The Long Awaited Part 2

Well, I feel as if I have waited quite long enough to post thesecond part to my day last Friday. A lot has happened since then. I haven't had school (Holy Week) and we have beenchilling about all week. In all the laziness, I haven't had the gumption to post anything. I don't think anything has really changed except for the fact that I'm not hungry and the timing seems a right (although a little late).After menudo and the train station. Carla, Hugo, and I went

back to the house and I took a fantastic nap (that may have been part of the past post). After my nap, we went, gassed up the van,

got some drinks, (insert of a picture of the Mexican version of Arnold Palmer). Down here, they apparently haven't heard about Arnold (his golfing prowess or his drink mixing abilities), and therefore, the drink is simply Iced Tea with Lemonade. Go figure.

We then picked up Ale and took off for the countryside. We actually drove past the place that Tadd bought his boots (ask Tadd for a private showing). On the way, I saw a stand that

sold a drink called Tepache. It is a drink made from pineapple peels and raw, unrefined sugar. You just put the two together (apparently in some secret fraction) let it ferment, and you have tepache. I have heard about it from a couple different sources and have been on the lookout for the past few months. I got close one day but couldn't get off of the bus. So I bought myself a liter of iced down tepache for 15 pesos.

We made it to a ranch and I played football with some kids for a little while. I have so far forgot to mention that it was hotter than I have ever been. We had the windows in the van open, I was drinking ice cold tepache, and was still dying of the heat. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible once we got to the ranch.

The idea behind us being at the ranch is that Carla's school hosted a camp out for all the kids to kick off their vacation. They kids slept in tents (I helping set them up) while the adults and teachers that stayed slept in cabins (probably fair).

After everything had been set up, Hugo and I took off (Carla and Ale spent the night). We had a bachelor's/man night and later went out and I

had another Guajalote. I went to sleep and woke up in the morning feeling like I got hit by a truck. In fact, Hugo came in to get me at 11:00 because we had to leave before noon. I had a headache, my stomach was doing somersaults, by arms and legs ached, to sum it all up, I was sick. (For those of you who may recognize the symtoms, the only alcohol I had the day before was the tepache and it is very low in alcohol content.)

Hugo took me to a taco stand to have breakfast and I couldn't put down my two tacos. I drank some coke on the way to the camp but all around felt awful. When we made it to the camp, there were hundred of screaming kids running around being chased by their parents. It was fun to watch. After all the activities were over, the parents and kids left, and we stayed with some of the teachers to have la comida. It was quite the process with more food coming out of the

kitchen every couple minutes. As I was sick, I only had a little bit of food. I ended up laying on the couch with a cold wet rag on my forehead (thanks Claudia).

Ale was making fun of me. She kept on saying that after 4 months of eating whatever I wanted, my stomach finally had enough and turned on me. I told everyone I was weak (with the mandatory dejected facial expressions) and that made them all laugh.

What I didn't know, is that the Pandas Gigantes had a football game on Saturday (my flag

football team). It ended up that Paco, Hugo, Franco, and I took off early (not that early) to get ready for the game. We made it to the game 45 minutes late but the other team was late too. Hopped up on meds, I played and we smoked the pants off of the other team. They were in their twenties, should have been a lot faster, but couldn't play football worth poop. It was embarrassing for them.

I was feeling better after that but of course was hopped up on meds. Sunday was more of the same just a little less severe. But more on that later, this is getting long. To sum some things up, I don't think I will be eating Guajalotes or drinking Tepache for the remainder of my time here.