The trip

Record of my adventures / food diary
Covering gap year travels and my year abroad in Mexico!
....And now also providing procrastination from my internship

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Forgotten weeks

Almost forgot to mention our trip to Six Flags (biggest theme park in mexico) a few weeks back!

Not that much to say except tell you it's awesome and such good value - if you show your student card it's only $225MX = £11 for the day!!


I also almost won a giant stuffed dino toy / monkey ( I hadnt yet decided which I'd take) by making basketball shots, but the last one bounced in then out again :( It's ok though, I've been practising for when we go back so I can win it then! And no, I have not in the slightest thought about the practically of bringing back a stuffed toy the size of me on the plane!

We had perfect weather all day aswell (I say this often as in the area where we live it rains almost everyday in the afternoon) so we went on all the water rides aswell. The rapids were pretty funny cause it's really tame and then near the end there's the unavoidable waterfall which just soaks everyone!!

Also went to see the university american football game that weekend. It was really boring and I didn't understand why they had to stop all the time and people kept coming off the pitch every 5 mins cause they were 'injured'?!

Our house is still having issues with things breaking - door still not fixed....
Also we have saucepans where tha handles heat to the same temperature as the saucepan, resulting in burnt hands when you forget this :(

BONUS PHOTO ;)


Weekend of Events

So this weekend started last thursday after I finally finished my last exam (incidentally I did awesome in it - 95% just to let you know!)

One of the student houses was having an end of exam party so we went to that. All going well until about 1am where I suddenly decided that I was fluent in French and was trying it out on everyone (pretty much everyone is actually french so found it amusing!). Personally I am still of the belief that I am pretty damn good at french, the reality may not be so!

Of course the next day was pretty much lost while we all moped around eventually managing to make ourselves some pasta around 2pm. Friday was also the day of the Mexico vs Panama football game - really important for mexico because they needed a win in order to be considered for world cup qualification. The game wasn't until 8.30 but because of the traffic to get there we had to leave at 4 (good thing we did cause we only just arrived like 20mins before the game started!).

Unfortunately, on a hangover the last thing in the world you want is a 4hrs party bus with the WORST driver we have had so far, EVER. All the traffic meant it was really stop start, but he insisted on speeding as soon as there was any space and then slamming on the brakes! We also had 40L of 'agua loca' (some combination of alcohol and fruit juice) to keep us company on the bus.

The game was at the 'estadio azteca' which is pretty unimpressive from the outside but incredible once you're inside - it was massive! We decided to go all out for mexico so bought ourselves some knock-off football shirts on the way in and a couple of the guys had giant mexico flags aswell!


As you can see, we didn't have the best view!

So like I said, Mexico had to win to qualify for the world cup, so the atmosphere was pretty crazy. There were tons of police in riot gear. Then there was a small fenced off section where the panama supporters were (maybe like 200/250 people) which as well as being separated by fencing was surrounded by almost 100 police in full riot gear with shields! One of the guys with us is actually from Panama but studies here in Mexico and he said it was too dangerous to wear his panama shirt in the stadium! 

I'm not the greatest fan of football to begin with and the whole game wasn't that great quality. Plus whenever the mexican crowd was angry, happy or celebrating, basically whenever they throw beer (or occasionally pee - thankfully not during this game) but it's funny to see that everyone's first reaction if something lands on them is to smell it and make sure it's just beer!! So that wasn't so great especially as where we were sitting meant we had a lot of things thrown over us - had to use the giant flags as cover! 

Both teams had quite a lot of opportunites which they squandered but Mexico scored midway through first half. Unfortunately, with about 5-10mins to go at the end of the game Panama also scored, at which point we were a little worried cause if mexico drew the game they also wouldnt qualify. A few mins later they scored what can only be described as a wonder goal! Some guy chipped the ball to himself before doing like a over the head bicycle kick that shot into the corner! The crowd went absolutely mental (unfortantely that did mean more beer thrown) but still it was an amazing goal!

What's also cool is whenever the other goalie is going to kick the ball everyone puts out their arms and shakes them going 'oooooooooooooooo....' and then when he kicks it they shout 'puto'. It sounds really cool when the whole stadium is doing it! Have to say though was a little surprised at the beginning when they jeered all the way through the panama national anthem which I thought was kinda rude! 

Ooo almost forgot, one of the best bits, you dont have to leave your seat for anything, the beer vendors come to you as does the food! It's a much better system actually as you dont have to miss the game and you dont get massive queues at half time with everyone rushing to get food / drinks. My favourite is the personal dominos pizzas they bring round!

So after the game, took a while for everyone to get back to the bus and leave (we had been in groups in different parts of the stadium). I took a power nap on the bus as I was staying in DF with Jakob, Regis and Angus so we got dropped off on the way. On our quest to find a toilet before we got a taxi to where we were staying we found ourselves at 1am in a random little diner type place with our beers/ chips and singing along to some truly awful spanish karaoke songs that were on tv! Originally our plan had been to go out after we dropped our stuff at the hotel, but by the time we got there everyone was knackered (Angus - the bggest advocate for going out had fallen asleep as soon as we got in the taxi!)

Saturday and Sunday was Corona Capital - a big music festival on outskirts of the city. Last year's festival
Regis and Jakob weren't going, just spending the weekend in the city, so after our free(included) breakfast we split up. Me and Angus went to meet Charlene's roomates at the hostel where I was staying saturday night. 

Side Note: Really weird, so before I left home, Exeter told me that no-one else was going to Mexico, but clearly they just meant from the business school cause Charlene (Charly who I live with's girlfriend) is going to a university in Puebla (another city in Mexico) and living with 3 other girls from Exeter!! So random. Anyways, point of that is met them on the weekend cause that was part of group went to festival with.

The metro here is pretty good as covers most of city / surrounding area and super cheap to use (15p a journey!). So we were able to take that all the way to where the festival was and then was still quite a trek as you are made to walk in the most roundabout way possible past all the people trying to sell you things!

We were really lucky with the weather all weekend as was just perfect, if anything maybe a little too hot on Sunday! There were 4 different stages although was quite a trek between them, then there was a food court, mini fair, stands and a beer garden (being the corona capital festival - only corona available). Was a pretty big venue obviously! They even had a zip line you could go on, though looked pretty rubbish as people kept getting stuck!

So our line-up for the weekend (well who we saw anyways)
SAT:
- The Dandy Warhols (wasn't sure who they were except for one song I knew but pretty chilled)
- Imagine Dragons (definitely one of the best bands of the weekend, knew all the songs cause they're awesome!!)
-Travis (only caught the end of the set which was good cause it was songs I knew)
-The XX (I'm not really the biggest fan, actually started falling asleep standing up, but the others loved them)
-Phoenix (didn't know who they were before but pretty good too)
-M.I.A (actually only know the song paper planes which was awesome, but all the other songs kinda just sounded the same, plus we had no idea what she was saying!)
-Blondie (one of the hits of the weekend - didn't know they were still around / alive!, also didn't realise they sang so many of the songs I knew!)

SUN:
Actually just stayed at same stage all day cause had pretty awesome line-up
-Jake Bugg (nice and chilled)
-Portugal the Man (no idea who they are but enjoyed it nevertheless)
-Matt and Kim (surprise hit of the weekend - only knew one song but thye were awesome live, very funny too)
-Stereophonics (great music to chill in the sun to)
-Vampire Weekend (worked our way into the crowd at the front for this one - love them - though maybe not as much as some of the mexicans who were going crazy around us!)
-Arctic Monkeys (What a way to finish the weekend!)



So yeh, other than fact spent far too much on beer / food (they had the wandering vendors here too - still loving the mini dominos). Preeeety awesome weekend :) We kept running into people we knew from TEC aswell cause there was a whole bunch of people who went! Also saw some guy being crowdsurfed in a wheelchair!

O almost forgot, had really weird moment on sunday. We were watching one of the bands and some strange looking mexican lady came up to us and asked if she could take our photo. She only had her phone so we were like errrr why? And she just mumbled something and kept insisting we group together so she could take our photo. Then she was like no, no you need to shout 'whiskey'?! Anyways, we obliged in the hope she would go away..... she didn't. She then gave me what appeared to be a goldfish bag minus the goldfish. I naively assumed it was a water bomb. Turns out it was a plastic bag of vodka! Don't worry though mom, we didn't drink the crazy strangers vodka in a bag - even I have standards! Thankfully after explaining that we were all tee-total and don't drink at all she eventually left - what a weirdo!!

Only downside was arriving home at 1am on monday morning, realising I haven't yet started my 5-10 page essay on mexican toys (such fun) due in at 10am and I start lessons at 8.30am and finish at 10pm! Thankfully he extended the deadline until 4pm though so managed to make it through the day (slept until 11am rather tahn go to classes!) Actually, other downside was had to wash all my clothes today as everything smelt like smoke / weed (not mine mom) :)

More exams and work!

So last two weeks have kinda gone in a bit of a blur as it was exam time again! yay for continuous assessment

Not to mention I had a lot of projects / other works to do and at the same time have been trying to do internship applications for next summer - not much success so far. Hopefully this week / weekend will actually have the time to sit down and do it properly!

So like I said lots of work so stayed at home weekend before one just gone to catch up on everything.
Did quite a lot though on the Saturday me and matthieu went to shopping mall for a little retail therapy / procrastination. (plus wanted to cut my hair again). Anyways several hours and a lot of money later, can safely say I didn't spend anywhere near as much as him! On the other hand, that's not to say I didn't buy more things than I actually needed! Faced with the prospect of another meal of pasta at home we decided to eat out whilst we there. TGI Fridays look out! Had an awesome meal of BBQ baby back ribs and an oreo milkshake to wash it all down - super content :)

Wasn't really much else occuring that weekend as some people had gone out for the weekend and the rest of us were just working!

Thursday 3 October 2013

Everybody's gone GoPro crazy!!

So basically since me and Charly put the photos and videos from Baja California up, half the exchange students have decided to go too. And to buy a GoPro to document their travels!
We're thinking we should get a commission for all the trips to Baja and the new GoPros bought!
Also the updated version just came out so a little jealous of them getting the newer one even though there really isn't that much difference! Gonna buy me a new accessory instead - woop more GoPro videos to come - so much fun :)

Baja Picture Time

First off if you haven't yet seen the videos from the trip here's the links:
https://vimeo.com/75159811
https://vimeo.com/75840071
They're kinda different but I had so many clips couldn't put it all into one video!!

Would take too long to load all the pics (they're on fb though) so here's a few highlights:

 La Isla Espiritu
 La Isla Espiritu
 La Isla Espiritu
 Sleepy Seal
 La Isla Espiritu
 Todos Santos
 Cabos San Lucas
 La Isla Espiritu
 Cool Fish
 Close-up Fish
 Muchos Fishies
 La Isla Espiritu
 I love my GoPro
 La Isla Espiritu
 La Paz
 La Paz
 Todos Santos
 Todos Santos - Los Cerritos
 Cabo San Lucas - El Arco
 More Fishes
 Cabo San Lucas
 La Paz
 The Sun is so bright!
 Water drop accidentally blocked out Charly's face!
 My Little Pizza in La Paz
 5 of us at dinner
 Genius of the walk-up
 Casual stay at the Golf Resort
 With it's two pools and a giant Jacuzzi (not to mention our suite)
La Isla Espiritu