Best of Times/Worst of Times (Part 2)

Once again, my life has simultaneously become better and maddeningly more complicated in the span of a few days. Still stinging from Paulina's unwillingness to visit me without a chaperon, I dedicated my newly freed-up weekend to hanging out with Teressa, who is probably the coolest - and the prettiest - girl I've ever sort-of dated. She's quirky and a little timid, but she's also carefree and a true sweetheart in every sense. Her English isn't as good as Paulina's, but she always takes the time to explain what's being said to me so that I don't end up as the awkward gringo in the corner who thinks he's the butt of every joke. She also smokes like a chimney, but nobody's perfect (especially not me).

On Friday we met up at Zacharia's, which is a nice bar that has two-for-one drinks on Wednesdays and Fridays (I told you beer is is the official religion here). But as soon as the place got crowded, on came a WAY-TOO-LOUD live band (a staple of Mexican bars) so we headed up to the dance club/bourgeoi nirvana known simply as Ego, where Zander and Ethan were supposed to meet us. Ego is high up in the mountains (right next to that gargantuan Mexican Flag I talked about before) and has a killer view (you can see it behind me and Teressa above). It also has a chic outdoor area with controlled bonfires surrounded by plush couches, where we waited (in vain) for Zander and Ethan to arive:



The only problem with this paradise of conspicuous consumption is that a)when it rains incredibly hard everyone crowds under the tiny covered area and b) Ego has a plethora of douchey Mexican guys who try to start fights with any gringo they see courting one of "their women." Seriously, after enough hairy eyeballs and passive-aggressive shoves, even a pacifist like me starts to get ornery. After we finally get tired of waiting for Zander and Ethan (they had crashed a random house-party and became the surprise guests of honor) I decided I'd had enough of Ego and took Teressa to the the vista point I'd been to with Lorenzo. Needless to say, that was much drier and a lot more pleasant.



The next day we saw Wall-E together, which is probably the ideal movie to watch dubbed in Spanish because more than half of it has no dialog whatsoever. It was also a fun date movie with its Chaplan-esque underdog hero and central story of robot love. If only we could have seen it without the countless babbling kids who talked the entire time, including the one sitting behind us who stole Teressa's hairpin right off of her head. I know it was a kid, but seriously, who does that?

Afterwards, met up with Rosia and her cousin Julio (pictured with Teressa and I, above) at a nice bar seated atop a shopping center with a magnificent view of the centro and its centerpiece, an ornate cathedral. Rosia's a spunky girl who is dating my good bud John, and she's also the one who introduced me to Teressa. Through out the night she found clever ways to make fun of my Spanish and feeble attempts at dancing. Together we all watched the weekly fireworks ceremony that illuminates the cathedral, which I caught in another somewhat-arty picture:



Eventually we made it to yet another bar in the centro, complete with yet another WAY-TOO-LOUD bar band and not enough tables. Zander showed up with a pretty girl he'd met at that house party and so did John, who seems to attract the attention of really obnoxious drunks in every bar he steps foot in. Sure enough, two American dudes our age started talking with him, and the embarrassingly-toasted one immediately tried to pull Teressa away from me. She made me feel all warm and fizzy inside, though, when she told him in no uncertain terms that she was with me and that he was wasting his time. Drunk American Guy and his less drunk friend felt bad enough about it that they ordered a bottle of Barcardi White Label rum for all of us to share. But seeing as he needed no more alcohol that night, it wasn't long before Drunk American Guy thrust his pelvis in the face of one too many frightened Mexican girls and the bouncers swiftly tossed him out of the club. There are times that I'm proud to be American, but that wasn't one of them.

As the night lingered on Teressa and I somehow started talking about religion and even though she's a good Catholic girl (every female in this country is) she didn't seem to mind that I'm not religious at all. She said I'm not like most American guys that she's met, which I took as a great compliment (especially in lieu of Drunk American Guy from before). And even though I lived pretty close to the bar we were at, she gave me a ride home and a good night kiss. I slept off the hangover the next day instead of going to that family picnic/volleyball game. I'd say it was worth it.