Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Doing without a car in the States.

Read this article, it's pretty interesting! It sounds kinda normal to me, I almost got used to it now, but it's nonetheless inspiring.

Back for a little bit.


I am back in Dallas, TX, USA, for a couple of weeks before I leave for Argentina and Uruguay (woohoo). I made it back after 18 hours on the bus back to Texas, 5 of which were spent at the border...yes, 4 hours in line to even get to the border checks, and then I spent almost an hour by myself in the immigration offices while the whole bus was waiting for me, and I was scared they'd leave me there! As always, there's no comment to describe the border police...so now I am making sure, one more time, that I have everything I need to come back in from Argentina...here just a couple more days of school and this semester too is over...luckily I am not in grad school anymore, so I have no research papers, just grading. Also, I posted the pictures from my Monterrey trip here! Check them out! Here's me with the second biggest flag in Mexico!

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Monterrey, part II

After another day in Monterrey, the first full day here, I feel like writing more...a lot of thoughts go through my head as I am living in a place that is a mix between the States and Mexico...so it has American chains and brands, people play American football here, but at the same time we're in Mexico, everybody speaks Spanish, or castellano, and everything is "dirty, loud, broken and poor", as most Americans would say. I guess that is how they see it, and now that I've been in the US for a long time I can kind of see where they come from...but still, there's so much they're missing! People are more simple, friendlier, more "normal", and I feel more alive here...social interaction is just Latino-like I guess, so it seems quite different from that in the States...the way cars drive, the way people walk and cross the street, the way people greet and spend time together, the way things look and work is just very close to what I am used to, at least before my time in the US, and it just seems so much more real!
They still have all the American trucks, chain stores, a lot of brands and stuff...and they probably look up to the States as some sort of model I guess,...yet it seems so different!
Today I went around town in a car twice, during the daylight and at night...and I learned some interesting things about this place that most Americans are so ready to look down upon: I went on a hill from where you can see the whole city, and where the 2nd largest flag in Mexico lies, on top of this hill. Well, I learned that to use the Mexican flag in non-official situations and without the due respect is prohibited, so you can't find any clothes or things with the flag...yeah with the colors you can, but not with the whole flag (colors + "shield"). You can't sing the national anthem just whenever and however you want, but you have to do it in the appropriate situation. This is a world away from what they do just 2 hours away over the border, where, as everybody knows, the flag is way overused and can be found in anything from bags to underwear...2 completely different ways of being "patriotic", although on both sides of the border there seems to be a lot going on about the flag and stuff, in the schools for once.
Also, I got to get groceries for cheap (including bread and cheese!) and I got to try some local specialties, although the number one seems the "cabrito": the legs of a kid (baby goat). Well, I got to try some sort of pumpkin immersed in honey, and some sort of cornbread cooked with butter...interesting, although kind of heavy! :)
No vegetarian restaurant for me today...hopefully I will get to go there at some point...tomorrow is the Horsetail Waterfalls (Cascadas Cola de Caballo) and maybe some caves (Grutas de Garcia)...and then Saturday I am off to Saltillo for the day, before I head back to Tejas on Sunday morning! But I better not think about that and go enjoy my night out!

Monterrey, Mexico.

here all is well. the bus was/is nice, except for the little detail that it broke down in san marcos, tx and we were waiting all night for another one that was coming from laredo, tx...in the meantime they had the great idea to put on movies, except that they were all in english without subtitles, so i don't know how many people were doing more than just watching images! (it's a Mexican bus)
finally at 6am, after having tried to make the bus run a gazillion times (which means doing 1 km on the highway, stopping on the side for 10 minutes, ...each time..) at 6am the new bus came to our rescue and brought up to laredo, tejas
we got on a mexican "Conejo", which is a bus a little smaller and quite crappier (not complaining, just describing), and then drove through the border. we got stopped by the mexican customs police, and they had a brilliant idea: since you guys have so much luggage and you're late and you wanna get going, we propose to you that if you pay 10$ EACH we will not check anything...(way to go, i feel much safer now)...of course me and other people refused to, so they got every single item out of the conejo and searched the ones that didn't want to pay...hahah but it was fine, then we got here at around 12:30 noon that is...then i messed up with the buses and got to R's house, very nice people.
the university is a polytechnic, and it's nice and full of foreign students from europe and guys with soccer jerseys...i am at their lab now...i also got to walk around and it was so much fun!
now i can see it through the eyes of the gringos, sort of, and i can see them saying: it's dirty, noisy, loud, unsafe, and whatnot...but guess what, so is italy then, and it's really fun anyway!
i got a "paleta", and i loved it, and i will get more tomorrow! a paleta is a homemade popsicle, with fruit and water in the same thing! haha :)
tomorrow i am definitely checking out the veggie restaurant that's on the lonely planet, easily the only one in town...and then the next day is Saltillo...

Thursday, November 10, 2005

30 days

In exactly a month from now I will be in Buenos Aires...hell yeah.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Everybody should see this!

Please do me a favor and take the time out of your day to watch these...and spread the word!

WARNING: the Falluja videos contain extremely crude images!

THANKS to ArcoIris TV and CoolStreaming.it IPTV

Falluja - The Hidden Massacre (in Italian, English and Arabic!)
(The .asf file seems to be working the best)

Falluja - The Day After
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

September 11th - Four Years Later
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

Twin Towers - Passive Collapses, or Controlled Demolitions?
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Finally...after waiting so long...I get to see an NBA game! And not just a game, but Mavs VS Spurs...a TX classic...with Ginobili, Nesterovic, Udrih, Novitzky, Van Exel, Finley, Parker, Duncan,...what to say, I am stoked!