The American Pastime . . . in Mexico?!

So I have not been to a baseball game in forever, may that be MLB or triple A and lucky for me the great town of Ciudad del Carmen now has a baseball team . . . and a professional one at that!! The Ciudad del Carmen Delfines (Dolphins) are part of the Liga Mexicana de Biesbol (LMB). The stadium right now is nothing fancy just the stadium for the university here but it does not matter because they is finally something to do here besides work!! Our company has some "box" seats and I was finally asked if I wanted to go which I jumped at!!

It ended up being a stormy night and it rained some but that did not stop us or the game! The Delfines played against a team from northern Mexico - Monclova. It was actually a pretty exciting game and we ended up pulling out the win!! But the best part had to be being so close to the field and players!! I could have easily gone up and touched the players of the other team in the duggout because there is not really security and the layout of the stadium is very open. Being so close and in a very open stadium made me be very aware throughout the entire game because if a foul ball was hit there is not really any protection to help save you!!

The most interesting thing about the game though had to be the chants! I felt like we did every chant possible even though it did not make sense at times!! We did the tom-a-hawk of the Braves, "charge" with a twist, and a couple of other chants that made me laugh because how they changed it!!

The food is also a lot different . . . there are not hot dogs, peanuts, or cracker jacks but instead tacos, chips w/ hot sauce, and churros!! All good but not the same, hahaha!!

Rainbow after the rain finally passed!

Watching the game with Fili and Tejeda in our "box" seats.

Delfines at the bat and you can see the lack of protection!!

Dugout for Monclova that I could easily throw things in!!

Win for the Delfines!!

Pizza and Puzzles

So when I am finally on land and in the office for a while being able to do fun things with some of my colleagues is a must!! A lot of time we just end up going to the movies, but this time one of the older engineers asked if I wanted to come over his house for homemade pizza!! Of course I said yes to homemade pizza because that is probably my all time favorite food, especially my Mom's homemade pizza!! This engineer was the one that when I first arrived to Carmen asked many questions to get to know me and when he found out that I can make homemade pizza he wanted the recipe to try it out! He made it for his wife the first weekend he could and said that it was a moderate success. After a couple more times he finally invited me over to try out my recipe. He said when he made the dough that he had an accident while making one of the batches, so he was afraid that it was not going to work. When we got to his house after work to start cooking the pizza, he went to get the dough that was left rising from lunch and gave out a little scream. I had no clue what was happening and then he brought out the 2 balls of dough. One had risen beautifully, overflowing the bowl and the other did not really rise at all. He asked if it was normal for it to rise over the bowl like that and I said yes, that is what is supposed to look like!! He was so excited because he has never been able to get the dough to rise like that, and it just so happens that the "accident" dough ended up being perfect!!

After the dough ordeal we made the pizzas! It was interesting seeing what Mexicans think as a good topping combination . . . they definitely have a very different opinion on what flavors go well together then me!! We put homemade sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, chorizo, Mexican sausage (pretty much hotdog), ham, bacon, pineapple, red pepper, and goat cheese. I do not think I would ever put that combination together, but it tasted great!! And again it was just nice hanging out with people and socializing!!

Chef Krusty making one of his masterpieces!!

Final Product . . . Mexican Style Pizza on my crust!

After some very good food, we decided to finish a 3000 piece puzzle that they had started earlier. We were just going to do it for while since two thirds of it was not finished, but then seeing the progress we could not stop until we finished it!! Somehow we did . . . it is funny how proud you feel after completing a puzzle no matter how small or big it is!!

Team Puzzle Force after completing the 3000 piece puzzle!

Hopefully, we will be able to hang out more and start a tradition of eating/making food at someones house every Sunday!! We will see if that every comes true!!