I’ve been watching the US series “The Bridge” for a while now and highly recommend it if you like well plotted episodic mysteries like “Fargo,” “Broadchurch,” and “Happy Valley.” It takes place on the US/Mexico border between El Paso and Juárez and delves deeply into the dark side of Mexico. Needless to say, there is a lot of Spanish in it. I am surprised by how much I am understanding without looking at the subtitles and how much vocabulary I’m picking up, a lot of it “naughty.” I really need to watch more Mexican programming and having rather a crush on Demián Bichir now, I just might have found a way in. I’ll have to check out his filmography and see if he’s done anything else I could be interested in. 🙂

I’ll get back to this point in a bit, but for now, let me digress. Work has been very slow for the last week or so. I was supposed to start a large transcription project when I got back from Mérida, but the funding for that has been delayed and so the company does not want me to start just in case in takes longer than expected for the money to come in. When this project lands, it’ll keep me busy for ages, but it’s left a huge hole in my schedule. Moreover, I had to burn a bridge with a new client I picked up in February. So I really don’t have much on my plate right now. Rather frustrating since I’m starting to dip into my savings. But I’m not at crisis point yet and I’m working leads.

All that to say, I was done with my day by noon and by 1:00, I decided I wanted to go out. I looked up the movie listings and learned that “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” was playing at 3:00 at Gran Plaza. I had just enough time to hoof it over there and grab a quick lunch before the movie.

I took the Camarón-Sábalo bus up Avenida del Mar to Insurgentes, which took me to a couple of blocks of Gran Plaza. I got in at 2:30 and decided to have Chinese for lunch. The lineup was long and when it got to my turn, the server looked mildly panicked, then very relieved when I fluently started with, “I want a number one to eat here.” I’ve been to this chain before a few times, so I knew the routine. No, I don’t want to upgrade to the cheese and shrimp rolls and, no, I don’t need a double sized jamaica (hibiscus) juice for $9 more. 🙂 Interesting that the Japanese places have very strange soy sauce (despite Kikkoman brand sauce being readily available), but the Chinese places have the proper thick soy sauce for their rice. Hmm.

When I was done eating, I had just five minutes before the movie started, but I wasn’t worried since there are always commercials and previews. The title of the movie in Spanish is “Mi Gran Boda Griega” and I had to rehearse that because it always runs together in my head as “Mi gran bodega” (my big storage unit)! A Wednesday matinée was only $29! Wow!

The theatre was almost empty and every other person there was an older expat. The commercials started and there was a really funny one for Cinépolis about this guy calling everyone in his black book looking for a date to share his points with. When the punchline came, that he could only find a big hairy dude, I burst out laughing. There was dead silence from the rest of the theatre. Well, that was embarrassing!

The movie finally started after a few previews. It was very formulaic and recycled a lot of jokes from the first one. I loved the first “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and the sequel was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want the wheel to be reinvented, but rather to know how my beloved characters are doing. Of course, all the Greek had only Spanish subtitles, so I was once again the only person in the theatre chuckling to herself. I can’t wait to buy the movie so I can rewatch it. I’m glad I missed the 1:00 o’clock showing and that the one at 3:00 was the last one or I would have turned around and gone right back in to see it again!

Coming out of the theatre, I grabbed an ice cream for the walk to Avenida del Mar to catch the bus, with the intention of riding to Centro and doing some shopping at the Mercado. I waited at a proper bus stop with another person for more than 20 minutes for a bus that is supposed to run every 10 minutes… and it just flew past us. I was not impressed.

Not being in the mood to wait another 20 minutes, I crossed Avenida del Mar to walk along Insurgentes to Ejército Méxicano (2.5KM) to grab a bus to take me closer to the embarcadero. Imagine my surprise as I was walking along, just two blocks from Avenida del Mar, when I looked behind me to see a bus marked “Chula Vista” stopping a short distance away. I knew that one would take me right to the corner of Juan Carrasco and Gutíerrez Nájera, about a kilometre from the embarcadero! I had no idea that bus went out to Gran Plaza. This is a major revelation! But the bus was behind me and only a couple of people were getting on. I didn’t have a hope in hell of catching it, but I still went into a full out run and, sure enough, it pulled away from the curb just as I reached the door. But the door remained open and the speed was very slow, so I jumped on! Whew, I felt like an action hero! The driver took my $20, gave me my change and receipt, and told me to move as far back as I could, which wasn’t very far because the bus was packed.

Thankfully, someone got off not to much farther away and I was able to get a seat behind the driver. This was one of the older busses with no bell. I was quite proud of myself when we approached the corner where I wanted to get off and knew to call out, “Baja, por favor.” The literal translation is “down, please,” but it means, “I want to get off.” The driver pulled over exactly where I wanted off! It’s about a block before Juan Carrasco, where I can grab a street that runs at a diagonal and save myself a few steps.

I’d hoped to get a chicken for dinner, but the stand was closed, dang it. 🙁 And then, I passed the rough bar where men tend to say rather rude things as I pass. I normally ignore them, but thanks to “The Bridge,” I felt more confident in using certain rude words. So when a guy called out to me today, clearly not expecting this Gringa to understand him, I called him a “pinche cabrón” (Google that at your peril), told him he needs to respect women more, and asked him how he would feel about someone talking like that to his mother or sister? I must have made sense because he looked very ashamed of himself. Good!!!

I know I need to make more effort to listen to Spanish. I’m reading at a decent level now (got through the Harry Potter books!), so I’m really at the point where I need to find a TV show to suck me in. But still, this was a very good day language-wise!