It's been a while. I haven't had Internet accces since we moved into our new pad. It has been a pretty exciting few weeks. I don't have much time right now so I will keep it short or try to.
I had my first and only class two mondays ago (it's just on Mondays and last Monday was a holiday "el dia de Virgin Guadalupe," a very religious day) the class was great. there was about 25 people, mostly kids ranging from 5-18 and a couple adults. It was in a poor part of town at a church and was very rewarding.
Before class started a guy came up to me because he anted to practice his english. So I meet up with him one day, I went out with him on his job. He is in charge of a number of small stores in the area and travels around town. It was cool and it was very cool to have a friend that knows the area. He is about 30 with a wife and two kids who my sister and I have been hanging out with.
They took us all over Mexico city and today I went with Fernando (mi amigo) to Valle de Bravo, it's a beautiful city way up in the mountains where a river was damned and formed a lake. Karin may have more info on out site seeing on her site (see below), but I don't know I haven't checked it yet.
Last Wed. we drove North to a city called Queretaro. It was about a 2 hr drive. It was cool. Just seeing a different city and driving the country side (I am unoficially Karin's Driver). We meet up with another one of her friends that was in Mexico for business. This a really beautiful clean city with a lot of history. We had dinner and hung out for a couple hours then drove home. On the way there we took a toll road which was noce because it was during the day, smooth, straight, and you could go very fast. the road we tok back was a fre road which was shorter but it was rough, curvy, you had to go slow because it was two lanes with a million semi's that were literally going 10 mi per hour, I had white nuckles the whole time. But... I did see wo Meteors fall to the earth, no kidding, bonefide balls of fire plummiting to the earth and burning out before they hit the ground. I don't think they were very big and they seemed close. Of course I got us home safe and sound beause of my superior driving skills.
We have visited several mercados and have found several cheap stuff like cloths and bootleg DVD's. We haven't bought much yet but I will be getting a bunch of stuff this weekend.
My spanish is vastly improving but still in need of a lot of work. Well that will be it for now but I hope to have easy access to the web soon.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Friday, December 02, 2005
Drive to Mexico City
I have been driving all over Toluca and I think I got a pretty good handle on it. It is extremely different. Usually I always tried to be a defencive driver, but here you have to be super offencive. But I like it and its fun to cut people off, whip around turns, and run red lights (everybody does it). Mexico City is 10 times worse with 100 times the people.
The real test was comming up. I was going to drive to the airport in Mexico City to Pick up Pat (Karins Boyfriend). I was excited because I like the way they drive here, but the traffic I was not looking forward too. The traffic is rediculusly stupid in the worlds largest city. Bumper to bumper, inch by inch throught the whole city. We finally made it safe and sound, we stayed on our route and it was easy exept for the traffic.
So we picked him up, now was the trip home. It´s not exactly like you are going to go the same way you came from because every road is a one way and they all go every which way and the signes are often confusing. Karin was trying to navigate but she was too excited about Pat being there that she didn´t tell me when I needed to turn, so I missed it. So...now the fun part, try to get back to where we know where we were at. We ended up turning around and then we thought that it was safest to go all the way back to the airport and start over again. This time around Karin was more attentive and I relied a little more on my natural ability to navigate and we got to where we needed to go.
It was a very exciting experience. It can very closely be compared to a video game. Going fast, dodging crazy Taxi drivers, the lanes I swear are thinner than the car is wide, huge busses going like a million miles an hour, un marked speed bumps in the most suprising locations, people selling just about anything at every stoplight, watching street performers spreading out broken glass on the ground, laying on it and tossing up a huge rock and catching it several times (seriously), and almost missing a turn and flying across three lanes to get there. You seroiusly get the rush of a video game.
We got home safely due to the heroic efforts of myself to void out the distractions and concentrate on the road. That was fun.
The real test was comming up. I was going to drive to the airport in Mexico City to Pick up Pat (Karins Boyfriend). I was excited because I like the way they drive here, but the traffic I was not looking forward too. The traffic is rediculusly stupid in the worlds largest city. Bumper to bumper, inch by inch throught the whole city. We finally made it safe and sound, we stayed on our route and it was easy exept for the traffic.
So we picked him up, now was the trip home. It´s not exactly like you are going to go the same way you came from because every road is a one way and they all go every which way and the signes are often confusing. Karin was trying to navigate but she was too excited about Pat being there that she didn´t tell me when I needed to turn, so I missed it. So...now the fun part, try to get back to where we know where we were at. We ended up turning around and then we thought that it was safest to go all the way back to the airport and start over again. This time around Karin was more attentive and I relied a little more on my natural ability to navigate and we got to where we needed to go.
It was a very exciting experience. It can very closely be compared to a video game. Going fast, dodging crazy Taxi drivers, the lanes I swear are thinner than the car is wide, huge busses going like a million miles an hour, un marked speed bumps in the most suprising locations, people selling just about anything at every stoplight, watching street performers spreading out broken glass on the ground, laying on it and tossing up a huge rock and catching it several times (seriously), and almost missing a turn and flying across three lanes to get there. You seroiusly get the rush of a video game.
We got home safely due to the heroic efforts of myself to void out the distractions and concentrate on the road. That was fun.
Move In Day
My sister´s boyfriend (Pat) and I moved all her stuff in... well the movers did. We just sat there drinking beer and telling them where all the stuff went. There was a huge truck with about 7 guys showed up about 10:30 and they took all the boxes and stuff in. There were done at about 1pm. I went out and bought a bunch of water and beer, suprisingly they did not drink any of the beer even though I offered.
Right when the movers got there and were setting up, a lady from the office came up and was whipping off questions like I knew what she was saying, I tried to keep up but it was beyond me. We ended up getting a translator on the phone, turns out she was just telling me that we were supposed to tell them ahead of time when the movers were comming and we were supposed to go over some rules and regulations (were are renting in a gated complex and went over several things with the owners of the unit, kind of like a condo, but not the owners of the complex). She was nice and said that there were no problems.
Then Pat and I were supposed to wait around for a bed that my sister bought to be delivered but they never gave us a time. So we waited and waited, unpacked the kitchen (we didn´t really want to because we knew that Karin would just move everything later), sat around untill about 6:30 and said ¨screw it we waited long enough¨ and took off. I wouldn´t have been that bad but there was nothing to do, we were just sitting on a bunch of boxes. So we went back to the hotel where we were staying to wait for Karin when she got home from work.
Well... she just came up to me needing the car keys because her bed is waiting at the new place. OOPS!
Right when the movers got there and were setting up, a lady from the office came up and was whipping off questions like I knew what she was saying, I tried to keep up but it was beyond me. We ended up getting a translator on the phone, turns out she was just telling me that we were supposed to tell them ahead of time when the movers were comming and we were supposed to go over some rules and regulations (were are renting in a gated complex and went over several things with the owners of the unit, kind of like a condo, but not the owners of the complex). She was nice and said that there were no problems.
Then Pat and I were supposed to wait around for a bed that my sister bought to be delivered but they never gave us a time. So we waited and waited, unpacked the kitchen (we didn´t really want to because we knew that Karin would just move everything later), sat around untill about 6:30 and said ¨screw it we waited long enough¨ and took off. I wouldn´t have been that bad but there was nothing to do, we were just sitting on a bunch of boxes. So we went back to the hotel where we were staying to wait for Karin when she got home from work.
Well... she just came up to me needing the car keys because her bed is waiting at the new place. OOPS!
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Plans For A Book
I have always wanted to write a book about my life, starting from the very beginning untill now... but I never really thought it through. I think I might take the free time I have now to start. I plan to leave nothing out. Maybe this book can be just for myself but who knows, it could be kick ass and possibly get published some day.
I got the idea from an US ARMY commercial, it said ¨If your life was a book, would somebody read it.¨ It made me think a little. I have had a great life with ups, downs, excitement, bordom; stories about family, friends, school and work; different stages in my life that have come and gone; several thoughts and ideas about my purpose in life; philosophies and thoeries about religion, roles of sex and gender, attachment, among many more; and the people and relationships from my past, present and future (some in all three tenses) that have made me who I am today and have formed the foundation for my future. I have always kept a lot of thoughts and feelings inside and I really want to let everything out.
I think that people would want to read it. So let me know what you think.
I got the idea from an US ARMY commercial, it said ¨If your life was a book, would somebody read it.¨ It made me think a little. I have had a great life with ups, downs, excitement, bordom; stories about family, friends, school and work; different stages in my life that have come and gone; several thoughts and ideas about my purpose in life; philosophies and thoeries about religion, roles of sex and gender, attachment, among many more; and the people and relationships from my past, present and future (some in all three tenses) that have made me who I am today and have formed the foundation for my future. I have always kept a lot of thoughts and feelings inside and I really want to let everything out.
I think that people would want to read it. So let me know what you think.
A Productive Day
We had a good day today and got some important things done. Karin took the day off from work and we went out with her relocation consultant. We signed the contract for our new apartment, looked at cars, bought cell phones for local calls, and Karin opened a bank account. Well, I should say that Karin had a productive day and I just tagged along.
Her boyfriend is flying in from Chicago tonite, we are going to drive into Mexico City to pick him up. He will be here untill Monday, just in time to move into our new place. Our stuff will come tomarro so we will be busy this weekend getting everything situated. Once we move in I will have full acces to a computer with all the pictures and stuff that I need so I will snazz things up a little next week.
Her boyfriend is flying in from Chicago tonite, we are going to drive into Mexico City to pick him up. He will be here untill Monday, just in time to move into our new place. Our stuff will come tomarro so we will be busy this weekend getting everything situated. Once we move in I will have full acces to a computer with all the pictures and stuff that I need so I will snazz things up a little next week.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Something Really Cool I Fergot To Tell About
I´ll keep it short. Karin and I went to the ¨outlets¨ to shop, then we got something to eat at an all you can eat buffet. Exciting I know but there is more, It was more than all you can eat, it was all you can drink as well. Including a beverage that I have never seen and have been able to take advantage of at a buffet......BEER! That´s right, all you can eat food and all you can drink (beer and soda) for about $13o pesos (about $13 dollars). I just wish it was walking distance!
Here is a picture of the all you can drink beer!
Here is a picture of the all you can drink beer!
Comming Home for the holidays
I will be flying into Detroit Metro at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Day. I will be possibly looking for somebody to pick me up, but not sure yet. Any plans for New years?
Karin´s Blog
Check out my sister Karin´s blog at ktmk.blogspot.com, she has been using it for some time and has a better record of what we have been doing along with several pictures.
Monday, November 28, 2005
The Last Two Weeks
Basically I have been hanging out while my sister has been working. I will start teaching English to kids on Monday Dec. 5th at a church which is exciting, eventhough I can´t really communicate in Spanish yet.
The first days I was by myself I walked around town, I was excited but again shy and timid to interact with anybody because of the language barrier. So I pretty much kept to myself and got to know the city a little bit. There are a lot of American things here but at the same time it is very different, the smell, mountains (a huge Volcanoe!), cars and busses, roads, people, buildings, houses, churches, markets, pretty much everything.
The first Saturday we expected to see some college football on TV but there was none to find. Then, I remembered seing a ¨Sports Bar¨ while we were out one day. So we went there and it turned out to be a place where you go to bet on games! They had Direct TV and had about 25 TV´s and they would put on any game you wanted. It was cool, Karin bet on MSU (-9.5 to Penn State) and I told her she was stupid but they ended up covering and she won!
The first time we really went out was last Tuesday, a mix between getting used to the city and Karin getting used to the long hours keeps us in. We meet up with one of Karin´s co-workers that was here on business. We went out in Mexico City (about an hour drive plus traffic which is the most rediculus thing I have ever seen), it was myself, Karin, her friend Maria and her brother and his roomate who lived in the city. We got really drunk splitting two bottles of tequilla at a restraunt while Mariachies played for us. The next day I was more hungover that I have been in a while, maybee the tequilla, maybee the altitude but it was something.
Thanksgiving was interesting, we had pizza from Domino´s and saw the new Harry Potter movie (our family tradition is to have dinner then go see a family movie). They do not put butter on their popcorn, it isn´t even availiable!
So, last Friday we were scoping out places to go out in downtown toluca and while we were driving through town we noticed that there were several people starting to gather in the streets, it got to the point where we had to pull off the main road and park. We went to the main street and there were tons ad tons of people around, people selling Christmas hats that lit up (Karin bought one), and little food stands littered the streets. Karin finally got the guts to ask what was going on and a local told us that it was the carravan of Coca-cola. Thats right, a parade of nothing but Coke floats with Santa, elves, and people dancing. It could have been one of the stranges things I have ever seen.
The next day we went down town Toluca and saw the Cathedral (like no other church you have ever seen) that was built in the 1700´s, the governors Mansion (Toluca is the capital of the State Of Mexico), musiums, and markets. Then we went out to the ¨club.¨ We went to a place called L´agua. It was a genuine C-L-U-B, with roped off lines, coat check, trees inside, aquarium behing the bar, waterfalls, bright flaching lights. Karin was drinking Cosmos and I was dringing Indio´s (beer), there was people dancing (techno in spanish) and every now and then there would be a dancer on a platform with a waterfall behind them twirling fire, or dressed like a Mayan Indian, or in a suit of little mirrors to entertain the croud. It was suprisingly inexpensive (50 pesos to get in and out bill was under 350 pesos for drinks, we had a couple few).
I just set this up so I will update it when necessary, hopefully I will get some pictures to put up. later
The first days I was by myself I walked around town, I was excited but again shy and timid to interact with anybody because of the language barrier. So I pretty much kept to myself and got to know the city a little bit. There are a lot of American things here but at the same time it is very different, the smell, mountains (a huge Volcanoe!), cars and busses, roads, people, buildings, houses, churches, markets, pretty much everything.
The first Saturday we expected to see some college football on TV but there was none to find. Then, I remembered seing a ¨Sports Bar¨ while we were out one day. So we went there and it turned out to be a place where you go to bet on games! They had Direct TV and had about 25 TV´s and they would put on any game you wanted. It was cool, Karin bet on MSU (-9.5 to Penn State) and I told her she was stupid but they ended up covering and she won!
The first time we really went out was last Tuesday, a mix between getting used to the city and Karin getting used to the long hours keeps us in. We meet up with one of Karin´s co-workers that was here on business. We went out in Mexico City (about an hour drive plus traffic which is the most rediculus thing I have ever seen), it was myself, Karin, her friend Maria and her brother and his roomate who lived in the city. We got really drunk splitting two bottles of tequilla at a restraunt while Mariachies played for us. The next day I was more hungover that I have been in a while, maybee the tequilla, maybee the altitude but it was something.
Thanksgiving was interesting, we had pizza from Domino´s and saw the new Harry Potter movie (our family tradition is to have dinner then go see a family movie). They do not put butter on their popcorn, it isn´t even availiable!
So, last Friday we were scoping out places to go out in downtown toluca and while we were driving through town we noticed that there were several people starting to gather in the streets, it got to the point where we had to pull off the main road and park. We went to the main street and there were tons ad tons of people around, people selling Christmas hats that lit up (Karin bought one), and little food stands littered the streets. Karin finally got the guts to ask what was going on and a local told us that it was the carravan of Coca-cola. Thats right, a parade of nothing but Coke floats with Santa, elves, and people dancing. It could have been one of the stranges things I have ever seen.
The next day we went down town Toluca and saw the Cathedral (like no other church you have ever seen) that was built in the 1700´s, the governors Mansion (Toluca is the capital of the State Of Mexico), musiums, and markets. Then we went out to the ¨club.¨ We went to a place called L´agua. It was a genuine C-L-U-B, with roped off lines, coat check, trees inside, aquarium behing the bar, waterfalls, bright flaching lights. Karin was drinking Cosmos and I was dringing Indio´s (beer), there was people dancing (techno in spanish) and every now and then there would be a dancer on a platform with a waterfall behind them twirling fire, or dressed like a Mayan Indian, or in a suit of little mirrors to entertain the croud. It was suprisingly inexpensive (50 pesos to get in and out bill was under 350 pesos for drinks, we had a couple few).
I just set this up so I will update it when necessary, hopefully I will get some pictures to put up. later
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