Muy Buenos Dias a todos,
This entry I was going to write about “El Grito,” the traditional Independence Day celebration that takes place on the 15th of September every year, but as I drank some bad coffee and had a stomachache all that night and the following day, I didn’t go. Well, the stomachache and the fact that there had been a shootout between Narcos (people involved with the drug cartels) and the police the night before. That also contributed to Pako and I not going. Bush thought he started a “war on drugs,” cough total failure cough cough? Well, this is a war, that is for sure. Our night time activities are suspended for awhile, but don’t despair, I didn’t really want to see any of my students drunkenly screaming ‘Viva Mexico!’ Hearing them talk about it on Thursday was enough. Anywho, Pako and I watched the fireworks from our balcony, which was super cool and Louise would have oohed and aahed her heart out, and then we watched the parade on TV. All in all, I didn’t really get to experience the grito, but as I’m told it happens every year with some regularity, I’m not too upset.
I was excited to leave school for the weekend as I give a (mandatory, not my choice) quiz on irregular verbs to all of my classes every Friday and inevitably at least one student in each class will ask me what the quiz is about, despite a week’s worth of warm ups and practice with those specific five verbs (this week’s were: come, cost, cut, dig, do). These questions consistently give me the urge to smack someone so Friday afternoons are always somewhat triumphant as I haven’t hit anyone (thus far). At home I rested, did some grading (nerdy, I know) and Pako and I watched City of God, which is an amazing, but unpleasant account of events that took place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Then, to pick ourselves up we went to walk Tekila in a park in Ixtapa and saw two of my students on the way to a bar. This is karma, I tell you! I never went to bars in high school (not because I didn’t want to but because I couldn’t get in), but I wasn’t exactly a teetotaler and now karma is repaying me in kind. Let me tell you, it is very bizarre to see your 15 year old students heading into a bar and being the only one freaked out. Tekila enjoyed his walk in the park, at least.
Then on Saturday, the family packed up and drove to Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, an industrial city about an hour and a half away from Zihua for Pako’s dad, Eliseo’s, and his two brother’s birthday celebration. Michoacan is run by La Familia, an evangelical Christian drug cartel who won’t kill you unless you get in the way of their selling drugs… yep. Anywho, the military presence on the way to Lazaro (important Mexican president after the Mexican Revolution, google him) was heavy and we were stopped and the car searched at the border of Guerrero (my state) and Michoacan, on the Guerrero side, presumably to stop drugs from entering or leaving the state. Also, saw a dead burro on the side of the road reminiscent of a deer on the side of a two way freeway in rural Wisconsin. That was sad, and odd.
The party was a dinner for about 15 people and there was pozole, tamales and carne asada as well as chips and salsa, empanadas, cacahuates japoneses (thought of you, dad!) and cake. Then there were about 17 two-liters of Coke, diet Coke, Fanta and eSprite (say it out loud and you will sound like my in-laws), copious amounts of beer and Tequila. We didn’t go hungry. There was also a time when someone pulled out a guitar and the men started singing corridos and boleros (traditional Mexican songs, google them). Then at one point, when everyone was slightly enebriated, they started chanting “sing, white girl, sing” (canta, guera, canta). So I obliged and sang them Jingle Bells. It was not embarrassing in the least…
At one point we went to pick up a cousin from a basketball final (they won by one point… the playing made me want to start my own basketball team in Zihua so we could wup everyone else’s butt… that means they were bad) and on the soccer field next to the bball court there as a mini-rodeo where they were “bailando caballos.” For you non-Spanish speakers, that means they were dancing horses. This is something I had never seen before and found quite amusing. Mariachis play and the rider makes the horse quick-step… here’s a youtube video (not of what I saw, but similar) so you can get the idea… The whole experience felt very authentic and surreal.
This entry I was going to write about “El Grito,” the traditional Independence Day celebration that takes place on the 15th of September every year, but as I drank some bad coffee and had a stomachache all that night and the following day, I didn’t go. Well, the stomachache and the fact that there had been a shootout between Narcos (people involved with the drug cartels) and the police the night before. That also contributed to Pako and I not going. Bush thought he started a “war on drugs,” cough total failure cough cough? Well, this is a war, that is for sure. Our night time activities are suspended for awhile, but don’t despair, I didn’t really want to see any of my students drunkenly screaming ‘Viva Mexico!’ Hearing them talk about it on Thursday was enough. Anywho, Pako and I watched the fireworks from our balcony, which was super cool and Louise would have oohed and aahed her heart out, and then we watched the parade on TV. All in all, I didn’t really get to experience the grito, but as I’m told it happens every year with some regularity, I’m not too upset.
I was excited to leave school for the weekend as I give a (mandatory, not my choice) quiz on irregular verbs to all of my classes every Friday and inevitably at least one student in each class will ask me what the quiz is about, despite a week’s worth of warm ups and practice with those specific five verbs (this week’s were: come, cost, cut, dig, do). These questions consistently give me the urge to smack someone so Friday afternoons are always somewhat triumphant as I haven’t hit anyone (thus far). At home I rested, did some grading (nerdy, I know) and Pako and I watched City of God, which is an amazing, but unpleasant account of events that took place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Then, to pick ourselves up we went to walk Tekila in a park in Ixtapa and saw two of my students on the way to a bar. This is karma, I tell you! I never went to bars in high school (not because I didn’t want to but because I couldn’t get in), but I wasn’t exactly a teetotaler and now karma is repaying me in kind. Let me tell you, it is very bizarre to see your 15 year old students heading into a bar and being the only one freaked out. Tekila enjoyed his walk in the park, at least.
Then on Saturday, the family packed up and drove to Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, an industrial city about an hour and a half away from Zihua for Pako’s dad, Eliseo’s, and his two brother’s birthday celebration. Michoacan is run by La Familia, an evangelical Christian drug cartel who won’t kill you unless you get in the way of their selling drugs… yep. Anywho, the military presence on the way to Lazaro (important Mexican president after the Mexican Revolution, google him) was heavy and we were stopped and the car searched at the border of Guerrero (my state) and Michoacan, on the Guerrero side, presumably to stop drugs from entering or leaving the state. Also, saw a dead burro on the side of the road reminiscent of a deer on the side of a two way freeway in rural Wisconsin. That was sad, and odd.
The party was a dinner for about 15 people and there was pozole, tamales and carne asada as well as chips and salsa, empanadas, cacahuates japoneses (thought of you, dad!) and cake. Then there were about 17 two-liters of Coke, diet Coke, Fanta and eSprite (say it out loud and you will sound like my in-laws), copious amounts of beer and Tequila. We didn’t go hungry. There was also a time when someone pulled out a guitar and the men started singing corridos and boleros (traditional Mexican songs, google them). Then at one point, when everyone was slightly enebriated, they started chanting “sing, white girl, sing” (canta, guera, canta). So I obliged and sang them Jingle Bells. It was not embarrassing in the least…
At one point we went to pick up a cousin from a basketball final (they won by one point… the playing made me want to start my own basketball team in Zihua so we could wup everyone else’s butt… that means they were bad) and on the soccer field next to the bball court there as a mini-rodeo where they were “bailando caballos.” For you non-Spanish speakers, that means they were dancing horses. This is something I had never seen before and found quite amusing. Mariachis play and the rider makes the horse quick-step… here’s a youtube video (not of what I saw, but similar) so you can get the idea… The whole experience felt very authentic and surreal.
Leyah
PS. Here's me making a tortilla by hand... look at me learning how to be a Mexican housewife!
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