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Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Lovely thoughts, Melee. But, I think you've never heard an Ottawa snowplow at 5 AM. Bad in that it's 5 in the morning and a diesel-eating monster is roaring outside while you try to sleep, and worse in that the thing is going to leave a 3-foot mountain of packed snow and ice in front of your driveway.

hlamb · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Posts: 431 Location: Canada

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

cangringo · Joined: 18 Jan 2007 Posts: 327 Location: Vancouver, Canada

I can't say I miss that but then I was an only child with a father who doesn't much care for noise so I endured many hours of silence. Needless to say I can't stand it and I always have some kind of noise...music, tv, radio talk show, anything. Maybe that's why most of the noise here really doesn't bother me. I like the feeling of a community being lived in instead of the deathly silence of a Vancouver suburb.

I also like to know when certain foods are driving by... Laughing

The one thing I can't used to is the amount of people knocking on the door...yeesh. Shocked

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

MELEE · Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject:

Guy,
I know the racket of a snow plow, snow blowers, and perhaps the worst, the low tech scrapping of a shovel on the pavement! I was imagining Christmas vacations at my grandparents in the country, where the country got round to plowing a day or two later.

There is a famous old lady in out town who sells arroz con leche.

Arrrrrroz con LEEEEEEEEEEEEEche, LeCHE con aRRRRRRRRROZ!

I once thought about doing an MA in Latin American Studies with my thesis on vender calls throughout the region!

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Yeah, I guess Iowa knows snow, right? Ok, you are off the hook.

They are interesting, aren't they? I've seen people in Mexico City that have cell phone ring tones of such street vendor calls.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

You can show your students this video...my wife was amused by my having to clean the snow off the car. I was really hoping we would get a huge Ottawa snowfall so I could put her to work shoveling and end any delusions about the dreamlike nature of snow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO1PsikMzrE

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

Be happy the Yucatecan custom is to stand outside on the street and yell. In Chiapas, the custom is to go as far inside the house as possible, though the gate, into the garden and includes sticking one's nose inside and open interior door. Needless to say, most people keep their street side gates locked with big dogs in the garden to discourage nosy visitors.

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

Oh, I forgot to mention the evangelicals. They close the street from time to time (local traffic be damned), set up big, overdriven and distorted speakers and scream their sermons. My favorite is "en este Colonia vive el diablo!" I believe it after about four hours of this wailing and caterwallering.

I used to be a disc jockey so Mexican's insensivity to sound distortion drives me mad. Usually the speakers used are blown or overdriven creating painfully loud distortion. People seem to believe the louder the better and have no concept of adjusting the bass or treble. It's horrible!

danielita · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 281 Location: SLP

I live above a gynecologist's office and my door is always open to let the breeze in. People get confused and think that my apartment is the doctor's office. You should see the shocked look on people's when they stick their head in my doorway and see a two gueros staring back at them. They quickly start stammering asking where the doctor's office is (praying that they are in the wrong place!)

naranJAS, naranjas, naranjas naranJAS !!!

I hear this every day and you can barely hear what they are saying because the person either has the microphone too close to their mouth or the speakers are just bad. I can't help but wonder what better business they might have if people you actually CLEARLY hear what they are selling....

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

There's a fruit truck with a louspeaker that drives through my apartment complex early in the morning. The driver plays a tape rather than shout himself, and the tape has become worn and distorted over time. All I can understand are the first two words... "�PI-�AS! �NA-RAN-JAS! �WARBLE WARBLE!"