8 de Julio (domingo) – day 6

This weekend was fun. Saturday morning I got to sleep in til about 10 am which was very nice. After breakfast Jose Juan, Rafa and I went to the “the Hitbox,” a music store where Jose Juan works. I met his boss and a guy that he works with and they seemed nice. It’s a small shop with lots of cds and DVDs. They carried all types of CDs from Li’l Wayne to Linkin Park to Shania Twain (a personal favorite of mine). It’s in a open-air mall that is very new, it just opened last December. The mall is actually very nice. It is actually something that we might see in the states. I was expecially impressed with the bathrooms. They were clean, large, and equipped with sensor meditated water faucets and towel dispensers – que bonita. The mall even had a “Italian coffee shop” where we had enormous oreo frappucinos for only $2.50 a piece. It was a nice day so we sat outside in the patio. For some reason we had a server and menus. After that we went to Insurgentes and we chatted with Tia Alicia. Then we went home to Tio Luis’ house for dinner with Tio Roberto, Luiscine, and Patti. Alicia would have come but since it was a little humid, the front door wouldn’t close all the way because the wood had expanded and so she couldn’t lock it from the outside. She was propping it shut with a broom – old school style. Manolo and Silvia came from QRO. That night we went to a few bars near the Jardin and it was a lot of fun. The drinks were surprinsly more expensive than what I thought they’d be. $4.50 US for a rum and coke at on place. We had to get a shot of tequila as is the custom in Mexico. Just as Tio Luis says, “You have not visited Mexico unless you have tequila.” At least I think thats what he said. Between bars we went to the Jardin and got hamburgesas and hot dogs from a street vender. (it’s a good thing I am now taking more pepto, remember) They were awesome. The next morning Manolo, Silvia, and I went to Dolces for breakfast, coffee, and churros. I think Man was a little “crudo.” After breakfast we walked through the artesanias and I bought a sweet “mascara de luchadores” for Luke. He should really like it. That afternoon, we had a big lunch with Tia Alicia, Pepe, Rafa, Luicine, Patti, Man, and Silvia and Tia Carmen and Tio Luis. Tio Luis made carne asada and choriso on the grill. It was awesome. I guess it was a party for Man’s birthday which was on the 6th so we had birthday cake. We watched about 5 hours of futbol until Luiscine, Patti, Man, and Silvia had to leave for QRO. Man said he’d be back to pick me up on Friday because I’m going to stay at his apartment next weekend and see the sites of QRO. Should be fun. Gerry, Sonia and Mitzy returned from Mexico city in the evening. They were there for the weekend to visity Gerry’s family and buy clothes to sell in SMA. Tonight I introduced Mitzy to photobooth on my computer. She loved it and we took a bunch of funny pictures. I then discovered iMovie which allows me to take videos on my computer. I got some funny videos of Tia Carmen dancing and singing. When I showed her the videos she was laughing a lot and pleading for me to erase them. I would not. I’m going to be sure to take lots of videos of everyone to bring back to MN.

I feel like I’m learning a lot. However, at times it occurs to me that everyone I’m talking to is using very simple sentences and talking extremely slow and most times repeating things over and over. I needed to ask about 8 times over a period of 2 days to remember the word servilleta. Poco a poco I guess. I asked Rafa today if he’d like to hang out with me and Pep each day for an hour or two to practice Spanish and English. It should be good. Tomorrow I have my first lesson with my tutor. I had good thoughts about it until Luicine, after he heard who was teaching me, said to me, “Buena suerte.”

Is it weird that I’m still using purified water to brush my teeth? After all, the glass is washed with tap water, along with all the silverware and dishes I’ve been using. I try not to think about the moisture on the fruit that I’m given either. The pepto is holding up so far though…for now.