23 August 2013

Adventuretime Mexicoland, the first week!

Okay, a little under the first week, but whatever.

Hey all! So we've been in Mexico for six days at this point, so I figure it's about time for a blog post.

I arrived on Friday after a gruelling 24-hour-long trip which included one 2 AM drive to the airport, two plane changes, and one delay that nearly made me miss my flight from Miami. Made it eventually though, and there was my adventuretime travel buddy Jovanna waiting in the airport after some adventures of her own, which included a stalker. Anyway, Saturday and Sunday were mostly spent recovering from Friday.

We ran around, explored the city a bit, and checked out the anthropology museum which was a) awesome, b) not able to be done in under two hours like the douche at the front desk told us. We also went to the zoo across the street from the museum because it was free and full of giraffes.

Jovanna also almost got killed by this pelican:

Monday we started emailing and calling all of our contacts, and while we waited for them to get back to us, we headed down to Xochimilco to check out the boats. We wanted to go to the super creepy Island of the Dolls, but it turns out the trip would have cost each of us nearly 200 dollars, and we were like "ummm...no." So we just did a short boat ride so our trip down to the canals wasn't a total waste.


Yesterday we had a very frustrating day in that no one had gotten back to us yet and we were getting nervous waiting around in Mexico City. So we started calling all the institutions we had previously emailed and got a fat lot of nothing. 

In situations likes these, there's only one thing you can do, and that's eat chocolate and watch Jumanji. Which we did.

Today, on a tip from the hostel bartender, we took a two-hour trip to the edge of Mexico City where Nahuatl is apparently still spoken. We wound up arriving in the middle of a religious festival, which was most excellent timing because the people in the street were willing to help us. 

We were very quickly pointed to the local heritage museum, where they were all about helping us and immediately took us over the festival entertainment to meet a guy who teaches Nahuatl dance/music and possibly language, although we're not entirely sure. We're going back tomorrow to meet with him and maybe finally get this project underway. Also, we have a lunch date with our new friends. Also, we found a bull.

And that will be all!

15 August 2013

And they're off!

Hey all! Before I get to anything else, let me do this really fast. Bevchen over at Confuzzledom recently gave me the Liebster award, which means now I have to give eleven facts about myself or die painfully. Then I have to answer Bevchen's eleven questions, pass on the award to eleven new bloggers, and pose eleven questions for them to answer or else the gods will smite them eleven times.


Here we go with these eleven interesting facts about me:

1) I don't have eleven blogs to pass this on to because I don't read eleven blogs. Actually, I read two. One is bevchen's blog, the other is Alex from http://www.ifsandsandbutts.com/

2) I am already failing at the Liebster award.

3) I think people who can ride a bike without hands are magical.

4) My goal in life is to learn one language for every day of the week. Currently I've got all of Monday, all of Tuesday, a half hour of Wednesday, ten minutes of Thursday, and thirty seconds of Friday.

5) Half the people in my life don't know I've been taking classical voice lessons for the last four years because I'm too embarrassed to tell them.

6) I clean to 50s rock and roll.

7) I prefer living in places to backpacking through them.

8) Good music gives me goosebumps, every time.

9) I hate NYC, with a passion.

10) I take on adventures (cough, Mexico, cough) just to see if I'm capable of coming out the other side.

11) I distract myself from the terror of coming adventures by planning future ones.

And now to answer Bevchen's questions:

1. If you could change your first name to anything at all, what would you pick?
Sometimes when I sign up for things online, I put my name as Marie instead of Tina Marie. I wouldn't change my name, but if I were forced to, I'd probably just go with Marie.

2. Where were you born?
Ohio, but we moved to Jersey when I was little.

3. What is your favourite quote?
"Just think, if everyone in the world were great friends, then we wouldn't be such terrible enemies."
And no, I have no idea where it's from

4. Tea, coffee or hot chocolate?
Hot chocolate, with marshmallows

5. If you could own any animal, what would it be?
Dog, alpaca, elephant. In that order.

6. Why did you start blogging?
To keep my family and friends updated while on study abroad

7. Who is your favourite author?
Lev Grossman, I've read The Magicians more times than I can count. Also Stephen King, because he's awesome. 

8. What is your favourite flavour of crisps (chips for the Americans)?
Salt.

9. Apart from blogs, which website do you spend most time on?
Probably Facebook or CNN.

10. Do you have a talent? If so, what?
I can play the ukulele? Does that count?

11. What was the last song you listened to?

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Brilliant! So I'm off to Mexico tomorrow and, needless to say, I am freaking out. Freaking. Out. I haven't gotten a full night's sleep or woken up without a stress headache in four days, so I'm also tired and cranky to boot. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but for me, there comes a point before every big trip where I'm so terrified that the trip ceases to be exciting or even remotely desirable in any way, shape, or form. I hit that point with Mexico about a week ago, so fun times. I've never done research before. I have six weeks to figure it out. I have no plan. I've never felt as grossly under-qualified or under-prepared for anything in my entire life.

Objectively, I know everything will be fine. If only my stomach could be so easily untied from the metric fuckton of sailor's knots that are going on in there.

And that's all I got! I'll have internet a least for the first couple days, so definitely expect a blog post Sunday or Monday. See you guys in Mexicoland!


09 August 2013

The drug story

Hey all!

So I haven't been posting much because nothing has happened to me. I work a lot, and I stress out about Mexico a lot. Also this week has been all about the Mexico clothes shopping which, if you read my last post about how much I hate clothes shopping, means you can probably guess what an enjoyable experience that has been. I can officially say that particular clusterfuck is over and I've come out the other end with one pair of (hideous but cheap) green capri pants, three tank tops, and a (hideous but cheap) pair of sneakers that I've been trying to break in but which may or may not be giving me a blister. More importantly, I finished my week of Mexico clothes shopping with my relationship still intact, which probably says something about the herculean patience my boyfriend is capable of exhibiting when you promise to give him cake in exchange for his company while shopping.

In other news, today I had my final doctor's appointment before I expose my coddled immune system to africanized bees and Montezuma's revenge. I got a last minute tetanus/diptheria/polio shot after my mom's "oh hey" Don't you need that?" moment while she was visiting. At any rate, that's now six illnesses, including rabies, typhus, and Hep A, that the unvaccinated masses can get in Mexico BUT I CANNOT. I can play with dirty needles and scratch my back on rusty nails to my heart's content, like a goddamn SUPERHERO. Bite me, diseases! Not you, rabies, you drooling weirdo.

At any rate, my doctor's appointment post-tetanus/dipetheria/polio triple axel went like this:

Uni Doctor: So now we're going to give you some drugs to take with you.
Me: Alright.
Uni Doctor: Will you get bitten by mosquitoes?
Me: Probably?
Uni Doctor: GREAT, take these drugs for it. Fungal infection, will or will not happen?
Me: Hopefully no?
Uni Doctor: GREAT, take these drugs for it. Have you ever had pink eye?
Me: When I was like, four?
Uni Doctor: GREAT, take these drugs for it.

And that's how I wound up with a pile of drugs the size of my head for everything from blood poisoning to motion sickness. Not included was a magical drug that would improve the health of my Spanish.


Random aside, I didn't even know there were drugs for motion sickness. But there are, and now I have them. Apparently the secret is to take the pill before you get motion sick, but what I want to know is, how am I supposed to know what'll make me motion sick until I get motion sick?

Moral of the story, getting this shit through security without looking like I'm trying to sell them on the wrong side of the border will be interesting.

01 August 2013

Adventure Shopping is the BEST!

If you have only ever met me for approximately ten minutes in real life, you probably already know several things about me:

1) Sometimes, I make weird noises.
2) I have something of a Rapunzel complex going on.
3) I hate shopping with the fiery passion of a thousand nuclear reactors being absorbed into the sun.

Think of the most uncomfortable situation you can possible imagine being in--for example, the only normally-clad guest at a Furry wedding, a preteen at a swinger's club, a European at the Republican National Convention--whatever it is, you know that visceral feeling of awkwardness in your gut, like you just ate an angry panda and it's clawing its way through your lower intestine? That's how I feel when I think about clothes shopping. Also, I don't understand how people can actually derive large amounts of pleasure from buying a lot of expensive shit to put on their feet or buying a lot of expensive shit to put on their legs or buying a lot of expensive shit to put their expensive shit in.

I am also, as you can probably imagine, the worst, I repeat, the worst person you can ever hope to shop with (or for). Shopping for more than 45-60 minutes causes me to melt down, the only cure for which is an Auntie Anne's pretzel and a hurried exist from the mall. I can think of better things I'd prefer to spent my money on and will happily list them for you at length. I'm virtually incapable of purchasing clothes without help (read: I stand in the dressing room and complain about the cruel hand I've been dealt while my mother and sister toss clothes at me with increasing force and decreasing regard for my physical well-being). And I have to be verbally abused into actually purchasing the clothes I've been forced to try on.

That being said, there are a couple things that, give me unlimited time and an unlimited bank account, I will out-shop the entire world for: things my horse doesn't need, books, and...ADVENTURES!

Adventure shopping is awesome because adventures are awesome. And shopping for said adventures is particularly awesome because it's just really, really fun to look at all the cool adventure gadgets that solve problems I didn't even realize were problems.Of course, the biggest issue with adventure shopping is that I manage to convince myself that I desperately all the cool adventure gear. Bracelets that tell you when to reapply sunscreen? Need that. Caffeinated soap? So necessary. A jacket with 5,982 pockets, ergonomic zippers, built-in magnet therapy and smells like daisies? How have I lived my live up until this point without it?

I've had to do quite a bit of shopping for Adventuretime Mexicoland, but have worked very hard to keep myself under control and only buy shit I really, really need. This is what I've got so far!

Go go gadget ADVENTURE BACKPACK!

I have an LL Bean backpack, and it's a pretty good one, but secretly, all it really wants to do with its life is be an airplane carry on, and even that it's not particularly great at. Plus it's just not suited to living for almost seven weeks out of, so I elected to leave it at home to be jealous and go to Mexico with my brand new adventure backpack that is awesome. It's big. It has secret hidden pockets for passports. It has a net so my back doesn't sweat. It even has it's very own built-in RAIN HAT so FUCK YEAH, it's a really cool backpack. Downside, it's a couple centimeters over the technical carry-on limit (yes, this is going to be a carry on because I have to change plans twice with a really tight layover in Miami which sounds like a recipe for lost luggage), but I think (hope) I'll be alright.
adventure backpack on the right, old backpack on the left!

Go go gadget ADVENTURE TOWEL!

The bane (1 of 2) of my existence is carrying towels with me on adventures because they're always so damn bulky. I always bring the thinnest towel I have which a) sucks, b) still takes up way too much space, and c) never actually dries in time, which means the next day I have to shower with a d) damp towel. By the end of my adventure, I've moved beyond just feeling resentful towards my towel and start to actively fantasize about feeding it to an industrial shredder. This time around, I elected to skip all that nonsense and buy a microfiber towel that is huge but packs down into a thin square. According to the Microfiber Bible, it dries super fast. It was also 12 euros on Amazon, so wins all around!
LOOK IT FOLDS DOWN SO SMALL

Go go gadget ADVENTURE WATER BOTTLE!

The other bane of my adventure existence is water bottles. Namely that I refuse to carry them because they're bulky and I hate them and never use them and therefore on the strength of my principles dehydrate like a boss. After doing some adventure internet shopping, I found these bad boys that appear to be over-sized Capri Sun packages with caps instead of the annoying straws. So when they're empty, you can roll them  down really tiny and when they're full, they're malleable and pack better. It had good reviews on Amazon.com but bad reviews on Amazon.de, which makes me think German hatred for them might just be a cultural thing but I'm American so we good, bro. Also it was 19 euros, which seemed like a lot for a water bottle, but then I remembered going to the hospital in Bolivia and how much it sucked, and then I thought about how I would like to avoid Mexican hospitals as much as possible which is why I got rabies shots and swore off tap water in advance, and so I said, "Tina, if 19 euros will keep you from stubbornly dehydrating yourself because of your slightly irrational vendetta against water bottles, consider it 19 euros well spent."
size comparison when empty

size comparison when full

Go go gadget ADVENTURE SILK SLEEPING BAG!

My last adventure purchase, I went back on forth on this one for a while. First, the concept of having a really light, really tiny sleeping bag to protect me from bedbugs and dodgy Mexican sheets made me happy. The 50-90 euro price tag, not so much. After scouring the earth and internet, I found 15 euro ones on ebay with free shipping from some Vietnamese wholesale dealer. Given the price, it's fair to say they're probably illegally harvested from endangered silkworms, made by children, and/or not actually silk, but if they can get through six weeks without breaking, I'll consider it worth it. I wound up buying two, one for me, one for my Adventuretime Mexicoland companion Jovanna, because fuck bedbugs, that's why.

Go go gadget PLUG ADAPTER!

Because my research laptop has a German plug. Picture unnecessary. That will be all.

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So that's it! That's all the fun gear I bought for Mexico itself! Lots of research gear is coming along as well, but since it's just technology, it's neither fun nor interesting to shop for/write about.

T-15 days AH!