February Weekend Adventures... continued!

Especially after the jam-packed previous weekend,  the following was pretty relaxed. I hung out with friends on the Friday. Then the Saturday I went to the gym, and sweated my bum off before heading off to Chilindron Cafe, to merit the giant, drool-worthy Oreo frappuchino I ordered! I met up with Mariana and we had a grand time, hanging out there for a few hours. It's a cute, wicker-chair-and-hanging-plants type place, and it looks out onto a quaint little park. Officially the best coffee place I've found so far in Tepic! (The baristas now know me, and I think wonder why I spend so much time there almost every weekend.) We then returned to her home and hung out watching movies for the rest of the day watching movies and testing out the Christmas cookie ice cream her mum had bought. (Side note- this is possibly the best ice cream I've ever tasted. It has gingerbread cookie hunks in it, shortbread, vanilla and chocolate flavours mixed in with a hint of cinnamon. Christmas in a scoop- what could be better? Well, the fact a gallon is only 8$ due to it being post-season, and therefore in huge supply at Mariana's house!)

I'm addicted to this

And also this. Probably a good thing I don't live in this house

On Sunday, I spent the better part of the day with my little sisters making heart-shaped spice and chocolate cookies for the Rotary meeting the following week. Knowing that I am a granny at heart and in love with baking things, they'd asked me to make something for the meeting before Valentines day. Maribel then had the brilliant idea of making heart cookies! The only complication was the lack of a cookie cutter. However, despite the prolonged prep time, I had a good time making these stacks of adorable (if slightly abstract) cookie hearts! I put my sisters to work on cutting out the shapes, and by the end were pretty dang amazing at it. At the meeting, they were a hit! There were all gobbled up, and everyone asked me to come bake at their house sometime (which probably made me more excited than them).

Still enjoying the process (little did they know there would be many more hours of hard labour ahead)

Wendy's abstract heart cookies

Vanessa the expert (getting more flour on herself than the countertop, methinks)

Vanessa the Blur! (Or just a crappy Iphone camera). Anyways, to give you an indcation of how much flour she got on herself, her uniform is pure navy blue normally...

Still hard at work, hours later! 

Awww, what a cutie

The following Friday was Valentines day. I passed it in a very unromantic, but nonetheless fantastic way! After volleyball practice in the afternoon, I went to Gosia's house for mole. I had tried this traditional Mexican dish at the start of the year and thought it comparable to dog food, and was therefore a little unenthused to taste it a second time. However, I am so glad I decided to give it another try, because this mole was absolutely amazing! Mole is essentially a complicated mixture of spices, chile peppers, shredded chicken, and chocolate. Yep, that's right, chocolate and chicken. Sounds disgusting, right? WRONG. It is scrumptious in a unique, tasty way. I will certainly be learning how to do it in order to test it on unsuspecting test subjects back in Canada! 

Ha haaa, I just had to add this- so Mexican.
Who wants chocolates when you could get tacos?

Om nommm

We then headed off to a salsa class, which was headed by a cool (as in a I wear sunglasses inside the gym AND at night paired with a fedora cool) Cuban fella. I had no idea what was going on with the complicated undulating of his hips, but I followed the best I could. With the partners I twirled and sort of stumbled through the steps, all the while having a pretty great time. To celebrate our efforts, after class me, Gosia and some of her salsa friends went to a wings bar. (In the bar, I quite enjoyed their attempt at making a romantic atmosphere with the candle and rose in the middle of the table. But really, if you're going to a sports bar, I don't think you're aiming for romance.) We ordered wings, then settled back and had some good chats. While I'd only know these people for a few hours, they were pretty chill, and very interesting to talk to! They were then nice enough to drive me home all the way across and out of Tepic. I do love Mexicans and their generosity! They told me they hope to see me back in the salsa class soon. Hopefully I can come back soon! 

Saturday consisted of a lazy morning making French toast for the family and then hanging out at Chilindron with Sara and Mariana (back again, of course). 

All artistically laid out

Concentrating hard on putting the fixings on her burger

Sunday was even more excellent- a family hike up a volcano! Stay tuned for a blog post to come.

PS: Look what arrived in the mail form my fantastic friend? While everyone here seems to make it their mission to teach me foul language when they find out I'm learning Spanish, this will surely surpass all of their efforts in effectiveness! I mean, it is EXPLICIT. And hilarious. Many thanks for the mischievous thoughtfulness ;)

I'll get right to work improving my, ahem, Spanish.

Cheers,

Wendy