Juacala

21/04/08

I'm watching TV with Marychewy and Tia Rita. They have Dish so they can order whatever movie they want. They've succesfully found three or four movies in a row that offend them. The last one was “30 Days of Night.” They watch the plot develop having no idea it's a vampire movie. Then they get to the first attack and look away saying “juacala... que horrible!”. Then the change the channel to “I am Legend” for a repeat. It's great. Other than that, my day is boring. They tried to explain juacala to me as "muy feo", but it's not in the dictionary.

I failed to get another job following an interview for GoEnglish. I took my first Monterrey bus last night and got a little lost. It was fun. I'm thinking about a brief roadtrip through the States in May to go to Greg's wedding in Indiana then St. Louis to see my family and maybe to California. On the job front. I met some American chicks who teach here and they couldn't believe I haven't got a job and made it sound like I must be trying not to work – maybe they're the first ones to figure me out.

My days are boring and unproductive, my nights are great. I need a new hobby. Weekends are awesome. Lucha libre is also good to me. Last night I saw La Parka wrestle. He's getting old and only did a few moves mostly poking people in the but when they bend over and ramming his crotch into their faces.

Weekend trip to Wine Country

13/04/08

Tuesday I had my interview with GoEnglish. The guy seemed cool. I have to wait another week or so to find out if I got it. Tuesday night I went to my first lucha libre match with Paloma. We arrived and paid 30 pesos ($3) for the upper deck. We went upstairs to an entirely empty arena. It was probably full to 10% of capacity. Apparently Sunday night is when the better wrestlers fight and when the people show up, but Tuesdays are cheaper. It was alright. The quality of the wrestling was less than I was expecting and it was mostly out of shape, fat guys totally telegraphing moves and making it abundantly clear that this is all fake. The crowd was really into it. I guess that's a big part of the appeal. The majority of the fights spill into the audience and the luchadors wave audience members out of their seats so they can throw opponents into them. Also, fans throw sodas, beers, tortillas and trash at the bad guys. Towards the end of the fight some of our other friends showed up. On the way out, I bought a La Parka mask for a bargain at 37 pesos. It's too small, but for once I went fashion over function as La Parka is the man. Then we went out to eat and got excellent food for too cheap.

I don't remember Wednesday except I saw Antes que el Diablo sepa que has Muerto. Alejandro was supposed to see it with me, but he bailed.

Thursday, I met up with Willem who's a couchsurfer from Belgium. We explored more of Monterrey. Mostly walking through busy market streets and museums and beautiful churches. He's great. He reminds me so much of my friend Brandon Hutsell I met from my semester in England. I keep laughing so hard at him and he doesn't understand why and that's why. He's traveling for like six months. He spent three months in Australia and one and a half months in New Zealand. Now he's spending ten days in Mexico and US before he goes home for his sister's wedding. I can't help but laugh at the amount of time he's allotted himself for Australia and New Zealand as opposed to the States. He's been a huge inspiration to me though, because he doesn't ever know where he's staying for the night. He just gets on a bus to a city and looks for a hostel or a couchsurfer. Later we met up with Paloma. Paloma and I were walking Willem to his hostel when we passed this plaza where a 20 + piece big band was playing tango music. The plaza was full of old people dancing. Everyone was between 50-90 except the three of us. Willem went to his hostel and Paloma and I danced for a little over an hour. That night we all went out to Cafe Iguana's which is the coolest place in Monterrey. It's a huge bar, venue, and dance floor all together in one huge, open-air building. One part of it has a DJ and fog machines and everyone's rave dancing. The rest of the place plays popular indie music too loud and everyone drinks and talks and looks at other people. It's very nice and we ended up dancing in the rave part for a while.

The next day we left for Parras. Paloma has family there and one of her niece's was having her first baptism followed by a family party. Paloma, Willem, Azael, and Camillo all went. We got a really late start because Paloma and Azael work until 7pm. We got there after midnight after a two hour detour at a grocery store. We stayed with Paloma's family: I forget the dad and mom's names, but the kids are Paloma (yes, another one like 14 years old), Choco (10), and Onya (5). The dad is a butcher.

Parras is another small town. Paloma says that it has the first winery in the Americas which is pretty impressive. Saturday, we got up and went to el Centro for breakfast. I got chicken tacos for 25 pesos ($2.50). After eating we went to El Tanque which is a huge swimming pool that is fed by a natural spring from the mountain. We all swam for about an hour, laid around, and I took Onya for a ride in a raft that Choco had rented. It was really tough to get anywhere because we had two oars and she refused to give hers to me, so we mostly rowed around in circles. Onya is the most precious girl that I've ever met. I told her mother so. Everywhere we went she would hold my hand, or ask me to pick her up and spin her around.

Somewhere along the way, Willem got really sick. He thinks he accidentally drank the water or something, so instead of swimming he lied on a blanket in the sun with a sombrero over his face. After swimming, we walked up to a church that was built on top of a small mountain. It was nice and small and from the top we had a nice view. Later, we went back home and fell in love with Paloma's family until that night when it was time to go to the party.

At the party Paloma introduced us all into like 30 different family members. Then we ate and drank at a table with some of the other young adults. After eating, we danced to Salsa, Raggaetone, and all kinds of Mexican classics. I danced with Onya, Paloma, Azael, Erica, and Monce. Monce is one of Paloma's too-attractive cousins who's an accountant. After the party, the original five of us (Paloma, Azael, William, Camillo, and I) and Erica looked for a Parras discotec with no luck. We ended up lying in a field drinking wine and water, just loving and looking at the starts. We saw one shooting star, well the best shooting star I've ever seen. It was golden.

Sunday, we ate breakfast at the same place. It was too good and cheap to pass up. We said goodbye and headed back to Monterrey. Onya gave me her pink stuffed animal of something between a dog and an elephant for a regalo to take home with me. It only has one eye. She asked Paloma when we were coming back to visit next and asked if we would come back tomorrow. Paloma told her that tomorrow sounds nice and that we'll be back.

On the way back my car hit 100,000 miles. Milestone! I dropped everyone off and Willem and I went to lucha libre as he wanted to see it and was leaving that night for Texas. Willem also told me that the word “Scherven” in dutch means smithereens and in old dutch it was spelled “Sjerven”. So I guess my last name means little pieces. Sunday's performance was better. Well we accidentally bought more expensive tickets than we had wanted at 100 pesos each. So imagine two blonde, (they call me blonde here), white guys over six feet towering above the average 5'6” dark-skin, brunette Mexican and we ended up in the front row. The put us on the jumbotron twice for like 30 seconds and I think people were cheering for us – I hope. We were talking like, “Man, I hope they don't put us up there again”, but I think we liked it because we were messing around, like I was making muscles and kissing them and Willem was dancing. When Willem danced the audience all made this sound they make whenever people solo dance and it's very sweet and encouraging.

Yeah, well the quality of the wrestling was much better Sunday. There was a mixed match two teams of a man and a woman each. It was alright, but for some reason after the match the girls switched guys and everything got crazy. The last match was a 4 on 4 match and each team had a midget. It was pretty amazing. There was also a fat, sexy guy who kept dancing and rubbing on everyone and a big guy in a bug suit. I don't remember who won, but it was great. I said goodbye to Willem before he caught his train to Austin and promised I'd try to visit him in Belgium. I also told him that I'm a dreamer and I intend to visit everyone I've met all over the world, and so far I've made it just to Mexico.

Una Tortuga

08/04/08

Yesterday, I had one of the most unexpectedly surprising days. It started as a slow, boring day. I did not feel like going downtown, so I walked to the nearby park. I went to my secluded area by the stream and sat down to read. About an hour later, around seven teenagers showed up and walked about fifty feet down stream where there was a rope swing hanging from a large tree. One by one they swung and dove in. One kid, climbed a fifteen foot tree and jumped in.

An hour or so later, a group of four kids and one teenager showed up further down stream and were working their way up. The oldest of them had a net which it looked like he was using to either fish or clean trash out of the creek. The littler kids had sharpened steel rods and industrial-strength rubber bands which they had fashioned into slingshot fishing poles. I can't remember the actual name for this method. The kids each had a few fish. They were scavenging along the far side of the creek, digging through the shrubbery. I returned to my book.

A few minutes later the oldest of the fishers started yelling at the kids who gathered around him. He pulled out a large turtle that looked like a snapping-turtle. Its shell was probably a foot in diameter and very flat to the ground. The guy brought it a shore and threw it up onto the land. The turtle immediately scuttled much faster than he expected and I thought was possible. He pounced on it again, grabbing it by its sides to avoid its head. The kids gathered around and the other group of swimming teens came over. I pulled out my camera to try to vaguely take pictures from my bench. It's difficult for me to do anything vaguely and they all immediately noticed. The kids started talking to and about me. “Para el periodico?” pointing at my camera. “No, por que quiero recuerdo, no mas.” After this the hunter held up his captive and posed. The other kids began shouting “un de toto” and they all climbed over another bench striking a pose and holding up gang signs. By this time a third group of teens had showed up. This group was the equivalent of Mexican thugs, wearing baggy shorts passed their ankles, fancy shoes, and different haircuts.

Everyone was excited about the turtle. One of the hunting kids asked me if I had some money. “No”, I lied. Everyone was asking me more questions than I could understand or answer.

Some of the thug kids asked me if I smoked pot, drank, or did cocaine. “No, me gusta refrescos y jugo, no mas.” He pointed to one of the hunting kids who was holding a small bottle up to his mouth and inhaling. I guess he was huffing something. One of the other kids grabbed it and took a drag. These hunting kids were like ten to thirteen years old.

The guy with the turtle by now had began trying to kill the turtle. He tried to place the head under the bench leg, but the turtle kept pulling his head in. He put the bench on top of the turtle's back and instructed one of the young fishers to shoot it in the head with his rubber-banded fishing rod. He did and the turtle began bleeding, but the rod hadn't gone all the way through the head. At this point the main fisher ripped a shirt into strips and tied it around the turtle, leaving excess on top to form a handle. They then put the turtle into a bag and continued further up stream.

The swimming kids took off as well, leaving me and the thugs. They asked me what bad words I knew in Spanish. I told them. They reminded me of a few others and taught me some that I hadn't learned yet. In return they asked me to translate these words into English, so they could try to repeat them. I obliged them. At this point they either became bored or realized how awkward I was with what was going on, and left. I finished my chapter and returned home as well to watch the Cards lose in extra innings.

Mas gordito

Today at lunch, my family told me that I'm getting a little bit fatter. They are happy and laughed.

me extrañaste?

06/04/08

I found out that I did not get accepted to JET. I sincerely thank God for answering this prayer. Lately, I have been filled with much anxiety about my life, where I'm going, what I'm doing, and I was starting to fear relocation to Japan and starting all over with a new, unknown language.

Yesterday, Paloma and Azael showed me how to make flautas. I skinned and shredded the chicken, wrapped them tightly in tortillas, and fried them. Meanwhile, they did all the women stuff like making sauce and talking about guys.

Last night, I went to a party at Azael's house. I was walking there from Paloma's at like 8pm and I found myself behind a garbage truck. There were two men following the truck on either side of the street throwing little, grocery-bag sized bags into the back of the truck. The truck driver seemed in a hurry to get off work and enjoy his Saturday night as he was driving much too fast for the men to keep up. The further behind they got the further they had to launch the trash bags into the back of the truck. It was really funny walking behind them. They reminded me of kids playing as Michael Jordon and Larry Bird shooting all threes.

The party was ok. It was pretty small throughout the night. A few of my friends from couchsurfing came: Reynaldo and Vincent (I think). It was good. I made my first friend who doesn't speak English. I think that's a step in the right direction.

Today, I was walking home from the Metro with my nose stuck in “Farewell to to Arms” and missed a turn and got lost in my own neighborhood. I kept walking and realized I was like a block from my house on the opposite side that I usually take. Anyway, Ernest Hemingway is that good. I'm only like 35 pages deep, but I'm loving it.

Not too much going on here. I see that my Cardinals are doing well with out me. I think I have a job interview Tuesday with GoEnglish!

Roadtrip Days 7-9

25/03/08 Roadtrip Day 7

We got up early. Hung out with Octavio for another minute, then drove back to Zacatecas for the Bob Dylan concert. He was playing a free outdoor show for their cultural weeks party. I think he was the grand finale. We knew it was gonna be packed, so we wanted to get their early. We got to Zacatecas and found a miracle parking spot at 2:30. We were a little surprised to find out that the line was already like 4 blocks long since he wouldn't go on until 8:30. We at some super spicy gorditas at Dona Julia's and got back in line. We killed time by reading and playing cards. Some Mexican guys were there from DF making a documentary and they interviewed me apparently because I'm a gringo and therefore automatically interesting. Whatever. Well, they said cameras weren't allowed in the concert, so I left mine in the car. Of course, when we got in, we were the only two there without cameras.

We did have really good spots. On the floor about 10 rows back and dead center. Bob Dylan played for almost 2 hours, I think. Honestly, it's probably a lot cooler to say that you saw Bob Dylan play for free in Zacatecas than to actually be there. The show was ok, but his voice is shot and worn-out. It was definitely enjoyable though just for the experience and to see all the other stupid people like us camping out all day for it. After the concert we went back to Wendy's for enchiladas then went to Juan Pablo's office and crashed.

26/03/08 Roadtrip Day 8

We got up and went out for tortas de bistek y queso with Juan Pablo. They were really good, but it was funny because his girlfriend Valeria refused to eat them because she calls it the typhoid hut or something. I kept telling her how good it was and offering her bites of mine and she would refuse and I'd act really confused until she got red and announced that she didn't like it loud enough for the workers to hear. JP, on the other hand, swears by this place. He told us a story which I think is great, but will likely offend most of my friends. He brought two of his friends there and they don't eat beef for religious reasons. JP wouldn't let them miss out though, so he told them not to worry because the meat was actually horse meat. They happily indulged then and loved it. JP you sonuvabitch, I love you. We left Zacatecas at noon for Real de Catorce which is rather off the beaten path. It was mostly highway, but then we had to drive 40 minutes on the worst roads we've encountered yet, more rough cobblestone. It was very scenic though, winding through mountains. The road ends at a tunnel which you pay $2 to drive 2 miles under the mountain and end up in Real de Catorce. It's another old mining town. I guess it used to thrive, but since they shut the mine down it's just a beautiful, dead, isolated town. It's gained recent fame as the Brad Pitt film the Mexican was shot there.

We parked and found a hotel for like $17 which was really nice except it smelled moldy something. We walked around town and found a small diner where I got puerco asado and Gaby got chili reyenos. It was a really small place, but it had a super high ceiling, so they had built a loft and stuck the cook and dishwasher upstairs by themselves. They would raise and lower dishes and food using a tray and pulley. So great. We went to this really cool church which is actually the church of Francisco de Isisi. It's kinda funny because in Italy our whole family was looking for stuff with this guy on it, because my mom's friend Robin is obsessed with him. Then I accidentally stumble on a church dedicated to him in the smallest, hidden town in Mexico. Jeff had told me that this guy became so frustrated with preaching to the public because no one would listen to him, so he kinda went crazy and went out into the wilderness to live and preach to the animals because at least they would listen. I think that's great. After the church we explored the rest of the small city including the bull ring and graveyard and main street full of vendors selling tortillas, t-shirts, and ugly jewelery. We went back to the hotel and showered for the 2^nd time of the week and slept.

27/03/08 Roadtrip Day 9

Gaby told me there are two things you can do when you visit Real Catorce. 1) Go into the dessert and take peyote or 2) Take a horse ride. After much debating and several games of thumb war we decided upon the horse ride. We found a guide who said he would take us for an hour and a half for $10 a piece. We made sure that it would be $20 total as I have read stories about guides who will take you on the tour and then afterwards say that you must pay the rent for their horse as real. He said $20 total and of course we could tip him if we enjoyed it. We started out from the center of town up small, winding horse trails that led up the mountain. Riding a horse is pretty amazing. You feel it lunge when he's going up and you feel every little stutter step when he's shuffling his way down the rocky terrain. We made it to the top of a small mountain and tied up our horses. Then the guide took us in an old mining tunnel. He warned us that people can camp in the cave and often try to explore on their own and fall in deep pits and die. It was pretty great and he gave us some little geode rocks that he found and offered to help us find peyote. After hanging out at the mine for about 20 minutes we started our way back and stopped at another little place with a great view of the city. We returned to the city and tipped the horse guide as he was really stellar. Ate some more little tacos and started our drive back to Monterrey. Oh yeah, we were really low on gas again, so we asked where the city's gas station was. They don't have a “gas station”, but there's this guy who has big jugs of gas in a shed, so we bought some gas from him. It was fun, because he stuck a big tube in and had to suck on it to get it started. Then we made it back home safely and life is back to normal.

To summarize the trip: 9 days and 8 nights, 2 showers, stayed in 5 cities, and a total of $150-175 a piece. My favorite part of the trip is how we had an original plan, but everything changed. We had 3 cities we wanted to go to, but when people recommended other places for us, we were very eager to change our plans and had an incredible amount of flexibility that allowed us to do this. If things hadn't played out this way, I would have missed 2 of my favorite cities – Tamasopo and Real de Catorce.

Quick update

Today I have a really good story that I need to update you guys about, because it was really exciting for me.

I was driving to Monterrey Tec to meet Gaby. I have never been there before, so I was navigating as best as I could. When I got to Garza Sada it was only one way going the wrong way. I got on anyway, heading the wrong way and I got in the far left lane because here you can make u-turns anywhere there is an opening. I couldn't find an opening and I saw that the road turned into a highway ahead and split, which I didn't want to get on. I swerved over 4 lanes to get off before it turned into a highway and got off on a side street that would allow me to u-turn under the highway.

Well after crossing 4 lanes, this cop on foot saw me and began chasing my car waving his clipboard in the air. I should have just kept going because I was way past him, but it was funny and I felt sorry for him on foot, so I pulled over. He came up to my car and asked for my information. He was super nice and asked how long I was in Monterrey and what I was doing. I explained that I am usually a good driver, but the road is confusing. He understood and said that it was a shame that he would have to give me a ticket ¨for such a minor infraction¨. He was clearly waiting for a bribe. I asked how much the ticket would be for and he said 400 pesos ($40). Then he repeated it was a shame to write a ticket for such a minor infraction and how he really wanted a soda. I said, ¨Lo siento, pero no entiendo.¨ He again repeated that he didn't want to give me a ticket. Maybe we could work it out some other way. I repeated, ¨Lo siento, pero no entiendo.¨ After he had straight up asked me for a bribe 4 times, I decided that he had earned it and opened up my wallet to offer him $5. He gave me that look like ¨$5, really?¨. I pulled out $10 and he said, ¨No ahorrita¨, because an old lady was walking by my car. After she passed I handed him the $10. He asked for more and I was like ¨no¨. He was ok with that, he shook my hand, gave me a big smile, and told me to enjoy my stay in Monterrey.

For some reason the transaction felt more natural and pleasing than the majority of my visits here to the local grocery store.