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.
