Cinco de Mayo and Asia-Pacific Culture Night!

Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for "5th of May", and is celebrated largely in Mexico and in the US as it commemorates the victory of the Mexicans in a famous battle against French forces in the 16th century. I took this opportunity to go to Mexico during the day. Previous Mexican experiences had been limited to nighttime, so this day was the ideal time to capture some true Mexican culture and heritage. Esther, Tania (Esther's roomie), Janna (Dutch friend) crossed the border late afternoon into Tijuana. Tania mentioned that true Mexico was much further inland, hundreds of miles southeast from the touristy near-border cities like Tijuana and Rosarito. Crossing the border, the transition in terms of living conditions were profound. We were encountered by many young kids wanting loose change, and even my camera.

Walking deeper towards the city centre from the border, I saw Mexican flags at half mast, and taco shops almost every hundred metres or so. Local stalls privately selling Mexican souvenirs were within arm's reach of each other as we progressed further into the city. Some of the less well-off folk that couldn't afford to have a proper sales stands were selling hand-made items on the streets. Poverty played a huge role, as I spotted the differences between a developing and developed country. And this city was supposed to be too developed, therefore unrepresentative of a typical Mexico, due to its close proximity to the border and its reputation as a tourist city. As the sun sank into the horizon, the neon lights of Tijuana nightclubs flashed to generate attention. American hip-hop music from clubs was unusually blended in with locals speaking Spanish. We also saw what looked like a busker, with a donkey painted like a zebra to grab people's attention. Since bargaining was widely carried out here in Mexico, Janna attempted and succeeded in getting the better part of the price tag for her beloved poster. One of the highlights for me that night had to be the quality of the tacos! I had ten tacos in total, with an assortment of flavours such as carne asada (beef), pork, tripe, and even goat. Each taco was made step by step, starting from slashing a large chunk of heated meat, and we saw the local chefs professionally put together the beautiful stuff at light speed. A traditional Mexican drink, the horchata (rice milk with a blend of other ingredients including cinnamon), spoiled my taste buds, especially with the tacos. I loved it all. Three tacos were just one dollar, and so was a single horchata.

We then went into a club for a few drinks. What's worth mentioning was the way that the bartenders tricked us into spending more money. A two-for-one drinks deal sounded good, as we were going to have a drink each, but we weren't "obvious enough" and received two drinks each instead. After we enjoyed the first few sips of the drinks, along came the "tequila headbang" guy with the whistle. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but I wasn't wary at the time. He would blow the whistle and make vigorous movements, force-feeding me shots of tequila, repeating it on Janna and then banging our heads together (hence the name). I thought it was fun and so I cooperated, playing along with what surely seemed like complimentary Mexican club tradition. After three shots, I strongly gestured that I had enough. Instead of moving onto the next table, the guy's facial expression changed from jubilant to straight, as he blurted out "Sixteen dollars". We were shocked by this, and with our self-esteem on the line, we managed to get the price down from $16 to $8 to $4 to $0. If that wasn't enough, another guy approached us offering to take a photo of us. We defected without hesitation. We finished the night with some more tacos and some churros (a Spanish-Mexican cinnamon-flavoured, tube-like doughnut).
On a different topic, yesterday was the much anticipated Asia-Pacific Culture Night. This International House event had the main purpose of bringing cultures together by showing Asian and Pacific culture in the form of traditional dishes, activities and performances. To show Korean culture, I put together an I-House Taekwondo demonstration, collaborating with the UCSD Taekwondo team. We showed "Goryeo", paddle kicking, sparring and board breaking. The Korean girls did "Buchaechum" (fan dance), the Japanese did the "Nanchu Soran Bushi" (fisherman's dance), and there were Indian dances as well as Filipino performances. A cultural fashion show was also very nice indeed. Food was diverse and delicious, and the decorations were great too.

Following this, some of us went to an A Cappella Show hosted by the UCSD Tritones (the Tritons is UCSD's symbol...so the Tri-tones....clever isn't it?). Thomas Kim (the friend I went to SF with during spring break) is a member of this group. A Cappella is a vocal performance without the accompaniment of instruments - in fact the voice and mouth substitutes for the instruments. For example, drumming is beatboxing. Different UC's from around California came to perform, and some of the ways in which they mimicked the real songs were amazing. This show really got us pumped and singing by the end.