Pentrexyl - Medicina Mala

For two weeks straight my wisdom tooth felt like it was about to rip my gums open. It hurt chingos and there was nothing I could do about it. I don't have dental insurance and I don't want to go to the dentist because I can't be out for a couple of days, since I just started school. So I figured I'd tough it out. Then, I talked to my mom.

"No tienes Pentrexyl?

Why the hell didn't I think of that. I snagged a couple of pills of this powerful drug last time I was at home. Sure enough I'm feeling fantastic today. Hijueso, I should have known.

I've always taken Mexican medicine for my ailments (when yerbas didn't do the job). My allergies were terrible until I started taking Celestimina F. Even the Mexican government took that off of their shelves. Y for las vitaminas, I bet some of you used to drink the tres eses (SSS). I did.

It's different though now that I'm not living in Texas. Where the hell do I go for medicine like Pentrexyl? Can I ask my mom to mail it to me? Is that even legal? I dunno, but it worked.

Cholo Word of the Day - Mochate

Surprise. Mochate is a common term. Mochar literally means to cut. Mochate used as slang can mean several different things and I'll try to illustrate them. The word can stand alone or be used in a phrase "se mocho."

Word:
Mochate

Meaning According To DT:
give me some, let me, share

When used in a phrase "se mocho" can mean "he shared" or "she put out." Actually, it's probably more than just putting out.

Used in a sentence:
"Orejas, mochate con la feria porque tengo que hacer buy un t.v."

"Nombre Pepe, no traigo ni pa el gas, pero si se mocha tu ruca, maybe we can work out una deal."

Translation according to DT:
"Large ears, please be so kind as to give me the funds owed because I would like to buy TIVO."

"Let me apologize in advance Joseph, I'm running so low on money right now that I don't even have enough for fuel. But, if your lady in waiting would like to accompany me to the movies, we might be able to work something out."

Natural Disaster

It turns out there are things other than law school I should worry about. Tsunami's and Earthquakes! What the hell? I guess I should have known, but nobody told me about this crap and I didn't even think about it. This week there was a false Tsunami scare that never happened. A Tsunami! The only thing I know about Tsuami's is what I saw a couple of months ago on t.v. and that was crazy. They also have Earthquakes here - gasp. Now, mostly everyone I talked to tells me that none of these Natural phenomenons are very common, but damn, it's still scary. I mean, we have Hurricanes and Tornados in Texas, but the Hurricanes that hit have always been chafia and the Tornados, well - yea, I guess they're bad. The only thing I knew how to do in Texas was stop, drop and roll.

No Phone and the Library

It's amazing how many people in law school don't have cell phones. Yikes. I've seen more people using a pay phone at my school than I have in downtown Austin. What's up with that?

Anyway, I started school yesterday and I've spent most of my time after class in the library. I'm a bit ahead of my reading and I want to make sure I stay that way. We'll see if I can continue my trend. Aver que.

I've been surprised by the Latinos I've encountered here. My Legal Writing professor is a Chicana. The Student Bar Association president is a Chicana. I have a classmate whose mom and dad are from Texas, Edinburg and Eagle pass, respectively. They were migrant workers and ended up in Easter Washington. There are two other Mexican kids in my class, but I don't really know them. I'm hanging w/ the Russian kids for some reason. My group is three Russians and me -- they're real Russians too and today one of the kids was talking about how when he was in elementary school he would go to class and the teacher would make them sit a certain way. He had to have his arms setting on the table, one above the other. You know, the typical russian pose. And, one day he forget his little tie (for his uniform) and they kicked him out of school. Oh, and he was talking about how they had this sweet ass pencil protector. That's it.

One of the Russian girls is 20 years old! She's in freakin' law school. I told her to chill out and enjoy her 20's, but apparently she doesn't subscrible to my notion of enjoying life. She took two years to finish college and she told me her sister started law school a couple of days before she turned 18. That's ridiculous, but oh well.

That's it. I'm off.

One Day

I took some time visit the lake today before my first day of class tomorrow and took a couple of pictures. I was wearing a jacket and these crazy people were swimming! The temperature may have reached the low 70's and I saw people sun bathing.



While I was sitting there I realized I moved across the country to go to school! What the hell? Then I started to think of how nice it would be to have a law school in the Rio Grande Valley. I'm pretty sure I would have gone to school there if I could have. Now, I did have the opportunity to attend a couple of schools in Texas (not my first choice), but I opted not to. I figured I might as well live outside of Texas for once in my life.

This post may not make sense to most of you who aren't from South Texas, so please bear with me. It's time for the Rio Grande Valley to get a freakin' law school. It's time for the Rio Grande Valley to get a freakin' medical school. Lawmakers have worked to get a medical center to the Valley, but it's not a medical school. I think there used to be a law school in the Valley (Reynaldo Garza School of Law), but it's no longer there.

I argue the need for a law school and med school because the Rio Grande Valley is an area with over 1 million people. Mosly raza. Mostly poor. The valle includes cities like McAllen, Harlingen, and Brownsville. According to this recent Dallas Morning News article about racismat the Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas,

black and Hispanic doctors were more likely to serve minority patients than their white peers...

I think the same may be true for lawyers, even though I have no research to back that up. I think at this point a Medical school is more important than a law school, but it's sad, that I have to say I would choose one over the other. We should have both. That part of the state needs it. Is it because most of the people down there are brown? I don't know. Is it because most people down there are poor? Probably.

I hope to go back home to work for a while, but I also will not limit myself to the job limitations in the Valley. Now, on to my first day of school.

Mad Hot Ballroom - Watch It!

There are certain things you do when you live in a city and don't really know anybody. I've spent my time at the library, a bit at the gym, cleaning here and there and watching a couple of movies. Tonight, under the recommendation of my friend, I went to watch Mad Hot Ballroom.

The movie is amazing and I highly recommend it. I promise you won't be dissapointed or you can throw the $9 freakin' dollar movie ticket in the attendants face. I didn't realize movies were that expensive!

Mad Hot Ballroom is an inspiring look inside the lives of New York City kids on a journey into the world of ballroom dancing, an unexpected arena where they discover new frontiers about attitude, movement, style and commitment.

My favorite kid in the documentary is Wilson. He's a recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic who doesn't speak English. You HAVE to go to the Mad Hot Ballroom web site, click on Trailers/Clips then click on Wilson/Elsamelys Competing The Rumba. This clip is great.

Where's the Chile?

My first grocery shopping experience in Seattle was not a good one. They don't sell chile over here. I went to a Safeway store near my house and asked the girl for the "hot sauce" aisle. NADA.

She took me and pointed me to aisle cuatro. I looked and looked y naranjas. I looked again and there in half of half a shelf stood a lonely bottle of tabasco sauce asking me to buy it. I'm telling you, there were probably only 3 different brands of sauce and that's it. No la chingen, I thought. I don't necessarily expect them to have my Valentina sauce, pero algo si quiera. Nombre, me dejaron con el osico abierto.

Then I went to look for fajitas just in case I have a carne asada. Apparently the vacas are scarce in the state of Washinton, porque I didn't find fajitas either. How the hell do people cook out?

Maybe they all cook out like the folks who graciously hosted my brother and me this weekend. They made hamburgers and hotdogs. The cook asked, "Would you like a hamburger or a hotdog?" I thought, "OR, what the hell, or?! I want both." I don't think I had ever seen anyone take orders at a bbq. Pero, they were nice enough to have us over, so si quiera nos dieron eso.

I need to find a carniceria or something, porque this ain't gonna cut it. Looks like I'll be eating Maccarroni and Cheese for a while.

Listen And You Will Find

My brother and I quickly found out that we could tell how much Raza was in a specific town by scanning the dial for Spanish-language radio stations. We figured the more stations the more raza. Chingado, the only place we couldn't find a station was for about 1 hour leaving Califas and entering Oregon (it was also difficult to get English stations in the Mountains, so that may have been the problem). We would find a station and listen to the mostly annoying d.j.:

ESTE SABADO, ESTE SABADO, EN EL GUERRERO'S BALLROOM, LOS TERMINARIOS DE CHIHUAHUA!!! ESTE SABADO, DAMAS GRATIS antes de las 8, ESTE SABADO, ALLI NOS VEMOS. ESTE SABADO!!!

How can we possibly think this guy sounds good? And it's like they clone them, because they're the same from Texas, to Arizona, thru Califas, and into Guashinton.

We drove through Arizona where we saw a sign welcoming the locos from The Minuteman Project.

We drove through the desert and the mountains where not even vultures hover over. My brother and I wondered how the hell raza crossed throgh there? It's insane. The drive was hot, lonely, deserted - can you imagine what a multi-day walk with no water feels like?

Most of my family on my mom's side crossed through Califas, but back then they used to cross through some tunnels underground. By tunnels, I imagine they mean sewer systems. I need to get some clarification on that next time I see them.

There is raza everywhere. I've talked to a couple of Mexicanos in Seattle. According to them, there are a lot, but I think we have different criteria. There are no FM spanish radio stations in Seattle and maybe one 24 hours station on AM. There are 4 that I have found total that play Spanish music part of the day. The girl at the restaurant who wrote down the stations for me told me which one she thought was the best, then made a face when she pointed at the last one and said:

"Esa es mas para los Chilangos."

We laughed.

She says: "oh, Ustedes son Chilangos?"

We said: "No"

Then she smiled and brought us some free chips and salsa.

Update: I found a spanish FM station tonight.

Settling In Seattle

Damn, there is a lot of raza in this country. I'll talk more about that in future posts, but for now I find myself settling into Seattle. I arrived Saturday afternoon after driving through Texas, Arizona, Califas, and Oregon. I apologize to all of you I did not stop and visit!

We spent one night in San Diego hanging out with one of my brother's old law school classmates. He hooked us up with skybox seats to the Padres/Cubs game. It was a blast.

My brother and I have been visiting with several of his old friends. It's really cool to get to see these lawyers chatting with each other. Hopefully, it'll help me out in some way! One of the girls is working at Microsoft and in charge of the legal internship program. We'll see. I also met some other folks doing non-profit work, so it'll be a good balance.

I was watching the news when I came to visit a couple of weeks ago and guess what? I saw an old college buddy of mine. He's still doing t.v. news. George Howell is working for KOMO-TV in Seattle. He was kind enough to give us a tour of the station. It was pretty good catching up with him and I'm sure he'll be very successful.

Bueno - I'll update more as I get a chance.