danika's adventures in mexico

silver silver siiiiiilllllver!

hopefully this weekend rene is taking me to taxco, the silver capital of mexico. (any requests, let me know). cheap cheap cheap! i am very excited.

i got a new toy today in my library. it beeps and shoots red light and it's meant for stunning unruly children. actually it's a bar code scanner! wahooo. i know, slow news day. but really it is quite a lot of fun and entertainment, perhaps because i have had nothing to do for weeks, so anything is entertaining.

i watched man on fire the other day, which has denzel washington and dakota fanning and marc anthony, and despite all of them, is a really good thriller! set in mexico city... and like the girl in it, many of the little kids at my school have personal bodyguards. so that was interesting.

and that is it. i am boring, i know. my livejournal should be taken away from me and given to someone more deserving...

what's new, what's new... the world was supposed to end yesterday, but i guess it didn't. or maybe it did, and there's no way to tell!

nomi graduated! congratulations, nomi!

i went to see da vinci's inquest on the weekend. it was actually a little better than the book (although that isn't that big of an achievement). although any book/movie with an albino villian is guaranteed to be high art.

where is melly? maybe the world only ended in P-ville?? write me back, baby!

4 weeks and two days left of school.

and...ya!

New pics on my flickr! Check check check it out... i know they are all of scenery, i know i will get comments on that, but i hate being in my own pictures and it was only kate and i on vacation. so there!

I haven't slept in almost a week.... sooooo tired. Last night I even took a sleeping pill and it didn't work, I just kept having these wierd feelings that I was drowning and I still couldn't sleep and "woke up" with a horrible hangover feeling from taking the pill and not sleeping it off. My eyes were watering all day, they are so tired. Am I sleeping now? Will this entry be here when I look later?...... Deeeeeep Thoughts.

So apparently some people live for this (ha! Nomi!) and I have been slacking off. Anyway, just got back last night from a 12 day vacation, which was very nice. Kate and I ditched the boys and went off to Oaxaca City (colonial, nice plazas and cafes), to some ruins and other towns around it, and then down to Mazunte (hippies GALORE!), a little tiny town on the beach. That was nice, very different from most other beach towns in Mexico- it's not a resort per se, but it's all about tourism and hotels and restaurants. But very rustic. Then we went up the coast to Puerto Escondido, which was different again. The town is fairly average for a Mexican town but the beaches were beautiful. Lots of Europeans there but most of the tourists were Mexican, actually. We stayed in a funny little bungalow stone house there, which was very funky looking but we had several funny incidents and it was hot as hell. The first day this water storage thing on the roof leaked all of this water into our room. Then that night the leg on my bed broke in the middle of the night. Interesting... Haha. Then the last night we kept being woken up by noises outside. There were all these traps out for some kind of animal, who knows what. They were squares of plastic on the terrace covered with some extremely sticky shit. And all of the doors and windows were open because it was so hot. So we woke up at like 1 am to hear some kind of animal that sounded like it was in the kitchen of the bungalow (I think it was really on the terrace). Not having any idea of what kind of critters live there, Kate and I were really freaked out and were both cowering on our beds, it took forever to even get up the nerve to run for the light and then to look in the kitchen. Meanwhile, the thing kept banging around outside, we think it was on the terrace right outside the kitchen and was stuck on one of the traps and trying to get loose. Eventually the banging stopped and we never did see what it was. Cowards! Cowards!

Anyway, 17 hours on the bus in less than two days and back at home with my baby.... awwwww.

The count is down to 9 days!!! Next Friday at 2:01 pm I will officially be on vacation... oh yeah.

It keeps raining and raining and raining. And I don't have a raincoat... or an umbrella... silly girl. This weekend I spent one day at a school picnic. Yuck, working on a Saturday. But it was at an amazing place, the country house of one of the students, in a polo club outside the city. Dammit, some people have craploads of money. I jumped on a trampoline with the kids and I think it hurt my back. Kate too. Things the elderly shouldn't do! Gee cly! (I'm sure that's not how to spell it but Nomi knows what I mean). Then Sunday it rained. And I spent most of the day on the couch watching a Desperate Housewives marathon and eating fruit salad and chocolate and gummi bears and some apple cakey thing and quesadillas. Wow. And slept during the day and consequently couldn't sleep last night. Never a smart plan.

I'm free for 16 days count: 11 days remaining

Back from Pachuca (or actually, not really Pachuca), and it was fab-u-lous. We actually stayed most of the time in a small town called Real del Monte, about 2 hours from Mexico City. It was so cool, cobblestone streets and colonial buildings, with tons of silver stores (and yes, I did get some silver!). That was so nice and relaxing and beautiful, and the hotel was awesome too. I will be posting some pictures today, check them out! At the previously noted flickr address. Hey Nomi, I think we will go here when you come, because the pyramids are on the way, so it makes a lot of sense. So you, pay particular attention to the pics to see what you think!

The wedding was good, we went to the ceremony and it was a lot of standing up and sitting down... regular Catholic ceremony. The church was really beautiful but we couldn't see the bride and groom very well so it was kind of strange. Then the reception was in the absolute middle of nowhere, down the longest dirt road ever. It was bizarre, we got lost and then we were driving forever before we finally found it, and it was outside this really odd house. They had a good Cuban band and people were dancing and the groom tried to get me to dance with him. How embarrassing- I have of course stopped trying to dance like that at things when everyone is watching you.

On Monday we went to a different place called Huasca, to see a waterfall that was very cool, it had some neat rock formations around it. After that we went down the curviest road in the world (barely wide enough for one lane but of course marked for two), literally 180 degree curves, so you would come all the way around a rock outcropping and almost keep going straight. I know, I know, longest dirt road, curviest road ever, but I'm not exaggerating! Really! I have seen some crazy roads in Mexico but this might just have been the craziest. At the end of that road was a beautiful little village in the middle of a national park. There are also pictures of this place, Mineral del Chico. And of the waterfalls. We stayed there one night and then yesterday tried to find a pyramid near Pachucha. We ended up driving forever and finally found it after getting lost a few times. And of course this was the complete opposite from all of the other amazing and crazy things, roads and everything. It was almost entirely crumbled down and was really tiny and not restored at all... oh well! There were some nice cliffs and we went for a walk before heading back to the city.

And that was my fantastic, amazing vacation. Look at the pictures to see for yourselves!

sorrrrry nomi.

update to upcoming plans! nomi is coming to visit me in may! my favourite only sister is coming!

well, i am not being very good about writing anything, even though I now have fabulous fabulous internet in my house. i have, however, posted a whole batch of new pictures, which can be found at... http://www.flickr.com/photos/83487318@N00/?saved=1

i think that's right.

i have an evil cold, that's not good. but lots of plans coming up! this weekend it's acapulco and the beach, baby! although I was told last week that the water is so polluted it can give you a rash...

then the next weekend i'm going to a wedding in Pachuca with Rene. And about two weeks after that it's off to spring break.

good times in the DF...

I am in Mexico City!! Or Cuajimalpa to be exact. And I am always busy, so I never have time to write. Such a change from crappy Monterrey. Whew!

The new info: I am now working at the Winpenny school. Yes, the rumours are true, I am the sexy librarian! Emphasis on sexy! Haha. I'm not sure what I wrote before so here's it all again... or here it is for the first time.

I am still with Kate and we are sharing a small, dark, cold, but okay apartment in a crazy area of Mexico City called Cuajimalpa. It is pretty safe but there are always people in the streets, lots of headless chickens in the shops, and the like. But it's great.

I have met a new fellow and his name is Rene. Fellow, ha! He is an architecture student and also works as an architect in the mornings. He is very nice... and I will post pictures this weekend!

I have new numbers in case anyone that reads this cares to call... My new cell is: 551 331 5841. My house is 555 812 7565. With the requisite 011 for international and 52 for Mexico in front of course.

Photos soon!

so, third one today... mexico city was good this weekend, except kate and i went out for dinner with all these americans who are friends of her best friend from college. they are all there on fulbright scholarships and are living in the city for a year.

and man, this was so obnoxious. we were all sitting in this crowded little restaurant, people all around, and they were talking so loudly (in english, granted, but you have to assume that about 75 % of people in Mexico City, if not more, speak or understand at least some english). the conversation went a little like this... "mexicans are really not good looking. they start out so cute, all the kids are so cute, and then they just grow up... and they are ugly!"

please please, send me comments, someone else please be as irritated by this as i was. i didn't even want to talk to them for the rest of the time we were there because i didn't want anyone else in the restaurant to think i was in any way associated with them... pretty foolish i know, because i was sitting at the same table. i think maybe i am mostly frustrated with myself for not saying anything, but it didn't really seem the time, i will have to see them again, more than likely, and somehow, it's more acceptable to say absolute crap like that in a public place than it is to call someone on their absolute crap in a public place. but still...

you're living in another country. have a little respect. pinche americans. i swore i would stop complaining about them, i have sworn so many times, i have many good friends who are americans, but SOMEONE tell me how it can be that 80 % of the ones you encounter in other countries have some kind of pole up their asses and think they can mouth off however they want to, sin consecuencias. is there some kind of internet petition to make them have to take a test before they are allowed out of the country?

The toilet seats in the bathrooms are so cold I think they might give you hemhorroids... I know that's not how you spell it but it gets the point across...

It is really really cold. We have no blankets at all. Last night I slept with my one thin blanket on the bed, along with the filthy filthy rug from the floor in the living room. Every word needs to be said twice to say what a bad experience this was. That rug does not smell nice. It was not touching me at all because I had the other blanket wrapped around it, but still, this is uncivilized. And the worst part is that I was still cold. In about 5 layers of clothing. An igloo would be warmer.

All of the stuff is in Mexico City. Nothing is left in our house. Two more days. Two more days. More on the 1900 km trip later...

New job, new job!

I am now officially an employee of the Winpenny school (yes, you read that name right), in Cuajimalpa, Mexico. It is a British school, run by the family of Winpennys (although Kate and I call it Winnypenny, it's just funnier that way, say it in a British accent and you will see). And it is NOT in Mexico City, for those who have seen Amores Perros or Man on Fire or various other movies, and are scared for my life, or just for the fingers on my right hand... it is inside the distrito federal (federal district), or the state of Mexico, and not in the city. It is a town way outside of the actual city. We are driving there tomorrow with our crap and will return on Sunday for a couple of last days in Monterrey.

Still no more info on the craziest trip ever. Latah, latah. Does anyone even read this thing, anyway? Looking for a new job... one school in ecuador offered me a job, but I haven't heard from the woman since then. Maybe they just had plans to steal my organs, and there was no job! Probably for the best, as I didn't quite realize how close to the equator that is...

Otherwise, hoping for a university on the beach in Oaxaca, called the university of the sea!!! That's some good edumaca-shun in Oaxaca, I tell you. But it's close to Puerto Escondido... maybe we could learn to surf. And also looking at a school in the biggest city in the world, you've got it, Mexico City! Well, actually this is just in the Distrito Federal and isn't really in the city. Which is a good thing. It is pretty far out in the suburbs.

More later when I've made my crazy choice...

NEW PHOTOS! on my flickr account, there should be a link somewhere on here for that... more info later on the craziest trip in recent memory. Still recovering...

nothing new... no new photos... nada nada nada

Soooo... not much going on in Monterrey right now. Still waiting for stuff to pick up... One funny anecdote though, just so you all know I am still alive and haven't eaten some bad vegetables and died... Yesterday on the way to school we were driving beside this pickup truck and the back was full of people. And there were also about 4 guys standing on the back bumper and hanging on (barely) to the closed tailgate. By the way, this is on one of the main roads in Monterrey, which is technically not a freeway and only a big street, but that doesn't stop everyone from driving 100 km/hr (the average speed on that road)!!! But it gets better... so we pull alongside the truck to find it... it's the cops!!! These guys hanging onto the back were cops! The black cargo pants and army boots probably should've tipped us off...

Anyway, like I said before, not much going down here right now. We might make a little trip to Texas, woohoo! next weekend. It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Monterrey to McAllen or Laredo. And later on, for the Day of the Dead, we will probably take a long weekend trip to visit friends or go to the beach. This weekend a friend from Valles is coming to visit... Fun fun fun in torrential downpour with three seconds of warning Monterrey! It's a monsoon all the time!

Okay, the new location of the photos is... http://www.flickr.com/photos/83487318@N00/

Ignore the other one, apparently it doesn´t work!