Report # 978

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a great start to the week. I ended up going to VIPS one more time on Saturday seeing as I went downtown to buy a few things from the market and I was in the area. I bought some cajeta type cookies as well as a Mexican design thing for my mom and afterwards I had lunch and read the paper for a while in the restaurant. I picked up a frappuichino from El Globo later on before heading home.

On Sunday I met a friend at Fundidora Park and we went to the Horno 3 museum there which is a very cool place within the park that used to be where steel was made for many years. The actual museum is surrounding an old furnace and there is a cool show with lights and sparks as well as a video explaining the history of the steel industry in Monterrey. The coolest part was going up in a lift all the way to the top and having a wonderful view of all of Monterrey.

Unfortunately I had no idea that we were going to go to this place so I was caught without my camera which really sucked. It was such a sunny and clear day, so I really missed a great opportunity to take some very cool pictures. I sat a table with my friend for a while and we talked for a bit before the show and we were going to get something to eat later on but she had to go as her brother had a car accident and was in the hospital.

I walked to the metro and headed downtown to quickly stop at Interplaza and pick up some tacos from Buchakas. It was an absolute zoo in there like always so I just wanted to quickly grab the food and get out of there. I headed home and ate and just had a relaxing evening. Before going to bed I watched The Thing, a movie about some scientists who discover an alien space ship under the ice in Antarctica and when the aliens try to get into the humans' bodies and copy them.

I saw the original one when I was 11 years old, and there were a lot of parts that reminded me of that movie, so it was very similar. On Monday I woke up around 11:00 am and I had a shower and headed straight to the San Agustin mall to meet a friend for lunch. I had told her that we could meet at the Sirloin Stockade, but after arriving at the mall, walking around for a while, and reading the directory, it became very clear there was no Sirloin Stockade at this mall.

My friend texted me saying she was there and that she asked and was told there was no Sirloin Stockade as well, so I must have been confused with another mall I went to. I met her in front of Sears and we ended up having lunch in Focaccia. I always enjoy going there, and it was even better this time as we got the lunch special of a main dish, two side dishes and a desert for 99 pesos. (like 8 dollars) And this time they had converted to the coke machines so there were refills.

We had lunch and talked for a long time and we actually were in the restaurant for four hours ! It's very rare for me to sit in a restaurant talking to someone for so long, but the time really went by fast. Afterwards we bought some ice cream cones from Helados Sultana. Luckily I remembered how super big their ice cream is, so I only bought a single, and it was still huge. We walked around the mall for a while longer, and around 6:45 pm we decided it was time to head home.

I hugged my friend good-bye and caught the bus and then took two metro trains and another bus to go to Guadalupe as I had to meet another friend for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Seeing as I'm leaving Monterrey tomorrow I've been trying to spend time with everyone and say good-bye. I wasn't overly hungry, but I wasn't stuffed either, so I was able to have a plate of sushi and some miso soup. Of course after this meal I was completely full.

I got home at 10:00 pm, and that finished what was a fun but very long day. I got up today around 10:30 am and went to Fundidora Park to go for a run. I thought about making a stop at the museum again to see if I could head up and take pictures, but it was very cloudy today, so it wouldn't have been worth it. I will have time to go tomorrow morning, so if it's clear enough I will go and if not it will have to wait until I'm in Monterrey again in the future.

It felt a lot fresher outside today because of a big drop in the temperature. Yesterday was 33 C (91 F) and today was only around 23 C (73 F) with a very strong breeze, so it felt really nice today. I came home and had a shower and started to do my laundry one last time and then I headed to the Galerias mall to go to Cinépolis one final time. This time I watched a Mexican movie called Me Late Chocolate, and I really liked it !

I would say I've enjoyed over 75 % of the Mexican movies I've seen.... there have only been a couple that I thought were kind of boring, and only really one that I thought was complete trash. So the majority of the movies made in Mexico are actually of great quality and they have such good comedies. I will have to try and keep up and watch them while I'm at home. I still have a telenovela on DVD to watch, so I will start with that after returning home.

After the movie I had one final taco from Buchackas. It's interesting after never going there in four months, I went there three times in March, so I really enjoyed it and it was nice to find another good place to eat before leaving. I made a stop at HEB to buy some Mexican coffee for my dad and brother and then I walked home and here I am. So tomorrow evening is my flight to Mexico City and Arturo will drive me to the airport. I'll have one full day in Mexico City on Thursday and early on Friday morning I will board my plane and return to Vancouver.

I've been reading some very stupid stories about some political happenings that have been going on in Canada and my own province of British Columbia very recently. The senate in Canada is a huge problem and it's just full of corruption. Senators are completely unelected in Canada, and they are just appointed by the Prime Minister. I remember back in 2006 when he was first elected, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper talked about really reforming the senate and making it accountable, but seven years later, he has utterly failed in that regard.

In the past few weeks there have been stories about some senators collecting living allowance money when they probably shouldn't be, one senator was arrested for domestic violence, and a few others might not even be living in the province they are supposed to be representing. At first the Prime Minister didn't have a majority in the senate to implement those changes, so he kept appointing people from his own party, and soon he obtained his senate majority.

Next he didn't have a majority in the House of Commons, but he achieved that goal with the big election win in May of 2011. So almost two years later and Canada still is stuck with an unelected and unaccountable senate full of corruption. From what I read the Supreme Court of Canada is looking into what would be needed to either make changes to the senate to make it more accountable to Canadians (such as having elections) or to just outright eliminate the senate..... which I think most Canadians would support.

This will take a long time to have any real answer, but I hope when there is an answer it is a good one. As far as I'm concerned the Prime Minister and his Conservative party have been dragging their feet on this whole issue and they've done very little to truly make the positive changes needed that the Canadian people deserve that would give them at least some hope and confidence.

Ultimately though I think Canadians are fed up with the corruption that has taken place in the senate for so many years, so to suggest anything else other than to eliminate the whole senate altogether would just not be going far enough. I can say after all of the stories I've read regarding some of the senators in the last few weeks, I have less confidence in politicians than ever before as well as even less respect.

Things have gotten so bad I just really don't blame people for not voting anymore. Almost 40 % of Canadians didn't even bother voting in the last federal election, and unless politicians start listening to the people more and stop with the lies and corruption, it will be even less in the next one. So in terms of senate reform the Canadian government has failed miserably up until this point.

While they may one day reach a solution to this, taking over seven years is not acceptable, and the Prime Minister ended up doing exactly what all the previous Prime Ministers did..... appoint their own friends basically. And to think Canadians as a country have it really, really good it just scares me thinking how much more corruption there is in so many other countries in the world, because in Canada it is bad enough !

Speaking of elections, there will be a provincial election in my province of British Columbia this May, and if the opinion polls are to be believed, the governing party will go down to defeat after 12 years in power. There was some controversy this week as the opposition party released pages of a government plan to try and get more votes in the multicultural community.

If anyone is more interested of what exactly happened they can check out this article from CBC news: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/02/27/bc-liberal-ethnic-strategy.html Some of the wording of what was written in the plan has offended some people in the Chinese community, and other communities as well. The opposition party has tried to make people believe that government money was used in this plan, but the government has said it was just a plan and was never started.

From what I have read some of the wording is kind of offensive to minorities from certain ethnic groups, but the story has been blown out of proportion. It is to be noted the whole plan was released by the party trying to win the next election, so they didn't do so because they really felt it was wrong or outrageous, they did so because they knew it would make the government look bad and that they could get political points for doing so.

I've read some people calling on the Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, to resign, but that's just ridiculous. There have already been a few people within the party resign, and I mean I think the government has shown mistakes were made and people have taken responsibility. It was wrong to word the plans the way they did in such a way that made it seem like it was all about making apologies to ethnic voters about sins of the past just to get votes, but it's politics.... every politician will do something crazy to get votes.

And I still have no doubt in my mind that the BC Liberal Party will go down to defeat to the New Democratic Party in the May election, so there is no point of the premier resigning now..... she'll be fired by the voters in two months time anyways. I kind of feel bad for the woman as she hasn't done a bad job in her two years as premier.

She's mainly been cleaning up the trash left by her predecessor, but she has made some bad mistakes as well such as continuing to be a cheer leader for the HST even though it was super clear that the majority of British Columbians hated that tax. So in any event this is just an overblown issue and people can't be offended that the government had a plan to earn votes.... every government will try to earn votes in some way. The wording was stupid and not overly appropriate, but people are just overreacting !

Anyways that's enough politics for a long time again. I'm absolutely sick of the majority of the politicians out there and as I've said before I think 90 % of them are really not in it for the right reasons... well now I'm starting to think 95 % of them. I think the problem is that politics shouldn't be a career profession, it should be something that people who truly believe they have something to offer the people get involved with and stay around for 8-10 years and move on.

However having people who are politicians for decades, they just lose all touch with reality and become part of the problem and not the solution they probably wanted to be part of when they first came aboard. And until people understand that politics should just be a temporary job truly about making a positive difference within the communities, cities, and countries people live in, things will not change and the whole business will continue to be clouded with corruption. For the next question:

What issues are going on in your area right now that are truly frustrating you ? What do you think possible solutions are to fix these lingering problems ?

I wish everyone all of the best. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Friday, bye for now.

Sources: Senate abolition debated in the House of Commons. March 5, 2013 By Andy Radia. Canada Politics. ca.news.yahoo.com.

Leaked documents reveal Liberals' plan to win ethnic vote. cbc.ca. February 27, 2013

Report # 977

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a great weekend so far. After going for my run on Wednesday I came home and had a shower and headed to the Galerias mall to go to Cinépolis and watch Gangster Squad. It wasn't a movie that I wanted to see too badly but seeing as there wasn't really anything else on I went to see it and overall I thought it was a pretty good action movie. I had some dinner after at a place in the food court, and like usual after having all of that popcorn and food I was stuffed.

On Thursday I went for a run in the morning and came home and booked my flight back to Vancouver. I'll be arriving back in Vancouver at 10:35 am on Friday, March 8 so I think that is just a wonderful time to get back. Seeing as I didn't want to have to fly back to Texas and wait around in an airport there for a few hours before getting home I wanted a direct flight to Vancouver, so I chose a flight out of Mexico City.

Last night I booked a flight to Mexico City for March 6, so I will be able to spend some time with a friend there and quickly see the city again before heading home. I checked my visa process online yesterday evening, and there was still no news, so unless I get an answer in the next week, I'll be heading home without a resolution. I've done all I can do though so I will just have to head home and be patient and hope for the best.

I went to VIPS on Thursday afternoon and had some tortilla soup and pasta and enjoyed my 50 % discount. I thought that would be the last time I'd head to VIPS before I go back home, but I think I'll be going again today as I have to head downtown and pick up a few things. After lunch on Thursday I walked to El Globo and picked up a frappuichino. I've always enjoyed their frappes as they are so thick with tons of mocha and chocolate. It will definitely be good to be able to have a Tim Hortons Ice Cap again in a week though !

On Friday I ran once again though it wasn't an easy run as I had some bad cramps. I can't remember the last time I had cramps like that while I ran so it was a bit uncomfortable. I toughed it out and eventually the pain went away mostly and I was able to finish my run. It's amazing how easy it is to lose my time. Most days I have been running about three minutes slower than I was running before going to Texas. Those 11 days in a row without running and being sick really took a toll on me, and I'm still trying to get back to the level I was at less than a month ago.

I went to Cinépolis again on Friday, this time seeing Parker, an action movie with Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez. It's always funny seeing Jennifer Lopez play these roles of some silly woman struggling financially, yet she's obviously nothing like that in the real world. I suppose one may call it good acting, but I just call it complete fake ! I enjoyed the movie though as it had lots of action and some plot so it was cool. Afterwards I had something to eat from a Mexican place in the food court called Buchakas.

I had seen the place in various malls over the last few months but I had never tried it before. I had this giant taco (Gringa) which I had from some other places before, but here it was so huge, and it was a mix of pork and beef and melted cheese. I also had some Horchata and rice, and along with the three chocolate chip cookies from Subway later on I was stuffed once again. It will be good to get home and stop going through these crazy eating days !

The last few nights I've seen a bunch of horror type movies. I watched Gone, about a girl who was all paranoid about her sister being kidnapped and the cops didn't believe her because she's had some mental problems, and two Robin Williams movies, Insomnia and One Hour Photo. It was surprising to see those movies because Robin Williams always seems to be funny, but in those movies he played bad guys... they were both very good though and I enjoyed them.

I've already been for a run this morning, which makes nine straight days in a row, and I'll just finish typing this up and commenting everyone and then heading out. As some of you may know, the Catholic Church is in need of a new Pope as Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation a few weeks ago, finishing his term at the end of February. This was pretty surprising news as I read there hasn't been a Pope that has resigned for almost 600 years. So clearly what has transpired here is a shock to many people around the world who know anything about this sort of thing.

I can sort of understand his resignation in some ways. The job can't be too easy, though I'm sure it has its luxurious perks. However the man was 85, almost 86 years old, and he clearly felt that he didn't have the health or the energy to serve in the manner that was necessary of the Pope. I remember when Pope John II died back in 2005 being very surprised that the man they replaced him with was almost as old as he was... that just didn't make sense.

Of course with age there is experience and that would be super important in a job like this, but no one has to be around 80 years old to have lots of experience. This time around I think the Catholic Church needs to find someone at the very least under 70, someone who they could see leading the church for 20 years or so. And while it shouldn't be expected that the Pope would have to serve until he dies, having someone who could provide longevity would really be an important thing I'd think.

Now from what I've read there are almost 20 people who could be picked, though I'm sure much fewer of those people have a legitimate shot of being chosen. I think this is a great chance for the Catholic Church to show some renewal and pick someone who will not only be different, but more modern, and someone who has the energy and the dedication to take out the garbage. And anyone who doesn't think there is any trash within the Catholic Church is very naive as there have been various child abuse cases, and I still don't think this has been properly dealt with.

All of the religions have their controversies, problems, and sins, but it's up to the leadership of these religions to take charge and do something about it. I felt that while Pope Benedict was not a bad person, he didn't have the energy, commitment, or desire to truly investigate the wrong doings within the church and take positive steps to put an end to what was going on and provide some justice and closure on the dark chapter of the church's history.

While it was unfair for people to compare this Pope to his predecessor, John Paul II, he certainly didn't help his cause with his lack of acceptance towards people of different sexualities. And while as someone who is the head of a church, that's not surprising, but at times I felt he went out of his way to condemn the people who live differently, and with all of the horrific child sexual abuse cases happening in the catholic church and never hearing him do much about that, he just came across as a big hypocrite and someone who was targeting the wrong subjects.

So I would hope the new Pope that is chosen would be someone with more moderate views, someone who is relatively young by Pope Standards, at least in their 60's, and from a region other than Europe.... maybe choose the first Latin American Pope, the first black Pope.... there are certainly some great options out there from what I have read.

Ultimately though it's not about making history, it's about choosing the best person for the job, and hopefully with the vote, the right man is chosen and he can get to work immediately and bring some positive changes to the church.

For the next question:

What traits should the leader of a religion have ? Is is possible to follow the rules of the religion while modernizing certain beliefs ?

I will leave you all with some pictures that I took from San Antonio. This will conclude my pictures from Texas, and unless I take some pictures during my short stop in Mexico City, I won't have any posted for a while. I wish everyone all of the best with everything. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

Report # 976

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a great week so far. I haven't done too much of anything over the last few days as I've just been running each day, getting something to eat, and watching tons of movies. I've seen the Amazing Spiderman, Red Riding Hood, The Loved Ones, Piranha at home, and I went to see Les Miserables in theatre on Monday.

I never thought that it was a musical and I just thought it was going to be a story based on the book, but it was nothing but a very, very, very long musical, so I couldn't really appreciate the movie too much. What can I say ? I'm just not a fan of musicals. If it's like a live play I suppose it would be more entertaining, but I just can't get into watching a musical at the movie theatre.

After coming home and having a shower on Sunday, I headed out for lunch and went to VIPS shortly after. I just had some tortilla soup and a hawaiian hamburger... and a piece of chocolate cake too. I will go back again tomorrow as I will get a 50 % discount so it would be stupid to waste that. After watching the movie in the theatre on Monday I just had something to eat in the food court, fish and vegetables, so at least I ate somewhat healthy. Though the two donuts from Krispy Kreme probably canceled that out later !

Yesterday was a very dull day as I just went for the run, walked up to Super Salads and spent the whole day at home. After spending these dull days I know that I've made the right decision to head home super soon. I'll be ready to come back if I get the answer I want, and then I'd be working and have so much less free time, but for now it's just plain boring.

The guy who lives in the house here told me that he talked with his wife and they like having me here and I could pay just 1,000 pesos (80 dollars) a month to hold the place while I go back to Vancouver, and while I said I would think about it, I know that my mind is made up. Ultimately I have no idea how long it will take to have a resolution with the visa authorization, or even if I'll get the answer I want. And on top of all that I would still want to find an apartment type place, so I just don't have any plans to keep staying where I'm at.

Today I just wanted to share a comment from Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke. Here is the article by David Brown of yahoo sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/zack-greinke-could-play-worst-team-paid-most-163824712--mlb.html

He signed a contract worth well over 150 million dollars over the next six years with this team during the summer so I mean this guy will not be short for cash for a while. Though with the stupid spending habits of a lot of these professional athletes really who knows !

As the author of this article alludes to. in a lot of these contract negotiations, players will usually say how money is not the most important thing, and finding a place that will be a great fit for them and ultimately a place where they can win are primary, but in Mr. Greinke's situation that doesn't appear to be the case. Referring to the issue of money when he was looking for a team to sign with, Mr. Greinke had this to say:

"It's obviously the number one thing. I could play for the worst team if they paid the most. If the last place team offers $ 200 million and the first place team offers $ 10, I'm going to go for the $ 200 million no matter what team it was."

Now the writer makes the obvious point that no team offered Mr. Greinke the $ 10 a year or anything close to that. Obviously this guy would have made millions a year no matter what team he signed with, so on a number of levels his quote was incredibly stupid. I suppose we should commend Mr. Greinke for his honesty, at least he's not coming out and lying that money is not important when it clearly is, but I have to wonder where his head is.

I would think most professional athletes want to win, and they want to be a part of a winning team. As I said above, he would have made millions a year no matter what team signed him, and the difference between the offers on the table would not be that significant. There comes a point... how many more millions of dollars does this guy want ?

Being on the worst team in the league would be pretty hard after a while I think for a lot of players. Making millions of dollars a year can't take the sting out of losing so many games, or looking so bad in front of all of the people watching. And no doubt a great pitcher wouldn't look so great on a team that was so bad. And while Mr. Greinke is a capable pitcher, he's certainly yet to show that he's an amazing pitcher. He's had a couple of great seasons, but looking at his statistics and he hasn't shown anything too amazing.

Basically I think Mr. Greinke is just another example of an extremely greedy and selfish athlete, and reading his quote just makes it seem he's not even playing for the right reasons. He doesn't seem to care about winning too much, but about how much more money he can pocket. So I hope he fizzles out this season and fails to provide the Dodgers with a good return on their investment... it would just be fun to see someone of great selfishness fall flat on their face !

For the next question:

What do you think about the comments made by Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from Houston. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Saturday, bye for now.

Sources: Zack Greinke: 'I could play for the worst team if they paid the most.' By David Brown. Yahoo sports MLB. February 26, 2013.

Report # 975

So I've decided to head home a little faster than originally planned. I was going to wait around here for another month or so, but after thinking about it, there really is no point. I've done everything that I could do here and all that is left to do for the visa authorization is to wait, so I have decided that I will not pay to stay another month here and I'll head home sometime around the time that I'm paid up until to be here..... March 7.

This will make sense as if I pay to stay here another month, up until April 7, it would just be a waste of money as there is nothing more I can do here, and besides if I get news about the visa authorization I would be flying home suddenly anyways. On top of all that, this is not a place that would be suitable to stay long term. If I'll actually be living here and working here, it will make more sense to have an apartment type place instead of just renting out a room.

Not only would it be too expensive to be eating out every single day in the restaurants, it wouldn't really work for me staying here anways as it's a shared bathroom and if the other guy would be getting ready for work every morning, and I work at around the same hours, it wouldn't work out so well. It's been a great place in terms of location and having laundry and internet, but for living here long term I will just need something a bit different. It might be challenging to find, but I will have to cross that bridge when and if it comes.

My grandmother said I could use her air miles to fly home, but from what I've seen they don't really have any options with air miles flying home from Mexico, so that might not work. It might be easiest to go to Mexico City as they always have direct flights to Vancouver from there and it would be a much nicer trip home than going through the US and another airport or two on the way back. So I'll definitely have a bit of research to do in the next week as I'll have to figure out when and how I'll be getting home.

It will be a bit bittersweet heading home. Obviously after being gone so long it will be great to see everyone and go to Tim Hortons again, but after putting so much time and effort into this working in Mexico thing, I really did want to have the authorization before coming home, and unless i happens sometime this coming week, I will be going home before hearing the news I wanted to hear. I suppose it really doesn't matter as I wouldn't be able to change anything, but I would really hate to fail after everything I've done. About all I can do now is just be patient and positive.

I had a very lazy day on Thursday as I just walked up to Super Salads to pick up some lunch and then just stayed home the rest of the day. I watched the Pursuit of Happiness, which was cool as it was a movie I had wanted to see for a number of years but never had gotten the chance. I went for a quick walk in the evening to get some fresh air and that was really about it. On Friday I headed to Fundidora Park and went for my first run in 12 days. After spending a week in Texas and still getting over the flu, it had been a while since my last run.

I still had a bit of a cough, but not bad enough to put off running for another day, so I forced myself to go and I think I did alright. I was a few minutes slower than usual, but that's ok as I still ran the whole thing without stopping like usual. Afterwards I came home and had a shower and headed out to Cinépolis to see Beautiful Creatures which was another one of those fantasy romance action movies, but it was pretty cool.

I had lunch at Wok afterwards, enjoying lots of good sushi, and then just headed home and had a relaxing evening. I ran again on Saturday morning, and once again came home, had a shower, and walked to the Galerias mall to go to Cinépolis and watch a movie. This time I watched the Silver Linings Playbook, and it was like a romantic comedy about two very screwed up people, so it was very interesting for me to see. It's always nice to see people out there with more problems than myself...... ok I'm just kidding but it's good to know I'm not alone with problems in this world.

After the movie I just grabbed something to eat from Wendy's, and then headed home. I really, really, really have to start eating healthier. All of my running may be able to hide my horrible eating habits, but I know it's not doing my health any benefits, so that's another reason why if and when I get work visa and get back here I find a place with kitchen and actually take time to make some food and eat more fruits and vegetables. I know I can do it, I just have to prove that I can in the future !

In the evening I watched the James Bond movie The World is Not Enough. I had been thinking about it for some reason and thought that since I only saw the movie once back in 2000 it was time to see it again. I always say how I hate watching a movie a second time, but after so many years pass I actually like seeing a movie that I enjoyed years ago a second time, but it has to be a long time.... not necessarily 13 years, but probably closer to 10 than five !

I've already been for my run this morning and I'll probably just buy a paper and head to VIPS and have lunch in a bit to have a relaxing afternoon. Today actually marks my eighth anniversary here on Xanga, as I started my site on February 24, 2005. It's hard to believe so much time has passed, and I was so young..... just 19. Now I'm 27 and feel so old.... how times change. If I was a politician I suppose this would be the time to end my term and walk away if I was to term limit myself, but there are no real rules on Xanga.

I will have my 1,000 entry in less than three months so at the very least I have to hang on for that. I have mused in the past about maybe stopping sometime after my 1,000th entry, but I really don't know. For eight years I've managed a perfect posting schedule, posting exactly every three days no matter what.... I don't think too many people have been that strict and crazy with their blogs. Whether I've been in Canada, US, Mexico, depressed, super busy, without much motives to write.... I've still managed to keep up my streak, so that I am proud of.

Of course nothing lasts forever though, so there will be a time this will come to end but I don't know exactly when. I at least would say something in advance though.... not like those crazy people who just suddenly shut down their sites and disappear from the face of the earth. Nor would I shut this down and open up another one..... like some people have done..... well some people probably are on their third by now ! This is what I have had for eight years, and this is what I will continue to have, there will be no more after this that's for sure !

Anyways, thanks to everyone for reading and leaving such cool comments over the years, I do appreciate them ! For the next question:

Have you ever thought about how long you plan on blogging for ? Is it something that you could see yourself doing for your whole life, or do you think there will be a time you are ready to move on from Xanga and blogging in general ?

I will leave you all with some pictures I took from Austin Texas. Some of them are from the Texas capital building, and others are from the University of Texas campus. I wish everyone all of the best with everything. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

Report # 974

Well here I am back at my place in Monterrey, México after spending a week in Texas. I've actually been back almost three days already, so the time continues to fly. I got into the airport in Monterrey after 6:00 pm and went through the custom's people and called my friend Arturo letting me know that I was there. He told me he would be there in 45 minutes, which would be good timing as I still had to pick up my bag and go through another part of the security.

I got through everything and waited over 45 minutes, but Arturo was still not there. He never really arrives when he says he does so I wasn't too surprised. He did call me, well he lets the phone ring once and then I have to call him back, and he let me know the traffic was really bad and it would be another 20 minutes. It was a bit more than that, but finally he arrived and rang me one more time saying he couldn't find me, but I wasn't too far away... I could see him on his phone.

On the way home Arturo did more of his usual antics trying to talk to women on the street, but of course he got no where with that. I just had to sit next to him and act embarrassed and that I had not part in it... which I didn't ! We finally arrived at my place and I asked him how much I should give him for the gas and he said 100 pesos (like 8 dollars) It was cheaper than the 180 that a taxi cab would have charged me just to get me to the nearest metro station so I wasn't going to complain !

I was still feeling not too great as I still had my cough and runny stuffed up nose, so I didn't stay up too late before going to bed. On Tuesday morning I woke up around 9:00 am and decided to go to the Galerias mall to go to Cinépolis and watch the new Die Hard movie, It's a Good Day to Die Hard. As expected it had tons of explosions, and some plot twists, so overall it was a pretty good movie.

Afterwards I had a couple of pieces of pizza and picked up some donuts from the Krispy Kreme store which had finally opened in that mall. Obviously a very poor day of eating, especially for someone still not over their flu... no wonder I didn't feel so well later. The weather on Tuesday was perfect though. It was cloudy with a great breeze, and it didn't feel cold and it didn't feel hot.... it was perfect. On Wednesday I woke up at 9:00 am and in the afternoon I decided to go to Fundidora park and go for a walk.

It was quite a bit hotter than the previous day, around 30 C (86 F) and with the sun out in full force I definitely felt it. I walked through the park and down one side of the Santa Lucía river walk and headed downtown to have lunch at VIPS. I had tortilla soup with a plate of fries and a piece of chicken and just sat and read the paper for a while. After lunch I headed out and walked towards the metro station, though I relaxed underneath a tree for almost an hour just enjoying the breeze.

I stopped at Soriana on the way home to pick up a few things and then I just got home and watched a movie, An Unfinished Life. It was about a mother who got out of an abusive relationship and left with her daughter to stay with the grandfather, who was the father of the man she was married to who died in a car crash when she was driving. And the grandfather never really forgave the daughter in law for that. Especially with Morgan Freeman and his history with a bear !

Today will be another day of just taking it easy. I'm still getting over that nasty flu that I had. The sore throat, headache and fever are long gone, but I still have a bit of a cough and my nose is a bit plugged up. Originally I wanted to run by today, but I think I'll give my self a few more days to get back to basically 100 %. Now that I'm back here in Monterrey, I don't plan on staying here for too much longer. I'm hopeful that I'll get news about the visa authorization in the next few weeks, but if not, I don't plan on sticking around and waiting forever.

I think I'll wait about another month, and if I don't here anything, I will just head home anyways. This doesn't change much as I would have to head home if I do get the news anyways. I just can't sit here forever waiting and waiting and spending money and not really doing anything. I am certainly hoping it won't come to that though and that I'll receive some answer in these coming weeks, as the foreign relations department has had my paperwork since February 1.

I've known for a long time that all I can do is wait, and of course there is nothing that myself or anyone else can do to speed up this whole process so I will continue to wait. If I don't hear anything in the next month though, it will come to a point where I just won't want to be here waiting anymore, so the plan will be to return home in a month, with news received or without news received. It will just be time to go home and see if I can do something there while I would continue to wait. However like I said, I'd really prefer to have answers before then !

Speaking of answers, I'm sure that is what a lot of people would like to have in terms of the story of South African olympian Oscar Pistorius. For those of you who don't know, a lot of people were truly fascinated by this individual in the 2012 summer games in London because not only was he running on two prosthetic legs, not only in the paralympics, but in the olympics themselves with all of the able-bodied athletes.

This was a big story at the time and a lot of people were super impressed with this individual. I can imagine he picked up at least a few endorsement deals in the following months since the olympics. Flash forward six months later, and now the life of Oscar Pistorius is in an entirely different point.... he is facing murder charges in the death of his girlfriend at his home in South Africa.

I was shocked when I first heard the news and from what I read it just sounded like he and her had an argument and he lost his temper and shot her. Upon further reading, Mr. Pistorius is claiming that he heard noises and he thought there was a burglar in his house. Now from what I have read there have been serious problems with this case in terms of some of the evidence that has been gathered and heard, and even the detective is facing his own criminal investigation, forcing a new person to be chosen to look into this case.

It's always amazing how what are supposedly supposed to be professional departments operating with such problems. However it's important not to get away from what happened here..... Oscar Pistorius clearly killed his girlfriend. Now maybe what he says about thinking there was a burglar in the house is 100 % true... it very well could be, but that doesn't change the fact that he took the decision to grab a gun and pull the trigger. Shouldn't he have been at least talking first to find out who was in that bathroom ?

So in my opinion, accident or not, Oscar Pistorius clearly was responsible for his actions, and he should be punished for her death. At the end of the day if someone dies in a situation like this, someone still has to pay the price for it especially with it happening under such stupid and negligent actions. It's just such an unfortunate thing to have happen after all of the great news people got out of reading of Mr. Pistorius and his accomplishments during the summer.

Now we certainly can't all rush to judge him here, but I just wouldn't be able to understand how any court could just let this guy free without any jail time. Even if his story is 100 % true, his girlfriend is still dead and that's 100 % his fault. As far as I'm concerned he should be in jail no matter how the case ends up, but the only thing needed to be decided is whether the guy just did something completely idiotic that led to the death of his girlfriend, or if he actually did murder her. That will be for the courts to decide, but in either situation he's guilty of something and it's a true shame he has put himself in this situation.

This could be just another example of how there are so many people in this world who have guns that really shouldn't. They clearly don't think before using them and with a fire first, think later attitude, someone will always end up getting hurt. And in this case someone has lost their life, so murder or not, the woman is dead and now Oscar Pistorius will have to live with that for the rest of his life. For the next question:

What do you think about the Oscar Pistorius story ? Should he be arrested and be forced to spend time in jail even if he is not found guilty of murder, why or why not ?

I will leave you all with my final set of pictures from Dallas. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

Sources: thestar.com/news/world Oscar Pistorius case: Lead detective removed from case after announcing he is facing attempted murder charges. By: Peoshni Govender. Reuters. February 21, 2013. Oscar Pistorius wikipedia.

Report # 973

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all had an awesome weekend. I am typing this up from the San Antonio airport as I wait to check-in and fly back to Monterrey for a while, though I hope it won't be too long as I want to be able to receive the visa authorization very soon and fly back home for a month or so. It's just after 12:00 pm here and the airline doesn't open up it's check-in counter until exactly two hours before the flight, which would be 1:50 pm, so I have some time to spare.

I woke up this morning at 9:00 am and had a shower and packed up all my things and then walked to the bus station to take one bus downtown and then another bus to get to the airport. It's definitely soooo much cheaper than having to take a taxi. My friend Arturo will be able to pick me up tonight so that will be great as well. I enjoyed my last few days in Texas the best I could considering I was feeling super sick. The worst was on Thursday night when my fever was so bad and my head was thumping so much and I had trouble breathing.

I ended up taking a taxi early Friday morning in Houston to a hotel and getting into bed around 4:00 am and sleeping until 12:00 pm. I had a shower and got ready to meet a friend, Catalina who I had known for a while. She was from El Salvador originally but has lived in Houston for many years. She came to the hotel and picked me up and we headed downtown to Hermann Park which was a very nice place by the zoo with some great views of the city and lakes as well.

It was funny seeing a sign saying that fishing was prohibited for anyone older than 12 and younger than 65... I can imagine some police officer asking a 13 year old kid or some 64 year old man to see there ID ! I was still not feeling that great, but my fever had gone away and I was definitely feeling better than I was the previous night. After touring through the park and some nearby streets we took the metro downtown and walked through some streets for a while.

My favourite part was a building where we were able to go up to the 60th floor and enjoy a view of the enjoy city and landscape in the distance.... it was very cool. At this time I was starting to feel very cold so I sat in front of the sun shining through the windows in the skyscraper. It wasn't that it was cold, it was probably around 20 C (68 F) but with the chilly wind outside and with the fact I was sick, I was feeling super cold very easily.

After spending sometime in the tower we headed down and walked back to the car. My friend drove me to a Walgreens and I was able to buy some more pills to help with my flu. We drove around afterwards looking for a place to eat, but the first place we went to was so busy they had a line-up well out the door. I was just too sick and too cold to have to wait outside. We went to a place called Mambo's Seafood. It was like a Mexican place, and every single person in the restaurant was latino.

There was actually a black girl who was a waitress, but even she spoke spanish, so I guess she must be from the Dominican Republic or Colombia... either that or just be an african american person that studied spanish ! The food was very good, though it certainly wasn't authentic Mexican food. The rice was about the same as the rice that accompanies chinese food, and instead of tortilla chips they had crackers. The seafood was very good and everything in general was.

However I ate only like 10 % of my plate as I just was not hungry at all. At this point my fever had returned and I was absolutely freezing. We headed back to the car and my friend turned on the heat and I definitely appreciated that. I knew I just had to get back to the hotel and rest. My friend dropped me back at the hotel and I thanked her for spending the day with me. It just sucks that I felt so poorly, but there was nothing I could do about that. I got into bed just after 8:30 pm and despite waking up almost every single hour, I didn't get out of bed until 10:00 am the next morning.

My fever was gone once again by Saturday morning and I took the bus and metro to downtown Houston. Unfortunately the Greyhound station in Houston doesn't have a place to look after bags, so I had to carry around my bag the whole day..... at least it has wheels. I just walked around the downtown streets for a few hours and took some pictures.

It was actually the NBA allstar weekend in Houston so lots of people were there for that... even people with religious pamphlets trying to tie the allstar game into the two teams of Light and Dark (God vs. Satan) I swear some of these church's come up with the strangest analogies ! I had lunch at a deli downtown, just having a soup and a sandwich, and when it got dark I headed to a Starbucks for a couple of hours until it closed.

After 10:00 pm, I walked to the Greyhound station and sat in the cafeteria for a while and uploaded some pictures. I had a long time to wait as my bus to San Antonio didn't leave until 3:15 am. I wasn't able to sleep at all on the three hour and 15 minute bus ride, though I kept my eyes closed the whole way. When I got into San Antonio at 6:30 am, I spent an hour and a half in a Starbucks, and then I found the bus to take to get to my hotel.

I had to walk a ways but when I got there it was only after 10:00 am, so I had to pay five dollars extra to be able to check in at that hour instead of waiting until noon. It was the cheapest hotel I had stayed in... 45 dollars, and you get what you pay for. This place had a terrible internet connection that hardly worked at all, and they didn't have any shampoo, and there was even a small cockroach in a drawer with a bible.

I had a quick shower and took a bus downtown and walked around for a while and had lunch at Denny's. Ordering a Grandslam breakfast, 2 pancakes, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 sausages, 2 eggs and hashbrowns was not a great idea. I figured since I had eaten basically nothing in the past two days I deserved a big meal, but I wasn't thinking about how much fat was in that dish and I didn't feel all that great later. I spent the afternoon walking along the riverwalk in San Antonio.

I found out why the riverwalk in San Antonio is green and why in Monterrey it's a crystal clear blue colour. Because in Monterrey it's man made and in San Antonio, it's a real river I believe. The riverwalk goes far past downtown and leads into trails for walkers, joggers, and cyclists that go well  beyond where I was able to walk to. At around 3:15 pm, I decided it was time to head back downtown and head home. I got back downtown by just after 4:00 pm, took a bus, and got back to the hotel by 4:30 pm.

At this point I just had no energy left and I could hardly keep my eyes open. I decided to take a nap for 2.5 hours and then stay up for a while before going to bed for the night. I went to bed at 5:00 pm and set the alarm, or so I thought, for 7:30 pm. It turns out I didn't turn it on, and I didn't wake up until 9:00 pm. I stayed up for almost two hours when the internet stopped working so I just decided to go back to bed. I woke up lots throughout the night, though I stayed in bed until 9:00 am this morning.

So aside from being sick I've enjoyed my time in Texas a lot. I've got to see the four largest cities, meet some people I never thought I'd get to see, and get lots of wonderful pictures. I'm just so sick of being sick so I just want to get back to normal and be healthy again. I have to wash my jacket and all my clothes as it just feels like I'm walking around sick. I would like to be able to start running again seeing as I haven't gone in 8 days, though I think it might take me a couple of days before I'm ready for that again.

Anyways, that's all I have for today, for the next question:

Are you able to sleep on buses or planes ?

It's too slow to upload pictures here so I will have to wait until Thursday to upload some more. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Thursday, bye for now.

Report # 972

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a great week. I'm super tired after some very long days, so it's kind of nice I just have a few days left of this crazy city exploring adventure. My trip to Dallas got off to a soaking wet start as I was trying to find the hotel that I looked up online. I got off the bus at the right place but went on the wrong street so finally just went to a hotel that was there.

They surprisingly were fully booked on a Tuesday morning in February, but the guy there was very helpful, and he actually called the Best Western Hotel that I wanted and had a driver take me over there. I arrived and quickly checked in and had a shower as I was in a super hurry to get to the IHOP to see my friend. Ximena from Ecuador. I arrived at around 10:30, after running for a ways and she was inside waiting so it was great that things worked out. We had breakfast and then walked to the house she was staying and her friend drove us to the bus station to go downtown.

We didn't really have much of a plan, just to walk through all the streets there and explore everything we could. It was nice walking in the fresh 11 C (52 F) air, especially after the super hot weather that Monterrey was having... though I will admit we were both freezing at night when the temperature really dropped. We went to the JFK memorial, some city plazas, parks, a cool church, and the Dallas World Aquarium. The Aquarium was huge and it was definitely worth visiting.

A tourist officer on a bike helped us out in the evening when we were trying to find the Chipotle restaurant, and he actually gave us a city map, which was super helpful. We both had taken pictures of a map on a sign post for our reference, so we were able to navigate the city pretty well. We got back to the bus station after dinner and took the bus home at 9:33 pm, and my friend's friend picked us up and even drove me back to the hotel, which I was super thankful for.

I said good-bye to my friend knowing that I probably wouldn't see her for a long, long, long time, but really it was only rare coincidences that brought us together in Dallas to start with, so it was very cool to meet her... the first person from Ecuador that I met in my life. I went to bed before 2:00 am and slept a good eight hours, so I was refreshed for the next day, Wednesday. Basically I took the bus downtown and tried to visit the few places that we hadn't managed to see on Tuesday.

I have to admit that we did an amazing job seeing the city and there were only a couple of things that I saw that we could have seen on Tuesday, such as the Pioneer Plaza and the Dallas City Hall. The other places I went to, Old City Dallas Heritage Park, and White Rock Lake were much further outside the city. I took a bus to go to White Rock Lake, which was a big area of water with tons of cyclists, runners, and people walking around the super long trail that seemed to go all around the lake.

I walked around a good part of the lake and then headed home as I wanted to be back a little bit earlier that night.I had things to do to get ready for my next couple of days, so unfortunately I didn't get into bed until around 1:30 am, having to get up at 7:30 am yesterday morning to catch my bus to Austin at 10:15 am. The bus got into Austin around 1:30 pm, and unfortunately the only thing I forgot to check, was the location of the Austin greyhound station.

Unlike San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, the Austin Greyhound station was not right downtown and I just assumed it was. Fortunately I was able to check my bags in while I explored the city, and I found a bus that went right downtown close by so it wasn't a big deal. Austin was super sunny and much warmer than Dallas, probably around 21 C. (70 F) Unfortunately I was starting to feel lousy as I was coughing and feeling very tired. I knew I was a bit sick in the morning, but little did I know how worse it was going to get.

Seeing as I didn't have too much time in Austin and that I really wasn't feeling that well, I basically just walked through some downtown streets, toured the Texas capital building, and made a quick trip through the University of Texas Austin campus. It was cool seeing the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library as well..... I never had seen one of those before. After touring the campus and some of the buildings, I took the bus back to nearby the Greyhound station and just had something to eat at IHOP as there wasn't much else there.

At this point I was really feeling lousy, my fever was worsening and my head was thumping, and my breathing wasn't even normal. I almost decided not to take the bus, but I didn't want to screw up my plans, so I toughed it out and got on the Greyhound bus at 10:00 pm, for the three hours trip to Houston. I have a hotel reservation here, but it's not until tomorrow so I think I'm going to have to make one for tonight as its 2:00 am here and I didn't realize that the reservation isn't until 3:00 pm !

So after typing this up I guess I'll take a taxi and see if I can check-in a day early and get some sleep as I really need a good night's sleep. Thankfully the store here in the Houston Greyhound sold fever/pain aspirins and I'm definitely feeling better now. I'll probably take one more before bed to get this fever out of my system. I have a friend here in Houston that I'll be spending some time with so that will be fun. It's always great to see people that earlier there didn't seem to be a real chance of seeing them.

Everything has been pretty good in Texas, though sometimes the people on the streets downtown are a bit frustrating, always someone wanting money ! One guy even told me how he was working at the American Airlines Arena but he hadn't received his first cheque yet and if I could help him out.... he even showed me his ID and photo !It's common unfortunately, big cities often have major problems with homelessness.  It was cool going through the University at Austin though and seeing all of the diversity, I hadn't seen that much diversity in a long time.

After halfway through my Texas trip I'm definitely tired of all the moving around and while I've enjoyed seeing these places so much, I'm definitely ready to get back to staying in one place every night and not moving around every other day. And more than that I'm just ready to get the visa authorization over with and start working.... I know I can't go on forever without working !

So my last couple of days here in Texas and on Monday I will fly back to Monterrey and continue to wait the visa process. Anyways I have to get this posted and get out of here, so for the next question:

When you are sick do you try and get better without taking pills, or will you take aspirins in order to feel better ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from Dallas. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.

Report # 971

I'm in San Antonio ! It's exciting to be here and to see a new city and a new state and to have my first real trip to the US since I was here in July of 2010 when I visited eastern Washington State and parts of Idaho. My last couple of days in Monterrey were pretty relaxing. After typing my last entry up at Starbucks, I made an order from Super Salads and picked it up and walked home.

On Sunday I ran at Fundidora Park for the last time in a while and came home and washed up. In the afternoon I headed downtown and went to VIPS and read the paper for a couple of hours and had a great lunch. It was a super hot day, around 32 C (90 F) but it felt really nice ! On the way home I stopped at Interplaza and printed off my bus and plane tickets and took the metro and headed home and gave my grandmother a call as I hadn't talked to her for almost a month.

I talked to my parents a few days ago as well so I've talked to basically all of my family members in the last 10 days. I got up at 9:00 am yesterday morning and had a shower, packed my bags, and looked up some places to see in Dallas. It will be a challenge trying to see everything using public transit, but a lot of places are close together downtown, so I'm sure I'll get to see quite a bit. I'll get to spend today with my friend from Ecuador, while tomorrow I'll have the whole day alone.

I got out of the house just after 10:30 am and walked up to the Metro station with my bag and took the station to the end of the line so I would be a little closer to the airport, not having to pay the taxi driver so much. I still had to pay him 180 pesos (over 14 dollars) but better than having to pay 250 pesos like I did in previous years. Maybe when I fly back to Monterrey I will see if my friend Arturo can pick me up, but he might have classes so I'm not too sure.

The line-up at the airline bag check was next to nothing, though the employees really were on my visa to see if I had over-stayed my 180 days. I told them I had already calculated my stay, but one guy said that not all months have 30 days... which I obviously knew ! The other employee at the counter took out his cell phone and wrote down each month of days on a paper and did the math.

He didn't count the first day I arrived, so he got 175 days, and I had calculated earlier 176 days, so either way giving me a few extra days. It was kind of frustrating seeing them go so in detail to see if I had over-stayed my time, but I guess it's their job and if someone overstays, they have to pay a fine, so it would be their job to catch those people. I had lots of extra time so I had lunch at Carls Jr. before heading through the security dates.

I used the internet for a while to pass the time and boarded the plane sometime after 2:30 pm. I wanted to quickly grab a frappuichino but the guy at the gate told me I couldn't bring them on the plane, so that idea went out the window. It was just an hour flight to San Antonio, Texas, though it took quite a while to get off the plane, as the lady driving the walkway to connect to the plane to get off had trouble lining it up.

It didn't take too long to get my bag and get through customs, in fact the guy just asked me what was inside my bag and that was it. I have to say it was clearly evident that I got treated differently than the Mexicans entering the country. The Mexicans had to scan their fingers and have their pictures taken and I didn't have to do any of that. I guess being Canadian helps sometimes, though personally I think everyone should be treated the same no matter where they are from.

Afterwards I took out some money from an ATM, bought a pack of M&Ms to get some change and then took the bus outside of the airport all of the way downtown to the Greyhound Station. It was great that I had done the research the day before and finding out about the bus, paying only $ 1.10... a taxi would have been sooooo expensive.

After arriving at the Greyhound station I was able to check-in my bag and leave it at the station so I wouldn't have to lug it around all day. It was after 5:30 pm so it was starting to get dark, but I decided to go on a picture taking spree. I was amazed how much cooler it was in San Antonio than in Monterrey. When I left Monterrey it was sunny and around 28 C (82 F), though San Antonio was having a cool and cloudy day, and it was only around 14 C (58 F).

It was nice to have a cool and cloudy evening to walk around and take pictures. I actually walked around the downtown area pretty well, walking for over three hours, and taking hundreds of pictures. San Antonio is a very beautiful city and my first impression is that it's a great place with a nice Mexican flavour to it.Downtown there are churchs that look like some of the churches in Mexico, many Spanish names, Mexican restaurants, and even a branch of the Mexican university UNAM and a Mexican cultural centre.

So while the downtown has the Mexican influence, the neighbourhoods and streets, houses and lawns seem to be a lot more like the places in Canada than Mexico. I saw a bit of the San Antonio riverwalk, and I really wanted to see this because I have spent so many days running along the riverwalk in Monterrey, which was based off the one in San Antonio. The riverwalk in San Antonio is larger, and goes in more directions than the one in Monterrey, and the trees along the riverwalk are definitely larger in San Antonio, though the big difference I saw was the colour of the water.

In Monterrey the water is crystal clear blue, though in San Antonio it has the dark green colour. Maybe they dont' put chlorine in it like they do in Monterrey, or maybe the difference in the climate, but the colours are certainly way different. That being said, both riverwalks are beautiful in their own ways.

I was really impressed with how many photos I was able to take, and getting lots of walking exercise, especially as I won't be running at all this week. And it was great to see so much of downtown San Antonio just on this one evening that I was here and getting lots of night pictures. One guy in a plaza said to me "Sir, can I ask you a question ? Why are you taking pictures of statues ? Do you even know what that statue is for ?

I told him I was going to read, and then he said "Well is that what you do ? Go around taking pictures of statues ? I don't really like people like that so I headed in the opposite direction... there are always weird people in downtown areas. I will have a full day here in the city before I return to Monterrey, so I will definitely get to see more.

I stopped in at Starbucks and had a Mocha Frappuichino and an over-priced sandwich and used the internet for a while, though now there is internet in the Greyhound station. Greyhound has definitely improved since the last time I used them in 2009. So now I'm basically just relaxing and waiting for the bus to Dallas which leaves at 2:30 am. I purposely booked my bus super late so I could sleep on the bus and not have to pay for a hotel.

I will get in to Dallas just before 8:00 am and quickly head to a hotel, have a shower, and head to IHOP to meet my Ecuadorian friend. It will be an exciting day. It was great to be able to have internet access at Starbucks and in the Greyhound station. I've got all of my 233 San Antonio photos uploaded to Facebook and I've got this typed so it's time to get going as the bus will be leaving in less than 30 minutes and I'll have to get to sleep. Anyways, for the next question:

When was your last trip ? Where did you go ?

I will leave you all with some of the pictures that I took from San Antonio. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Friday, bye for now.

Report # 970

So this will be my last entry here from Monterrey for a while. My internet connection wasn't working this afternoon and I wanted to get this typed up so I just decided to walk up to Starbucks and get this done. On Wednesday afternoon I booked my ticket to go to San Antonio. Even though there were still a few days that I could have received news regarding my visa authorization, I new that the flight I wanted wasn't going to be there forever and I had to get it at the price it was at while I had the chance.

I paid 182 dollars for a round-trip Monterrey to San Antonio flight and I will head to San Antonio on Monday the 11th and come back on Monday the 18th. Seeing as I've never really had a chance to explore Texas I will try and spend a few days in Dallas and Houston as well. In fact I will try and take a Greyhound Bus to Dallas shortly after arriving into San Antonio as I will have a friend to visit there who will just be there for one day.

So basically my plan with all this is to exit Mexico before my 180 days are up and spend a week in Texas and then fly back to Mexico and continue to wait for the visa authorization, flying back to Vancouver immediately when I have it. I am looking forward to exploring some new places that I've never been before, but I am really hoping that I get some more news soon as I am more than ready to begin working... six months of vacation is too much !

On Wednesday I went for a run in the afternoon and afterwards came home and had a shower and walked up to Galerias and had lunch in the food court before walking over to the other mall, Plaza Real, and having a frappuichino from the Italian Coffee Company. In the evening I had a craving for some tacos so I picked up two of those from the local taco place and that was about it. I ran again on Thursday morning and decided to head to the Planetarium.

I looked up the bus routes online and found a bus that goes directly to the Planetarium, but after waiting and waiting, it just didn't come. I wasn't going to wait forever so I just took another bus and walked for about 45 minutes after and made it there. It was so hot this week as the days were around 30 C (86 F) and I definitely felt the hot sun. I purchased a ticket to see a movie about life in the Arctic, but it didn't start until 4:00, so I had over an hour to explore the Planetarium.

The first floor had all of this cool science stuff, while the second floor was a temporary display with Alice and Wonderland themed things.... it was definitely more for kids. The third floor was all about the human body and how it functions and what makes everyone unique, and the forth floor was closed for setting up the next display. The fifth floor was some Mexican history exhibition, but I didn't have time to see that as the movie was going to start.

It was a 40 minute IMAX movie about the animals who live in the Arctic, their lives, and how they've been affected by climate change. Normally I'd say that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but seriously, the people who think climate change is 100 % false are just completely blind and they are just choosing to be ignorant to what is a major global issue. Some people just need to open their eyes and enlighten themselves a little more.

The movie was voiced by Meryl Streep, well the original in English, but I saw it in Spanish so someone else did the voicing. Then again I never would have known Meryl Streep did the voicing if it didn't actually say her name; it's not like I'm an expert on how everyone sounds ! After the movie I headed out and walked back the way I came and had a Tilapia dinner at IHOP before picking up a Blizzard at DQ in San Agustin and heading home.

I had ran and walked a lot that day and I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back home a little after 7:00 pm. I ran on Friday morning and came home and had a shower and walked to Cinépolis after to see Flight, a great Denzel Washington movie where he plays a pilot who miraculously landed a doomed plane saving almost everyone on board, though with his drinking problem, a whole story is made out of the movie..... very great film !

I had lunch and read the paper at Wok, having some miso soup and sushi before walking home. Friday was actually the one break from the heat, as the city actually got a decent rain and it was only around 20 C (68 F) Today it's back up to 25 C (77 F) and from what I've seen tomorrow is going to be another hot day. It will be a bit cooler in Texas, especially in Dallas, so I'll get to cool down for a week. I can't complain about this heat though, I'm still able to go for my run everyday and it's not all humid and sticky so it's been decent.

I was cleaning up my place this morning so it's all clean and tidy before I leave and I went for a run and came home and had a shower and saw that my internet wasn't working so that's why I'm at Starbucks. I've already downed a Venti mocha frappuichino and they definitely aren't great for thirst ! At least I finally had some fruit as I ate a whole cup of Grapefruit, and I really needed that.

So in this next day I'm just going to take it easy and look up things to do in San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston and I'll be heading out on Monday afternoon. Now I just want to go back to the Artic movie I saw for a bit:

 

The movie was incredible with the scenery and the story about how these animals live in the arctic and how it really is there home. A vast portion of the Arctic lies in the Northern part of Canada and sadly if I was to guess, I'd say far less than 10 % of Canadians have ever been... myself included. The movie definitely showed the true beauty of the Arctic paradise and really showed the challenges the animals who live there face in their land, greatly affected by climate change. Polar Bears were the main stars of the film and they are such fascinating animals.

Luckily there are companies and organizations such as the WWF and Coca Cola who have given money to help protect the Polar Bear, and even have included them on their cans at times. It was funny reading that some people had thought the Polar Bear edition cans were diet coke and it created some problems with customers, but a lot of money was raised to help the Polar Bears so I think that's wonderful.

Of course Polar Bears are only one of the types of animals living in the arctic as there are seals (which Polar Bears love to eat) Walruses, Caribou and a variety of birds. And all of these animals should be treated equally and given the chances to thrive. While some people may not care so much about these animals that live so far away from the majority of the people in the world, I think at the end of the day we all have to understand we live on this one planet and all the animals no matter where they live should be a priority to be protected.

I'd love to go to the Arctic one day to see all of these amazing animals and enjoy the Northern Lights and take part in this paradise, and while I definitely have no plans of going anytime soon, it would be a super special adventure to take one day. Anyways, for the next question:

Is the protection of animals around the world something that is important to you, why or why not ? What are your thoughts on climate change ?

I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend. Take care and I'll talk to you all from Dallas on Tuesday, bye for now.

sources: Daily mail.co.uk Coca-Cola ditches holiday-special snow white can and brings back red again after frosty reception by customers mistaking it for Diet Coke. By Daily Mail reporter. December 2, 2011.

Report # 969

Hey everyone, I hope that you've all been having a fantastic week so far. On Sunday morning I went for a run and for the third day in a row I went to Cinépolis to see a movie. This time I went to see Alex Cross, which was about a detective trying to solve a case involving a very professional assassin... I always enjoy those types of movies. Afterwards I stopped at Subway and that was about it for the weekend.

On Monday I was going to go to the Planetarium here with a friend, but on Sunday evening she informed me that she had to work on the holiday. (Monday was the day of the constitution here) This ruined my chance of ending my streak of not seeing anyone for two weeks, so I had to make some other plans. I decided I would go to La Estanzuela, which is a very beautiful park a bit out of the way in the southern reaches of the city.

The problem was that it would be a little difficult to get there without a car and some people had told me it's not the safest place in the world to go to. In fact I was even told that if someone was me they wouldn't go at all. They said the park itself was not dangerous but it was the route to the park and there had been gang people who would steal cars and kidnap people or stuff like that. I figured though since I'd be going before noon on a super sunny and warm holiday, that it couldn't really be that dangerous, so I decided to take my chances.

I took the metro train downtown and I caught a bus to take me across the river and to the Valle Oriente mall. There I found a taxi and I paid just over 80 pesos (over 6 dollars) for him to take me to the park. It wasn't as far away to go or super high up in the mountains like Chipinque, so it ended up being cheaper. The entrance fee was only 5 pesos, (like 40 cents) so I was super impressed with that. I arrived at the park just after 12:00 pm and I started walking and it was just like I imagined.

There were lots of other people and families there, so it was a pretty safe day to be there. While the road to get there was rocky and somewhat secluded I didn't feel unsafe on that road either. After hearing the park was jut 3 km I thought I would be in and out in just over and hour, as I was just taking pictures alongside a stream where there were many tall trees, paths and some bridges, but little did I know I would arrive at a part that got super steep and I really got a workout.

Luckily after scaling some very steep and difficult hills there were some pools of very fresh water with little waterfalls as well, so I was able to drink and cool off. There were even some people swimming, and while it was a pretty warm day, around 30 C (86 F) the water was super cold and refreshing. After drinking and washing my face I continued walking for another 40 minutes or so and I finally reached the end of the line where there was a larger waterfall and cliff part with people having lunch.

There was one lookout with a great view of the mountains though that part was earlier and here it was just to enjoy another small waterfall. I rested for a few minutes and then made my way back. I didn't take as many pictures on my return trip as I did heading up so I got back pretty quickly, arriving at the around at around 3:45 pm. I asked the guy working the gates if there were taxis there and he told me no, but said that it was just a half hour walking down, so I decided just to walk down.

I did the same with Chipinque, and that was a lot longer of a walk, so this would be easy. I got all the way through the park and to the HEB plaza where I was able to take a taxi to San Agustin. I had some lasagna to eat at Focaccia and then afterwards I picked up some donuts from Krispy Kreme and I took the bus and the metro train home. It was a super exhausting day and I definitely slept well that night. I went for a run yesterday morning and as I was walking to the metro station after my run, I got a text from a friend saying that she would be at Las Galerias and that if I had nothing better to do I could meet her there.

I headed home and had a shower and walked to the mall and called her when I was in the Liverpool store, though she ended up being right in front of me which was very surprising seeing as she could have been anywhere in the whole mall. It was actually her 27th birthday so I said Happy Birthday and we went to the movie theatre to see Broken City. It was a pretty good movie though I hadn't thought about seeing it before. I didn't plan on seeing any more movies until Friday, so that idea went out the window, but I definitely won't be going today or tomorrow to the movie theatre.

Afterwards I just got something to eat from Carl's Jr. and we sat and talked for two hours and so before we headed outside and she took the bus home. It was good to see someone for the first time in too long and we might do something on Friday as well. I still want to go to the Planetarium but I think I'll save that for tomorrow, today will be a nice and relaxing day.

I try and read the news online to keep up with what is happening with at home and I stumbled upon some news that Best Buy has closed 15 stores across Canada and as a result over 900 employees have lost their jobs. Here are two articles about this story if anyone wants to read in fuller detail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/best-buy-closing-15-canadian-stores-cutting-800-workers/article8033164/

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Nanaimo+Best+employees+arrive+work+find+doors+closed/7906773/story.html

Now this sort of thing tragically happens at times. Sometimes stores just aren't making money and they just haven't been able to turn things around and they will have to close it's door eventually. So clearly Best Buy decided it will be better to close the 15 stores that are really struggling and focus it's efforts on conserving and strengthening the remaining stores. And while it's super sad that so many capable people lost their jobs, the thing that really got to me was reading about how it was done.

I read online that many people showed up for work only to find out that the store was closed. So obviously this was not some plan that was thought up for a while, the stores more or less just closed doors very suddenly. Maybe in some cases this sort of closure is necessary, but with a multi-billion dollar corporation like Best Buy, I really don't think that was the case. They should have been able to see the trends and if they really didn't think things would improve, they should have given all of those employees a couple of months of notice.

And in the worst case scenario that a few months ago they didn't think about shutting down any stores and it really was a sudden decision, in my opinion they still should have given the employees at least the standard two weeks notice. From what I read though, the people at the Best Buy office were not too cold hearted though and they did offer the laid off employees salary for eight weeks in addition to one week extra based on how many years the people have been with the company.

So while I think the company could have definitely handed the situation better in terms of advising the employees, eight weeks is basically two months and that is plenty of time for those employees to find another job. So if I put myself in the employees shoes, if I was working there for a year and a half and showed up to work to find out I had no more job anymore, it would be disappointing if it was a job I really enjoyed, but if not, I would certainly not complain with getting paid for 9 weeks.

It would actually create the ideal situation to look for a new job. I'd have so much time to search every single day and I wouldn't have to worry about finding something right away as I'd have two months of salary coming. Of course the other side of it is for the people who truly loved working there and maybe for some of them it would be hard to find another job, but I really would think most of them would be able to find something soon.

So overall Best Buy certainly could have given some notice about their store closure plans, and it's unfortunate the only way employees found out is by going to work and seeing that the stores were closed, but I don't think anyone can complain with receiving a paid salary for basically two months... it certainly is fair. For the next question:

Did Best Buy handle this situation in the right way ? How would you have handled the situation ?

I will leave you all with pictures that I took from my trip to La Estanzuela. Take care and I'll talk to you all on Saturday, bye for now.

Sources: theprovince.com. Nanaimo Best Buy employees arrive at work to find doors closed. By Ben Ingram, Nanaimo Daily News. February 1, 2013.

globeandmail.com. Best Buy scales back as tablets take over and Target looms. By Marina Strauss. January 31, 2013.