Mon, 30 Jun 2003 13:45:57 -0700 (PDT)
Not much new here ...

Here is my observations of mexico.

The people here are less annoying than the people in Cuba. Though you still see retarted things that you wouldn't see in Canada. Example, a woman riding in the front seat of the car with her baby in her lap. Other example, sidewalks that are completely impassable due to overgrowth with trees, and roots that have completely destroyed the concrete. Other example, cab rates are completely negociable .. depending on the time of day, how many other cabs are around, and if it is raining or not you could pay $4 to go across the entire city (25 minutes), or anther time you could have to pay $4 to go for a 5 minute ride.

Cultural differences:
- The Mexican guys drink way too much ... they have a culture here that is very "machismo" ... if you can drink a lot, then you are more cool than a guy who can't drink a lot.
- Mexicans also are more romantic than us north americans.
- Mexican girls stare at someone when they are interested.
- Police here carry big machine guns.

Also, last night I went to a political rally that I happened to stumble upon in the center of Cuernavaca ... it was just like you see in those superman movies, where some guy throws a huge party, and pastes billboards with his face all over the place, has a huge sound system with music ... basically attempts to convince people to vote for him.

As for my accomadation, it is still quite nice and my room-mate (Arnesto) and myself get along quite well. Although, I am quite sure that he is some sort of high up drug lord or has some other sort of lucrative illegal businesses ... he claims to own a restaurant, a hair salon, and a record company, and he certianly has money, but for a 25 year old guy to come from the 'hood, and to have achieved so much, and along with some of our conversations, I have concluded that he is quite smart and quite a successful criminal.. I'll discuss some of the conversations in person one day if you like. One girl that he liked he bought a $4500 rolex bracelet for, and that was after he barely knew her. Every time we go out to the clubs, he buys a bottle of Hennessey or Remey in the club for about $150 bucks. This is a guy who bought new bed sheets because he didn't want to sleep in sheets (even though they were clean) that had been used. A guy that has a different watch for every day of the week, and about 12 pairs of nike sneakers and 15 baseball caps to match every single outfit that he has.

Oh yeah, we now have a dog living in our house, but Arnesto flew back to Chicago yesterday for a week to "take care of business", and some girl that he met last tuesday is taking care of the dog for this week ... Speaking of this girl (Kelly) that Arnesto met last Tuesday, that is another intersting story. She had been sleeping at our house for the past few nights, and waking up and cooking for him (and me once too), and ironing his clothes, but they have not had sex (contrary to what most people think, Mexican girls are typically quite conservative) ... anyway, on Saturday night I got home pretty late, and Arnesto was up because he couldn't sleep ... turns out that the girl had lied about her age ... instead of being 17, she was 15 ... the next day he started calling her his "little buddy" (she doesn't speak english, so we talk about her right in front of her face) ... but because she has all sorts of cut marks on her arms from various suicide attempts, he is worried about dumping her right away ... his plan is to get her to hate him so that she will break up with him.

On the weekend, i went on a school field trip to a park with a natural spring fed river going through it ... it was a nice place to hang out and swim.