Noche Mexicana and 16 de Septiembre!!

Hello!  Its been a really exciting past week/weekend.  Lots of noches mexicanas (which means lot of parties) and also 16 de Septiembre (Mexican Independence Day) celebrations all weekend and Monday!!  First I will start by telling you about Noche Mexicana.  It is a celebration where everyone dresses in either red, white or green (the colors of the flag) and you watch traditional dances, eat a lot of traditional food and drink tequila!  It was really fun... well you can see for yourself.

When we entered, all the ladies were given a flower.













BAILES FOLKLORICOS!

The dancers are dancing with glasses of water on their heads to show how well they can balance.  I asked Martin what would happen if one of those glasses fell.. he looked at me slightly confused and replied "someone would get very wet..."  huh.. why didn't I think of that!!  hahahahah

Also, in the video you see the guys dancing with machetes..  They are smaller machetes then the ones that Martin used when he used to dance the traditional dances in school...  don't question it, believe me... I heard ALL ABOUT IT!!  hahahaha  No, but the video is really cool and very fun to watch.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=594994769087

These guys were decorating our table... now they are decorating my bedroom!  They are made completely out of crumpled up paper of different colors. 

FOOD!!

The food was sooo good!!  We had taquitos, enchilladas, sopa de pazole (its like a chicken based soup with corn, rice and other meats) salad and lots of chili sauces!! 

Then after eating and drinking everything that we could, we danced and danced until 1am before we all went home.  It was really fun!!!

 16 de Septiembre!!!

After doing awesome on my final exam on the 15th of September, I decided to celebrate by going back down to Atotonilco and "re"tasting all the tequila... you know, just to make sure it was still good!  :)  The tequila companies come and build bars in the town plaza.  I'm not talking about here is a stand at the fair that is easy to put up and take down... I'm talking about BUILDING A BAR!

Brick, mortar and MARIACHIS!!!  What more could you ask for in a party!  :)  But first, before I start to get into the party and the amazing fireworks display, I think you need to see the AMAZING tacos that we had from a taco stand on the street. 

Tacos al Pastor!  So Good!!

Churros filled with dulce de leche.  So much sugar but I couldn't stop eating it!

Later during the fireworks display, we met up with some of Derek's friends and watched some of the coolest fireworks that I've seen in a long time.  They would be against the law in the US because sparks were flying everywhere!!

The video is on my facebook page because it was too big to fit on here.  One of the coolest things that you will see on it if you watch it is that there is a part of the top of the flower that flies into the air and whoever can collect it and bring it back to the officials running the fireworks at the end of the night gets $1000 pesos!!  Its kinda scary because you have to watch the sky and your head until you know where it lands...  the second night, it landed on the other side of the block from us. 


We made a new friend.

Stayed out and celebrated Mexico with el grito.  Which is when the governor of the area shouts and gives props to all things Mexican and everyone else responds by shouting VIVA!!  :)

More food... 

Gorditas de chicherrones.. nothing like you get at taco bell! 

After we ate breakfast/lunch and took our siesta, we decided to go down to the Charriata  (rodeo).  Getting there in and of itself was quite the adventure.  We couldn't find any parking so when we were finally able to find a spot that was semi legal, (it wasn't my car so I didn't care hahaha) we had about a mile to walk to get to the entrance.  Then Derek flags down this truck and we got into the back so they could drive us to the Rodeo.  When we were paying, the truck started driving away before we got our change, so I had to jump out, grab the change and tickets and run back down the road to hop back on the truck.  Thankfully no one way driving very fast.  :)

At the Rodeo when we finally got in, we saw the rancheros dancing with their horses. Then they were trying to lasso a horse and make them fall down.  They only did it a couple times and the horses always got up and walked away, so it didn't look like they got hurt, but I still seemed kinda mean.  I have one video of it, but if  you don't like seeing animals fall down then you probably shouldn't watch it.


After they were done roping the horses, they opened it up for people in the crowd to come down and try to ride some of the horses.  Almost everyone fell down which I thought was a lot more amusing, because those people volunteered to put themselves in these situations.  This video is very fun.  I don't know how the guy survived, but he got up right away and brushed it off.  hahaha..


Then after the people got done, they let in a baby bull and everyone tried to taunt the baby bull until it ran after them.  My favorite was the guy without his shirt on.  He had been riding the horses earlier and he did really well, stayed on for almost a circle and a half, but when the horse threw him off, he ripped his shirt completely down the side. So he took it off and proceeded to do the rest of the activities without a shirt on.

It was a lot of fun and getting back to the car in the dark was just as much fun as getting to the rodeo.  We asked very nicely to a guy who had a pickup truck and he let us hop in the back and ride down the road.  It was a very bumpy ride, but it was better than walking!  We went back in town and stayed in the plaza dancing, watching fireworks and having a blast until very late.  Then I had to wake up early the next day and get on a bus to ride back into Guadalajara.  It was a blast! 

Atotonilco el Alto and more!

So I have a lot of tequila to tell you about...... oops I mean I lot of events to tell you about!!  First off I have another Rotary Presentation to a group of English speaking jr high and high school students in Atotonilco (I had to use a little bit of Spanish for the jr. high kids, but all of them spoke really well and paid a lot of attention to the stories that I was telling).  Afterwards, my friend who teaches English at those school (the reason I was invited) decided to take me out on the town in the "small" town of Atotonilco where a majority of the tequila that we know is produced.  We started with a drink called Charazo which is basically tequila with grapefruit juice, lime and salt.  I might have gotten the name wrong because it wasn't really good enough to remember. Then, we had to try a Margarita....  :)  After that, we had this drink called Vampiro (which means Vampire).  It is kinda like tequila mixed with tomato/sangria with lime, salt, lots of chili powder and squirt to top it all off.  I didn't like it.  Then we had to try a few different types of tequila. 

       

After a long night of... I mean a long day of giving presentations and talking to students, I took the two hour bus ride back to Guadalajara.  It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of fun new people who have invited me back later in September for the Sept 16th Independence Day celebrations.  Apparently all the major tequila distilleries, there are about 10 different companies that are located in Atotonilco such as Jose Cuervo, Don Julio, 7 Lagunas, and Patron just to name a few, set up bars in the main plaza and it just becomes a huge party for the month of September.

Hijos Escalados -- a tribute to the people from Jalisco who have done exceptional things. 

Last Saturday night, after class got done I went to the Rotaract meeting where I met a really nice visiting Rotaracter from Hidalgo, Mexico.  We decided to have lunch together and walk around the market on Sunday before she had to leave to Colima... this is what we saw.

The steeples of La Catedral

The Catholic Church is the middle of town.  Basically the church that the city of Guadalajara was originally build around.  

There were a bunch of kids playing in the water in the fountain.  I don't think I would be brave enough to do that, but they looked like they were having fun.

And last but now least, for some reason Spider Man was there... Maybe he arrived in Guadalajara to help fight off the narcos!  :) 

Yesterday I gave my first presentation in Spanish!!!  I was super nervous, but everyone said I did really well.  I spoke to the Club Rotario Zapopan Lomas del Valle, they are my host club and they were really excited to learn more about me and why I am down here in Mexico.  They use nicknames a lot in Mexico.  Everyone has a "mote" and when I introduced myself and said I didn't have a nickname one of the guys in the club must of thought I didn't understand what a mote was... here is how the conversation went.
Me: "My name is Amanda Hermes, and I dont have a mote." 

Him: "Yeah but what do your friends call you?"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "Ok but what does your family call you?"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "ok yeah but what did they call you in school"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "hmm.. well thats weird!"

I am sure my the end of the month, once they get comfortable having me around either the Rotary Club or the Rotaract Club will come up with some sort of nickname for me... you know... just so I dont feel lift out!  :) 

Finally, this morning I saw what looked like a scene straight out of the movies.  We have this big train that goes by our house.  It runs from Guatemala all the way up to the boarder of the US.  The people here call this train La Bestia which means The Beast!  Well today while I was waiting for the Beast to pass I looked down the tracks and saw a couple guys running after the train..  then all of a sudden they grabbed on to the railing and jumped!  It was just like a scene in the movies.  I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a picture of them in action, but as they passed I was able to sneak a picture and just happened to catch these stowaways, once they got comfortable, sneaking a ride of the Beast back down south towards Guatemala..  Who knows where there final destination will be!