Acapulco

Yes, updates are slow.. blog is dying! But that is mainly because i have been busy with school. This form of busyness was alien to me in NTU. Anyhow, i won't get into the monotone school life, instead i will tell you all about me getaway weekend to Acapulco. Well this trip started off like a James bond action movie! We went to the gas station to top up some fuel for our Five hour drive to the beach town. While at the station.. everything seem to go smoothly.. Lopez telling the lady how much to top up, daniel guzzling down a bottle of cocacola, me digging into my bag of MnMs. Lopez paid for the petrol by credit card, got the reciept and started to drive off! Suddenly we heard something snap behind us, and there was a huge fountain of petrol squrting from a broken pipe , for a momenet we all were confused! then we realised that the LADY had left the hose in the tank!!! and so we drove off with it.. SNAPPING the tube! the guy ran after us and told us to back into the petrol station.. So we did.. like nice people. and waited for 10 seconds.. and then lopez said something to Daniel.. and dan started laughing! and the LOPEZ JUST SPED off!! lol.. yup! we RAN AWAY!

Later lopez explained why he did that.. basically even though it wasn't our fault, this whole thing was gonna take forever, with the police etcetc! and he didn't want to ruin the trip! :P So quite a start! after a long wait for some other people.. all eight of us were on our way!! we arrived late, at about 2am.. We all were putting up at lopez's condo, which was pretty huge and awesome, i shall upload the pics on facebook.. and we had a standerd Mexican party, by the pool. In which i attempted to learn swimming.. we all were up till about 6am.. then crashed! Next day at 10am.. we went for a great breakfast! and the Mexican bunch had decided that they would call me 'Jesus' apparently it sounds like sachin.. after a complex Mexican style thinking is applied! don't ask.. SO anyway.. after that.. we went to the beach.. spent a day getting sun BURNT.. got back to the house in the evening! then.. again i was in the po0ol.. and i decided to practice some diving, after some failed attempts, i tried to dive from the edge of the pool.. I FINALLY GOT THE DIVE RIGHT! but.. i went right to the bottom of the pool.. and hit my face on the floor.. and chipped my front tooth!.. ouch.. yes! but more than the pain from the impact! it was my Halloween look that did the damage! at first i refused to go out.. for obvious reasons! But then after much coxing from Daniel.. i decided i shouldn't give up, and try to still enjoy the night, so i stuck a chewing gum in between my teeth (that was to act as my cover) and headed of to what is apparently the Second biggest club in the world! It was great.. drank some really strange cocktails with names like.. "ABORTION".. i swear it did look like there was a fetus floating in the shot. it was pretty sick looking, but tasty. Then we decided to head to to go somewhere else. Outside the club there seemed to be an argument going on.. and suddenly i heard GUNFIRE!!! i was witnessing a shootout!! this mexican guy with his buttons open.. running after some dude with his Shinny silver revolver, anyhow.. my friends dragged me away from the scene into a STRIP club! .. my first exprience in a strip club! it was.. not worth the hype!.. it was HORRIBLE infact,.. really not my cup of tea! Anyhow.. i hung around there for a while.. and almost fell asleep.. and i managed to convince two other people to leave with me for home.. and so Soon i was home safe! with a missing tooth.. but hey i could have been SHOT! :)

I know some people want my toothless picture! but i shall only let you have the joy of looking at it once i have it fixed! which will be by this weekend! and hopefully it will be fixed! Appareantly the doc lives far far away.. so we can only go on the weekend! Daniel parents being nice as always have decided to drive me to the dentist! Till then i'll have to maintain a serious look as i scale the corridors of ITESM.

Little wonders..

The BITCH has given birth! .. yes Mia is a mum, of six little puppies! two females, four males. I got to witness the gruesome but beautiful process right from the start! It all started when i was about to take off from the dinner table... when i was like.. "what's that sticking out of Mia's behind!!.. its a HEAD?!" and yes, it was quite amazing to see her lick all the blood off the newborn, and then chew away the cord. She repeated the process for all six of them.. and this whole process took atleast 2hours. Also to be noted i didn't faint or get all week kneed, since this always happens when i see blood, and there was PLENTY of blood this time round.

Well I can't wait to get back home and play with all the puppies, i have a good mind to name one of them Owen. I shall throw in this suggestion, when i get back...

yup in L.A now.. shall report those details as they unfold!

I am not from here!

Yup those were the magic words to starting a conversation, which also doubled up an excuse for bad dancing. This magic phrase has to be the ultimate social tool. I think this has to go down as one of my best nights ever, and definitely THE best one in Mexico City thus far. Even though my name has been fixed as "shashi mee" by dan's Amigos. I think its got something to do with Mexican fixation over Japanese food. Oh well i don't really mind, since they are a welcoming lot. I realized as a foreigner, it is so much easier to just go up and start a conversation, cos somehow they never think that you might possess an ulterior motive. Which is fantastic! i think the Latin people are generally friend!

Also.. we went clubbing(we were at a birthday party earlier), music was great. And it wasn't PACKED. For once i didn't feel like i was in Somalia competing for UN food supplies. After clubbing, in spite of the numerous health violations, i ate some spicy hot dogs from the street corner,,and they were absolutely delicious!

Million dollar babies...

Hello my dear readers... all five of you.. or six!? Anyhow, i know i seem to have abandoned my daily plan, but well thats mainly cos i haven't had much to report. Not that life here is getting boring, its just been peaceful.. me enjoying my comfortable corner, where it is sometimes hard to receive WIFI.. like now.. and i need to crawl out of it to 'pen' down life here on blogspot, to the sound of rain knocking on the roof.

Yesterday morning Alex and i headed off with a list of tasks to be completed only have our spirits dampened by the cold rain, bureaucracy at the immigration and the traffic jams. However at our last stop, which was the university, we met up with Madet, the head of the international office at ITESM. She not only provided me with a clearer picture, but also provided a way around the immigration bureaucracy, which left us wondering, why didn't we just go there first! Lets hope shes as good as her word. On other news.. i have tickets to L.A. i'll be heading to L.A on the 22nd and returning to Mexico City on the 28th from Austin, Texas... i have few drafts for my time in the US, but i'll post them when they are more concrete. For now i have to worry how to squeeze 7 days worth of clothes in one backpack, including my toiletries, making sure i have less than 100ml of liquid. Damn the terrorist for their creative explosive methods. Or maybe i'll just consider the check-in option.

Today we were suppose to go to SIX FLAGS (yes 6, not 8, its a theme park), but the rain played the role of the enemy yet again. I have also not really followed the news since i got here, not that i am a news buff, but i was often happy to consume nuggets of information hurled towards me by my parents, friends n TV mobile. The only thing.. i have prolly consumed in my days here is the fact that the Hollywood couple sold a picture of their twins for 25 million dollars.. people really have too much money. Also, i have not been cured of my TV show addiction, esp when you have all 6 seasons of smallville at your disposal. This home reminds me the IRC network at NTU. I could feed on the collection for the entire six months and still not be done..

on a final note.. i am glad to have dan's family 'adopt' me! :) .. allrite time to return the adorable Allison Mack. *POOF*

SakE!

yup.. it all began with Sake! I met Dan and his few friend's at a Japanese restaurant, Once again i was lost due to my limited vocabulary, but atleast this time some serious eye-candy was present at the table! for most of the time i speaking with Dan n his best friend, and THEN! someone suggested we get some culture in ourselves and order SAKE!.. and that really set the mood! i started talking more to the rest of the people on the table,.. and a boring late lunch meeting was turning out to be pretty interesting..

after settling the bill.. we decided to go drinking! Cos well it was after all Thursday (Mexicans drink the most on Thursdays) remember La Peda? well.. this WAS one hell of a La Peda! we went to a bar.. and ordered tequila, vodka.. some strange stuff! ... the atmosphere was everything i had imagined, people having a good time.. the music was fantastic!! i again learned some new words! But I'll refrain from listing them out here, since there are some young kids reading this blog :P So yes.. everyone was pretty high, BUT it didn't end there.. we drove.. oh yes! i felt as if i were in an XBOX racing game, stopped at some supermarket.. bought ICE.. went to dan's house! remember the bar i told you about? well.. its at the basement.. and sort of away from the main house area. its almost like a separate party room.. so yes. we played some music... drank more.. and yup! though some people ended their party with a twisted ankle.. it was all in all great fun!! My first la Peda experience.. buenisimo!

Today was spent driving around with Alex and his gf.. going to the bank, supermarket, etc! Since she doesn't speak very much English, alex made her speak in English and me in Spanish, so that both of us could get some practice! LOL! it was quite funny, of course alex who understood both was having a good laugh!.. through out the ride.. alex kept on Mis-pronouncing my name!! he kept calling me.. "sushin".. and that made us CRAVE so much for SUSHI! that we went and bought some!! lol.. each of us an ENTIRE roll!.. and we had lunch too, which danny's mum would have killed us if we didn't finish! I now feel like a bloated puffer fish!

think i am gonna take a nap now... Adios! hasta pronto!

La Peda

Which means booze party(translation courtesy of daniel's mum)! Sorry i couldn't blog about it yesterday, cos i was too tired when i got back home. On contrary to the popular belief that my WILD side would be unleashed in Corrona land, i have been pretty goody goody, like making my bed(my ex-roommate would consider that shocking), sleeping at 11pm, waking up at 630am, eating my meals on time and AT the dinning table! Something my mum would love to see happen in her own house :P well.. i am just following the saying.. "when in rome, don't do as home" ! anyhow.. i think most of you reading this are prolly interested to know HOW WAS THE PARTY! .. well it was pretty decent, it was with Dan's college mates, known as the "nerdy bunch". Party started with just me Daniel n the host. The three of us sat around playing some Dice game! again i expanded my vocabulary which involved calling..."Kings" "QueenS" "Aces".. etc! Then my brother from another mother, Daniel suggested we play a drinking game! Which ended in only Daniel drinking! I quickly dismissed the possibility of a conspiracy theory, which involved dan getting all the booze, after i saw utter disgust on his face as the Bacardi flowed like molten lava down his throat! and of course the words that followed, "I HATE BACARDI SHOTS", erased all suspicion The host (Juan) and i exchanged some looks as we saw Dan get rather "cheerful" after the shots.. thats when he unleased his ultimatum on me.. "Sachin Patney, this is the last week i will tolerate English from you! after which le hablaré solamente en español. ".. so yes! my clock is ticking! Times when i wish now i had payed more attention to what Cristina (my spanish teacher) had to say! . back to party! .. at around 10ish.. the other crowd started to filter into the house, and as i was warned pre-party(Dan had given me a detailed analysis of the guests turning up), No eye candies! NADA! ya and, they just observed me from a distance like i were a new arrival at the zoo! I am starting to get used to hearing the accent now, but not enough to conquer my PRC trepidation!Most of the party involved talking.. and more talking, somewhere in between a discussion about intelligent homes, where i despensed my two cents , and before the party really got kicking we had to Vamos, cos daniel had work the nextday, though he did offer me to stay longer! But.. it wasn't that interesting, plus i didn't want to walk back in alone in the cold. All in all a decent first Mexican party experience! Later today, we are gonna have lunch with some of Danny's other friends! Also Alex, dan's hermano (brother) has planned to visit sometime in the week to a theme park with him,his gf, and his gfs friends, so that i can expand my social circle! how nice!.. AND the saving the best for the last! I have a found a place to STAY! right here :) Danny's mum has agreed to acomodate me, except i need to adhear to the house rules which include curfews on how late i come back etc, which in my opinion is a fair deal for the comfort n safety :) Latez!

Mexican Love!

Nina, thats her name.. she is the new love of my life! She is so adorable.. i spent most of my morning playing football with her! well.. not in the traditional sense ofcourse.. More like.. i would throw the ball she would grab it with her teeth and run about till i caught her and pulled it out of her mouth and threw it again! I swear i am gonna miss her if i move out of Daniel's place... the other part of the morning was spent just chatting with Dan's mum n browsing thru photos of her dogs when they were young! really adorable pics!! Plus the other dog is pregnant and will be giving birth in a month.. so i'll get to see the full litter of around 7 babies!

In the afternoon... i went on my first solo cab ride!! it enriched my vocabulary with phrases like.. "quiero ir a esta dirección" (i want to go to this place) .. "PARA AQUI!" (STOP HERE) .. "Cuanto?" (how much).. la otra vuelta (the other turn).. yup! Because of the heightened sense of paranoia infused by the lonely planet and my dear Singaporean friends, most of the cab ride i was silent, studying the cabby's facial expression, trying to infer his motives, whether he was reaching to change between gears or a knife to cut my heart open!! Anyhow.. i arrived in once piece at the mall, where i met LIA! It was pretty fun day, i tried more Mexican food, BURRITO was the pick for today... and yes.. i am still in love with the food! i ate like an hungry slave who had just been granted freedom after working 38 years building a pyramid! after which we went around shops.. and checked out random stuff.. ate ice-cream.. drank coke!(oh yes.. still faithful) all in all a pretty chilled day.. back home now! Checked out some emails with dan online about the apartment.. tomorrow we are gonna have a look at some!! Lets hope i'll be posting an house warming event soon! ... also tomorrow we are going to his friends place for a small party! should be fun :) Laterz!!

Powered UP!

Ok so with some help from Daniels dad i was able to power my laptop, and now i can begin my detailed account! And i am gonna scrap the whole 24 hours idea.. since most of the plane journey was spent sleeping.. and drooling, as i was exhausted. Murphy's Law was in motion yesterday, it started even before i left for the airport, at the mall, i didn't get ANY of the items i was looking for, in the carpark there was a massive jam, then just before i leave Daniel informs me that he had met with an accident, and that his car was no longer available, since it was beyond repair! so there was a 30% chance he wouldn't be able to come pick me.. cos his dad wasn't gonna let him use his car! .. and so with the thought of Evil Taxi drivers dismembering my body and selling its parts on eBay flooded my head! The plane ride from Singapore to Tokyo was all rite, except for the jap in an armani jacket who sat next to me! He smelt as if he had bathed himself in a cocktail of drinks. He prolly just came back from the Infected Mushrooms concert at zouk. ANYHOW.. so i quickly got accustomed to the oder (thanks to 05-05 , my hostel room) , rest of the journey was spent sleeping, and watching an Aston Kutcher comedy flick... Due to bad weather(heavy heavy rain) the airplane circled the sky like a hawk reluctant to descend upon its prey, after some time, motivated by lack of fuel and boredom the pilot decided to perform a surfboard landing! I swear i felt as if the plane was gonna slide right into the terminal wall(After all Murphy's Law was in motion). But it didn't.. though due to these worsening conditions the next plane to L.A was delayed, JUST GREAT! now i had another dilemma, the connecting flight from L.A to Mexico was not on the same ticket.. so if the delay was too long.. i WOULD miss it! After a two hour delay... i was on my way to L.A. The plane looked like a retirement home for air hostesses, certainly proving how North West Airlines was handling the recent fuel hike. Not mush else to report about the plane ride. OH there was this kid behind me..
Air Hostess : What would you like?
Kid : A BIG MAC!
Air Hostess : LOL, sorry son.. we don't serve that!
Kid : then why bother asking? gimmi chicken *pout*
yup.. and after 10 hours.. the flight finally came to a stop.. and i felt like jackie chan in rush hour! Running thru the airport, checking out luggage clearing immigrations(God Americans ask so many BLOODY questions even though i was just transiting!!!) .. so then from terminal 2 to Terminal 5, i was rushing like a guilty pickpocket, racing my luggage cart to the Aeromexico counter.. phew! Made it! .. and even then i thought i was late.. so i rushed to the gate, on the way catching a glimpse of Spain leading 1-0 to Germany on the plasma screens! ONLY to realize.. ANOTHER delay! just great... oh well, but then Danny boy messaged me that he would be coming to the airport afterall. i was MUCHO relived.. On the flight i got to practice some Spanish in ordering drinks! after a relatively short 3hour50 min flight i touched down!! WooooohOOoooo.. As i emerged from the gates, i saw Daniel waiting with his mum n dad, lol.. poor boy! they didn't trust him with the car anymore... so after that we went for some TACOS! they were amazing!! if all Mexican food tastes this good! i am gonna have a hard time when i leave Mexico!.. So NOW comes the best part.. time to visit my apartment.. dan n me end up at the place AND we knock on the door for like 30 MINS!! and then finally the dude opens it.. and he takes me to the room! There was like a broken BED!! mattress with a zillion holes.. bed sheets that were infested with silverfish.. and some small TV... no bathroom(HE PROMISED ME ONE IN THE ROOM).. IT WAS A MESS! how can you rent a place and not be least bothered to clean UP! and ya.. he looked dodgy. So we asked him for a moment.. and both of us went out and burst into laughter! and daniel was like.. "Sach ur coming home with me! i can't let you live here" .. so yes.. i am now staying with Dan till i find a new apartment! His house is really comfy and has an awesome BAR:P i also visited my university today.. and its lovely :D i especially loved the football field.. and i can't wait to kick about on it! I have always wanted to be able to play football in such nice and cool weather! Plus the pitch is made of professional turf! so all the more amazing! ... alrite.. My new mummy (dan's mum is calling me for lunch).. She is so so sweet! and so is his dad! OH and he has two dogs! Jack Russels! so Adorable! Yup so.. i am off.. shall post a photo of that room later!! Adios Amigos!

Low Batt

I have made it to Mexico City after a 28 hour long journey, peppered with disasters. Pero(but) the worse was when i reached the place i was suppose to stay at.. but more on all that later.. i am running out of power!! i forgot the Lonely Planet 101, a power adapter converter.. i shall look for it today, and then i'll post a detailed account of my Journey and enrich you with the spicy details of my first Taco experience.. and THE ROOM (oh yes.. i have a picture too)! all that and more.. later today.. Hasta Pronto!

Pre-flight

Hola mi Amigos! Word is out that you guys are betting on if i'll have my Kidneys stolen or get molested first, and almost all of you are certain that i'll be mugged! Thanks for all the comforting statistics and travel tips that you've dished out in the past few days. I'll update this on a daily basis, unless an internet connection isn't present, my hands are fractured due to a small misunderstanding at a local bar, i fall extremely ill cos i forgot to wipe the water droplets after washing my plate or my laziness prevails. Since i am a big fan of 24 and the journey from Singapore to Mexico is gonna take about 24 hours. I'll post an hourly account of it on my first post.
As much possible i'll try and add pictures too! (Provided my camera stays with me :P )

Allrite then.. till 29th June :) Adios!