Zihuatanejo

Last week, I went to two days of classes. Monday we had off because it was "Festival del 5 de febrero." Thursday, I was sick, but made a full recovery to go to the beach on Friday. There's not much to say about the beach other than it was the beach, so I mean, it was great. Our hotel was really nice, and we had hammocks outside our rooms. The beach wasn't too full, the water was warm, it was sunny and beautiful. We went snorkeling, which wasn't really that exciting but kind of cool. I saw some pretty fishies and a little sting ray. The cool part was that when we were coming back on the boat, I was looking out at the water, blue and clear, and I saw something large emerge on the surface. We weren't very close, but I'm pretty sure it was a giant sea turtle! So cool. I think the best part of the weekend (other than the turtle) was on Friday when I was floating in the water thinking, "If I were at North Park right now, I would be in class and/or trudging through Chicago winter slush." It was a pretty satisfying thought. 

The worst part of the weekend, though, was the other American tourists. Zihuatanejo, the beach-town we stayed in, did have Mexican tourists as well, but the Americans just drive me nuts. By and large, there were a bunch of fat old people and drunk young people. None of whom really speak Spanish. I mean, I'm not a great Spanish-speaker, and it's not that to go anywhere people need to be fluent in the country's language, but you should at least learn "No, gracias" and carry around a little phrase book. Point to the word if you don't know how to say it. And, when the waiter brings you your beer on the beach without a cup, don't be mad that he doesn't know exactly what you mean when you say "cup?"  You are in his country. At least try to speak his language. If you don't want to deal with communication and cultural barriers, go to Florida. I didn't want to speak any English because it made me ashamed of myself. 

Moral of the story, there is reason behind the ignorant, arrogant American stereotype. Let's try to change that.