white girl celebrating her first legal night of drinking and clubbing.



p.s. about an hour into our first endeavor at joe's 2 guys got arrested! aaaahhh, memories.....

p.p.s. we also saw pedro at bora bora near the end of the night, needles to say we didn't say hi

Valentino's

so, i'm getting ready to go to my first club ever! i'm so excited, yet so scared! the last time i walked around mazatlan in anything shorter than jeans i got hooted and hollered at! i was even told i have nice legs! i'm pretty sure it was because they were so white!

i'm also scared to walk alone at night....tonight will also be the first time i catch a taxi! i haven't even done that in the states!

please God, help me have enough courage!

wish me luck!

i'll divulge all the "wild" details later!

ROSCA!!!!!!!!!

the best way to describe wednesday is boring. after waking up i perused the internet, which was boring also. for breakfast i had two pieces of toasted bread with cheese and a brown sauce. i'm not too sure what is was and i didn't ask because i am still nervous about initiating conversations in spanish....i should work on that.

after breakfast ivonne drove me, her friend, and her friend's grandson to the market. i really wish i knew her friend's name because she comes over all the time. i should work on figuring that out too. at the market place we went to one of the many meat stalls. it turns out that ivonne's friend's husband worked there. while they were talking, i took time to look at my surroundings. none of the butchers used gloves, on their cut fingers was electric tape, and cutting boards that were made out of wood. these so called cutting boards probably hadn't been changed since the day the stand was built...yum. i also saw the husband cut a whole pig head in half with this sting-like electrical saw cutter thing. the only thought that ran through my head when i saw that was that if i was trying to do that, i wouldn't have any fingers. shudder.

after waiting for ivonne to pick us up, we went home. i of course went straight to my room to hide. i really need to work on becoming less shy....an hour later, ivonne's son and his family came over. we ate soup with meat in it. apparently it was a VERY mexican dish. i liked it.
for dessert we had the sweet bread again, i think it's called rosca, but i could be wrong. ivonne's daughter-in-law explained to me that it was a special treat for day of the kings. which is a holiday that celebrates the arrival of the 3 wise men to Jesus' manger. inside of the cake are little dolls, they call them monos, which means monkeys in spanish, but somehow i don't think that's the meaning in this context. if you get a piece with a mono in it you have to make tamales for everybody on february 2, which is another holiday.

the daughter-in-law had a piece with 2 monos in it! she gave them to her son so he could lick them off. when nobody was looking, except for me, her son put back the mono into her piece of rosca. he looked at me and i knew to keep quiet and i smiled at him. a bit later, longer than i had anticipated, she found the "3rd" mono. she couldn't believe it and everyone was laughing. then her son told her that he had put it in there. the look on her face was priceless. good memory....
after they left i drove around the city with ivonne. she was telling me where i could catch the bus, how to get back to the house, and how to get to the market. i didn't get any of it. a few things that i do remember is seeing a restaurant named Te Amo Lucy's, which means i love lucy's! i think i saw a glimpse of i love lucy episodes playing on the tv. i will have to check that out. i also saw a building for alcoholics anonymous. that made me smile, although i don't know why.

after arriving home i forced myself to "talk" to ivonne. it was mostly me listening and awkward silences. i somehow managed to excuse myself so that i could go to bed because the next day i had to get up earlier because i was going to orientation for my new school!!!!!! i'm excited, but nervous because the bus is going to drop us off near our homes....i hope i will be able to find my way back!

flying and arriving in mexico

culture shock!!!! that's the best way to describe my first day in mazatlan. after 2 safe and normal flights i arrived in mazatlan, very tired and nervous.

i was extremely nervous about customs. since i am studying in mexico i need a student visa. i don't have one. my advisor said many students get them once in mexico. but since i tend to freak out a lot i was still nervous. i was afraid that the customs officer would ask me the purpose of my visit. in my dreams i pictured him saying that i had the wrong form. i would then try to explain that my school would arrange it, but everything got lost in translation. well, in reality it went nothing like that! i gave the officer my officer the forms and my passport. he stamped my form and shouted NEXT! without even opening my passport! crisis averted!

my host "mom's" nephew, ruben, picked me up at the airport and we chatted all the way to my new home. and yes, we chatted in spanish...that was hard! but he said my spanish was better than his english.....this, i doubt.

i met my host mom, ivonne, and she maybe said a couple of words before some neighbor came into the house and there was already another friend in the house. they were chatting away and saying "this is kristeen, the student!" it was a whirlwind of craziness!

for dinner she had ordered chicken from 'Puro Pollo'. It was like KFC, well not really but close enough. i even had mashed potatoes with gravy. there was also some noodle thing with a sauce i didn't really like. to drink, i had coca-cola! after eating i went to bed. i had woken up at 7:30am the day before i left, slept for 2 hours the night before leaving, left my house for o'hare at 3:30am and my first flight was at 7:15am. i was exhausted.

i couldn't fall asleep. an hour later, i heard gunshots... it wasn't like crazy gun slinging shooting, just one shot here and there, very random yet somehow organized. the gun shots progressively got closer and closer...then i started to hear a whole lot of police sirens. those too got closer and closer. then i started to hear loud music. my heart was beating so fast. all i could think about was why the police hadn't caught these people yet. i called my mommy. she said to ask my host about it, seeing as she hadn't come into my room to warn or comfort me. i knocked on her bedroom door. i asked her what was going on! she told me that it was a parade to determine the king of carnaval. carnaval is kind of like a really huge street party that is held in february....(we actually get 2 days off of school so that we can go to it!) relieved and feeling a little bit stupid, i went to bed.

i got up a little later to unpack. that's when more people came over! i met ivonne's sister's two daughters. after i was done unpacking they asked me to come eat. i had some sort of sweet bread thing. i wasn't too fond of it, but i ate it. to drink we had this chocolate drink...which was hot! i had had this before, it tastes pretty much like hot chocolate, but what shocked me was that it was 70 degrees outside and we were drinking hot chocolate! besides the hot chocolate, all of them were wearing long sleeves or light sweaters! crazy!

while i was eating and drinking, ivonne asked me a question that her nephew had asked me in the car ride. why are your hands red? i don't know the answer to that question, but i think it's my hands defrosting...

after "dessert" i was shown how to use the internet and where the clean water was! i have been drinking so much water! i was super excited about the internet, because in an e-mail i had received i was told i wasn't allowed to use the internet....sshhh. don't tell anyone.

at 9 pm (10pm milwaukee time and my body time) i went to bed. it felt good. i zonked out right away. and what seemed like 20 seconds later, i heard church bells ringing. it was 6am! after that i couldn't get back to sleep. and on went my day.


details of how my day went will be posted soon. take care everyone! i miss you all!

first post

well, i arrived in mazatlan yesterday and everything is going good. i'm keeping this super short because i'm hungry and i need to take a shower! just letting everyone know that all is well with kristin. this is also how i will be communicating with everyone. so if you want to know what's going on with me, just check out this blog. if you want to ask me specifics, go ahead and e-mail me. so, yeah! life is good, peace out!