Wednesday, December 12, 2007

2nd day here


Yesterday was great! I woke up and had clean clothes because my bags arrived. I had coco krispies for breakfast with a side of fresh fruit: grapes, melon and mandarin slices. Delicioso! School at 9 and then Priscilla and I came home for lunch with our host family. We sat down for lunch with Susana, the dad, Juan, and one of the sons, Marcos, who I am guessing is in his 30’s. We had vegetable soup with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, peas, corn and tomatoes for our appetizer. It was really good and salty. After the soup we had chicken with like a corn sauce. It was really good, but lacked in the salt department and needed a little sprinkle. We drank lemonade and had a chopped and screwed conversation while mambo music played in the background. The dad has a pretty cool music set-up in the living room with surround sound that he is pretty proud of. Marcos invited Priscilla and I to a party, or a “reunion,” for businessmen that him and his dad work with or for. Not really sure what it is exactly that we will be going to, but will give more details Friday. Priscilla and I just nod and say yes a lot. We told Susana that we wanted to go to the golf course here in Cuernavaca and she told us to get ready and that we had some other places to go also. So, we leave with Susana and Marcos, clueless about if she is going to drop us off at the golf course or if we are even still going there or what! We just go with the flow here. But anyways, we ended up dropping Marcos off at work and Susana took us to Hotel Camino Real Sumiya. Sumiya means “place of peace, tranquility and longevity” and those adjectives perfectly describe the atmosphere of this hotel/ palace. I have never seen anything like it; I want to live there. The residence belonged to Mrs. Barbara Hutton Woolworth, who was heiress to the Woolworth’s fortune. The construction of the place lasted six years and was finished being built in 1959. Mrs. Woolworth was married, for the 7th time, at this palace to a Vietnamese man named Raymond Doan Vinh Na Champassak. The palace is completely themed Japanese and it is simply beautiful beyond words. We met a nice man there from Michigan who was nice enough to take our picture. Priscilla and I were in complete amazement at how spacious and calm the place was. The stress level was like minus 20. Anyways, after leaving the hotel we attempted to go to the golf course in Cuernavaca, but it is in a restricted community and the security guard told us that it was already closed and that we could come back another day. Susie said she would take us Friday, so we’ll see. After the golf course attempt, we went to the grocery store, or the “super,” and Susie bought food for us to eat. Priscilla bought guava and I bought an Asian pear and some other goodies to try out. We get home and help Susie with the groceries and finish our homework, yes, tarea cada noche! It is dinner time around 8 and Susana, Juan, Priscilla and I all eat together in the kitchen at the little bar that they have. Breakfast and dinner are eaten at the bar in the kitchen and lunch is eaten at the table in the dining room. We had tuna and crackers and peanuts for dinner. The tuna came in a can already mixed with corn, peas and carrots and Susie just added mayo. The crackers were Saltines but it was cool because instead of the crackers coming in long bags that you have to twisty tie after each use, they came in individualized packages with like 4 crackers in them so the rest of the crackers in the box won’t get stale so quickly. Maybe they have this in America, but I have not seen it and it was cool. With dinner, Juan made me a drink with Cabrito Tequilla, coke and lime juice. It kind of tasted like a margarita. After dinner, for dessert, rich hot chocolate is what is served. At the supermarket earlier Susie told us to pick out some desserts that we liked, there was a whole section with fresh sweet bread and treats of that sort. So, I chose a sugar cookie with sprinkles and we also got like crescent rolls with chocolate baked into them. Priscilla picked out a muffin that was half chocolate, half vanilla and it was soooo good! We always dip our desserts into the hot chocolate and eat them that way. It’s cute how they do things here.

2 comments:

CJJ said...

Hi, Miyan! If you get sick of Management some day, consider taking up travel writing! Your blog is fantastic! My heart was pounding as I read about you running through the airport and your bags missing the flight! Great writing (and I'm relieved at the good ending to that part!). Enjoy every minute of your adventure and stay safe. Love, Carol.

kobi Benita said...

Hi Miyan, as a routine, I enter your blog every day when i get to the office in the morning. I am happy that you are having fun and enjoying yourself. I am also happy that you are experiencing difference things and foods. Try to speak Spanish as much as you can! My thoughts are with you every day. Love, dad.