Lake Chapala, Day 9

First a request: Like I put in the info-bar to the right, I really really appreciate your comments! They always make me happy, I love to know that someone is following my blog! Just please remember to put your name in the text, if posting as "anonymous"! Thank you!

With Spanish school being over, I guess I am actually kind of on holiday now! Can you believe that I haven't thought about it this way before? :p Just looked at it like an in-between USA and going back home. But holiday it is, and an amazing one even! :D

So I started the weekend by sleeping in... Or not. I woke up at 7 and met Lita in the kitchen with one of the grandchildren. She cooked eggs with chorizo for me (uhm!) and then I was off to the center with the R-629 once again. A quick and easy trip on a Sunday morning. I was on my way to a bus taking me to Chapala, the largest late in Mexico, a trip that some friends and the school had recommended. I found the bus alright, and we took off first to pick up some more people on hotels around. Then arrived at a meeting place with a minivan, and divided in groups for Tequila and Chapala, respectively.

I went in the minivan with an energetic guide called Rosi. She was translating most of her messages to me in English, so I got some parts of the story as well! It was one of those trips like in Turkey where they take you to a shop you don't really wanna see, in this case a western-style shop with cowboy boots and leather jackets, and in the end to a restaurant I wouldn't have chosen. But back to that later.

The trip to the lake took around 1 hour, and gave a good impression of the area surrounding Guadalajara as well. Chapala city is small and touristic, and the lake is very dirty, but nevertheless it was nice with an escape to some water! As you know by now I have been living inlands for a while, considering Tucson. We spent an hour on our own in the sun on the lake shore, and I bought a little wallet for my Mexican money, which before then was flowing uncontrollably in my bag. So very useful. Its light brown suede and has a flower on it. On my request they also added "Mexico 2011" so it will serve as a memory. :)

After the Chapala town we went to another scenic town on the lake shore, Ajijic ([Ahihik]). It is something like an American/Canadian colony, so though it is beautiful with lots of murals on the colorful houses, to me it sort of looses its charm. We had some time on our own, and I checked out some of the shops, the church, and took some pictures of colorful areas in general. :) Then back to the van and on to the restaurant I wouldn't have chosen, mainly because of its price level. It was right on the shore, so the view was incredible, and I was sitting with 3 other girls from the bus, 2 of which spoke pretty good English. So with the decent meal, all in all it was ok.

The trip back took 1,5 hours I think, because we were dropping people off where it was convenient for them. Very nice... Unfortunately I was last. Oh, but I did catch this great picture of two kids cleaning our windscreen when the driver was not paying enough attention to stop them at the red light! :p Yeah, one has got to be ready to decline such services, or pay up!

Once back home at Lita's, I moved my stuff into another bedroom, as another student was moving in to take my place. I liked the old room better, but I was just happy to be able to stay for another night. I got ready to leave the next morning, and fell asleep quite early, after a day in the fresh air and sun.! :)

Missing picture-links

Sorry people, I just noticed that I have forgotten to link from my blog to my facebook photo albums from the second part of our roadtrip and my trip so far in Mexico.

You can now find them in the menu to the right. --->

Guadalajara, day 7 and 8

Thursday started as the other mornings around 7, getting ready for school. Breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs (huevos, [wevos]), refried beans, fresh squized orange juice, and cereals was on the table. :) Wouldn't mind having someone to prepare that stuff for me at home... :D

School was good, I was feeling much more confident after spending Wednesday afternoon and evening studying so hard. I could really feel a progress! :) After school I went out to find the bus to one of the other parts of the city: Tlaquepaque ([Tlakeehpakeeh]). With a little trouble and asking for directions (YEAH - I recognized when someone mentioned the number 275! Small steps...) I managed, and got into a bus for a bumpy, crowded half hour drive out of the center.

The whole bus-thing here is actually kinda peculiar. In most cases there are no signs for the bus stop, though it does not stop anywhere. You just really need to know I guess. I haven't been able to find a map with the busses or a schedule. Im sure they exist, but it is complicated by the fact that there are numerous bus companies covering the city, and different kinds of busses... Pew... I wonder if the Guadalarajans actually have an overview themselves. :)

Tlaquepaque

Once there I might have missed big parts of the area, but the center of Tlaquepaque where I decided to spend my afternoon was so tranquil, calm, and just so pleasant, compared to the chaos in the city. You know Im not that good with big cities... This part of the city has a lot of arts and crafts for sale, many of the streets are pedestrians only, and though I can imagine it being a tourist hell during summer, it was really nice. After having checked out the neighborhood I found a restaurant recommended in my guidebook, had a slightly disappointing, but however filling lunch. Afterwards I went back to the main square, sat for a while in the sun, and headed back towards the city. Again a challenge... I had asked the tourist information which bus to take to get home, and knew the bus number. Only I couldn't find the bus, so had to ask for directions... again... twice. Luckily people are nice and happy to help. And my goodness, does a few words of Spanish help! :D

Soooo I found the bus and had the worst bus ride like ever. It felt like hours of driving on the messed up roads in a crappy bus, so I really wasn't feeling too good when I got off. And I didn't even know exactly where I was, so it took me a while with my guide book map without street names to find mi casa. But as always (so far!) I did. Then I just crashed. Woke up later with the hope to manage to write my blog, study a bit of Spanish, or at least read in my book, but I was too zombie for either. As far as I remember, I watched tv for a while (yes, I have a big flatscreen tv in my room, in case I havent mentioned...!) and fell asleep early.

Friday, Jan 21st was my last day in school! Getting there of course I wished that I had been able to add too my progress by studying the night before, but I have learned to come to terms with situations like this lately. Previously I could blame myself and feeling bad for not doing better, but now I am better able to realise that I always do my best. And if the temporary best if not my usual best, then probably I had other needs I had to take care of - like sleeping after exploring the city, or watching tv to give my brain a break. :) I think this is a very important lesson, and one that can keep me from getting stressed in the future!

My teacher Sara!

Where were we... Oh yes, last day in school! Was nice, I can feel that I am getting a better grip of certain useful words. I wish I could stay longer in the school though. But maybe some other time. :) The class ended with a test, to see if we had learned the curriculum of the week. It wasn't too hard, though for some reason I am unable to remember the numbers 15, 40 and 50. More practice, I guess! Said goodbye to Sara, and she gave me a big hug and spoke for 10 minutes about this and that. Sorry I cant be more specific, but since I didn't understand the details, its kinda hard to remember! :D


Then I was off, back to Lita's house for lunch. For once it was somewhat crowded, with her daughter Cristina, Cristina's husband, and 3 other students living in the house present. But cosy and a good atmosphere in the kitchen, eating chop suey. Again in the afternoon I just enjoy being able to relax in my room, with TV and a long nap (did you read about my dream? Its in the previous post!).

I just had a dream...

I know I owe you the story of the last couple of days in Mexico, but first I really want to tell you about a dream I just had. I came home from the last day of school exhausted, had lunch, and took a long nap without setting an alarm. Just before I woke up, I dreamt this:

Part 1:
I was on a biking trip with my backpack, feeling very lucky that I could travel around like that, and being happy for being mobile and for being able to enjoy the landscape. I was somewhat lost, but at one point a truck stopped, and the trucker gave me directions. I noticed how beautiful the landscape was behind him, and took a picture with him in it.

Part 2
It had become dark, and I went to stay in an inn/bed and breakfast (Danish word would be "kro"). It had a large, warm common room with a fireplace, and a big pot full of stew hanging over it. There was a great atmosphere in the room, with many people enjoying the meal and chattering all around. Suddenly I noticed my sister Helene and my friend Riccardo sitting at a table, waiting for me. We were very happy to see each other, and I realised how much I had been missing them. I spent a terrific evening with them in the common room, and slept sharing a big bed with both.

Part 3
(I have forgotten some specifics of this part, unfortunately.) The next morning things started turning a little weird. We had breakfast in the kitchen, and we could order ANYTHING we wanted. I had quesadillas (recognize another friend relation? :D), but when the other two had some other interesting things, I wanted more. The staff began adding non-food things to our order (this is where its blurry), and at one point I got a really nice camera. The craziness continued, until I asked to win the lottery, and was giving a winning lottery ticket. I won 48 mio. (though I dont remember the currency! ;)).

Part 4
After winning the lottery we went with one of the hosts to see more of the area. We were in some sort of cart, with all my old and new stuff stacked on the back with Helene, Riccardo and me. We were driving on a road very near the ocean, overlooking an astonishing mountainside ahead of us. But my things on the cart had moved closer to the edge, and some things fell in the water. I remember seeing my purple fleece blanket in the waves, and panicking that I was loosing my stuff, I dived in after it. Once in the water I saw the new camera falling towards the bottom. I felt desperate, but I realised that I had the lottery ticket in my pocket, and that I had to save that first. Once back on the cart I pulled it out of the pocket, and handed it and my old camera to our guide. He asked me if I was sure I wanted the ticket. If I couldn't see that I didn't need it and that it would bring bad things with it. But I was sure that I wanted the ticket. He shrugged, gave me the old camera and the ticket back, and while I could see the letters on it flow out and disappear because of the water, so did the cart, my friends, and the rest of my things.

Part 5
I was walking through the same city where the inn is, feeling depressed and deprived of my whole fortune. I found the hilly street that lead to it. I started walking up meanwhile realising, that all I hoped for was that my friends would be in the common room to greet me when I got there. And how lucky I was to at least have my old camera with all the good memories in it.

Then I woke up.

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I would be so lost if I did't know German!! Mexico day 4-6

Now this post has been in the process of writing for 3 days... A sign of the fact that for once I study really hard! :D

My first day in Spanish school started out with breakfast with Lita. Scrambled eggs with ham, refried beans, and something made with shredded tortillas and tomato sauce. Juice, cereal and bread was also available, so really everything I could hope for. At 7.30 we took the bus to the school, takes app. 30 mins. The quality of the bus is rather poor, but a ticket costs like 0.5$/3 kroner/6 pesos so can't really complain.

Arriving at the bus stop Lita carefully showed me where to get on the bus home, she even wrote me a note so I could be sure to take the right bus. "R-629-2. Not 629-1, not 629-A or B, but R-629-2!" Si, si, comprendo... :D Then she took me to the school, where I got some introductory information, and was tested for my Spanish skills with an oral interview. And then the challenge started. Obviously the teacher would have put me in the absolute beginners group, but the class I am in is not really a beginner level in my opinion. The three other students in the class has various skills, but none are starting from scratch. And the teacher does not speak English. So imagine the very common situation where I look completely lost over something she has said, and she accommodates my lack of understanding by explaining another way. In Spanish. Sigh. Actually I get most of her points, but I would really like to have a teacher who would translate directly to English, so I would learn more about how to build sentences, how and when to use certain words, etc.

That said, I feel like I am learning a lot! I have two notebooks where I write down all the words I catch, and spend the evenings going over my notes and adding more information. And I am so happy to know German, 'cause from there I can recognize many grammatical parts. E.g. the conjugations, the fact that the vers are different depending on who they refer to. If I had to learn this concept from scratch, I would be in trouble! Or even more trouble than now at least... But back to Monday afternoon.

I had class from 9 to 1, and then left the school to explore the city. I bought lunch and sat on a bench in front of the church in the sun to relax my brain a bit. Then headed to an attraction that turned out to be closed on Mondays, but free on Tuesdays, so I decided to come back the next day. On the stairs outside the building I met one of the guys who were sitting in the hotel yard that evening a couple of days before, and he recognized me. So I was asking him for some suggestions on what to do, but actually just ended up with an ice cream on a bench with my Spanish notes. So nice. :)

Went home with the R-629-2 bus, recognizing the signs on the way, which Lita had pointed out for me. Dinner was on the table for me to heat whenever I wanted, so I studied a bit before eating. Continued going over words and phrases and writing my blog till 11, when I really had to go to sleep!

Woke up at 7 to take my breakfast and get ready for school. Managed to be a little bit late, but the bus this morning just took longer, because it was later in the morning and there was more traffic. Another day with all Spanish for 4 hours. I kinda understand what the teacher is saying, but only her points, not the specific words, and I find it almost impossible to say anything. I simply do not have enough words to make a sentence - FRUSTRATING. But of course I cant learn a new language in a few days, so I have to arm myself with patience (dunno if this saying works in English - Danes will understand for sure. :))

In the afternoon I went to see Hospicio Cabañas, and old building that used to be an orphanage. It didn't look like that to me, but nonetheless... It had some beautiful murals and little patios, and since it was a free-Tuesday, I enjoyed not paying for the entrance. :) After this cultural injection I went back to school to take part in the 3-4 PM conversation class, with the topic of "Day of the dead". If you have followed my blog through the semester you might remember my description of the Tucson event in November. Otherwise, check it out! The class was not very useful, as my ability to actually say something is non-existing. Though to be improved! After class I waited around for an hour to ask Mario about a tour to Chapala, and was talking to two Mexican guys in the meantime. I helped them understanding of some English phrases while they helped me out with some Spanish words. Win-win. :)

Back home I was SOOO tired, so basically only managed to watch two episodes of friends on the flat screen tv in my room (!) - English with Spanish subtitles. That also counts as studying, right? :D Did my homework, got some dinner, and fell asleep around 10.30.

Wednesday morning, 19th January, we had a class trip to another IMAC school. First we had a regular class for an hour, and then we met with some Mexican English students. Like in the conversation class the idea was, that we should speak English half the time and Spanish the other half. Just not totally cool when one is not able to say three coherent words in Spanish. However, the English part was kinda fun! I was paired up with a kid aged 13 or something like that, and the whole group went to a café to talk and play a "20 questions to the professor"-kinda game.

Lita was cooking caldo (soup) for lunch, and it was gooooood! Afterwards I called my mom via skype and with the webcam, to have her "meet" my sweet Mexican mom. Was really fun! :) And since that time, 3 PM, I have been studying, only interrupted by a little dinner consisting of tortillas with beans. Me gusto mucho! Now its 10.45, and my brain feels like jelly. I still feel unable to put together a sentence, but at least I have expanded my vocabulary and grammatical understanding a bit more! I think that basically Spanish is a lot of fairly easy words, but with crazy conjugations. So when I hear someone speak I can't recognize it, but really it is conjugations of words I already know. Pew... Only way out is more practice I guess! Two more days in school, then I'm off to test my skills in practice!

Yo aprendo Español! :)

For Christmas I gave my professor Ernie, who invited Helene and me for dinner Christmas eve, two old books with Grooks, little pragmatic poems by the Danish writer Piet Hein. It was inevitable that I had to read through the books before I gave them away (!), and I found this one.

To be brave is to behave

Bravely when your heart is faint.    

So you can be really brave

Only when you really ain’t.

So this morning when I packed my stuff in the hotel before moving to my host family, I kept these words in mind.

Mario had asked me to either be at the host house before 1 PM if I wanted to go with the family to a party, or after 5. In the spirit of adventure and unique experiences I obviously decided that a get-together with people I didn't know and who probably wouldn't speak a lot of English would be a great idea... That gave me 3 hours to tour the old city center before moving along.

The receptionist in the little hotel allowed me to leave my luggage in the reception, and then I stopped by in the bakery to get some breakfast. Though I prefer a more full breakfast than some pieces of bread, I don't mind to live off a few croissants every once in a while! :) Mario had told me about one of the major streets being closed for cars every Sunday morning, so I headed down it towards the center together with hundreds of bikes. Seemed to me like people were just enjoying the fact that there were no cars, without actually having to go anywhere. And well, the weather is amazing here, so I cannot blame them! :)

However, all the shops were closed, and I realised that life in a very catholic city like Guadalajara on a Sunday does not start till church is over... Or well, around 10.30 at least. (Considering that in Denmark NOTHING would really start on a Sunday, this was actually great!) So for a little over an hour I just strolled around enjoying the views - it really is a beautiful city! :) I sat on a bench in the sun in front of the cathedral with my breakfast and enjoyed the whole thing. Then I walked around with the quest of finding a notebook for my Spanish notes, which turned out to be more difficult than I though. The mission brought me into several indoor market places, which would for sure have never been approved for fire safety in Denmark. And the food courts, however delicious the food looked and smelled was not exactly attractive. Im sure it will be, once my stomach gets immune to all the local bugs! :p

So yeah, anyway, one thing bothered me walking around, but of course I should get used to that to. Attracting attention. I am using the same tactic as in Turkey, avoiding eye contact, as that literally makes people follow me around. This tactic minimizes the attention to staring and comments, which in most cases I don't understand. Yet. Though probably for the better anyway - makes it easier to ignore.

I succeeded in my book quest when I found a little pink notebook with Tinkerbell and a lot of glitter. FYI, Tinkerbell is called Campanita, or "little bell", in Spanish. It came with a Disney pen, which sadly doesn't work. I will try to get over the loss. Headed back to the hotel I managed to walk in the wrong direction, but in the end found my way. Picked up my luggage and found a taxi, with 3 veeeery helpful drivers, each eager to respectively assure me he knew the way to my hosts, carry my backpack, and open the door for me, etc. Nice nice... Once in the cap the nice driver really had no clue of where we were going, but he did have a map, and spoke happily to me in Spanish. I understood nothing but his gestures, but that was enough anyway. Spoken language is overrated... ;)

With this newfound discovery I pulled up to 2529, a number the taxi driver was getting tired of repeating to me to learn, I guess. Veinti.. (I actually almost know how to say it, just not sure how to write it ;)) The house was surrounded by a gate, which luckily the driver found out how to open, and I got through the second gate in front of the door. And knocked. Twice. Then a very ecstatic Mexican woman open, hugged me, welcomed me, and showed me my room, los baños (WC), and the kitchen. Slightly overwhelmed but very excited by the fact that she spoke a bit of English AND that there was wireless Internet, I sat down to relax for 5 minutes. We would be leaving to her daughters birthday shortly after.

The birthday girl next to me, and...
Look at that cake! 

Could say a lot about the whole afternoon, but I really need to get to sleep now. :) So I will make it short.  First we picked up a beer in 7Eleven, as my host, Carmelita (or Lita in short) likes a beer before her meal! Hehe... I didn't mind a cold beer on this warm day. :) We went to a restaurant in a fancy neighborhood, and I met the entire family with loads of children with cheek kisses from everyone. During the meal I was seated next to Lita's sister who lives in Texas, and thus speaks good English as well. GREAT! The IMAC school where I will be taking the Spanish class has a policy that the hosts should only be speaking Spanish with the students, but as I really do not know any Spanish, this is just a better solution. Like in the discussion class I benefit so much from having the direct translation between English and Spanish! And I realised that learning my 4th language from my 2nd (English) is somewhat a different challenge from learning it off my mother tongue. Adds another dimension of complexity, though the knowledge of language structures indeed is very useful! :)

In my Tinkerbell-notebook I now have a selection of words and a few phrases, such as "Estoy cansada" - Im tired, and "yo tengo hambre" - I am hungry, or rather, I have hunger. A good example of how German helps me, from "Ich habe hunger", the same structure as Spanish, but different from Danish and English. Ok, enough lanugae geek babbling, I will go to sleep now. Im so happy! :)

Arriving in Guadalajara, Mexico. Day 1 and 2.

Hey, you know what? I'm in Mexico now. Crazy. And warm!

Arriving yesterday around 2 PM, I took a taxi from the airport to the center of the city like I had promised Jesus. For sure it was the best solution with all my luggage, though it took him a while to convince me about it... So yeah, for 220 pesos, 103 kroner, 18 US$, or 14€, whichever you prefer, I got to the center of the city.  I hadn't booked any accommodation, as I figured that would be easier once I was here, so instead I went to the IMAC School where I will be taking a one-week Spanish course next week.

Ok, so I dragged my stuff inside, and met Martha, with whom I have been in touch with via email lately. She sent me straight to a "discussion class" despite my worried claims that I spoke no Spanish what so ever. She really didn't care, which turned out to be fine. The class was watching a movie about some Mexican ruins, and afterwards we were divided in groups with Spanish-students and Mexican English-students mixed up. There were some questions to discuss about the movie, but really the point was just to be talking. The teacher asked us to start in English, then switched to Spanish, and the two languages interchanged throughout the class. Was nice to experience that I actually did catch some on the points in Spanish, and cool to have the option to ask to have a sentence in Spanish translated directly to English. Really a nice class to start out with!

After class I was asked to wait for one of the staff members to get information about my weekend. They didn't really have to care much, since my program doesn't start till Sunday, but this guy, Mario, helped me out with a lot of stuff. Making sure I had somewhere to stay that night, invited me on a Saturday trip with some other students, and informed me about my homestay - oh, I should say more about that. I had different options for accommodation, hotels, hostels, but also to stay with a Mexican family, which I figured would be a fun challenge, and would help me learn even more in this crash course of mine. At the time of writing, Saturday night, I am a little worried about meeting the family tomorrow, and getting to some level of communication with them. But well... Actually I have no doubt that it will work out one way or the other. And, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? :)

The rest of Friday afternoon I spent taking a nap in the hotel. I have a single room with shared bathroom,  super cheap - 220 pesos (see above ;)) pr. night. Afterwards I went to the reception to ask for a map and a supermarket, all done in very very simple Spanish with a receptionist with no English vocabulary. But I understood her directions, got my map, and found the supermarket. :) Yey!

Coming back from the market I really felt much better than when I left. All day I had had this horrible feeling of having left so much behind in Arizona, and I was feeling so alone and sad. However the small victory of coming back with some eatable things, having figured out a little more about this city, realizing that I have "conquered" so many non-English speaking cities before, made me feel better.

I ate my dinner in the hotel yard, as I was practically dragged there by a Canadian woman I met in the kitchen. She was enjoying the warm evening outside with some friends, and I joined the party for a little while. Very nice. Then I went back to my room, and slept rather soon after. :)

Guachimontones

Sorry for this long post, but I might as well tell you about my Saturday now that Im at it. So like I said, Mario invited me on a day trip, though actually it wasn't supposed to be open for other students than this particular group from an American university. I'm not sure why he let me, actually, but who cares. I was there. :) We started at 9 AM from the school, which is just around the corner from my hotel. I stopped by the bakery on the corner for a fresh supplement to my juice from the supermarket. Then we were off in a bus towards some ruins just outside the city, Guachimontones. Actually those were the topic of the class movie the day before. It was interesting site with circular pyramids surrounded by square plateaus. So now I have seen my first pyramids! :)

The Agave for tequila

After this stop, we went to the town of Tequila, where obviously we visited a tequila distillery. But first we had lunch in a local restaurant, and finally I managed to get into conversation with the American students who had been a little hard to get to in the first hours. The tour of the distillery came with taste samples of the different stages from the tequila production - including a margarita in the end. ;) We also saw the church in the city, pretty decorated inside with white and blue colors. Afterwards we had some time to browse through the town, and I went to have an ice cream and sit in the sun with some of the others. Then back home to the city.

Has been a nice day, really. :) I am really happy that I could join the group on the tour, as I would otherwise probably not have been able to go to those places. And tomorrow I am going to stay with the host family, I even accepter their invitation to go to a party in the afternoon. Sigh... Now wondering if I am too much up for challenges, if I would have a better stay if I didn't get into these hard situations. But then again, its a unique situation and I would hate to take the easy way out, not knowing what I am missing out on.

I will keep you posted! :)