Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico. The city is located in the middle of the state Jalisco in the western-Pacific area of Mexico. It is the birthplace of mariachi and tequila. It is 5200 feet above sea level making the climate quite cooler than the surrounding lower level cities. The climate is mild year round. Right now, it usually rains every night cooling off the mornings. It warms up during the day but without the humidity that we have in the south. I even wear a light jacket early in the morning because of my thin blood that I developed from growing up in the south. We keep our windows or doors open a lot of the time to let the cool air in our room. Just like the south, there are lots of mosquitoes here too. You could play connect-the-dots on my body from all my bites! In Mississippi it’s too hot to open the doors or windows, so we don’t have mosquitoes invading our homes. That is not the case here. Especially with the traditional house being built with the open center; mosquitoes just fly right on in. Hugo said they must like my light skin…
Being in the middle of downtown, in the second largest city of Mexico, is quite a change from being in a city where you have to drive at least ten minutes to get anywhere. On one corner that we live on there’s a sandwich shop. They sell these sandwiches called tortas. Guadalajara is known for their special bread because of the elevation of the city and the way the bread bakes. They’re REALLY good! One of the main cathedrals downtown is two blocks away from us. The church has a big square in front of it with places to sit around a fountain to relax and admire it. Many couples go there to spend time together and sit as close as they can to each other while they lock their eyes and lips on one another. If you get hungry while you’re making out don’t fret, food is never too far from the eyes. There are little stands where they sell grilled elote (corn), tacos, and hamburgesas. It seems that you can always find food wherever you are! You can also find things to buy anywhere you go. You don’t even have to go look; they’ll come up to you. You can sit at a red light and buy water, toys, and/or plastic storage containers in case you have some food in your car that you need to store. Or you can just be entertained by someone juggling torches standing on a ladder or watch a guy lay on glass but not get cut.. yes… all while waiting on the light to turn green.
We live about 10 minutes walking distance from the school that Bethany and I am going to to be certified to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). In the mornings we walk down the street to everyone starting his or her workday. There is an old man that is in the same spot every morning and afternoon selling fruit. We always say buenos dias to him; he replies back with some long answer that we never understand. I told Bethany he’s probably gripping at us for never buying anything while we just smile and walk right on by haha. If you walk down the street in the afternoon, there is much more activity! People are everywhere walking along the streets, selling things in the streets or trying to get you to come into their store, relaxing in the parks, or watching street acts. There is usually a clown that performs in a big open square, which draws all the children in. If you don’t want to walk, you can hop on a bus for 5 pesos (about 13=1 dollar) or grab a taxi. I like to walk and see all the different people and things that are going on. Bethany and I were walking to the store one afternoon and saw a guy sitting against a building on the sidewalk playing a leaf to make some money. That guy had some skills to be playing a leaf. I have to give him credit for doing something and not just begging.
There are also so many different buildings that you can walk by and never notice unless you actually make an effort. There’s a little Italian place by the VilaSanta that you would never notice, but one day I heard some music and looked through the windows where I saw little tables with candles on them. It amazes me how your eyes will only see a little door and behind that door opens up to a cozy little restaurant or up to a staircase that has an entire hair salon on the second floor.
We’ve only been here 19 days. And so far we’ve only explored about half of downtown, gone to lake Chapala, and rode a bus about an hour out of the city to see the Guachimontones pyramids. We've also been to downtown Zapopan, which is like a suburb or Guadalajara. We met our friends from class at a Brazilian restaurant there. We sat at the table which the waiters came around to our plates with meet on a long knife asking if we wanted some. We could eat as much as we wanted. There was all the meat you could think of! We finally couldn't take anymore and flipped the stick, that is red on one end and green on the other to signal them if you want more food or not, to red.
Lake Chapala was about an hour out of the city. We were lucky enough to have a friend drive us there and show us around. It was beautiful! Hugo took us to some neat places, while he was here, that we would have never known about. He took us to this place that is a car wash during the day and a restaurant at night. The restaurant is called Las Papas. They have baked potatoes with meat and cheese and sauce on top. You can also get tacos. The papas were AMAZING. I begged Hugo to take me there again the next night! He also took us to a soccer game.
The Chivas, which is the most popular team in Guadalajara, weren't playing and it was raining so the stadium wasn't as crowded but you wouldn't have known it if you were blind. The noise that the fans made was much more than we ever made at our homecoming game in college. The fans didn't just make noise (play the drums, dance, and sing) when their team made a goal. They made it the WHOLE time! Pretty impressive! We were able to get out of the city for a little while this past Saturday and go to the pyramids on a school trip. I had never heard of that civilization and it was really neat to see it.
Tonight, I’m sitting in my bed listening to music and thinking about these past two and a half weeks. They’ve been so much fun, and I’ve already learned so much. I’ve also gotten really frustrated. Not being able to speak Spanish very well and living here can be quite challenging sometimes. However, no one has ever been rude. They try to communicate as best they can. Sometimes they’ll tell us to wait, and they’ll go find someone who does speak English. All the people we live with have become like family. Dany (the cooking school student) has cooked twice in the past couple days and invited us to eat both times. I was walking upstairs one night and got a whiff of something really tasty cooking up in the kitchen. I walked down to the kitchen and found Dany at the stove making hamburgers. He had two extra and made a place for us at the table. Last night he was cooking barbacoa. He brought in a crock-pot with meat. I asked what it was and he told me it was cow tongue! He then cut the skin off the tongue and began shredding the meat.
The meat went back into the crock-pot for another several hours. I went to they gym and stopped at the cathedral on the walk home to sit and take in my surroundings. I came home and took a shower. I was about to go to bed when I heard a knock at the door. It was Dany offering some of his food. He had a couple friends over, and we sat around the table enjoying tacos at 10:30! I still can’t believe how late people eat here!
Frank stopped by just a second ago and shared his day with us along with his pizza with Bethany. I got him to do some recordings for my class in the morning. The students need to be exposed to many different accents. Frank’s Irish accent is much more fun than mine!
Guadalajara has so much to offer. You can really pick and choose what you want to do and see. We have so much more exploring to do!
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