Thursday, July 9- SURPRISE!

Well, Thursday was Juan Carlos's birthday; he's Mayra Loca's brother. The plan was Bavaria, however, Shania had said she had wanted to take me to sushi, so she and Alma and I were going to go for sushi first. The place we were going was new. We got all dolled up and after Alma had run all her errands after work, she came home and picked me up. Somehow, we were there relatively early. We were supposed to meet at 9. We got there around 9:15, I think, but apparently it wasn't going to just be us and Shania. Eli (pronounced Ellie) was already there, but we were waiting on a crowd of about 7 more... Hmmmm.

Shortly after, Conci joins us, and Shania and Neyva. Ocyé, Karina, and Vicki also arrive.

We finally get seated and the waiter/manager comes and whispers to Alma. I look around and there is no mariachi band, so I figure I'm safe from karaoke. She still has a suspicious face, though, so I ask her what she had said to the guy. She said she asked him if we could go ahead and order (because it was approaching ten by the time we sat). A few minutes later, he was coming out from the kitchen with a banner.

I had secretly been wanting one of these banners all year. They're pretty much a Mexican staple for any party- birthdays, going aways, coming backs, you name it. Shania got one in the airport in Mazatlán when she got home. I quickly realized that this sushi was actually about me! That was a nice surprise. It wasn't the whole crowd. In fact, it wasn't even the typical crowd, but it was Shania and Alma's doings and it was all for me. I wanted to cry. As if I hadn't been crying enough the whole week before thinking about Alma's upcoming departure!
We had a decent dinner. It was not our favorite sushi, but it was okay. The manager was at least funny and helpful. We often raised our hands as a table to get his attention. He loved us. We would never, ever share that we didn't absolutely love the place, though since it was owned by narcos. As the banner came out, Alma asked if we could hang it on the wall. He mumbled something about the tape pulling off the paint and then named the narco group and said they'd just pay to redo the wall if something happened to it. I clearly didn't catch all that, but Alma retold the story to those around her, and I asked clarifying questions.

We finished up there and had another stop. We walked over to Bavaria for a few songs, dances, and Happy Birthday hugs for Juan Carlos.

We met up with some of the "usual suspects." I was thankful that it was not ridiculously hot this time. It's almost always suffocating in there, but this time it was almost cool. Almost.
After a few songs and chit chat, we made our way out again. There was one more stop. Elvira had some PISI party at a bar on the other side of town, so we were going to meet up with her. Quinantzin was with her. As we were making carpooling arrangements in the parking lot, Alma looks at me and asks if I have the keys. Of course not! She had left her purse in the car in order to have less in her hands while dancing, etc. Well, what had happened was she had given Ocyé her keys and money while we were at sushi. In the middle of our time at Bavaria, Ocyé had decided she needed to go home. She told us all goodbye and left, but Alma failed to realize the location of her keys!

At that point, we needed a plan. Alma needed to get to Elvira's party, so she rode with Conci and Shania and others to the bar. I rode with Karina and Neyva to Ocyé's house to get the keys and drop off some paper. We went back to Bavaria where I drove Alma's car to the bar. The original plan had been for just Karina and Neyva to take care of it. However, Shania remembered that Neyva can't drive. As if that would stop anyone in Mexico, but apparently their year in the States affected them a little. Just kidding. Kind of.

I entered the picture to drive the car. By the time we got there, the bar was closing, so we called it a night and headed home.

It was a good night. I was really sad thinking about Saturday. The good news was we had one more day before Alma had to leave.

Wednesday, July 8- school and school...

Alma had told me that I could have her car on wednesday since I needed to go pick up the certificates for my students from the English office (remember the frantic call from Maribel). I got up and was ready by 9 to take her to work. I dropped her off at Centro de Idiomas and then went to the English office (after stopping at Superpan for a donut. Okay, and maybe a danish- so much for watching what I ate this day- but I had begun subscribing to the theory that I wouldn't be there much longer, so I had to take it all in!). From there, I stopped by school and left the certificates with the 6th grade teacher. Of course, they all apparently were under the impression that I should've been there with them handing out everything. I didn't realize this until much later. At any rate, even if they thought I should've been there, Inglés en Primaria couldn't even ask me to be there since the last paid day was June 30. The principal asked me to come into his office. They spent thirty minutes just looking at me basically. That's the polite thing for them to do- ask me in, socialize- but there wasn't much to talk about, so it felt like a gigantic waste of time for me. Welcome back, American Laura!

From there, even though I wasn't hungry, I decided to stop by for a raspado. Again, who knows how long it would be before I could have one again! By then, it was close to 11 and time for me to go back to Centro de Idiomas so Alma could have her car back. When I took her her keys into the office, she told me I should go visit Shania and Neyva in their classroom. PISI has a summer program for kids from 8 am until 3 pm. The English stops at 1, but that's still a long day. Shania had the 5 year olds. She doesn't prefer the younger ones, so it was super comical that she was with them for five hours a day! It was definitely fun to see her teaching. And the summer program is a great idea, of course. I took some pictures of her classroom decorations. I also got one of her in the floor with the kids around her. This is not school exactly, but it's a very structured situation. However, it's still Mexico. We talked a lot about the differences that day because she was trying to teach them procedures for being quiet, etc. It wasn't going so great.

They were working on professions and gluing pictures of their heads to cutouts of bodies htey had colored.

Bulletin board of commands used in class.

A thematic bulletin board of words they were learning.

I had no plans, but I wasn't interested in being with 5 year olds for much longer, so I left and went to the mall and then home. I think that night must've been a low key night at home, because I have no pictures and no recollection of anything that would've been worth writing about!

Super Salads

Mayra had told me on Monday that everyone wanted to get together just to hang out before Alma left and to plan our trip to the US. There had originally been talk of a trip to Chicago at the end of July (just days after I would land in Nashville). It was a skydiving thing, and Iván was planning on diving, Hector was going to be working there, Alma was going to change her ticket from the end of her Dartmouth experience to get her to Chicago instead of Mexico, and Quinantzin was just up for an international trip. Being Mexicans, they had not planned one detail since the original thought crossed their minds months before. I, of course, wanted to take advantage of great SouthWest flights, so I needed details people! I wasn't certain I wanted to go, but I figured a chance at being with my Mexican friends on US soil was something I shouldn't pass up...

I was so excited because we were going to eat tacos at the place called La Ceiba, where the quesadillas are bigger than your head (remember the girls didn't tell me I needed to share with someone). I was careful all day about what I ate (since my 15 tortilla belly pounds were more and more evident, I figured the weeks leading up to my departure were the best time to start being cautious) and was starving by the time I was picked up by Alma.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I realize we're not going to La Ceiba, but instead we're going to Super Salads. Need I remind you that this is the place I ate with Tania the one time I got sick during my stay in Mexico. Hours and hours of vomit. While it had probably been two months or so since "the incident," I still was in no mood to get over it. I protested by ordering a panini instead of a salad. I just couldn't bring myself to munch on that limp lettuce that had caused my all-nighter with the toilet. The discussion about the trip was almost humorous. For one, I hadn't been in on the previous conversation (apparently weeks before) where they decided that Chicago was out and now somewhere within Mexico was in. Well, that pretty much completely sealed the deal that I wouldn't be a part of it. On top of that, they didn't discuss anything trip related! Oh, Mexican planning.

They had asked me to bring my laptop so they could look into flights, etc. That of course didn't happen. Part of the hold up, though, was Alma's unwillingness to commit. She couldn't be certain of her return time to Culiacán from her program at Dartmouth. She was hoping to go to a Coldplay concert, and after that she and Shania had potential plans for travel within Mexico. It was basically just an excuse to go out to eat.

Now, I must admit that my mushroom and cheese panini was divine. The fruit lemonade was good, too. The issue was refills. This was one place that refills were actually free. The service, however, was subpar. It got comical. At one point, I had waited so long, that I just got up and got it off the bar. This was after, of course, I had asked twice for a refill. Of course, when Marco or Iván asked for something, they got it immediately! That sat well with me.

Later, Mayra changed her water to a lemonade. Again, minutes passed as her cup just sat on the bar. I was about to get up and get it when Marco signaled our waitress.

The night ended very oddly as Alma got a phone call, whispered to me that she'd see me at home, and told the rest of the table basically the equivalent of I'll be right back. Mayra and I both realized we wouldn't see her again until much later (as in possibly the next day), but the boys got really worried as we were leaving that we should call her and let her know we were leaving so she wouldn't come back looking for us. It was very strange.

Also at dinner, we had had several conversations of the surprise going away party. In front of me. But it was semi-in code, so I just pretended to not be listening. Yeah right.

Quinantzin, never too quick on the uptake, had to be pulled aside after dinner by Mayra. She explained to her that yes I knew but that I was pretending I didn't, etc. Again, Mayra, what good does it do to tell me something I'm not supposed to know and tell me to pretend I don't know if you're going to tell other people that I know?!

The fact that Alma was being so shady about when she was leaving Culiacán (her flight supposedly left on Saturday, but she was going to Mochis on Friday, but then she told us her flight left on Sunday and that she and Shania were maybe going on Friday still to Mochis, but that she just wasn't sure of her plans), that I was hoping that meant she'd still be in Culiacán for my party on Saturday...

Mayra took me home and Alma was not there yet. I just went to bed. Not that I had big plans for the next day- pack, cry, repeat- but it just made it seem all the weirder that she had left to "be right back" and was still not home.

Here we go

I apologize for the dramatic delay in the final posts. To say I've been bust these three weeks of being home would be quite the understatement. However, couple that with a severe dose of unexpected culture shock (it did not look like I expected it to!), and you get no blog entries (or even attempts)! We're well on the way, though.

I last left you with two weeks left in Culiacán, but only one week left with Alma before her big departure to my homeland. We had been to Cosalá with the PISI folks and it was a great time. After getting back, Mayra had blown the surprise in order to secure my attendance at my own going away party. So now we're to the week of Alma's departure...