Definitely Immersed

So… not much goin on today! We were out late last night hanging out with everybody, and had a great time! All the other CEPE students here are awesome, very friendly. The cantina… they actually still call them bars here, just pronounced funny… was called El Purgatorio, and definitely an interesting place! They had a band that played a couple of sets and covered both American and Mexican music. We laughed because the first song they played was “Pretty Woman”, about the third songs was a Linkin Park song, I don’t remember which, and about the 6 was “Sweet Home Alabama”, haha. Random set list! The singer laughed at me when I walked by singing along with him. The ceiling was also covered in random hanging baseball hats. We couldn’t figure out why, and all the guys were scared they were going to steal their hat (like the restaurants in Texas that cut your tie off). Here’s a few pics from el bar…

My friends Ty and Laura being silly!

Check out the hats!

We took our first cab to and from the bar, which was less crazy than I thought it would be! On the way home, he did start to get on the wrong ramp though, so he threw it in reverse for a bit and straightened out… We’ve noticed that they like going in reverse around here actually. We’ll be walking and suddenly somebody will be reversing down the main avenue for a little bit honking their horn! We have NO desire to try and drive here! But anyway, we were out late so we took a super long siesta (which are totally acceptable in this country and we love it! America should have a national nap time… I think everybody would be a lot nicer. I’m all for giving back the animal crackers and apple juice, too, but whatever!) .

Tonight Marianna had several of her friends over, so we got to meet all of them! I haven’t felt that lost in a conversation since the last time Kellie and Brady went into math-nerd mode. They got a few laughs at our non-understanding expense, but it was fun of course! Definitely got some practice listening, but for once in my life I didn’t say too much. They were really nice though, and understand that we’re here to learn, so everybody tries to help! Even if they have to explain what something 3 different ways until they use some vocab we understand, it’s like a small group victory when the little language light bulbs go off in our head and we finally understand.

Most of her friends there are from this area, but one is actually here visiting for a little while. He’s a Canadian originally, named Ramond, and about 5 years ago he was in the exact same position Rosa and I are. He stayed with Marianna for about a month while he started learning to speak, too. Now he has this amazing job teaching Economics in Monterrey and travels all the time, backpacking here, visiting there, and most importantly, is completely fluent. And guess what his bachelors is in? Oh yes, International Relations. I think I met my hero today, haha. It just showed us the real life benefits of being bilingual, which is definitely encouraging at the moment. He’s proof that all the work we’re putting in to learn this language will be so worth it! So yeah, he was a pretty cool cat to get to chat with!

I’m going to crash now… it’s late and my amazing siesta is wearing off. 6 am will come early, no doubt!

Coming Soon to a Jessica Blog near you: Salsa dancing classes, a historic tour of Guadalajara, and an excursion to a little place called Tequila! No, I’m not being clever, there is actually a town called Tequila, and yes, they invented it! I get to go see how Buenas noches!