The Flood

I am so sorry these last posts are going up today, but please bare with me . I am going to be posting the last 4 posts from Mexico over the next 24 hours. Enjoy.
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I am going to take you back to June 11th… I know that is a long time ago , but hop into my time warp and enjoy the journey of going back in time. I do not know if I mentioned that my host mom, went off with friends with a overnight visit to Taxco , but she left Sol and I home along to fend for ourselves. It was an experience. I will have to look back and see if I wrote something about it… But anyhow Cecelia left on a Thursday and was going to come back on Friday June 11th , the next day. The day was normal , it was the start of the fair so I enjoyed walking around and looking at all there was too see. Little did I know that I was about the walk into a zoo. I went home around 7 after spending a little less then an hour out looking at the fair, and I came home to the smell of Poop filling through the house. It was the most disgusting thing ever. I walked into the living room and Cecelia is running around cursing in Spanish and then yelling at me not the go into my room because there was a flood. And boy was there a flood. My toilet blew up. And the water had gone everywhere. It made a lake in my room, and then started to come out into the living room and then also went back into the other bedroom. I was told not to go anywhere, but to sit on the couch. So luckily I had set my computer out in the living room earlier and then did stuff on my computer. I was only gone for an hour and somehow my house turned into a lake. Cecelia called Sol and had sol bring her friend over to help with the cleaning. Then we called a plumber to come and see what the problem was with my toilet and why it blew up. The plumber came and as far as I can tell looked at the toilet and said it is working fine and then demanded like 100 dollars or 1000 pesos. He did absolutely nothing and wanted all this money. This started a fight between the plumber and Cecelia and Sol. I do not know what came of it because fast rapid yelling Spanish is way above my level of understanding. But anyhow , back to the lake. So this lake was getting mopped up and then disinfected, I was sitting on the coach on my butt because noone would let me help. Cecelia was yelling her head off and was acting like a nut. I learned many new cuss words. Watch out people cuz you might be getting cussed at in Spanish. HAHAHA. Anyhow at about 9:30 , everything was cleaned up, and Cecelia went off to take a shower. I was let back into my room because apparently the water went all the way over by my suitcases and Cecelia wanted to make sure all my stuff was ok. GREAT!!!!! So I pulled my two suitcases out into the living room and proceeded to empty my suitcases to see what was ruined, wet, or was totally fine. This is no small task because I have a lot in these suitcases. My personal belongings were laid out all over the floor and put into piles . I had a nice large pile of wet materials that either had to be thrown out or taken to the laundry lady. A bunch of my books were wet, and it was a lovely experience. The only problem is that Cecelia only thought that I had two suitcases. NOPE. I also have a backpack! My backpack was awful. There were so many papers that had to be tossed out and stuff was soaking wet!!! YAY! Cecelia , at around 11 decided that she was tired so she went to bed, leaving me on the floor so lost in all my stuff and trying to figure out what to do with it all. I was so crazed and thought this was one big broma( joke ) and was kinda freaking out over all my stuff being wet that I called my mom at 11 at night to tell her the latest developments in the Flood saga. We had been communicating my skype all night when the flood saga started. I went to bed with a bunch of the stuff still on the floor in the living room, but knew the next day everything had to be moved into my room beause the crazy cleaning lady would be at our house. And when my stuff isn’t laying all over the floor and is somewhat organized she moves stuff and I cant find it for a week. So I woke up early on Saturday morning and proceeded to throw everything I own onto my bed , so that I could clean and sanitize my suitcases later that day before I put stuff away.

Later on Saturday I went out to the store and bought some Lysol and then spent a good 20 minutes covering my suitcases in Lysol to disinfect what ever got on them. I then put bug spray on them to repel the nasty red ants that are ALL over my house. After doing all that I left my backpack, and two suitcases lay in the heat for a little while before I brought them inside and started putting some of my stuff away. It took a good 2 weeks to get EVERYTHING off of the bed. I have so much stuff and decided that since I would be going home within 3 weeks I should just pack the suitcases as they were going to be come June 27. So the lesson on the day is to not leave your suitcases or backpack on the ground where water and who knows what else could get all over it because of a blown up toilet. As the jews say every Passover, next year in Jerlousalum , about something or another that I can not remember because I have not thought about anything jewish in a good 5 months…. My take on that is , next time in Mexico. We should all remember the great toilet blowup of June 2010 in Cuernavaca , Mexico and remember the golden rule about your belongings.

Peace . Love . Toilet Blowups.

Foam Party

Now for anyone over the age of 25 this is a weird concept and you might not understand. I do not know if they had foam parties during the dinosaur age. Sorry , my mom always says when people ask her about college that she went in the dinosaur age... Blame it on Wendy if you are offended.

Anyhow a foam party is when there is a thing in the ceiling that shoots out soapy foamy stuff and people dance and play in it . Well followers ,  I attempted to go to one last Saturday. I do not have pictures because noone brought a camera. One of the fellow students here, heard of a party at the local gay club here, Oxygen. So everyone put on their cutest outfits for a night out on the town. This was to be our last night out in Cuerna as a group. We left CEMAL at 11 and attempted to get to the club. Apparently many taxi drivers so not know how to get there. We got to the club and they wanted to charge us 100 pesos because we got there after 11:30, but after some arguing because it was the taxi drivers fault we got in for 50 pesos. We hung out for awhile, people danced and we started the countdown until 12:30 when we were told the party would start. Come 12:30 they told us 1. Then at one they told us 2. It was getting crazy and people were getting tired because they went to the pyramids in Mexico and we were to be going to Puebla the next day at 9 in the morning. So people started leaving , and we finally left the club at around 1:45.

It was not the night that we all expected, but it was still one great end to a great journey of nights going out in Cuernavaca. I am going to miss the ability to hop in a taxi and go to an amazing club. But I guess I will just have to find another way to have a great time with friends once I get back to Drake in August.

My last night at Carlos N Charlies

So before I write this post , I just want to say I am still really far behind on my blog posts but am really trying to catch up.. It is just very hard. Now for anyone who knows my friend Dan, or follows his blog while he is in Japan( Dan's Blog) know that he can not keep up with his blog posts either and writes things out of order. So for the second time in a couple weeks I will have to say that I am pulling a Dan and he is a really bad influence on me. I am writing my posts completely out of order , but oh well. Please forgive me and if you want the posts in order please blame Dan for his bad influence on me. BTW I totally recommend Dan's blog. It is pretty neat and he is doing some really cool things while in Japan. Ok, now back to me....That sounds really self absorbed but oh well.

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With  this Thursday being my last official night in Cuernavaca, I kinda need to spend it with my crazy host mother whether I like it or not , so last Thursday was my last night at Carlos N Charlies with Rafa and the Boys. I do not know if I have written about this , but C N C is a Bar/Dance club in Cuernavaca where during the summer all the gringos go because it is cheep drinks on thursdays. I have gone many Thursdays over the past 5 months. And I believe that it is much better during the off season because there are not as many people there. But anyhoo, I went with Nora and the rest of the gang and we had a fantastic time.

Me, Issac, Sara and Liz

We danced and had a blast. Since it was the night that Mexico won 2-0 against France it was a HUGE party. Nora and I stayed after everyone else left and then I had the great privledge of saying goodbye to the boys who have made the last 5 months so much fun to go out and hang out and dance with. These guys are all friends of Noras so they are all safe and alot of fun. It took forever to say good bye to them because they have to say goodbye so many times. Rafa, Nora's boyfriend, was the hardest to say goodbye too because he has been the one who has really made my time here special.He made my birthday celebrations wonderful and has gone above and beyond to make sure I am doing ok and am safe. He is one awesome person. But he was genially sad that I was leaving and kept telling me he would miss me and to come back soon and to know that he thinks of me like his sister so if I am ever back in Cuernavaca I better call him. It was super sweet and I really didnt want to leave , but considering that is was 2am and i had class at 8 I kinda had to leave. I am really going to miss going to Carlos N Charlies and know that I am being taken care of and am being watched over with a very close eye. I guess I better start planning my next trip because Rafa expects me to be back soon.

The fair

Each year in June San Anton , the neighborhood where CEMAL, Universal my spanish school and where I live at the moment have a HUGE fair for a week. there are many booths, concerts, and parades. In the parades they have paper mache costumes that walk down the street. See below.

There was fireworks that went off all the time and it was one huge party. I did not get to go during the prime times because I couldnt get anyone to go with me , but I was able to buy some earrings and walk around a bunch. I saw around 30 of my students that I worked with at Don Bosco. Normally the conversations would go a little something like this... This is the translated version from Spanish.

Student: HOLA MEIRA! How are you?
Me: (In English) I am good how are you today?
Student: Meira, use spanish. We dont understand your english.
Me: ( In English) You understand what I am saying.
Student: We do but dont want to speak English.
Me: OK fine.

Student: What are you doing at the fair?
Me: I am walking around looking at everything, and I live very close to here.
Student: OH..... You look very funny teacher. You look different. Your hair looks very funny and you are not wearing your glasses. Why are you not dressed like you are at school? I do not like what you wear.
Me: OMMMM, Thanks? You look different in your clothes too.
Student: That is because we are not at school. Bye Teacher.
Me:Bye.

That is roughly what a conversation went like, about 20 or so times. Other times they wouldn't say anything to me.All in all it was a fun weekend at the fair and I got to eat yummy ice cream, buy some bread and be a Mexican for a couple days and enjoy a mexican celebration. here is the slideshow of the pictures from the event.

Last week...ready or not here I come

Well I am somehow in my last week of being in Mexico? How did that happen? I have been here for  5 months and a week ! That just amazes me. It feels like I arrived last month. Crazy how time flys when you are having fun. But because it is my last week and this time next week I will be in the STL or otherwise known to the world as St. Louis , Missouri I have started a list of things that are helping my saddness of going home.

Reasons to go home:
1. Get to see Roger.
2. Seeing my family after 3 months or so.
3. Finally get to choose what I eat and how much I eat.
4. Not having the shower or toilet flood and make everything wet.
5. Not having my mother ask me every 4 minutes where i am going and with who and threatening to call me in an hour.
6. Not having my mom tell me she had an aweful day with me.
7. Not being yelled at that what I am doing is not listed on the calendar that is hanging on the fridge. (ie. it was a last minute event and not an event planned by the school)
8. Getting to see some of the people from this summer back home in either Iowa or when I go visit Minnesota.

Please dont think that I hate being here still , because I dont. I am just starting the transition to knowing that I will be home soon  and also losing my normally high level of patience for stupid things that have been going on lately especially with my host mom.

 I know come Sunday I will not want to leave and will cry , but that is part of life. I have plans for coming back very very soon , so that is also helping me at the moment.

Da World Cup/ Mundial

I am in love. I never knew that a sport other then hockey would make me go gaga over the players and the game . All it took was being in Mexico for 5 months and starting to learn about the game . Now I see why everyone else in the world LOVES Futbol. It is one amazing game. Yes it is very low scoring and the guys run up and down the field, but hey it beats stupid baseball . They just run around the bases are are fat. Futbol players have to be fit and every one of them is smoking hot themselves. Yes it is not just me who thinks that .
For evidence please see the pictures below.

Landon Donovan - Us Team

Javier Hernandez- Team Mexico

Ok, now I am off my soap box. But really these guys are HOT!!!

Last Friday , June 11, Mexico played the first game of the Mundial against South Africa. To say I was excited was an understatement. I had been counting down until the game for over a month. I had my jersey and told me teacher that I would be skipping class. I was being a good student , but she was still upset that I would miss a class. Come on... this is the mundial. When in my life will I be in Mexico again during a World Cup year and Mexico will be playing the first game of the tournament? Yeah your right 1 in a million . So I ignored my teacher and headed to the Zocalo with Nora for the game. And boy was it amazing. There were so many people there.

The picture does not do it justice , but just picture like 2,000 people under the black tent screaming and having a great time watching the game on a ginant big screen. The screen is set up for the whole month of the World Cup and they play every single game . If i really wanted to , I could sit downtown everyday from 9 until 3 watching every game. That just sounds like bliss to me.   When South Africa scored ,  you could have heard a pin drop. But when Mexico scored , I imagined all of Mexico screaming and it sounded that way too. Everyone in the country was not at work, and instead either at a pub or in their town Zocalo watching the game. For this game they even had security and a VIP section with cofortable chairs and stuff. It was totally awesome. During the half time, they had contests and had dancers up on the stage dancing to Sharkira's "Waka Waka Song or to the Ky'aan Wave your flag song. Click on the names to hear the songs off youtube. It was a great cultural experience and I am glad I skipped Spanish class to participate in a huge Mexican event. I meet many darling fellow Mexico fans, and had the time of my life. The final score of the game was 1-1. So we , Mexico, got one point in the standings to move onto the next stage.

Mexico plays France tomorrow at 12:10.There is no room in this tournament for baggetts, wine and cheese ... Pan dulce, Tequilla beans and tacos will conquer all. 

Peace , Love , Mexico.
Vamos Mexico. ( Lets go Mexico.)

Thoughts of the moment

I have offically been in Mexico for exactly 5 months. I arrived on January 16. How did that happen? How am I leaving in a little over a week. Not going to think about that yet. First have to pack everything. AHHHH. Not going to be fun.

Mexican trash STINKS. I have found myself next to 3 trash trucks over the past 24 hours, and I can not get away from them. I think the trash smells worse here. BLAH. NASTY. SMELLY.

My students at Don Bosco are strange galletas(cookies) Example 1: I walk up to the classroom yesterday and kids start yelling GUERA GUERA GUERA ( Whitie , Whitie , Whitie) At least it wasnt bad . No matter how many times I tell them my name , which they all know , I am called Gringa or Whitey.  At least they are doing it in a form of endearment.

I am super excited for the next Mexico game in the world cup tomorrow. They are playing France tomorrow ( Thursday) at 12:10. If you are in Mexico it is on TV Azteca. In the states either Univision or ESPN. According to Noah , it is so much better in Spanish because the announcers actually are entertaining.  I would have to agree.

Thats it for now . Check back often for the newest Meira thoughts.