Random Ridiculousness

The main mercado here takes up several city blocks. One city block is the entire indoor area, then there are sidewalk vendors around it and many other streets. It’s like a super-duper-giant Walmart, but cheaper. It’s a shoppers paradise. New stuff, used stuff, hanging meat, fresh fruits and veggies, cooked foods, knockoff designer clothing, shoes (lots of shoes!), toilet paper toothpaste...name it, it’s there. What amazes me is that since there’s no place to store this stuff (for the street vendors anyhow) they pack all of this stuff up every single evening and haul it home with them.
I’m not much of a shopper, so the only thing I’ve actually bought from there are bootleg DVDs. A buck twenty-five for a three pack. Sorry for not fattening your pockets, Hollywood friends. I’ve been watching tons of movies in Spanish. I understand the gist of the movies, but mostly because I have eyes, not because I’m understanding the majority of the dialogue. But it’s good exposure for me. The DVDs are of various quality. On one DVD, in Shrek 4 you could hear audience members talking and the camera kept going in-and-out of focus. Then How to Train Your Dragon was regular DVD quality, but in English. Then, Toy Story 3 had poor video, but the audio was fine. On another DVD, all three movies were perfect quality. It’s a bit of a crapshoot, but it’s tough to complain for the price.

I know I’ve talked about this before, but now they’re telling me that September is the rainiest month of the year. Help, I’m drowning! It has rained every single day that I’ve been here. And nothing dries out, so the mildew tends to stink my room. However, usually there’s a few hours of morning or afternoon sun, which I relish. Yesterday, there was no sun. The rain (and cold) were relentless, even in the south, at the ocean.

The water was warmer than the air. Notice all that white, frothy water? That’s because those are some loud, angry waves. You can’t go out very far, as there’s a very strong riptide that’s known to sweep people away often. It’s all black, coarse sand, since this land was made from volcanoes. In spite of the crappy weather, we had a nice time, and the other folks said the fish, which is tough to find in Xela, was really good.

Along with the weather, the many bus drivers here are still ridiculous. The ocean is about a 3.5 hour bus ride away from Xela. Of course, many of the roads are awful, but that didn’t stop our driver on the way home from practicing for the Indy 500. He should know that they don’t run that race when it’s raining (or on bumpy dirt roads) for a reason. The only time he slowed down was when the road had turned into a river, causing us to detour through a one-lane jungle road for a couple of miles. He was also ridiculously cute (what’s with cute guys being dangerous anyhow?), so I forgave him a bit. Still, I was glad we had to change buses at the halfway point.

On Thursday, teachers and students from the school were invited to a corn feast. There’s a tiny pueblo of indigenous people the school built stoves for many years ago. This place is literally in the middle of huge corn fields. (Oh, and our driver had to give pay some a group of men to pass on “their” crappy dirt road to get to the pueblo--my first extortion!) So now the indigenous group holds an annual gathering for the school, with a big serving of corn-on-the-cob, and a variety of condiments to choose from: lime, salt, queso, ketchup (salsa dulce), salsa verde, mayonaise.
About 15 students and teachers made the trip, and I don’t think there are many more than that in the pueblo. At the beginning, the host guy talked for a while, thanking us for coming and other stuff in Spanish I couldn’t quite understand. Then a maestro from the school stood up and said thanks and more stuff I didn’t quite get. Then the host guy asked for a student to say a little something. In spite of ducking for cover, I got chosen. I’m not afraid of public speaking, but I did get a little tongue tied with the Spanish. I meant to say “Thank you for inviting us to eat corn with you.” But it came out more like “I like ice cream.” Oh well. I do love me some corn, but I could only manage to eat three pieces. A couple of people had a little competition and managed seven pieces each. I’m sure they paid for it later. Afterwards, there was some awkward seventh-grade type dancing with the locals, then the rain told us it was time to go home. Overall, one of my favorite experiences of this trip so far.

Wednesday was my day of fútbol. First, some students and a maestro rented a small roof-covered field for an hour. I’m not much of a soccer player, but it was fun to run around. Perhaps I’m seriously out of shape, but I’m choosing to blame my wind-sucking on the altitude. We’re going to try to make it a weekly thing, so I may be a fútbol superstar by the time I get back to the States. But it’s tough to not use my hands. I mean, whose idea was this stupid game? So then I went and watched the local club team, Xelaju, for $5. Tom, a Brit, says they’re awful, but I suspect they’re about as good as most US college teams. It was actually my first in-person soccer match. But seriously, whose idea was this stupid game? I liked the excitement of the World Cup, but I don't get it. I might as well watch some long-distance track-and-field, just a bunch of guys running around for a couple of hours.
But everyone else in the crowd sure did have a good time. The stadium probably holds about 5000 people, and it was a little over half-full. There was a big group of people at one end, shirts off, singing songs the whole time. At the other end, there was a band and another group of people chanting and setting off fireworks. As you can see from the picture, there are tall fences with barbed wire separating the fans from the field. Fans yell profanities at the other team constantly. Fortunately, there’s no alcohol allowed inside the stadium. I can’t even imagine. Also, there are no bathrooms, so guys would go to the corners and piss on the walls. I guess the poor girls just have to hold it. Anyhow, there was no score for the first 40 minutes and I was so bored that I was practicing conjugating verbs. Then, quickly Xela scored and the place erupted, of course. A minute later, the other team scored and it erupted again, this time with anger. Then it was halftime, and in spite of the late excitement, I was cold and tired, so I left. I heard the next day that Xela won 3-2 in a barnburner. I’d rather watch a barn burning.

I’ve got more, but dinner calls and I want to make it home before the $@!# rain starts again! Abrazos y’all.