(no subject)
The last entry was pretty much just program-related stuff. And I figure I should write a little about the other things that have been going on.
Food has been fantastic. When I'm not eating the delicious baggies of trail mix that Mom packed, I'm often eating comida corrida - fast food from the street. I've had licuados (like smoothies with all kinds of fresh fruit and milk, maybe with vanilla or cinnamon), millions of tacos, chilaquiles for breakfast (broken up tortillas with spices, onions, and cream - kind of intense for breakfast, right?) tostadas (crispy tortillas with something on top), and any number of other tortilla and meat related combinations. I've enjoyed trying some new fruits, and REALLY enjoyed all the mangos and avocados. And I might as well mention that I've had more margaritas in the week that I've been here than, well, than probably in my entire adult life. It's lovely.
Oh and we went to see la lucha libra. The luchadores are those masked wrestlers you may have seen in movies (I think Jack Black made a movie with them, maybe?). Well the show was wild. Carlos, the pre-hispanic art professor, was telling me that when he was in Baltimore he went to see a monster truck rally, and he likened the audience of a monster truck rally in the US to that of a lucha libre fight in Mexico. Even before we got inside the arena the crowd was a bit rowdy, and we, as gringos, were of course overwhelmed by vendors of masks and other merchandise and people scalping tickets. And inside it was even crazier. We couldn't have had better seats, and I think we paid $4 USD for them. We were sitting just to the left of the ramp/walkway the wrestlers walked down to get to the ring, and just in front of a big group of the rowdiest fans I could imagine. Even the four year old kid behind my was saying some pretty terrible things about the wrestler's mothers and calling out for one of the vendors to bring him a chela (cerveza? beer?) now and then. Although they never did. It was loud and chaotic and fun. There was another group of fans across the arena from us with drums and horns and vendors running around everywhere selling everything from masks to luchador dolls to beers, bangs of chips, sausages, and instant cups of noodle soup.
That would be enough, right? Even without the fights? But they got started eventually, the announcers announced and the bikini-clad lucha libre girls posed and wiggled and turned around whenever the crowd asked them to by shouting "Vuelta! Vuelta!" Then lights went down and the music went up and the fighters were announced and they emerged from their tunnel and made their brawny way down the ramp the ring, where they warmed up while waiting for the other fighters to get there. The match itself was, as you can imagine, ridiculous. The costumes were wild, the moves were flashy and wholly unbelieveable, and the crowd loved it, especially when the went flying out of the ring and grappled on the ground in front of the first row of the audience. I loved it too. It was awesome. Oh, and there was one match fought buy one guy in shiny black leather and flames and another guy with long greasy hair and bright pink spandex pants. The pink guy lost and had his head shaved right there in the ring. Crazy.
Food has been fantastic. When I'm not eating the delicious baggies of trail mix that Mom packed, I'm often eating comida corrida - fast food from the street. I've had licuados (like smoothies with all kinds of fresh fruit and milk, maybe with vanilla or cinnamon), millions of tacos, chilaquiles for breakfast (broken up tortillas with spices, onions, and cream - kind of intense for breakfast, right?) tostadas (crispy tortillas with something on top), and any number of other tortilla and meat related combinations. I've enjoyed trying some new fruits, and REALLY enjoyed all the mangos and avocados. And I might as well mention that I've had more margaritas in the week that I've been here than, well, than probably in my entire adult life. It's lovely.
Oh and we went to see la lucha libra. The luchadores are those masked wrestlers you may have seen in movies (I think Jack Black made a movie with them, maybe?). Well the show was wild. Carlos, the pre-hispanic art professor, was telling me that when he was in Baltimore he went to see a monster truck rally, and he likened the audience of a monster truck rally in the US to that of a lucha libre fight in Mexico. Even before we got inside the arena the crowd was a bit rowdy, and we, as gringos, were of course overwhelmed by vendors of masks and other merchandise and people scalping tickets. And inside it was even crazier. We couldn't have had better seats, and I think we paid $4 USD for them. We were sitting just to the left of the ramp/walkway the wrestlers walked down to get to the ring, and just in front of a big group of the rowdiest fans I could imagine. Even the four year old kid behind my was saying some pretty terrible things about the wrestler's mothers and calling out for one of the vendors to bring him a chela (cerveza? beer?) now and then. Although they never did. It was loud and chaotic and fun. There was another group of fans across the arena from us with drums and horns and vendors running around everywhere selling everything from masks to luchador dolls to beers, bangs of chips, sausages, and instant cups of noodle soup.
That would be enough, right? Even without the fights? But they got started eventually, the announcers announced and the bikini-clad lucha libre girls posed and wiggled and turned around whenever the crowd asked them to by shouting "Vuelta! Vuelta!" Then lights went down and the music went up and the fighters were announced and they emerged from their tunnel and made their brawny way down the ramp the ring, where they warmed up while waiting for the other fighters to get there. The match itself was, as you can imagine, ridiculous. The costumes were wild, the moves were flashy and wholly unbelieveable, and the crowd loved it, especially when the went flying out of the ring and grappled on the ground in front of the first row of the audience. I loved it too. It was awesome. Oh, and there was one match fought buy one guy in shiny black leather and flames and another guy with long greasy hair and bright pink spandex pants. The pink guy lost and had his head shaved right there in the ring. Crazy.