Mision Carlton Class Guadalajara

... light in time to identify my assailant as a fair sized cockroach! However by the time I grabbed a shoe to batter it with, the ****er had disappeared beneath my wardrobe.

I have since become somewhat paranoid. Where will it crawl next time I sleep? Not my face? Or will I awake to find a scorpion in my bed or a tarantula spinning its web around me? Tonight I'll be applying plenty of insect repellent before bed and sleeping with a loaded gun beneath the pillow...

... any damage inside the house. I was blindfolded - and armed for some reason with a stolen road sign - and proceeded to destroy the piñata in a shambolic process which descended into something resembling a game of baseball.

The night finally wound down around 6am and I spent the majority of the next day in bed or watching the football. But by Sunday we were back in the party mood, so I set out for Lake Chapala with Isobel, a friend ...

... week I visited the historic city centre, browsed several local markets, and took a trip to La Barranca, a huge green canyon on the edge of town which offers a stark contrast to the urban metropolis. The second biggest city in Mexico, Guadalajara is completely unlike any of the places we had visited previously. It is further north than anywhere else we had been, and has much more of a modern, American feel to it. There is less indigenous influence, but being the ...

... grammar on my own. I´m taking latin dance classes here, too...I´m one of two guys in our class, so we´re in pretty high demand as partners. We´re all going out friday night to practice our new moves at a salsa club nearby. I signed up to volunteer at an orphanage twice a week, and I´m on my school´s soccer team too. Our first game is next week, against a team of professors from the University of Guadalajara´s engineering school...should be a ...

... students were leaving for lunch, and actually got cat-called by a group 14 year old girls wearing matching school uniforms (Papacito, papacito!). By the time we made it back to the hostel, we'd run 11k and I was about ready to explode. The whole time, I felt much safer than I ever have in the tougher parts of Las Vegas and D.C.

I've been spending most of my time here hanging out with other people staying at the hostel. I've been lucky enough ...

... The parallel street was where all the prostitutes were. Even with Gorgina’s excellent Spanish, we could not find the street, it might have been getting renovated.
The sights were good, we also went to a five story market where, if there was a fire, we would all die.

Friday, 13 August, Day 202

Guadalajara, Mexico

I graduated from Spanish school today. I learned almost nothing, I was a pretty slack student. I am writing this a month ...

Guadalajara was an enjoyable whirlwind filled with enjoying family and visiting sites! We attended family gatherings each evening and were well fed by Virginia, Socorro, and Aurelia. We visted El Centro and learned quite a bit on our guided tour of the Orozco murals there. Of course, we had to stop by the indoor marketplace San Juan de Dios and also visit our favorite restaurant in the area, La Chata ...

... eggs on the end of the sand and into the sea.  Leatherback turtle mums only give birth every five years so we were pretty lucky to catch them take their first steps.  A lady on the beach told us though that only  1 in a 1000 survive, though there were definate conservation efforts on the beach to help them out. It was Erics last day in Mexico so he wanted nothing but beach and we were willing to oblidge. After hours of boogie boarding ...

So I'm at home, ignoring my half read reading on the history of Mexican unions and how they were destroyed by the evil Mexican government in the late 1940s early 1950s and changing my blog because its something to do and the Internet is addictive...at least for me! Its hot, and upstairs my house mate is accompanying my acts of procrastination with her accordion. This weekend I want to go travelling and in 5 weeks I leave for Cuba. Until then life as normal...

... far from confident in my decision. Luckily for me, it didn't take long for my innate "weirdo magnetismo" to take effect and I had soon been well-advised on the logistics of Guadalajara navigation. "Jijean" (my best guess) was around 50, had a sharp white sweater draped rakishly around his neck and had a radio, a very loud radio, hooked to his belt. He was able to explain to me exactly where and when I wanted to get off the bus without once breaking the stride of his seat mambo ...