Soccer and weddings

Alright, so the soccer game wasn’t that exciting – that is to say, everybody behaved themselves. I did however learn a great deal of Spanish profanity. San Luis lost 2-1. There was no scoreboard and the stadium is still under construction. Everybody is frisked several times on their way in. A friend said that he’s taken in his digital camera despite their policy of not permitting anything with disposable batteries for fear that they might be used as projectiles. He advised me to do as he’s done; bank on your gringo innocence. So, I mentally rehearsed saying what I needed to say, that I’m a tourist and I just want to take pictures, etc… it worked, though I had to say the same lines to each of the three ass-grabbing cops. Lets see, the beer was 20 pesos and it comes to you, you don’t go to it – in fact, you can’t get beer otherwise.

After the game one of the guys, Mexican, asked if we wanted to go to a wedding reception. There was me, one other teacher and 4 locals. We were all scroungy and not at all prepared to attend a wedding reception. The other gringo and I said that we probably shouldn’t, but then he mentioned free food and booze. Say no more. We actually ended up having a great time regardless of how underdressed we were.

More craziness ensued. We went to some person’s house and … well, I’m not entirely sure what happened. The next thing I know, I’m at my front door at around 4am. I lost my keys again and had to wake up my roommates to let me in. They weren’t too happy about that. Eventually my keys turned up in some dude’s car.

Today the first ever anti-American sentiment has crossed my path – well, it was actually directed at me. And by none other than a Canadian! I didn't take it personally though because she doesn’t even know the name of her very own PM. Fool. Nobody takes Canadians seriously anyway (except my dad - love ya, pops!)

Politics, Aliens, and things to come

Today I went without a lesson plan for my classes. Instead, I decided that it would be useful for the students to practice speaking with some good ol’ conversation. This was easier with the older business people, but somewhat difficult with the younger crowd. Figuring that it would be easier to get and keep people talking is if it is over a contentious subject. For the adults the is was Mexican politics. For the jovens, it was the existence of extra terrestrials (the very thought of aliens gives me the creeps, by the way). My first two classes are comprised of these younger folk. I found that all of them believe that there is advanced life on other planets. I agree. Half of them believed that these same advanced little green men have and still visit Earth. That’s where we differ. Wondering if these beliefs are consistent across all of my students, I took a rough tally of the adult classes, too. As it turns out, every last student believes that there is advanced life elsewhere and half of them believe that we are being visited. I wonder what a broader survey would yield.

More interesting however were the political discussions. Fox, Calderon, Obredor, Chiapas, Zapatismo, Oaxaca, and the teacher’s strike were all at some point falling out of their mouths… but more on that later.

Tomorrow I’m going to a soccer game. You know, the kind where people go ape shit? The guys that I’m going with told me that last time they went, people were throwing rocks and flipped over a car. You can’t bring in digital cameras because they’re afraid that you’ll chuck the batteries. But that’s not all! I also have tickets for a luncha libre match on Wednesday. You know, the guys that wear masks n stuff? I had to come all the way to Mexico to go to a wrestling match! It should be awesome.

I wonder what they sell

Yum! gimme some of that!