"To come in for a chat"

Last week I dropped off a resume at the Wall Street Institute, an English school. They called today and I am going in for an "interview," well I don't know if it is a official interview but the lady said that "she wanted me to come in for a chat." She sounded English. So I will be going in tomarro morning (if I can wake up). Wish me luck.

Saturday in D.F.

We were supposed to make a trip to Valle Bravo but we got off to a late start. So Fernando and his family took us to a place in Mexico City where there were several homemade furnature shops. Karin wanted to buy a new kitchen table. There were a bunch of booths where the people had their furnature displayed and they were making more right there as well. We looked at several places and Karin found one that she liked. A cool thing is that they custom make them for you, every detail. She also got a coffee table as well. It was interesting, but me and the two kids (Fer and Alex) were getting restles and bored. I really didn't care which set we got and karin kept asking me what I perfer, whatever I kept saying.

My Space

I started a page at myspace.com. I did this to satisfy the college kid still in me. I am using this page to show party pictures of me and my friends, as well as to keep in touch freinds and family that use it. I didn't realize how popular it is! I will put a link to the site but it is for entertainment purposes only. The person portraid may be me, but me in the way that I am trying to let go in the pursuit of adulthood and familyhood.

I was and still am young with more responsibilities but still not as much as I will face in the future. It is rediculus how much I still depend om my parents and older siblings monetarily but I did make the decision to get away from the lifestyle that I was living the last few years. I am eager, once my stint in Mexico is over, to start a new chapter in my life that will yield more responsibility than I ever have imagined and starting a family that will be the part of my life, that will be the hardest to sustain but also the most gratifying. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mr. Crabby Pants

This morning and early afterneen I was Mr. Crabby Pants. The last two nights I haven't got very much sleep (2 and 4 hrs respectively). I really don't know how to explain it but I cannot sleep at night. I like to fall asleep in front of the TV, if I try to sleep in my bed I just stare wide awake at the ceiling and think of whatever crosses my mind, from forming who I am today from choldhood experiences to reminiscing about past relationships and what I could have done different.

Beware, the psychology background is going to kick in:

In order to explain my sleep disorder, I think that there are two ways of exploring causes; the two being hereditary and environmentally influences (Nature vs. Nurture).

From a nature perspective, my biological clock is set for the latter hours of the day. That may be the reason that my father is so comfortable working third shift. We are wired to strive in the hours when most people sleep.

Speaking environmentally, I could say that throught my childhood and young adulthood I learned vicarously (by observing) by watching my father work 3rd shift for the last I don't know how many years. Keeping awake in the wee hours of the night was learned because I saw my father show those behavioral charachteristics.

I am not in favor of one or the other because I believe that both influences the behavior I show.

Usually I sleep untill noon or later (cuando sin un trabajo levantarse por, when I don't have a job to get up for), I've had to wake up earlier due to making a trip to DF (dea effe, aka Mexico City) and what not. Which I have no problem doing. But no matter what the next day brings I still have the inability to sleep at a decent hour.

Behavior can always be explained.

I will be getting up about 7am tomarro because we are going to church and after going to see more ruins with Fernando and his family, knowing that I should try to fall asleep at a decent hour but I am not tired. Maybe a couple Red Bull will do the trick. We'll see whats up.

Give Me a Shout!

Yahoo Messenger = kpmayer44
AOL = chalupo44

New Pics

I added some pics to the picture link. Some Rugby and Halloween camping. There will also be another link there for some GVSU rugby pics. There is a folder of older pics from the good ol' days.

Strike-osaurus

That is out team name. We lost all three games last night but it was really fun. The team we played was two older gents, one who's last two games were a 277 then a 289, I'm not sure that the other people in the league are that good, but it was good competition. After we calculated our hadnicaps (Karin 98, me 66) we didn't lose that bad, with the handicaps we at least have a chance to win. We did get 2 points for showing up and paying. I never gave and received so many high fives in my life. After every turn it was expected to give everybody a high five. So, three other people, 3 games with 10 turns, if my math is right that is about 90 high fives in a 2 hour period.

I was actually a little suprised on how I did. I averaged 117 through the three games. I haven't bowled in forever and on top of that I can't remember the last time I did it while I was sober! I don't know the hook yet so I just try to throw it straing and hard. The other team kept saying that I was going to break the pins.

It was a lot of fun and we meet some new people, and we were glad that we chose to play in this league.

Pulled Over........Not Fun!

Karin and I got pulled over on our way to Mexico City this morning. Karin had to go there to meet somebody from her company and I just went along to wander around. Any way, we just got inside the city limits when a cop car was buzzing us (sounds like those kiddy rides at Cedar Point). We wern't sure if we were getting pulled over because they are always flashing thier lights and buzzing all the time, seems like for no reason. I asked Karin to drive that morning because I didn't get very much sleep the night before. I didn't get up untill about 3pm the day before and I just wasn't tired and stayed up all night watching Sopranos (usually I would have drove).

I didn't really understand the cop at all but my sister seemed to have a small idea on what he was saying. She called her relocation assistant to try and translate better and see what was going on. In Mexico city there are certain days that car can drive and certain days that they can't. They go by the last number of you liscence plate to tell which days are cool to drive on, no matter where the car is from (we have a Michigan plate).

Karin just wanted them to give her a ticket and we could be on our way, but that would be too simple now would it. At first the cop said that he had to take the car and we could get it tommarro, yea right, that thing would be long gone. So we tried to bribe him, but we didn't have that much cash (and we desperatly needed gas) and he wasn't going for it. It was scary, my stomach was down into my leg. Karin started crying and begging. After a couple more calls to her friend the cop finally took our bribe although it was only $100 pesos ($10). He was trying to tell us that if he were to get pulled over in our country, they would have taken his car too, thats why he didn't want to let us go. He gave us a book to take in the car and put the money in so nobody could see it. Part of the stipulation of the bribe was that we had to turn around and go back to Toluca. So we did.

The cop was very nice and polite throught the whole time which was good, it made it a lot easier for us. All in all everything ended up OK and it was a very interesting experience, but the reault could have very well came out the opposite way, that's what was so scary. We learned two valuable lessions; 1) Keep a good amount of cash on hand for bribes and 2)Learn what days we can drive in DF.

Wish us luck tonite because it is our first day for our bowling league. I am still not sure what our name is! later

I Guess I Really Wanted Pittsburg

Well, I would have been in a lot of trouble and in a pool of depression for picking two loosers today, but I accidently picked the Steelers instead of the Broncos. I was at the counter and for whatever reason I said the number for Pittsburg and before I realized it, it was too late. I was mad at first but then I started to convince myself that Pittsburg was going to win, then once they started to dominate I was relieved and geeked that I was going to win. Then I actually pondered that I have an unconsious ability to tell the future. I was going to make a fortune.

Due to my keen instinctive betting techniques (my brains' unconsious act of making me pick the Steelers) and my thoughts of seeing the future, I was extremely confident that the Panthers were going to keep my win streak. I even bet the money I was going to use for food! Then my heightned feeling of happiness took a plummet when the Panthers started to get whooped on...........AND I WAS HUNGRY. That's a double whammy! (for those who knew the late Mitch Hedberg)

I had to leave for the airport to pick Karin up during the third quarter. I wasn't very optmistic at that point. I did, however, find a US news radio station on AM that came out of Huston and they gave updates. When the Panthers were down 34-7 I quit checking in and took the loss. My rollercoaster ride of emotions ended in a sea of tranquility.

Caliente; The Sports Book

I am about to go to the local sportsbooking place to watch, and bet on todays NFL Conference Championships. I am going to go with Denver over Pittsburg and Carolina over Seatle. Hopefully the Carolina/Seatle game will be over before I have to leave to pick Karin up from the airport. Wish me luck.

Friday Night

Our Valle Bravo plans fell through because Fernando's grandmother was in Mexico City with his cousin. So we will have to take her her matress another time. Instead he took me to a pool hall with some of his co-workers. It was a cool place, it had about 16 full size tables that looked like they were well kept, neon lights, TV's, and a bar. After somebody got off a table a guy came over and wiped down the rails and vacumed the surface. There was a table along the edge by the bathrooms with three chicks. They were smokin hot and looked like they were pretty hard core pool sharks because they had their own sticks and they even had florescent colored gloves, very intimidating. Anyway, we bet on a game that the losers would have to go over and talk to them, Fernando and I won. After deliberating for some time, the other guys didn't want to go over and we didn't make them.

We left at about 1 am, dropped off his buddies and we went to a bar in Metepec by the mall. I think it was called "La Cantina." I was a small place and it was packed. There was a bar along one wall with several different kinds of liquor...but no jager! They never even heard of it. I didn't really expect them to have it because I've only seen it at one place, a grocery store called Superama. I haven't met anybody here that has even heard of it. There was also a big TV playing music videos on a wall with a small dance floor infront of it. I convinced Fernando to do a shot (caballito, lit. small horse) of the all American Jack Daniels. Whisky is his liquor of choice but before we took it he told me that he has never had it straight. Another thing is they dont really do shots here, when they get liquor drecho (straight) they just sip it. But we took them down, it took Fernando two tries but he did it. We sat and talked for a while, admiring the view, and before we knew it it was 3am (There is not really a certain time when the bars close). He took me home I grabbed a beer and decided to make some drunk calls. I was tring to get a hold of my buddies who were in Roscommon, MI for the annual Tip up Town trip that we do every year (my buddy Inferno is from there and his parents host us for the weekend, hey have a house in the woods with a big screen TV, a pool table, a ping pong/beer pong table, a hot tub, and snow machines). This is the first year that I have missed since we started going 5 years ago. I finally got a hold of one of them, they were still up plaing cards. It was cool catching up.

Needles to say I woke up with a hangover, nothing new there. So today I will be sitting infront of the TV all day watching the first season of the Sopranos, basking in dehydration, headaches, and nausea. However I did manage to throw down a couple greasy hambergers to settle my stomach.

More Pictures

I put several more pics onto a web site. Check them out here (also under links):

http://photobucket.com/albums/f14/chaluporugby/

Here is a site with pics from my buddy Ben (Tatoo) Gardner volunteering in the Philippines (also under links):

http://photobucket.com/albums/y188/gardnerb925/

What To Do This Weekend?

Well, this morning I took Karin to the airpoort in Mexico City and on the way home I decided to take the free road instead of the toll road in hopes of saving 80 pesos of the allowance that Karin left me. It was just as easy as the toll road and took the same amount of time, possibly not as safe at nightdue to blind curves, donkeys, and kidnappers, but during the day it is well worth the savings.

Karin is seeing a doctor back at home and staying the weekend. I have the house and the car all to myself. I had grand thoughts of driving to Acapulco, crawling into a botle of tequilla, and hanging on the beach in hopes of fishing for some lovely young ladies with my American charm. But my dreams were distinguished when I opened my wallet and a poof of dust flew out due to the voidness and inactivity of currency moving in.

So, instead I will be making another trip to Valle Bravo with Fernando and his family. He has to take a matress to his grandmother's house whom lives fairly close to Valle Bravo. It will be nice to have more time in the area because last time we were hurried due to Fernando being there for work and me having to pick up Karin from work (which I was very late because of a logging truck going about 2 miles pr hour along the narrow, steep, winding mountain roads). I also hear that it is a very live place at night with several popular bars and I also heard that it is a popular place for Americans to vacation. We'll see whats up.

Bowling League

Karin and I are joining a bowling league next Wed. We need a name, please help us.

I Started A Morning/Afternnon Routine

The reason I say morning/afternoon is because it depends on when I get up. Usually I get up around 11am or so but it may be later. Here's how it goes. It may seem cheesy but I have to do with what I have. I start right after I get up, I do a 20 min. Pilates workout (I know it isn't very masculine but it seems to be working, I've been really sore). Then I do a couple other exercises like crunches, push-ups, and squats, then I stretch. I relax for a little bit and drink some water, then take a shower. After my shower and grooming rituals I go onto the computer for one hour of Spanish. We have a good program where you can put a headset on and listen to the lessons and then you can speak into the microphone and see if your pronunciation is correct. It is fun and it works.

I started this last week and plan to do it every weekday. It is a lot better than sitting on the couch all day, at least now I can feel productive. On Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's Karin and I will walk for about a half hour when she comes home for lunch. I have also seroiusly improved my eating habbits. I feel alot healthier and I hope I can keep this up, I think I could because I have nothing elso to do.

Finally Some Pictures!

This is me standing by a naked mermaid fountain in el centro de Metepec. It is the center of the town where I live, it is a suberb of Toluca. Even though it is still 70 degrees, they still drained the water because there is an off chance of getting into the 30's at night during the winter. The reason for the moderate temperatres is because we are at an altitude of about 26,000 meters, about the same as Aspen, CO.






This is the cathedral of Metepec on a hill and the other picture is the view of Metepec and Toluca from the cathedral. Toluca has around 1 million people so it is a huge city (the capital of the state of Mexico) but as you can see there isn't a skyline, even Mexico City doesn't really have a skyline neither. The cities here are spread out and don't really have a typical "downtown" area.



This is a picture of the family that befriended us. From left to right: Fernando II (Fer), Martha, Fernando Sr., and Alexandro (Alex). This was taken in a part of Mexico City called Coyocan (koy-yo-caan) which means coyote.








This is our family picture that we took the day before my sister and I left for Mexico. From left to right: Kyle, Karli, Karin, Dad (Glenn), Mom (Camilla), Austin, and myself.








This is the neighborood that we life at. It is called Las Palomas. It is a gated area with about 30 or so units. There are guards at the gate 24-7 that let you in and out so it is very safe. There are a couple stores and several taco stands very close, el centro de Metepec (several shops and un mercado) and a big mall with a movie theater are not really close but walkable, a cheap taxi or bus ride.








This is me dancing with Consuela at Karin's Company's (Holcim Apasco) Christmas Party with the Mariachies in the back. Consuela is a good friend of Veronica whom Karin works with.

Calixtlahuaca y Huamango

I know...It may seem as though I sneezed, but those are names of Zonas Arqueologicas. They are areas where there are ruins dating back to 900 AD. Karin and I went there on saturday . There were very interesting. We went to two places, one was about an hour and a half north and the other was just ouside the city of Toluca.

The first place was fairly small, free, and there wern't very many people there. It was at the top of a mountain/hill and you could look down into the valleys in just about every direction. there were several platforms where homes once stood and they were all at different levels, the higher the platform, the higher status you were. There was an alter for worship and an alter for sacrifices. Here is a pic of me sitting on top of the sacrifical altar.


The second place we went to was a little bigger and a little more extravagant. This is a picture of me entering a temple for a rain God. It was a big cylinder like structure with several levels where rain was either ran off or held in reservoirs. The other Pic is a view of the whole thing.

Then there was another area about 100 yards away where there was an alter and a large stone cruifix where again they had sacrifices. There is another pic of Karin sitting on it.

Karin gets food coupons from her work everytime she gets paid and we can use them at restraunts and stores affiliated with Walmart. There is Walmart and Sam's club, but also Vips and El Porton which are like Denny's and also my favorite place and where we went for lunch California Restraunt (remember, the buffet with beer included). I only had thee Corona's because we had some shopping to do. I could have sat there all day. Then we went to Walmart for shopping where we meet some Americans. There was a girl and her mother. The girl moved to Mexico about 3 years ago from the south (they had drawls) to learn spanish and ended up getting married. She told us about a good place to work teaching english where she had worked for 2 years. I'm going to check it out this week, supposedly you don't need a green card. Then home for football. It was a busy day, I was tired mostly because I am used to sitting around all day watching TV and doing Sudoku puzzles.

Trip Back To Mexico

We finally left Chicago on Thursday morning. In all it took us 33 driving hours to get back to Toluca. The first leg we drove all he way to Denison, TX right inside the TX/OK border and stayed in a hotel for the night. Nothing exciting exept for that I bought the Chicago Sun Times right as we were leaving for a little light reading. When I got to the comics there was a number puzzle there, called a Sudoku. I have never seen or tried one before, so, since I had a lot of time on my hands, I tried it. I would try to explain it but its a little lenghthy so if you are curious you can look it up. It took me untill the next morning while driving through Dallas untill I finished it. I've been addicted ever since. My sister bought me a book of them in San Antonio and I haven't put it down yet. I have done 62 of 99 puzzles, basically all I do all day is watch TV and do Sodolu's.

Any who, our next stop was our Cousin Connie's house in San Antonio. We were not there for very long because we still had some driving time infront of us and decided to keep going to decrease out driving time the next day. But we did go to a sweet Chinese buffet and I ate myself stupid. We continued to Lorado at the border and stayed the night.

The next morning was time to cross the border. Karin had to get insurance and we were off. It was simple, we never got stopped or anything, they have checkpoints but when you pull through one you either get a green light or a red one. A green light means continue, a red light means you have to pull over and ger searched. We did have to stop and get a permit for the car. We got it fine and dandy but when we were leaving we got in the wrong line...we got in line to cancell the permitt and before we noticed it was too late it was cancelled, so we had to go through the process again whick took about another 45 min. After that no problems.

I had a lot of fum driving in Mexico because it was all toll roads and there was nothing as far as the eye can see. I just found a couple buddies to follow and just crused. I got to go very fast, Karin didnt even realize how fast I was going untill we switched and she askd how fast I was going...I says to her I says, a hundo. It was the fastest and the longest I have ever driven but it felt so natural.

We made it home safe and sound on Saturday night.

Christmas at Home

I was in the airport all day on Christmas and I got into Detroit at about 11:30pm Christmas Night my pops came to pick me up, we wanted to pick up some White Castle but they were closed. I realized that it was after midnight on Christmas day but White Castle is never closed! We had our family Christmas on Monday, It was nice to be home. I basically chilled out for a couple days catching up with my family and friends.

On Thursday I took my sisters new car to Grand Rapids for the rest of the weekend. Started the night at good ol' Raggs and ended up at Stockbidge. It was a great weekend, basically partied all weekend and hung out with my friends, my good friend Garrett came home from Iraq on saturday so it was good to see him too.

A little back story, Karin could not get a loan to buy a car in Mexico so she bought a car in Saginaw when we were there and we will be driving back to Mexico, about a 4 day trip. So she was with her boyfriend in Chicago and I took her car to GR, then drove to Chicago to start our road trip, only to wait for her to get a letter from the bank that says that it is ok to take her car out of the country. So I'm chillin in Chicago.