Hi guys!
Today when we woke up it was 8am because we had to leave early so we could do an interview on the radio! After we got up and showered we had a quick snack of grapes before heading out. We drove to a parking lot and then walked to the radio station. The walk there was short, only a few minutes… but at almost every corner there was a homeless person begging. 🙁 Tampico is one of the richer cities in Mexico but still pretty poor compared to Canada.
We soon found the radio station and waited in the lobby for a little bit before they called us in to be interviewed. When we were called in the woman who would be interviewing us talked rapidly in Spanish for a minute to our friends Jorge, Enrique and Mariel. Dad nodded his head while they were talking, understanding everything while I sat there… not speaking Spanish… trying to translate (it didn’t work).
After a minute of the lady explaining what she was going to ask us (at least, I think that’s what she was saying; she talked wayyyyyy too fast), she began speaking into the microphone and then began to ask my Dad some questions. Once or twice she would ask me something (not that I could understand her) and I would stare at her blankly. Dad would then try to translate and I would answer in English, which he or Jorge would translate. It was so confusing! After about five minutes we wrapped up and then, after saying goodbye, we left to go have breakfast at a restaurant in the heart of Tampico. We chatted and ate eggs and fruit for about ten minutes before some of the RE/MAX agents from RE/MAX Life came to eat with us. We then stayed for a little over an hour before our group slowly dissipated until only George, Mimi, Enrique, Dad and I were left. The five of us then went for a downtown Tampico stroll, visiting George’s father’s shoe store (called Destroyer) and listening to the street music for a while before we went to the marketplace in Tampico. The market was cool because of all the different spices, fish, hanging meat and herbs! They had lots of handmade things and it was just all-around awesome!
We then went to the old port used to defend Tampico in the war way back when. The port was really awesome! We got a full tour of it from a tour guide who didn’t speak english (of course). Afterwards, we watched a short video about… I honestly haven’t the slightest idea what it was about! I think it had to do with a war because at one point they did a re-enactment of it by shoot a canon into the river that was right next door to the port. There were all kinds of Mexican Marines guarding the place dressed in their full gear in the hot sun. We soon left to go to a few other sightseeing places like the bench where the world’s tallest man used to sit every morning.
After all of that we went to HEB (a store that’s kind of like a mix between Costco and Walmart) for some gelato ice cream. I got Oreo and chocolate and dad got some type of coffee flavor. We sat in the store for a bit, eating our gelatos before leaving to go to the TV station!
A while ago we got a call from Televisa, the number one station in ALL of Mexico, offering us a chance to be on the show!!! We (obviously) said yes and they told us that today was a great time to come! We drove there in Jorge’s car and waited in the lobby for a while before Enrique, who used to work at Televisa back in the day, gave us a tour of one of the studios! It was soooooooo cool! It had about five or six different sets ready for use including a cooking show set, a game show set and what seemed to be like a talk show set! It was so awesome! After exploring the sets for a while, a seemingly secret door opened up and the news anchor Jessika Gracia quickly told us (in Spanish) what we had to do and where we had to be.
She then ushered us through the secret doorway which led into a huge area (again) with only three sets; a talkshow, a morning show and a sports show. She sat down at the morning show set, smiled at the camera, and began to broadcast the news in Spanish for a while. Then came a commercial. Then her. Then a commercial. This went on for about five, ten minutes before she quickly showed us where to sit, sat us down, smiled at us and then, as one of the camera men held up 5 fingers, 4 fingers, 3, 2, 1…he pointed at us and she began to talk on, and on, and on… in Spanish.
Dad answered her questions and Jorge answered others. I just sat there. The only words that I said the whole time were “Hola,” and “Gracias.” But it was still a lot of fun to be broadcast to millions of people. After the tv we left for the RE/MAX offices (RE/MAX Life and RE/MAX Global Go), had them sign the flag (they were all soooo nice!) and we then were interviewed at RE/MAX Life for the local newspaper (front page!)
After the interview we went out for a movie (Thor 2!!!), dinner and then came back to Jorge’s house to go to sleep after a long day.
More updates after.
~Holly J
