Quiero Helado!

There is no good ice cream in Culiacán. Well, there is some, I just can't afford it. For those of you who know me well (or maybe not even that well), you know this is a problem. I spotted some Haagen-Daas in Walmart today, but when I saw the price I almost cried. 72 pesos! Almost 7 dollars for a pint! And about 13 dollars for a quart. Alas, ice cream eludes me again.
In other news, we had our first concert last night. It went pretty well, considering we hardly rehearsed the music. We played the Marriage of Figaro Overture, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (with a god awful pianist), and some opera excerpts/musica Mexicana with some dreadful singers, among other things. The audience didn't seem to notice, and in true Mexican style, gave us an encore (which also involved the terrible singers). It was still fun. I like playing with the principal oboist, Plamen. He's Bulgarian, and his sound is really different than what I am used to, but he's a good player. He also has a lot more experience than I do, and I think I can learn a lot by sitting next to him.
So today was the beginning of my first weekend in Culiacán. Concerts here are usually on Thursday or Friday night, which means we have the entire weekend off. How does one pass the time in Culiacán, you might ask. Well, a trip to WalMart is always an option. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club are the best places to shop around here. I'm usually anti-WalMart, but when in Mexico...Anyway, niether are within walking distance, so Slava's brother Savva was kind enough to drive us and Andrea there to do some shopping. It was pretty exciting, other than the whole crying about ice cream incident. One day I will splurge...
After we got home, Andrea and I went our separate ways to finish practicing and cooking/eating our new WalMart purchases, but decided to meet up later and hang out. After all, it was Saturday night. You may be wondering, what does one do for entertainment in Culiacán? We were wondering the same thing, and after our brains got tired from wondering, we decided to watch some DVDs that I brought and play cards. All in all, a fun evening, but definitely different than the endless possiblilties of entertainment in LA. We'll have to think of more creative things to do in the future.
Oh, one more thing. Those of you who are keeping up with election converage, please keep me posted. I'm a bit out of the loop. Gracias!