Herms

Saturday:
Plans were made to put the finishing touches on cleaning in the upstairs apartment around 10. Solidad made us a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and huevos rancheros. We ate and then were picked up by Pedro and Mike. During our 45 second car ride Mike received a call that Coco would be "late." So the brothers decided to wait while eating breakfast at Marco Polo. After we arrived to an upstairs table, I went to wash my hands. There is something about being passed by a huge bus that blows black smoke out its tail pipe (while the windows in our car are down) that makes me just feel dirty. After I got back I decided to use some of my favorite lotion. Conveniently hand sanitizing and moisturizing all in one. Pedro asked if he could use some, so I lent. Pedro passed to Mike who decided to read the label. This is what he said: (phonetic spelling for emphasis) "Keels ninty nine persent of herms." At this point, as you can imagine, I am laughing quite hard. Then Mike says: "Ah, yes, United States Herms, but does it keel Mexican Herms?" Well, does it?

We left without being tagged as it, and headed to the church. Cleaning began, for a short while anyway, because we had plans. Plans to go see Harry Potter in the theater with some of the youth. Into the "Yetta" (of VW Jetta for the English readers) we piled, and off we went. Emily and I hopped left out of the car for a candy run at the Soriana, while Zach, Mike, Pedro and Aaron (yes we were all in the car) hopped right to the theater. Pedro saved seats on the very back row. Preferring not to get a nose bleed, some of us sat in the middle row. The movie was great. And back to the church we decided to go. While we were pulling out of the parking lot, Emily commented something to the effect of it being a good thing that her mom didn't know how insane Mexican driving was. The words were no more than out of her lips when Mike shouted "Senora! Senora! Senora!" Pedro slammed on the breaks and the little Mexican grandma who almost got a VW tattoo stepped back up onto the curb. We again accelerated, and did a U-turn from the right-hand-turn-only-lane. Complete with diving directional curve (picture the light pole concrete land divider that directs the lane into a nice arch). Yes, a u-turn. to the left. to go the opposite direction. Im alive to type this so dont freak out

Once at the church we cleaned and mopped and spread sheets and cased pillows. We also cleaned 7 years worth of grease scum off the entire kitchen, floor to ceiling. It took quite a while, but things were smelling nice and fresh once we were done. By this time it was nearly 5pm. The boys wanted to eat, so we went to - you guessed it- Chick of the West. Coco's family should get a frequent fliers discount or something. I ordered a capuccio that was made with some weird warm form of goats milk. I try not to be picky, but my nose practically turned green by just one sip. So I just waited. After the rest ate Coco and kids had to go home, but the others of us (Jose, Mike, Pedro, Emily, Zach, Chino, Ali and I) decided to go coffee shopping. Nuevo Mundo was too "Closed" as Jose put it, and so we went to some iguana place. While we walked and talked it was learned that Pedro has a radio comercial voice. So he did a radio commercial for the Tlyuda lady (whom we had a date with later in the evening) There was laughing, dancing, music and cheer. We walked past Santo Domingo where there were people dancing and cheap carnival games. Emily got suckered out of a few pesos.

Tlyudas. We drove down main street, turned left a few times, right a few more, and wove back into a neighborhood. The streets were quiet, but there was one place lit up and alive. The Tlyuda lady that makes food there is famous. We all got Tlyudas. Zach and I were going to share a pecsi (the now acceptable but horrible mispronunciation of pepsi), but he forgot that I dont really drink while I eat, so he had a pecsi.

At this point Zach and I decided to retire for the day, and the rest opted for other adventures.