Left bags in the room, depending on what happens they may kick up a fuss if they're still in there at 11 (check out time) but since they or hostelworld screwed up and I'm not actually checking out, sod it. The bags are packed so it's not a major effort for them to move them if it comes to it. I will try to pop back before 11 whatever happens.
Stood in the street outside my 'first choice' school, they are not open yet. Will hang around til at least half past eight before possibly wandering over to second choice. I had some vague idea even people already registered might have to turn up before the usual 9am start on the first Monday for testing/registration, but maybe that sort of thing takes place at 9am. I can't really remember what happened at the places I was at before.
I suppose at least there was no need to get up any earlier.
This didn't feel like such a great idea when I had to get up, but I didn't expect it to. Nothing seems like a great idea when I have to get up.
8:40. This bites. I am starting to wonder if they aren't on summer time here or whatever. (I am fairly sure this isn't a public holiday as I skimmed the list yesterday on the web, I know it is in the UK.) I mean, surely they must open soon for existing students who have classes at 9. It is annoying to think I may get screwed by hanging around here when I could be enrolling at the other one. But I do want to give this one a chance as they don't charge a registration fee, which is important when I might end up registering twice for two separate weeks.
09:40. At Amarantos, where I didn't tip last night. Different staff of course so won't go nuts just now. Having breakfast.
Woman turned up at 8:50, seemed OK, I am going back at 10:30 as that's when the other student at my level is turning up. Met one other new student, a near beginner. I suspect the school is half empty but I don't really care.
Popped out to wd some cash so I can pay, managed to find a shop where I could buy a notebook and some water and now nipped here for breakfast. Should arguably go back to the hostel but if they won't move two cases then sod them. I mean anyway, it's a dorm, ignoring the risk of theft there's no reason my cases can't sit in there even while they put someone else in there.
Signed up for a week (or will, rather) but I think there would be no problem doing two weeks.
16:40. Just got back to hostel and switched to new room. It's a triple even though I booked a double. Not too bad. But there is a sign above the sink saying "Please do not wash clothes in the sink. If you do, we'll charge you the service. If you like, we have a laundry service. Ask at the front desk. Charge: 50 pesos per load". Cheeky fuckers. I'm paying for the damn sink, why shouldn't I wash clothes in it if I want? 50 pesos a load doesn't sound too expensive, but no way am I giving them my clothes to wash now.
I was toying with staying here past Tuesday night if I can, the new room seeming a bit nicer and at least having a floor-standing fan, but that certainly puts me off.
19:30. OK, I decided I would stay here another two nights if possible. It saves hassle and I can still decide to change hostel on Friday night. I could only book Wed & Thu whatever as I don't know my plans for Friday night and the weekend until I talk to tour operators tomorrow afternoon to see if I can see the main out-of-town sights in the afternoons or I need to do them at the weekend. If I stay here two weeks in total I may want to go elsewhere for the weekend to add variety, leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday. So it's all up in the air til tomorrow at least. The guy was pretty nice and charged me only MXN300 a night for the extra two nights (I had checked what I paid via hostelworld before going down to recepion and expected to pay 360) and I can keep this room.
Anyway, I might pop out for a few drinks now, being a weak-willed sort of chap.
Oh, a quick check of my itinerary on trailfinders.co.uk says I can change my return flight for EUR120 plus admin fees (what is the EUR120 if not an admin fee then?). So it ain't cheap but it's not cripplingly expensive, unless the difference in air fares booking much less far in advance makes the fare difference which I assume is included in the 'admin fee' enormous. I obviously need to make the change ASAP but I will drink/sleep on it at least another day.
(It is actually two flights home, since I connect in Madrid. I hope they don't sting me for two lots of EUR120. I think that would be unreasonable but this is an airline... I will have to make sure I check the price of a separately booked flight before I commit to anything.)
20:00. Just got to Del Jardin cafe in Zocalo. As pointed out by school owner earlier and witnessed during the odd break etc, there is some sort of (silent, which I find a bit odd) protest going on here. It is far from clear what just by looking but the school owner said it was the state teachers. There are loads of tents and people sat around on mats. This combined with the normal street stalls and people renders getting around a touch Piccadilly Circus.
I don't know if they are merely protesting by their presence and incidentally getting in the way, or if there is some deliberate intent to cause obstruction.
I don't think this is why the place looked busy last night, that looked more like normal activity.
Got my hair cut this afternoon after the class, I asked the teacher for somewhere nearby. Some old guy did a very thorough job for MXN50 (plus 10 for a hopefully generous tip).
Just had two kids come up to me asking for money. They clustered round looking at my phone in a way that raised suspicions this was a cunning pickpocketing attempt, though they were probably a bit too young for that. I don't think they got anything anyway.
20:25. The micheladas here are rather fierce, on a sample of one.
It was the other day that I read it, but it occurs to me that the phrase "What trousers! What energy!" in Les Miserables may be one of those short, strange phrases which had never been written before in the whole of human history.
Overhearing some guys at the next table talk about Y2K, my thoughts wandered to the 2038 problem. I realised I may well still be working then if I'm still alive. And from that I was led to observe that no one I have never worked with anyone that old. I somehow can't believe there is or was such total age discrimination. The oldest people I've worked with (well, at least IT kind of people) have been maybe 50. I suspect it's a combination of people that old either having made their money and retired or at least made enough money to not want to work in the sort of places I have mostly worked (pseudo-dot com, investment banks). BAE SYSTEMS seems less implausible, and although I don't think I worked with anyone that old there, it may well have been the case.
I can think of maybe one exception, Jill the technical author at Indicii Salus. Though she wasn't IT in the same sense I am, and she was probably 50ish at most.
23:10. Just ordered another which will be my last. Staff seem a bit overly keen to give me the bill instead this one and the last, though the place is far from deserted, if not rammed.
Mind wandering all over the place, in a fairly good way.
One or two mariachi groups wandering around. I haven't heard 'El Rey' yet though...
Waitress said they were going to close as she served me this one. Fair enough. I just hope there's no ill will here, if you didn't want to serve me you didn't have to. I couldn't have forced them to serve me even if I'd wanted to. I asked for the bill of course.
Vaguely hope to be up early enough to have breakfast 8ish before the classes (which after today, at my request) will run near continuously from 9-2 (I could have had an hour's break, but I wanted to leave as much afternoon free as possible). I doubt it will happen but no big deal either way, I can pick up a snack in a 10-15 min break and it's not like I didn't used to go to work and not eat til 1 or 2pm anyway.
Tipped fractionally under 10% due to lack of change. I hope that's OK. Skimming guide book earlier suggested 'US style' tipping of 15% IIRC was normal. But sod it. I have been tipping 10%ish with intermittent bursts of generosity so far all over Latin America so why change now.
I do hate the whole tipping business. Not - and I think I am almost quoting Bunny here - because I'm tight, just because of the uncertainty involved in whether it's acceptable or how much to give. (I wasn't sure if it was OK to tip the barber earlier. I mean, he set his own price to cut my hair. If he'd asked for 60 I wouldn't have said no. I get this doubt in the UK too, it's a lesser problem there but this isn't purely an 'unknown foreign culture' problem.) In a semi-ideal world the prices would be slightly higher, the staff would not need or expect tips and you'd tip only if the service was somehow better than expected (and almost by definition, you wouldn't tip most of the time). (I always have lurking at the back of my mind a quote from obscure TV novelisation "Travelling Man" where a Cantonese waiter - in Singapore? don't remember and it's fictional anyway) says "we don't accept tips, it's too demeaning".)
(My Dad, who picked the book up cheap when I was maybe 12ish and gave it to me, said I used to like the TV series. But I had and have no recollection of ever having watched it or even been aware of its existence. It only exists in my mind because of that novel.)
23:50. Back at hostel. Guy at reception is the first person I remember saying 'que descanses'.
Steve's pet hate of the day (I can't believe I haven't bitched about this before, I probably have and just don't remember): ho(s)tels which can't be bothered to label the shower taps. We are not talking linguistic confusion due to the hot tap being labelled 'C' here. I am probably just smart enough to catch on there. But so many places have the taps completely unlabelled and you end up messing around. Because of course even the hot tap runs cold for a minute or two before it warms up most of the time (plumbing sucks the world over). Ah well.
01:10. Stupidly listening to a bit of music instead of going to bed. Oh well. I am not that tired and I won't push it much more.
It is geekily cool to think that my laptop is sat next to me patiently grinding away at a 1GB upload to my PC sat 5000 miles away under a desk in my parents' hall in Skegness. In some sense obviously less cool than the fact I can talk to them (even with video if the net is in a good mood) at this distance, but in another sense somehow cooler. Yeah, I'm a geek, sue me.
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