The Presentation of the Cervantino Festival and Beyond

Thursday night was the Introduction of the Cervantino Festival. It is held at the Teatro Juarez and is free to the public. A bunch of politcos sit on stage and talk about the four week long celebration. Then they showed a video to preview of all of the events. There is so much to do at Cervantino. The countries represented this year are Chile, Argentina, and Columbia, but people from all over the world come to perform. The shows include all kinds of dance, music, and theater. I am completed overwhelmed, I want to see everything. There are gospels, ballets, and performance art. It is one of the only festivals in the world that has so much at such an afforable price. In the U.S. it could run you $100 dollars for a Broadway show and here the shows are $15 and some are even free.

This is Barbara she is our new friend here. She works at the University and helped me get my job there. She told us about the Festival Introduction. We went out to dinner first and then went to the theater to see the preview. Aftwards there was free wine, shots of mescal, and a ton of free food. It was a blast!

The place was packed and I saw many people that I knew. I even met a girl that lives here and went to Mass Art the same year I was at the Museum School. It's such a small world. Okay so five glasses of wine later and we were able to convince Barbara to go with us after the cocktail party. First we hit up Los Lobos for a few beers. It's a fun bar in Gto. that plays classic rock. They also had a live band that night. It's funny to hear live bands play American Rock Music. It makes me feel better about my terrible Spanish. Then we hit up Bar Fly as usual. This is Nicole and Barbara sitting in our spot. Then our friend Marcos came to meet up with us. He has been in our Spanish classes for the past couple of weeks. I am not in classes right now, but Nicole

is and has kept in touch with Marcos. He is from Canada and can read people's energies. Nicole and I ask him questions all the time and he is always right. I do believe he has a special skill, and he's really funny and sarcastic.

Walking to Work

I am so happy that I live so close to work. Today was my second day at the University and I decided to take some pictures of the beautiful things I see along the way. I was way too nervous about getting there on time to even think of taking pictures on my first day. I showed up a half and hour early and just sat and studied my Spanish until everyone else arrived. The first meeting I attended was all in Spanish. I could understand some it. The director essentially said we should try and get published and make this the best university in the world. Pretty heavy for my first 30 mins. The next meeting was in English, of course, it was and Engllish department meeting. My new boss was not able to cover all of the material that day so she asked the "newbees" as we have been being called to return today. This is what I saw this morning.

This is the Teatro Juarez named for a Mexican president in the 1800's. He is really popular in Guanajuato. People often sit on the step here to watch clown perform. The steps can get really packed with people. The clowns are pretty funny, one is really creepy though.

There are lovely churches everywhere in Gto. I see three on my short 10 minute walk to work.

The Jardin is the center of it all right in front of the Teatro Juarez. It is a canopy of trees, great to hide under when it rains.

The benches are one of my favorite parts of the city. They are usually packed with couples making out, families eating icecream, and foreigners studying Spanish.

I have to say that the highlight of my day was winning the biggest locker today. All of the new teachers put their names in a hat because there is only one large locker. Guess who's name was picked first, mine! I quickly threw my hands in the air and yelled whooo hoooo! Then realized these people don't know me and whipped my arms down to my sides. I never win those kind of things it was exciting, although, I later found out that another teacher, David, is coming back in January and will want his locker back. All good things must come to an end.

This is one of my favorite plazas. If you take a left here it takes you right to the Language School where I work.

Just up this alley and we're almost there.

Here's the front door. And we're inside. It's fantastic. You can see the classrooms in the picture below. Mine is on the second floor.

Pig's Blood

Bar Fly is a super fun bar with a reggae theme that we frequent. All of the people are so welcoming and nice. It's always a fun time when we go to Bar Fly. Last week everyone was talking about the bands that would be there on Sunday night so Nicole and I decided to meet up with some friends and check it out. OH MY GOD they have pig masks and no, no way, is that fake blood, wait stop they are dumping it on each other. I need to get a picture of this. Imagine I am saying, "WTF" in these two photos. It was so disgusting that I could not take my eyes off of them. It was like a train wreck I couldn't look away. They were more than happy to take their picture with me, but I never saw their faces.

The next band was also dressed like crazy people. They started out with black capes that covered their faces and bodies and then ripped them off to reveal crazy robotic costumes. It was all a bunch of noise to me but the outfits were incredibly entertaining. I love this country.

This night would be the last night I would see my friend Camilla. I met her back in November and she is from Norway. She came to Gto. for two months and ended up staying for 2.5 years. WOW! Her sister is pregnant with a baby boy and Camilla is going home to help her out. She is an awesome person and we hit it off right away. It really sucks that she's gone already.

Ilse's Graduation

Ilse was our Spanish teacher last summer at Escuela Mexicana and she quickly became ourfriend. On Saturday she graduated from the University of Gto.and invited us to the party. There was a mass at the Bascilica de Guadalupe and then a party at the convention center after. When we arrived at the church we saw Ilse and she told us to hurry up and sit down before all of the seats were taken. When we went inside we realized that we were accidently attending a wedding. It was absolutely beautiful but a little akward when the bride and groom passed by us after they had been married. Hello friends, family, two white girls we don't know....

After the mass we headed to the Centro de Conventiones and it was definitely an experience. Of course, Nicole and I got the party exactly at 9pm like it said on the invitation. Everyone finally showed up at 9:45. Okay, it's going to be a long night I thought. Everyone brought their own bottles of alcohol and the waiters put 2 liter bottles on each table as mixers. It was a super elegant party and so needless to say bright green bottles of Squirt looked rather odd. Then Nicole realized there was no beer. Ugh no beer, this was the look on Nicole's face when she found out.

Now it was 11:00pm and we were only on the salad. I was falling asleep at the table, we had been sitting there for hours. It was really fun to see Ilse, meet her family, and catch up with some of her friends that I had met last summer, I was just not fully prepared for the full evening. I should have eaten something before I got there. It's not really dinner when you eat it at 12pm.

Ilse's boyfriend Paco was particularly entertaining that night. He had a really bad stomachache and brought some Pepto Bismol with him. The funny part is that they gave him a free lighter with his purchase. It even has a little drawing of a stomach on it, so strange.

Finally, it was nearly 12:30 and the party was just getting started. The food was finally done and the dancing was about the begin. I mean full band, dancers, everything. There were people there that looked like they were in their 70's and they were still up. They could hang better than Nicole and I. It was definitely a great experience and I'm happy that I got to see Ilse and her friends. I am just going to make sure I am more prepared when attending a formal event in Mexico.

Swimming in the Pool

My teacher, Memo, invited a bunch of us from Escuela Mexicana to hang out at at country club in Gto. It has a pool, tennis courts, and a lot to do for little kids. Everything is made of stone, it totally reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. The students were from Denmark, Iceland, Australia, and the U.S. We all communicate in English because everyone there learned English in school. For most of them they are here in Gto. learning Spanish...their THIRD language. I have included some pics of the club and the people.

New Apartment

We took the firsts place we saw. It's full furnished, in the city, and walking distance to work. It's a two bedroom place with a beautiful tiled bathroom and shared roof top terrace. Wow, was it an adventure to get a place and read and sign a lease in another language. Nicole's Spanish is way better than mine so she made the phone call. Then we met the lady and within and hour we had the keys. We needed to find a place quickly because the students return in August and would have taken all of the good places. I have included some pics, including the view from the terrace. I will post more when it is all set up. We are in between places right now because Katie is still away and we need to take care of the dogs. I could not be more excited about the new place!

Walking the Dogs

I have free rent for the next two months and the deal is that Nicole and I take care of four girl dogs. They are all really cute, but a touch smelly. I included pics of Fanny (with the leash) and Ocha. The others two are named Ethel and Lucy. There is a big backyard that they spend most of their time in. Ocha is the only one small enough to sneak into the house at night. Because of this her nickname is Princess. She is way cute and loves attention. We walk them nearly everyday all through the mountains. We officially live in the suburbs out here. I started to look for places in the city today and in class tomorrow Nicole and I are going to figure out what to ask people about apartments when we are on the phone. Phone calls are incredibly hard when you don't know the language. No facial expressions and hand gestures can make it really hard to understand. The first time I called for a cab I accidently said cervezio instead of servicio and almost ordered a beer! Here are some pics of our new back yard.

Oh and 5 hours in San Miguel and I finally have my tourist visa. Yeah!!!!!


Now I am off to walk the dogs.

Living in Mexico-Week One

I have been living in Guanjuato for over a week now. I got a job at the Universidad de Guanajuato (above) and it start in ten days. There is so much paper work and hoops to jump through in order to get my FM3/working visa. I do not get paid until I get it, so this means I will be working without pay for a while. But when I finally get my visa I will recieve all of my back pay.

I flew out of Tijuana and at the airport they forgot to give Nicole and I our tourist visas. This is something that I need in order to get my FM3/working visa. When I tell people here that I did not recieve the tourist visa at the airport they are like, no way! Only in Mexico do they allow people into the country with no visa. At the airport in Leon I found out that I need to go to San Miguel Allende to the Immigration office to get my tourist visa.

My friend, Katie, who has been here for almost a year offered to go with me and help because I cannot speak Spanish. San Miguel is an hour to an hour and a half long bus ride. When we arrived at the immigration office they were closing and said come back tomorrow. Tomorrow/manana is a common phrase here in Mexico, so Nicole, Katie, and I got a hostel for the night and explored San Miguel. It is beautiful there. There are a ton of expats and really fancy stores and restaurants. The hostel we stayed at was super nice and comfortable. My only complaint happened late at night. There seemed to be no one at the hostel so we decided to get the dorm room. It was only 100 pesos each, this is like 8 bucks, and the three of us could share a room. We got back to the room around 10pm after having a fabulous dinner and we thought we were in the clear, no on was going to come to share the room with us yes! We got ready for bed and chatted for a while. I was finally drifting off to sleep around midnight when I sensed a person standing over me. Let me give the run down of the room. There were seven beds, one single and 3 bunk beds. Nicole was sleeping on the single bed with no bunk above it, and Katie and I were sleeping on two of the bottom bunks.

This meant that there was one full bunk bed, top and bottom with no one on it. Okay back to the scary women looming over me at midnight. Guess what bunk she decided to sleep on? The one directly above me. Who does that!? I was appauled. She made so much noise getting ready for bed and then spend the next 10 minutes shaking the whole bunk bed getting comfortable. I promptly switched to the free bunk bed, but it was so hard to get back to sleep because I just kept thinking about what an moron that women was!

Okay now back to the immgration office. We returned on Thursday and they helped me with my paperwork and said you have to come back tomorrow. Yikes manana again! We decided to go home and that I would return the next day by myself. I woke up early, had to miss my Spanish classes and returned to the Immigration office. I was pretty proud of myself doing it alone and it gave me time to think and watch Twilight in Spanish on the bus. At the Immigration office guess what they said after they filed my paperwork? You have to come back on Monday to pick up your visa and pay a multa...this mean a fine. Okay see you Monday! I am actually not that upset about having to return, the busses are luxury because people take them here so much. They have reclining seats, legrests, movies, and cookies. The only thing that sucks is having to pay for each trip and missing my Spanish classes. I was really enjoying my teachers and classmates last week and it will all change next week. Hopefully, I will like my new teachers or just end up with the same ones again.

All in all I am having a blast. I know it sounds like it's pretty annoying but it is just a different way of life here. The people are so nice and helpful. Everything is just a little bit slower...it's just going to take some getting used to.