México - Side Note

My dear readers,
I am one week late on my blogs, but as you will find out on my 4/10 blog entry, I had a computer issue...

I also want to welcome all my new readers that my brother Gio sent this way... Bienvenidos!

Tonight I will be back to my blog...

Saludos!
Victor Jr.

México - Day 3

Easter Sunday..!
"Día de la Coneja"

It was cold... but at least it wasn't raining..!

We got up not too late, because it was Soccer Sunday...
We had scramble eggs with tomato sauce for breakfast, which we ate during the America/UNAM half time... at that point UNAM (Pumas) was up 1-0...
We watched the game in my Dad's room... It reminded me of when I was younger and I used to go watch World Cup Games at Sport Bars... they were all smoky places..!
The game ended 1-1

After the game, we all got ready and headed out to the downtown area...
First Stop: Plaza Morelos.
It's like The Esplanade in Santa Monica...

We were looking for a birthday present for Luisa - Irene's nice
More about that later...

We walked around...
Saw Spiderman and Elmo, they were taking pictures for $20 Pesos...
I also saw tones of balloon vendors, and a statue that we saw in San Antonio...
Speaking of San Antonio, they are working on a River Walk not too far from there, it should be ready by the Summer.

Anyway, at one end of the "esplanade" they had a booth with "Visitor's Information" and two women were manning the booth... Marco dared me to go and ask for information in English, so I went to talk to them and they were lost... very lost, but she tried..!
At one point one of the ladies gave me a Map of the City, a flier with tour companies (she said they would have someone that spoke English and would give me a City tour in English) she also gave me flier about old Government Palaces, all of them are museums now.
Finally she gave me a nice booklet on things to do during the Spring in Monterrey... it's full of information and cool places to go. I'll take advantage of that one..!

By the way, the downtown streets are not paved... they have bricks... you could see those pictures on my Flickr page.

Plaza Morelos ends on Zaragoza Avenue...
You can find a couple of those Gov. Palaces there...

Across that avenue, you'll find the "Macro Plaza"
Oh wait... while we were there, I saw a "TV Azteca" cameraman and a reporter... I asked them what format they were shooting... she said DVC-Pro, so I asked, 25 or 50..? and she was lost... and then she asked me what we use..?
We..? I said...
yes, in Telemundo..? she asked...
(I forgot that I was wearing my T-48 jean shirt) and then I told her that we use BetaCam SP and that in TVC-TV we use DVC-Pro 25 too.

Macro Plaza homes the Marco Museum, the Municipal Palace, Faro del Comercio, Fuente de la Vida, MTY Cathedral, Teatro de la Ciudad, and much more... including a nice sundial clock.

Anyway, we headed back to the car, and we walked through the Sheraton Hotel, where Irene used to work... across the street from the nice hotel, you can find Club Reno (a men's club) and Maxim's (a ladies bar) all known as "Los Tables" - and they were closed because it was Easter Sunday.

We left Macro Plaza and headed back towards the house...
Our third stop was Gigante (again).
We need to get a bag for the present and a birthday card... but we walked the entire store again..!
My Dad bought some shot glasses... they are BIG shot glasses... and I almost bought some tequila... they have an aisle that one third is full of tequilas and they even have mix drinks in cans...
I was going to buy a Jimador with Squirt, but I forgot it was Sunday, and they don't sell alcohol on Sundays after 12 o'clock. (you'll see pictures of the tequilas on my flickr page)

As we were leaving my Dad bought some Loteria tickets, at the little lotto store next door to Gigante.

We went home to drop off some things we bought at Gigante, and then we took off to the birthday party...
I met two of Irene's sisters, Betty and Lorena... and their husbands and kids...
We had "tacos de picadillo" for dinner there... and some wine... no tequila, I wasn't happy!
We left after a while... Marco and Carlos spent the night there...

We finally made it home sometime around midnight and Irene turned the gas heater on again...
We have to go to bed early because tomorrow we are going to drop off Irene at 9am and then head to the US Consulate.

Coming up next: San LUNES..!

México - Day 2

"Sábado de Gloria"

Last night I went to bed some time after 3am, so I got up too late too... it was after 11am.
I was cold, I could still hear the rain coming down hard.

My Dad and Irene were up. Marco and Carlos didn't get up until 1pm, and that's because Irene had made lunch.

While my Dad was doing the dishes, I got in the shower... the water pressure is pretty low, but at least I didn't run out of hot water like I used to back in Mexico City when I was growing up.

In the early afternoon we went to the "Ferretería" (hardware store) looking for a seal of some sorts that my dad was looking for.
You should see this place, is a big as a garage, and you literally park on the lobby of the hardware store...

Next door to them is the meat market... They have tones of fresh cuts... every part of the animal is sold there... and I mean EVERY PART..!

Guess what..? it was raining..!

Once we came back, I cleaned my room... well, I used the broom...

It is very cold..!
AccuWeather says it's 42F, but the RealFeel is 25F and that I do believe..!
and it's supposed to rain till Sunday, and it should be in the 90'sF by Wednesday.

I was able to chat on line with Stuart, Marisa, Chanda and Amber, and I also plugged-in my webcam, I was taking pictures of the computer and the webcam as I was using my webcam talking with Chanda.

We watched some Futból, including the Chivas' game... by the way, there was a game here in Monterrey, but it was blacked-out here, just like NFL used to do in Oakland. They do that in order to get more people to go to the games.

Oh, we had Domino's Pizza for dinner tonight...
Yeap... Pizza..!
After we went to the meat market earlier in the day. but my half brothers were crabbing Pepperoni Pizza and Canadian-Bacon Pizza.

After the Chivas' game, I was watching "Evolution" as I up loaded new pictures to my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/victorbmjr/) and now I am watching "Space Jams" - both movies that I've seen before, but not in Spanish...

I still don't know what we have planned for tomorrow...
I know we will watch the América game... and it's Easter Sunday...

I should mention again how freaking cold is here..!
And it is still raining..!

What else..?
I did receive an email from friend of mine from Portland, his name is Randy Bartlett... we didn't get a chance to get together before I left because his Dad died last week.
Oh and I also received an email from someone that wants to have the rights to my Paulina Rubio picture I have on my Flickr. This person is writing an article about her on Wikipedia, nice huh..?

I'll be uploading some more pictures... but before I do that, I'm going to go read a little...
Stuart, first time I'll read since I've gotten here..!

Anyway, I should try to go to bed pretty soon...

Coming up Next... Easter Sunday..! (AKA - Day 3)

México - Day 1

April 6, 2007

I slept for a long time... about 9hrs.
I was up by 10am, turned the TV and the light off...

I open my door and head to the bathroom.
As I come out, my Dad says, "Buenos Dias, dormiste bien?"
and Irene asked if I wanted some coffee...
Oh, coffee... I so needed something to jump start my system after the system crash I've had the last few days.

It's "Good Friday" - "Viernes Santo"
and as you may, or may not know... nothing is open on Christian Holidays in Mexico.

Anyway, Irene asked what I want to eat for breakfast, I am NOT a morning person, that includes breakfast... I just wanted coffee..!

Irene made some scrambled eggs and home made tortillas..!
She know I wanted to get a "Boing de Mango" but didn't find one at "Super Siete" - 7-11 to the rest of us... so I had a "Jugo del Valle sabor Mango" and second hand smoke...
Yes, my dad and Irene smoke one after another one.

After we cleaned the table, we decided to go to "Gigante" a store similar to Fred Meyer... we needed to get groceries...
I tagged alone because they wanted to know what I like to eat... and I also needed to get some toiletries... and I wanted to leave the house and start exploring.

Guess what..?
It's raining..! - I don't like Portland because of the rain, and now I'm in Monterrey with rain..!
Not a very good first impression..!

Anyway, we're on the road... and nothings seems to be open... it hit me then that it's Good Friday... As we pulled to the parking lot, I see a "Casa de Cambio" - perfect, I need to exchange some US Dollars, but of course it's not open.... and next to them, I see a Radio Shack...
I walked in, and ask if they have a Wi-Fi Router... "un que?" - Never mind... I guess there is no wireless here, but I have a card... what to do..?

The four of us walk into Gigante... Carlos stayed home playing video games

The first thing I see... Plasma TV's - a 21" TV is going for US$900... no way..!

For those of you that don't know my Dad, he walks EVERY aisle in the store...
This time I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to see all the stuff that they have...
I ended up buying a bag of "Pinguinos Marinela" (cupcakes), "Sabritas de Limon y Adobadas (Lays Chips- Lime and yes BB-Q), and my "Jugo Boing de Mango" and some other things that I started to crave...

We had a shopping cart full... it took two "Cerillos" (child baggers) to put every thing in the bags, which by the way, are bright red... and 1/3 smaller than regular grocery bags...

We left the store, and Irene wants to go get meat from the meat market...
We drive for about 5 minutes, in the rain, on the "freeway"...
We get there... and they are NOT open..!
It's "Good Friday" and you are not supposed to eat meat, so the meat market is not even open..!

So we drive for 15 minutes, this time on side streets, we get to a part of town that is freaking ugly... and out of my smart-ass-mouth comes out... You didn't have to take me to the better part of town on a rainy day... and they all start laughing out loud..!
We get to a chicken market... "Pollereria"
And they have tones of signs... Their main sign reads... Spring is here to Stay... and next to that... they have a smaller one that reads... "Se busca persona que se quede" (looking for a person to stay) I asked my Dad... Dad, I guess Spring was so short that they had room for another person to stay, huh..?

Anyway, once we came back, the adults had a shot or two, actually I had three shorts of Jimador hehehe... and a lot of second hand smoke too...
Marisa called while we were having our second shot... and watching crappy TV coverage of Spring Break from Tampico.

In the mean time, Marco plugged in my laptop to their cable modem via Ethernet, and he has his desktop via USB...
I chatted with friends for a while, and took care of some finances via Internet...

Then I took a "siesta" while my dirty laundry was n the dryer...

8 o'clock came fast, and we were call to go down for dinner... it wasn't fish, nor beef, it was the chicken... made with Spaghetti Sauce and Aux Juice, but not baked... it was more like a "Mole" and it was good..!

After dinner, we turned the TV on... nothing good downstairs, so we all went to our rooms, I started to post my blogs, and chatted with some friends and family...

Oh, I talked to tia Sagrario... my Dad's youngest sister... she wants me to go see them next week...

I've watched a hand full of US shows dubbed in Spanish... Malcolm in the Middle, Sponge Bob, Derrick and Josh, Judging Amy, and even an Animal show that I've had already seen...

Well folks, it's 3:30am... it hasn't stopped raining, and I can hear my dad snoring, and I should go to bed... tomorrow is "Sábado de Gloria" and nothing is open either..!

But we have to order Sky for my room, so that way I could get more than the 3.5 channels I get so far.

I do miss my 36" TV with 70 something channels, I miss my Black Tiger Coffee in the mornings, I miss my new bed ;) I miss my liberty to come and go whenever I wanted and where ever I wanted - that will come as soon as it stops raining, and I get to know the city
But most of all, I miss YOU, the friends and family that I saw/talked to everyday..!

Besos!

Next... Day DOS..!