November 2009
Estoy YoquisFriday, November 27, 2009
Picture from sometime back in October
So it's Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the day all of America is going out to shop, buy Christmas presents and recovering from eating too much. Me, I am trying to kill time without spending money, something that is very, very difficult for me. I'm American you see. That's just the way I am. For example, I discovered that Celtic Thunder came out with a new CD so I just randomly bought it. Because I wanted it. That's what we do.
I'm actually also talking to my family while writing this post so if it ends up disjointed that's why. They're painting the living room today because there is no school and my brothers are quite the formidable workforce when they want to be though from the sound of the conversation today isn't one of the days they want to be.
People who live in foreign countries (regardless of where you're from, if you live in a different country than your family you obviously live in a foreign country) always have to do the hard work of contacting their family members. I've noticed this being more of an issue recently because every time I call my parents and ask them to call me back on my cell phone they complain about the cost. I can understand that it does cost a lot of money but you don't have to call all the time! Just maybe once every couple of weeks! It's worse with my sister who is in college (hey! So am I!) on a semi-strict budget and complains about how much the call is costing her no matter when or how I call (she never calls me, ever). I always end up spending the first three minutes of the call informing her that it doesn't cost her anything to talk to me. Then we can get down to business.
(Brief moment of sad silence as the really cute guy two tables away from me gets up and leaves...)
Skype is a wonderful tool, it really is, but it is highly inconvenient to go in to Navojoa to find an internet connection. Why do they have to charge long distance anyways? You'd think, in this day and age, with as many advances in technology as there are, it would be cheaper to make a phone call. For crying out loud, the people on the satellite radio can broadcast live from a car driving down the middle of the road in Nebraska. (I really want to know what kind of things they are using to do that. Probably a laptop with satellite internet and a really high end microphone.) While we're going off on why things cost so much, have I ever told you all that it would cost almost fifty dollars for me to mail a key (a KEY) from Navojoa to Maryland? I was messing around with an idea for Ebay one week and decided to see how fast the mail service was so I went to the DHL and asked how much it would cost. Apparently, thanks to border taxes (I thought Mexico was our friend?), it costs almost $50 to mail an envelope with a key in it to the States. I could use the federal post office but I highly doubt anything would get to its destination. (I've mailed stuff through them before. It took almost 18 days to get to the States.) I realize that money is king these days but...why? So, so difficult for me to comprehend. I'll just leave it at that.
Have a good holiday, everyone! I'm just going to enjoy myself and eat leftovers. That's what Thanksgiving is about anyways. Being thankful and eating. Very Baptist holiday. lol!
As far as the title of this post is concerned, estar yoquis has the same connotation as being at loose ends. Having nothing to do really. For example, if I saw someone just sitting on a bench in the middle of the day and asked them what they were doing and they responded, estoy yoquis basically they're just doing nothing at all.
Chavo!
Always Stick the Bacon Grease in the Beans
Monday, November 23, 2009
Brittany is gone this week and next on a long deserved, much needed vacation. She's also going to go visit her family in Missouri which is supposed to be a surprise but her mom found out right at the beginning so only her dad and sister are unaware that she is coming (unless they read this blog (unlikely) in which case they're well aware now). Since she's gone there's extra work for all of us, not a whole lot, but three meals need to be covered. I had breakfast today, egg and bacon burritos with beans on the side which leads me to my title, always sticking the bacon grease in the beans.
The secret to great tasting re-fried beans is lard. Or fat, grease, whatever. Not shortening, not oil. Good ol' honest to goodness lard. You stick a chunk in the bottom of the frying pan, let it get real hot and then pour your blended beans on top. You blend the beans to get an even consistency plus it's easier to blend beans than mash them by hand. Mix the lard and beans together until you can trace little lines of beans on top, season to taste and you're good to go! This is why I only eat beans that I make because you never have any idea what other people have put in their beans (except Rosalba who taught me this trick and makes the best beans ever).
I've heard stories of people craving beans when they go up to the States. This hasn't ever happened to me and I think it's because I get enough protein in my diet.
Anyways, it's been a good week. The Jeep muffler cracked on Tuesday. Well, I say cracked but really the exhaust pipe separated from the muffler which then started banging around all over the place and being really, really loud when I accelerated. That was the most obnoxious part really. When I went to get it welded back together the guy who did the work told me (after having me back over a huge hole in the ground) that the next time it broke he'd just replace the tail pipe. How's that for inspiring confidence in your work, eh?
We rented buses for the routes on Sunday. Our driver's name is Martin and he's really a great guy. Patient, too. I mean, you have to be if you're going to drive a bus route. Especially with me giving directions. Then sometimes we sit at houses for ten minutes or we make hairpin turns to the left followed buy a right. Kids are screaming at you from the back of the bus and frazzled looking workers are trying to get them to sit down. But the seats were really, really comfortable. They recline.
Well, going to go home, back up my Linux computer and reformat it to be Windows again. Unfortunately I need it for a job I might have gotten but I can't use their IM agent of choice on my Mac so Windows it is (blech). If this works out it's ten bucks an article though so I'm all for that. Money is good stuff.
Take care, everyone! Only three weeks until I'm back in Maryland!
Peanut Butter Does Not Work on Mice
Monday, November 16, 2009
So I've pretty much had my Christmas for this year. It was pretty sweet. Mike and Jillian came down on Saturday evening bringing about a month and a half's worth of mail with them which included no less than four packages for me. One from church, two from my parents and one from Jaime. Plus, it's official, I have all the Dr. Who DVDs now. I've been on a Dr. Who streak for the last two days. Pretty much all my free time is spent watching Dr. Who. This brings no end of frustration to Brittany, as you can imagine.
My parents sent clothes, bless them. It's getting really cold down here (hard to imagine, I know, but it really is) so they sent warmer stuff to sleep in and a sweater which I'm actually wearing right now. It's cozy. I like cozy. The Lady's Missionary Fellowship at church sent a charming box full of pretty much candy and other snacks. I've been passing out candy like I own a candy factory. Everyone loves me now. Thank you, women of the LMF. lol. Jamie sent a box of craft supplies (I'm almost convinced he's the only one who actually reads this blog regularly) which was the biggest surprise because I had pretty much just run out of everything except tape. Yeah. So tomorrow we're going to make wordless book bracelets at Kid's Club up in Miravalle. I'll get some pictures up later on.
It's been a pretty awesome week as far as weeks go. At least as far back as I can remember and that's just from Wednesday onward. I just kinda blank out Mondays and Tuesdays. On Wednesday we went out for hot dogs (like usual) and there was a train coming to a stop at the train station right behind the hot dog stand so three of us raced over there (I won!) and jumped up on it as it was moving (yes yes yes!). TONS of fun, let me tell you. It was super easy because the train was going pretty slow and all you had to do was climb up the ladder on the side of the car and hold on for awhile. Then you jumped off, ran back to the start and did it again. Great fun.
Yesterday afternoon while I was in my room I saw this mouse wandering around so I set a trap with a peanut butter cracker. The next thing I hear is the mouse wandering around in the trap and then I see him racing across my room with the whole cracker in his mouth! So the trap is cheap or the mouse is really smart or something because I still haven't caught him. I set the trap with a Goldfish Cracker after that but he hasn't touched it yet. I haven't seen him again either though so he might just be dead or gone or something. Hopefully dead. I hate mice.
Anyways, so that's it. Hope you all had a great week! Eventually I'll blog about something worthwhile but right now I'm going to call my parents. Take care!!
Dr. Who is not my Boyfriend (-sniff-)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thought I'd make up for yesterday's pathetic post and since I have some free time, here I am!
Funny thing happened at Super Mas yesterday. I was hanging out, checking my email (it was all ads) and this guy, Pablito (he's like, 60, but he acts like a kid, therefore Pab'lito') who has seen me enough times that we know each other comes up to my window and starts using his rudimentary English. I wasn't in a very good mood really, sorry to say and so I started packing up so that I could get going but he started asking questions.
"Are you checking your email?"
"Yep."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Nope."
I started minimizing windows so that I could close down the laptop and my desktop appeared. Now, my wallpaper is a cycling folder of various Dr. Who images and the one that happened to be on the screen the moment I minimized Firefox was of David Tennant holding a kitten.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Pablito asked.
"No!" I responded.
"How ugly." He said.
I am sorry, David Tennant. I don't think you are ugly. But you're going to have to come down here and prove it to my friend Pablito.
Tax Returns
Monday, November 9, 2009
Short post today, have a lot of important things going on, mainly figuring out my budget for the remaining weeks of class and figuring out how on earth I'm supposed to buy Christmas presents for everyone. I really dislike having expensive tastes and no income. Plus, not only that, I put at least 30 bucks worth of gas in my Jeep every week and have a Wednesday night class, a kid's club and a bus route I'm paying for, plus anything I need (I'm currently out of toothpaste).
Anyways. That's how things stand. I'll make it, I just need to calm down a bit on the spending part. I never, ever realized that candy could get so expensive so quickly. But yeah, that's why I'm not posting today.
Phone Cards!!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Well hey! What started out as a pretty calm day has turned into a hectic one. It's a long story that has to do with spending almost forty bucks already this morning, mostly on gas but also on phone cards, one of which I've probably destroyed. But I did manage to call the Abarrotes and they'll be delivering food to the church here shortly, something I don't have the money for yet. Yeap.
Anyways, this post was supposed to be about Jorge, my bus driver. I'd actually had it all planned out and had a whole list of good things I was going to mention about him (because he really is a great guy). I even had a picture to put up here but I didn't upload it to my computer and someone got into my camera and deleted a bunch of pictures. Probably Jorge, actually. So Jorge's post will have to wait until next week. I'm going to do a short series on my bus workers so that everyone will get a chance to get to know them. They're great.
The bus outing went well on Saturday. Cost more than I had anticipated but everyone really had a great time. We went to the DIF park and had pizza and a mess of popsicles. Mostly it was kids but there were a few adults who got a kick out of checking out the animals. I do actually have a few pictures of the animals that Abraham took but none of the kids playing.
Hard to believe I only have five weeks left until I go back to Maryland for Christmas. Already have my plane ticket but only Brittany knows that. I'm going to take the bus up on Monday the 14th and fly out of Tucson on Tuesday afternoon. Kinda looking forward to the traveling. It'll be nice to just sit for an extended period of time.
Have a great day!
