Ummm are you sure that its football and not Futbol

In the preceding months before I came to Mexico after telling people what I had in store for my future, I would often  be met with a moment or two of silence and blank stare as I mentioned that I was to play football in mexico.

Now I believe most of it to be naiveness but sometimes ignorance when people would ask me if I was sure that recruited me for american football and not soccer. The medical equivalent would be to find out that your surgical doctor was actually a psychiatrist.

Regardless even I didn't realize the extent that american football was followed in Mexico. I read a really great article by a ESPN article: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3620057

I attended my first peewee game this past week and was no where prepared for the hype and fan excitement that I experienced.

The Aztequitas our unassociated "peewee team"

The Fans and families travel VERY well. If you think that athletic parents are a little eccentric in the US you would be in for a world of surprise here in mexico.

The home stands

 

For starters there are probably 200-300 people that come to these games, however they cheer as if they were the college section at Penn State.

Don"t have a drum?? No problem! Just get yourself an empty water bottle and a big ass spoon.

Secondly, everyone has noise makers of some sort. Big drums, whistles, and flags accompany all of their loud cheers.

The final thing worth noting about "our" peewee team is that they are really bad. hahah I have been to 3 games and they lost them all. And despite the fact that I thought it was just a normal game the last opponent victory was followed by confetti and streamers thrown by their parents... 

Pachuca trip Mi Nuevo familia (part 2 of 2)

What would you do as a mother if you went into your sons room and found a huge 6'9" black dude sleeping in his bed. This is how I imagine it being for the mother of David Ramos when she ran into Ivan Ramos' bedroom to say "There is a HUGE white man in your bed" with David's response being "WHAT?!?! Oh wait... thats just Pete"

I woke up to a breakfast of epic proportions. 2 hamburgers, another sandwich, a plate full of mangos, and juice! For the rest of my stay she would insist that I was starving constantly and saw it as her personal vendetta to suppress this :)

Plans for Saturday included a pick up game of football with David's old team... pick up in mexico includes all your pads...

So because I was a foot taller than most of the other players I decided to play sin pads. All was fine until I created a trick play where I was thrown the ball in space and lower a shoulder to deliver a pretty hard hit (of course without shoulder pads it hurt like hell the next day hahah) 

After that Davids dad took us to his aunt's house to shower. (side note: in December I sent some Gcc tee shirts to Dave but they were too big and he gave them to his dad)

Martin Reppin the GCC. 

Sunday was a real treat. I got to go to a christian church with Dave, his mom, and his other brother. A really nice pastor named Don moy (I think) presided. We sang praise music in Spanish ... then we sang TECHNO PRAISE MUSIC!! very awesome! but it went down hill after that... a visiting pastor yelled in spanish for 30 min I didnt understand anything!

These ladies did a sort of tambourine dance all the while in church

After church I was invited to lunch for Davids aunt's birthday. This is when I was 'officially' part of the Ramos family. His mom decided to more or less adopt me as her "crazy night in the US 22 years ago" to account for my size. But i think that most people agreed that me and abuelita looked the most alike.

 My tialety, mama de mexico, abuelita, y mi tia de cumpleanos 

Mi hermanos!

As a whole the trip would have been nothing without the new loving family I found in mexico :)

Pachuca trip Lucha Libre (part 1 of 2)

To fully tell the story of my past weekend I need to go back to December 2010. This is when I first became friends with David Martin Lugo Ramos (yes everyone has a lot of names down here) He was a Mexican who added me on facebook because he saw my name listed for the Tazon de Estrellas team USA.  Over the course of a few months we kept in contact but I have never actually met him or even seen him other than his facebook page.

Finally this weekend I decide to voyage to the state of Hildalgo to meet this David. (mind you this is all with the hope that David is indeed this nice young Mexican football player and not a member from La M on a 6 mo. kidnapping operation)

The first big test comes when I arrive in Pachuca, Hildalgo at a bus station with no cell phone and no david in sight. Luckily I found a guy and convinced him to lend me his. David was 3 min from the station and his dad was going to take us to a lucha libre match.

LUCHA LIBRE: this event of controlled chaos may be enough to make certain "grovers" cry. To me it was the most entertaining I have experienced in mexico yet. The rules for the match are.... there are no rules(which in turn violates the fact that there are no rules) anyways highlights from the match include: Chico chef (the wrestler with a butcher apron who was short and fat) Marco (tall american who was my 'cousin') the one legged wrestler (not lying), and receiving honorable mentions: hot bimbos, Rey Misterio's son, and a ref who was bald but insisted on fake combing his hair.

I think all the other Mexicans in the stadium were taking pictures of me as well

Me and the Famous Chico Chef

Rey Misterio's son... and ya a guy with only one leg!

Hottie!

Me and Dave in our Luchador masks

At the match you can yell WHATEVER you want at the wrestlers and then they yell back. People also threw limons. The night ended with me pretending one of the white wrestlers was my cousin and almost getting let in to the dressing room. After the match we went back to his house and I had a chance to sleep in the first bed in mexico that my feet didn't hang off of. :)

Stay tuned for the story of how I now have 3 houses in mexico!