I literally live for the weekends, and I have to say, they rarely disappoint! On Friday, after a long day of (hungover) teaching, I came home to a delicious meal of fried chicken, broccoli, carrots, mashed potatoes and homemade onion rings, courtesy of Pedro (who has taken to wearing eyeliner which I find quite strange but do not affect his cooking skills whatsoever, thank g.) After I scarfed down my dinner, I retired to my room for a short nap which morphed into something that resembled a short coma and didn’t wake up until 8:15, only to find that Justine had followed my lead and was passed out on her bed. I loudly jumped from my (somewhat precarious) spot on the top bunk to rouse her from sleep so we could both ready for the night!
At 9:30ish, everyone met up at our house (that’s the best thing about where I live…it is the most central location out of everyone’s homes and is the closest to our school, so everyone is always just coming over or dropping by. It is definitely the designated meeting spot any time we plan to do something together. Of course, I love this…its just like the Courtyards circa 2009.) Anyway, we all met up and went for….wait for it…wait for it….tacos!! We actually went to a different spot where they apparently make “healthier” tacos. I think that healthy tacos in Mexico simply means that they use butter or oil to cook the meat in rather than the grease from the already cooked tacos and whatever else they normally use. They were great, and after we sufficiently stuffed our little faces, we headed off to a bar where two of Zaid’s friends were playing a show.
We knew things were going to be good when the bar had Megas de Corona and served them in actual glasses!!! The musicians were also really good. They sang some Mexican music, but they also did a little bit of ACDC, the Killers, Coldplay, Michael Jackson and even a little George Michael. I have to say that there is nothing cuter than Hispanic men singing their little Hispanic hearts out in English and not understanding a single word that they are saying. I loved it! One of the singers, Josue, was super nice and I talked to him a lot at the bar, so we had a great time. Oh and in more important news, Justine (who hasn’t had a drink in 2 years) had a few beers!! What a great influence the rest of us are. Whoops…
This morning we woke up, had some eggs and chilled with Ramon and Tere (and the cleaning woman and another teacher from school…I’m telling you, it’s the community house!) until Brandon came over and we all went for a walk around town. We were supposed to meet Alan at the Zocolo at 1:30 but because of some kind of miscommunication (I’m sure on my part) we never found him, so eventually we gave up and walked to the market to check out the upstairs which had a ton of different food stations and little areas to eat. It seemed to me that each place was serving the same stuff, but some were more popular than others, so I’m not sure what the deal is with that. We bought some fun fruit (I got some duraznos y platanos and also some other fruit from a cactus that is hot pink but I forget the name. I only got it because of the color.) This lady on the street also tried to get us to try worms. The closest I got to eating it was holding it in my hand. Brandon actually attempted, but he ended up dry-heaving and spitting it out on the sidewalk. We were basically a spectacle and the entire street was laughing at us, but that is typical for a group of our size, volume and look.
After the market, we did our weekly run to the Ched and then headed back home where Beverly was cooking food for everyone. She made a typical American dish…macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes and apple pie! We all sort of helped, and when we were all peeling the 40 apples that were needed for the 3 pies, it felt a little Communistic…but in a good way. Dinner was nice, full of interesting conversation in a mix of Spanish and English and in which Tere and Ramo were educating the rest of us in all of the disgusting things that Mexicans eat, like blood and eyes. Yuck!!
After dinner, Veronika, Brandon and I went to this Mexican carnival that is only here for 10 days because of the Independence Day that is coming up this week. It was great! I was expecting a dinky little carnival, but it was actually pretty impressive with at least 10 rides, real ponies to ride (sooooo cute),a live bull, lots of lights, food and Mexican children (pics will come soon.) We had a nice time exploring and walking around, although we didn’t do any rides...this time around, at least. The carnival is set up right near the mall, so we walked around the mall a little bit as well, where there was some sort of art exhibition happening which was nice.
After a while, we split from Veronika and ran to catch a cumbie to the center of town. Once there, we saw that there was some sort of music competition or performance happening in this little stage near the Zocolo. It was basically a bunch of teen/adults playing a strange instrument (a mandolin? Lute?) and singing and dancing around. It was very sweet. After we had our fill of Mexican performances, we walked home, where we consumed 2 tacos each at our favorite taco place on the corner (EL Mismo) and then some apple pie back at the house. At least everyone knows I’m well-fed!
Ok, until next time, and thanks for reading!!
