MEXICO SPECIAL EDITION: Day 2=Boredom, Crime, and a lil Tequila

Tuesday was, well, somewhat of a lazy and uneventful.

We did go to a near by gym that I went to last year. It was a good work out. These small gyms are pretty cool. They are basically a small open aired garage and don’t have many people or weights, but can be kinda dirty too. As were leaving to go lift, we found out that the neighbor right next to us had been broken in. Someone broke in the night before and took a cheap TV and some other things. After we got back from working, my grandfather, our only ticket for transportation, went to the police office to report in the break in and robbery. He left at noon, but spent nearly six house in line before he could fill out an official report.

So we were stuck at the house and didn’t do much. Unfortunately, my Grandmother was scared of us going to the fair by ourselves. We told her we would take a taxi to the fair, but she said it was too dangerous cause we were white and Americans. Then I was like, we can take the bus! I told her it was safer, cheaper, and I have done it before. And then she said no because we didn’t know where to go blah blah blah, and she felt responsible for us and wanted to take care of us, so we had to wait for my aunt to get back from work so we could leave like at 6. So yeah, it was pretty much a boring afternoon of being trapped in a house.

My aunt finally got back but she wanted to sleep. Then we ate. So we ended up leaving at 7:30 with my aunt. We went around the fair and listened to one of the concerts. They were the Volvan, pretty typical band, and not very interesting. So we went around some more and looked at a lot of shops to get an idea of what to get. Casey and I did buy some tight hats with fake dreadlocks so that we could put them on and walk around in the fair looking all goofy. We looked at some nice Mexican dress shoes for 40 bucks that we might buy later in the week when prices will drop.

Casey next to a belly dancer

After that we went checked out the nightlife of the fair and went to a club that was recommended by a few guys we asked at one of the shops we stopped at, called the Play Club. We got there like at 9 pm so we pretty much opened up the place. The place was pretty new and upscale, with good music but really no dance floor, only tons of modern lounge seats. The waitress was really cute, and our table got a free drink. It was a really good fruit-rum drink. Many of the clubs in Mexico give a lot of drinks, I guess that’s why people flock to Mexico, haha. Casey tried out some dos equis and I got some Reposado Tequila with some mineral water and some fruit in there too. It was pretty good, but I should have left out fruit…we really couldn’t figure out what kind of fruit it was.

Casey with his Dos Equis

After a while of being there we went to Jasmine´s house and got to introduce her to Casey. She invited us to go to this event at the culture centre. They are Pneumus, and they had this really interesting performance and she wanted to go. She also told us that her class was going on a field trip and invited us to go with her on Thursday. The class is a combination of nutrition and physics, but I forgot the name in Spanish. The field trip was to Zacatechas, a place I really wanted to visit last year but didn’t have a chance. They were going to visit the Corona beer factory. The idea of visiting a beer factory sounded pretty awesome to me and Casey, so we told her to count us in. She said she would ask her teacher and see what she could do. Anyhow, we will see what will open up and keep you guys up to date. Hopefully I will have some time to add some pics so that you can have a idea of what we are seeing! Later

MEXICO SPECIAL EDITION: Trip up and first day

Greetings people. We, yes, two people, have a special surprise for you. For almost the past 10 months Casey and I have been planning to come to Aguascalientes, Mexico for the San Marcos Fair, the largest fair in Mexico. Casey is my good friend who graduated with me and for some reason descided to got to Texas A&M, a school with moral values and traditions and beautiful women and in a state that doesnt come with frostbite. But thats cool, I forgive him. He is a good Aggie. Haha, he´s also cowriting the mexico portion of the blog so look for his clever sentences and my corrected grammer. So we started to plan on it and I was able to fit it during my off week for the Hooks. Well, this week came to a reality starting saterday ish...After the quinceñera, all forus was on this trip. Casey and I 'planned to drive down to McAllen and get a ticket from McAllen over to Reynosa, and then Reynosa to Aguascalientes.

We left Sunady afternoon at 2:30 pm and got to McAllen bus stop at 5:15 pm. We got some tickets there, a little more from my trip last year, but still relatively cheap. We bought round trip tickets for $105.00, bought some subway sandwitches, and were off at 6:20. We went over the border and we were in Reynosa. Casey´s sprint cell still worked over for a little. We stopped immediately so us Americans (which we were the only ones) to get permission to stay in Mexico. So me and Casey walked over to the little office and talked tot he dude working there. I thought he would know english but I guess I was wrong. So I got my spanish tested for the first time, and this one was important. So we both show him our passports and I told him that I came over the year before. He riffles through my passport and finds the last stamp. Then his eyes got real heavy and he told me some bad news. He told me that the last time I was hear, that I didnt get my passport stampted when I left, so it ment that I never left from the country. I showed him my student Mcard from Michigan to prove I was a student. Then he said I had to go back to the border to get the pasport stamped before he would stamp it again for me to get in. I was like, what the corn, b3ecause he told me all this in spanish and I was sure I understood him, but at the same time I couldnt beleive what he said. He gave us the little forms to fill out, so we did that. Then he said that even though it was against the rules he would stamp me in if I gave him a little dough. So I was like, eh, ok. He stamped both Casey and my passport and thena sked me for some ______, I could cath the exsact word. I was looking for mordida, which literal translation is a bite, but it means money under the table. But I couldnt hear the esact phase because he was saying it under his breath so no one could hear us. So I asked if he wanted money, and he was like, yeah, you know, for my coffee. Haha, I have never heard that one before. So I looked at Casey and looked in my wallet. Te lowest bill I had was a $10, so this man is going to get a nice, big coffee.

The night was a long bumpy one. We managed to make it through with some decent sleep. Casey didnt do too bad, atleast he wasnt drooling in his sleep like daniel was. The Bus driver would sccelerater super slow, so it wasnt that bumpy, oh, except like in 3 in the morning when everyone was asleep, he was crusing as fast as he could through that bumpy road. He was even passing up other cars and 18 wheelers during that time. I remember this part of the ride from last year. Just like last time, I stayed away and prayed my way through so that I would live.

We got to Aguascalientes at 8pm. My awesome grandfather was here to pick us up. We put the bags into his small, which Nissan and headed to the house. Now the city has 3 rings which go around the city, one middle, one outer, and one inner. My grandparents live in the southern outer ring of the city. We got there and crashed at about 9am. I remember trying to get up at 10, but I fell asleep again. I finally got up at 10:40.

After some time, we went with my grandfather to do some errands. We drove over to the center of the city where all the big city places are, like the pole of the centre of Mexico, the government building, and the cathedral.

The Government Building Slide Show.

We then went to the visitor´s centre to see what was going on. There are free concerts every night and a few things going on every day. Boxing sounded interesting, so we went ahead and bough both boxing and the bull fight tickets. The boxing night has 4 fights, and it starts at 6pm on Saterday. The bull fighting show has a few novices who will be fighting, and that is also at 6pm but on Sunday. So we pretty much knocked out the weekend in terms of events.

On the left are the Bull Fighting Tickets and on the right the Boxing Tickets

When it was getting late, we were planning the rest of the week. We ended up finding Troy on TV in English with Spanish subtitles. So that was really cool. We saw a chunk of it. My Aunt usually holds some English classes here at the house on Monday nights, but she cancelled. However, some good friends didn’t get the memo and came by. They were Misael and Angelita. I hung out with both last year when I was here in Mexico. Their older sister is Jasmine who I hung out a lot last year. So we showed them Troy so that they could practice their English and I could practice my Spanish from the subtitles. After we did some discussing, they left, and we went to the bed for the first time here in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

So in this specuail edition we will be bringing you news, picture, and videos of our adventur3es here in San Marcos, the fair of Mexico. We might post them up late, but check DP´s Blog everyday so you don’t miss the best out the Mexico. ¡Hasta Luego!

Mayham week part 2

So the next post will speak of this long part.

CAMERA
I bought a Canon SD1000 right before school started. It was a fantastic camera. Then I lost it in Detroit during spring break doing mission work. I lost it in the snow. SO I saved up to buy this camera. So here we go...its a good story, trust me...haha. So I went to this computor online place to order my camera. I got another silver Canon SD1000 for $149.99 and ground shipping for $10.oo. I ordered last weds. Then I noticed on friday that they sent me an email to confirm the location. SO I was upset, but I called them asking if they still had the camera, and they said yes. I confirmed the place and asked for 3 day shippin. It was all set. Well, later that day I noticed another email that said there were out of stock and my order was put on backorder...so I would have to wait 2-3 weeks for them to get it before they could ship it. THat was crap. So I call them an cancelled the order.

Then I find FOTO Connection, a camera shop online. I found the silver Canon SD1000 and quickly ordered using 3 day shipping. Well, this happened again, becase I checked my email on monday and it said I needed toc all up. So mad again, I called these dudes up and the man was rude and difficult to understand. He was like..." Do you want kbdoufb aaskhb shipping ubaksjd 182 dollars kubf got that? Its that what you want? Want a memory cart?" "No, I dont want a memory card." "You dont want a memory cart? There is none in box.""Well, is this a facory sealed box?" "Yes it ice." " Then it must have a memory card." "Everything comes in the box oifsbowocinEOIFNNCVBSDVBKSJEFB $182 dollar? Ok?" And I was like, "um, ok, I guess. Just get it out. I need it this weekend."

So the box came in Thursday night

I look at the box, its bigger than the other one, but it is still lite. Pager to see my camera once again, I open up the box. And that’s when a few things start to come up. First off, there were some promotional giveaways. There was a little case, a tripod, and some lens cleaner garbage. On the Invoice it said I got some special starter set and was priced at $189.00. Dang, I got ripped. They charged me more. I told them I didn’t want this special package. All I anted was in the box. Then I pull out the box, and it wasn’t the box. It was some other canon box. I mean, it still had a sticker that said Canon SD1000, but it wasn’t the official box like I was told. I opened the box to see what was inside. There was the CD, instruction manuals, and then all the cables wrapped up as if the camera had been returned. I was like, whats going on? No memory card. I look at the box and there was a sticker that said “no memory card included”. I was like, what a looser who sold me this camera box and charged me more and told me it was coming I the box and everything and what did I get? Some other box without the original contents and he charged me more for this other garbage. And then I pull out the little soft cover for my camera only to find….¡the wrong camera! Yeah, no joke! Well, kinda. I ordered a silver camera and they gave me the black one. I was like, dang I am mad! Grrrr. I was so outrage. But I couldn’t call them because it was past midnight. So I went to bed an unhappy man but I managed to sleep. The next morning I call them first thing. The man was like “Do yo have a problem, Srr?” I was like, heck yeah! I started to go through all the things and he started to give excuses like they don’t give us the real box and what they give us is what we sell and blah blah unintelligent regurgitation of some stupid corse he was given before he took customer service, or if wasn’t that then he was just coming up with garbage that I knew was bull. Then I was like, “But Peter, you gave me the wrong camera! I specifically requested a silver one and you guys sent me a black one!” And he replied, “Uhh, sir, they don’t make silver ones.(!!!!¡¡!)” I was like, “yes they do sir.” “Well, at least they don’t make them anymore.” “Yes they do sir. I have owned one. I have used one. I ordered from you guys because I lost my silver on in the snow in Detroit. I saw it on your website. You guys sell silver ones.” “Well, let me check on wat Iv got…….Well Srr it seems dat we do carry silver. But I only hav fo mor. Would it make it up to you to return your pacag and we ship you silver on? What that make you happy?” …….”Um…no…well…I need this for my trip out of the country this Sunday…um….” I ended up saying forget it. There is no reason to ship it back and go to Mexico without an awesome camera or a camera in the first place. I mean, the black and the silver are almost identical, its just that I felt like I was getting ripped off and they were getting away with it. I felt like they screwed me and I couldn’t do anything about it because of my time crunch. But whatever…

LAPTOP

So then there in the laptop problem. Man, I don’t know if you guys really weant to listen to all my rants. But I will give you the brief details:

1. My aunt wanted a laptop from the US cause they are stinkin expensive in Mexico. She wanted 3 things: A Spanish Keyboard, an AMD Arthron X2 processor, and Windows XP because Windows Vista sucks and she didn’t want to deal with its suckyness

2. I looked all over the place and no one had a Spanish keyboard (besides Apple). So that was over…unless I wanted to order from Spain, but that kinda defeated the purpose

3. I had a hard time finding a AMD processor on a laptop because almost everything is Intel these days. Then Windows XP downgrade able laptops are limited.

4. I finally found a pretty good laptop at HP. It was the HP Pavilion Dv6700. It was downgradable to XP, had a AMD Turion64 X2 processor (Turion is 2 times better than Arthron), 3 gigs of memory….I mean, it was a great laptop. The dude on the phone found this one for me. He guaranteed it would downgrade to Windows XP. And it had the processor. So I got 2 out of the 3 criteria, so I bought the $770 dollar laptop and had 2 day shipping to arrive on Friday.

5. Got the Laptop. It was a beauty. I made recover disks. Edy put on Windows XP. The next step was to find drivers. And that is when we had problems….The drivers online, well, there weren’t all the drivers online. And the ones they did have didn’t work. We found this out in a course of like 14 hours and it was very frustrating. So I descided to call and find what the heck was going on. Because we couldn’t go on the internet and the speakers weren’t working and there were so many thing here and there that it wasn’t even funny. But Edy warned me not to call the people because they know nothing. He warned me in advance that he would not speak to them at all because they just frustrate him in their stupidity and lack of knowledge on computers. But I felt that is all I had to go. So I give technical support USA a call, take forever to name all my products and finally get to some guy. I explain to him the situation. He then told me that no one downgrades from Vista to XP. I was like, yes there is not. No there is not. Yes there is dude…I mean it is advertised on your website, plus the sales man told me people do it all the time and that all the drivers are on the internet. But apparently you don’t have them all and the ones you have don’t work! Then he was like, well I cannot help you because all that is online is all we have. But I said that that doesn’t make sence because people who want Vista would be unable to. It just doesn’t make sence! So he was like, “well I don’t know what to tell you.” So I replied “Well can you give me someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about and does know how to work the process of which you guys advertise and promote?” Edy told me it wasn’t worth my time nor my beans. But I had to give it something. He was like, “sir, there are no drivers for this. You cant make this computer go to XP.” And I was like, Great Scott alive. How many more useless people will I have to talk to on the phone? So I was like, forget this and I hung up on that man. This was Sunday morning, a few hours before I was going to Mexico. But before that I have one more thing to speak of….dont worry, I will keep it short, or relatively short….

QUINCEÑERA

So Edy´s sister, Ana, had her quinceñera on Saterday. I will say front up:_ It was awesome. They balanced having a cool quince, keeping the spiritual part alive, and keeping the cost low, cause those things are money burners. So I agreed to be in whatever they wanted. And bit by bit I was more involved. The first request was to play the Ave Maria during the mass. That was cool, cause I like to play my alto saxophone and I have played that before at her sister´s wedding a few years ago. So the next thing I hear is that I am now part of the group of honorary guests. Therefore I went to rent a tux and get everything fitted. Then they asked me to get there early. It was funny, cause Ed was with me and he was taking a shower. He finished and was fixing his hair in his tux shirt and boxers. Then he remarked that it would be awesome to walk into the church in his boxers. We both laughed. And then when he went to look…where were his pants…his pants were missing! He must have left them at his house and we had to be at the church in 10 minutes! It was so funny, well, for me at least. I let him borrow the only black pants that where in the house and we rushed over to the church. We had the whole preparation and pictures and stuff. I found out right before mass that I was in the opening procession. So I ran up to the front and was behind John, Ana´s sister´s Alicia´s fiancé (I hope you got all that). We were the first 2 people. The Mass was very well done, not bad for a Priest from Vietnam who has never heard of a quinceñera. The reception was a lot of fun. Ed was being a goof ball and sucking helium and levitating balloons underneath the vent. Later we had the dance being. Well I didn’t know I was in the dance. Or anything. They had Ana in the centre and they were introducing her court of honor. All of assudent they said John´s name and he ran from the back. He had already taken off his jacket, cumberbun, bow tie, and had rolled up his sleeves. He had no idea what he was doing, so he tried to look cool while bowing and moving around. I was laughing it was so funny. And I knew he wasn’t ready for it. It was so funny…unitl he stood still and I heard “Daniel Pinedo” and I was like, Corn!, and I ran over and pumped my fist in the air and then tried to figure out what to do myself because I did not pay attention to John and even if I did he was not a good modle of what to do. The rest of the night was really fun but those are the things that stood out. When I finish editing I will post up a cool little video of that day.

Well, when you hear of me next time, I will be in Mexico!

A week in Baseball

This week was insane. And it all started on Saterday, May, 3rd. Yes, the homestand began on Saterday and that ment me working like crazy. Speaking of crazy, I ended up working 7 out of the 8 games in this homestand. It was rediculus. Some people might question what a homestand is...its pretty simple. Its the strech of home games a baseball team has. In this case it was 8 games. 4 aginst San Antonio and 4 against Frisco. Then they go away for about 8 games as well. And so we begin.

Saterday and Sunday were pretty hectic. Not too many people Saturday because we had the buckdays festival. But we gave way these little Biggio statues of when he batted his alist at bat for the Astros. We gave away 2500 and it ws ccrazy. Everyone wanted one. Sunday we gave away baseball gloves and that was nuts as well. But this time only 1500 ad for children 12 and older. We had too many "Well I am still a kid at heart" joke to make me feel good about these giveaways.

Monday and tuesday we had this new guy be Rusty the Hook, the mascot for the team. It was great to have him. He was very animated. Monday of course was Cinco de Mayo. So we had Mariachies out on the feild at some times. So this new Rusty guy was dancing around to the music, but unlike other Rustys, this person had some rythmn and was really intertaining the crowd. He was so animated and so loved by the crowd, that many people asked the ushers if there was a new Rusty. They said they could tell because he was more animated and more friendly. Not bad for the new guy.

It happened to look like it was going to rain so we had to put the tarp over on after the game on Mondy night. They asked me to come 7:30 am the following morning to pull the tarp off. So I agreed and was heading over and was almost there. It was hard getting up so I was listening to some loud rock music to wake me up when I get a call from Shaela, a girl I work with, at 7:20, and the first thing she said was, "Turn around, Daniel." I was like, dang it, why didnt you tell me earlier. So I went back to bed and slept for 40 minutes. I went back at 9 am.

On Weds we were leading 2-1, and we ended up striking out the last man in for the last out to spell Laredo Taco, so everyone got tocos! I love toco day! I make so many friends, haha! Thursday was a complete blowout. We people who work for the hooks are apparently not supposed tot alk bad of the Hooks, but we got killed. In the 4th inning Frisco scored 10 runs. It was rediculous. But we rallied in the end to come close, but couldnt close it out. So we lost that game 12-8. Friday night was really cool. We went off in the 3rd inning to score like 8 points. So we took them down 16-3. For one my dad and my two younger brothers, Michael and Christopher, came to the game. They had the fireworks and it was awesome.


After 7 strait days of working for the baseball team, my focus changed to 4 things: my camera, a laptop, a quinceñera, and my trip to Mexico...and that will be for my next post

Break Time!

Well this week I was off, and it was nice. I was a little more laid back. It all started at 4:30 am Monday morning when I got up to go with my dad to go to the airport at 5:15 to get on the 6:15 flight to land in Houston at 7 am. We went to my grandfathers house. I put down my bags and got on the couch for a little rest at 8 am and went on my way to a snuz cruz. I woke up at 10 and I tried to get up, but it didnt work. I awoke again at 10:30 and really really tried to get up, but I couldnt, so I sat up...only to fall asleep again. What can I say? My body knows how to regulate itself. I ended getting up an hour later. I lifted later at the YMCA that was running distance and later when to my cousin's baseball game. Joseph is a Junior and a great player. He is looking at playing for college. At the game I talked to some other people about Michigan, law, and the lottery, since it is all related.

Tuesday was real chill as well. The highlight was that me and my dad went to the Rocket/Jazz game at the Toyota Center and it was awesome! A complete blowout but it was cool to see nonetheless. That was the big even of the trip and we had great fun.

Before we flew back Weds morning I finally got my long desire to go see the Lotus dealership in Houston. It was Star Motors, 7000Katy road in Houston Texas. It was awesome! The first 2 cars inside were both Elises, one British Green with Yellow racing stripes and the other a California edition yellow. We talked to the dude and he was realy nice. Once he found out I was a Lotus fanatic and my dad drove a yellow Porche 911, he brought us up to the store room. There were so many Lotuses!....it was heaven! Haha, I loved it! My dad really liked the red Elise. I have tons of pictures and even a video, so enjoy!












My brother Michael is awesome. He is 10 years old and he hates Basketball, sports, and Michigan. He told me so. Anyhow, he doesnt like to do much except to goff off and play Nintendo games. Well I convinced him last year to begin tae kwan do. He began but dropped it when I went to Michigan. Well, he started up again at a different place and is going with a few of his buddies. I was able to take my little brother Michael to his class on thursday. Michael loves to pick songs on the ipod on the way. He loves going to Weird Al and hearing terribly dumb songs like virous alert, barny is on fire, and you are pitiful. The pitiful song is funny, I will admit, the but the other ones are just plain...stupid. But yeah, he is in the back seat full of smiles, dancing and singing away to his tae kwan do pump up music.

Im gonna cut this post short. I know, dont get excited, this is not a peek to the future. Usually I talk about a week. 2 parts tot his. Sorry, sorry, sorry this was so late. You will find out on the next post why it took me sooo long to get this out. I usually try to get these blog posts between saterday to monday. I only got to work a little on weds and thurs, so my apologies. But trust me, good stuff to come! It will be a big next one it will, haha. I hope all the pictures and even my bonus videos made up for it :)

Oh, and on the side note, please write comments on my posts. Like, I put a lot of time and effort on these suckers, if you havent noticed. It would be really cool to get some feedback on what you think. I mean, I dont just do this for my own amusement...ok, maybe I do...but still guys! Show some team support! Show me some love! Show me what you think! -DP