dear apple macintosh computers and my ibook G4 in particular,

guess what? you have made my life a living hell. as much as i think your laptops are pretty and innovative, they keep breaking down on me and i don't think i can take much more of it. at this particular moment in time, i cannot even turn you on. i've invested a lot of time, effort and $$$ into you (and so have my friends), and now you've got all 80 gigs of my shit locked up inside and i've resorted to using my housemate's equally crappy dell to write this to you.

in short, i totally hate you.

you suck,
christina

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long weekend #1:

lisa and i stay overnight in sayulita for two nights. we have great meals, meet some interesting characters and even manage some dancing on the beach. i buy two new bikinis that i can't imagine myself wearing anytime in the near future (which is a problem, since it is definitely time to retire my mom's suit from the '60s). overall, we get to see a different side of the town that we usually don't see during daytrips there.

long weekend #2:

tj, lisa and i get a ride from dave to guadalajara (a four to five-hour drive, sans traffic), the capital of the state of jalisco, in his tie-mobile.
we head out directly after our half-day of school on thursday (it was a 2.5 day workweek), which featured a surprisingly impressive talent show that consisted of such quality acts as mariano (math), jeff (science), stephan (substitute) and antonio (principal) playing guitar while dave sang "stuck in the middle with you," that song from the reservoir dogs soundtrack. i was the token tambourine/triangle girl. according to some, i was an essential part of the act. i'd like to think so, considering i worked out my part about 10 minutes before the show began. i'm pretty sure i've attended enough indie rock shows to do a pretty decent rockstar imitation though.

the guad, or the gdl, as i like to refer to it, was a good getaway. i was last there for a school-related workshop, so i really didn't get to experience much that time, save the centro historico and a bullfighter-obsessed bar called la maestranza. this time around, we hit the hip spots based on recommendations from friends.
the meals were yummy and their atmospheres were of the trendy sort--we patroned a thai fusion spot called i latina in a warehouse, a quaint and budget-friendly french/european-inspired deli named boca 21, as well as la moresca, a swanky italian eatery/lounge where there were no actual windows on the lower level and everyone wore a coat while they ate (it was CHILLY in the city at night).
we also checked out a few nifty bars, namely a place called red pub that has a whole london, uk theme; from the outside, it looks like your average british-style pub (it could be any one of the firkins found in T.O.), but once you get inside, there's a little alleyway that leads out to an open-air back patio that looks like a movie studio lot set up to play london. there's a fake harrods storefront amongst others, streetlamps, and washrooms that look like red telephone booths. the beer offerings are german and belgian imports as well as stuff on tap from local independent microbreweries. the night we were there, the music was a mix of top-40 britpop and '90s alternative grunge, and maan, was it crowded!
before we left, i ran into some guys from sayulita who recognized me from the previous weekend, and i got to try/mooch some of the local beer, called minerva. it was good stuff! i walked out w/ a half-pint glass.
another bar we got to take a peek at was la santa, which was actually a converted house decked out in lights. unfortunately, by the time we got there they were closing, but the nice manager guy let us take a look around, and the place looked like a hipster's haven.

the weird thing we discovered about gdl nightlife though is that there really aren't very many great places to go dancing. and boy, did we try (ultimately unsuccessfully) to find a decent place! the dude at la santa told us that, basically, tapatíos (gdl natives) like to sit and drink and talk. siigh. the ironic thing is that they all seem to have such great shoes! truly--i was staring at everyone's feet all weekend, and i loved everyone's shoes. i loved 'em so much that i went temporarily insane and completely blew my last paycheque on five pairs for myself. i've been living off about 150 pesos (approx. $15 US) for the past week (i'm now down to my last 25), but my feet sure do look cute.

well, i also spent a good chunk of dough on books from the feria internacional del libro de guadalajara (FIL). we honed in on the few english stalls there, and i bought:
truman capote's breakfast at tiffany's (loving it)
edwin abbott's flatland ("a romance of many dimensions"...gooo, geometry!)
james joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man
and
vol. 2 of frank miller's sin city (a student lent me vol. 1 last year)

despite the cool places we saw, i still think mexico's 2nd largest city is more like a humongous suburb. it takes a great deal of effort to get anywhere since everything is so spread out, and therefore you really need to know where you want to go and be sure that you actually want to go there, since there is probably nothing else to do in the area if you change your mind. i really prefer just going to a neighborhood or certain section of a city and having a whole bunch of good hangout options nearby.

enough complaining. it was a good getaway. we have one last long weekend this friday before christmas break, and i think i'm gonna spend it in a dark theatre eating popcorn and nachos at the (kinda dismal) pv film fest.

boy, do i love four-day weekends.
wednesday felt like friday, thursday felt like friday, friday felt like saturday, saturday felt like sunday...and sunday...felt like sort-of sunday.
so my parents arrived on friday, and i spent the day orienting them to the town and attempting to wear them out. we took a tour of my jungle of an apartment complex, a stroll down the malecon, a nice dinner all the way up at barcelona tapas, and then to end the night (for them, anyway), a salsa dancing class at the local salsa club.
after i dropped them off at their hotel, my night began. i felt like i was leading a double life or something. dutiful daughter by day, carefree partygirl by night. well, once or twice a week, anyway.

i recently met this guy who works at the university radio station here (the site doesn't have much on it right now). him and his friend co-host a program that lisa's been listening to for the past year (she didn't make the connection until a couple of weeks ago), and him and his roommate also make their own music with a pretty impressive studio setup in their apartment.
anyway, the radio station was celebrating its fifth anniversary on friday, and there were all these events planned, including a dj set by this friend of mine at de santos at night. i have never seen the place so packed before--we could barely maneuver our way around on the roof, which was where he was playing. the usual surfing videos they play up there were replaced with visuals made specially for his act (called cubenx--he plays techno-ish IDM...although the stuff he does w/ his roommate is more like electronic pop), and the place was packed w/ hipster-like folk (where the hell did they all come from and where do they usually hide?!) drinking the free booze available.
lisa and i met a ton of people (mostly guys hitting on us...and mostly hitting on lisa...but interesting people nonetheless), ran into a few familiar faces (school-related, mostly), and i mooched drinks off people offering them. i swear at one point i had some crazy vodka-tequila combo shot. i had to put down the scotch after that one.
frenetic dancing ensued--with some ppl even up on the sofas. the klepto in me that is usually kept under wraps until alcohol coaxes it out (hellooo bubba's poutine in k-town) was sooo tempted to steal the radio t-shirt off a dude, the stylin' pinstripey, dresspant-ish cutoffs off a girl, and the laptop off my dj friend (he has thousands of albums on that thing--no joke). alas, i managed to keep the urges contained. restraint!

the moon has been absolutely gorgeous these past few days, too.
i also saw a shooting star (the first real one i've ever seen in my life!) on saturday, while coming back from a dinner/show boat cruise thing with my parents.

last night, my parents met dave, lisa, and tj over the greatest dinner ever at a student of mine's impressive restaurant/home overlooking the town. it wasn't as embarrassing as i'd expected, which is saying a lot! i actually think my mom and dad are enjoying themselves so far...i'm taking the day off tomorrow just to wander around town w/ them. i'll introduce them to my students and co-workers on thursday, the day before they head back up to the cold. they've been sweating buckets here since they arrived, which is funny b/c they're originally from a place that practically has the same climate. it's pretty interesting to note how similar hk and the pv actually are--the same humidity, the same surroundings (pacific ocean, mountains...i guess the hk is a little more urban), even some of the food and traditions are alike (tamales and the day of the dead both sort of have their chinese equivalents).

we have two more long weekends this month--it's insane! i want to get some travelling in, dammit!

"queremos halloween!" / dia de los muertos

so what have i done with my day of the dead so far? lounge in my room all day, downloading songs and ignoring the rest of the quarter exams i have to mark. we have a 4-day long weekend this year, which works out well for me since my parents are coming for a week starting tomorrow. let's hope it's a good visit.

on hallowe'en night, tj, her friend from seattle, and i dressed up as a trio of felines (tj--leopard, tj's friend--panther, me--black housecat) and hit the malecon for a few hours before they left to catch the bus for their trip to patscuaro, michoacan. we brought candy to hand out, and were surrounded by a mob of children--we almost got knocked over at one point. the candy was gone in about two minutes. we didn't even have to move.
a camera crew from televisa stopped us for an interview, and we proceeded to converse in "meows" and catspeak. random tourists took our picture. it was all really silly, but memorable, i guess.

yesterday, a student gave me a pair of tickets for a radio concert extravaganza at the local bullring, so lisa and i went to check it out. turns out it was the high school event of the year; mexican teenyboppers everywhere!!! my students, waving at me and screaming my name, from every direction! the acts made us want to gouge our eyes out, so we left early. all was redeemed by a nice italian dinner downtown afterwards.

tomorrow, i plan on taking my parents salsa dancing. does life get any more surreal?!