On one of our many drives to fro between El Pescadero and La Paz...
My time is almost up. So close. So close. I'm pretty sad about leaving. I have too many homes. Too many loves. It makes life difficult. Hahaha. But such is my life! It's my calling, I think. In a way. I can't explain it quite yet. One day.
Love you all.
Jr
Nelo's huerta
Friends :)
Fellow in yellow is who I've danced the most Banda with. He's good.
Portland was wonderful. I had some surprises and I expected to see certain people more than I did, but I had a great time the way things worked out. I was able to pull together my Chola costume, but unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to take photos early in the night when I looked my best. My only photos are from late in the late after dancing for hours and my hair got curly. Oh well...
This past week back in Baja has been good so far. My living situation has been shifted around. I'm now staying in the house and the trailer was sold. It's been worked out well. I have privacy and the bed is more comfortable than the was bed in the trailer, haha, so that's good.
Last night was my first party night since being back. Had a blast. Lots of singing and dancing and drinking, of course... So fun. I can't even really say what we did. We just sang and danced a hell of a lot. My toes were literally BLEEDING I danced so much and was stepped (stomped) on so many times while dancing Banda. How's that for hardcore?
I hosted a fish taco and tequila dinner party.
Best beer in Mexico.
Last night
Posing with the Salgado boys. My neighbors and homies.
Hello, hello! I'm in Portland right now! I got in night before last. It's cold and wet... Ugh. I'm not prepared for this weather. When I packed for Baja I didn't think far enough enough to realize it would be cold and rainy when I visited here. Oh well. I'm staying with the lovely lovely Sarah. I was so happy to see her, it had been nearly a year since we last saw each other. Sarah was my roommate freshman year and semi sophomore year. She studied abroad in Japan last spring, and then of course I was abroad in the summer, and then I'm on a leave of absence right now, so yeah. Many many months without seeing each other. Crazy.
Well, these pictures are from last weekend, and this past Wednesday when we were on our way to the airport....
This past Tuesday night I did something pretty funny. I performed some Zumba routines for a town festival. Haha. Me and the ladies in my class went, it was about 20 of us, and maybe 15 townsfolk, including the priest. Hahahaha. It was hilarious. I unfortunately didn't take photos, but I know the two guys who were, so hopefully I'll get photos/videos from them eventually. We shall see.
Aight! Well I need to roll out. Tomorrow is Halloween and my costume isn't 100% yet. Pictures of that will surely be posted. :)
Alma, Sammy, Emmanuel, FeFo, me, Enzo, and crazy Sergio
I'm falling in love you guys. This is dangerous...
So, I went to Cabo this past weekend. Had a blast. The usual group went, minus Disan (underage) and Dulce (had to work). But me, Emmanuel, Enzo, Sammy, Sergio, plus some guy named Fernando (Fefo!) all drove over Saturday evening together, and then we met Alma there in Cabo. Alma is the sort-of niece of Emmanuel's step mom. We stayed at said-stepmom's house. Her name is... Shepi. Or something like that. I'm not sure how it would be spelled. Hahaha. This past week was Cabo's patron saint festivals. Given that Cabo is a much larger city than Todos Santos, the party was much more grand, and with bigger named groups performing music. The day we were there we saw Límite (I suppose. I have zero recollection of this band for some reason.) and PeeWee. He was the kid singer who sang for some Kumbia Kings songs, and later fronted the Kumbia All Starz. He's now done his first solo album and is a Mexican novela star. Quite impressive for a kid from Texas! I now have dreams of becoming a novela star as well. I have faith in myself.
I'm kidding. That's not in my plans at all. Anyways. We all stayed there at the fiesta until it started dying down, and then we hopped a cab to the city center and did a bit of bar hopping. We tried getting into Squid Roe, but the meanies at the door wouldn't let us in because they didn't like Sergio's shoes. Jerks. Had at least one of us been white they would have let us in... After we were denied, a group of white guys walked in all wearing flip flops with the beachy look. So not cool. But I guess that's how it works. Cabo caters to Americans and other tourists. Whatever. We took our business elsewhere. We went to the famous Cabo Wabo briefly, but were a little annoyed with the band and quickly found a nice empty bar with good dance music and a stripper pole, sans stripper. We provided our own entertainment, and danced the night away. I had quite a blast! We stayed out until reallylate, and finally wandered back home exhausted and happy after a quick hotdog stop along the way.
A mattress had been thrown out in the living room, and all the women told me to sleep in the mom's room with her and Alma... but, I felt very uncomfortable doing that. Because neither of them have been very nice to me, Alma straight up ignores me and the step mom, well. She's a step mom. So I decided, no, that I wanted to stay out in the living room with my friends so that's what I did. Me, Sammy, Sergio, and FeFo's head all slept on that mattress. Sideways, with our feet hanging off. It was pretty funny. The next morning I refused to get up and was teased all morning until 4pm when I finally got out of bed (but only because they'd brought tacos). Hahaha.
Today I went to Zumba again, and I've been researching what it'll take for me to return here after I graduate and teach english at a university (best case scenario) or in a highschool or private language institute. I think my chances are good, since I speak decent spanish and already have experience with teaching english (it's one of my jobs on campus). I'm very very excited, because I can't imagine myself continuing with school immediately after graduation, nor do I want to jump into the normal workforce. I want to postpone that as long as possible. Doing this will give me great experience and will make getting into grad school all the more easy. A good thing. Win-win.
This weekend it's been the Todos Santos festival. Patron saint something or other. I really don't know. All I know is there's been mucho party partiez. Friday, it was just me, Emmanuel, Dulce y Disan (who I just realized spells his name, 'Dixan' but it's pronouced Disan. weird). We had a great time. Lots of wandering around. A cute young guy, named Lupe, approached Disan to find out my name, and I actually ended up liking him, miraculously enough. Normally strangers who approach me in public are a big no, but he was pleasant looking, and obviously younger than me, so I appreciated his guts. We talked a lot, but never danced... but his story shall continue...
Eventually all of us (yo, emma, dulce, disan) danced! We danced a lot, too. It was a banda group, but they played other stuff that was a little different. Two Selena songs. I was very excited about that. Hah. It was funny dancing with Emmanuel, since I'm about a whole head taller than him. He doesn't seem to mind though. Hahaha. The band stopped playing at 4am, and we left just a bit before they finished. Now, last night! Was my favorite. We went, same deal, same group. And then there was Lupe again, the tall 19 year old from the night before. And he approached me again and we talked again, and since Emmanuel and them wouldn't have danced until much later when they were drunk, I figured, eh. Screw em, I want to have fun. So, Lupe and I danced. And danced, and danced. And danced some more. He's a good dancer and I had a blast. It was really refreshing being with someone taller than me, hah. He's got to be at least 6'1'' or so. I hadn't looked up at anyone in a long while. Hah. Also, he was very patient with me. Emmanuel many times just tells me "olvidalo!" (forget it!) when I ask him to repeat things or explain something to me. Now, I understand why it's hard for him. I understand perfectly well, it's my job on campus with international students. It can be very tiring explaining everything to someone, especially something so seemingly simple. But that's the way language learning works...
Anyhoo. Lupe never told me olvidalo and explained all sorts of things to me and taught me some new phrases and words. Such as... me cae gordo! Same as me cae mal, just... funnier. And saying, Aguas! for watch out. We were saying 'Aguas!' alot while dancing to prevent collisions. Heehee. We took one break from dancing, and found Emma and them again. They were still just standing around, so Lupe and I went dancing again. After a while, when we needed another break, Emma and crew had disapeared. So we stood around in the place where they were last, but they never showed up. So then we started wandering around trying to find them, didn't have luck, so we went and sat by the church and just relaxed a little bit, chatted, etc. And then we decided to go looking for my friends again, and I ran into Enzo, Sammy (Emma's lil bro), and Sergio, a friend of thiers. Enzo told me he had seen Emmanuel just a bit ago, so I decided I'd just stay there with Enzo until Emmanuel showed up again. I said my goodbyes to Lupe and he has my email so hopefully we'll get to dance again sometime. :)
Hanging with Enzo was fun as usual, he's crazy, and I think he's hilarious. We laugh about stupid and sometimes mean things... like, his girlfriend. And how Mexicans really know how to party, and Italians and Americans aint got shit on them. Hahaha. Eventually Emmanuel showed up, and was obviously irritated with me. Turns out he thought I'd been kidnapped and had been looking everywhere for me, for "5 horas!" hahaha. Mentiroso. But I felt bad for him because I think he had been genuinely worried about me. Lots of smiling Melanie annoyingness later and he was back to his normal Emmanuel self. No one can ever stay mad at me too long. Or at least he can't. Hahah. Dulce and Disan left a bit early, and Emmanuel and I stayed with Enzo them.
We didn't leave until the band stopped playing, but we (err.... Enzo and I..) didn't want the party to end, so we went to a bar that was blasting some reggaeton. I danced danced danced some more, with Emmanuel, and then Emma threw his brother at me while he went to the bathroom. Hahaha. Guys here are so funny. So so different then American guys. Some of it I like a lot, other things not so much. I like that since Emmanuel knows I love to dance he didn't want me to have to stop dancing or dance alone, so he litterally threw his brother at me and told him, Dance! Hahaha. One thing I don't like, however, is that they don't seem to defend women from other guys. I don't know if it's because I'm single, or because they think it's funny, or what. But, for example, last night, a very drunk guy approached me while I was sitting with Enzo and Sammy, and I thought it was obvious I didn't want to talk to this guy. He asked me to dance, and I said no and turned away, but he kept talking to me, and it took awhile to get him to leave. But all the while Enzo and them were either just watching or not paying attention. Either way, they didn't help me one bit to get the guy to leave me alone. Oh well. It's forcing me to be more direct, I suppose.
Unfortunately I didn't take any photos from yesterday, only Friday. The party continues today, but since we're leaving to La Paz tomorrow to eat shrimp (hahaha) I don't think I can go three days of party partiez in a row and still wake up. Yikes. We shall see.
Also, for those not in the know of Banda music and dancing...
Hello hello. Not too much excitement this week. Yesterday I started taking antibiotics to once and for all (hopefully) kill this thing that's been periodically plagueing me for months now... Por eso, I can't drink alcohol for the next two weeks, and this has inspired some new variations of the Niña Fresa song Toño is constantly singing me.... Que quiere la niña fresa? Agua? No!! Cerveza? Sí!!! And then he cracks up. Many variations though. He molds the song to fit whatever situation we're in... Today, at about 6pm, he told Emmanuel who walked by that I was still sleeping and hadn't gotten up.. Hahaha. Toño is so crazy. Emmanuel IMed me afterwards saying, Hey you're up now!.. Hahaha, I was so confused, then he told me what Toño said, so I yelled at Toño and we had a good laugh over it. Hahaha. That's another of his favorite ongoing jokes.. is that I'm constantly sleeping. Booze and sleep. My vices according to Toño. Hehehe.
More exciting than snobby little girl songs, is that the past two days I've been going to Zumba classes! One of our neighbors invited me to go with her yesterday because she's one of the instructors, so I tagged along and really enjoyed it. I'm going to start going everyday I think. Zumba is basically a dance workout class. Purely women. It's great fun, especially since my nana is the only female I've really spent much time around... her and Dulce, Emmanuel's cousin, but she never hangs out for too long.
Here's an example of Zumba... we danced to this song today too.
Oh yeah, and Nana made bomb chile rellenos today. Jealous? Yes. You should be.
Holaaaa. Estoy aquí tomando una copa de vino tinto. ¡Mi favorito! Mamá, ¡te extraño! :)
Today we went to San José and the Cabo Costco for shopping. First nana and I went to la misa in the Misión, then afterwards the three of us went to eat lunch at a little cafe. We all had pork pozole. Yummiez. After that we went to Giorgio's house...er... mansion. It was so beautiful. Gorgeous views, practically his own private beach. And he has a dog named Bota! I loved him. Giorgio is one of Nana and Toño's old friends he owned a hotel and restaurants, and I guess my nana and Toño both worked for him at some point way back when and became good friends. Giorgio has quite a mouth and he said too many pinche-this and pinche-that and chinga-what's to count! Haha, I had the most fun outside playing with Bota...
Costco was fine. It was Costco. Just like in the states. Only difference is that all the gringos are buying nothing but crates of booze and the Mexicans are buying actual food.
Look at that creature. It's NOT Belle. But it looks exactly like her. How beautiful, no? Dad found pictures of German Wire Haired Pointers, and we've decided her dad must have been that... that picture is also a mix though, but she's half GWHP, I guess.
Anyways. I'm here at home listening to some quality musics. Nana and Toño are on their computer doing I don't know what. The past week has been nice, relatively uneventful. I finished Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits and began and finished her Eva Luna as well. House of the Spirits is way better, but Eva Luna was good too. I've taken a break from reading today to allow my brain to settle. I'm not sure what I'll read next. Time will tell... I went to the library this past Wednesday. Emmanuel works there so I went and met him and enjoyed the airconditioning. It was fun watching him work. It's nothing but little kids who go in there with their homework or because they have no other place to go because parents are working. Emmanuel is always complaining about all the enfadosos there, but watching him work was fun because he's so patient and sweet with all the little kids and he obviously is good at what he does and likes kids a lot, despite claiming not to... After the library, we walked to his cousin Dulce's house and she made papas rellenas (at least that's what they're called in La Paz). I'm pretty sure they're a Baja thing. I've never eaten anything like it before coming here. It's baked potato smooshed onto foil, then carne asada, then mushrooms, then queso, and then you can add guacamole or salsa or mayo or whatever you want. And it's delicious.
Yesterday I went to Emmanuel's house again. It seems to be a Friday ritual of going there to drink and chill. It was fun, but I stayed there way too long and suddenly it was 6:30am and I was exhausted and started to get irritated with people. Woops... Hanging around Emmanuel and his friends really makes me miss my own friends a lot. I like Emmanuel, and Enzo, and Emmanuel's brothers. They're all sweet and patient with me and will help me out when I'm confused about something. But their other friends I'm not too fond of. One of them was saying all sorts of things to me that I only half understood, and it was extremely frustrating and can really make you feel isolated and lonely when you're lost like that and there isn't anyone you can fully communicate with. I think all Americans need to be in that situation though. Haha. Not just American's though, I think it's good as a human being to be thrown into a scary environment all alone. It builds character and seriously forces you to be humble. So that's what I just try to tell myself when I find I am becoming sad and lonely or upset. I know one day I'll look back on this time and really appreciate it. I appreciate it now, of course... but, reflection is always where you gain the most insights. Well after the fact.. and I probably won't ever have this sort of opportunity again.
But anyways. I'm not sure if I'm going out tonight. I'm tired, and yesterday really stretched my limits a bit. I really have no idea how so many hours flew by. Must have been the driving. Twice we drove to the next town in search of beer. Somewhat ridiculous, but driving was actually my favorite moments from last night. Something about loud music and driving through a desert at night with a carful of friends is very comforting and wonderful to me.. Maybe it's because it reminds me of El Paso. I miss the days of driving out to the desert with my friends. :)
We're probably going to Cabo tomorrow to go grocery shopping at Costco. Haha.
I finally went to the beach!... For the second time! Hahaha.
We didn't go until the evening though. About 6pm. So we got just a little bit of sun, but the water was fantastic. So warm. I swam a lot. Disan and I. Emmanuel just a little bit. Dulce didn't swim at all, and little Pilar swam a bit. Disan and I had so much fun just diving into waves. You know how that goes... It was strange though. There was nothing but men swimming. All the ladies were just on the beach or were closer in. Out where the bigger waves were it was just me, Disan, and men! So strange. Disan and I had some good laughs because we'd both have our asses handed to us by the same waves. We were fine for the most part, but every now and then a big wave would come and just knock us around and we'd bang into each other under water and we'd come up for air cracking up. All the guys around us would crack up too whenever it would happen to us. It felt good to laugh really really hard like that. You know the ones. The big I'm-not-holding-back-a-thing sort of laughs. :)
Gosh the men here are ruthless though. Disan and I used the restroom in the restaurant there on the beach, and good lord. All the waiters... yelling at me. Not gross or exceptionally rude things. But you know. "What's your name. What languages do you speak? I love you" (but in spanish, of course)... ridiculous things like that. I just walked as fast as I could and didn't let go of Disan... not that a skinny little gay 14 year old boy could really keep older men from yelling at me, but whatever. Stupid Disan thought it was funny. I really really don't like that though. Latin American men don't treat their own women that way... to an extent, but they very obviously treat foreigners different. I'm so tempted to use some of my bad words on people, but I'm scared of saying something wrong and just looking stupid and inviting more attention. So I just stay quiet and don't look at anyone.
But anyways. Besides annoying men yelling at me and the one guy who invited to me go to Cabo with him, I had a great time. :)
Guy who knew Dulce, Pilar, Emmanuel, Dulce, yo, y Disan
Let's see.... what's happened since I got back from La Paz... lots of reading. Sitting around. We visited two older men the other day. Pierre and Franco. I liked Pierre's house best. It was filled with books and art from around the world. He's lived and worked all over. Born in Morocco. Very nice house. He had guayaba trees... Cool man. Franco, I didn't pay much attention to. I was tired and just wanted to go home. But he's Italian. And his house was much more empty than Pierre's.
Last night I went to Emmanuel's house and had a blast. It was me, him, Enzo (son of Walter y Carolina), Sammy (Emmanuel's younger brother), some guy named Sergio, and some other guy who's name I never caught. And Disan. I love Disan. I was the only female and got quite of bit of attention. It was fun I suppose. But maaan, did we daaaance. It was really funny because Enzo went over to the house earlier yesterday and me, him, and my nana were talking and he said he usually only dances out of necesity.. aka when his girlfriend makes him. But he sure seemed to enjoy dancing last night! Hahaha. It was a blast. I absolutely exhausted myself. They sort of went in turns dancing. It was usually me and Disan, plus one or two other random guy dancing. But I must have danced for hours straight. My thighs are killing me today. Man, oh man...
Earlier today me, nana, and Tono went to Oxxo, the corner store, to sit in airconditioning for a while. Hahaha. It's so hot here, I'm almost used to just constantly having sweat dripping all over. It's so gross... anyways. We went and they ate icecream and I had yogurt. Then we drove around Pescadero (the gringo part of town. Near the beach) and looked at homes and there was a cool donkey who started running along with the van, so we stopped and I pet him and took a photo of his cute face. After that we came home, and Emmanuel happened to be walking by towards the ice cream place. So I went with him and we got frappes, or something like that. Afterwards we walked to Dulce (his cousin's) house just up the street and hung out there for a while listening to music and playing with one of Dulce's pelucas. Hahaha...
And now I'm chilling here in the trailer! Chao, chao, lovas.
They thought I looked like a sexy teacher... Hahaha!
I've been M.I.A. for the past nearly week because I've been in La Paz with Anahi.
But before that, last Saturday was really fun in La Paz shopping with Emanuel, Dulce, Disan, and the little girl who I think was named Pilar. Emanuel is a sweetheart and doesn't allow me to pay for anything when I'm with him. I feel bad so I let him buy me lunch but I refused all the sweets and icecream that was offered and eaten by everyone later... gotta keep the figure trim. Hah! So anyways, we had some great laughs while his cousin Dulce was trying on PINCHE PELUCAS... WIGS. And she bought one! This girl is 18 yrs old. And she wears these pretty hideous wigs. It's quite comical. But Emanuel and I were attempting to be supportive but really we just kept laughing. But Dulce was a good sport. I think she's used to being laughed at. Tono saw her later that night and he burst out laughing at her too. Poor girl. But she likes it, so it's all good.
Sunday was spent lounging around. Monday was spent lounging around. And then Tuesday morning Nana and Tono drove me to La Paz. That night was the grito, which we were going to go to, but Anahi is quite the diva and takes forever to get ready. Haha. So Jose Luis, Lupita and I watched it on TV instead. But we still went to the plaza afterwards with her novio, Diego, friend Nidia, and Amao (first name Sergio, but his last name is badass). We commenced the intake of Tecate Lite and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. After the supply ran dry we went to the store to pick up some more then we cruised around the Malecon for quite a while. Back and forth, listening to Banda, Reggaeton, and pop. Quite fun. My courage was high and I was talking up a storm, translating songs and random phrases for a wonderfully drunk Nidia such as, "I hate you", and "You are the love of my life". And "Prostitute" (there were many) and "slut" and other such palabras malas. It was really great fun.
After cruising the malecon for a while, we went into some neighborhood and waited outside of a big house where a party was going on, and I had no idea what the heck we were doing at the time, but that didn't matter too much. Eventually I realized we were waiting for another friend, an incredibly large man for being only 16 years young. Blue eyes, very light skinned banda musician and singer. Humberto. Cool guy. Once we picked him up, we went and got hot dogs, or as they pronounce them here in Baja, "Jotes". Pretty yummy. Salchicha, tocino, crema, catsup... Mmm. Mmm. Nidia was hilarious, she somehow managed to get crema all over her face, even her forehead. Funny girl...
(Side note. One thing I really like about Mexico is that a wider range of age groups hang out together. I think it's a good thing. There's some obvious reasons why it's not so common in the states (21 drinking age and the risk of jail if you're charged with supplying a minor. silly...) that don't effect Mexico. Like most of the rest of the world, the drinking age here is 18, but it's not too seriously enforced in many places. Some yes. And who knows what the smoking age is. I don't know if there is one, but if there is surely no one follows it. And you know, I think that's ok. I don't think there's more drunks or smokers in Mexico than there are anywhere else, but hey at least here you have a wider friend potential range. Yeah!)
The next morning, bright and early at noon, we, all the same group plus Nidia's brother who's name I never caught, went to the beach! We went to one just right outside La Paz.. Corumel? Algo asi. We packed some ceviche, tostadas, trusty Tecate Lite, condiments, a gallon of water and we were good. We mostly sat around. It was incredibly hot and laying out in the sun would have been suicide, so we were all huddled under a big tent thing that Humberto brought. I went out and swam twice, and man was the water nice. So warm. Perfect. Except for the little animalitos in the water who bit. But they just itched for a while after you got out and then it was fine. No biggie. Oh! Nidia also took her baby who I regret to inform you I did not take pictures of. But oh god, this baby was GORGEOUS. Probably the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. Nidia, is very very beautiful. Light skin, hazelish eyes, black hair, very nice features. Beautiful. But her daughter was just gorgeous. Very white, blueish eyes, black hair, just beautiful... so anyhoo. The beach was nice. But draining. We didn't do anything that evening...
Thursday! I went to University with Anahi and her cousin Abram. Anahi had class with boring numbers so I didn't go to that with her, I went with Abram to a meeting he had with a Tourism/Administration group that he belonged to who was working on puting on a big event. I think everyone got a kick that in their little random meeting there was some American girl just sitting there staring at them all. Hah. I understood majority of what they were saying with the exception of certain words that I'm sure were specific to their fields and not so much everyday speech. Anyhoo. That wasn't the exciting part of my day. What was exciting about Thursday, was LADIES NIGHT! And a good one too. Free entry, and free drinks until midnight. Right at the stroke up midnight when I happened to finish my drink a new one appeared before me from the bartender who'd been tending to opposite side of the bar. He said was it was curtesy of the gentleman over there... This, folks, was my first time being bought a drink by a stranger. It was very exciting. I guess it was maybe my first opportunity though, as well. I never go to bars, let alone with a group of women like it was that night. But either way, my first drink bought for me by a stranger! The stranger of course disapeared and we never talked. Not that I would have talked to him anyways, he looked old. But anyhow, after I finished my free drink, the ladies and I started dancing. And as you guys may have noticed by now, I love to dance. I danced my heart out all by my lonesome. It was really fun. I don't like dancing with strangers much, because I'm too nice and once I start dancing with someone even if I'm not enjoying it or want to dance with someone else or alone, I have a hard time getting away. Hahaha. So I prefer to dance with friends for the most part, or known good dance partners, of course. I don't turn those down.
After ladies night I did a whole lot of sleeping, eating, and more sleeping. We cruised around the Malecon just listening to music and talking on Friday, and last night, Saturday, we went to Eric's house to watch Fast & Furious, which I really liked a lot. Hahaha. Great fun. It made me miss my neighbor from El Paso. Hahaha. He has a really pretty muscle car. So jes..
