Guadalajara has been interesting. I’ve mostly been walking around the city with Mariana. I hadn’t seen her in almost three years. Yet, it seems like I was here yesterday. The city is so familiar that it does, in fact, seem to be like a second or third home.
My Spanish is recuperating quickly. This is good news.
I got to see Claudia and her new boyfriend. He’s strangely funny. Quiet. Attractive.
Last night was the birthday of Suzy, the best friend of Mariana. We went to the restaurant where Mariana and Miguel (the two people with whom I am staying) work. It’s called La Titotera, which basically means a woman who likes to gossip. I really liked the restaurant. We sat outside. It had a lot of artwork and bean bag chairs in random places with an Amy Winehouse concert projected on a wall. Everyone at the dinner seemed fairly nice. My ex-boyfriend David showed up to say hello as well. It was nice seeing him.
By midnight I was extremely tired. It seemed like all was going to end and everyone was going to go home, but, as we were paying the bill, someone suggested getting wine and heading back to Mariana and Miguel’s house. So, in good Mexican fashion, everyone decided that it was a good idea and did so.
For the next five hours, all seven of us sat and talked about whatever came to anyone’s mind to the tunes of Miguel’s record player spinning music from the 50’s.
What always strikes me as interesting is how animated people are in group conversations in Spanish. Maybe I notice it more because it’s my second language and I don’t necessarily pay attention to these things in English. And as usual, the conversation did take the usual anti-American turn for a while. But I guess that’s to be expected. Naturally, I can’t really defend the United States because I agree with what they say, but a the same time, I always feel like a representative of the country and I feel that people probably expect me to respond or at least add something to the conversation. However, it is a topic I think I just won’t touch while I’m here.
Everyone I know in Guadalajara is an artist of some sort. Is this normal? I don’t think I had realized that before.