I was thinking yesterday of how I don't think I've ever watched Daria in English. And like, I'm not sure if I want to? That dubbing was a master piece - it managed to be contemporary, hip and faithful to the characters while translating suburban US English into neutral latinamerican Spanish. Apart from the first Shrek, very few things manage to sound actually decent in dubbing. It even used the word 'cool' in english as part of Trent's chain smoking voice and actually managed to use it right for the like two seconds it was popular in the late 90s!

I also just very very recently got to watch Back to the Future in English. This was less due to nostalgia but to the fact that I watched it a million times in my childhood with the shitty dubbing of canal 5 (with aproximately eight thousand commercial breaks in it), and Marty's absolutely horrifyingly awesome yell of 'DOC!! DOOOOC!' is so hilarious in spanish that I never felt the need to see how it compared XD

Anyway, I watched Take Shelter last week and while it was good, the pacing was so slow I wanted to hit things. The ending pretty much made everything worth it though. And then I went to see Side Effects on sunday, which was also really good. It's so cleverly written - it completely turns around on you as it plays out. I don't really believe Sodebergh when he says he's quitting, but I guess it was a good send off.

So, I watched Savages, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I did like it, and it was well made and stuff. On the other hand, it trivializes the very, very real issue of drug traffic in Mexico, and makes it all about a bunch of hippie white people with Hearts of Gold© and Good Intentions©.

It bothers me that we don't see a single Mexican person that is not an evil torturer/kidnapper/murderer/criminal. Ah well.

But at least we got a threesome? So there's that.

Common mistakes about Mexican terms:

It's not tamale. It's tamal, in singular, and tamales in plural.

It's not Montezuma. It's Moctezuma, and it's pretty damn offensive that people repeatedly spell that wrong. No one has ever written Queen Victorria, or something, have they? It's not like it's even the hardest pre-hispanic name to say. (that's probably Coyolxauhqui. Hee. Or Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli.)

MMM, WHAT ELSE. I know there's tons more. OH! Not a term, but: NO SELF-RESPECTING MEXICAN WOULD EVER DRINK THE KIND OF PIRATED TEQUILA WITH A WORM. EVER.

Went over to celebrate my cousin's 14 birthday today. He just broke his wrist two days ago, and is walking around probably cursing his luck of getting a fracture days after the summer holidays started, lol.

It was 37C today. I was wearing a skirt and sitting on a plastic chair; I was so sweaty I was SLIDING off that shit.

Maybe this is why I like the rain so much? Because it's such a relief from the blistering heat, and it's so cool and refreshing and the wet earth smells so nice and it's a lovely thing to have at evenings or night and watch it from your balcony with the window open. And summer means thunderstorms everyday that literally light up the sky, not even with lightning but when the sky goes all orange-y and it looks almost like daylight and then there's lightning and you can see the drops falling sort of in slow motion. Rain in England was freezing and a bit dreary to have all day long when it's already freezing outside anyway, and it's easy to see why it's disliked. But here - rain's a bit magic, and it means grass going finally green and lovely smells and an end to the horribly hot spring.

There was hail tonight! Really weird, as it usually doesn't rain until mid-June, the end of our stupid april/may summer and the beginning of the rainy season (which sort of just becomes fall by late november and ends in summer in april. Winter? almost nonexistant. Spring? Motherfucking heat non deserving of a pretty name.)

To be honest I'm quite worried about the influenza outbreak in Mexico City - apparently there hasn't been any (or that many, in any case) cases outside the capital, and just a couple of relatives are there, but still, it's gotten so BIG now, wow, it's all over the news in here... Classes have been suspended until May 6 (!) and I just got an e-mail from Uni in Guadalajara saying classes were suspended monday and tuesday. Woah. My mom says it's crazy over there, that everyone's saying not to shake hands with anyone or say hi with a kiss or pretty much go out at all, although of course that's mostly just in the DF, not in province - yet.

Ergh. It's sort of weird, really, not being there while everything's going down... And yet there's a bit of relief, at the same time? I do hope it'll die down soon, though.

In a less disturbing and shallow note, we saw State of Play yesterday, the US bastardization, and I have to say it wasn't half bad, although it was doomed from the start not to reach the incredibly shiny levels of the UK version. Ben Affleck was especially wooden and boring in this, and the movie wasn't nearly as intense, intimate and emotional as the series. Ah well. I got to wear my new lovely skirt and white high heels, though, I felt so pretty, lol, and Robin actually wore a dress shirt, I should've taken photo evidence that it actually happened, haha. I'm so tired, though, it's so hard to actually fit the two of us in our tiny tiny beds...

OH THE LULZ. One of the cultural supplements from this newspaper did a bunch of interviews to Guadalajara-born people living and/or studying abroad, asking what they like about those places and what they miss most of Mexico. Well. One of the people interviewed, a woman married to a Dutch, said (and I'm typing right from the article because this is PRICELESS):

Las aguas frescas que son un lujo que allá en México todavía gozamos (como las del Chaplin). Las paletas de la Flor de Michoacán, las verduras frescas y los quesos del Merrcado Felipe Ángeles. Los Itacates de Av. Chapultepec. Los taquitos al pastor en Av. México casi esquina con Chapultepec, las tortas ahogadas Las Famosas, los Ricos Tamales de la Capilla de Jesús y las tortas Amparito. Los buñuelos del Santuario, los churros con chocolatito espeso de López Cotilla frente a la estación Juaréz. Las micheladas de López Mateos (Kome y Toma) y los mariscos Caramba! No había nada mejor que un domingo comiendo en el mercadito de la calle 34 y Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, un buen huachinango zarandeado, un coctel de camarones y unas tosaditas de ceviche.

OH MY GOD. SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE SOME MEXICAN FOOD TO THIS WOMAN, BECAUSE SHE IS OBVIOUSLY GOING HUNGRY. AHAHAHAHA. ALSO, SHE JUST GAVE FREE PUBLICITY TO LIKE A DOZEN RESTAURANTS, LOL.* Ahaha, I laughed so hard. Seriously, this girl needs to come to Mexico ASAP and gorge herself on food and possibly never going back to those cruel, cold northern places with not a single torta ahogada in sight, haha. XD

*(then again, they're GOOD restaurants/places to eat - it's quite bizarre to see places you've known all your life in print, haha.)

Weirdly enough, a cousin's cousin (23 years old! what the hell!) is marrying her Dutch boyfriend (who she met while he was in here in a student exchange, and then went to her flat and cleaned all her dishes, lol, when she was in London in her own student exchange) this December and going away to live in the Netherlands. I sort of want to show this thing to her, and watch her cringe, haha.

Dude, I totally forgot to say, but!

May 17 has been declared National Day for the Fight against Homophobia.

YAYZ. SO MUCH YAYZ. SEE, MEXICO, SOMETIMES, YOU CAN DO IT RIGHT. :D :D

I didn't do anything remotely Death of the Day-y today. ME FOR THE FAIL, Y/Y? I dunno. My father must have Issues with my granfather because we've never been to see his grave. And my great-grandma and uncle were both incinerated and their ashes are in churches so that rather takes away some of the day's glamour. I am trying to write a 'calavera' for the Doctor (geek? Me? NEVER!), but it's not coming right, ARGH.

So I haven't done much today but troll this site. It's sort of a vocabulary test in which every single word you get rice means that the sponsors give 10 grains of rice to empoverished countries. I'm not sure if that's really going to happen, but oh well, it is quite entertaining, and I've 'won' 9000 grains of rice so far. It's got 50 levels of dificulty, and I'm ashamed to say I've been going from 25 to 36 but not farther. Clearly, I need a dictionary. (altough they're actually pretty tricky words...)

In comic-related news, I started reading Wanted by Mark Millar because James McAvoy will star in the movie based on it (I KNOW. I'M SO LAME.), and I'm sort of torn right now. I'll say more once I've finished it. But the main character is drawn disturbingly a lot like Eminem. o_O

And I haven't watched either last week or this week's SPN. *ducks flying objects* (I did watch Heroes, though, and I headdesk-ed at so many people doing so many stupid things.)

Also, I'm sick and tired of hotmail not allowing me to get my LJ notifications. I don't want to change accounts, I've had that one for too long, but I'm considering of getting a yahoo one. Or something, dunno.

Well, I'm back. Remember how I said I'd take lots of pictures to show you guys? Well, I LIED. I kinda forgot my camera at home. *shifty eyes* SORRY. My dad took some with his cell, but I've no idea whatsoever how to get them to the computer, so.

I had a great time, especially because my dad decided to do every. single. embarassing thing one can do. LOL. I didn't give any present to my brother, though, which makes me feel kinda guilty, but then again I gave him beer last year (AREN'T I LIKE, THE BESTEST BIG SISTER EVER?) and the little asshole hasn't drunk it yet, so. Anyway, he seemed to enjoy his birthday, so whatever.

I would have had a better time if I hadn't had a stomachache, though. Then again, it's my own fault, because I ate too damn much. o_O

( Anyway, I know some of you guys wanted to know a bit about Mexican traditions, so here goes: )

Went looking for tango academies with teh best friend. I love how no matter for how long we haven't seen each other, we're still able to speak so damn easily, and have this actually comfortable silence - even if we're soooo different. But well, it was fun, and boy, I've been wanting to learn tango for ages (senior year of high school, I think). Oh, and there's nothing better than feeling sexy and having men whistle at you all day long. Nothing.

Kent continues to rock my socks off. Even if I don't understand a word XD But whatever. verbalthing! What does 'Dom Andra' mean? I really like that song. Oh, and I discovered how to get the Diéresis (or whatever it's called on other languages) on my computer: ä. Ain't it pretty?

Finally got to see Nichts Bereuen last night, and ooh, it was good. Not all-time favorite material, like Love in Thoughts is, but good nonetheless. Good acting, good photography, and this ocasional really, really funny moments that left me giggling madly. And Daniel Brühl. Did I mention Daniel Brühl? A nice movie about coming of age, and teenagers and sex.

On more serious news, México right now? It's a fucking circus. The candidate that lost in the elections claims that it was just a scam, and he went on strike on Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City's, and by proxy, of the entire country, most important avenue. Oh, and he installed joyrides and a plastic grass soccer field for the people camping there. WTF?? Now, his party went and actually went on strike in the actual Legislative Chamber, and President Vicente Fox couldn't give his annual activities report. The President. I mean, really, wtf? This is way out of control - and it was better that he didn't even enter the chamber, the thing looked like violence. *sigh* They say they won't even let him give the 'grito', a tradition from Independence Day in September 15. *shakes head in confusion*