|
Updates on my music, gigs, recordings, CDs, poems, books, websites, comics and merch. ...
Somewhere for me to !sound off! on anything & everything... especially against the Misery Industries!! ;) ...
Main site - My shop -
Email
|
Friday, December 12, 2003
So far I've introduced myself and my CV to 4 universities (out of the 5 or 6 in this wee city of 200,000peeps), 3 language centres and one airline (air hostesses and pilots need english see!). Favourable noises made at 4 of those, so fingers crossed I'm hoping to get a few hours work a week starting Jan which should at least cover the rent so I'd be able to afford to stay here in La Paz through to March / April and get some teaching experience! Which would be excellent!
Meantime I'm having fun when I can, I drove out to a gorgeous, secluded beach called Balandra about 20klicks up the coast here on the Gulf of California... the sea is cool and soooo clear, pretty shallow and no great undertows (in contrast with Pacific side) so great for swimming, a lot like the Agean, but much cleaner! oh and no great big 'orrible jellyfish swarming everywhere, just some freaky little invisible thingy called "The Black Pearl" (apparently, according to some Canucks I met who had their yacht moored off the beach)... personally I call it the "AH!YaBastardFish!" 'cos that's what I said when it stung the crap out of my left forearm... luckily I had been forewarned by my American mates who'd previously been snorkelling there, so I kept my FACE out of the water and I was wearing my tight cycling shorts which protected my bits... plus I brought vinegar to treat the stings... it's like nettles but with extra added burning feeling! Yow! still it's a fab beach an it was a beautiful afternoon... winter here even in December is still like summer in england! Altho' we did have one cloudy day yesterday, but....
posted by jon at 1:08 PM
Sunday, December 07, 2003
By now I've worked out that only Americans from the USA really count as "gringos" and that term is very far from complementary... pretty much like the chinese "gweilo" and japanese "gaijin" i.e. foreign devils!
It's technically high tourist season here in Baja but still v. few "white" peeps around in La Paz (there's an economic slump on apparently) and clearly if you're not Mexican here you're a novelty. Especially back from the sea-front in my barrio/colonia - e.g. I was walking down the street the other day and all these little kids were shouting "Gringo!" at me! Of course it's nowhere near as bad (I guess) as being black and walking thro' a white neighbourhood while the kids shout the N word at you! In fact they were only trying to get my attention to practise their english - shouting "Thankyou!" at me! and I guess I am the only white looking guy for 6 or 7 blocks radius... (actually mixed race on my granma's side, but hey)
Funnily enough I was walking up the road the other day and heard this tune blasting out from one of the shops which featured the very distinct and loud english lyric "Don't call me gringo Mother****er and stay on your own side of the river!" (starred 'cos some of you may suffer from corporate firewalls) which struck me as odd for a Mexican pop tune... turns out, according to a mate of mine, that there's a band from Mexico city called "Los Martillos" (the hammers) and one of the geezers in it is Mexican and indeed has never been out of Mexico, but he's very pale skinned and gets pissed off with folks calling him "gringo"... oh the irony....
|
|
