well, seeing as i'm American, i'm not all that concerned about celibrating the Mexican Independance Day... especially since i live like a block away from what i effectionatly call "Little Mexico". I get enough mexican culture!
oh! oh! here's a story for ya about one of my adventures to Little Mexico.
so its laundry time... suffice to say that there's something wrong with my washer and dryer, so its off to a laundromat with me. i gather up about $13 in quarters and head out, thinking of trying a laundromat about a block and a half away. now, where i live is a fairly nice suburban neighborhood, mostly filled with elderly folk... but go about a block down the main road that connects to mine, where it intersects with another main road, and you reach Little Mexico. across the street from that intersection is the laundromat that was closest, and so the one i decided to try out. now, i was fairly nervous going in, since i see a cop car there almost every time i'm out. the cops don't make me nervous, i'm just trying to imagine why cops would need to be there almost every day and not liking the answers my imagination supplies (i later heard from a believable source that some hispanic drug group had been pushing crack out of the place, and people can actually be seen smoking it right out in the parking lot!). as i pull in, i notice there's a [censored] taco stand in the parking lot. i think to myself, "wtf?! .... hey, that's actually pretty cool!" hehe. so i get out of my car and walk in to see if they sell detergent, and they do... but the TV is on the hispanic network and as soon as i walk in, people start staring at me all googly eyed and talking to each other in spanish. this makes me quite nervous, and i start thinking about all the police activity. i quickly leave, not wanting to be mugged and/or knifed in the eye. so, as i get in my car, i remember there's another one up the street that looked a bit less run down and it had a little sign that said "communications center" outside with a picture of a computer. this, to me, made it seem like there was a wireless connection there and i'd been meaning to check the place out. so i go in, and the place looks a lot cleaner than the other one and there are more machines. the TV is still on the hispanic network, but i don't mind as i brought a book along just in case. i start doing laundry, and quickly realize i'm going to need more money if i'm going to wash litterally all the stuff we own with the exception of the clothes on my person.... so i go to this little back area, and i see a receptionist and a whole bunch of computers. i ask her if they have an ATM, and after a frustrating 5 minutes or so of explaining what an ATM was (she didn't speak good english), she finally told me they didn't have one, but gave me the following card....
mmk, anyone else notice something weird there? that card is the sole reason i told this story. its just hillarious to me that a laundromat does tax prep and immigration paperwork! anyway, the rest of the evening passes without incident (though the bathrooms were [censored] gross!!!) and i go home with no quarters left and some not-quite-dry laundry.
but yeah, like every other other building (not exaggerating) is either a mexican resteraunt, or a little ethnic store, or something like that. in short, i like mexican food, but i really don't care for much else that has to do with mexican culture. sombraro's are cool. mexican music... not so much, hehe. i actually didn't realize it was cinco de mayo until i read your post, and if i weren't stuffed from dinner i'd probably have a few drinks... but i'm not going out of my way to celebrate, hehe.
