Much has happened since my last post.
Lets start last Wednesday, the evening that the United Sates beat up on Mexico in futbol (soccer). John and I were invited by some of our classmates to come watch the game at a small hole in the wall bar called Casino. We arrived a bit early to have some drinks before the game started and watched people role in. As it turned out we were the only gringos in the bar and when I started yelling after the US scored the first goal I quickly realized this ratio and kept relatively quite for the rest of the time. Eventually the focus drifted from the game as the US took a 2-0 lead and drunken conversation became more appealing. I ended up talking, it seemed more like a lecture, to Robert and Barbara about environmental issues for over an hour until we decided to head to the central garden for some greasy food. (Side note: the US has not lost to Mexico for 11 straight years now and all the mexicans were a bit dispirited that evening.) We proceeded to wander the streets with a girl named amy and an older woman by the name of marina. When john drinks enough I think that it is a safe assumption to say that he is very friendly with older woman, thats all I'll say. Amy ended up drinking too much and we walked them both home.
Thursday was greatly anticipated as we expected our parents to arrive sometime around three that afternoon. So, we went to class and did a quick hike and workout afterwards. Johns dad, stuart, flew them down in his little four seater plane, I think my mother was a bit nervous, but all went well and they arrived just a tad bit late. They stayed in a wonderful little bed and breakfast not far from the central garden, maybe a four minute walk. We helped them get their luggage settled in their rooms and decided that we need some mexican food, beers, and a sunset, so we went and found just that. This was our little pre-funk before we went and ate dinner at an argentine beef house. Unfortunately I can't recall what it is that makes argentine beef soooo special, but, it was pretty damn good. Coincidentally, our good friend from the hostel, Julian, was our waiter that evening. He did an excellent job and it was a pleasant surprise to get to see him again. After diner we were all tired and decided to call it a night.
By the time friday rolled around john and i were both getting a bit tired of our spanish classes so we did what the typical college student does, we skipped. Instead of attending class we decided to study over coffee at cafe etc., perhaps one of my favorite places in san miguel. The warren hardy curriculum is much better and I think we learned more in one sitting than we did in one week at our school. Turns out that we ran into our parents on the way to the cafe, it's not a big city, and made plans to meet them at the Puebla Viejo to watch the sunset over drinks again. For the second night in a row the firmament was rather bland and we left hoping for a better experience with some Italian food. We walked around for quite some time looking for the place and as it turns out the place we wanted to eat at had closed quite some time ago. hmmm. We then took up the suggestion to go to a small little italian venue called Donavans. I hadn't had pizza in quite a while, so we all did, and it was amazing. No one could finish their pizza due to the fact that portions in mexico always seem to be larger then anyone expects. No complaints though, this just meant that john and I got to take home a lot of pizza for later. Mmmm. We said our goodnights to the parents and then went on a nice little hike around 10pm up into the botanical gardens to chill for a little bit. I slept very hard that night.
Saturday was all planned out. We ate a quick breakfast and then met our parents around 9:30 that morning to take them on one of the hikes that John and I have been doing for the past few weeks. The place we hiked to, on the backside of the botanical gardens, apparently was going to be a very nice subdivision/development project financed by two canadians and a texan. They spent millions of dollars getting the land ready and building the infrastructure for the area until they ran into water issues, couldn't sell enough lots, and one of the investors (I will assume it was a canadian) ran away with all of the money they hadn't yet squandered on the apparently hopeless project. So, that's why there are some beautiful abandoned house up there for us to go play around in. After the hike John studied, stuart and rebecca (john's parents) went to work out and my mother and i decided to go shopping for a little while. We found some cute little bags that my mother bought for her friends to use as re-usable grocery bags and what not. Going green, good job mother! My prize purchase that day, which I had wanted for weeks but didn't want to spend the money, was a thinly striped pastel scarf. I proceeded to wear this scarf everywhere for the next few days, i think that it makes me look more European. Which I think may be better than american down here.
This is funny. So john was sitting in cafe etc., studying, when he overheard a man discussing something that caused him interject. They ended up talking for quite a while and john told him about many of the adventures we've had and places we intend to go (starting tomorrow!!). The man was so excited for us that he told john, "Now, don't be offended, but... uhum. I want to give you five hundred pesos to make sure that you have plenty of money to do these things."
Sure, this is really only about 35 dollars US but hey, it's free money. Turns out the guy was gay and told john that he was welcome at his place in new mexico anytime. Strictly platonic I was told by John.
John and I reconvened to prepare for our last diner with the parents and then head out to a party at our classmate Robert's house. We arrived a little late and most people were already pretty drunk and of course, old. Again we were the youngest people there by at least 20 years, but we still had fun. Apparently I was conversing with the mayor of the white people in San Miguel, sounds kinda racist I know. He was six foot five, two hundred fifty plus pounds of pure drunkenness. Very funny to talk to nonetheless. I was very happy to find that Robert had purchased a bottle of Jack Daniels, which I had not had in a while, and I had a healthy dose before we left a bit later for a karaoke bar called longhorns. The place was a dive and I became bored quickly, especially since singing karaoke would have proven a bit difficult. Took a cab home late and woke up early to meet the parents for breakfast. That was a bit tough but I was happy to see them off. Love you mother and stuart and rebecca! It was fun!
After the sendoff we needed to work off the hangover, so we went for a hike to our favorite abandoned house. Upon arrival and trying to think of something new and fun to do I decided that we should create a sculpture for all to see and appreciate. We stacked up thirteen cinder blocks and then spiraled them around counterclockwise until the structure could stand firmly on it's own. We then decorated our cinderblock spiral with bright reddish-orange tiles of some sort. I thought that it was beautiful, although mother nature may have felt otherwise as the wind blow our creation down at some point during the night.
So monday came and went, school is blah... but tuesday day and night were wonderful. I skipped school again and went on a nice hike around the lake by the gardens. Found some decaying structures overgrown by vegetation and then posted up for some stretching and studying. Wonderful weather, it was like one of those perfect days in summer. I met up with john to study more and we decided that we should probably have some margaritas before we headed home for lunch. Well those margaritas were so good, the weather was so nice and the view so relaxing that we had to go back. One thing led to another and we ended up going to the most american bar in san miguel named harry's. I suppose that it was a pretty cool place, again we're the youngest by a long-shot. The next morning we decided that all the old women looked like iguanas, they had scary long fingernails, crazy botox or collagen, always re-applied bright red lipstick and just seemed scaly. Thus they are iguanas. John and I believe that we have found a new name for a specific age bracket of old single women. We all now what a cougar is and they are typically considered good finds. But there is another category perhaps not experienced by all. We call them lizards, and they are not good finds. They can be many different kinds of lizards, but they are lizards nonetheless. They are scaly, old long-nailed single women who hang out in bars and will greedily pray on whatever they think they can handle, just like a lizard. When I say old I mean that they have to have kids that are well older than you are. ewww.
After that night we decided that we were done going out to the bars in san miguel. In fact it has started to feel as though we have definitely stayed a bit longer in this place than we should have. We are both getting extremely anxious to get on the road, couch surf, beach bum it and stick our thumbs out to get to wherever we damn well please. So we have decided to leave one day early, on friday instead of saturday. Plus, if we leave tomorrow then we can spend some time in mexico city, zihuatanejo, and make it to Acapulco for fat tuesday!!! Seeing all the amazing pictures that are tagged on google earth was about to make us crazy. We will be there, all in due time. So our bus leaves tomorrow at 10am and we should arrive in Mexico city aorund 2pm. I will miss san miguel, but I am enthusiastic about the road to nicaragua.
sooner than later next time
caleb
