Remember how the last time I posted I made grandeous plans about making it to exercise day. That was before I knew what Saturday night had in store. There was an outdoor musical festival on one of the avenues not too far from my place featuring fantastic live music and a collection of various music fans based on the multiple state layout of the festival. I'm a sucker for live music. There's nothing like the feeling you get when the music flows through your body and the energy of the crowd is powerful enough to light up a dark night. This music festival would be the first of three live bands I'd see in the coming week. For nearly two hours we roamed the street catching a few songs of each band, making our way down to the most crowded stage on the street. The band deserved the large crowd. Check them out, they are called The Liquids.
We got back to the Posada early enough to run into our new friend from Mexico City. Marysol is a doctor and came to Guadalajara for the weekend to take her exam to become a gynocologist. She's 26. It definitely makes me think I should get going with this "what do I want to be when I grow up" thing. Anyway, we met earlier that week, and made a game plan to go out after she finished her test. Communicating with our less then stellar Spanish and her almost there English we spent the night dancing at Kronik (yes, I know the misspelling-to-be-clever nature of the name should have made me run at first site, but it was a blast). We shared a cubeta (a bucket of beers) and danced until about 4:30 in the morning. We ended the evening back at the Posada with cumbia lessons before calling it a night.
Needless to say, I missed exercise day. But did manage to enjoy a relaxing day in Guadalajara preparing for the busy week of school and teaching. The week nights have been filled with lesson planning and essay writing. I've taught five classes now, and the certification program is half way done. Thursday we managed to sneak away from school work for a bit and a bunch of my classmates came by for dinner and a few drinks, which a few of us turned into night cap at the bar a couple blocks away. The bar was unique, maybe an old government building, with tall ceilings and several rooms set up for lounging, large painings on the wall and an out of this world local band playing. In an attempt to desribe their unique sound, I will say it was a combination of traditional folk, with classical strings and edgy rock undertones. Each member of the four-person band played several instruments, and the vocalists had almost operetic qualities that added a great touch. The intensity of the violinist made me nastolgic for Tom's cello performances (Tom is an old college friend, a phenomenal musician and brand new father to an adorable baby girl).
Friday night the class went out to celebrate Shellena's 22nd birthday. A quick taxi ride to Provedencia and we were transported to a tiki bar with sand on the patio called, ironically, Wall Street. It was everything opposite that one thinks about when they hear the words Wall Street. Shellena's fiance is in Medical School here, and so our two groups came together to celebrate. The pop music was a great primer for the live bands. First an original called Purpuresuite (or something like that), and the next was a dynamic cover band that managed to play songs from The Killers, Metalica, Katy Perry and Michael Jackson in one set. Dancing was an obvious must. Time flew. It was at least four by the time the taxi brought us back, and about five by the time I fell asleep.
I was so proud of myself for making it up to go to the lake Saturday. Lake Chapala is about 45-minutes away from Guadalajara. It is the largest freshwater lake in Mexico, and like most waterfront destinations a great place to get away and clear your head as you listen to the crashing waves (even if the water has questionable toxicity levels). The hills around it and the mountains across are a lively green and the boardwalk was a great place to take in the views. After a calm sunset we took the bus back. The lack of airconditioning made my carsickness an inevidibility. It was so bad that I called it a night when we got back to town, around 9:30.
Today I got up in time to make it to Catholic mass for the first time in months. The cathedral was peacefull and beautiful. The stainglass windows were what every Catholic church strives to have, and the architecture created a feeling of stability and structure you can only find in buildings with hundred of years of history. Catholic mass is Catholic mass, whether in English or Spanish. I followed along, kneeling when appropriate and sharing the sign of peace. But, despite the overwhilemingly beautiful surroundings, and challenge of understanding mass in Spanish, I couldn't help but play scenes from Dogma over in my head. If you haven't seen Dogma, do, unless you can't laugh at yourself and get offended easily (Kevin Smith has first hand believer experience which is why it's so great).
Anyway, later I finally made it down to exercise day. The city closes down Juarez, a main street a couple blocks north of my posada, people ride bikes, rollerblade and run. There are places to play giant games of chess, checkers and dominoes. And everyone is smiling and waving at eachother. A ton of people come out to be active and interact with their neighbors. I wonder if it would work in Milwaukee. I would love to see them try. Maybe close down Water street for an afternoon. Someone should get on that (maybe I'll write a letter telling the city how awesome it is in Mexico).
After all that, it's time to get some rest before the third busy week of classes...
*As for the title, I fell in a hole. Well, I tripped into one that was half full of garbage on the sidewalk. No damage, except my ego, because the man behind me clearly saw me falling and even tried to warn me but it was too late.
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