Did you know I haven't worn socks since I arrived on that blissful Saturday after a looong travel from Essex? Oh dear sun, I have missed your warm beams of rainbow-colored brightness! Come into my pale arms and give my sorrow-wrinkled face a kiss, right on that pimple between my eyebrows, that kinda makes me look Indian.
Anyways. Mexico is indeed as great as I've suspected. Not perfect of course... I mean, the BBQ I went to 2 hours after my arrival mainly consisted of meat and hot sauce. But at least I made my complaining and sleep-deprived self appreciate that the host also grilled a lot of veggies, mainly for me! And there were dogs to cuddle. And we drank tequila-like mezcal with a rabbit on it - just one shot though, it was before 4 pm and we still had a frisbee 'friendsgiving' to attend.
For that matter, Alan allowed me a 2 hour nap in my very own room, Lauren let me borrow a dress and shoes, and off we went! This was my third Thanksgiving and I thought, why break from tradition?, and showed up empty-handed. Despite that, I was accepted into the Monterrey ultimate circle within seconds, kiss on the cheek here (only one for hello/ goodbye!), a little chatting in Spanish (and quickly changing to English) there.
I meet a French-Canadian called Louis and otherwise mainly observe people. A guy comes up to me.
"Do you wanna play Discochela?"
Oh how nice, I'm getting invited to a tournament!
"Sure!" I say and smile my naive smile.
Lauren whispers: "It's a drinking game, where you drink beer out of a disc!"
"Okay, I'm out!", I blurt.
"What's your name?", the guy asks, and when I tell him, he just writes it on a list and moves on.
Everyone who knows me also knows I'm very bad at drinking beer really fast... The other two in my team, Fernando and Louis, don't know that - however they appear to be surprisingly swift swallowers and we win the first round. And then the second. Through the cheers and screams I realize we won the beer race.... My first quick-chugging-wheat-substance-competition that I complete successfully, after 10 years of ultimate (and 7 years of college)!!! Finally.
And then there's karaoke, and you have to see Mexicans singing karaoke with such passion and joy to believe when I say: everybody had a microphone... in their hearts! Loved it.
After that intense first night, the following days in Monterrey are much more relaxed. On Sunday Lauren, my mate Louis and I stroll through the downtown area, over a flea market and into the most colorful café I've ever set foot in. The city is a lot prettier and the vegetarian restaurants are higher in number than expected. It feels like I've come to the right place.
Also, did I mention that you can see the mountains from my window?
Lauren, who I know from frisbee in Dresden, and Alan, her Mexican boyfriend, have a spacious apartment with a banana tree infused garden, that we use for morning coffee and fitness workout. So far I've spent most of my first week here relaxing during the day and watching Netflix at night, taking photos and also visiting Lauren at her workplace, the Tec University. When she shows me the library without books, we bump into a frisbee player from that Thanksgiving party, he looks at me and asks Lauren: "Oh, so you brought the champion!?" My ego cheers.
I go by many names now... After Bambi followed me to that bench, Maik called me a Disney princess. Well, I hope it didn't take most people 90 movie minutes to read this post. I seem lack that gene of cutting it short, my applogeeeeeze, it's so late again!
Hasta luego!
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