Popular songs from late 2006 Mexico (or Sahuayo, at least)

I was reminiscing about all things Mexican today, and tried to find some of the pop songs I enjoyed while I was there.  I was able to find a few, but unfortunately not many were ones I really loved.  (Fergie really rubs me the wrong way.)

Anyways, here they are:

1. Paulina Rubio: “Ni una Sola Palabra”
2. Daddy Yanke: “Rompe” (really, truly, the most repetitive song I have EVER heard)
3. Belanova: “Rosa Pastel”
4. Mana: “Labios Compartidos” (Who doesn’t like Mana?)
5. Brigde Fergie: “London” (controlling gag reflex…)
6. Julieta Venegas: “Limón ySal”
7. Justin Timberlake: “Sexy Back”
8. Belinda: “Ni Freud ni tu Mamá”

These aren’t all (or even mostly) Mexican artists, or even Latin American artists.  They’re just a sampling of some of the songs we heard over and over on MTV.  I wish I could find some of the songs I really liked, it’s just been so long, and I can’t think of anything about them.  Rats.

Other than bars, I’d have to site internet cafes as the reason that I heard certain songs so many times.  “Rompe” started making ME want to break something after a while (rompe comes from romper which means “to break”….hmm, whatever could THAT song be talking about? )

I have to get some links to the YouTube sites up because some of these music videos are truly pricesless.  Paulina Rubio looks like a mixture between a prostitute and a drunken model in the one video.  (Is that too harsh?  Maybe not, considering the cell phone belted to her waist and gigantic gold heels.)

Ah, memories.  Yours truly is getting the itch to travel again, but it really is much to soon to be leaving again.  I do have to wonder, post college, if there will ever really be a way for me to go abroad for any extended period of time again.  Especially with the medio naranja around.  But hey, where there’s a will. . .

 

More Pictures of Sahuayo

These are the few pictures I actually have of Sahuayo – funny how you live somewhere forever and come home to realize you only have a handful of photos of it.  Good memories

 

Para mis estudiantes/los que quieren decir algo….

Si quieres dejar un comentario aquí, no vas a verlo inmediatamente.  ¡Ten paciencia!  Primero, yo lo recibo y entonces (cuando leo mi email) lo que has escrito aparecerá.  Si tienes problemas, me envias un email (y si no tienes mi dirección, pues, pregunta a Gerardo)

(hola Rodri, ¿como estás?)

Les extraño a todos y espero que todavía están hablando inglés en la clase… ¡y nada más!

 

It’s Good to Hear from you!

To Gerardo and Alejandra, hey guys, good to hear from you! I meant to email everyone when I got home, but somehow I got caught up in school and neglected to do so.

To Lauren – hope everything is going well – I keep trying to leave a comment on your site but somehow I erase it. The laundry gets easier, I promise!

To Sal Navarro (to differentiate from another “Sal”)- thanks for mentioning hibiscus, I had no idea

I’d like to one day write something that has a more specific topic and that doesn’t end after four months, like Sahuayo did, sadly enough. Until then, I’ll write every once in a while about how the whole job search is going. Please keep visiting, it’s good to hear from you, especially the fam

 

Reflections

Ack!  I’m sorry! 

That’s right.  I officially offer you, reader, my formal apologies for the complete and total neglect of this website during the past five weeks.  I have no excuses, and if anyone is even checking this site anymore…congratulations, I promise I’ll make it worth your while.

That being said, It should be noted that I am now back on North American soil (Mexico being a country technically located in Central America precludes the use of “American” in this context.  Point out that Canada is also in North America and I may have to admit defeat.).  There are certain, inexpressibly wonderful and sad things about that.  I miss friends, acquaintances, and all the people who made the effort of saying hello each day.  It makes a difference when you’re far away from home.  They’ll never read this, but to the Banana Lady, the Chicken Guy, Old Shoe Man, Shoe Shine Guy, Parking Lot Man, and all the other people whose many last names I never committed to memory: I miss you guys!

 I also miss sun and Mexican food, which makes the chemically and biologically enhanced trash we eat seem, well, bad.  As evidence for this fact, I would like to point out that I was never violently ill while in Mexico.  That’s right.  All those antibiotics went completely untouched. And I brushed my teeth with tap water in a number of different places, ate fruit and vegetables with the skin on, and basically stopped being too worried about getting sick after the first couple months. I wasn’t worried about getting sick back in the US either, even though I did.  I’ll spare the world the details (and to be fair, it was mild) but it did give me something to think about.  

Many people think of Mexico as a grimy, germy place.  I can’t even count the number of friends, family, and healthcare professionals that warned me of the horror that would supposedly ensue shortly after I arrived.  I don’t know if Montezuma is getting lazy in his old age or if some other tragedy befell him.  What I can tell you is that the Immodium was a waste of money. 

But enough of that.  I thought it might be edifying and humorous to note some of the things about Mexico that I miss, and those that I don’t.  It is in no way a complete list, but rather a representative snapshot of daily triumphs and difficulties I experienced.  I present them below:

Ten Aspects of Sahuayo I’d rather forget:
1. Certain things just simply not happening for unapparent reasons.  Case in point: the
5:30am bus to Manzanillo which arrived at 7:20am.  (It’s somewhat cold at an altitude of 5000ft. at 5:30am in December, even if you are in Mexico.)
2.  The inoffensiveness of noise.  Random music, random screaming, cars blaring
advertisements over loudspeakers in the streets, babies crying, it’s all acceptable.
3.  Roaches, which I still find myself scanning for every time I enter a kitchen.
4.  “Yes” occasionally meaning “no.”
5.  The always mysterious and slightly horrifying smell of fecal matter which seemed to come from nowhere at unpredictable times.
6.  Being “Maestra” or “RRRO-bean” (If in doubt, roll the “R” for all you’re worth.)
7.  Washing my clothes by hand.
8.  The random nausea that comes from spending hours riding a bus through the mountains.
9.  Wearing the same jacket and sweater every day for the last month.  There was an unexpected cold snap, and then “winter” arrived, meaning that temperatures dropped to the 40s and 50s at night.  Lack of proper clothing (my fault) and insulated walls (circumstantial) made this somewhat uncomfortable.
10.  The many, many times the gas company said, at 7:00am, that they would come, were coming, were on their way, were downstairs, or had just been downstairs but were forced to leave.  To this day I don’t know exactly what was going on, but I did actually cry over this at one point.  It was just that frustrating.

Ten Aspects of Sahuayo I’ll always Miss:
1.  Being safe on the streets at night.
2.  Mexican food – tacos al pastor, sopes, enchiladas, pozole, chorizo, quesadillas, churros, atole, jamaica, chile in its many forms, all the produce that just doesn’t exist here, ditto on the seafood, queso para fundir, etc. 
3.  The relative cheapness of everything, especially fresh produce at the market.
4.  The market itself.
5.  Sunny weather, even during rainy season.
6.  Not being constantly busy and stressed (and not feeling like that was some sort of
requirement for meaningful existence).
7.  Being close enough to beaches, waterfalls, mountains, volcanoes, etc. to take weekend trips to any of the aforementioned places.
8.  Plentiful public transportation.
9.  The “do whatever you want, it’s ok” mindset.
10.  The seemingly endless stream of public events, festivals, and celebrations.

Overall, it’s nice to be back to being the student instead of the teacher.  My Spanish has really improved, and I would do it all over again if I had the chance, as they say.  The weather in Ohio is unpleasant, and the Clifton neighborhoods tend to leave something to be desired.  However, the water supply is consistent, I haven’t chased any living thing with a can of Raid in several weeks, and the only reason I call the gas company is if I suspect impending doom.  And that could be something to celebrate.

 

Where´s my turkey?

First of all, let me just say that it should be snowing, according to the temperatures that are now reaching new lows outside.  That is to say, bare foot plus marble floor equals one large dose of unpleasantness in the morning.  And we in Mexico do not believe in heat.  Now, it might be prudent to mention that it´s usually warm here and that it is almost always sunny, so heat doesn´t really seem necessary.  However, when the sun goes down, the fact that the majority of my apartment consists of windows and marble becomes something of a problem.  Plus, our school doesn´t even have a roof.  My classroom has a roof, but there´s kind of a draft from the twenty by twenty gap in the ceiling.  During the rainy season, we had lots of fun (or we should say, my younger students had fun) splashing in the “lake.”  Anyways, Mexicans are a resilient people and many of them are currently quite amused to watch the teachers from way up north shivering and whining about the cold.  In my own defense, I do own a lot of winter clothes, I just left them at home.  And yes, I am kicking myself…or I will be when I´m in Gigante buying a coat and a sweatshirt. 

So, there you have it.  No heat, no coats, no nothing except some wool blankets which I have considered wearing to school.  I think some people have some kind of space heater contraption, but I think it would take more than that to warm up the marble palace.  We´ve only had a couple cold nights so far, and the daytime is perfectly tolerable, so I guess we´re just keeping our fingers crossed at this point and fighting over the blankets.

Meanwhile, the roach population is happily surviving and multiplying in the bathroom, of all places.  I try not to think about what the invincible creatures are eating. 

My apologies to all for the crankiness.  I swear it´s not that bad, it´s just the impending lack of turkey and stuffing that is making us all a bit homesick.  Save me some pie, ma.

 

So little time

Well, we made it to Puerto Vallarta safely and had a good time.  The “resort” we stayed in was all-inclusive and wicked cheap, as my Bostonian roommates would say, so we thought it was worth it.  However, we did discover that a nearby beach, Nuevo Vallarta, was much more beautiful and nearly deserted.  Puerto Vallarta, for all its built up reputation, is not really all that nice.  It is pretty and the city has a lot of places to go shopping, but I would definitely recommend Nuevo Vallarta.  Less rocky.  Anyways, we had a nice time hanging out with other English-speakers.  Most of the waiters were pretty shocked that green-skinned gringa Robin could order pancakes in Spanish.  Take that, stereotypers.  I spoke more Spanish than the pancake man spoke English, so it seemed a logical solution.

Other than that, we are beginning the second half of teaching.  I have something like six weeks of teaching or less, which means there are far too few weekends left for traveling!  We are still planning to visit a volcano near Morelia, a nearby city called Uruapan, and hopefully Guadalajara.  Mexico City might be neat, but it is much further away and it has a lot of crime.  Most of my students actually tell me not to go there, and you should always listen to the Mexicans when it comes to Mexico.  They know their stuff.

Today is Tianguis day again in Sahuayo, so the streets are packed.  One of my roommates and I ventured out to look for a DVD of some movie that came out in the US last Friday, but no such luck.  Normally, I try to buy the legal versions of things, but in Mexico I am not sure if such a thing is even available.  And plus, when you have the ambient sounds of rustling candy wrappers and popcorn crunching, it really adds something to the experience of watching a movie at home.  The only bad part is that the sound quality is occasionally horrendous, but hey, what can you expect from a camcorder?   Now if only that idiot in the front row would sit down.

 

Happy Mexoween

Well, Halloween came and went and we tried to bring Sahuayo some of the flavor, but I´m not sure if it worked. I thought it would be fun to have one of my classes make jack-o-lanterns, but then I realized knives might not be a good idea with a bunch of teenagers. Also, in the US, many, many parents would flip their lids upon hearing that little Johnny´s homework is to bring in a carving knife and a gourd. Still, I figured we could get some paint and glitter and whatever and make something similar.

And then I saw their pumpkins. God love these kids, because I think pumpkins are hard to find. My students assure me that a “normal” looking pumpkin is, in fact, available here, but nothing under the 5 kilo range. Most of the smaller pumpkins look like the sad creatures carried to class by my students. Most were dark green, some I´m pretty sure wouldn´t even fit into the pumpkin definition. A couple kids managed to find something orange, but it was a pretty sickly looking orange color.

Mexico, being what it is, has no such laws against children and knives and schools, because my class, upon realizing that I was going to make them paint their pumpkins (like, totally lame, you know?) went out and bought exacto knives. Big ones. And brought them to school. And got permission to use them. At the end of the day, there was no blood and we had some pretty unique jack-o-lanterns, so I guess all´s well that ends well. Still, sometimes you can´t help but laugh at the relative uptightness of the US. I mean, we can´t even show a twelve-year-old a PG-13 movie, and in Mexico, 12 year olds can drink, drive, and smoke. No, not legally, but who´s checking?

 

Raindrops keep fallin´ on my head

Well, since I´m sitting here waiting for all my pictures to upload (which is unmysteriously taking eons) I thought I´d try to be productive.

We went to Los Reyes again this weekend to visit Los Chorros, which are waterfalls. They are about thirty minutes away from Los Reyes, so we all piled into the back of a friend´s pick-up truck wearing some particularly lovely “ponchos” that we made from trash bags. Normally, I can handle a little dampness, but 20 straight hours of rain is too much. Not to mention the 1600 stairs involved in the hike. By the time we arrived, we were already pretty wet, and the stairs were pretty wet, so there were some interesting moments climbing around in the mud. The waterfalls were spectacular, however, so it´s okay that I dropped my camera into a mud puddle and got dirt all over myself while climbing over a fallen tree. Don´t ask me why I thought a white tank top would be a good wardrobe choice. It seemed okay in Sahuayo that morning.

The best aspect of the trip, in my opinion, was the Indian Jones-style bridge that we had to cross halfway into the descent. Literally, all the movies where the ditzy Peace Corps volunteer travels to some random Latin American country could have been filmed here. I took one look at the thing and immediately began to calculate my odds of surviving if it went crashing into the rapids. I guessed that if I fell off the bridge, 0%, and if I could hang on and drop into the water from a lower height, maybe 25%. So, of course, I decided this was an opportunity not to be missed.

Salvador, the Mexican friend who went with us, was kind enough to provide some instructions. First, hold on to the ropes (because I was thinking cartwheeling across), and second, put your feet directly in front of each other. (The construction of the bridge was such that each horizontal board was supported by three cables, one in the middle and two on the sides. Thus, walking in this abnormal pattern decreased your chances of, well, falling to your death.) After we got home, someone mentioned that the boards on that particular bridge frequently break and have to be replaced. Gulp. In any case, I survived without any lasting damage. I may have peed my pants, though, I can´t remember.

We didn´t end up climbing down the last twenty or thirty feet because the stairs stopped and it would have been a mudslide. Still, the ascent (786 stairs down and, you guessed it, 786 up) was easier because it was easier to maintain one´s balance. And the bridge was much more fun the second time around.

Sitting in the back of the pick-up truck, we donned the trash bags and became the gringo circus once more. Judging by the stares we received, trash bags has never looked this good or been used this inventively. Or maybe they just thought the crazy white people had finally lost it completely.

On the way home, we were only mildly concerned that the bus would not be able to make it through standing puddles of water some few FEET deep (and growing). Everyone else seemed to be doing fine in pick-up trucks, but when I look out the window and see only the branches of a tree sticking up from the water, I kind of start wondering if I should get ready to take a little swim.

As it turned out (and always does), we were fine. You have to have faith in the bus drivers. Your average Mexican can back an F-150 into a three inch opening in a forest while completely drunk at two o´clock in the morning. I should know, I´ve seen it happen, but that´s another story. Suffice to say we got home safe and wet.

 

The living room

Imagen 004

Originally uploaded by robin_kathleen_d.

The apartment is actually very big, but I didn´t take pictures of the empty space, so it´s hard to tell. Anyways, here´s where we sit around when we´re tired and hungry after school.