4 x 4

4 things I'm homesick for:

• my gente (including Kali Lou, because she thinks she's human)
• Target (duh.)
• Trader Joe's
• Barefoot coffee

4 things I love about Mexico:

• everything is dirt cheap
• they serve XX Lager (our fave!) EVERYWHERE, since it's brewed and bottled here
• I get to practice my Spanish a lot, and people are really nice about my lack o' skills
• sleeping late...every day

4 food groups I can't live without:

• beer (yup, it's a food group)
• coffee (yeah, this one too...)
• carbs
• meat

4 places I'm excited to visit in Europe (besides Prague, which would clearly make this a 5-er):

• the Eiffel Tower (since it doesn't really count as a trip to Europe without checking out the Eiffel Tower, Paris has to have a spot on the list)
• a pub in Ireland
  
• Santorini, Greece (the whole damn thing.)
  
• a cafe/bistro in Italy (fingers crossed that we make it there...I'm dying to eat their food)

cabra-what?

Last Friday, a HUGE group of us ventured out to a restaurant called El Rey de Cabrito, which translates into The King of Baby Goat. No joke. The place serves baby goat. Whole ones, if you want...


The restaurant was, well, Mexican. Very ornate gold decor, and lots of it. My fave bit of ambiance was the waterfall built into the wall that featured 2 life-sized stuffed lions lunging for each other.


With a grupo grande, it gets tough to hear conversations at the other end of the table, so Tracie (my sidekick here) and I had a good ol' time entertaining ourselves with the "goat-rack". Shortly after we'd ordered, our server placed this 3-foot tall coat rack at the corner where we sat. Oh-kaaay. It looked like a coat rack, but we didn't bring coats, and had already been there like half-an-hour. Since we'd never been there before, and they roasted the baby goat on a spit (?), we thought they might hang the whole goat on it when it was served......hah!

turns out it was a coat rack...for our non-existent coats

I don't know what baby goat tastes like, because I didn't try it. Lame? A little. Will I get over it? Yup. But I did chow down on some awesome shishkebabs, so I left fat and happy. After The Rey, we wandered into Barrio Antiguo to scope out a few cool bars. There was one with a rooftop-ish bar and really cool lighting, and the restaurant downstairs smelled fantastic.

We also checked out a cool bar that looks like it was built inside an empty church (or monestary, since that's what it was called). There was a really loud live band, but the setting was cool. I tried to take some pics, but it was super dark inside, and the flash made everything look horrifically fake, so I quit trying. After a beer and a few songs, Rob and I ducked out because I had an upset stomach (too bad I couldn't blame it on a goat, right?)

this conversation actually happened...

(whilst playing card games a few nights ago...)

Nicole: I am a fan of winning money, but not of losing it

Rob: I am a fan of having money, but not a fan of earning it, because that means I have to do stuff...

little green taxi

I don't know if you can make out all of the CRAP hanging in this car, but there was plenty to entertain us during our ride. Most cabs here don't have seatbelts, and rarely have any gas in the tank. Weird. You'll walk down the street, and they'll fly by honking, in case you forgot you needed a ride. Some even have clever little horns that sound like whistles or other slightly obnoxious noises. Every single taxi has a cross or rosary beads or a sticker of Guadalupe, and while the legal limit is 4 pasajeros, we've definitely crammed six people into one of these little green machines.


The roads were strangely empty for these next two shots. Usually there'd be other taxis swerving around us, since speed limits and lane markings are more like guidelines...

weekend wrap-up (yes, I know it's Wednesday)

On Saturday, we spent some quality time with Mister Water (or Senor Agua, I suppose) at the campus pool. The weather was beautiful and it felt good to soak up some sunshine after a few days of rain. Rob and Gavin, being competitive boys, decided they needed to race. Of course. I got to play judge to be sure that neither cheated, blah blah blah. After like six races, they got involved in a rowdy game of water polo meets pool basketball.


Rob and I checked out an amazing Italian restaurant on Saturday night, and officially stuffed ourselves. Two entrees, a pizza (which served 2 with leftovers), 5 glasses of wine and two perfect little cream-puffs cost a whopping 460Pesos, including a hefty tip. It was the first restaurant I've found here to serve artichoke hearts. I was in heaven.

On Sunday, we went on an adventure to Huasteca (sp?) with some friends we've made here in Monterrey. We drove (and drove and drove) out to the mountains to a former dam. The road was super dusty and bumpy, and there were some interesting sites along the way:

a cow tied into the bed of an old pickup...he was the lucky one, his 12 buddies had to walk behind the truck

no, your eyes are not deceiving you. that is, in fact, two kids sitting on top of an effing Explorer. An Explorer that was totally flying down a gravel/dirt road. Rob's fave part: the girl on the right is wearing a black bra OUTSIDE of her white shirt

just when you thought the wonders would never cease: (above) a kid hanging out the front window of a taxi, also flying down the gravel/dirt road and (below) two kids sitting on top of a doon-buggy's gas tank, but at least they're wearing helmets, right?!

We saw the old dam (which may have never actually held any water...oh, Mexico) and watched some crazy guys on their dirt bikes. All in all, it was a pretty cool day.

Gavin, Izzy, Annie, Tracie, Rob and me

(Denise took the pic...she's rad too)

beer!!!

Last week, we toured FEMSA. This company owns just about every beer that you can get in Monterrey, with the only exception of Corona (no one drinks that crap here anyway...hehe). It's flagships are Tecate and Tecate Light (which boasts less calories AND less alcohol - whats the point?!), and it also brews XX Lager (green bottle - yesss!), Bohemia, Carta Blanca, Noche Buena (a seasonal brew that I fell in love with here), Modelo, Sol and a few others. Yes, I was allowed in/near/in the vicinity of a brewery...

The tour was a little lackluster, since we didn't actually get to see the brewing process or the like. We did get to see the bottling process from a room on the second floor that looked out over the entire factory floor, which was cool. In Mexico, they reuse glass bottles, so there's a washing step, a quality-control check of the bottles (they fly under this little camera that takes a pic and decides if the bottle is worthy of reuse. If not, into the recycle bin it goes), and filling and capping steps. We also got to check out a separate little factory where they make bottle caps out of aluminum sheets, which was actually pretty rad. They create millions o' caps a day and bottle a butt-load o' brew (very technical term).

Best part of the tour: free cervezas at the end! (yes, that's why I attended...act surprised) I'm not sure FEMSA was expecting us to drink quite so much, given our short time between tour and bus departure. The T-bird population of 40ish killed 15 cases of beer in about 15 minutes...whoops! : ] We weren't allowed to take pics in any of the buildings, and I wasn't feeling so hot, so I took one. One whopping pic. Here she is:

Rob enjoying the beauty of Noche Buena in FEMSA's beer garden

Macroplaza...still not so macro

Since Rob hadn't been able to check out the Macroplaza the last time I went, we set out on a rainy afternoon to give it a second chance (or a first chance, in Rob's case).

In the rain, the Macroplaza's not much better than before. We shopped a bit, and spent a good amount of time near the Fountain of Some Guy. I'd like to take this opportunity to document that Rob is, in fact, alive and well in Mexico:

and this one's for you, Sum...I could hardly believe it myself

imagine one of these inside a Target

I'll admit that I have a love-hate relationship with Mexican commerce. I'm super pissed that while I'm in the cheapest damn country in the world, I can't find anything I actually want to buy. UGH. However, I'd like to share a little gem of Mexican amor with you... This, my friends, is a panederia. It's an entire section of the grocery store that is home to delicious little baked treats. You take a pan and a pair of tongs and wander around, choosing whatever yummy goodness you want. Fresh baked bread, cupcakes, cakes, churros, muffins, you name it, it's there. Then, you take your full tray of love to the register inside the panederia and they box it up for you and slap a sticker on it so you can pay for it with your other items. Oh, GOD. We're lucky that we don't have these at home...I'd never leave the damn store.

I did get scolded for taking this pic in the store...which I'll attribute to toughening my skin for my big photo shoot with Marco the monkey. I can play the tourist role. I can.

get ready...

...for an onslaught of posts. I've been itching for the computer for FOUR days, and Rob's finally blasted through enough work so I can have it for a little while...whahoo! I just hope I can type fast enough to get it all out before my mind fails me!

i did it!

I kicked my weekend photo goal's ass! Shocking, I know, since it was so unattainable : ]

I hope to be able to hog the computer for a bit today so I can edit and post a few, but I got some cool shots of stuff that's off the beaten path...

Looks like you'll have to live in suspense until then! Happy Monday!

((PS: if any of my three readers has a random connection with folks at the State Department that may be able to help with passport shenanigans, please let me know! Can't hurt to ask, right?!))

i sort of suck

Apparently the ability to take pictures has FLOWN from my body/brain. I was perusing Sum's blog and others that I blog-stalk, and realized that I haven't posted anything worthwhile in, well, a while.

Since Rob has a semi-free weekend, we're gearing up for a few field trips (I think.) to go hiking and check out Monterrey a bit more. We considered heading to Cancun or Puerto Vallarta or Aculpulco, but we don't really know what is in our temporary backyard! And, since we waited til the last possible moment, a trip would be pretty expensive and we'd rather save that moolah for the European leg of our adventure.

((Speaking of traveling: Dad, I'm still hoping you might consider coming to Europe, since the State of California hates us and doesn't want you to come to Mexico. There, now its in a psuedo-public forum...no pressure...hehe.))

I, Nicole, solemnly swear to take at least 25 photos this weekend (yeah, I'm lowballing it, bigtime. Don't push me, okay?!?!). Will I post 'em all? Nope. But I'll find a few good ones to prove that I do have the ability. Because I always regret not being 'that girl', attacking the world from behind a lens...

monkeys at the mall - how have I forgotten to mention this?!?!?!

During our field trip to the mall this weekend, we wandered by a pet store. Cool...I like pets. I was practically in the store before I noticed a little creature in a birdcage-thingy. IT WAS A FREAKING MONKEY!

Yup...a black little monkey that stood about a foot tall. Upon further investigation, there were 2 other white-faced little guys, and one that looked sort of squirrel-like. I was too chicken to take pics, since the signs clearly said "no fotos!", a move that I am totally regretting now. I mean, I'm gringa enough to get away with not being able to read a sign that's practically in English, right?! But, I did take 3.647 seconds to comb the internet looking for their cousins, so you might be able to check 'em out, too:

the spider monkey in the store got the name Marco...because I like to name things and it sounded muy Espanol

this is a squirrel monkey, although the one below is the one that reminded me more of a squirrel...there were two of these little guys

a black footed gray langur

I'm totally going to play the white-girl card next time we're there; I need my own pics! Aside from monkeys, they had hedgehogs. Some things about Mexico are so cool! I wanted to buy one to name Sonic, because I'm original like that....

Elsewhere in the mall, we were accosted by a gang of Disney princesses and their pimp, the Beast. No joke, there were easily 5 of them. They'd just wander around and people would run up with their ninos y ninas to take pics...I probably should have made Rob have his pic taken with them, I'll add that to my list.

I need help...

I must be losing my mind: I ran on Saturday. On a treadmill. For like a mile. On purpose. Ick. The worst part is that I'm considering doing it again.

After giving much thought to whom should be blamed for this (because it's definitely not my fault!), I've chosen a victim: Elissa. Last weekend, Lis ran a 10K, and I am totally in awe. I'm sooooo not going to go all crazy and run that far, but considering the abundance of time I have here, I may as well get in shape (or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say "fend off all of the taco-fat that I'll take as a souvenir when I go..."). We'll see how long this lasts...

boredom sets in, and it ain't so bad

There isn't a ton to do in Monterrey, Mexico. Yes, there are lovely malls and plazas and parks, but as a Caucasian female, lots of these excursions should not be encountered alone. The area is perfectly safe, but I'm not much of a risk taker and I've gotten mixed feedback from locals who we've asked about my potential solo travels. Besides, a lot of those experiences are more fun with other people...

With Rob (and 99% of the other people that I know here) in classes all day, I tend to sit around a lot. I've finished 3 books, scoured the internet researching European cities for our upcoming overseas adventure, caught up on all 896 Google Reader posts, and cleared out 3 email inboxes.

Some days, I'm bored out of my mind, and practically sit at the door waiting for Rob to get home to 'take me for my daily walk'. Other days, I sleep until 11am, exercise, and am barely ready for life outside the apartment when Rob gets home.

I suppose that, being who I am, I need some sort of structure. But, a goal I created for this vacation was to worry less, make fewer lists, and just be. Some days, no prob. Other days, I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm sure I'll look back at this trip and go, "Damn, that went by fast! I wish I'd slowed down more and enjoyed not having to do anything...," but its a hard place to get to. On one hand, we've only been gone three weeks...on the other hand, we've already been gone three weeks.

brawndo: the thirst mutilator

LOVE this...can't wait to 'kick everyone's ass all the time!' I'm so weird...

Brian owes me 300P

Back in my pre-trip days, I tried to channel my inner Rick Steves. For a sixteen-week adventure. "Pack light," he said. Rick Steves isn't exactly a personification of fashion, and I like (aka need) to feel prepared, so I tried to meet him halfway. On my Excel spreadsheet dedicated to packing, I limited myself to 5 pairs of shoes: flipflops (which hardly count as shoes), tennis shoes, my cold weather boots, heels, and ballerina flats...

My stepdad, Brian, echoed Rick's sentiment. "Will you really need a pair of flats when you'll have heels? Will there be things that you go to that you can't wear heels? Think of all the extra room you'll have in your luggage if you leave out that one (teeny tiny) pair of ballerina-style flats," Brian advised. And although Rob claims amnesia to this very conversation, he definitely chimed in and agreed with Brian. So what did I do? I listened to a bunch of guys about what to pack. Let's call this Mistake Numero Uno.

I didn't bring that one measly pair of flats. Early on in his classes, Rob got a massive binder detailing all of the upcoming company visits, including a list of do's and dont's. Since I'm the official Thunderbird mascot, I've been invited on many of these visits. Looming near the top of the list: no high heels. Great...no problem. I can wear my tennis shoes, right? Nope. Looming even nearer the top of the list: business casual. Apparently Adidas sneakers don't fall into that category...super.

So, with a company visit scheduled for Thursday morning, Rob and I hauled ass to the mall between classes on Wednesday, in search of a pair of - you guessed it - flats. I kid you not, every other girl in Mexico is rocking flats...so they should be easy to find, and since the dollar is high here, relatively cheap. I don't know where the hell these people are shopping, because it took us an hour to find a pair of flats that wasn't A: toddler size, B: Steve Madden brand (that man hates me, and all women whose feet are not narrow; I hate him back), or C: 800+ Pesos.

We finnnnnnally stumbled into a store that may earn my love, called C&A. It's like H&M...and man, I love me some letter-ampersand-letter stores. I found some deep purple (or as Sum would say, aubergine) flats with a little buckle, and they actually fit. Success! Bought 'em, wore 'em, and my feet didn't die in 'em. After conferring with Elissa, it's been decided that, since I was forced beyond my will NOT to bring my beloved little black flats, that Brian owes me 300Pesos.

Hah!: as I took this pic, it struck me just how much these shoes resemble Christopher Columbus' shoes. All I'll need now is a pair of opaque tights, a feathered cap and some poofy shorts, and I'm set! : ]

screaming peacocks - parte dos

As referred to in this post, the nearby ITESM is home to deer and peacocks. I babbled a bit about the screaming peacocks, and was lucky enough to witness it again this afternoon. Lucky for you, I also had my camera, and enough smarts to take a video, so you too can enjoy this lovely sound...

((Hey, what's the natural habitat of peacocks, anyway?))

hahahahahahahaahahah!

At this very moment, Rob and I are on campus at ITESM, escaping our concrete cave and soaking up some gorgeous weather. Rob is also hard at work on a paper, and I've managed to snag the computer for a few precious moments.

I've decided that, given my limited amount of time, I need to share this with you: Rob got shit on by a squirrel! HAH! I don't know a single person on earth who can claim as such...

Would I be a bad person if I said that it made me laugh?!?!?! : ]

company visit

On Thursday, I was invited along for a visit to Mexico's (un-named insanely popular washer/dryer/stove/oven/etc company) factory. In a brief synopsis, it was pretty cool. I love checking out assembly lines and job sites and the like, so I was excited to go. After procuring an appropriate pair of shoes, I woke up (way too) early on Thursday to get moving...

Sad side-note: I've found almost acceptable coffee. It's absolutely pathetic that this coffee comes from a mecca referred to as 7-11. Ugh. Sad. So sad. I may need to call it Siete-Once so it sounds more exotic than a place that sells Slurpees and questionable-looking hotdogs. Annnnd, for the record, there is a Starbucks near by, but I'm not that desperate yet. Let's hope it doesn't come to that...

Back to the visit...a bus ride and PowerPoint show in a meeting room later, we were ready to check out the plant. We hit a huge snag before we even departed for the tour, when a risk-management guy caught sight of our flats. Six or seven of us did what we could to follow the rules, only to discover that "no high heels" loosely translates into "steel-toed work boots". AGH! After a bit of bitching and heckling, we snagged some socks from some of the boys on our tour to shove our feet into...somehow that was enough protection...

Let me tell you, wearing another person's socks can teach you a lot about them, or better yet, confirm/negate things that you already knew. After scuffling around the plant with Tanner's socks stuffed into my new flats, I successfully broke 'em in and streched 'em out.

It was cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at how things that we more or less take for granted are created. I imagined what that plant might have looked like 50 years ago...thank God for technology!

in search of decent coffee…

So far, this search has borne no fruit. I’ve checked out several little shops, the on-campus cafeteria, the grocery store…nada. Yes, I could buy a coffeemaker for ~$100USD to use for the next 4 weeks, or I could switch to solely drinking tea, but I’m too cheap and too stubborn for either of those. One of our buddies picked up a Nescafe Cappuccino mix, and it smelled REALLY good. I thought, “Okay, maybe that sort of thing will get just enough caffeine in my system, and it’ll be all sweet and frothy too…” and bought a can – yes, a can – of powdered Nescafe Café con Leche mix.


In comparison to my beloved Barefoot and the creamy, delicious goodness that oozes from that coffee bar, this stuff is crap. Swill, I tell you. Am I desperate enough to A: not waste my 15Pesos and B: have anything remotely close to coffee to drink it? Yes. Will I bitch and moan and complain about missing a decent cup o’ joe? Yup.

Thank God for bubble-teas. These may be the only saving grace I’ve found thus far, but I know they’ll get old soon.

Today, I did see from a distance a potential oasis de java-liciousness…but, given my track record to date, I might be getting my hopes up...

cinco cumpleanos!

Two family birthdays and three Thunderbird birthdays in one week!

On Monday, groundhog Punxsutawny Phil checked for his shadow as he does each year on Mimi's birthday...looks like winter'll stick around for six more weeks. I got a fun Skype-call from mi familia on Saturday, celebrating Mimi's birthday with tacos and margaritas!

Speaking of sticks, on Wednesday, we were summoned to a rooftop birthday shindig. In attendance was Tigger, a gi-huge-ant (it's a word!) pinata that we beat the crap out of with a stick. Sadly, a hanging light also fell victim to the stick.

the paper-mache'd beast

Jennifer, attempting to annihilate Tigger

On Friday, Pam (Rob's Mom) had a birthday, too - although, after repeated email and Skype attempts, we never did get a hold of her to sing...

On Saturday, in honor of a classmate's birthday, Rob and I headed to the roof for more shenanigans...instead of a pinata this time, there was a taco stand (no joke!). We'd intended to play beer-pong, official game of the T-bird West dorms, but there's a shortage of ping-pong balls in Mexico (I seriously couldn't make this up...this place is so weird), so we settled for my personal fave, flip-cup.

Trompo, a leg o' beef that's marinated and sliced, kebab-style from the spit, then further grilled like carne asada...soooo yummy

birthday boy Matt with our taco pro and Chris

Yesterday was one of our roomie's birthdays. Unfortunately, the entire Thunderbird population was hard at work on an impossible Finance assignment, so no hilarity ensued...

4x4

I'm one of those people that doesn't really care for those 146 question questionnaire thingies like this one, but I'm at a loss for anything worthwhile to post...so here's a VERY short one, something I've created called a 4x4:

4 things I hate

• having a stuffy, runny nose and being sneezy in a class/meeting
  
• confrontation of any kind
• that I'm not as good at photography as I wish I was, and have only myself to blame for not practicing
• when my feet are cold

4 things I'm completely neutral on

• tattoos/piercings (if you've got 'em, cool...if not, cool)
• pizza toppings - I can handle one topping or 12...whatever
• the color highlighter I use when reading
  
• um...I don't know...it appears I'm quite opinionated
  

4 things I love

• caramel...on anything (seriously, put it on my hand, and I'll happily chew my hand off)
• sleeping late and then getting a good workout
• when Kali-Lou lays on her back like a little otter
• not working...hehehe...

4 things I'm surprisingly anal about

• having an awesome ringtone on my cell phone, even my cheap-o Mexican one (I'm not anal enough to actually buy a ringtone, however)
• having matching towel and dish sets...okay, so maybe that's not much of a surprise to some
  
• using a good pen, with a healthy supply of paper underneath the sheet I'm writing on, to serve as a perfect little cushion
• knowing where my Nikon D70 is, at all times

two new addictions...or maybe three...

Wow...I'm on a ROLL with the posts today, huh? Besides my current obsession with posting (#1), here are two new things that I'd like to thank/curse Summer for bringing into my life:

(#2) IMEEM.com
Okay, so maybe this one's not directly Sum's fault...but I did find out about it while reading one of the thousands of blogs that we share an addiction for, so that counts, right?
IMEEM.com is a rad radio website that helps you find stuff you'll like based on what you listen to, lets you create playlists, and search for songs left in the dark years ago. I call it Pandora on crack, but parts of it remind me a smidge of Kazaa, Yahoo radio and Facebook/MySpace. It even has a lil Twitter-esque box, too. You can 'friend' people and what not, but I'm just here for the jams, folks...

Currrently playing from my creatively named "mix 1" playlist: Picture Perfect by Chris Brown
Up next: Renegade by Styx

(#3) FML
A totally inappropriate website where people can send their short "f*** my life" stories. There's a max of something like 100 words, so people get right to the point...example: Today, I was eating ice cream and I noticed some on my jeans so I wiped it off with my finger and licked it. It was bird shit. FML
Yes, some are sad, but totally addicting...

a break in the espanol action

My first lesson on Tuesday (el martes) went pretty well. I left the session feeling exhausted and much better about my Spanish skills. I need to practice, and to get over being self-conscious and just speak...

Yesterday, I created little flashcards (apparently Mexico doesn't carry index cards. Anywhere. Ugh.) and practiced my verbs ser and estar. I FINALLY figured out the pattern of conjugation (seriously, Mr. Levin, where was the loud-and-clear message that the conjugations are practically identical in the past/present/future tense...? I spent how long trying to learn 2 verbs, when I could have focused on one, and transferred my learning to the other? You suck, Mr. Levin.) and was kicking ass. My instructor really wants me to watch the movie Doubt (Duda) with Meryl Streep, so we'll have something to talk about. Uh...could we start with something a bit easier, perhaps? Like Curious George or Hot Rod or something? I need to get to the little rental place down the street so I can start mi tarea (my homework).

Today, I woke up feeling totally tongue-tied in English. "Wow, Spanish'll be a real treat, since I can barely form a proper sentence in my native tongue," I thought. By a stroke of luck (?), my instructor emailed me to let me know that she'd have to cancel today...

So, what did I do? Hide inside because my Spanish SUCKS today? Practice more with my little flashcards? Watch TV en espanol to get the sound back in my head? Nah...I found one of my buddies that doesn't speak a lick of the language and headed to the grocery store. Eh...at least I'm practicing, right?!

zebra cakes & la vic's orange sauce

So far, today has been a day of discovery. Check out what I found, completely by accident:

orange sauce, identical to the famous sauce from La Vic in San Jose
for those who are unfamiliar with La Vic's orange sauce (aka anyone that didn't go to SJSU), it holds a huge place in my heart, currently trumped only by my beloved Kinder's BBQ sauce. Since its like comparing apples and oranges, I would refuse to choose between them if I were to be stranded on a deserted island

zebra cakes, one of my various comfort foods (and a sweet reminder of Grama)...and check out the price, 23.22P, or about $1.15USD
for the record, I didn't actually buy them, since my diet contains quite a bit of crap already, with the tacos and beer and bubble-teas I consume on a somewhat daily basis...

taking care of me, even from hundreds of miles away

After reading this post about my attempt to cook an actual meal in the one little pot we have, my Mom sent me a link to a whole bunch of one-pot meals:

http://food.ivillage.com/quickeasy/dinner/0,,hq31,00.html

I may have to try these ones, if I don't get over it and resort to tacos (again) first...thanks, Mamacita!

instrucion del Espanol - parte uno

I had my first meeting with my Spanish instructor today!

We spent an hour together at the ITESM library, and spoke entirely in Spanish. Apparently, being a language professor doesn't necessarily mean that you have to speak any another language. Cool...makes me really work for it! It is exhausting, however.

We covered some things that I'm already comfortable with (estar y ser...meaning "I am" in the temporary/permanent form, respectively). We unknowingly reviewed a lot of verb conjugation that I'd flat-out forgotten how to do, and erroneously thought I was rid of for life (the past and future tenses of estar y ser...much more difficult).

All in all, I think it went pretty well. We'll meet on Tuesdays (el martes) for one hour and Thursdays (el jueves) for two. I picked up two third-grade level (that's right...I've got mad skills) Spanish workbooks for a whopping 40P to practice with. Our focus will be fluidity and speed. I hear things well, says Maestra Lupina, but I need to speed up my hearing and speaking. It's nice to have a goal, right?!

My homework for tonight and tomorrow is to speak in only Spanish to my roommates. It will be difficult because they don't know a lot of Spanish. After my class, Rob was playing a game on his computer, and I wrote many things in Spanish in my notebook. I'm also practicing talking in the shops near my apartment.
(Mi tarea por esta noche y la manana es hablo en solamente Espanol con mis companeros. Sera dificil porque ellos no saben mucho Espanol. Despues de mi clase, Rob fue jugando una partida en su computadora, y yo escribio muchas cosas en Espanol en mi cuaderno. Practicando habler en los tiendas cerca de mi apartamento, tambien.)

Blogging in Spanglish counts as talking to my roommates en Espanol, right?! Maybe not...be it's better than nothing (es lo mejor de nada)!

more pics

Apparently I'm not feeling too wordy today, but I have been taking lots of pics, warming up for some really good ones to come...

the Macroplaza, as un-macro as it was, did have some cool architecture
I've heard that Barrio Antiguo is an awesome, old-world neighborhood nearby, with cobblestone streets and super colorful buildings...need to check that out

just practicing my depth-of-field! after I reset almost every setting on my camera, I needed something to play with and had some pesos laying around

further proof that I am, in fact, in Mexico
sometimes I forget that I'm in Mexico...some parts are so Americanized, and other parts are so foreign and ass-backward

I promised better pics of the (screaming) peacock and the deer on campus...how're these?!?!

(and yes, Summer, I chose a doe just for you, since she's obviously "peen"-less)

just pics

my cell phone - an old school nokia, complete with yellow/black screen. that's right, its not color. the orange ribbon is how Rob and I tell our phones apart.

at club La Fuerte on Saturday night, we ended up in the DJ booth


Coca Light - a.k.a. Diet Coke
they reuse glass bottles here, so it's common to use straws (las popetes)

Macroplaza...not so Macro...

On Friday, a few companeros and I headed to the Macroplaza, toted as the "third largest plaza in the world". Ann-Marie, Chris, Eric and I hopped in a cab, and since I spoke the most Spanish in the group (eek!), I asked to be taken there...

We drove though an area that I hadn't been through before, and arrived in a park surrounded by cobblestone streets and gothic buildings. Standing in the center of the Macroplaza was a HUGE obelisk (named "the big red wall" by our group). We wandered through the plaza and into an outdoor mall of sorts. Every 12 feet or so, there was a shoestore (una zapateria), a 7-11 (they're EVERYWHERE) or a TelCel kiosk (selling cellphones and SIM cards). Repeat. Twelve more feet, same three things. Over and over and over for several blocks.

the big red wall

Moral of the story: the Macroplaza wasn't so big. We easily covered it in two hours...oh, well.

My Spanish definitely got some practice as Chris picked up a cellphone. The true test came while standing in a long line at Office Depot (yup, they've got those here, too): a Mexican guy came up to me with a gluestick he'd intended to purchase, but needed to get back to work. In rapid Spanish, he asked if he could give me money to pay for his item, since I was next in line. The nervous look on my face, followed by my request to speak mas demasiado (more slowly) told him that I'm not exactly fluent. I was super-proud of myself when I worked my way through it, figured out what he was asking, and made the purchase.

The best part of the Macroplaza, since it wasn't nearly as Macro as it claimed to be, was the crosswalk signal...it's freaking animated. No joke. When it's safe to cross, the signal is a guy (a white guy, no less) who walks. As the time decreases, he speeds up...he runs!

(my apologies for the sideways, shaky video...but you get the picture)

SPANISH INSTRUCTION UPDATE: My first meeting with the professor is on Tuesday (el martes), and I'm obviously super-excited. I've picked up a little book that's ALL Spanish to practice with, and have been pushing myself really hard to practice while we're out and about (to the point that I won't let Spanish-speakers speak for me). Hope you'll all still be able to read these posts when they're in full Spanish... ; ]