weekend of sun and swimming

Another busy weekend but let me start after my last post. Wednesday the rain went away and back to sunshine. I had my Culture test which went okay, and then I wanted to try to find the 7th Harry Potter in Spanish which came out that day, but it was released at a weird time of day, and the bookstores I went to didn’t have it. I had a lab that evening, and then I got home and sat outside watching the eclipse. It was pretty cool. I meant to put pictures of it up along with a post on Friday, but ran out of time. Thursday was uneventful; I got home from a LONG day of classes and decided to lie in the sun and test out my new mattress, it worked great. Then I had to do homework. Friday went well I went to a Romantic Music of Mexico performance to get started on the second month of my culture class. The lady singing was very good and the show was entertaining. I came home and realized I forgot to turn in my lab, so it was back to school to do that. I got home watched LOST, packed, and then had dinner before heading to the movie theater to watch Vantage Point. The movie was really good and exciting.

Saturday started out at 6AM when I got up to get ready for the trip to Cuatro Cienegas, Four Marshes in English. We left school at 7:30; on the way there we had to go trough a drug checkpoint run by the Federales. After the 5 hour drive we made it to the hotel. The hotel was an old hacienda with two courtyards and a pool, it was great. We then changed and went to a small winery. We got to taste the four wines and 3 liqueurs they made: anis, grape, and normal. All but one of the wines and the regular liqueur was good. I bought a bottle of the anis flavored for 55 pesos. Then off to a really big pond and swam around and kayaked for 4 hours. It was sunny, but the pond was 75 and refreshing. We then went back and had a barbeque in one of the courtyards. We all sat outside and chatted for a few hours then at midnight we went to the church dance for a couple of hours. Sunday stared of with free time to walk around the tiny town, about 40 acres. It was then off to the famous pond there. It has a species of fish and snail only found in that pond, along with the only stromatolites found in acidic water. The pond is blue from all the oxygen the stomatolites produce. The pond also smelt like sulfer. The next stop was the plaster dunes, which looked like a desert, but it was white as snow, and there were a lot of outcroppings. The white plaster made it so bright, hot, and sunny. The last stop was another swimming pond; this one was much smaller and 87. The pond had a muddy bottom that smelt very sulfury. After that it was back on the bus for the drive home. Pictures will be up shortly if not already.

Today it was back to school, nothing much happened, the second round of partials starts next week I only have one, and Cancun keeps inching closer and closer. Hope everyone is doing great and until next time.

time just flies by

WOW it seems like time is just flying by. I just realized it has almost been a week since my last post. Well Thursday was Valentine’s Day. Here they call it Day of Friendship and Love. Different clubs were selling treats. The big thing was candied marshmallows on a stick I bought one and it was an interesting treat. There was a talk about international peace for the international students which one of my roommates got to give part of, along with a picture of the international students. About 400 of the 500 showed up. The roommates and I also decided to buy our host mom a cake. We bought a strawberry cheesecake, it was really good. Then that night I went to go out with some friends. I miss heard the directions to the house so I had the cab driving all around, but found the house. We then went out to the bar area of town. Not to late of a night out.

Friday I got up for school and couldn’t wake my roommates up, who stayed out much later. Nothing eventful happened after that. Saturday I went to one of the malls to buy a movie that I needed to watch for my Culture Class. It was the mall that I went to the second week here. I got some shirts, the movie, and found an Egyptian store. The mall turned out to be much better then I first thought. Lots of stores and a nice set up. I then stopped next door at Costco. It was set up just like the one in Lenexa, but some sections bigger and they had a chocolate aisle. It was then time to watch the movie with classmates. After that I finished the paper for it, and at that point I just needed to do the book questions, and was excited that I was almost done with the class from hell.

Sunday was a day of relaxing, and doing the Culture class’ book questions. It went well and I vowed to start the next months work early. Lunch that day one roommate and I went to a restaurant in the plaza by our house. It is called Super Salads and had really good sandwiches and salads. I then decided that I needed to by a cheap lounge chair for our patio, but the cheapest was 900 pesos, which is about $87. Instead I got a pool mattress for 17 pesos, but I still have to try it out. That is because Monday it decided to rain and today followed suit. The rain ruined the nice weather, because without the sun it has been in the low 50s. Back to Monday I was all ready for my Culture partial exam, but after waiting there for 15 minutes, another teacher told us our teacher got in a car accident, and couldn’t make it, so the test was Wednesday. I then decided to not start the reading just yet to prevent confusion. Today was pretty uneventful.

Well hope everything is going great and had a good weekend. I am getting more and more excited for Cancun, and am counting down the days. This weekend I am going to a town called Cuatro Cienegas, where there are bacterial water pools, so some colorful and exciting pictures. Keep the comments coming and until next time.

hair cut

Midway through another week down here and I decided to post while taking a break from memorizing formulas. This weekend went okay; it all started Friday, when my cough set in. After lunch I went to work on a group project for my Culture class. One of the other two people didn’t show up, so the other girl and I worked for 2 and a half hours and still had some more to do that we would just find on our own and e-mail each other. I was then supposed to go see a play to fulfill another assignment in that class. While walking home from the library I started stressing about all the stuff I now realized I had to do for that class. 6 assignments all with at least a 2 page paper and 4 involved watching a movie or going to a museum. I decided to postpone it until the Sunday showing and would work on the papers that didn’t involve a prior activity. The next day I went to the museum with two girls from my class, sorry no cameras inside. We then ate and walked around the city center, I have more pictures up of this though. It was 85 and no clouds, and I started feeling real hot. I blamed jeans and the sun. I got home and took a nap and woke up for dinner could barely eat anything and then feel back asleep. My roommate woke me up to tell me where he was going and make sure I was still going to a friend’s birthday. At that point I had no energy to do anything and was insanely hot, so I took my temp and it was 100.8! No good, I started taking care of myself and slept until noon Sunday. Sunday I went to start all the homework for my culture class and found out that I made it out to be much worse than it really was. I also found out that the art instillation I visited counted for the same assignment as the play would have so now I didn’t need to go. I ended up getting a good amount of the assignments done, and found out it was all due Friday instead of Wednesday.

Monday the fever was gone, but if only the cough and runny nose left too. I had my second partial, which I though went real well, but ended up only going okay. The class average was a 40, I did a good deal better, and we can redo it for more credit so that is always great. I had another partial yesterday in which all the kids complained it was too hard so he started all the problems for us and worked most of the way through two of them. Today I had no tests and my culture teacher decided to give us the weekend and moved the test and assignment due dates to Monday! I came home finished all but one of the assignments and then went with a roommate to get my hair cut. Check it out:



We then went and got a cake for our host mom for Valentine’s Day. I came home and watched LOST and got even more confused. I also realized 31 days until I leave for Cancun, and that the Writer’s Strike is over so now I can return to my shows soon. Hope everyone’s week is going great and they have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

another week gone by

Another week here, this week marked the 5th week here along with being here a month. It was marked with great weather, including a day at 99, but now it is in the 70s. Monday there wasn’t school due to Día de la Constitución on Tuesday. Tuesday there were a few Carnival parties, nothing too big. Also on Tuesday I got in trouble in class because I was writing in my planner and not taking notes during class. Wednesday was Ash Wednesday so I decided to go to mass, with a friend. Here there Ash Wednesday service is real different along with their rules for Lent. I kept asking my host mom about mass times and she would say that you just show up and get the ashes. I called the church and they said, “Yea, just show up between 3 and 10.” We went and there was a line for ashes so we got in it and soon found out why we hadn’t seen anyone with ash on their foreheads, because they put it in your hair. We decided to sit and pray, and while doing so the priest came up, read the gospel, did a responsorial, and said we can now line up for ashes. It was then that we realized you were supposed to wait for the mini service they had every 20 minutes then get ashes, oops. Also here there is no rule on fasting, just no meat on Friday or Ash Wednesday, but chicken along with fish are okay meats. Also that day I went to the religious store and they had some pretty cool things, along with tons of saint medals and prayer cards. Thursday was my first partial test, pretty easy, and then I had some time to kill on my normally busy day. Later on that day in my last class we kept getting interrupted because the peacock was making tons of noise, it sounded like the zoo. Last night I bought my plane tickets home and will be back on May 15th in the afternoon. I went to pick seats hoping I could get a front on to make customs go faster, and maybe even have the same seat I did on both legs here. The second leg it worked out and I got the same seat. I then went to pick a seat on the leg from here the Dallas, and this is the picture that greeted me:



I cracked up, at first I thought it would be all handicap, but soon realized that just means it can be handicap seating. I then thought, WOW that is a tiny plane. My seat choices were 1A, 5A, or 4C. I figured 1A had no leg room and the other two were similar, I went with 5A so I could have a seat by itself. Today was another uneventful day, got the second book for Mexican History, am working on a group project this afternoon, and have to see a play tonight. Hope all is well with everyone.

weather

I have live weather on my desktop, and I was just looking at it thinking how glad I am being here enjoying such great weather. Right now the two say in Lenexa it is 33 feels like 23 is night and raining, as for here it says 99 feels like 94 with sun, sun, and more sun. I decided to check out Manhattan too and just had to be thankful I am not sitting there in 29 with a 16 wind-chill.

All last week my friends and I have just loved how we are wearing shorts, eating breakfast outside and it was January. The nights can still get cool, but last night it stayed above 80. My friend from Canada said she almost killed her host mom when she told her it was -30 C (-22 F), her host mom responded, "I didn't know it got that cold." Got to love Mexican weather.

I just thought I would rub it in.

colonial mexico

What a weekend. It started Thursday night when I left for the weekend trip to Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Dolores Hidalgo. My roommate and I got there at 9:25 PM and when the buses got there 10 minutes later we loaded our bags underneath and got in. The trip started with a long overnight bus ride and a few stops. We got into town for breakfast around 9 in the morning. Friday continued with a trip to see the towns Aqueduct and get a view of the city. Then it was time to see a Chapel in honor of Revolution Heroes and it was then off the Santa Cruz Monastery. There we got to see the Legendary Thorn tree. It is said to be the only one in the world, it has no fruit, flowers, or seeds just thorns in the shape of a cross. Legend says when a monk came and left his walking cane in the ground it grew in to the tree. After that we saw the place where Emperor Maximilian was imprisoned and killed. Just above that is a large Benito Juarez Statue. Then lunch time, it was a good 4 course meal for 45 pesos, and afterwards we walked around the city center. The day ended with getting on the bus and heading to Guanajuato.

We got to Guanajuato and checked into the hotel. It was then time for a street bard performance while walking the city. We even got to see the Callejon del Beso, Kiss Alley. That night we also went to a club in town. The next day was a day to remember mainly due to how off schedule we got. It all started with a trip to a knick-knack shop for an hour, after leaving an hour late. We then went to a Cathedral and it was pleasant, after that we headed to the original mine entrance replica, where more time was wasted sitting around. The last thing before lunch was a visit to the Mummy Museum. This museum was where they decided to put all the bodies taken from their tombs from when their families didn’t pay. Due to the soil the bodies never decomposed. They had all kinds of bodies: elderly bodies, babies, murdered bodies, executed bodies, and a fetus. Now it was time for the downfall of the day. It being 3 we wanted to eat, and even though we were still supposed to do one thing before lunch we postponed it. The tour guide had all 70 of us go to the same restaurant with one cook and two waitresses. At around 5:30 we were done eating and ready to leave, with the day shot we could either get on a bus and explore the center or return to the hotel. I went downtown and after some walking decided to take the Funicular to the view point of the city, which was the postponed event now canceled. It was very cool and we got to see the city from just after sunset on. After that we weren’t yet hungry but didn’t want to return home so she and I walked in circles around the center for 2 hours. Eventually we found a restaurant and it ended up being super cheap. We both got a large lemonade, margarita, and hamburger. When the waiter brought out the burgers we both were shocked how big they were. Mine was a double the size of my face and she just got a single, the waiter just laughed and said, "You did order a double." Then when we got the bill were shock it all only cost $20 for us both. It was back to the hotel where I sat on the pool deck with my two roommates from last weekend’s trip. The next morning again started late, but due to much complaining we got to go back to the View point and see the city along with Pipila’s Statue again. Now I got to see the whole city with good lighting. It was then off the San Miguel de Allende.

San Miguel started with us getting dropped off at the town square. In the town square there was a game going on where the children were cracking egg shells filled with glitter, flour, or confetti on each other’s heads. I bought 10 for 5 pesos and used some on friends. We saw the main church and I went in. The interior had mainly oculus with light radiating in. It was time to find lunch and explore. After getting something to eat, it was time to use the rest of my eggs. In doing this I started a war between some of our tour group and some kids. We were vastly outnumbered, but had much more change to reload, and were taller. After using around 50 eggs and getting near 80 cracked on me it was time to leave. At that point I had very silvery hair and confetti everywhere. We then drove an hour to Dolores Hidalgo. On the drive most people were complaining about the lack of time, hour and a half, spent in San Miguel, so we organized a protest at the changed schedule. The original plan was to leave Dolores at 6 and get in at 3:30 AM, it was changed to get us home at 1 AM, but we said getting home at 7 AM was better since today we had no school. At Dolores an argument ensued some wanted to return to San Miguel others wanted to go back to the original plan and others wanted to leave now. The end consensus was that San Miguel was fun, but it was too late to return and we didn’t want to just spend 10 minutes in Dolores. Dolores Hidalgo was the city where the War of Mexican Independence started, with Padre Hidalgo’s speech that is the origin of the Viva Mexico cry. I walked around with a girl I met on the trip from Paris, we saw two more churches in this small town. Lastly it was time to come home, after another long bus ride with a stop at the same rest area from last weekend, we got home at 3:30. After a shower to clean up I went to bed.

Today was a relaxing day off. I watched LOST, read for my first partial on Thursday, and loaded pictures. I also just realized I have now been here 4 full weeks! That means I am a quarter through. Now I am ready for the first round of partials.