mexico.
ok so mexico was awesome. while sitting at the airport for hours i decided to write out what we did all week because it felt like it just flew by.
thursday, jul 31st
the car came to pick me and mel up from my place at 4:45am. i had tried to stay awake the whole time but around 4 or so i decided to lay next to sam and 'rest my eyes'.. we got to o'hare in an hour and our flight took off at 7:50am. we arrived in mexico city, went through customs, and went outside to wait for gloria. her and her cousin roberto showed up and we headed to cuernavaca, to her aunt's. we went into town, there is this massive 'marketplace' where people set up stands and sell the most random shit ever. i picked myself up a nice [burned] adobe cs3 for 40 pesos.. awesome.
friday, aug 1st
got up around 9, got ready and 10 of us piled into a white minivan to head out to tianquizolco where gloria's grandparents live and where the quince was going to be. we stopped in the town/city of iguala for some shopping for the party. i liked the music playing in the van. i think it was reggaeton(?) from what they told me. i have no money. could not for life of me remember my pin # so after trying every combination i could think of it was locked out. called the bank to reset it. tianqui. is up up in the mountains. no cell service. their houses are all made of concrete. all open. dogs in the streets like squirrels are here, very hilly roads, no running water. watched the rehersal at the courts where the party was going to be, then went "downstairs" to reherse the 'secret dance'. our room was also a little school supplies shop. the bed was hard, but at least we had a bed.
saturday, aug 2nd
PARTY DAY. got up, took our baths with buckets, and started decorations at the court. they turned out really good. went back to gramma's 'downstairs' saw everyone getting ready, the band came to parade grisel up to the church. we got ready, and headed up there.. the church was pretty packed so we stood outside for a little while, then went back up to the room and waited for gloria to come back. once she did, we headed back over to the court. there were soo many people there, almost all of it was her family. apparently people from surrounding towns were also there because that's just what you do when there is a huge event like this going on. i had bought a bottle of raz vodka the day prior because i thought i'd have my regular at the party.. well tequila was provided of course, so i just drank tequila and fresca all night. it was delicious. i wonder who ended up with my entirely full bottle of vodka though, since i completely forgot about it by the end of the night. mel drank her jack and coke and gloria's mom kept coming by to steal some of her jack. it was funny. the rest of the night was spent dancing. danced lots with berto :] one of her cousin's leni reminded me of kenny from the starting line, so i remembered him, he's very cool. his dad is gloria's dad's brother. they look a lot alike. he is really awesome and very smart.. they all live in acapulco... mel bailed early on the party cause she wasn't feeling too good. me and glo danced and drank till it was all over around 2-3am. she was pretty tanked, it was funny but frustrating since she was the only one i could really communicate with. i smoked a cigarette with berto and ended up just going to bed because she was not helping.. lol.
sunday, aug 3rd
woke up relatively early, felt surprisingly fine, just sore as hell from all the dancing. we just hung out mostly in the room and talked to the little kids who seemed to be so intrigued by us. we learned some spanish words from them. later on we walked down to the lagoon with a bunch of the cousins. they all jumped in and started chanting our names. glo and mel gave in and went in too, i really didn't feel like it though so i took pics and watched..
monday aug 4th
woke up early and gloria's aunt & uncle (from acapulco) took us to iguala to catch a bus back to cuernavaca. on the way up her uncle told us stories of how he almost died when he was little from a ruptured appendix, and how the family really had no money or way of taking him to a hospital so everyone had pretty much accepted that he would die. but after a couple days had passed and he still hadn't died, they decided that should take him to a doctor.. after he was better the family decided that he would be the one to go to school and get an education instead of working on the farm like his brothers.. he also told us about the state of oaxaca, in mexico where his wife's family is from and the psychedelic mushrooms that are native there. apparently they are 100% legal and many artists and scifi writers have been known to go there to eat the mushrooms and get inspriation for work.. i guess some lady actually studied them at some point and concluded that they are safe, non addictive, and figured out dosages by body type or something.. seemed really interesting and they said that next time we come visit they'd try the mushrooms with us. lol. when we got back to cuernavaca we ate some food and went out to the mall where we watched journey to the center of the earth in vip. such a cool thing, it should be around here more. it was like $9 us dollars and you sit in huge leather recliners, and there is a menu of foods and drinks and they bring it to you.. the movie itself wasn't all that great really, i think it'd be better for kids, also it might be better stoned and in 3D :]
tuesday aug 5th
we went on a tour of cuernavaca with gloria and her cousin malena. half was driven in a trolley around the center of town and part of it we got off the trolley and walked down into this ravine/valley type place. i'm going to look more into this because obviously i could only understand what gloria would translate to us, but apparently its a very important part of how the climate stays the way it does there. it was beautiful. exotic looking plants and trees, waterfalls, and caves.. ah ha, they were the amanalco ravines. after the tour there was a marketplace where we could buy touristy souvenirs so we spent a lot of the day there and in the city at that other crazy marketplace from the first day.. me and melissa bought wrestling masks for our brothers so when we got back to the house we put em on and busted in the house. it was funny. and rediculous. we played soccer with the little girls and then hung out on the balcony with roberto teaching him english words and phrases while learning some spanish from him.
wednesday, aug 6th
WATERPARK! (http://www.temixcoacuatico.com/) we got up and left around 10am with berto and malena. the first thing we did was those little island floaty things with the rope above, i'm explaining this horribly, but i actually got across one time without falling and i was pretty proud of myself. here is a picture!
haha.
most of the time we played volleyball in one of the pools because not all of the slides weren't open till 2. for lunch we went out of the park a bought a couple chickens and had a picnic. berto fell asleep on the grass and we left him there hoping he'd wake up and freak out that we left him, but he didn't. we stayed at the park till it closed at like 5 or 6. this is the day i got most of my tan/burn.. as we were leaving berto decided to try ^ that thing again, but he was all dressed with is towel and everything so i jokingly said i should jump in and make him fall. everyone said do it, so i jumped in but by the time i got to him he had hurried mostly across, i tried really hard to get him to fall, but he wouldn't let go. i was literally hanging on him. very strong boy. haha. after we got out and continued walking some more, i realized they were whispering something about throwing me in.. i tried to run, but he got me. i tried to pull him in with me, but i couldn't. luckily when he bent down to feel the water, mel pushed him in! it was awesome (chido!). on the way back we stopped at a little shop for beers with hot sauce and salt, i didn't want one, but malena assured me there was tequila at her house. we got there and she opened up a bottle, poured me a shot and handed me a lime and salt. i must have had like.. at least 7? shots of straight tequila that night.. danced with berto, accidently messed up her shower curtain because i fell :( we finally left, melissa was the only one really sober enough to drive so she drove like 2 houses down until she decided she had no idea where to go, gloria insisted that she was fine so she took over.. when we got to the house they decided that berto should have been driving so they switched? it was like right in front of the house so idk, we walked in the gate and mel and i just went straight to the room upstairs and i passed out. apparently everyone was super pissed at gloria and us for drinking and her mom told her we were basically grounded for the rest of the trip..
thursday, aug 7th
i woke up soooo thirsty. the thirstiest i have ever been in my entire life. i guess swimming all day + sunburn + tequila & dancing = a little dehydration? it was horrible. i was too scared to go downstairs by myself to pee and get water so i made gloria get up and come with me. i guess they acted like nothing happened. also, it turned out that all the guys went out anyway when we got home. wth. her aunt gave us breakfast and we just hung out. i felt crappy for most of the morning and afternoon and my throat was killing me. later on after a little napsky we went to this nice seafood place for dinner. here is where i noticed someone stole all my money. like 150 us dollars. grisel puked on the way home. i was in a crappy mood. we went to a fair in the next town over. i had a cheese pizza. before going to bed we exchanged email addresses with berto. gloria had to be up at 4am.
friday, aug 8th
woke up at 4 when glo was leaving, said bye. got up and dressed at 8 and went downstairs. saw a little bit of the olympic's opening ceremony. tried talking with her aunt. she had to speak to me like i was 3. she said something about going to get the bus tickets to the airport. her and berto drove us to the station, got our tickets, said our goodbyes and we got on the bus at 9:45. the plane was supposed to take off at 3:10 but we didn't even board till then.
as we pulled away from the bus station for some odd reason i actually felt a little sad to leave. don't get me wrong, i was ready to come home, but it was a really good trip and i had a lot of fun. the only sucky thing was really the whole language barrier thing. that three years of spanish in high school definitely did not get me very far. i wish i had taken more pictures because its hard to describe a lot of the way things looked. buildings, scenery, people. it was really cool to be around these people who have such close knit families. it was really an experience and to learn about all these traditons was very cool. gloria's going back in december and she's like, "oh you should toootally come with!" hahah.
thursday, jul 31st
the car came to pick me and mel up from my place at 4:45am. i had tried to stay awake the whole time but around 4 or so i decided to lay next to sam and 'rest my eyes'.. we got to o'hare in an hour and our flight took off at 7:50am. we arrived in mexico city, went through customs, and went outside to wait for gloria. her and her cousin roberto showed up and we headed to cuernavaca, to her aunt's. we went into town, there is this massive 'marketplace' where people set up stands and sell the most random shit ever. i picked myself up a nice [burned] adobe cs3 for 40 pesos.. awesome.
friday, aug 1st
got up around 9, got ready and 10 of us piled into a white minivan to head out to tianquizolco where gloria's grandparents live and where the quince was going to be. we stopped in the town/city of iguala for some shopping for the party. i liked the music playing in the van. i think it was reggaeton(?) from what they told me. i have no money. could not for life of me remember my pin # so after trying every combination i could think of it was locked out. called the bank to reset it. tianqui. is up up in the mountains. no cell service. their houses are all made of concrete. all open. dogs in the streets like squirrels are here, very hilly roads, no running water. watched the rehersal at the courts where the party was going to be, then went "downstairs" to reherse the 'secret dance'. our room was also a little school supplies shop. the bed was hard, but at least we had a bed.
saturday, aug 2nd
PARTY DAY. got up, took our baths with buckets, and started decorations at the court. they turned out really good. went back to gramma's 'downstairs' saw everyone getting ready, the band came to parade grisel up to the church. we got ready, and headed up there.. the church was pretty packed so we stood outside for a little while, then went back up to the room and waited for gloria to come back. once she did, we headed back over to the court. there were soo many people there, almost all of it was her family. apparently people from surrounding towns were also there because that's just what you do when there is a huge event like this going on. i had bought a bottle of raz vodka the day prior because i thought i'd have my regular at the party.. well tequila was provided of course, so i just drank tequila and fresca all night. it was delicious. i wonder who ended up with my entirely full bottle of vodka though, since i completely forgot about it by the end of the night. mel drank her jack and coke and gloria's mom kept coming by to steal some of her jack. it was funny. the rest of the night was spent dancing. danced lots with berto :] one of her cousin's leni reminded me of kenny from the starting line, so i remembered him, he's very cool. his dad is gloria's dad's brother. they look a lot alike. he is really awesome and very smart.. they all live in acapulco... mel bailed early on the party cause she wasn't feeling too good. me and glo danced and drank till it was all over around 2-3am. she was pretty tanked, it was funny but frustrating since she was the only one i could really communicate with. i smoked a cigarette with berto and ended up just going to bed because she was not helping.. lol.
sunday, aug 3rd
woke up relatively early, felt surprisingly fine, just sore as hell from all the dancing. we just hung out mostly in the room and talked to the little kids who seemed to be so intrigued by us. we learned some spanish words from them. later on we walked down to the lagoon with a bunch of the cousins. they all jumped in and started chanting our names. glo and mel gave in and went in too, i really didn't feel like it though so i took pics and watched..
monday aug 4th
woke up early and gloria's aunt & uncle (from acapulco) took us to iguala to catch a bus back to cuernavaca. on the way up her uncle told us stories of how he almost died when he was little from a ruptured appendix, and how the family really had no money or way of taking him to a hospital so everyone had pretty much accepted that he would die. but after a couple days had passed and he still hadn't died, they decided that should take him to a doctor.. after he was better the family decided that he would be the one to go to school and get an education instead of working on the farm like his brothers.. he also told us about the state of oaxaca, in mexico where his wife's family is from and the psychedelic mushrooms that are native there. apparently they are 100% legal and many artists and scifi writers have been known to go there to eat the mushrooms and get inspriation for work.. i guess some lady actually studied them at some point and concluded that they are safe, non addictive, and figured out dosages by body type or something.. seemed really interesting and they said that next time we come visit they'd try the mushrooms with us. lol. when we got back to cuernavaca we ate some food and went out to the mall where we watched journey to the center of the earth in vip. such a cool thing, it should be around here more. it was like $9 us dollars and you sit in huge leather recliners, and there is a menu of foods and drinks and they bring it to you.. the movie itself wasn't all that great really, i think it'd be better for kids, also it might be better stoned and in 3D :]
tuesday aug 5th
we went on a tour of cuernavaca with gloria and her cousin malena. half was driven in a trolley around the center of town and part of it we got off the trolley and walked down into this ravine/valley type place. i'm going to look more into this because obviously i could only understand what gloria would translate to us, but apparently its a very important part of how the climate stays the way it does there. it was beautiful. exotic looking plants and trees, waterfalls, and caves.. ah ha, they were the amanalco ravines. after the tour there was a marketplace where we could buy touristy souvenirs so we spent a lot of the day there and in the city at that other crazy marketplace from the first day.. me and melissa bought wrestling masks for our brothers so when we got back to the house we put em on and busted in the house. it was funny. and rediculous. we played soccer with the little girls and then hung out on the balcony with roberto teaching him english words and phrases while learning some spanish from him.
wednesday, aug 6th
WATERPARK! (http://www.temixcoacuatico.com/) we got up and left around 10am with berto and malena. the first thing we did was those little island floaty things with the rope above, i'm explaining this horribly, but i actually got across one time without falling and i was pretty proud of myself. here is a picture!
haha.
most of the time we played volleyball in one of the pools because not all of the slides weren't open till 2. for lunch we went out of the park a bought a couple chickens and had a picnic. berto fell asleep on the grass and we left him there hoping he'd wake up and freak out that we left him, but he didn't. we stayed at the park till it closed at like 5 or 6. this is the day i got most of my tan/burn.. as we were leaving berto decided to try ^ that thing again, but he was all dressed with is towel and everything so i jokingly said i should jump in and make him fall. everyone said do it, so i jumped in but by the time i got to him he had hurried mostly across, i tried really hard to get him to fall, but he wouldn't let go. i was literally hanging on him. very strong boy. haha. after we got out and continued walking some more, i realized they were whispering something about throwing me in.. i tried to run, but he got me. i tried to pull him in with me, but i couldn't. luckily when he bent down to feel the water, mel pushed him in! it was awesome (chido!). on the way back we stopped at a little shop for beers with hot sauce and salt, i didn't want one, but malena assured me there was tequila at her house. we got there and she opened up a bottle, poured me a shot and handed me a lime and salt. i must have had like.. at least 7? shots of straight tequila that night.. danced with berto, accidently messed up her shower curtain because i fell :( we finally left, melissa was the only one really sober enough to drive so she drove like 2 houses down until she decided she had no idea where to go, gloria insisted that she was fine so she took over.. when we got to the house they decided that berto should have been driving so they switched? it was like right in front of the house so idk, we walked in the gate and mel and i just went straight to the room upstairs and i passed out. apparently everyone was super pissed at gloria and us for drinking and her mom told her we were basically grounded for the rest of the trip..
thursday, aug 7th
i woke up soooo thirsty. the thirstiest i have ever been in my entire life. i guess swimming all day + sunburn + tequila & dancing = a little dehydration? it was horrible. i was too scared to go downstairs by myself to pee and get water so i made gloria get up and come with me. i guess they acted like nothing happened. also, it turned out that all the guys went out anyway when we got home. wth. her aunt gave us breakfast and we just hung out. i felt crappy for most of the morning and afternoon and my throat was killing me. later on after a little napsky we went to this nice seafood place for dinner. here is where i noticed someone stole all my money. like 150 us dollars. grisel puked on the way home. i was in a crappy mood. we went to a fair in the next town over. i had a cheese pizza. before going to bed we exchanged email addresses with berto. gloria had to be up at 4am.
friday, aug 8th
woke up at 4 when glo was leaving, said bye. got up and dressed at 8 and went downstairs. saw a little bit of the olympic's opening ceremony. tried talking with her aunt. she had to speak to me like i was 3. she said something about going to get the bus tickets to the airport. her and berto drove us to the station, got our tickets, said our goodbyes and we got on the bus at 9:45. the plane was supposed to take off at 3:10 but we didn't even board till then.
as we pulled away from the bus station for some odd reason i actually felt a little sad to leave. don't get me wrong, i was ready to come home, but it was a really good trip and i had a lot of fun. the only sucky thing was really the whole language barrier thing. that three years of spanish in high school definitely did not get me very far. i wish i had taken more pictures because its hard to describe a lot of the way things looked. buildings, scenery, people. it was really cool to be around these people who have such close knit families. it was really an experience and to learn about all these traditons was very cool. gloria's going back in december and she's like, "oh you should toootally come with!" hahah.