Mental Workout - Mar 9
As I said in the last post, I spent this day researching places that I wanted to visit, culling that list down so I could spend more time in single locations, and reevaluating what I actually want to achieve with the rest of my trip.
It went pretty well. I’m still not completely sure what I’m doing but I do know that I’m done with Guadalajara at this point. I know I want to visit Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City, Puebla, Puerto Escondido, San Cristobal de las Casas, Campeche, Merida, and Cozumel before I leave for the east coast of Canada. I realized that what happens between those places doesn’t matter that much at all. I’m too worried about missing out that I forget to have fun with the experience of travel and meeting new people. No more of that.
After coming to this realization I sent out some requests for CouchSurfing and went for dinner, a walk to the super market, and finally watched a movie. This was one of the more productive days I’ve had even though I don’t have a lot of physical proof that I accomplished much.
First Couchsurfing Experience - Mar 10
Late wake up, some troubles with the shower and I was off, fully packed, on my way to the bus station to go to Guanajuato. I got to the bus stop and decided to grab a bite. At the restaurant, I got to chat with the waiter there until my bagel arrived. Both he and the other waiter were surprised to see that I wasn’t wearing a heavy sweater as it was a fairly cold day for Guadalajara standards. Lol, not even a little cold. After I ate, I got passed by two buses and got on the wrong bus twice, I didn’t ride them anywhere but I guess I got the wrong info from the hostel.
The bus ride to Guanajuato was around four hours and I managed to get a lot of reading done. However, the first movie to play in the bus was Fury, with Brad Pitt. My roommates and I made a drinking game out of this movie at one point last year so I had to watch it. It was a good idea. Since I know the movie fairly well, the Spanish dub was easier to understand and follow. It’s funny because I can almost feel myself getting back into the Spanish speaking mindset.
Once I arrived, I took a city bus to the centro, found a cafe, and waited for Antonio to meet up with me. Even during my short walk through the city to the cafe I could tell that I’m going to like this city. It has small streets, loads of students, cool architecture, and a safe feeling. After a bite, Antonio took me around the town a bit, we dropped my bags off at his house where he lives with three roommates and then went out for a beer. Before arriving at the bar he showed me one of the viewpoints of the city, super beautiful at night. As we chat and walk I can see that I do like this city and that Antonio is proud and passionate about this town. He’s lived here for eight years and is originally from Leon. We spent our time drinking beer and telling stories in the bar and this CouchSurfing experience only gets better and better. Antonio is kindly correcting my Spanish and being patient when I lack a few key words in my vocabulary.
Looking good Guanajuato.
I’m excited to see what the city has to offer.
How To Tourist - Mar 11
I woke up around 8:30am to start my day. A little earlier than normal to start the day but that’s fine. First mission was to get some more oats and supplies for breakfasts. No problem. Antonio told me about a supermarket nearby where I could get what I needed but I forgot the location. He wasn’t receiving my WhatsApp messages so I just decided to go to centro and figure it out there. After the 15 minute walk I struggled to find anything that I needed. Eventually Antonio responded saying that the supermarket is quite close to his house, not in centro. Great. More walking and I got my stuff, returned to the house and broke my fast just after 10:30am. Again late but that doesn’t matter at all really. I did a little research into places to visit, made a custom map to follow, and set out.
I spent most of the day looking at buildings and the city in general, taking lots of photos, none of which will see the light of day because the photos themselves are quite unexciting. Just Google it. I did a lot of walking, that pretty much sums it all up.
OK, one picture. The inside of the university.
I got back to the house around 7pm and made plans to grab some grub with Antonio after his workout around 9pm. Between the plan making and food I was on Facebook and noticed that a friend that I met in Sayulita, Nick, was actually in Guanajuato as well. We made plans for beers.
After dinner we met up with Nick, Antonio said goodbye because was going on a trip out of town for a rock climbing course for two days. I then met a few of Nick’s friends and fellow CouchSurfer champions. I enjoy the culture of CouchSurfing a lot already. So far, everyone is friendly and like minded in the sense that they’re looking to both get cheap accommodation and even more so meet cool people who can show you the city and help get you engaged in the real culture and life of the town you’re visiting. It’s so cool.
What started out as a few beers snowballed quite quickly into a 6am bed time. We got there by bar hopping the town, meeting a Norwegian (I’m seeing more and more of them as I go), and chatting with a few people, desperately trying to take advantage of the increased confidence given to us by our drink choices. It always works. I’m not sure if I just don’t notice the mistakes or if I don’t make as many mistakes because I don’t care if they come up. But one way or another, most Mexicans seemed to be impressed when I tell them that I’ve been studying Spanish alone for a little less than seven months. Go me!
Hard Core Listening Practice, Mines, and Jamming - Mar 12
After only a few hours sleep I woke up around 11am, a little groggy but excited to see what the day had to offer. I had my delicious oats (I know I say this a lot but they are so good) and headed to Teatro Juarez to meet up with Nick and Gaston. Gaston is another CouchSurfer being hosted by Alejandra who is also hosting Nick at the moment. We met up and went to the feminist meeting that Alejandra had invited us to the night before. The purpose of the talk seemed to be what you might expect, although I wasn’t able to grasp every word that the people uttered. Topics included equality, safe practices for women when going out, abortion, rape, violence, and the like. I’d say I was able to understand about fifty to sixty percent of the conversation which lasted about two hours, not only a good opportunity to learn about things that I should already know about but don’t really and also perfect Spanish listening practice.
After the meeting Nick and I went with a Spanish girl named Eva to a mine in Valenciana, or at least I think that was the name. It was sort of cool but probably not worth your time and money unless you are interested in that sort of thing. I heard there was a more impressive and bigger mine somewhere else but apparently it was being used for wedding photos or some malarky like that.
Suh, dude?
After we returned from the mine we took Eva home and hung out at Alejandra’s place. Gaston and I jammed a bunch with his guitar and Alejandra’s ukulele. That guy is seriously talented on stringed instruments and also has a good voice. Musicians. We traded off songs for a while as well. I pulled out classics like Cry Me a River, Wait for the Moment by Vulfpeck (check them out please, do yourself a favour), and Careless Whisper while he played classic Argentinian tangos and sambas. I think he wins. During that experience Gaston introduced me to mate which is a classic Argentinian drink. If you’ve ever read or seen the movie about Che Guevara’s travels through South America you would have seen mate. It’s important to note that this is a traditional drink and there are rules. Some of the rules I heard were that you need to drink your cup quickly, you can’t move the straw that sits in the cup, and only the first person to pour the hot water into the cup will pour the water the entire time. The drink itself is not that flavourful, but it is good and the idea of the tradition and rules make it better.
To cap off the night Alejandra made us some enchiladas with food we had bought from the Hidalgo Market near her house. Spicy but good. Then I showed them all of the words I had written down from the meeting early in the day which they attended. Gaston read them out, some of which were just sounds I heard and not actually words, and Alejandra and Gaston would explain what they were so I could write them into my flashcard app Anki.
A Note About My Language Learning
A quick word about Anki. It is the best way to get vocabulary into your head, at least on a written level. The basic idea is that it is flashcards. The way I memorize a word is to make a flashcard with the Spanish word on the front, I search for that word on Google Images, find a picture that I like that reminds me of the word, it could be an actual picture of the word itself or something random, and add that to the back of the flashcard with the English equivalent. Sometimes, if necessary you can also add sound to the flashcard in case the pronunciation is difficult. After that you let Anki handle the rest.
Anki uses a technique called spaced repetition to help you remember your flashcards. The basic idea is that there is a graph. On the X axis you have time, on the Y you have a percentage representation of how well you can remember a given word. When you review a word your ability to remember that word is 100%. After, say, a few hours, this percentage dips and by the next day your ability has dropped significantly. What Spaced Repetition Systems (SRSs) do to help you remember is manage when you see your flashcards. When reviewing the cards you tell Anki whether you didn’t remember it, your remembered it, or you remembered it easily. Based on this information, the next time Anki will show you the card will be based on the settings you’ve given it. For me, if I don’t remember a word I will be asked about it 10 minutes later. After that if I remember it normally I will be asked in 1 hour, 2 hours, and finally 4 hours before it switches to one day. Then the next time you review the card, if you get it right, it will increase the number of days before the next time you need to review that word, always keeping your ability to remember that word in a optimal spot for later usage. I highly recommend you try this app if you’re trying to learn anything that can be written down on a flashcard. My vocabulary is good. The only problem I have is that I don’t go out of my way to use the new words I’m reviewing during the day and that would make it easier to actually get them out of my mouth.
I’ve only recently been adding pictures to my flashcards and this has surprised me with how much it helps with retention. An example. The word congelar means to freeze in Spanish. Here is the photo I used to remember this word:
And no, I didn’t have to look that up just in case I was wrong. Other examples of pictures I use are Jafar from Aladdin for the word malvado meaning evil and a picture of the wrestler The Undertaker for emprender which means to undertake. There are some apps like Memrise that use this same technique to help you learn. While I haven’t tried Memrise, but plan to for French which I will probably start learning close to next year, I think the power of this technique with Anki is that searching for a custom image for a flashcard actually contributes to your memorization of the word you’re working on. The down side is that you have to put in the work which for me is no problem because learning Spanish is my number one goal right now. It takes less than thirty seconds to find an image and put it into Anki if you’ve got a solid internet connection. I learned about this technique from a book called Fluent Forever and if you’re interested in language learning I would recommend reading it. It goes into way more detail about how we learn languages and a bunch more methods on how to do it. A good read for aspiring linguists and language learners alike.
More Tradition and Saunas - Mar 13
Nothing happened in the morning today. Let’s just leave it at that. I met up with the gang around 1pm in the afternoon and we went to the temazcal. At this point I think you might want to just Google what that is for yourselves.
OK here’s a link temazcal.
It seemed to me to be a traditional Mexican sauna experience. The experience includes four, or in our case five, sessions of intense steam, singing, and relaxation. Upon entering, you may wear whatever you want or nothing if it suits your fancy. You first apply mud to your body but I don’t remember if the woman leading us told us why. Quick tip, don’t put any above your eyes because you’ll be sweating a lot throughout the course of this experience and any mud that gets in your eyes will probably sting. I learned that the hard way. We then got some jamaica tasting tea which was rather nice. A so began the session.
If you want a more intense experience you stand up in the sauna, heat rises so, you know, it’ll be hotter the higher you go. During each session we were in almost complete darkness save for some small holes in the sauna itself and the leader’s glowing watch. The leader told us about relaxing, breathing deeply, and relaxing. She then banged a empty water cooler container as a drum and the group sang some Mexican tunes. The session ends and the door is opened to allow cold-ish air and light in. Some chatting and spiritual talk which, to be honest, is a little outside of my understanding and the next session begins. Just before the last session we were given a mixture of salt, mint, spearmint, and some other herbs whose smell was only surpassed by the feeling it gives when you apply it to your skin. Incredibly refreshing after three sessions of steam. A few more sessions and by the end of it there were people screaming with excitement and who knows what. It was pretty intense but eventually relaxing. At the end you wash yourself and pay. If you would like to hear more about this experience just ask me the next time we see each other. It was worth the 150 pesos but I’m not sure I’ll be going out of my way to do it again.
After that we bought some food, made dinner, and relaxed. It seemed that time passed a bit quicker than any of us thought. Part of the group went for coffee and later pizza and mezcal. That is how I spent the day. It wasn’t much, but it was cool. Good day.
Looking cooking Mexicans! Though some people were Spanish and probably something else. You get the idea.
Suh Dude? - Mar 14
Today felt like it went by slowly because we didn’t do much. I woke up a bit earlier than normal, must have slept well, and got my stuff together to do laundry. Since my CouchSurfing (CS) host had a washing machine but no dryer I decided to do laundry with Nick. We met at the market and did that. Then we went for a little food at the La Paz Cafe. We then went to Alejandra’s place to hang out while we waited for our clothes. Alejandra went to work and I tried for a time to learn a little bit more about the Spanish subjunctive. All I know now for sure is that it is hard to get a grasp on. Nick had a nap, I played some guitar and then Gaston made us some spaghetti. Do you think I’m going into too much detail about this stuff?
Nick and I went to the bar that Alejandra works at to have a drink and say goodbye. Some flavoured meszcal shots later and we were on our way. Nick and I grabbed our laundry and I somehow lost one of the insoles I use for my Tom’s shoes. The reason I have them is so I don’t stick up the shoes themselves and wash the insoles when necessary. Oh well, I should be able to buy some more in Mexico City. We then went to our respective CS houses, packed up, did one check at the laundromat for my insole and went to the bus station. Unfortunately, Nick missed his bus for Mexico City and had to wait until 6:30pm. For me, it was easy. There is a bus from Guanajuato to San Miguel de Allende every so often. When my bus arrived we said goodbye and promised to see each other where Nick will be teaching English for three months. I’ll get back there at some point before my trip. I’ve got some friends to impress with my improved Spanish skills.
See you later, Nico!
The bus was short. The hostel is comfy and cheap. The city is beautiful at night. I found some decently cheap tacos though I expect I can find some for less than the 20 pesos I paid.
Hasta la vista
baby.
I had to.