Saturday and Sunday #3

I am posting this against my will. Drew said if I don't, he'll be sad.

Saturday:

(I apologize in advance if there are rude comments about anyone - this was meant for livejournal and I don't want to go and reread it)

So we left the house at 9am to go venture out to see what this Saturday market was all about, and we were curious about the Costco here. We had been discussing Costco with Lydia this morning and she had no idea what we were talking about. So we started describing all the bulk things you can get there and she goes, OH COOOSTCOOOOO Like a pigeon coo. And we’re all like, yeah! That’s the place – totally forgot about the accent on that one. So we leave and find out that the markets aren’t even open when we get there (10am) – but some people were setting up their clothes booths and ripped DVD booths. There were also some porn booths – which really surprised me since little kids are walking through these things – crazy. We got lost a few times, and it started getting hot, but we finally found Costco. It was DEAD – seriously, maybe 50 people in the store…and anyone that knows Costco in the U.S. knows that #1. Costco is always busy and #2. Costco is a MADHOUSE on Saturdays. Yeah, not here. So anyway, I hadn’t brought my wallet cause drew had his, and we both forgot he has a temporary card since we had some drama with his last card and it getting lost in the mail so we cancelled his card, they sent out a temp, and we didn’t receive his permanent one before we left. So anyway, it didn’t have the barcode on it, so this checker kept telling us to do whatever it was in Spanish while they checked on some things. They finally let us get the maps we wanted and we went over to get a hot dog and a drink. They have to scan your card at the concession stand as well, so the guy told us to hold on while he got someone out there, but we said nevermind, and left. Oh, while we were in line though, a guy with blue eyes asked us where we were from (I knew he wasn’t a native cause of the blue eyes…it just doesn’t happen here – same with light hair). So anyway, we told him we were from Oregon, and he said he was from Vermont or Vancouver…take your pick, cause I don’t remember. Anyway, he had come down here for Spanish school a year ago and ended up staying and getting married 2 months ago. CRAZY!!! I could NEVER do that. So then, after that adventure, we huffed it back down to the market of all markets.

Let me tell you about this market. It was I N S A N E!!!!! Seriously. You want it, they have it. Not only do they have it, but you can get it from 10 different people at least. Lydia had told us “el Mercado es muy feo!” we said, yeah, yeah, but we wanna see it. So we go, and it is so busy, I couldn’t believe it. People were taking hand carts to get all their food. People were screaming at you to come to their little stations to buy things. You could get 1 kilo of mangos for $1.50. I don’t know how much a kilo is, but it was $6 at Mega (the supermarket). So it was TONS cheaper, but you have to deal with a chaotic jumble. To top things off, we went down the meat “isle” on accident and I think I’m going to be sticking to eating grass for a while. I had a difficult time with that. I saw one guy carrying in what looked like half a cow, I saw some kind of fuzzy animal skin hanging there, we saw a cows head in the trash (why didn’t anyone want to eat a cow head?) – and last but definitely not least, we saw multiple pig heads. I wanted to vomit. Literally. And to top it off, right after this lovely, stinky isle, you could buy TORTAS! Sweet! AND!!! People were actually EATING there. Oh my gosh. Disgusting. I took a picture of the candy isle and the flash accidentally went off and I think I pissed people off. I don’t care though, it was pretty entertaining. They had marshmallows as big as my fist. I’m going to buy some before we come home – thankfully they have them at the grocery store so I don’t have to go to the market again if I don’t want to….that meat isle about did me in for life.

We walked over to McDonalds after that and got a couple ice cream cones. We were going to eat there, but I wasn’t hungry and Drew said nothing looked good, so it was just ice cream. It tasted the same. We then went to the Museum de Cortez or something like that. Drew likes history crap a lot more than I do, and surprisingly, he really enjoyed the museum. I thought it was meh. For $4, I was expecting something spectacular. It was the same ol stuff. They did have this mural of the Spanish invasion, which was interesting – I took a couple pictures, I think. Drew said he wanted to learn more about it, so I told him my rendition, and now I’m going to post it here: “Once upon a time, long, long ago, there were natives to this land. They liked what they did, and they were happy. Then one day, some crazy Spaniards came in and said, hey! We’re really cool. Be like us! OR DIE!!!!! So they did. The end. (there were also some parts about having to worship our god and scalping, but I couldn’t remember where they fit in. …besides, I like the short rendition better).

Ok, so after that, we walked over to a really old cathedral. THERE WAS A WEDDING STARTING!!! So of course, I took TONS of pictures. I am such an ass that I made Drew go inside with me while they were starting the wedding to take pictures. No flash – don’t worry! Hehehehehe I felt SO naughty! So after that we found a churro vender and bought some. They were 10 pesos = $1. They were so fried!!! I think this will definitely be something I search out again. Definitely so good shizz.

Then we went to Mega. I like saying mega, it sounds so lame. It’s like Fred Meyer/Target. Good and all. We went to get M&Ms. While we were there, we decided to get some random Mexican candy. We bought some carmels and some other cajeta things. Cajeta is this goat milk based chocolate. Don’t knock it, cause seriously, this shizz is the bees knees. Although these random wafer things aren’t. Drew likes them fine, but I think they’re weird. Let me tell you about them. They taste like molasses in between 2 tasteless wafers. Weird. If I remember, I will bring some home and send some to some of you. These caramels though, are freakin delicious. I was going to eat 1, just to try them out, and ended up eating 3. Yum, yum, yum. For those of you that don’t know, caramel has become my new favorite (besides chocolate) since peanuts are out the window….so if I can get caramel and chocolate together, that’s the best. :D

After Mega, we huffed it back down the hill to the house. 6 hours of walking took a lot out of me. I was so hot and tired that I took off my shoes and socks, changed into shorts and laid on the bed til dinner time. We chatted about whatever during dinner…nasty meat. Don’t know what it was, and don’t want to know – cause I’m worried I’d vomit. It was just (texture wise) disgusting. Then we had chongos for dessert. I love those guys. After dinner, Lydia told us there were carrots in the trees this morning that we missed. And Drew was all….you mean parrots?! And she’s all, YEAH!! LOLOLOL I love when carrots hang out in the trees. Then there was a caterpillar on the ceiling. I can’t remember the name in Spanish other than it having something to do with centipedes or something. Anyway, when Lydia went to get a really tall duster for fans and such, Roman got out. Man, he is a giant dog. Lydia wanted him to eat the caterpillar, but he was too interested in hanging out. He knows Spanish. He’s really smart. My dogs only know English. I thought that was impressive.

Michele – you mentioned you never hear anything about roman- so this is for you- and whomever else wants to know J Roman looks like a giant german shepard. He hangs out in the laundry room, and where they hang clothes to dry. He has access to the yard, but not the grass area that is so lovely, just by the orange trees, and the jungle below. I think he is mainly a guard dog since we were told he often bites strangers – but he hasn’t acted that way toward Drew or me at all. He never wags his tail and he’s dirty. I’m guessing that when there aren’t guests in the house, they close the little gate to the front door of the house so he can’t get down onto the nice (crab grass + shamrocks) grass in front of our little room, so that he can “patrol” the driveway area. Not sure though. So in reality, we never see him, never hear him, nada. Although, Roman probably loves me cause he gets all the leftovers that I don’t eat. I am probably making him fat, fat, fat!

So yeah, that was our day. We watched a bit of TV, but it got boring. There is a Spanish song I really like – its on the radio quite a bit, but I don’t know who its by, but its like modern pop junk that I like, so it’s catchy, although I don’t know any of the words. I think I’m going to try to figure out who it is before we go. I think I need to watch more MTV or whatever music tv they have here since MTV never shows any music anymore. Oh, I also listened to more of Twilight on my ipod. How pathetic is it that looking forward to listening to those stories I feel has actually made me happy. I should totally be way more emo than I let on. Oh, and speaking of twilight, they had all 3 books at Costco in Spanish, but they were hardback and $18. I wasn’t going to buy them for $18 each!! I don’t love them enough to try to figure out what it says in Spanish. So ingles solomente para mi!

I think that’s about it. I was about halfway through typing this when Drew went to shower. He’s out now and can’t believe I’m still typing. I guess I have a lot to say. I like editing down for blogspot and going off here. I’m impressed if you’ve made it this far! I still don’t like being here, and I don’t like having to learn something I didn’t have a mindset on doing, but I really am trying to pull myself out of a funk. I think walking ~6+ miles today really helped my endorphin levels immensely.

Sunday:
Nothing much. We went to church, were given a spanish hymn book, sat and listened to the last half of Twilight on my ipod, went to bed.