My mother-in-law owns a little shop she runs out of the front of our house. She sells all kinds of things, from baseball caps and hair gel to clothes pins and kids' toys. Every couple of weeks she has Hernan take her up to Guadalajara to buy more merchandise. We visit the marketplaces and street vendors, searching for bargains, and return laden with bags and bags and bags of stuff she can mark up for a few pesos. The profits are small, but she makes enough to put tortillas on the table.
Here are some things I learned today while accompanying her to Guadalajara.
1. Even if you're holding a baby and many large parcels, sprint across the street, because the taxi cabs will not slow down for you, though the driver may honk. He will hit you.
2. Even if you're holding a baby and many large parcels, get out of the way of the ladies with push carts. She will not slow down; she will not honk; she will hit you.
3. All women evidently fit into a B-cup bra size. This is the only size bra my mother-in-law sells in her shop and the only size we saw for sale in GDL.
4. Why wear tight jeans when you can wear spandex leggings designed to look like jeans?
5. Only buy baseball caps that come with tags and stickers. These indicate that the cap is new. Dudes in San Juan pay extra so they can sport caps with tags and stickers still attached.
6. Girls' clothing must be pink.
7. Next time bring snacks.
Showing posts with label guadalajara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guadalajara. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Beer: We Meet Again
My sister-in-law is moving to the US (lucky!) and to send her off we went out for beer.
During my pregnancy a microbrewery opened up in Ajijic, tempting me with its beery allure. (the post) I abstained, but planned to fit in a frothy pint as soon as I could squeeze one in between nursing. However! Evil Beer Temptress up and closed down just about the time Hanix was born. Total Fail.
Yet, we discovered that the Ajijic local was just a venture by the established microbrewery in Tlaquepaque (near Guadalajara). So, we rounded up the fam and headed to The Beer Lounge. http://www.beerlounge.com.mx/ We were my sister-in-law, her eight-year-old son, my brother-in-law, his wife and 2 month old baby, my mother-in-law and Hernan and Hanix and me. Three cheers for babies in bars?
This was my first trip to Tlaquepaque, which is sort of a style-y swank area being eaten up by Guadalajara. The Beer Lounge was totally decent, though I was suspicious of their fruit beers. If I wanted to eat a pineapple, I’d eat a pineapple. I drink beer, because I like beer. Don’t mess with it. But maybe I was only unwilling to venture into Fruit Beer Land because it had been so long since I’d had a “real” beer, and that’s what I had come to drink.
I had a porter. It was delicious. I had just one, because after 10 months of no alcohol I’m a total light weight.
The bar played internationally recognized songs by Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and so forth. That was fine with me; it was a nice break from banda.
So, will we be going again? Aye.
Beer, it’s nice to get to know you again.
During my pregnancy a microbrewery opened up in Ajijic, tempting me with its beery allure. (the post) I abstained, but planned to fit in a frothy pint as soon as I could squeeze one in between nursing. However! Evil Beer Temptress up and closed down just about the time Hanix was born. Total Fail.
Yet, we discovered that the Ajijic local was just a venture by the established microbrewery in Tlaquepaque (near Guadalajara). So, we rounded up the fam and headed to The Beer Lounge. http://www.beerlounge.com.mx/ We were my sister-in-law, her eight-year-old son, my brother-in-law, his wife and 2 month old baby, my mother-in-law and Hernan and Hanix and me. Three cheers for babies in bars?
This was my first trip to Tlaquepaque, which is sort of a style-y swank area being eaten up by Guadalajara. The Beer Lounge was totally decent, though I was suspicious of their fruit beers. If I wanted to eat a pineapple, I’d eat a pineapple. I drink beer, because I like beer. Don’t mess with it. But maybe I was only unwilling to venture into Fruit Beer Land because it had been so long since I’d had a “real” beer, and that’s what I had come to drink.
I had a porter. It was delicious. I had just one, because after 10 months of no alcohol I’m a total light weight.
The bar played internationally recognized songs by Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, the Beatles, and so forth. That was fine with me; it was a nice break from banda.
So, will we be going again? Aye.
Beer, it’s nice to get to know you again.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Parking Garage Coolness
Today we borrowed a car and drove up to Guadalajara for a doctor appointment. (All's well, by the by.) We also wanted to drive out to the birth center again to refresh our memories on how to get there. I told Hernan that I'm not interested in getting lost in Guadalajara (as we always do) while I'm pushing a big old baby out. It just wouldn't be cool. So we had a few errands to run.
BUT, the coolest discovery today was made after parking the car in a garage downtown. Walking out of the garage, we discovered you can get down to lower levels via POLE!
Yes, my friends, fireman poles, in a parking garage. Too cool.
The poles are right next to the spiral staircase you could take instead (as if!). Not only are poles more fun than stairs, they make for a quick escape, which can be useful when one is being chased through a parking garage by anything that would have trouble going down a pole, like bears on unicycles, or alligators, or armless pod people.
Zombie monkeys would probably get you, though.
Still, how fun is that?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Blah, blah, blah
Today I can't focus on one topic, so you get a potpourri.
The Spawn is Just Fine
Yesterday afternoon Hernan and I went to Guadalajara for a baby check-up. Everything seems to be just fine. This was nice to hear after a month of in-laws and neighbors telling me how my baby's too big or too small, that I have twins, that my abdomen is the wrong size, too high or too low, or how I need to be crawling around the house on my hands and knees to get the baby to fall into the right position because right now it's clearly in the wrong position and if I have a c-section it will obviously be my fault for not spending all my time crawling around on my hands and knees.
I'm certain they mean well, but having a passel of doomsayers isn't helpful.
So we like our doctor, who always tells us we're fine.
Traffic
On another topic, the drive to Guadalajara reminded me that "road safe" is not really a concept down here. "If you can get it to move, you can take it on the highway" would probably be a good slogan. In some ways I kind of admire the attitude, and people are clearly very resourceful. However, the combination of speeding cars, pickups full of loose debris, trailers with a passion for danger, slow-moving tractors, and jalopies makes for a dangerous ride, especially when you throw in the pedestrians, street vendors, cyclists, and farm animals.
It's not uncommon, for example, to have to suddenly stop on the highway because cows are crossing, or because that's only as fast as the pickup with the two sows in the back can go.
Yesterday we got to drive through a dust storm as we passed a trailer. It appeared the trailer was hauling dirt, a considerable portion of which formed a thick cloud around it as it progressed down the highway. We also just missed being flattened, three separate times, by semi trucks making sudden highways exists from three lanes over.
Care Packages
The state of Jalisco has extended the shut down of schools and public spaces for another few weeks. At first this really bummed me out, but then I remembered that there's nowhere around here for me to go anyway, so it really doesn't matter. I was worried, though, that all this swine flu shutdown business has included the postal service. I've been expecting care packages. Luckily for me, the postal service was only shut down for the first week of so, the period of national shutdown. This state-specific shutdown extension hasn't included the post, and so yesterday was a holiday: a backlog of care packages arrived, including our box of ramen and the baby hand-me-down clothes that were my niece's. We are very pleased.
First Rain
We have now had two nights with rain, which marks the beginning of the rainy season. I expected it to begin with a boom, but it looks like we'll be eased into it. Any day now the afternoon rains will begin. Hernan says they've started earlier this year.
The rain is welcome. I'm sick of the dust and dryness. And afterwards, the air is actually clear for a good two or three hours (before all the smoke and car exhaust get trapped beneath the cloud cover again).
Robin, have the monsoons started in Mumbai yet? Did I win the race? You knew it was a race, right?
The Spawn is Just Fine
Yesterday afternoon Hernan and I went to Guadalajara for a baby check-up. Everything seems to be just fine. This was nice to hear after a month of in-laws and neighbors telling me how my baby's too big or too small, that I have twins, that my abdomen is the wrong size, too high or too low, or how I need to be crawling around the house on my hands and knees to get the baby to fall into the right position because right now it's clearly in the wrong position and if I have a c-section it will obviously be my fault for not spending all my time crawling around on my hands and knees.
I'm certain they mean well, but having a passel of doomsayers isn't helpful.
So we like our doctor, who always tells us we're fine.
Traffic
On another topic, the drive to Guadalajara reminded me that "road safe" is not really a concept down here. "If you can get it to move, you can take it on the highway" would probably be a good slogan. In some ways I kind of admire the attitude, and people are clearly very resourceful. However, the combination of speeding cars, pickups full of loose debris, trailers with a passion for danger, slow-moving tractors, and jalopies makes for a dangerous ride, especially when you throw in the pedestrians, street vendors, cyclists, and farm animals.
It's not uncommon, for example, to have to suddenly stop on the highway because cows are crossing, or because that's only as fast as the pickup with the two sows in the back can go.
Yesterday we got to drive through a dust storm as we passed a trailer. It appeared the trailer was hauling dirt, a considerable portion of which formed a thick cloud around it as it progressed down the highway. We also just missed being flattened, three separate times, by semi trucks making sudden highways exists from three lanes over.
Care Packages
The state of Jalisco has extended the shut down of schools and public spaces for another few weeks. At first this really bummed me out, but then I remembered that there's nowhere around here for me to go anyway, so it really doesn't matter. I was worried, though, that all this swine flu shutdown business has included the postal service. I've been expecting care packages. Luckily for me, the postal service was only shut down for the first week of so, the period of national shutdown. This state-specific shutdown extension hasn't included the post, and so yesterday was a holiday: a backlog of care packages arrived, including our box of ramen and the baby hand-me-down clothes that were my niece's. We are very pleased.
First Rain
We have now had two nights with rain, which marks the beginning of the rainy season. I expected it to begin with a boom, but it looks like we'll be eased into it. Any day now the afternoon rains will begin. Hernan says they've started earlier this year.
The rain is welcome. I'm sick of the dust and dryness. And afterwards, the air is actually clear for a good two or three hours (before all the smoke and car exhaust get trapped beneath the cloud cover again).
Robin, have the monsoons started in Mumbai yet? Did I win the race? You knew it was a race, right?
Friday, April 17, 2009
Of Signs and Fridges
We knew it was a bad sign when the first fridge didn’t seem to have all the normal packaging new appliances are usually born with. Fridge #2 did. We checked at the store. We made them unpack it and plug it in so we could hear it whir. Fridge #1 did not whir. Fridge #2 whirs. Fridge #2 also makes things cold. We have experienced great success with fridge #2 so far. It whirs. It makes things cold. It does not glare at us from the corner.
This is reason for celebration. I might buy more cheese.
While on our way to Guadalajara to exchange Bad Fridge for Good Fridge, I tried to capture a photograph of my favorite sign in Mexico.
It proclaims Guadalajara to be the Silicon Valley of Mexico. I’m sorry it’s not a better shot. I’ll try to take a better one the next time we head up.
Before I moved to the area, I read on the World Wide Web that Guadalajara is known as Mexico’s Silicon Valley. Because the World Wide Web and Wikipedia, in particular, clearly know all, I was inclined to accept this as truth, despite some misgivings. I didn’t realize, however, that the city itself proclaims this supposed similarity. I wonder who decided it was necessary to use a sign to try to convince people of this.
I like this sign so much because Guadalajara isn’t really much like the Silicon Valley. We see this sign as we enter the city, and so we always enter the city with a chuckle. Sometimes we see this sign, and then we see a herd of cattle on the highway. Or a lane of traffic occupied by small children on horseback. Or semi trucks barreling down the wrong side of the highway. Pretty much all things I never saw during my stay in Siliconlandia. I’ll try to get some shots of these things too next time.
Guadalajara is a big, sprawly, dirty, smoggy city. We don’t really like it much, but we find ourselves there often. I'll probably write about it the next time we get stuck there, lost because of the lack of street signs.
I’m including two other signs I rather enjoy. The first can be seen when leaving El Paso for Ciudad Juarez.
The second is a very common road sign.
It instructs one to not leave rocks on the pavement. No Deje Piedras Sobre El Pavimiento. I have been tempted many times to do just this, but these signs are everywhere, spoiling my plans. I ask, was this such a problem in Mexico that there was a need for thousands of these signs?
This is reason for celebration. I might buy more cheese.
While on our way to Guadalajara to exchange Bad Fridge for Good Fridge, I tried to capture a photograph of my favorite sign in Mexico.
It proclaims Guadalajara to be the Silicon Valley of Mexico. I’m sorry it’s not a better shot. I’ll try to take a better one the next time we head up.
Before I moved to the area, I read on the World Wide Web that Guadalajara is known as Mexico’s Silicon Valley. Because the World Wide Web and Wikipedia, in particular, clearly know all, I was inclined to accept this as truth, despite some misgivings. I didn’t realize, however, that the city itself proclaims this supposed similarity. I wonder who decided it was necessary to use a sign to try to convince people of this.
I like this sign so much because Guadalajara isn’t really much like the Silicon Valley. We see this sign as we enter the city, and so we always enter the city with a chuckle. Sometimes we see this sign, and then we see a herd of cattle on the highway. Or a lane of traffic occupied by small children on horseback. Or semi trucks barreling down the wrong side of the highway. Pretty much all things I never saw during my stay in Siliconlandia. I’ll try to get some shots of these things too next time.
Guadalajara is a big, sprawly, dirty, smoggy city. We don’t really like it much, but we find ourselves there often. I'll probably write about it the next time we get stuck there, lost because of the lack of street signs.
I’m including two other signs I rather enjoy. The first can be seen when leaving El Paso for Ciudad Juarez.
The second is a very common road sign.
It instructs one to not leave rocks on the pavement. No Deje Piedras Sobre El Pavimiento. I have been tempted many times to do just this, but these signs are everywhere, spoiling my plans. I ask, was this such a problem in Mexico that there was a need for thousands of these signs?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)