UV rays + Me = productivity

Who knew all I needed was some sun. Yesterday was such a nice day and I had a hard time working on my report. Today, I go on the roof to work on my report and I got a lot done! Something about being in the sun is just so energizing! Well on that note. I will get back to it... needs to be done by tomorrow. Can not beleive its almost over...

Hihi, freckels!

Mucho amor, 

Val

Tic toc goes the clock

No matter where I am or what I do, I always seem to overload myself. Nowadays, I have been doing a lot! They are all fun things like roadtrips and what not but still...a lot of things. I am definatly enjoying myself! 

Last week end, Oscar, Simone and I went to Queretaro! Very nice trip! Although it ended up costing me alot of money... I hate credit cards... (long story). Regardless the intense Murphy's Law that we experience, we had a great time! Oscar's friends got us a nice room at a hotel for a employee discount. We went out to this awesome club on the 7th floor of a building and during the day we did some market shopping and got a lot of nick nacks!

This week end some friends and I rented a cabin in Mazamitla aka Redneck town, Mexico. I saw so many horses and 4 wheelers in those 2 days. It was ridiculous!! It was a very pretty town! I took alot of pics of the scenery since it was absolutly amazing! They will be on Facebook soon and/or eventually. During the week end, I showed the Mexicans how to play ultimate frisbee! They enjoyed it and we are trying to organize a 5 on 5 game at this huge park this week. Unfortunatly, with the raining season it is hard to organise. 

Another reason of my lack of time is that I started Spanish classes at Universidad de Panamericana. The classes are 8 to 9h30 in the morning so I get in work later therefor coming home later as well. This is the time I usualy get all my stuff done like cleaning, laundry or working on my report. I stopped reading at night due to tiredness and lack of time. I work on stuff or just relax now. There is also the fact that I am leaving shortly so my friends and I organizes activities during the day. Simone and I are supposed to go shopping sometimes to get some souvenirs and stuff we want to bring home like some candy and spices you can not find back home. 

The line up for next week end:

Friday, MUSE!!!!! I will be going to the Muse concert with Raul and his girlfriend. I can not wait!!! It will be so good! Saturday, roadtrip to Tequila!! My supervisor and some coworkers along with Simone will be going to Tequila for a tour of the town with a tour of the tequila factory! Shall be very interesting. Afterwords, Raul wants to take me to this salsa club. Apparently they give a small class early in the night and later you dance the night away! Sunday, Sim and I along with some friends will go to Carlos' gatted community club. We will play some tennis and swim in the pool to end the day with the sauna and a wicked shower.

Next thing you know, it will be my last week at HP. It is quite sad and also stressful because I still have a lot to finish up. I really want to do good in order to get in HP Canada in Québec city. Needless to say, this is kinda stressing me. I just try to remind myself that people are all supportive and we all work for the same company. As long as I do not row against the current I should be fine. 

Andrew is coming to visit soon!!! I am working on our hotel reservasions in Puerto Vallarta and a list of things to do there. I will definatly need some vacations by that time. It will be nice to relax there for 3 days. Then we will come back to Guadalajara so I may show him the city. On thursday, I will definatly gatter some people to hit the bar or something as a going away party. Then in the early AM I will be on a plane home. 

I already have plans for NB as well! Moncton for the week end of the 1st. Dadsy will come pick me up to take me home on the Monday. Relax home for a week or so. After eating some awesome lobster, I will pack for Québec. I might go to Moncton again for Fête de l'Acadie but that is still undetermined. It will depend if I met up with Leslie in Montréal or Québec before she heads off to England. Either, or, I will be in Québec during the 3rd week of August. I need to be there at that time in order to line up everything for my MBA. Crazy!! MY MBA! damn. Life goes by I tell ya!

Till then... Mucho amor!!!

Val 

Time for apologies

Yes, I do realise I have been neglecting my blog. It is to the point where you all have been neglecting reading it I am certain. 

On that note, I will be writing one soon enough and update you all on why I am busy to this point. For now, it is bed time. 

Mucho amor,

Valeria (new name given by Alejandro aka Alex my co-worker)  

Another strike of luck!

I am just ridiculously lucky here in Mexico. Things have happend to me in random ways and I get so much out of it! Like the time I got a free back stage pass and on stage with Marky Ramones and the Addicts. This Friday has been yet another very lucky one. 

This week Oscar calls me to tell me he heard on the radio that Austin TV (discovered them at Festival Extremo. They are from Mexico) were having a signing at a CD store here. I thought "Sweet! I am so there!" I tell this to another collegues who mentionned that there is a show too! Awesome. Right after work, I go to the store and wait in line. When I went to met them I tried my Spanish. Keyword: tried. The first band member said it was ok to speak English with them. They were all sooooo nice! The first guy I spoke to asked me where I was from and when I said Canada he responded "hey, did you email us? I think I remember you.". When I confirmed this, they were all like that's cool! Told them I would get then a nice little fan base started in Canada. They actually recently played a show in Mexico with a Canadian band so that was pretty cool as well. Although, I did not know this band and I do not remember the name either. 

Raul and Ger (HP coworkers) joined me at the mall. Raul had a plan to get his hands on some free tickets with a local radio station. We drove around trying to find it and running around like headless chickens. I won't go into details but long story short. We got the free tickets! I went home to change a little and then we grabbed a bite to eat at Ger's place. 

The venue of the show was wicked! I absolutely loved it! I got to dicover yet another cool Mexican band called Becker. At least I think they are Mexican. Also, while waiting at the bathroom I say the girl from Austin TV. Even though they always wear masks when they are somewhere as a band, I reconised her. She had the same shirt as the signing (it was a very unique shirt). Speaking of shirts, I got myself a Austin TV shirt and sweater! 

Between 2 bands, there was this TV show host walking around intervieweing random people and the band. Of course, she can to talk to me. Raul told her my Spanish was very poor but she thought she would try me anyways. EMBARASSING! haha! I was really happy I was not drinking that night cuz I would of made even more of a fool of myself! lol. Needless to say that this brought much entertainement to my friends. 

The show was absolutly awesome! I am so happy I got to see Austin TV live again. Definatly a great band with so much creativity! Do not worry. I will make most of you listen to it when I come back. But till then...

Mucho amor,

Val

Me with 2 guys of Austin TV

My camera is a little crappy but this is half of one of my fav songs of Austin TV. My cam missed a few beats so it sounds weird. 

Let it rain, let it rain!

I had a wicked time at Wall Street last night. I went with one of my coworker (Alej) and his friends. They were a bunch of crazy Mexicans. I do not think I stopped laughing all night. We headed to a taco place after the club which was really good. It started to rain insanely! Thunder, lightning and ridiculously pooring rain. You could not see across the street. When we left to take me home it was still pooring down hard. There is a tunnel close to my apartment and it is where we were planning on passing. We drive in and it was kinda odd to see a stopped car and also headlights pointing in our direction (its a one way). The tunnel was starting to flood! There was one car was in the water just over the muffler. I am pretty certain that is not good for your car. So all the cars were turning around and driving in the wrong direction to get out of the tunnel! We had to make a detour in order to get me home. With that odd experience and pooring rain I forgot my left over tacos in Alej's car. So no hang over lunch for Val today. 

I did not go to Toastmaster today. Having a meeting on a Saturday is not appealing to me. I enjoy Toastmaster and will continue for a very long time but while in Mexico I am not very interested in going there on a Saturday afternoon. I plan on keep going at the Spanish club though. 

Mucho amor, 

Val

The boys with their mojitos at Wall Street last night. 

Trying to capture the down poor from the taco restaurant. 

Ready, set, bargain!

Last week end was a full one. 

On Friday, I went out to lunch as always with some co-workers. It is always good laughs. Usualy the laughs are caused by my bad Spanish. At night, I went clubbing with Simone and some fellow Mexican at Dubai. So of course with a name like that, you know the club was quite posh. It was a pretty cool place but I was not in a mood for clubbing so I call in a early night. 

On Saturday, I got up a tad early to go to a market with Oscar and his friend Windolyn. It was really fun! I got some cheap handmade jewellery for myself and for Mare. I also got slight sunburn for free on my shoulders and face. It has now turn into a light tan so it is nice to know I can work on my tan even in the raining season. After dropping Windolyn at her place, Oscar and I went to a nice Italian bistro kind of place. We later realised how late it was and we were going to eat some Chinese with my roomies and some of their friends. Not only did we arrive later than everyone expected us, but the food was almost all ready (we were supposed to help out). So as revenge, Mikki and Simone are getting Oscar and I to make a Mexican night in a few weeks. Haha. After supper and a few drinks, we decide to go out at La Martina (or so I think it is called). We had a few drinks and chatted with friends who came to join us. It was a lovely night among friends... and rain.

On Sunday, Simone and I managed to get up early for Liz to take us at a Market. We met her at a club for a friend of a friend's Birthday. That market was bigger than the one of Saturday. In Mexico, usually bigger = louder. Sales people were screaming all sorts of none comprehensible things (well at least for me) in order to attack buyers. It was very interesting. I was happy to have some Mexican with us. They negotiated some price for me. Especially me since Simone's Spanish is way better than mine. I got some knock off Puma's for 200 pesos (about 20$ CAD), a shirt and a gift for the big bro. We went out to lunch at this lovely restaurant that apparently has the best tacos in Guadalajara. It was not the cheapest place but defiantly one of my favourite so far. Simone got some calls that lead us to some bowling and ice cream. 

Needless to say that it was a fun week end. I have many others lined up. I can't wait but yet I am already so sad. Every awesome week end that ends means that I will be leaving that much sooner. I do miss Canada and my friends but I am having so much fun here and I am surrounded by wicked people. 

On that note I will go to bed since I was kept awake by a thunder storm last night. 

Mucho amor, 

Val

This is the Market we went on Sunday.

When dehydration hits

I got to experience the efficiency of the facilities this week end. Allow me to elaborate... It rained on Saturday night. Nothing too heavy but still a good amount of rain. That caused the electricity to go out during sometime in the early morning of Sunday. We wake up to no cable, no internet nor water. The water was the main issue here mainly cuz I was hung over on tequilla and I was very thursty! It was a real pain in the ass since we had to get water in these big 10L jugs and take them upstairs. Keep in mind that we live on the top floor (4th floor). Not too bad but it is really a long way up when you carry 10L jugs with you. I felt like a dry raisin. I later went to 7/11 with Simone to stalk up on drinkable water. I seriously think I was dehydrating. It was really hot that day as well. 

I get back from work early today since I didnt go to the gym mainly because we dont have water to shower with. I decide to do another trip of water since we have no idea when we would have water again. While I was half way up the stairs, Mikki yelled out "Hey Val, we have water again!!". I did not know if I was happy or frustrated about it. At least if it happends again, we will have a few jugs ready. Maybe an hour later or so, we got cable and internet. So I am happy about the internet since I am clearly an addict. Besides, when you are so far away from your family and friends it is nice to have the internet. 

I guess this means I need to go work on my internship report...

Mucho amor, 

Val