First Days in Guadalajara!

Jon: Well, we made it here!  We took a first class bus on Saturday to get to Guadalajara.  Actually, we rode the city bus in PV to get to the central bus station.  As we mentioned before, that can be an adventure in itself :)  The bus drivers barely have you on board before racing off, making change for you while weaving in and out of traffic!  But its more interesting than taking a taxi, and possibly safer because the bus is bigger.  Getting off the city bus is more of the same.  You essentially jump off because the bus driver barely stops for long enough!  But riding a first class bus, one thing they advertise is "control de velocidad" or controlled speed.  Funny they need to advertise that!  The bus trip through the mountains was interesting, its neat to see the change in climate as we move inland.  Very comfy ride through a relatively windy mountain road.

Once we hit Guadalajara, it became apparent, this is a very big city, and very spead out.  We are going to be living in Centro Historico or historical downtown.  Should make for some good pics when we get a chance.  Traffic is crazy here, both in driving ability and volume.  Apparently you buy a drivers license, no test required, only money.  And it shows!  I feel sorry for the ambulance drivers we see, honking and blaring sirens, but with nowhere to go. Too many cars, and people don't want to pull over!  Saturday night we found a chinese buffet, 40 pesos!  All you can eat!  Thats about $3.60 back home :).  So there's some bonuses for living here, but I know we will miss some of the comforts of back home.  If you haven't travelled, you take for granted many thing.  Our taps dribble, but they do produce warm and cold water.  Toilets can't handle toilet paper, so there are garbage bins beside every toilet.  Yuck!  But we have toilets that flush.  You take your life in your hands crossing the street.  Not like polite Victoria BC, where people stop in a civilized fashion.  In any case, we're going to have fun here.  Sunday was a very busy day of running around the city, we found avocados 2 for 5 pesos!  And a bag of oranges for 5 pesos!  Not crummy imported oranges, juicy sweet delicious home grown oranges!  Our friend Tina has been a fantastic guide to the city, she has been here since october, and has taken it upon herself to show us all the best places to buy food here, which we greatly appreciate.  Funny thing, apples are about 28 pesos/kilo, because they are imported from Washington.

The best way to learn a language is to get out and go shopping where people don't speak english!  We spent monday in an ENORMOUS market, San Juan De Dios (St. John of God) looking for a pair of shoes.  Apparently Mexicans have small feet because finding shoes turned out to be a near impossibility.  But it got to the point that I would immediately ask what the biggest size of shoe they had.  I think we passed 400 shoe stalls selling about 4 million pairs of shoes.  This market is huge and crammed!!!.  And no one has size 11 Mexican (13 US).  Finally, we found a store with a huge pink sign pronouncing the name "Soy Mujer!" (I am woman!)  And wouldn't you know it, they had a pair of shoes that fit.  It seems the pointy toe style is all the rage here, and not very good for my huge canoes.  But anyway I found a nice wide pair of shoes after Michelle prompted me to look in one last shoe store.  So there I was, wandering down the streets of Guadalajara, carrying a pink bag that declared "I am Woman!", holding a pink shoebox, with my nice big men's shoes. 

To wrap up, we are settled in our posada, and we have quite a nice big room, with two double beds, a private bathroom, wifi internet, and a desk to do our schoolwork at, and its on the rooftop, though we can't really see much from here.  We start school tomorrow, and I expect it to be crazy and busy, so blogging may fall by the wayside, but we'll do our best :).

Michelle: Guadalajara is quite a pretty city, it has lots of park squares and nice architecture, of course it has it's dirty streets and buildings too but you can't expect too much for such a big city. What makes me laugh is that on one corner you will find anything from 7 - 20 shops for stationery the next corner the theme might be hair care, the next electrical shops, the next shoes, the next wedding dresses! But the hunt for shoes today, going into that crazy market, it was absolutely insane!!  Of course I wasn't even allowed to look at the women's shoes, all those millions of shoes going to waste- what a shame. And believe it or not I'm totally over shoes for the next while, I don't want to see another shoe store for a long time! (Although in reality, I'll probably pass by another 14 just on my way to school tomorrow).

We moved rooms today, away from the stinky toilet, yuck it was rank, so thank goodness for that! We can finally unpack our gear and feel like we have more of a home than a hotel. I think we lucked out nicely in our new joint. We've met some of the other people staying in the hotel, 2 have just graduated from the same course we are about to take and another girl we met tonight is joining us in the morning in our class. In the room we had 6 different nationalities, 6 different accents - American, Canadian, Australian, Irish, English & Mexican. It's great to make some friends and have some in-house support. Everyone we've met that has completed the course keeps wishing us luck, makes us a little nervous- hmm how well do I really know my mother tongue?? I guess I'll soon find out!! Wish us luck.. haha :)

photos from the bus trip