jueves, el 31 de marzo de 2011

Buenos noches all.

Like losing a few teeth, we managed to get through another clase de español!!

If you recall from our last lesson…reflexive verbos.

Bañarse…to bathe oneself. When conjugating, you need to use me, te, se, nos or se.

Me baño…I bathe

Te bañas…you bathe

Se baña…he or she bathes

Nos bañamos…we bathe

Se bañen…they bathe

But…you cannot conjugate two verbos in a row. So, you conjugate the first one and if the second one is a reflexive verbo, you add the pronoun to the back of the verbo.

No puedo bañarme….I cannot bathe. Puedo is the first person singular of the verbo poder…to be able. Bañarme is the reflexive verbo bañarse with the “se” dropped and the first person singular pronoun, “me” added.

Get it?

Yeah…and we pay to go to this clase!! Ja ja ja

But we are practicing daily routine phrases as well and I am finding those handy.

Pit stop at Che…jonesing for some Coca Light!! But disappointed to find out we bought some pollo malo…it was STINKY. This has now happened twice…I will need to be more careful in picking the pollo.

Good haul on crunchy peanut butter, cran berry juice y pancake mix for domingo!! Chef Bexico will be whipping up a desayuno before we DO go to Senor Pucks for NASCAR, a caesar salad AND coconut shrimp!! We go to clase with the managers of Senor Pucks and it was Karen y Randy that told us about the shrimp. Small world as Bexico had been craving some coconut shrimp.

UPDATE

Canucks vs Kings…the score is 2-1 for Van at the end of the 2^nd period. They can win the President’s trophy if they win tonite’s game!!

Dropped off the groceries and then it was time for el gimnasio.

Good workout…good on weights…the cardio was lacking. There is always mañana. Good chats with Rosa and made a new acquaintance too. She called me her bici compañero as we have both been hitting the bikes at the same time.

It made me laugh when she came down to talk with Rosa and myself and after she blasted me with some español, both Rosa and I had to explain to her that I don’t speak fluent español. Based on the short chats we had been having, I guess she thought I knew more then I do!! Ja ja ja

Here are the fotos from today…hope they make up for ayer.

WFSITBOTT?

This truck is full of mop and broom heads as well as handles for both. He was putting them together and then going out trying to sell them.

Maybe they do feed the prisoners?

This hombre was on his way to the jail with at least one meal.

And the rack of clothes was back in the parque.

WFSITBOTT #2?

This truck came from a region of Oaxaca known as Tehuantepec which we bypassed on the way home from Oaxaca City.

Here is a link to wikipedias info on the town.

Tehuantepec

And here is another truck from automotive alley.

After gym it was some alberca time and as Bexico had been cooped up finishing her NYC contract, we went for a walk around town.

Here are the fotos from the walk.

Mangos and coconuts from the grounds of the condo.

This old sailor is now selling onions and flip flops.

I am not mocking this hombre…I am sure he is attempting to earn money any way he can, to assist his family.

And the duster and wind chime hombres are back!!

These next 3 fotos are credited to Bexico.

Bubba Van (sin 2^nd chin y con mucho pelo)

This is Daniel from Gabriel’s.

He is a good hombre…very friendly to us.

This is Samuel.

He is one of the Gabriel hombres that went to the fiesta la noche del sábado pasado. It only took a dozen fotos to get him to stop being so serious...similar to all other Mexicans we try to take a foto of!!

After we picked up some more Mil Isla y Caesar dressing and of course veggies, we went and tried some sopa at the little restaurant across from the condo. I had a cheap cerveza and Bexico had “the best chicken soup I have EVER had”. 


We will go back as we trust the place as it is always busy and is one of the cleanest restaurants we see around town.

From a previous walk, here is a foto of the restaurante.

And the last foto of the day is of this self-entertaining nina.

La cena was some burritos and a great Bexico ensalada.

Mañana? Must pop in and talk with Lanny regarding Mojon, there is always el gimnasio and then alberca time.

Sabado looks like a Mojon day and I have already told you about our adventures for domingo!!


Have a great viernes amigos!!


PS....Canucks won 3-1.

miercoles, el 30 de marzo de 2011

Hola hola. Great day…Mojon is the place to be mi amigos!!

But no fotos today :( and really not much happening.

Daniel my Fonatur amigo is sporting both a nuevo playera y corte de pelo.

Rosa at the gym swears that the clocks move back one hour on domingo por la noche…I swear they move forward. Maybe a 1 peso bet is due?

Had a great workout at el gimnasio. The key is to go early while it is cooler and not always try to hit the cardio first. I end up drinking over 2 litros of agua while I am there…crazy.

We hit Mojon after the gym and were waved right though Copalita. Big waves and high swells…but for the first time I can recall…we only swam…no boogie boarding. We did make not that during the heat of May onwards, we think we will be a-ok at Mojon…and again look forward to the day where Mojon has become our home.

Estella, the local Mexican cleaning lady for Mojon, came by our lot around the time we were contemplating leaving and we ended up giving her a ride to Copalita. It is funny…she goes 10km away from Mojon, closer to La Crucecita, to catch a taxi that will take her 25km in the opposite direction…15km  past Mojon.  

We had one of the most thorough searches when we returned via Copalita. The soldier looked under the floor mat in the back of the truck, under the hood etc. Good for them…but alas, nothing to be found on us as we are just dos simpatico Canadiense!!

We had the pool to ourselves upon our return and had a good rinse off of the sand and salt before diving in and doing some laps.

We are chilling right now while we wait for some papas fritas to come out of the oven. And then it will be burrito time.

Sorry for the lack of fotos…it is a tranquilo time here. We are headed to Pochutla and/or Puerto Escondido in the next while…should be lots of fotos then…and cross your fingers for mañana.

Mañana…clase and gym. No other plans as of now.

Hasta luego.

martes, el 29 de marzo de 2011

Buenos noches amigos.

Shout out to RJ who had to buy a poncho for a wet couple of days with Mickey. Here is your 10 day forecast...April 1 is supposed to be sunny...no joke.

Orlando weather

Great day in clase de español!! It was really a day of review vs learning new words etc, so it gave us a chance to reinforce what we have been working on the past few classes.

Despues clase, quick stop at Che. Steak para la cena de esta noche y burrito for la cena de mañana.

Then it was off to el gimnasio and it was a great workout. It made up for ayer. I tell you…I love going to the gym. Maybe not for all the workouts in 40 degree heat, but I continually meet new peeps and have conversations with ones that I have seen before but were timido.

After we had both biked for 30 minutes, I asked an hombre why there was no lago…lake..under his bike, unlike my puddle. He laughed and said he was only poco calor vs my mucho calor. I tell ya, this Mexican did not sweat!!

Chatted up Yeu and his amigo who happened to be a helper la noche de sábado pasado. The kid speaks no ingles…none. A bit bizarre. I asked Yeu about this and we agreed that maybe his amigo might be either timido or “no le gusta hablar ingles”…does not like to speak English.

Here are the fotos from the walk.

All about flour for the tortillas.

This shop has a huge machine and they make the tortillas right in front of you and then sell them by the kilo.

I love this little comedor.

Legal in Vancouver?

We have hired these guys to add another floor to our palapa.

Just kidding.

A new band has been booked for April 2.

And then I walked down “automotive alley”.

And none of us can complain about our careers.

Until we have walked a day in this guys sandles.

Had some alberca time…solo. Bexico was busy finishing up one contract and working on another. I floated for a while and then was greeted by a returning condo owner from Alberta (I think).

A nice guy, very curious about our project at Mojon. It will be grand once it all comes together.

Came upstairs for some ensaladas and then Bexico and I went back for our cool down swim. It felt quite refreshing….and then into the heat of the cocina to prepare la cena!! Ja ja ja

The day is all done. Sent off an email to mi amigo from Victoria. I hadn’t talked to him in some 18 years. Good to catch up…sad to hear a mutual acquaintance had passed at the age of 52.

Mañana…Mojon calls us. Despues el gimnasio of course.

Hasta luego.

lunes, el 28 de marzo de 2011

Lunes has come and gone.

The month of marzo is coming to a close and soon abril will be here, along with the time change.

The weather has made some small changes. We are seeing more clouds in the late (4pm) afternoon and we have seen the temperatures rise both during the day and at night.

Month to date we are 1 degree warmer at night vs febrero (24,3 grados) and the past 7 nights are averaging 25,4 grados. As for the daytime temperatures, we are 1,4 grados warmer at 33.3, while the past 7 days have averaged 33.6.

Rainy season is coming and all the locals are warning us about the abril y mayo heat. Stay tuned!!

Tranquilo day…el gimnasio was a bust as I went too late in the day and the heat sapped my energy. Argh.

Clase de español met expectations and I did leave it with a headache. At least I know the rules for conjugating complex verbs…I just need to remember all the verbs and the actual conjugation…easy task. Ja ja ja

Here are the fotos…all three of them…from my walk to el gimnasio.

The military.

All the kids wear uniforms to school.

I saw this group around 230pm, headed home for the day.

As for gym...it was a very quick and lame workout…will try to make up for it mañana. Rosa asked how I enjoyed sábado por la noche...Saturday night. I told her it was lots of fun and agreed when she asked me if we liked the food. 

The joke about the food is that Yeu eats iguana and I told her that was what we were eating when we chowed down on Saturday night. ja ja ja

Bexico and I chilled this afternoon and did not hit the alberca until 6pm. It was a refreshing pre-cena swim y cool down.

Bexico made up the salads and I went out for some French bread y some extra veggies.

La cena…a mish mash of veggies and left over meatballs…delicious.

Mañana…clase again, and then I am going to make up for today’s workout.

Hope everyone survived lunes!!

saludos

domingo, el 27 de marzo de 2011

What a fun night we had anoche!!

Welcome to our domingo blog update and all the deets from last night’s fiesta.

We arrived at 9pm’ish and thought Lalo had steered us wrong about arriving much later then the stated time on the invitation. We heard voices on the loud speakers and thought we were going to be “those two gringos” by being late.

But we were safe…it was just some public safety announcement…ja ja ja.

The place was big and I did not see Yeu at first. We spotted him and introduced him to Bexico. All the tables had at least a few people at them, so getting a table for just Rosa, the jewelry hombres and ourselves, was not going to happen. So we sat at this table.

Sorry about the center piece blocking out one hombre!! Friendly peeps, but not big talkers. The three empty seats to the right of Bexico, held a sleeping nino. We did not see him stir for hours…too many cervezas? Lol

Here is a foto of Karla, the birthday girl.

Here is Yeu (silver shirt and black tie) arranging the delivery of the beverage for the toast.

And here he is getting the gears from his madre. Ja ja ja

These three fotos show the set up and decorations for the event.

Rosa and her amigas arrived.

These are the young hombres from the jewelry store. Their job is to polish the pieces. We know Moises y Samuel, the two starting from the left.

This nino could not wait for la cena.

A Coronita y a table piece.

We sat at our table for a good hour and then events started to happen. There were speeches, a toast and then some special dances.

Here is the head table and then the head table participants after a speech.

I only met Yeu’s madre, but I am sure his padre is in this foto, as well as the padrinos, the god parents.

The birthday girl danced under this.

It started fully wrapped and with each dance partner, it was slowly spun to reveal the figurine inside as well as sprinkle confetti at the same time.

The family danced with Karla first, and then friends were allowed to request a dance.

Dinner was being served this whole time and we had the benefit of being close to the cold water y cervezas…but had dinner served last. It was a nice traditional plate of pulled/braised pork, papas puree, a stinkin hot pepper con tortillas y buns.

The lights were dimmed, the dance smoke rolled out and it was party time.

The the birthday girl changed into a dance outfit and put on a show with 4 of her amigas, and then the dance floor filled up.

Tough to capture the dance fotos with the lighting that we had, but here is one of Bubba in his Hawaiian wedding/Mexican Fiesta ropa, cutting the rug with 5…yes 5…senoritas.

It was hilarious, as previously Bexico had joined Rosa and one of her amigas on the dance floor and pretty much went un-noticed, as the dance floor was full of other people.

When Rosa asked me to dance, it was only the two of us on the floor and I swear…every single person was looking at the two of us. Thank goodness the other 4 senoritas came out and then danced a circle around me!! That really drew the attention elsewhere!! Ja ja ja

We tried to wait around for the postre…

(15 cakes...count'em)..but it was getting late and we hit the road for the 4 minute drive home.

I made sure to let Yeu know we really appreciated the invitation and that we had a great time. It was funny to be with him out of the gym for at the fiesta, he spoke his español at normal speed and I had to ask him to repeat himself several times. It shows that he makes an effort at the gym to hablar despacio…speak slowly so i can understand him.

Bexico and Rosa had a few laughs and Bexico was happy to have shared this experience.

Our clase de español have helped us in situations like these, but so much more to learn and we need to practice more as well.

It is currently 105pm here…and what the hey…the only day with no gimnasio y clase…and the nubes have rolled in. Nubes pero sin lluvia…clouds but no rain.

So it looks like alberca time is postponed, but we still have our jaunt to Senor Pucks for a Caesar salad y NASCAR time!!

Hasta luego.


UPDATE


It is now 7pm and how the day changed. Forgot about the time change and at 130pm I realized the NASCAR race was already one. So I streamed it online and we stayed home to watch it. The caeasr salad craving came and went as Bexico has bought some caesar dressing.


The sun came out after Kevin Harvick passed JJ on the last lap,so we hit the pool. The pool was empty, but I did have to endure overhearing the ignorance of a group of Canadians sitting by the side of the alberca. I am not sure if they even know they are racists.


Back up to the condo and as we await some pollo to finish baking in the horno (oven), we are watching Walk the Line.


Bexico has already completed her tarea para mañana!! Our week starts with clase at 11am and then Che, el gimnasio and I need to catch up with Lanny regarding Mojon. Our next day at Mojon is probably miercoles.


Have a great week everybody!!


Marcos y Bexico