Thứ Ba, 30 tháng 10, 2007

Rotary Club gone insane!


Wow!
I never thought I was going to have any trouble at school here, but this is just a ridiculous story..
Every monday at school we tell of something that has happened in the weekend or that we read about in the papers.

Our class consists of 2 Norwegians, a German, two or three Japanese (they are not there so often) , an American and a girl from Turkey.

So as we tell our different stories, and a story pops up from one of us about how the borders between Turkey and Irak has a major dispute right now, and that there are 50 000 soldiers and thousand tanks from Turkey just by the border to Irak, and that Turkey claims that they are being invaded. And that this is a silly thing to do of the Turks as they may be attacking American Allies if they decide to enter Irak.
The Turkish from class then says that this is probably just a lie from the media, and that the Turkish are so kind to it's people and "all other countries, and never wants to join the EU" etc.

We then discuss this a little while, and move on to the next story, something about how another nuclear test has taken place, and how sad this is both for other countries, the environment and so on... We carry on with class as normal, and don't think any more about the stuff..

Then the next day after the first class we see a bunch of people speaking with our teacher, the look our way a lot, and seem mad for some reason.. They speak with the teacher a long time, and when the German is passing them, they stop him ask him if he speaks Spanish, when he says yes, they start to accuse him of being a racist, and bashing Turkey, and being hatefull against the Turkish student.
He is so shocked by this that he says he doesn't want to speak with them anymore, since they are accusing him of being a racist, which I know for a fact the he isn't.

Later that day the teacher wanted to speak with both me and the German about this, and she says that 4 people from the Rotary Club in Guanajuato came to school because the Turkish student told the family she lived with about what we discussed in class.
We are guessing her version of the story was a little different, because they were threatening our teacher that they had "contacts" in the University we attend, and that they could get us thrown out of school for talking about this.

The teacher told us that whatever happened that we discuss in class, is not going to affect us in any way, and that we should not worry about this, but who the hell do those Rotary people think they are?! Are the people there so brainwashed that they can't have other opinions ?
What the hell?

Is the world really this crazy nowadays that we can't discuss subjects that happen in the world, and point out other countries differences and errors without it boiling down to people being racist?!

For me, this is just a incredible story to tell, and I was somewhat hoping that they would try to get us kicked out, just so I could have an excuse to really tell them off! This is truly incredible!

Oh well..

To hell with the Rotary Club if this is how they treat people that are not in their sacred "union"



A trip to the Zoologico in Leon


Sunday we decided to go to Leòn and visit the Zoo there.
It's only a little hour bussride from Guanajuato, and compared to being in cold Guanajuato, Leòn is much warmer, as it's not so high in the mountains.
We met Mark and his friend Pamela there, she had a car, so we drove for 10-15 minutes and were there.! Not far from the Central de Autobus!
The entrance fee was only 30 pesos! Cheapcheap.
But we soon figured out why the price was so cheap.. It was not so much to see there other than the animals, the park looked like it was old, and most of the "entertainment" was worn out, or being fixed at the moment.
The animals were placed in very small areas, not like at home where the animals have huge areas where they can run around and have a "natural" area to live in. Here most of them were placed in small cages, and looked like they were suffering.
It was a bit sad to see, I would have preferred to pay extra in the park so the animals could have better conditions.
They have a large variety of animals, but we were mostly stoked about seeing the polar bear! As I am from Norway and still haven't seen a polar bear for real, it's kinda funny to go to Mexico to see one for the first time! :p
And we got to see two! They had one of the better areas to be in, I think.. At least compared to many of the other animals.
Some of the bears we saw looked like they were full of shit everywhere, and did not look like they were happy..
It's sad to see such a thing in 2007.. There should be some more rules about how animals are supposed to be treated in a park!

Anyways.. Here are some of the pictures we took.. :) More pictures on the facebook gallery!

Daniel, Merethe, Pamela and Mark

Aaaaw!
Mr.Giraffe

Gots to get some tan! :D

Cactus.. Had to go to the zoo to find them! hehe Thought they would be everywhere in Mexico! All those movies have been lying to me!

Lazy polar bear in Mexico! :D

There was supposed to be white tigers here, but we could not find it. :( to bad! I've never seen a white one before! I think it was sleeping in the bushes somewhere...

Chilling in the sun

This was a happy chap!

Here's the other one! Maybe a female? It was smaller than the other one anyway.. :p
Black bear.. Scary! :p
Dramallama!
Begging monkey!
Unclear picture, but this cat looked like it was really comfortable, resting his paws like that.

All in all, a ok trip, just a bit sad to see that not all the animals were treated so well..

Chủ Nhật, 21 tháng 10, 2007

We have moved!

Numbah Six! :D

Although our old apartment was ok, we weren't that happy with it, the roof was leaking when it rained, we saw rats in the ceiling, the walls were wet because of the roof leaking, and that made patches of fungus grow in certain areas, and thats not good for anyones health! There was no door to the bathroom, and we had to use a carpet instead..
But it was furnished, and was very central so we thought it was ok..

Especially since we payed 2500 pesos (1250,- NOK) a month with water and electricity included in the rent. But then our landlord changed the deal, and we suddenly got the bill for the water.. It wasn't that much, and after some grumbling and being annoyed, we payed it.. But not more than a couple of weeks later, we got another bill, this time for the electricity.. and that was the final straw for our part.. We gave notice to the landlord that we would not pay for this as it was not part of our arrangement, and then started packing!

We called a lady we had talked to earlier about an apartment, and she fixed it for us so that the next day we had already moved! The new place is much nicer, the bathroom has
a real door, it looks clean, the internet is faster and we have an incredible view of the city.

It's not as big as the previous place, and not as much furniture, but we don't care! :D
It is a 5-10 minute walk from our old place, and we have to walk up a steep hill to get here, but it is still worth it.

I just look at the hill as my workout! Yesterday we walked up and down this hill 4 times and I have a goal to make Merethe walk all the way without having to stop for a break or complain over it! :p hehe

So we have moved up in the world, to say the least!
We pay 2700 pesos (1350,- NOK) a month here, but its worth it!


Rain protection in the old apartment after we complained about the leaky roof
(It did not help)

Inside old apartment

More of the insides of the old apartment

One of many mold/fungus spots in the old one..

NEW ONE!
Daniel the conquerer of new apartments!
Our very own fridge and micro!
Gotta get up our decorations!
Merethe happy in bed (as always..)
Not quite unpacked yet
Enjoying the view at night
Nicer, eh?
Computahpowah!
Faster internet!

Our balcony! Nice view?

More of the view!
Guanajuato as far as the eye can see!
Fantastic!
Downstairs

Mark lives just across the street in the middle of this green building.
Just outside our door.
Check out the wirechaos!

Cervantino festival 2007

Today, Sunday is the last day of the 3 week long culture festival Cervantino, which has been an incredible experience!
I have been to three concerts, Baaba Maal, Orquestra Alejandro y Los Onyx and Buika, very interesting all of them, even though Baaba Maal was the best!

The festival started out pretty nicely with not too many tourists visiting our little town, but then more and more people came, it was ok in the middle of the week the first days, but then it got crowded, more and more street vendors showed up, they have a HUGE hippie market, where we have been 4 times already, and going there once more today to shop some more before they close it down.

There are performance artists everywhere, clowns, dancers, hippies, small kids showing off, and stuff to shop almost on every 2meters of the street!

Crazytimes, but what an experience..

The people that run the Quart music festival in Kristiansand could probably have a lot to learn from this place.. It must be at least 10 x bigger than the Quart festival here..

I was lucky enough to get to film this Spraypaint artist in action, hope you like it!



Nice, eh?

Other than that, the last few days have been wild! Just to get from one end of the street to the other, you have to fight your way through large crowds! Never seen anything this crowded in my life, people everywhere! I wonder how many people that come to Guanajuato during this festival, it must be 10-20.000 at least!

And there are police on every corner, just a 5 minute walk, and we counted 50+ police officers.. They seem to be doing their job, and we haven't been bothered by any suspicious ones.

Drinking in the streets is not legal in Mexico, and they uphold this pretty well.. Compared to Norway, the police here just take your drinks, pour them out and let you go with a warning.. In Norway you get a HUGE fine, and sometimes even have to go to the police station..

We saw a couple of hippies with large peace signs on their clothes getting checked by the police, probably looking for drugs, but very ironic to see these peace loving hippies getting stopped by "the man" :p

As you will see in the pictures, it was totally insane!


Some random guy that wanted to be in our photo! He was so happy because he just got one of the last cases of Cerveza from the nearest kiosk

I hope this isn't dog poop!
Yo!

Lots of people!

The same guy that i filmed earlier is displaying some of his artworks
Mr.Scorpion set free!
Pirates of the Caribbean, Gold edition!
FOTO!FOTO!FOTO!
The clowns putting on a show at one of the squares..
Mr.Silversurfer.. This guy was dangerous if he touched you.. You got silver all over your clothes, and it was almost impossible to get rid off!
Walking around with their instruments.. not easy when there are so many people!
Merethe, Mark, Sofy and Pamela
Candy! (dulces in spanish)
Trying on crazy hats at the hippiemarket

More people!
My tickets from the Cervantino
My lovely chicken salad

More people, this is actually when its early, and not so many people..
A huge globe was rolling around in the streets..
Yepp.. even MORE people!
Some of the local "circus" artists showing off
Don't fall!
Heidi and Pollo giving each other weird looks! :p
My wonderful Narañada!
Merethes Pollo y champiñones, she wasn't that happy! :p

Merethe and Hallgeir :D
Here everybody started shouting PIRATO! PIRATO! PIRATO! And when they saw that I took pictures, they all charged towards me and Merethe and started shouting FOTO!FOTO!FOTO!
Merethe caught by the festivalpeople! :D
Crowd after crowd!
Police doing their job.."Is there any alcohol in this?!"

Someone got busted! The streets were wet with all the bottles the police had poured out!
Even more people!
Here they charged a clown just walking by..


To sum things up, a wonderful festival, and I wouldn't miss it for anything!