the ocean

I've now been to Guadalajara and back. And honestly, that was mostly it -- there and back. I didn't really see much of the city, other than the hotel, the university, and the nice shopping district we went to for dinner on Saturday. Most of my time was spent teaching and learning about international sales law, as one does. And though I had thought I might use my lunch breaks to sightsee a bit, it turned out that the university was inside a walled, gated compound, and I was genuinely concerned that trying to leave might get me shot. Which hardly seemed worth it to see the Jose Cuervo Express, even if TripAdvisor user cfry1937 did call it "loud and proud."

It was still a pretty good experience, though. It was in the 70s and 80s the whole time, which left me feeling very smug about the misery everyone was experiencing in Chicago, and very green and hilly. Everyone was super nice to the point that it was almost irritating; I've never been kissed hello so many times in my life. And my students were like 99% not needy for the weekend. They even handled some of the small talk duties so I could rush off to the bathroom and discretely remove the taste of the disgusting congealed chia lemonade I unwisely tried from my mouth.

The one big downside was the sleep deprivation. We got in pretty late on Thursday, they had us heavily scheduled both days, and the cab to the airport picked us up at 4:30 AM yesterday. Oh, and for good measure, I couldn't sleep at all Saturday night and had to just lie there in the dark watching Tropic Thunder in Spanish. So I celebrated the Super Bowl by sleeping. Which, come to think of it, is the most I've enjoyed it in years.