livin la vida aburrida

so far i think you can call my life in mexico somewhat boring.  i go to school for a few hours, i walk a few blocks to get lunch, i stop in the grocery store for a couple supplies, do some homework, walk a few blocks for dinner, wander around, go home.  i would probably shoot myself if that was my life every day in the states.

but it's so exciting here!  stepping off the curb is an adventure!  everything's in spanish!  how cool!  a can of tuna is so much more awesome when i can't read some of the words.

the notable accomplishment for today (so far!) is that tracy walked me to the grocery store (bonanza), and i permanently etched the location into my brain.  from my front door, cross to relox, walk 3 blocks, left on messones, it's on the left.  i will now eat regularly.

i'm better at reading price tags, converting pesos to dollars, and understanding the amount that the cashier tells me.  it really shocked me when i learned that the exchange rate is about 14 pesos to a dollar.  i thought it was around 8 or 10, so i wasn't too impressed with how cheap everything is.  but 14 changes everything.  the beer that i thought was $4 is actually only $2.60 (downside being that i'm inclined to drink more now).  the super fantastic gordita i had for lunch was less than a dollar.  i can't wait to go to the mall saturday!  "never pay the taxi driver more than 30 pesos to go anywhere"  $2??!!  why am i walking anywhere??

since my translated life is pretty boring i'm gonna have a mexican night out tonite.  i met some friends (benito, luis and billy) and we're meeting at 10pm in el jardin, and they are going to show me their favorite bars (for karaoke and salsa dancing...together?  i hope not).  i think they're pretty safe guys to hang with.  last nite i ran into benito in el jardin, about 9pm, i was going home.  i speak to him in spanish, he uses english, and we practice on each other.  he had his motorcycle and asked if i had seen the san miguel skyline from the hills at nite, i hadn't, so i hopped on and off we went.  i thought we were just going to go up a few streets and check it out... but 15 minutes later we're far down the highway and i'm wondering if our destination got lost in translation.  maybe he said he's going to sell me to una casa de putas?  he talks so fast i probably wouldn't have caught that.
but in the end, he took me to an overlook where i could see the entire city, it was beautiful.  and since he took me where he said he would, then dropped me off at my doorstep, i think i'll make it through tonite just fine.

and now, i'm going to nap.  it's gonna be a long nite.

cheap tequila.  my kinda place.