Saturday and Sunday – October 10th and 11th (Silly French!):
Just before getting on the airplane from Guadalajara, we stumbled into two French, of which one Charlotte knew from some weeks back. We found out we were heading on the same plane, and had the same final destination… and thus the epic journey started. Upon arriving in Veracruz, we got a bus-ticket at around 22 (7 hours drive to Oaxaca), which meant quite a few hours to spend in Veracruz.

Around 5 hours, dinner at the beach, lots of walking, and stocking up for a party at around 5 in the night (the time of arrival in Oaxaca) later, we got on the bus. Semi-comfortable trip, that left me with a slightly hurting neck (stupid “comfortable” chairs) and a convinced feeling that “Mean Machine” is indeed a better “popular sports-star gets busted for heavy drunk-driving, thrown into jail, where he forms a team of the inmates (including the “cool prisoners”, and the “chained insane beast”) to beat the guards’ team”-movie than “The Longest Yard”. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that it was a Spanish-synced version I saw.

Anyway, we arrived at Oaxaca around 5, and joined the French and their friends for a few hours until we decided it was time to crash a hostel for some sleep (from 7 to 13 approximately). Needless to say, we didn’t get much done during that day, except drifting around a bit in the city, looking for things to do Monday/Tuesday, got a bit to eat… and semi-stoned a bit more, until joining the French again during the evening. To sum up the evening up fast: the French are (some of them at least) silly, insane and and a nice bunch.

Interlude:
I wrote earlier that I couldn’t quite put my finger on any exact differences between Guadalajara and Oaxaca. I found one – but it might be because of the close proximity to the center of the city: People are honking their car-horns like horny young rabbits on speed during mating-season. Combine that with the fact that houses are NOT isolated from sound here, and my frustration should be logical [insert large amounts of creative swearwords, colorful curses and not-for-the-weak terms of disgust here].

As a closing statement for Sunday, I would like to add that the addition of “You’re hot/sexy” at the end of every sentences (when speaking to a female or male, respectfully), is very splendid for the “King’s Cup” every drinking game.

Never the less, we’re currently on our way to Oaxaca, and in this moment sitting in the national part of Guadalajara Airport, set to board a plane to Veracruz… where we’ll (either tomorrow or later) take a 6 hour bus-drive that’ll bring us to Oaxaca (the city, that is). Should be exciting and very beautiful. Which leads me to what happened yesterday…

Friday, October 9th (Language Barrier!):
A busted camera, at the worst possible time (as the trip to Oaxaca lies virtually just ahead), and in the worst possible way (almost), as I got an unintended push, and – possibly out of surprise – dropped the camera. At first, it didn’t look like anything had happened. The “shell” hadn’t even gotten a single scratch, but the lens was “bend” (the camera was turned on when dropped). Good thing it is insured, but I’ll get to that when I get back home.

Besides that, the evening was really good. We met up with alot of the other exchange students (or well, more appropriate to call them our friends) in order to have dinner and see “Inglorious Basterds”… To say the least, going to a sushi-restaurant in Spanish is mildly confusing on many different levels. First of all, the mix of Spanish and Japanese names is confusing. Next, it’s food, which makes it even harder. Thankfully, we found an English menu-description, which made it a lot easier. Even better was the drinks (nom nom Appletini)!

Had I remembered how much of the movie that wasn’t in English, along with the fact that it was now naturally subtitled in Spanish… I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it. Add the comfortable chair, cold beer and the fact that I had seen it before, made me slip into sleep quite a few times, despite gunshots, explosions and other such loud sounds. As confusing and all as the day may sound, it was good.

… but even with my great hunting-skills, one got away, and I have an idea why (sorry in advance non-wow-players, but don’t worry, the point is easy to get by reading the descriptions): the mosquito in question was a rogue (sneaky thief-class). I had quite a few good attempts at killing the blasted insect, but either it evaded my hits, or vanished in thin air. Revenge is sweet though, as I got my revenge his morning, and got the bastard the first time I spotted it. Seems like it wasn’t Vanish, but rather Shadowmeld.

Anyway, nothing really exciting has been going on down here the last few days, as my better half has been extremely busy with study-related stuffs during daytime, which caused me to stay at “home” monday – thursday (except wednesday, as my mosquito-bite-covered feet clearly remembers) during the day. We still got to experience stuff during the evening however!

Cinépolis VIP (Monday – October 5th):
Seemingly a popular trend down here (and understandably so), it’s basically the way to watch movies. First of all, you sit in a nice armchair (adjustable, with leg-support), and there are waiters who can take orders of beer, small meals, hot beverages and likewise stuff. Also, the armchairs are in pairs of two, so you could turn them into a nice sofa, and sit in that with your partner. Also a nice bonus. So, all in all, it was a very enjoyable way of seeing Surrogates. So, if you’re ever down here, try it out.

Lucha Libre (Tueday – October 6th):
Being a fan (read, I love seeing it whenever I get the chance) of WWE and WCW, I found this a must to see. It would seem that every tuesday, there’s a few hours of mexican wrestling in downtown Guadalajara. To put it bluntly, it was far from as professional as WWE, but that was somehow to be expected as well. Never the less, it ended up quite decently towards the end when the big names (seemingly, I have no idea who and what they were – probably mostly because of the spanish language-barrier), as they could indeed do some funky tricks. Some got disqualified and a few got carried out after some pretty serious stunts (not as violent as a proper faceslide though). The most notable thing however, was the whole crowd-atmosphere that was going on. People were yelling all kinds of really harsh things to each other at random – and I won’t go into what exactly they said, first of all because of the mentioned language-barrier, but also because most of the stuff was something that would result in getting into serious trouble if you yelled it in a pub, or the like. Beer was a once again a given, naturally. Visit Arena Coliseo (where it probably is every time).

The last week of my time in Mexico will most likely be much more interesting however, and grant opportunities to take pictures (cameras wasn’t allowed tuesday), as we’re going to Oaxaca saturday to wednesday, to see ruins, mountains, and all kinds of stuff which isn’t behind walls, in the middle of a city, or such. Safe to say, I’m really looking forward to it! I’ll however probably do a post before taking off, as there should still be some stuff happening friday worth telling about. I hope.

With that nice thought in our heads, the time of the year crawls closer to the next Arnold Drinking Evening, once again with the good old evil rules, closely followed by hangovers, and the like. Maybe we’ll settle completely on the rules, instead of ending up changing them again. With things as serious as this, it’s bound to happen.

With all hope, I’ll get a chance of using my newest working excuse, that happened last week. A guy asked me what I was doing, and I replied “I’m drunk!” – which was seemingly accepted as a thing to focus your full attention on. I guess it compares to “I’m breathing air” or “I’m having my eyes open”, but don’t let that think it any less valid of an occupation.

So, last weekend, a couple of friends and I sat down to watch some good movies, and enjoy some good beer. The result was that the rules had to be revised a bit, and some details should be added, as there were some bending of the rules (both good and bad) as the evening crept forward. As of such, the new rules are the following, where additions, removals or changes are marked with strikethrough and italic. I added another category that happens in every movie, at the top, so it is not overlooked.

For every movie, drink when:

1. Arnold is first seen, at the start of the movie (previously §1.11).
2. The title of the movie is seen, (bonus: …or said).

Drink whenever:

1. Arnold says “HU-ARRRHHEEH”, or variations thereof.
2. Arnold (or anyone else) kills someone human (double, if it’s with a shotgun). In honor of “Total Recall“.
3. There is a reference to another movie. In honor of “Last Actionhero“.
4. Arnold meets/sees/whatever his “twin” (that means clones too). In honor of “6th Day“.
5. Arnold has violent (discussable) pain. PHYSICALLY!
6. Someone (double, if it’s Arnold) says/yells “get down!” or a variation thereof.
7. There’s an explosion.
8. There’s a car chase.
9. Arnold changes weapon (unarmed included). It doesn’t count as “unarmed” if it’s from one weapon to another.
10. You quote Arnold.
11. Arnold is making breakfast in a blender.
12. A fence is mentioned.

Empty the bottle/glass whenever:

1. Arnold yells “GET TO DA CHOPPA!”
2. The bad guy dies (again, In honor of “6th Day“).
3. Arnold dies.

The reasoning for removing the “You quote Arnold”-rule, was simply because it added a really unreasonable element to the game, and – as the hours passes – tends to get really cruel, thus ruining the social element of trying to emitate §2.1 the best.