Rest of Guadalajara!

Alright, several weeks later I believe I am ready to write about Guadalajara.... from Villahermosa. It's my creative process, don't knock it.

First, the answer to my question I posed almost a month ago... The finger worth the most, at least according to my company, is the right pinky finger! This is because, this is the figure that allows you to grip objects. When you use your pinky finger, it activates muscles in your back, enabling you to form a stronger grip. Seriously, try it!  Thanks for the guesses and the comments! I love hearing from you guys!

Guadalajara in general was amazing. The city its self is quite beautiful. In October Guadalajara will host the Pan American Games, a lead up to the Olympics. Because of this, there it's a better time to have been there.  Everywhere the government is cleaning the streets, painting the roads and generally getting the city ready to put it's best foot forward.

There was also the most intense police presence I have ever seen. Moving to Mexico in the wake of the Monterrey casino fire had me a little worried. I felt safe the entire time. I took the bus the school and back almost everyday. Honestly the scariest moment of my month was when I took the bus too far the first day and got a little lost trying to find the house. I never once felt threatened.

Knowing how essential Spanish would be to my job, I felt the need to work pretty hard on my Spanish and my training, but I still managed to have a little fun along the way.  I'll throw up some pictures and descriptions because I think that's a pretty easy way to show what's going on!




First, El Lucho Libre! Probably the most redneck thing I've ever done (and my family owns a tractor). Surprisingly, I loved it. I also picked up some useful vocabulary for the rig.

A Lucho Libre is literally translated as a free fight. Basically, we're talking Mexican UFC style wrestling. I particularly enjoyed the people. There's cheap seats, and more expensive seats. The people in the cheap seats chant insults at the rich seats and vice versa. The wrestlers each represent either the rich or the poor. Apparently the whole thing is supposed to be an analogy for the eternal struggle between the rich and the poor. As I said, I learned some colorful vocabulary for the rig. We also got to go back stage and meet some of the wrestlers!   

One weekend, because we're all from mountainous areas (Norway, Romania, Alaska, Spain) we decided we wanted to go hiking. One of our teachers offered to take us to climb a mountain. At least that's what I thought. I'll admit, looking around at the mountains in the area, I thought "Oh, this can't be that hard. What do Mexicans know about climbing mountains." It turns out it was a ravine. You climb down into it, and then back up. Originally, the trail is just switchbacks and pretty much a really nice trail. Apparently, that was too easy, so we climbed onto the old railroad tracks and climbed down those. Note the angle from the picture. It really was that steep. Turns out, Mexicans know way more about climbing ravines than I ever care to.

There's tons of stuff we did in Guadalajara, including a trip to Puerto Vallarta for the long weekend (which is another post in it's self), I just don't have the time to write about it now, and it would be a very long read!

Also, more pictures HERE!