ACA

Jan 1^st, 2009

I woke up in my sister’s house at 7:00am. The temperature outside was 6°C (43°F), when I got out of the house I could see my breath, it was really really cold. Got in the van and started driving southwest. About 400km and 4 hours later, got out of the van and found myself shveetzing at 31°C (88°F).

I thought to myself “it’s so nice to be able to wear shorts in January, this rocks!”

Went straight up to the room to change into a bathing suit and made my way down to the pool and beach area. Drank the coconut juice straight from the coconut and once I finished the juice I asked the “señor” to take the coconut to peel and cut, prepare it with lemon and “salsa buffalo”; ate the whole thing. Awesome! The temperature of the water is perfect, the sand on the beach is great, I’m sitting on a pool side bed, under not so hot sun, but hot enough to tan you; and aside of the bubbles of dirt that sometimes float in the water, it’s all great!

I’m here with my sister, brother in law and my two nephews, I hadn’t plan to come to Acapulco, so my sister and her family inviting me over has made this Mexico trip a greater experience than expected.

Dad’s birthday/family reunion on the 31^st was also great. Seeing [almost] the whole family, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews was also superb!

I can’t get enough of this beach and it’s paradise like weather! I ♥ ACA!

Travel Blog entry #1 - Security

As I was getting in line for the security inspection at the [Ben Gurion] airport, you know, where they x-ray your bag, the man in front of me started to take off his coat, belt and shoes, when the x-ray machine operator told him in a really thick Israeli accent “no, no, there is no striptease here”, to what the man responded with an incredulous “what do you mean”, the Israeli security guard then said “we don’t do that in Israel, no need, here fine.”

That’s cool, I thought to myself without making too much of it; but life can surprise you sometimes with this kind of little things. Got on the plane and four and a half hours later I landed in Paris, got off the plane and started to try to make sense of the crazy disarray of how the Charles DeGaulle airport is built. I finally figured out that I had to take a bus to terminal 2E, when the bus finally showed up, the doors of the building opened to let us out and to let us feel the freezing cold outside (0°C or 32°F). To my surprise, the bus was as cold as the outside, no heating! And every time it stopped, the lady driver would leave the doors open to let nobody in and us freeze inside! It sucked! I don’t think any of the airport terminals are really conditioned, it’s so freaking cold!

I finally got to terminal 2E, got my boarding pass for the next flight and got in line for the security inspection. Oh boy! French security is retarded!!! A line of about 10 people took about half an hour! They made everyone

take out of their bags laptops, phones, ipods, mp3 players, cameras, camcorders, disk on keys, phone chargers, any cables or anything electronic related. Other things that had to be put in those plastic trays to be x-rayed were: coats, hats, belts, shoes, jewelry, change, etc. It took for freakin’ ever!!!

Then I started walking around the terminal to find out that there isn’t a single place where you can smoke, and worst of all, the whole airport smells like perfumed fart! Everywhere smells like fart, just with a little perfume on top, it’s disgusting!!!

But after those two completely different experiences in security screening, I have to say that I still trust about 50 times more the relaxed, super high-tech security check in Israel than the slow but “thorough” security check in France. I know that the plane leaving from Israel won’t get highjacked or explode in mid air, while the plane that leaves from Paris, well… who knows? And if you’re wondering about rudeness, the French turned out to be way more assholes than the Israelis… at least so far.

Bottom-line, can’t wait to get out of stupid Frenchland, where they charge for the internet and a cup of coffee is 5 Euros!

The only good thing that I found in this place is that there are a couple PlayStation3 demonstration stations where you can actually play for free… mostly non violent demo-limited games, but hey, it’s free PlayStation! Gots to play!

(Still smells like fart)

About the following posts

I'm traveling in Mexico and in this blog I will try to plasm an anthropological image of my experience here, and of what used to be my day to day life, with all the folklore that becomes part of the routine and the ordinary for somebody who lives here, but that is exotic and interesting to foreign eyes.

I hope it comes out well.

I haven't written in a while, and in English even longer... Keeping up a blog is hard, even though I have thousands of ideas that cross my mind every day, and there is always something worth dedicating a moment to contemplate, sometimes I even think of writing about it in this blog.
But things happen so fast and situations lead to other situations, and by the time I reach a computer so many things have happened that created a whole experience, a complete day, and I can't get myself to reflect upon only one thing to spill it in this blog.

I guess that is the frustration of the newbie bloggers, who don't know what to write about, can't find the time to do it, or are just procrastinating and just can't get themselves to do anything at all (all apply to me, yes).
Sometimes, there is a kind of pressure that prevents you from writing in your blog. Like what are the readers going to think? Will they like it or not? Will they be offended by something I wrote? Can they misunderstand my intentions? Do they think this is stupid? Will they disagree? And a million more other questions that just don't let you write.

But the truth is that a blog is supposed to be anything, or not nothing... well, anything. Got me?
Postmodern? Oh, fuck yeah! But it is important to understand, that [at least] this blog is just a collection of thoughts, images, sounds and other random shit that appears before me and that I choose to share with you.

About all the questions that I wrote before, the truth is that I don't care about the answers, this is my blog, if you like it, you are invited to read it and participate; if you don't like it, well, thanks for coming anyway.

If you're still reading this, good for you! ;) I'll keep doing what I've been doing. Wishful thinking makes me want to say that I'll write more, but you know how it is, blogging and procrastination come hand in hand.

Today I'm writing not because I'm not busy, because I really am, but because I came around to my blog and was sad to see that I haven't updated it in a while, so here you have me.

As a reward for your patience, I share with you this link for an awesome auto-cooperative game, help yourself have fun and enjoy! http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

Visit my cellphone photo blog and my website for other random stuff.

Podcast #12

Si es que alguien tiene la necesidad de hacer algún comentario sobre el podcast #12, por favor háganlo aquí.

Cometín: Seguro tu tienes algo que decir al respecto no?

http://mauweb.net/

Bart Simpson's wet dream

Smoker's area... more like Smoker's dead trap

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, inspired by my last few trips out of Israel since I took up the new [nasty] habit of smoking.

I noticed that smoking is prohibited in most public places around the world, but in the major airports around the world they managed to understand the stupidity of all the human beings that decided to smoke despite the known deadly consequences of this deadly habit. In all these airports that I'm talking about (Madrid, Rome, Poland, Mexico City, etc.) smoking areas with air purifiers, smoke exhaust fans, windows, and other ventilation systems, were set up around the premises of the airports to allow the smokers to indulge in their vice.

Frequent cleaning of these places is a constant in all these airports, these areas are also easy to find (plenty of signs around) and they are small enough to encourage the smokers to have their cigarette and leave to make room for other smokers.

The Ben Gurion international airport in Israel seems to be the exception. The smoking area located in a difficult to find corner of the airport (almost no signs at all), has no ventilation or air purifying system, it's dirty, sticky, crowded, smokey and disgusting! The garbage, cigarette butts, and ashes pile up in disgusting stinky mountains. Sometimes, there are so many people in there smoking that you would need infra red gogles to find your way around this thick smoke filled room.


Last time I was flying out of Israel, I found myself sitting in this little room with a bunch of time and a laptop, so I decided to write an email to the person in charge of Public Relations of Ben Gurion Airport (telmas@iaa.gov.il), and it read as follows:

"Hello:

I am an Israeli citizen and resident, and a smoker. I travel a lot from and to Ben Gurion airport around the year and I am dissatisfied with the smoking areas at the airport.

I do not intend for you to make this areas bigger, more central or more comfortable. All I ask is for some ventilation in there. It is really unpleasant to walk in there and smell the scent of old cigarettes and smoke. While I don't think that these should be central areas of the airport, I think that at least you could organize some ventilation in there and an hourly clean-up.

I know I'm not the first person to comment on this, and I respectfully urge you to do something about it.
Thanks in advance,
------------"

Several months have past since I wrote that email and I haven't got any responses. I encourage you to write as well and demand that these people, the smokers, are treated with respect and dignity. And if you don't want to do it for the smokers, do it for me! Cause even though I don't fly out of Israel that often, I would like to be able to have a cigarette before I get on the plane and not have my clothes, hair and body smelling like a beduin after cooking for the whole chamula for a straight week!

Dedicado al dictador argentino eSe >:( !!!!

Ya saben, el que tiene nombre de actor de telenovela.


MINGA TU CHADRE BASDITO MALTARDO!
Los que entendieron este post, dejen comment.

Efemérides

"Yom HaShoa ve HaGbura" es el Día de Conmemoración del Holocausto y de la resistencia y el levantamiento en armas de los Judíos en el Holocausto, se celebra el 27 de Nissan del calendario judío, que es una fecha diferente cada año en el calendario gregoriano. Este año se la fecha coincidió con el 1° de Mayo, que es otro día importante para la sociedad mundial.

Yom Hashoa es un día que se observa en Israel de forma oficial, los negocios trabajan solamente medio día y el ambiente es muy solemne en todo el país. En la radio se escuchan solamente canciones relacionadas con el Holocausto y la televisión no transmite programas de entretenimiento. Generalmente solo hay dos o tres canales locales que muestran documentales u otros programas relacionados con el tema. A las 11:00 am se escuchan sirenas por todo el país a lo largo de un minuto, en ese momento todo el país para. Los peatones se detienen e inclínan la cabeza, los autos en las calles y las carreteras se detienen y la gente baja de sus autos. Otras personas permanecen en sus casas con sus familias y en la noche asisten a ceremonias de conmemoración que se celebran en todos los centros de las ciudades del país.

El 1° de Mayo, el "Día del Trabajo" es un día en el que se celebran los derechos de los trabajadores, la jornada laboral de 8 horas, vacaciones, retiro, sindicato, etc. En muchos países alrededor del mundo, incluyendo Israel, se celebra saliendo a marchar a las calles exigiendo el cumplimiento de los derechos de los trabajadores y celebrando la existencia de los mismos, además de ser una manifestación es también una gran fiesta.

Este año, al coincidir ambas fechas y con el evidente conflicto de sus formas de celebración, se tuvo que cambiar la fecha de una de estas efemérides. No voy a entrar en detalles de las consideraciones que se tomaron en cuenta para llegar a la conclusión, la onda es que cambiaron la fecha de celebración del Día del Trabajo para este 5 de Mayo.

El 5 de Mayo se conmemora la Batalla de Puebla, en la que el Gral. Ignacio Zaragoza venció al Gral. Charles Ferdinand Latrille al frente del ejército francés de Napoleón III. Es un día de orgullo mexicano, se celebra haber vencido al ejército más experimentado y reputado de la época. Aunque siempre ha sido un día feriado y celebrado en México, en los últimos tiempos, con la migración más extensa de mexicanos, los paisanos han tomado este día como una forma de celebrar la independencia en las narices de los colonizadores. No es sorpresa que el lugar del mundo donde más personas celebran el 5 de Mayo es en EEUU; de la misma forma en que los esclavos negros del siglo XIX inventaron canciones de protesta que cantaban frente a sus amos y ellos ni cuenta se daban de lo que se trataba, los mexicanos hoy hacen lo mismo con la fiesta del 5 de Mayo.

O sea que aquí el único que se jodió fui yo! Este año no podré celebrar el 5 de Mayo... ¡chale! Con lo que me cagan los franceses!

Always use protection...