a few more snapshots

The Christmas decorations have come out in full force, especially for the Virgin de Guadalupe Day feast which took place on December 12th... there were a lot of firecrackers going off and public gatherings in plazas, and pinatas!
I love all the lights everywhere. I've had it pretty easy here actually, in terms of winter darkness: it was 26 degrees C today but it's going to be 8 degrees C tomorrow.... Aaaaaaahhh!!
I had the best street food that I've had during my time here at this cart... omg. I don't remember what it was called, where it was or how I'll be able to find it again. But if you happen to be in the neighborhood near the Parque Viveros (this huge park where families like to hang out and have BBQs), ask somewhere where the taco cart is, across the street from the Pemex gas station and OXXO convenience store, that serves the amazing sopes with carne asada and cheese... you won't regret it, I promise.
Ghetto cooking in Nuevo Laredo. Yes, that is a floor tile... (I clean it!!)
BURRO! I love burros. The man who was driving the truck shouted out "Se vende!" (For sale!) as the loan officer and I pulled away.
Driving with the loan officers is always a mildly terrifying experience, especially when the cars are lacking sidemirrors.
An example of a house in Nuevo Laredo, permanently under construction.

Nine days left...

A Visit in Nuevo Laredo

Corey is now gone but the signs of his stay are still all over my apartment: the black peppercorns spilled all over the floor (he was smashing them with a floor tile to put into my pepper shaker), the two magnets of Mt. Hood on the fridge that he brought me to give as gifts to people, the box of leftover shrimp rice in the fridge (I should probably throw that away). All in all it was a wonderful visit. Even though we didn't go anywhere (neither of us felt like dealing with long bus rides), it felt like a real vacation. On Thursday and Friday we had to go to the office because I had work to do but we left after 3pm on Friday. We did all the Nuevo Laredo things I wanted us to do. On Friday night we went to the karaoke bar and met up with my friends. On Saturday morning that we took the bus to the Wal-Mart mall, bought a ticket to 2012, watching 3/4ths of it and then sneaked into Inglorious Bastards (what a pointless, boring movie). We tried to stick it out but left shortly after Brad Pitt dug his fingers into the German actresses' bullet wound. We ate a LOT. Corey ate so many meat tacos, I was actually a little shocked. We also went to some nice seafood restaurants. On Sunday afternoon we went to the market; in the afternoon we walked over the border together (the first time I've been in Laredo, surprisingly enough!), said goodbye and I sent him in a taxi. It was a wonderful visit and best of all I'll be back in Portland for Christmas in only three weeks. And then I guess we need to start planning our trip back to Ecuador... eek!

Here are some more photos:
Driving across the border with my amazingly kind and nice co-worker who took the time to do so. There were so many cars, it took well over an hour to drive across the bridge over the Rio Bravo (when I walked across it, it took about two minutes).
Too bad I got the time of Corey's arrival wrong; we ended up waiting in the Laredo airport for 2 1/2 hours. Whoops!
Corey arrives! We are happy to see each other, obviously. I think this is a pretty cute picture, even with the blurriness and my Skeletor hand.
Daaw.

And that's it. I took NO pictures during his visit because I am made of FAIL. Honestly, I think taking pictures is kind of annoying, which once again makes me wonder about the purpose of this blog... it has such a weird, ambiguous, almost pointless identity for me. I guess it's sort of a vague travel blog? Hmm. Maybe when we go back to Ecuador things will become clearer...

Anyway, here's some photos of my apartment when I first moved in. Check out the nasty fridge (that was no fun to clean, I tell ya) and the random bucket crusted over with dry flakes of cement.