10 Days away

It's funny that I took a vacation from a vacation. Most people are working very hard and deserve a vacation. I, on the other hand, had already had 6 weeks of vacation, prior to my 10-day vacation to Acapulco. I guess you could call it the vacation I worked for in high school.
I went with Lieke and my host grandpa. My host mom dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way on the plane and an hour and a half later we landed in Acapulco. We were greeted by Rodolfo, my Grandpa's driver, who took us to the hotel.
When we arrived at the hotel we had a little bit of a dingy room. It wasn't that important to me especially because I wasn't paying that much for it. As it turns out we were getting to change to a different room in the morning. So no problems.
The best part of Acapulco, it was warm! We went out at night and just enjoyed ourselves at the discos and it was always warm.
Saturday we woke up at noon and changed rooms and then went to eat. A friend of mine met us in the restaurant. I met him a few years ago when I went to Acapulco with school. We exchanged e-mails and it was weird to see him again, but we went walking along the strip in Acapulco and relaxed at the beach. At night we went out with Jesús (my friend) and his friends. It was a great time.


Jesús and his friends

Sunday was a late morning again and Lieke and I went to the beach. We spent most of the day there and of course went out again at night. This time we went to a Pirate Bar. It was built like a pirate ship and the workers like pirates. It was so cool.


I love Pirates!

A late morning, yet again, on Monday. Earlier in the year Lieke asked me what Hooters was. They don't have Hooters in Holland and the last time I had been to a Hooters was in Acapulco, desperate for a good meal. So I cultured Lieke in the ways of Hooters Monday for lunch. The two best parts of the experience: Hooters is air-conditioned and has fountain Pepsi!



After our lunch we went walking along the main street. We came to a point where you could enter the beach. It was windy, warm and perfect. I can't even explain it, we had to go for a walk along the beach, and so we did. At night we went to something very special in Acapulco: The Cliff Divers. This is something that if you don't go to this while you're in Acapulco, it's like you weren't there at all. After the Cliff Divers we went to the Zocalo (main plaza) to eat. MMMMMM was that good stuff. I just had tacos with cheese, but it's the simple things in life that are fantastic!
I hope you're not too shocked to hear, but Tuesday morning was also a late morning. After we woke up at 1 we headed straight to the beach to find lunch. We found a little restaurant, sat under the little umbrella, thatched roof things and stayed there all afternoon until the sun went down.


Lunch at the beach

We went back to the hotel and decided to go on a boat that night. It was so cool. The cruise was from 11 until 1:30. It was beautiful. All the lights of Acapulco, up into the mountains. There was no way to explain it. It was kind of romantic, except, I was with Lieke. (haha, we made jokes all week about the most romantic trip of our lives, except with each other).


Me on the boat

After the cruise Lieke and I were very hungry so we went to find food. As we were walking, Lieke a few steps ahead of me, I hear something behind me. I think it's just some creepy person walking around but I turn to find five dogs growling at each other. My first reaction is just to stand still and let them pass. However, Lieke has a different idea. She says "RUN!" and starts to run. I tell her not to because the dogs will follow (she hates dogs) and as she runs the dogs are sure to follow. So I walk after laughing as are the group of boys across the street. Some nice security guards at a hotel assist us in getting the dogs away from us, but as we continue walking, the dogs follow. We were followed for about 20 minutes and mocked by everyone that 6 (one more joined) were following two blondes. Luckily by the time we reached the taco place, the dogs were no longer following us.
You'll be delighted to hear that we woke up at 10:30 on Wednesday morning. But that's only because we had to be out of our hotel by 12. After we checked out of the hotel, we went to find a restaurant on the beach. We found one and sat there and ate for two hours before we caught our bus to Chilpancingo, the capital of Gurrero (the state). After an hour and a half bus ride (in a very comfortable bus) we arrived. My host grandpa lives in Chilpancingo. He's the director of an English school there. He took us to our hotel. A mishap occurred and we got to stay in the best room of the hotel for the first night. Apparently a bus load of 200 kids came and they all needed rooms. So fortunate for us, we were upgraded :) At night we went out to a restaurant for dinner call 100 % Natural. These restaurants are popular in Mexico, it's all organic food. I had never heard about it before, but I was told there's one in Miami.
Thursday we got up bright and early to join my grandpa and his friends for breakfast. At 9 a.m. we arrived at the restaurant to find a majority of his friends are lawyers. It was funny. I like old men a lot. They're funny, plus they liked us a lot. We stayed at the restaurant for 2 hours, I guess working in the morning isn't a big priority of theirs. After breakfast Lieke and I walked around the big market for a while and then we tried to take a public transportation van to the center again. Well we took the wrong one and went up and around Chilpancingo. It took about a half hour and we got to the central, walked around, ate, and had a grand old time.
In the afternoon we went to my Grandpa's school to talk with the students. It was very interesting. I found that the beginning students were much better with speaking than with the advanced students. It was really fun to talk with the beginner students and most of them were younger and more relatable. I came across a few anti-American feelings in the classroom. Questions like "What do you think of the war? What do you think of George Bush? Where were you when the twin towers fell? and Do you like the United States?" can make things very awkward. It turned out ok. That was the second time while I was gone that I had a discussion about anti-American issues (the first time in Acapulco). At night, Lieke and I found a nice restaurant in the center and walked around and it was really nice.


Eating with my Gradpa's group of friends.

The next day we met my Grandpa's friends for breakfast again, and it was 2 hours again. It was so much fun talking with them again, especially because they use colorful language and we understand. They even taught us some! Here's the cool thing. One of the men has a house in Acapulco and invited us there for our last night! After the breakfast we went to meet my friend Jesús at his school. The University is very different. A lot of graffiti was written on the buildings and it wasn't the cleanest campus. Chilpancingo is a University City so all the kids there are just there to go to school. The most popular subject to study is law. We spent the afternoon with him and it was just fun to hang out and talk. His house looks over all of Chilpancingo and it was beautiful.


Me and Chilpancingo on the roof of my friend's house.

At night we went to a restaurant with my Grandpa. It was very nice. It was probably another romantic moment for Lieke and me but it was perfect to just sit and talk for four hours.
Saturday was a great day. We went to Taxco, the city of silver. I went to Taxco two years ago with school too. It's a special city that's built in the mountains and all the houses are white with red roofs. It has a very special church that was built in 1529 and the most important thing SILVER! I bought a lot of jewelry :) We went to this little Italian place for lunch. My Grandpa knows the owner and they claim to have the best pizza in all of Taxco. I would say it's pretty good, but I have nothing to compare it to. We ended the day as the sun was setting in a café on the top floor of a building drinking coffee. It's was a great end to a great day.


Me in a market in Taxco


The beautiful sunset


Lieke, my Grandpa and me enjoying coffee in front of the plaza.

Sunday we went back to Acapulco. We met Marco and Isadora, the son and daughter of my Grandpa's friend, and went out for breakfast at 100% Natural which is located right along the beach. They have a spectacular house that's a few blocks from the beach. It's open for the most part to let the wind blow right through the house. We spent the afternoon on the beach talking, reading, listening to music and swimming. It was so much fun. Afterwards, we went back to the house and went into the pool and they ordered pizza from Pizza Hut. Yummy! At night we went out with Marco and Isadora's friends. We went to a lot of different places and met a lot of cool people.


At the beach: Isadora, Marco, Lieke and Me


Lalo, Me, Lieke, Isadora, Carla dancing. Lalo is a very very good salsa dancer and he helped me with my moves.

I met a guy and his wife from California and when they asked me where I was from and I told them Chicago they said "Oh, you must be thrilled."
"Why"
"The Bears won."
"Ahhh, ok. Yes, I am happy about that."
The truth is, I'm happy that they did, but I wouldn't have known the difference. I've gotten a lot of you're from Chicago, therefore you should be happy comments. So, it's nice to know some people outside of the US like Football.
I slept like a baby that night. We woke up at 8:30 to eat and get ready to go. The mom had made pancakes, yummy! It was like my favorite thing ever, especially when she brought out the Nutella!
I got to see my friend Jesús one more time before we left for the airport at McDonalds, where we enjoyed an ice cream. I might as well enjoy an ice cream in the heat while I can!


Jesús and me

So we go to the airport and board the plane and three hours later (it was twice as long because me made a stop in Ixtapa) we landed. The first thing I see is a man all bundled up with gloves, a scarf, a hat, and a big winter coat. I thought, ah man. It's cold here. It was 90º when we left Acapulco and it was 40º in Monterrey! Talk about shock!
We were greeted at the airport by my host mom and grandma.
I've gone into hibernation mode again. It's so cold! It snowed in Monterrey! Everything I've ever learned about the south is no longer true. I was taught that it was WARM, so not true!!!! I'm playing catch up this week with everything in the highly anticipated arrival of MIKE on Sunday.
I hope everyone is doing well and trying to stay warm like me!