Rancho Tamales

This weekend was one of the funnest, dare I say THE most fun weekend we have had! After a good time of relaxing, cleaning the house, and studying, we headed on up to the Rancho for the first time in a couple weeks to learn how to make Delia's tamales. The pictures are worth more than a thousand words, so check them out. We got there a little late to actually see them make it, but the dough you will see in the pics is made from scratch. They grew the corn, ground up corn and added salt and pork lard, which they made from their pig as well, to make the Maza. They also made the red sauce with meat, and the salsa to stuff the tamales with. After we made everything we loaded up the truck with the food, chairs, tarps, ropes, people, and a couple dogs. Inside the truck was Abuela, Mario (who was driving the truck), me, and Domino (the puppy). We drove through the rancho, a couple arroyos, dodged many cows, went up a steep side of the mountain, weaved through many cactus, and arrived to our final destination. We had lots of fun exploring the hillside, river, eating tunas right off the cactus, and playing with the frisbee. As it got dark we even saw some fireflies come out and show their endparts! It was so magical.
Sunday was very nice as well. Had church, relaxed some more, played some Scrabble and Rook, and continued to work on school planning. I finally found out where I will be teaching next year. Mom was nice enough to read the letter to me over skype and I will be teaching at McCollum Elementary School this year. That's about 5minutes from where Andy and I live, so its perfect, with a room and all!! Praise God! He is sooo Good! Today we are starting our last official week here. We'll have to soak it all up.

Transformers muy Mal!

So like we promised, here's the update on what we thought of the movie. No, Gracias. It wasn't horrible, but we feel like we could have done without. In our opinion, it was made for the younger, teeny-bopper crowds, with the juvenile humor, the perfectly made Manican lady's, sexual references, and the two-second lasting, jam packed with stimuli scenes. But that is just our humble opinion. The one cool thing about going to the movie was that we were able to go with one of our Korean friends named Laquiri. He is in some of the pictures we have already posted, usually wearing the blue baseball cap. We had some time to kill before the movie so we ended up taking Laquiri to one of our favorite Taquerillas for lunch, then walked around the Centro in search of the delicious churro rellenos we had the day before. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful, but we did find a cool mercado, filled with tons of hand-made products. During this time we had lots of good convo with Laquiri, even some spiritual conversations, which was cool. I've also had the opportunity to talk about spiritual matters with one of our other classmate, Pilar, who speaks a little english, and with one of the translaters here named Jerry. He is originally from Los Angeles, USA, but is now working here and has been for the past 10 years or so. I was pretty much able to share my testimory with him, which I am very thankful for. Praying that God will use it somehow. Finally, we did find another churro stand and enjoyed a batch of them as we headed home after the movie.

Esta Semana

After visiting Guanajuato and Dolores Hidalgo we geared up for another full, yet fun week. This week for class we have been learning about the culture and traditions of Mexico. We have learned about the Day of the Dead, Christmas traditions, how to make pinatas, beaded bracelets, and mexican flags out of a lot of tissue paper. Andy has been studying and planning away and is already into the month of November for some of his classes. Outside of class we have seen more of Zacatecas, gone to a few parks, and eaten chocolate/carmal filled churros freshly made from a street vender. All I have to say about those is "OH MY LUCKY STARS, those are delicious!!! "They have them chocolate filled--I'm getting one!" Our movie pick this week was Die Hard4, since it was recommended by our little bro Matt. He said it was awesome, and we have to agree. If your lookin for a true action packed movie, there it is right there! We were happy with how clean it was in the language and sexual content dept. Today is a day Andy has been waiting for for awhile. TRANSFORMERS comes out. He's been singing the tune for weeks now. We'll let you know what we think after we see it. Man, got to love the movie prices down here! We just found out that we can now use our student id's to get a further discount anytime. SWEET! One of the pains this week was having to deal with someone paying for stuff on line with Andy's credit card number. Luckily, we were able to cancel the card before real damage was done, and I think we will be reimbursed for what was spent. Thank God on that one for sure. Well, that's it for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon. We love to hear from you guys, when you get the chance.

Guanajuato

When arriving in Guanajuato it was getting late and we needed to find our hotel. The tricky thing was that Guanajuato's roads are underground, so you can't really see where the places on top of you are very well. After driving through many a tunnel we finally found a place to park and decided to find our hotel on foot. We ended up parking within walking distance to our hotel called "Casa Bertha". We loved this place. In order to get there we had to walk in some small streets and walkways, and up several stairs, but it was worth it. Casa Bertha is family owned and run, and everyone there was so nice and ended up knowing us on a first name basis. In the morning the next day, we found a really cool place to eat that served the best American breakfast for real cheep. This quickly became one of our favorite places to eat. During breakfast we also met a fellow American who house-sits two or three months out of the year in Guanajuato. He showed us on our map the "must see" places to go, and then we were off. We walked around the city, saw the Mercado, many beautiful fountains and plazas, and went to many historical places for Andy to research and get to know. Take a look at the pics for more details. After a LARGE siesta, we went to the Plaza de centro, then took a ride on the funicular. We got to see the beautiful city at night.

El Costco de Aguascalientes

On friday Andy and I skipped classes and started a trip to Aguascalientes to find the Costco there, so we could finally replace the tire we had ponchared on our way down (two weeks ago). It took us about two hours to get there and find it, and boy did God bless us. So it turns out our tire was going to pop at any moment. It was already bubbling out and very unsafe to drive on. We were getting it replaced not a moment to soon. They ended up not having the tire we needed, but they did give us a full refund for the tire in cash, without a proof of purchase from us or a current membership. They did this so we could buy the tire some where else in town. Thank you LORD!!! After going to a couple of places we actually found a tire that was basically what we needed, just a different brand than what we had. It was perfect. As they put on our new tire, Andy and I were able to use the wireless inside the tire shop to talk with fam and look up the current show times for Harry Potter at the nearest Cinema. When our car was ready we ate at an Applebee's and then went to the movie to celebrate. Nos gusto the movie muy mucho!! Then we made out way down two and a half more hours to our main destination for the weekend, Guanajuato.

Javier y Norma

On Monday we had such a huge blessing. A week ago we met two complete strangers in a cell phone store. We found out they’d been married for going on four years and they found out we didn’t know the city very well and offered to show us around. They gave us their phone number, so on Monday we called them up and they were still very excited to be with us. We met them at the same cell phone store and wizzed away in their yellow VW bug. They took us to this awesome hole-in-the-wall restaurant that we never would have found on our own. They then took us all over the centro to awesome stores we’d never been in before. After that they took us to La Quinta Real Hotel, one of the world’s premier hotels. We didn’t check the prices, but we were guessing that it wasn’t in the neighborhood of 25 bucks. It was such a beautiful hotel built around an old bull-fighting arena. You have to see the pictures. It was such a wonderful day and made me realize something that I really missed: amistad – friendships…hanging with folk. This couple took five hours out of their lives for us and it was so refreshing…and tiring at the same time. So we went home. The next day, however, to celebrate our one-year-and-one-month-aversary, we went back to the hotel to the restaurant/bar they had there and had tacos and drinks. Before we went in, however, we went to the park across the street and it was one of the most magical places we have ever been. In fact, they call it the magic park...because two go in and three come out! It was the most romantic place. We could see one of the well lit cathedrals over the tree tops, exotic birds flew about, and the multi-color-lit, choreagraphed fountain spouted dancingly to music. We forgot the camera, so we'll have to go there again to show you some pics. O well.

Recorrido

That means tour, which is what we finally decided to cough up the money for on Sunday. Previously we kept going to different places saying, “We don’t need a tour. It’s cheaper to just go on our own.” Then we’d get there and have no idea what was going on. So we took a tour and had no idea what was going on. Well that’s not exactly true, but with the rate our auctioneer…digo…tour guide was speaking, that was nearly true. Even the natives speakers were asking him to talk slower. Afterwards we were watching Mexico play one of the *.guay’s (Para or Ura…I can’t remember) and I realized I could understand the sportscasters who were calling the game better than I could understand this guy. I did manage to learn some stuff I couldn’t have known otherwise and we also met a cool, older couple named Don and Pia who had previously come to Mexico for a six month sabbatical to work on books they were each writing. The newlyweds (4 years) fell in love with the place and decided to move to a small community south of Guadalajara. They were extremely well traveled and well educated, former retired professors and the like, and we caught them on their first full day in their new homeland. That was fun. The tour was great, and you can take it with us via picture format. Afterwards Leslie and I found a Subway downtown that had a big screen TV in its dining area and was completely empty because all the Mexicans were watching the game in more authentic setting. Then I connected with the Cook clan and wished Ma a happy birthday. I could smell the brisket and cookies all the way in Mexico. Then we went home. So nice!

Callejoneada

On Saturday Leslie and I went to what is called a callejoneada…basically, a street party. I asked several times what was the occasion for the party and they just told me, “Así se hace.” That’s just what we do. We later asked our teacher, Octavio, and he told us that there are three or four every night, year round. It was one of the funnest things Leslie and I have done since we got here. So we met our Korean classmates and their host families in a plaza. Upon arrival, our conservatively reserved Spanish teacher handed us little “tazas” – tiny mugs – which he told us were for tequila as we hung them around our necks with a ribbon. Shortly after they served us this drink was called Mezcal. It was not tequila. It was like it, only stronger and more disgusting. We tried it in the spirit of cultural experience. Shortly after that the band began to play and didn’t stop for about two hours. As soon as all the students and families had arrived, the band was on the move. Then we found out what the callejoneada was all about: dancing in the streets. For the next hour and a half we proceeded to walk and dance through the streets of Zacatecas, led by our band, stopping only when we came upon a plaza where we could gather to dance properly, adding to our number all along the way. We started with about 75 people. By the time we reached the main plaza in the middle of downtown, there were about 300 people. It was so cool. Afterwards, Leslie and I felt completely safe walking through the well-lit sidestreets back to the hotel we had rented for $25 USD so we wouldn’t have to drive the hour to Fresnillo. We were kind of hungry, so about 10:30 we decided to go to one of our favorite café’s, El Café Retro. The place was packed per cultural norm and we had some tasty burrito snacks topped off by ice cream…so nice and so cheap! Check out the picks. Just click on the link you can’t pronounce.

Viernes

It's been a while since we've posted. Our school, and most of the other ones here, is officially on vacation, so the web administrator also took a short break. He's back now, and so are we. On Friday we dropped our laundry off at a lavenderia and picked it up the next day washed, dried, and folded for about $7 USD. Not too bad considering how perfectly they fold your clothes. It's beautiful, you don't even have to iron them. After school we were pretty tuckered out and found it hard to believe that we'd only just finished our first full week of class. Rattatouille came out that day so we decided to go and see it at the theater. It was dubbed, not subtitled, but we were able to follow along with the action and were happy that all the children in the theater didn't have to test their kindergarden reading level skills on fast subtitles. I got carmel corn and a Manzanita Sol and Leslie got an ice cream. Total cost for the night: $14 USD!

Guadalupe

On Thursday, Leslie and I went to the town of Guadalupe, which is adjoined to Zacatecas by geography only. The town wasn't our favorite, but the museum we went to was pretty interesting. It was the Museum of Guadalupe and the Church of the Convent of Guadalupe. It was great for us to go their, especially since that day we had just discussed New Spain the evagelism to the natives in my (Andy) history class. I've been learning so much, and you will, too, if you take the virtual tour (shortened version) that we'll post on our pictures link to the right. A lot of the comments are detailed because they're for my benefit as a teacher and I'd like to use them for my classes someday. This blog has proved to be a pretty good way of journaling.
Speaking of journaling: dear diary - as of Friday, Leslie and I are officially experiencing what I'll call the "week-after syndrome". We've now been here for a week and have been exploring, making decisions, deliberating, and learning the Spanish language and culture from a fuego hose every day since we arrived. Now it's time to rest, but even that proves difficult as so many things, including the value of convenience, are different here. I still can't decide if the lack of said value in porportion to our own is a mark for or against this culture in my opinion. If anything I think it may be a mark against my own. I've been a little homesick and not fun to be with at times as I rage against things like driving in this dang traffic and on these dang "roads"(talk about different values). I compare it to the normal infirmities suffered physically be travelers which can, and usually are, solved with the passage of time and continued immersion in that which currently drains me.
Tonight we're going to a "callejoneada" - a street party. I think it's something that happens once a month or something. There's a band on every corner, so I hear, and donkeys carry around huge skins of free wine. That's either what's going to happen or my Spanish needs a lot of work. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you online.

Ayer y Hoy

Days five and six are yesterday and today. Yesterday Andy and I got up early, ate breakfast, and headed on our 45min drive to Zacatecas for classes. After my three hour class of spanish (9-12) and his two our class of History (12-2) we were pretty tuckered out. The spanish class I am in is very advanced for me. All the students in it are intermediate, and I am very much a beginner when it comes to my knowledge of vocabulary and constructing sentences. I understand a whole lot more than I can speak, but my knowledge does grow with every class. Andy says that his class would be difficult even for a native speaker to understand, with the quantity of information that is being presented, as well as the speed in which the professor speaks. Most of the Koreans are understanding very little, so Andy volunteered to have a few review sessions to help with understanding. This is good for Andy, since he wants to teach the stuff he is learning to his classes back home in Albuquerque. It gives him a chance to go over what he's learned and try to teach it. After a quick bit to eat at the Retro Cafe, we headed out to the Rancho once more for a baptismal party for some of Mario's friends children. We pulled up to Hacienda and a party was going on for sure. Tons of people where gathered eating, talking, and listening to the live music. Many people gathered around as we showed Mario and his family pictures of our wedding on our laptop. When we came to a picture of me kissing Andy on the cheek everyone gave out a big gasp and looked at me in a way that made me blush. Then when we came to a picture of us kissing that was even a bigger reaction, which made us realize that that must not be a thing they do in their culture. We realized that a tad to late, but still decided to cut the picture sharing short. Whoops! After that we talked some more, ate some great food, and finally agreed to get down and dance. Andy and I danced a song or two, then I joined Maida and her friends. We were having lots of fun spinning eachother around and teaching them how to do the pretzel. They liked it a lot! About 8:00 we headed home since we had an hour drive ahead and some homework to do. Today classes were good, but hard. I'm considering joining the beginners class instead, but we will see. Andy, at this very moment, is tutoring some of the other students in history. And as I look over, he looks very good doing it!! Hopefully tonight, after we celebrate the 4th of July with anyone who gets on skype, we can get some good rest. Andy's stomache is giving him a little bit of discomfort so pray for him. Gracias and adios for now.

Clases y El Centro

Day four found us traveling early in the morning to Zacatecas to see if I (Andy) could link up with the class that was supposed to be starting that morning. I had no idea who was going to be there or where I'd find the person with whom I've been corresponding...I didn't even know what kind of class I'd be taking if any. We arrived about 8:45 and found Octavio, my mexican correspondant, and the group of students we now have decided to call classmates. I say "we" because the alternative class Octavio offered me (the original class I'd registered for had been canceled) consists of three hours of beginning Spanish and two hours of cultural studies. That first day both Leslie and I attended both classes and decided it we be best if she took the Spanish part and I took the cultural part. Octavio had no problem with it, so here I sit, blogging, while my wife is in class with 20 other students from a university in Korea...and they're all studying Spanish. It's awesome!
After class we went to look for phones and had no luck, but met a really cool couple, Javier y Norma, who actually have family in Grants, NM. We got to know them and they offered to take us around the city next Monday. After that blessed little encounter, we discovered that the university was, in fact not located in the centro (downtown) like we thought, so we decided to go check it out. It was phenominal. Most of the pictures from this post are of this portion of the day. Zacatecas is by far the best city I've ever been to in Mexico. The centro has amazing cathedrals and cool restaurants and cyber cafe's, one of which we used for a short video chat with our Del Rio syndicate. Finally we stopped at The Acropolis, which quickly turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants. Check out the pics. You like!

Fresnillo y Zacatecas

Day three Andy and I got to explore all by ourselves!! We started with our home town and walked the streets, found an ATM to get some pesos, weaved in and out of the different marcados, looked for cell phone deals, and ate our first meals from a vender. During our meal we met Cynthia who is a beautiful 10 years old who took our orders, and her two younger sisters Daphni (8) and Yajaida (5). It was fun to finally communicate and play with some people on my communication level! :-)
After lunch we headed to the much anticipated city of Zacatecas, and we loved and LOVE it! We drove around first to find our bearings, find the University, find neat places to go, and find a Walmart. But before we did the latter we found a movie house and took refuge in an english movie for 3.50 a person! We watched the Fantastic 4, which was not so fantastic, but it was in ENGLISH!! After finding and getting all that we needed we headed back home to eat dinner, skype with Mom Sto and sleep once more.

El Rancho de San Jose (Perspective of Leslie)

At the start of day two we found ourselves waking up for the first time in Mexico. Andy and I both slept deeply after the long journey getting here. By 7:00am we were "up and at em". Andy and Mario went to pick up Mario's youngest daughter (Violet) at the bus stop, and then we all headed out for a day at the Rancho. Driving there we saw beautiful countryside, as well as scenery that looked very much like New Mexico. After about a 45min-1 hour drive we reached la Hacienda Grande. As you will see in the pictures, it is a very big, beautiful place arou nd 100 years old. Apparently a rich Duke use to own it until the government took it over and let it run down. It is my understanding that now about 50 families live at the Rancho, and three different families share sections of La Hacienda. I'm not sure if that is exactly right, but Andy will write and correct me if I'm wrong. When we went in we met several members of Mario's family and friends. We met his wife Delia, older daughter Mida, middle daughter Rosia, and Delia's parents and sister that also live on La Hacienda. About 99% of Spanish was spoken the whole day, with 1% english (Andy translating little bits for me here and there), so it was quite a dowse into the culture right away. Let's just say there was a ton of smiling and nodding on my part, not to mention that I was like glue to Andy! I have to admit that I would cringe about every time Andy left my sight for the first few hours we were there. Andy, of course, did a fabulous job of communicating with everyone, making them smile and feel special, while surprising them all with his spanish skills as a gringo. We ate our first authentic mexican food and saw the authentic rancho living while we were there. They took us on a tour of the whole place, the attached iglesia (church), and the different parts of the Rancho. We sat and talked (while others just listened) in many peoples houses long enough to get pretty sleepy. Eventually we were able to take a small siesta before we headed to a real Mexican wedding reception later that evening. All we can say about that was WOW! It was very fancy with a three course meal, live music, and lots of tequila. We were at the wedding reception for about five hours and probably lost half our hearing. The reception was held in a multipurpose room that was made of concrete and in the form of a gymnasium. It was probably the worst made place for live music using a sound system. There were several different bands who performed, and all were very, very, VERY loud. You couldn't talk to the person next to you without yelling in their ear, and you could not hear one individual note when the whole band played together. We were very thankful when the time came to leave. By the end of this day we were throughly exhausted and still had to drive back home to Fresnillo. After this funfilled day, we slept very well, indeed.

El Rancho de San Jose (Perspecitve of Andy)

Day two, our first complete day where we both woke up and went to bed in Mexico, was a cultural lesson and a half, most of which you can read about in the captions of the pictures. When I first heard Mario talking about the rancho back home, I thought he was talking about a farm, which is what I thought rancho meant, but apparently it can also mean small village comprised of fifty families who subdivided and occupied an old hacienda and are now living in and around it. Today we met Delia, Mario's wife, and his three daughters: Maira, Rosio, and Violeta (17, 14, and 11). They really are a cool family. We left Fresnillo about eight o'clock and went to the Rancho de San Jose, or just "San Jose"...or just "El Rancho". Delia made us breakfast ~ 10AM, and "lunch", which they just call "comer", eating, at around 4. That's how they do it here. They have their main meal around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. That hasn't been that hard to get used to. The food was good and recently alive. Then they took us to a wedding reception that was way more fancy than either of us were expecting after a day of "El Rancho" living. To get the full gist of how amazing this day was and how much it helped me become a better Spanish teacher, you'll have to take the picture tour. We were pretty tired at the end of the day, especially Leslie who was confined to a world of 99% Spanish and 1% scraps of me telling her in English what the heck everyone was talking about. (There was a lot of smiling and nodding on her part) She's been able to understand quite a bit. God has blessed us insanely since we've been here with experiences and relationships that we never could have planned.

El Viaje (The Journey)

Day one in Mexico was a day of travel. We left Erin, Nino, and Marissa in Del Rio early in the morning, and started our adventure to the heart of Mexico. We passed through many little towns and villages on our way to our new home in Fresnillo. About half way through the trip we had our first obstacle, a flat tire. But with much manliness and swift action Andy changed it quickly, even with the light rain and the Mexican watching us the whole time from the back of his pickup. We made it just in time to Saltillo where we discovered three things: Mexicans love chicken (El Pollo Loco, Pollo Feliz, Chicky Landia, etc. were almost on every corner), Los Topes (extremely annoying speed bumps and giant metal dots (the size of salad bowls) that are used in place of speed limits), and a Goodyear tire store that fixed our popped tire for $7.50 USD. After waiting for our tire to be fixed and sitting in horrible traffic for over an hour we were finally on the road again. It was dark and raining heavily by the time we reached Fresnillo. Mario (our amigo whose casa we are staying in) told us to call him when we reached to town and he would come meet us and take us to his house. After leaving our third message, we were starting to think we should check into a hotel for the evening and look for him in the morning. But fortunatly, God blessed us when Andy met a man who ended up taking us directly to Mario's doorstep. Mario was happy to see us, since the phone lines were down and he was expecting us several hours earlier. Wow! A long, but exciting first day.