Monster Truck Showdown

After lunch with Beatriz, Shania confirmed with me that Alma would be picking us up at 7:00.  She went to her house to get ready (how do you get ready for monster trucks?) and I did the same.  Ocyé, who works at a radio station, had put Alma up to calling into the radio station during a contest giving away tickets to the event.  Actually, Alma had jumped the gun (or I guess Ocyé) because when she called, they hadn't even announced the contest yet.  Of course, Alma got her way anyway and was the winner of four free tickets.

The show was set to start at 8, but we were advised to leave the house around 7 to fight traffic an then find a seat (general admission more or less).  

Problem: Alma and Karina work at PISI until 6 on Saturdays.  Apparently there was some drama since this was the last Saturday before graduation.  I didn't follow it all because I was focused on being hot.  But they got there at 7:15.  Shania and I had been waiting for about 20 minutes.  Alma of course had to change clothes, but we were out the door by 7:30.

We circled the baseball field about three times and finally settled on a spot not too close.

Alma and Shania were both proper Culichis in their heels.  Karina had on flats, but a tube top, done up hair and complete makeup (it was touched up on the ride over).  I was typical "American style" as Alma likes to call it, in my flip flops.  But I was at least in a dress- still American style, but with a little more oomph than shorts and a tee.

We had to walk around to the complete other side of the field to enter.  We should've known with free tickets we'd be in the bad section, but we didn't realize we were in the bleachers!  We actually kind of thought they might be nice since the radio station had the inside edge.  Yeah right!

As we're looking for any available section for four girls, we see on the tickets that the doors opened at 4.  Can you imagine waiting four hours for a monster truck show?  Give me a break!

Well, after we had paced the bleachers about four times, we realized why they opened so early.

At this point, Shania and I were just ready to sit.  Anywhere.  Alma, on the other hand, was ready to upgrade.  She was on the lookout for someone we could give a tip to that would let us into the outfield non-bleachers section.  Shania said, "I am so embarrassed right now."  It was funny because it basically reminded me of me in my US life.  But after a year with Alma, I'll be just as "embarrassing" as Mom!

Anyway, she and Karina went to talk to a guy who was shaking his head yes.  Then they pointed to Shania and me and he shook his head like, "Oh, girl..."  And we went running over.  I knew what was next.  As I was walking up, Alma is in the middle of her "she came all the way from the US for this" spiel.  He then started quizzing me in English: "Say something.  What state?  What's the capitol?  Oh, country music huh."  Then he let us slide.   And then he got Alma's number.  I was cracking up.

Up we went to our new seats.

Thankfully we hadn't gotten there at 4 because the show didn't start until 9.

This was the view from our seats.  They were decent for the event.  It would've been nice to have been behind home plate in the numbered seats, but the cheapest tickets (even the bleachers) were rumored to be 200 pesos.  No way dude.

These are the seats where we should've been sitting.  They're lower with a wall in front and as far from the action as you can get...
As you can imagine, with an hour wait time from arrival to show time, we had a photography session.  It was mostly with Shania's camera.  Karina cracked me up when we took three pictures in a row and I blinked.  She said, "Laura.  I'm going to be your teacher.  You can't smile with all your might.  It makes you close your eyes.  You have to smile right in between you really, really want to, and you're not at all happy about taking a picture."  We practiced all night long.

(Shania, Alma, Karina, me)

After a while, it seemed I caught on.  However, in general, I have been much better in Mexico about keeping my eyes open and giving a genuine smile in pictures than I am in the States.  It probably has to do with the sheer volume of pictures Mexicans take.  (Alma, me, Karina, Shania)
Here you can see some of the action.  It was disappointing when one of the "races" seemed completely fixed.  There was a 76 year old driver, so that was cool.  And most of the drivers were Americans with the exception of one.  And there was a female, who was allowed to win.

At the end of the race, around 10:15, they were doing the final show of the trucks.  Each truck got to do laps alone for a vote.  Each one broke down!  One had some sort of oil leak.  Another lost a tire.  The next got all off balance and the driver couldn't get out the door.  At that point, Alma shouted, "I want my money back!"  We all lost it.

We had also had a very funny moment when the announcer called "Unnamed and Untamed."  Unfortunately the announcer was Mexican and we were four English teachers.  He said, "Oon-AHM-edd and oon-TAIM-ed."  We quoted him all night.  

It was a fun free night.  I had no complaints.  I had a blast with the girls.  As usual.  Cue the tears.