La Ultima Dia

My flight leaves in 14 hours, I can't believe it. I've gotten so comfortable here. Well, now that Seattle and most of Texas left last week, I think this is a good time to salir but I will miss la cultura de Mexico. As well as my new friends. I am excited that I will have two new friends I can meet up with in Long Beach when I get back. All the Texans and Coloradoans, though? Forget it. I guess we do all have to move on to our own lives. Well, it was pretty funny in class today because almost everyone showed up really late (at least five minutes until almost 20) and Robert did not sleep at all, so he was soo tired, lol. He was like, falling asleep. So we read our essays and really the only one interesting enough to listen to was Douglas'. He applied what he knows of Mexico and his experiences and stuff, so it was pretty interesting. And then, whatever of the class we didn't spend reading, we spent talking. I was gone, though, lol. Conversation class, that was half and half. Our teacher went to D.F. today instead of coming to class so Rufi was our teacher, and he's a pretty cool guy. Because Leti didn't come to school today, we didn't have to do our test for conversation. We just spent the whole time talking about Mexico. Which was interesting at time and boring at others. Because, honestly, I have been talking to people for six weeks about Mexico. Not that Mexico isn't interesting to talk about, but we've been talking about the same thing: el pobre, la corrupcion, los pueblos, good sites to see, etc. Like I say, interesting stuff just it's always the same thing. And, after class was the graduation. Wow, it felt real nice to receive my transcripts (especially when they said I got straight "A"s) So weird, though, to think I won't be going back to that school on Monday. I'm kinda glad the school part is over and that I have my credits, but I will miss Mexico and my roommate and everything. So, after the graduation, Oyinna and I walked to Mega. OMG!! That place is HUGE and they have a WAY better selection than WalMart. I wanted to buy an extra bag, but the suitcases were ranging from $50-$70 dollars, and I just wanted something cheap. What I did find, though, was a duffel bag that you can contract and zip to store (and only costs like $20 bucks) that I figure, I can just take with me whenever I travel like that and then I won't have to buy another suitcase again. I found some Tequila too that looked so good, but ONLY because I'm under 21, I can't bring in alcohol. I did find Jose Cuervo chocolate, so I bought some of that, lol. We came home, and Lila fixed us lunch and later that night we went out. Around six-ish we went to Cafe Andromeda to meet up with people but they were like, leaving, lol. I got to say good-bye to some people. Then Oyinna, Maria, and I went shopping, got one last Tequila nieve from Tepotznieves, and ate street tacos for dinner. I later had another 2 scoops of ice cream that were pretty good too. We then went to Los Arcos and hung out. Chris was there so we danced and drank. Unfortunately Oyinna had to leave early, but I still got to hang with Chris and Elizabeth. She is so nice! She was like, "It's your last night, whatever you guys want to do." She was like, the only one to whom that seemed to matter. I'm so glad I met her. And Chris, he's been such a great friend. We stayed at Los Arcos until around 11 and went to Jet where we found a little private corner and just hung out. We chilled, talked, and danced. The good thing about that was Elizabeth and I didn't have to worry about anymore creepy guys hitting on us, lol. We had a lot of fun. Chris bought us roses, and we all danced. We did leave early, around 1:30, but Chris has to get up early for his bus and Elizabeth does have an excursion tomorrow. I guess I should get a good night's sleep before my flight too, but that's unimportant. I can sleep when I'm old. ;-) And even then I hope I still go out and have fun because that's important. Overall, my experience in Cuernavaca and Kukulcan has been so rewarding. If not in my Spanish then in the people I've met, both Mexican and American. Poor Mexico has such a bad reputation because of the drug war at the boarder, but Central Mexico is so safe. And the people are so friendly. Cuernavaca isn't necessarily a beautiful city, but the surrounding area and all the nearby pueblos and the views of the hills and everything are so beautiful, and I have greatly enjoyed the nightlife. I loved visiting the pueblos and going on the excursions. I loved practicing Spanish with students just like me and with the locals. This has been a great experience that I will cherish for a very long time, if not the rest of my life.

Un Dia Tranquila

As usual, grammar yesterday was normal. However, two of my classmates didn't show up because they went to Mexico to go to Casa Azul and other things. Conversation class was quite too because Melanie and Robert left as well to go to Casa Azul. It was fun, though. We played a board game where we would be shown a picture and had to identify it in Spanish. I didn't do too well with that part, lol. I did better than I expected but I didn't do as well as I would have hoped. Activity yesterday afternoon was Salsa. My last Salsa lesson with Johnathan. :-( I want to take him with me to the states to give Nick and I dance lessons, lol. He's a great teacher and really fun; I'm going to miss him and his class. So after school, Oyinna and I went home for a couple hours then went to the Galeria to go to the movie theater. We wanted to see Inception but we got there too late and they were sold out of both the dubbed and subbed until like 9 or something. Oyinna wanted to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice but we ran into the same problem. The next movie showing was Eclipse so we bought tickets for that. We walked around a bit then went to the movie. I bought a small popcorn for $28 pesos. $28 PESOS! Also, before we went to the movies we had Starbucks. They had a really interesting Frappuccino that I had never tried before called Banana Coco, so I got one and it was really good. It wasn't too expensive, probably about the same price as in the US. Really good too. The movie was pretty good. Better than the first two. I was just as disappointed when Bella picked Edward over Jacob as when I read that in the book. By the way, the movie ticket only cost $42 pesos. OMG!!! I spent like, six bucks and I got popcorn AND the movie. I love Mexico, lol. So, today, history was usual. We finished the book, which was good. Then in conversation class, we all talked about what we did yesterday. Everyone was here, so it was actually more interesting. Then! I was really irritated because we talked about suenos. AGAIN. I guess no one else had, but I did, and I was really irritated. I didn't say anything, though. Just went with it, and I told everyone about one of my worst dreams. I didn't have any nice dreams to tell them. So, Elaina, Elizabeth, and I wanted to go swimming today, however Elizabeth forgot a towel and by the time we could go into the water, it was not very hot out. And the water wasn't too warm. They don't heat it nor put chlorine in it, either, so it's not the greatest pool. I was quite disappointed because I was excited to go swimming. And! My only other option for the next hour was to listen to a lecture about Frida Khalo. That ended up being pretty interesting, I learned SOME new things about her, but not much. I would have rather gone swimming. Either way, that was cool. We came home, and I went to WalMart to get a new suitcase, but I ended up buying a bunch of cookies instead, lol. They didn't have suitcases, it was weird so I'll get one tomorrow either at Plaza Cuernavaca or El Centro. Tonight is Melanie and Robert's last night so we're all going to Carlos N Charlie's. I hope we don't go to Jet afterwards because I didn't like it so well. The group that goes out tomorrow night won't be the same. We'll see how it goes.

An Week of Outings

No staying in place this week, my last in Mexico. Last night a friend and I went to Casa Hidalgo for dinner. It was raining with thunder and lightening pretty badly so the lights were dim, and the camarero put candles on our table, lol. It was a very romantic setting. The food was really good and the atmosphere was really nice. We sat on the third floor and had a great view of El Centro. We then wanted to go to Los Arcos but it wasn't very exciting so we went to Eclipse where a young man played guitar and sang. It was really nice. We hung out for a good 2 hours before going home. It was really nice. So, today history was average. Place is still empty. It was my friend Elizabeth's birthday today, so we were making plans. Conversation we played Taboo, and I actually did pretty well. Certainly better than I thought I would. My team won (the Long Beach team ;-]) by one point. It was a really close game. We all had fun though. :-) Then! for the activity class we made little munecas out of...I forget what it's called. The paint sucked, though. It was really watery and kept running, so some of my colors started blending together, so I gave up. After school, the high school girl from Oakland Elaina came by the house around 6 and we walked to a taqueria down the street called El Semaforo. I had tacos al pastor and she had 2 quesadillas. We then took a taxi to Las Mananitas, and we were the first there. Not too long after, Chris and Doug came followed by Chris and later Melanie and Robert. Finally, the birthday girl and company arrived. It was really nice, and it ended up not being as expensive as I thought. The drinks, at least. The food got pretty pricey, but drinks weren't too bad. It was really nice. It's a hotel, and so like, it feels really isolated and there's lots of green around and peacocks walking around. There was even an albino peacock, it was really pretty. The food was really nice and once it started getting dark they placed candles everywhere. It was really, really nice. It started raining after a little while and some of us took taxis to Los Arcos. Robert was really nice; he bought shots for everyone. I had one, but it was not good. Haha, he offered me a Corona to chase it, and I think I'd rather take the tequila straight. I danced with Chris and Robert and this other guy I met there named Gustavo. He's a really good dancer. That's why I like to dance with the natives because they know how to dance. Robert does country western back in Texas so he's good to dance with too because he knows to be gentle, lol. Chris does interesting moves that I can't follow. I had fun dancing with all three of them. Later, Chris and Elaina left and the rest of us went to Eclipse. I stayed for like an hour and a half but it only felt like one hour. I had a lot of fun there. They bought like this giant tube of beer and shared it, it was funny to watch, lol. Robert danced with me and the other girls. At one point he tried dancing with Melanie and I at the same time and he did a really good job. Overall, tonight was a lot of fun. I enjoyed myself. Which I should especially since it's my last week. Chris wants to make plans to go to Jet tomorrow but I don't really want to go there. We'll see, nothing's set in stone.

T Minus 6 days, oof!

Overall, this weekend was pretty good. Yesterday was really enjoyable. I went to mass at the Catedral para la ultima vez. From there, I actually bought a book about the rosary in Spanish. It's just a small pamphlet with the prayers and descriptions of the mysteries and stuff. It's really helpful actually. I'll try praying the rosary every day and hopefully pretty soon I'll be able to memorize the prayers. So, after mass I walked to the Estrella Roja bus station and the bus was waiting for me, lol. It was a quick ride to Tepotzlan. Three songs after I finished the rosary we were there. Yesterday was a great day to go because it was so sunny! It was so beautiful out. So, I walked to the Zocalo where I walked around. Just walked down random streets that looked like they had lots of people. I walked down Avenida 5 de Mayo looking at all the bars, restaurants, and shops. Looking where there were lots of people. I went back to the mercado because that's where there seemed to be the most people. I walked around the market, looked at the different food for sale and stuff. I also walked down the artisan market. I ate lunch at the mercado. I walked around looking for a place that had tacos de pastor but I didn't find any. I did notice that a lot of the signs in the mercado said "tacos de cecina" I have no idea what it is. It's some kind of meat, that's all I know, lol. Even after eating it I'm still not sure. I think it's some kind of beef. Anyways. I sat down at a table that looked busy but not too busy I didn't feel like I wouldn't be served. So, how it works in the market is, there's a giant round fryer in the center and then the tables are set up in a circle around it kinda like a bar. You just take a seat, and they ask you what you want. So I sat down and ordered my taco and later a Pepsi. The tortilla she used was interesting because it was black. I didn't know why. I should have asked her. Well, she made my taco, and I ate it. A family of five sat at one of the tables and ordered their meal. A little while later, a family of three sat beside me. I noticed the family of five order sopes. I enjoy a good sope and I was a little hungry so I also ordered one. It was different than the first one I had. This was just salsa, crema y queso. It was still good, though. I watched her make it so now I know how to as well. All that (the taco, soda, and sope) cost me $45 pesos. FORTY-FIVE PESOS!!! So I walked around some more and had some nieve. Not from Tepotznieve but from a stand en el mercado. I had Queso (which was surprisingly good) and Beso de Luna. I'm not sure what was in it but whatever it was it was good, haha. Then I went to the Zocalo where there was live music. It was nice to look around and see the kids playing. And there were these three elderly men sitting on a bench. They all were dressed in light colored pants and button-up shirts and white cowboy hats. I should have gotten a picture cuz they looked pretty cool. I didn't see them talk to each other. They just sat there. It was awesome. I spent the rest of the day walking around and hanging out at the Zocalo. Before I left, I went to Fraspados Cafe (which is the awesome place Doug took Jenny and I to last week) and I got a frappuccino to go because I needed to break my $500 to have enough change. (turns out I didn't need it but it's always good to break a $500) Slowly and surely I made my way home. It started sprinkling as I left Tepotzlan, so I left at the right time. And the bus dropped me off at Carlos N Charlie's, and it started sprinkling here in Cuernavaca about when I got to Santa Clara, so not too bad. I got home just in time. Today, I started my final week of classes. OMG!!!! THE SCHOOL IS SERIOUSLY DESERTED! I guess the new French kids aren't coming until next week. There are only 5 classes: Papalote 2, Papalote 4, Papalote 6, Private Paplote 6, and my class; culture. My class is the largest consisting of 8 students including myself, well, I guess 9 (my friend is moving from Paplote 6 to my class) And even before the big groups came, we had 2 activity classes. This week, we only have one. And the entire school showed up for the cooking class, lol. Oh, my goodness. We made some kind of chicken vegetable soup which was really good. Easy to make too. Culture was usual. Conversation was good. We talked about our weekend and asked questions of each other. But, MAN! School was so EMPTY. I guess I didn't even really realize how many people were leaving. It's just, idk. Definitely not the same. I enjoy the company of the people who are left for sure. Just, it's weird. Just weird. Not used to so few people at Kukulcan. And then! 1) We didn't get ANY new students and 2) a bunch of us are leaving on Saturday. Next week, school will be even more quiet. It's weird to think that I'm leaving. In a few days, I'll be back in Concord. It's just weird to think about. I mean, I'm ready to go back and start school, etc, but at the same time, I kinda don't want to leave. Not stay at Kukulcan forever but not leave Mexico either. It's kinda hard to describe.

Final Good-Byes

Whoo! Past couple days have been quite busy. Yesterday, I had my exams. I turned in my history essay, and I think I did pretty well on that. Then for conversation, I had to talk about my theme. My theme was how I ended up in Kukulcan. The only question I was asked by my classmates was "Are you happy you came here?" and my response was that I was so happy. I did make the right decision. After conversation was many good-byes. Then we went on the excursion to El Castillito, which is a small castle that's now a photographic museum of Cuernavaca, and the cliff thing. I don't remember the name. The castle was cool, and the cliffs were really nice. A very green area in Cuernavaca. :-) Oyinna and I then walked with some of the group to el Centro and Oyinna and I went to the dress shop where she bought her dress and I bought my own. I love it! It's so pretty :-) Afterwards, we walked around a bit. We had nieve de coco and went to Burger King. All I had was an ice cream cone, lol. It was so good though! The vanilla ice cream actually tasted like vanilla ice cream not just like frozen milk or something. I have no regrets, lol. That was my lunch, actually. That and the Pop Tarts I had during the lunch break. We went back and took a nap. I showed up an hour late to Marco Polo, lol. But I didn't have to wait long for my food and everyone was visiting anyways, so it worked out. We were a much smaller group than last week. We walked to a bar where some people already were. Later, we split. Some people stayed, so I had to say good-bye to them, some people went to the gay bar, and I went with the group that went to this other place. It was ok. I should have gone to the gay bar. (That's where Oyinna was) I had a nice time with Robert and everyone. One of the girls was teaching me how to dance, lol, which was nice. I think I would have had more fun at the gay bar, but I did have a nice night overall. It just, so sad. This was probably the worst good-bye week. AH! No one's left! There are so few of us. At least the Long Beach girls are still here. There are a few I can party with this week. Not many though. Well, today, Oyinna and I spent the morning at home. We ate lunch with Lila and her friend. Lila made the amazing fish again. That stuff is so GOOD. I LOVE it. You can taste the sea. Well, after lunch we went to the ethnobotanic garden which is a garden that has plants native to the area. We got lots of really nice pictures. (One of them is above) We then walked to el Centro. On the way we picked up a cab because Oyinna was worried about being caught in the rain. We actually were able to wait out the light rain in the cafe we went to at el centro. Oyinna had a chai frape and I had a raspberry smoothie. Both were so GOOD. It's the same cafe where I had the hot chocolate last week. We then went to the falluca where I bought so much stuff, lol. Tons of DVD's and some Salsa music. We then just walked around El Centro. We enjoyed just watching people interact. It was cool. So many people were in El Centro, so much was going on. We walked around, took pictures, talked to a couple people, ate, and left. Not quite what I would expect of my last full Saturday in Cuernavaca, but definitely very, VERY nice. Very pleased with how I spent my day. Well, below is a slideshow of the cathedral in Cuernavaca. I talk about how pretty it is, so here's proof, lol.

Almost to the finish line

Today was alright. We just did more reading in historia y en conversacion, Melany and Doug did their topics. I'm doing mine tomorrow. Melany talked about her trip to Italy, and it was really interesting. Doug talked about...I don't remember. He talked about all the different careers he had, I think. I mean, I know that's what he talked a lot about, but I don't know if that was his topic. I'm guessing it is. I had Salsa as my culture class. I love the Salsa teacher. When I'm not wearing heels, he's probably about my height, maybe a little shorter. He's so skinny too! He's got this giant smile and the greatest mannerisms! Like, he's not like a wire skinny but he's very slim. He's got a little muscle in his brazos but he's really slim. I helped Nathan during his private lessons with Johnathan after school again today, and we did this move where like, the guy pulls me and my arm goes around the guy and it was just weird cuz he was so thin. Haha, and it's also interesting to dance with him because he's shorter then me in my heels. I think I'll get a picture with him next week. He's really good. He keeps time well, he knows to spin me when I step forward, not backwards. Es muy importante, jaja. Nathan has gotten pretty good too. He's even started adding a little style. ;-) I need to work on my style, too. I just need to get more comfortable with the movements. I'm also getting really good at moving my hips when I dance. It's kinda funny, in class, the guys will get lost, so I'll have to tell them what to do and give them tips and stuff. It's fun, I enjoy the Salsa class. :-) So, after 2 hours of Salsa, I went home and had an ENORMOUS meal. Gena feeds me EXTREMELY well. I was so full, and I ate late, so I didn't have dinner. I had coffee and a peanut cookie for dinner, lol. I then took a nap for about an hour. I think it was a little more than that. Anyways, I started writing my paper due today, but didn't finish because I went out. It was Onna's last night, so we went to Carlos N Charlie's. I wore my new skirt and looked so cute! <3 We were sat and drank our bebidas gratis. (she had rum and coke and I had tequila and that fresca stuff. Onna thought it was funny that it took me like 2 hours to drink my drink while she had like two or three, lol. she said i was "baby-sitting" my drink) While we sat there talking, a Cuernavance came up to us and was like, "My friends aren't here, can I hang out with you guys?" Of course we were like yeah. She spoke to us in English and apparently her boyfriend is from Indiana, so her English was pretty good. When Onna went to the bathroom she talked to me in Spanish, so I could practice my Spanish. We also met a guy from Dallas, Texas, and a guy from Switzerland. We also talked to a couple other Mexicanas, and they're the ones in the above picture. One of them, though, lives in Toluca Lake in CA. So that was pretty cool. I enjoyed Carlos N Charlies. Ran into one of my classmates and talked to her for a bit. Onna and I then went to Jet where the rest of Kukulcan was. Jet was ok. I preferred Carlos N Charlies because they played more Spanish music, for one, and there were more people. I still had fun because there were more people that I knew at Jet. I stayed out a little too late pero bueno, todo esta bien. Wow, it is almost 3 am. Ok, I think this is the end of my blog, lol.

La Galeria

So, school was average today. History was normal. Just did a bunch of reading. We finally read about a woman. She was a nun. All the people we've read about until that point were men. And I looked at the next few pages that are all filled with men except for one more woman. Conversation, we continued the exercise where we interview someone. Except we continuously got off topic. I was interviewed today as la Madre Teresa. Someone questioned why it's more important to help the poor in other countries as opposed to USA. Well, because the poor in other countries are worse off than the poor in the USA, of course. There were other questions, and I was glad that I finally wasn't going to be in trouble for not talking when a) there are native speakers who are more talkative than I and b) the subject is completely boring. I got a chance to ask questions of the other students too, so that was good. I didn't go to my culture class because I hung out with Chris instead. Last night, at Los Arcos, I danced with Nathan. Apparently later, though, he hit another one of our classmates in the face, lol. But yeah, we danced for a while and then later I danced with Chris. We had a nice long talk afterwards. Anyways, we had another long talk during conversation class. After school was another graduation ceremony for the 60+ students who were leaving and I was definitely NOT about to attend that. Cool for the students graduating and they deserve a big ceremony, especially since there are so many of them, but that doesn't mean that I have to stick around. So Oyinna and I walked to the Panderia near the school. (I don't remember the name) Then we caught a cab back to the house where Gena had lunch for us. We got ready to go and went to the Galeria. We bought our tickets for Encuentro Explosivo, that Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise movie. Tickets were only 42 pesos!!!! That's so cheap!!! We then went shopping for a bit. There were quite a few Spanish stores there. We also went to a department store that had candy and OMG! The chocolate was so good. I bought 50 grams of chocolate, which isn't much, and what was called a carmalela or something. I actually don't remember what it's called. Oyinna bought some of the native candy. It's actually really interesting, a lot of the Mexican candy is like, chilis or fruit coated in like, some kind of spice or something. I'm not even sure. I don't like it so well. It's too bitter and sour for my taste. I like sour if there's some sweet to balance it, but there usually isn't. We walked around a bit more. We found one of my favorite Spanish stores! It's called Oysho, they have adorable pajamas and stuff. Oyinna bought a pair of shorts. So, we went to the movie and enjoyed it. I liked the character arch of Cameron Diaz's character. Afterwards, we went shopping some more :-P We went to Bershka, which is one of my favorite stores, and I found the cutest mini skirt in the entire world! I also found some really cute tanks for like, 70 pesos. I liked the shirt a lot, it's really cute, but I LOVED the skirt. It was a little expensive but not outrageous. Reasonable. 400 pesos which is good for a skirt but more than I wanted to spend on a single piece here in Mexico, but it is so worth every penny. Oyinna loved Bershka because the style of clothes was so unique. Which it is! I love that store too, I wish we had more in the US than the one I've seen in SF. The style is very Spanish, which is extremely stylish. Bershka is one of the more expensive stores in Spain, but it's still really reasonable especially with a sale. After that, we returned home. Had the sweetbread we bought at the panderia for dinner. It was pretty good. Just, it was getting kinda dry, so it's good that I ate it tonight. Today was ok, but this afternoon was really good :-)

Bailar

This morning, before school, Oyinna returned from her weekend away with her husband. She is a much happier Oyinna. :-) Class was normal. Thankfully we didn't talk about politics again in conversation. My teacher did give me a speech about not talking during class. I just have classmates who are native speakers and dominant. And we were talking about credit or something! It was so boring. Plus, like I said, I had classmates who were dominant so it's difficult for me to engage in conversations when other people are aggressive talkers. Plus they were native so it was easier to jump in with responses. It's so interesting, one girl in my class looks like she's Korean, but she's half Cuban and half Mexican. I wonder where the Korean is because she does not look Latin AT ALL. This afternoon, for my cultural class, I had cooking where we made guacamole and tortilla chips. OMG!!!! That was the best guacamole I've ever had. So GOOD! All the vegetables were fresh and it tasted so good. You could taste the freshness. Never again, store bought guacamole, jaja. Nathan had a dance lesson after school and needed a dance partner, so I agreed. He is so much better than he was last week. Johnathan would show him how to dance macho then Nathan would make fun of him then Johnathan would be like, "Exacto! Exacto!" Nathan really struggled but he got it. He's pretty good now. We'll practice tonight at Los Arcos. Lila had lunch for me when I got back, which was really nice. Then I took a nap. I have to get ready for Los Arcos soon. Haha, Nathan was joking with Johnathan that he can like, give him signals at Los Arcos. It is raining with thunder and lightening, but we'll see. :-) I enjoy dancing with Nathan because he's getting quite a bit better. Below is my video of Taxco. It is a very picturesque pueblo. It's kinda big but really pretty, and I wish I would have had more time in that pueblo. Maybe another time. I still prefer Tepotzlan but maybe if I had more time at Taxco, I would have enjoyed it more. All the taxis, like in Acapulco, were VW bugs, haha. They were pretty awesome.

Counting Down the Days...

Well, I'm in my last class, on my last 2 weeks here. I can't believe it's almost over. I have just one more class, two weeks left. Gracias a Dios que esta semana I have Mexican Culture & History or whatever the heck it's called. We're using a textbook the Government published for the Mexicans for the Bicentennial so they know their history. Personally, I don't think that's a bad idea for our government to do except I don't believe that our people would read it, so I think a movie would be better for our culture. Even though a book about our history would be better. Anyways, so these next two weeks will be a breeze compared to the last four. Conversation was easy too, we just talked. Except everyone in my class, except for me, is from Texas, so I'm the only one in that class apparently who likes Obama. Douglas was saying how people around the world think Obama's a joke and foreigners don't like him. When he won, though, I got an e-mail from Rocio saying how good it is that he won and how happy Spain was that we finally have a good president. I personally think that he is what our country needed. Doug also was like, "where are the changes he promised?" Well, Obama can't fulfill all of them, but the health bill and wall street reform are certainly two huge changes. Well, anyways, I get my roommate back tomorrow. (yay!) She'll be a much happier Oyinna :-) Today, I did nothing. I wanted to go to the ATM but I took a 3 hour nap instead. I don't know why I'm so tired, and it's really bugging me. I hope I'm not that tired tomorrow. I guess it doesn't matter, I'm going to El Centro with Onna after class...I think...I've been reading Harry Potter 2 in Spanish, and it's actually really easy. Really easy. I've been reading Mafalda too, and I freaking love her. I find Mafalda to be a bit more challenging to read than Harry Potter. Towards the beginning of my AP Spanish class in high school, I remember Senora giving us one Mafalda comic strip to read and I remember being overwhelmed and not having any idea what on earth was going on except something about trees. Now, I have a better understanding. She wants to be a translator at the UN, and her friend wants to be a housewife. This whole reading in Spanish I am getting DOWN. Talking, I think I'm getting better. Not much better, but better. Lila's daughter told me today that I speak Spanish well. I speak it ok, my grammar when I speak sucks, haha. I had taller for my cultural class, and I didn't make pulseras, what a shocker. We did something else but I didn't have a chance to finish and I was really irritated. Tomorrow, I have cooking where I will learn to make guacamole. (yes!) Some of my friends had that class today and were telling me how to make guacamole and it sounds SO EASY! I can't wait! Never again will I eat store bought salsa, guacamole, or tortilla chips. Mm...I love homemade salsa...Well, here's the video from Xochicalco. Enjoy!

Busy Weekend @ the Pueblos

Whoo! What a busy weekend. Yesterday, I went to Tlayacapan with Doug and Jenny as well as Tepotzlan once again. I didn't enjoy Tlayacapan as well as I know I could have if it wasn't raining. The ex-convent was really pretty though. Then Tepotzlan, I appreciated the village more because I sorta had more time to just walk around. We went to a cafe where I had Chai milk tea, which was SO GOOD. I hadn't realized how much I missed it. We then had sopes at a restaurant that Jenny's Mexican dad recommended. We just walked around and stuff. Then we went to the ice cream shop Tepotznieve where I got Tequila ice cream and ice cream of rose petals and both were SO ricos. So delicious. We found a group of people selling roses which were so pretty and the red ones smelled so good and so strong. It was $15 pesos for a dozen. QUINCE PESOS FOR A DOZEN! Roses are so BARATO here. I knew they were cheap here. Didn't know they were that cheap. They were so beautiful too. Today we went to Xochicalco which was so COOL. I love the ruins. These were really different from Teotihuacan. Certainly less tourists. There were more and it was just more interesting because like, to think of all that went on there and to think that they had meaning and use and all that was just so amazing. There were a lot too and I guess they were still excavating. A lot had been restored. It was really cool. We then went to Taxco which is where the silver mines are. I don't like it as much as Tepotzlan because it's smaller than Cuernavaca but it's bigger than Tepotzlan. It was really pretty because it's just mountains and all these houses were build on these mountains which was really beautiful. So, first thing we did was went to the big silver store where they told us about the silver. And gave us drinks. The first one though only had six drops of tequila. It was good. I couldn't remember what else was in it. I think lemonade or something. He told us how to tell real silver from fake silver which I'm already pretty good at. (I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to silver) So, afterwards, we went downstairs and there was tons of beautiful silver. Some of it more expensive some of it less expensive. I bought myself a ring. (surprise, surprise, lol) Then we went up to the cathedral which was so amazing. There were so many golf flakes and statues all over the place. I was disappointed we couldn't go in for mass. Well, we had lunch in this restaurant that was on top of a hotel, so we had an AMAZING view. I didn't really want to eat but every bit and every cent I paid was worth it. Afterwards, we walked around some more. There was a Tepotznieve so I had more ice cream. Then Heather, Lisa, and I ate soft serve ice cream from another place that was really good. Heather put granola and chocolate on hers and it looked so good I did the same. That was pretty much the end of Taxco. I wish I could have spent more time walking around to explore more of the city, but I saw the Zocalo and the Cathedral so those are what every city has that you have to see. I had a lot of fun this weekend. I honestly think I could spend at least another week or so exploring these pueblos. I would love to get to know Tepotzlan better. Maybe I'll go back after school sometime next week. Either way, I'll post videos up this week. Today I just have a pic of me not smiling and with my sunglasses on while standing in front of a pyramid at Xochicalco.

Palacio De Cortes

Yesterday, we didn't have any cultural class, which really, REALLY irritated me because I didn't get cooking this week and that's my second favorite after salsa. For conversation, we talked about the states of Mexico, which was interesting. I turned in my essay in literatura and Norma liked it. I don't think she wouldn't like it, lol, but I'm glad I put in all the work I did. We didn't really do a whole lot after that. We talked about Cuernavaca. Then for the last block, Norma brought in one of her conversation packets and we talked about felicidad, AGAIN. I mean, we haven't talked about it in that class before but she and I talked about it in our conversation class together. I wonder what class I'll have next week. I really hope it's something more engaging than literatura. So, after school, we went to Palacio De Cortes for our excursion. It actually was really cool. The view from the top was really awesome and the museum was interesting. They had information about pre-colonial Mexico, colonial Mexico, the Mexican revolution, and post-revolutionary Mexico.

Afterwards, me and high school girl from Oakland, Elaina, went to the market next to the palace to do a little shopping. After a while, we met up with her mom, who's really nice. We walked to the Catedral but we didn't go inside because there was a wedding going on. So we hung out at the church there for a little while before going across the street to the cafe to meet with Jenny, the other girl from CalState Long Beach (I don't remember her name), and not too long after Douglas. Yes! I met another girl from CSULB. It was nice to talk to someone who knew which credits I was transferring over. She's a senior so she definitely wasn't transferring 300 classes. We all wanted churros y chocolate. We talked about them in class today and the weather definitely permitted it, but they didn't have any churros so we all just had chocolate. Except Douglas had a frappuccino, which looked really good. The chocolate was really good. Not the same as Spanish chocolate because this was more like the beverage than melted chocolate. it was still really good especially since they added cinnamon. Mm, never again will I have hot chocolate without cinnamon, lol. Douglas wanted to show us a bookstore, but there are tons all over the place, and I got HP 2 & 3 and a Mafalda book. I love Mafalda! She's hilarious! After shopping we went to La India Bonita, which supposedly has the best mole in Cuernavaca. I split a dish with Elaina's mom. The mole was really bitter, so I didn't like it so well. I guess the other CSULB girl's mole was sweet but they had a different dish than we did. It was good to try but I didn't like it so well. Maybe in small doses, but not a whole dish of them. Afterwards, Jenny, the other CSULB girl, and I went to Los Arcos. We didn't stay too long but the CSULB girl and I danced for a bit. Then Chris and I danced for a little while too. We danced in the rain and got soaked, lol. It was fun, though. Today was a pretty good day.

TORTURE!

Haha, if you're either me or my brothers, you would get the inside joke that is the title of this blog entry. Well, either way, this evening felt like torture. I saw the doctor and she prescribed an antihistamine, which i'll pick up tomorrow. Then we made pulseras AGAIN. Conversation was good. I told my chistes and my tongue-twister. Then! we did an exercise where our teacher gave us 3 photographs each, and we had to write a story based on the pictures. Nathan hated that assignment and said he would rather take a chem final but honestly, that's the kind of thing I've been dying to do since I got here. Unfortunately, we didn't have sufficient time to write the kind of story I wanted. The three pictures I received are one of the Roman Colosseum, one of some random village in a mountain in what looked like America, and the SWAT team. So I wrote a story about a guy who kills the Italian president and flees to a village in Vermont. Then the SWAT team finds him. It's really more interesting than that, but that's the outline. The funny thing is, Nathan wrote a story about a couple who fall in love, get married, and have a kid, lol. He wrote the love story, and I wrote the action story. It was fun. :-) Now, literatura is a COMPLETELY different story. After an hour or so and asking a few questions, I finally understood the story. At least, I think I did. Today, I realized that I would be having this much trouble in this class and with this story if it were in English, and that's really frustrating to think about. I also realized that I probably wouldn't do any better on the AP exam if I took it again now. I know my Spanish has improved, but those skills just haven't developed. I'm getting better at speaking in the past tense, which is good. The end of class, we played Hangman. We were able to guess everyone's EXCEPT, no one but the teacher knew what mine was. ;-) I used gorrion, and they got all the letters except for the "g". :-) I was so proud of myself. I used a word that they couldn't get. As we read this story, I feel frustrated in that class because Douglas understands a lot of the vocabulary and the stories and like, he'll have conversations about the story with Norma which doesn't do the rest of us any good because we have no idea what they're talking about, which is what I think is one of the problems. He knew what a gorrion was, but he didn't think of it when he and Nathan were guessing. (haha!) I was so proud that I stumped the class. :-) so, this afternoon was pretty slow. I was irritated because we had to pay for a taxi home from school. I usually wouldn't mind cuz it was only $35 pesos, but our host family is supposed to pay for a taxi if they can't pick us up. It doesn't really matter, I guess. Then, Oyinna and I took naps. Mine was kinda short, but then I started working on my paper. And I continuously distracted myself from my essay, lol. I finally finished, and this is the best paper I've written since I got here. It took me all night because I kept avoiding it. I eventually ran out of distractions and had no choice but to do it, lol. But that was the torture part: writing my ensayo. But at least I got it done, and it turned out well. I can't wait to next week, and I will definitely talk to Carmen if I get ANOTHER literatura class because I'm SICK of it. The stories are great and interesting, but it's just so hard, and I don't like writing the essays. People are like, "shouldn't you like writing essays because you're a writer?" but essays are COMPLETELY different than screenplays. I would rather write a 90 page screenplay than a 2 page essay. Well, I'm DONE with literatura, pretty much. I have a nice weekend ahead of me, and two weeks to go. Let's see how it all goes.

Un Dia Malo :-(

Today wasn't the best day. Last night was a lot of fun. I danced with my friends, drank 2 Pinadas, and just hung out. It was a lot of fun. I was worried about the rain, but it wasn't bad enough to stop the dancing. I really had a good time. There are always a lot of people at Los Arcos on Tuesdays, and they have a live band. Today was not a very good day. Yesterday, my eye was pink, and this morning when I woke up it was still pink and the skin around my eyes was a little swollen. So, when I got to school I asked Haifa about talking to the doctor, and she's only at school on Mondays and Thursdays, but I didn't want to wait for it to get worse, so she called the doctor and told her all that was wrong with my eye, and she prescribed a specific type of golpas, different than the kind I got yesterday. Haifa then called the pharmacy and asked how much it would cost, so I gave her the money, and I picked it up from her in the afternoon. By the end of the day when I put my eye drops in again when my eye was a little irritated, it was looking better. The other good part of the day was that I had a cold all day. Yay! I was so miserable all day, but I can't miss class, so I went straight home after school. When I got home, I realized I left my laundry at school, so I don't really have any clean clothes. Today was just not good. I felt better after a 3 hour nap, but still. I should be better tomorrow.

One thing I've been wanting to mention about the homes here, is that they don't really look like homes from the outside because they all have a wall around them. All the houses I've seen. It's interesting. Very seclusive, though.

Today, class wasn't to bad. We did chistes again and learned some idioms in conversation class. We did the pulseras AGAIN in art class, which was kinda annoying. This way, though, I was able to make one for my mom. Still, it would be nice to get some variety. In literatura, we finished the Jorge Luis Borges story by the end of the second block, so we had an interesting and intense conversation about Cuba and Mexicans traveling to the US during the final block. It was interesting.

I don't know, I didn't have a very good day. Tomorrow will be better. I paid for my Taxco and Xochicalco trip, so I'm excited about that. The only one of my friends that I know is going is my friend Lisa. I still can't believe I only have 2 1/2 weeks left, this trip has gone by so fast. I am very blessed to be here.

Sorry, Guys

Sorry about my entry yesterday, guys. It was just one of those days. Anyways, moving on. So, I've been worried about my classes because I felt my work hasn't been up to par. I checked my grades yesterday, and I'm doing well. I did realize that I don't need to go to cultural class, even though I do. We did Salsa today which was fun, as always. I learned a new Cuban dance that's really fun for like parties or something. Plus it's really easy. Conversation was kinda boring. We did like, vocab stuff. The interesting part was when we did trabalenguas, chistes y adivinanzas. We need to recite a trabalengua that she gave us by memory on I think Thursday, and I want to do "De tin marin, de do pingue, cucara macara titere fue, yo no fui, fue tete, pegale, pegale que ella merita fue." This is missing a bunch of accents and the double dots but you get the idea. It's a rhyme that's like "Eenie, Meenie, Minee, Moe" that children use. I think it's cute.

So, at the thought that I only have two weekends left, I realize I should make plans to finish everything I want to do. Here's my "Near Cuernavaca, Mexico" To do List. (What's left of it, anyway)

• Taxco
• Palacio de Cortes
• Teopanzolco
• Xochicalco
• El Centro
• Tlayacapan

This weekend, the school is going to Taxco and Xochicalco on Saturday. Some people from my conversation class are planning a trip on Sunday to I think Tlayacapan, but I'm not sure. We're planning a trip to two pueblos, so I'll do that. I was going to spend the day in El Centro but I think I'll do that on Friday after the excursion which I hope is to the Palacio de Cortes. I also want to go back to that market there to pick up a few things.

So I did something crazy today. I went to Wal*Mart to get a few necessities, and when I left, it was sprinkling. I asked myself if I should get a cab, but I voted against it, so I started walking. Not too long after there was thunder, lightening, and it started raining pretty hard. I still did not catch a cab. By the time it was at it's worst, I was halfway home. I could have stopped at the ice cream shop to get coffee and wait it out like an intelligent person, but I decided to just keep going. So, by the time I got back to the house, Lila had gone to class, and I was soaking wet, jaja. On the way back I was thinking I could put on my pajama pants and my sweatshirt and warm up. When I got back, I realized I dropped off my pants at the lavenderia today. So, not only did I have no pants but I didn't have any more shirts either, so I put on my shorts and my sweatshirt to dry off. Haha, oh, well. It was an experience.

Tonight I'm going to Los Arcos. It's raining, so I don't think I'll be dancing, but I'll still have fun. Everyone goes to Los Arcos, so I'll have tons of people to hang out with, etc. Hopefully they still have live music.

Today wasn't a very interesting day. I did realize today, though, that I have only two weekends left, which is weird to think about. I'm halfway done. I don't know, it's just a weird thought. I don't know...Well, so today we read two stories in Literatura. We played a memory game in conversasion as well as read some poetry. Today was my mom's birthday so she had lunch with her parents, and her daughter picked Oyinna and I up from school. Since she wasn't home, the housekeeper made us lunch. It was pretty good. We had soup that was basically boiled and ground...I can't remember the herb but it was pretty good. As well as rice and meatballs with the hard boiled egg inside again. It was one of our better meals.

I feel weird today when I think about my trip. I feel like I've been here a long time but at the same time I feel like I've only been here a short while. I feel like I have ages to go but at the same time I feel like I'm leaving tomorrow. I don't even know how I'll feel about leaving. I don't know if I should/will feel sad or happy. I mean, I'll miss Cuernavaca, my new friends, the food, Lila, classes but I don't know. At home, I have school, my old friends, Nick, my family, Newman, mi vida all waiting for me. I don't want my trip to be over, but at the same time I'm ready to start next semester. I thought this trip would be different. I thought I would feel different. I thought I would be different. (I mean, the last one's kinda true; I keep drinking Tequila. Not a lot, granted, but certainly more than in the US, jaja.)

I don't know. I thought I would find something here that God wanted me to find. A new insight into myself or the world, but I don't think I have. I mean, at the beach on Saturday, when all the people kept coming up to us trying to sell handmade crafts and cheap clothes and the little boys would sing, I don't know, I realized how many street vendors of all ages who have nothing to display their work I walk past all the time, how many people beg us for money, how many people of all ages try to sell gum for less than $10 pesos so they can get their next meal. Nick has a really great rule where he gives money to every impoverished he passes. My mom does that too. But there are so many! I felt like I was in China again. (I guess it's not that bad, but especially in Acapulco, you can't go anywhere without seeing someone who needs your money) And even then, $10 pesos, $20 pesos, $10,000 pesos wouldn't solve their problems. They would still have to come back the next day and try to sell more necklaces, pots, gum, food, etc. I just feel helpless. I thought seeing the poor would make me feel inspired, but it's sorta done the opposite. What can I do? In order to solve this problem, we would need to change American culture, Mexican politics & social structure, and Mexican culture. How on Earth can that be done? What little piece can I play to help that?

And even if all that does happen and balance is restored socially and economically in Mexico, there's still all of Africa, which is constantly at war, disease, and hunger, and Asian countries. I know we're supposed to focus on our one little piece to fixing a broken world, but I don't know what that piece is, and I have no idea how to find out. I keep reminding myself that I'm just a college student, and I'm still learning, but I feel like I need to do SOMETHING.

I always feel grateful for what I have, and I'm told it's important, but that still doesn't help my neighbors here south of the American border find work with decent wages. My teacher today explained why cops are so easily bribed. They have to pay for their uniforms and everything they use. And then! they don't even get paid well. So they accept bribes to take care of their families which based on the social structure makes sense. I also felt weird last weekend when I did all the museums. The people owned large houses and many beautiful possessions and art, but what does all that matter? I sorta felt like I wasted time, in a way. Yes, the houses and art were all beautiful and historical, and I learned a lot about Frida Khalo and that other lady and Diego Rivera. But what about them makes them so famous? What about them makes them so historical? What about them makes them so important? Frida Khalo was a wonderful woman. She was a talented artist who lead a very difficult life physically and emotionally and is a beautiful role model for women. But what about the woman in El Centro right here in Cuernavaca who struggles financially, emotionally, and physically every day and still can't feed her family 3 meals a day? Who can't every afford gifts for her children? Who can barely put a roof over their heads? What about the young girl trying to sell me jewelery who may not eat that night, who may not live in a proper home? Aren't they remarkable women? (or grow up to become remarkable women, at least) Aren't their stories worth telling as well? How important can the life of Diego Rivera really be if these lives aren't valuable?

I don't know. Either way, this trip hasn't been quite as I expected. I don't feel different. I at least don't think I'm different. I live in a nice home with hot water, 3 meals a day, I can go out at night and on the weekends, I'm being educated, I'm so well blessed to be here and to have all that I do. I don't know. Just something about this trip isn't as I expected. I guess everything is different: my family, school, classmates, roommate, friends, this city, this country, the food, everything! It's not different in neither a good nor bad way, just different and I don't know how to interpret this world as I'm living it and as I see it.

Fun in Acapulco

This weekend was quite a weekend, lol. It took quite a bit of effort to actually get to Acapulco, but once we got settled, everything was great. We got there at night and after we settled into the hotel, got cleaned up, and changed, we walked to the beach. In Mexico, there's a store called OXXO and it's a convenience store. They're all over the place. See, in Mexico, there's only one company that sells gas, and it's called PeMex and they don't have a convenience store. But if you go a little further down the street, there's an OXXO so it doesn't matter. We were kinda far from the really nice hotels. After we got settled, we went down the street to the Taqueria and had Tacos de whatever it is that starts with a P. Those were the BEST tacos I have EVER had, and I had them from a street vendor in Cuernavaca. To be fair, tho, I did take those para llevar and heated them up later. Caleb, one of the guys in the group, had a taxi driver friend who works at the Copacabana, so we walked down there and right outside the Copacabana was a 24 hr OXXO so people got beer, etc. and I got ice cream. It was amazing! I didn't need a jacket to go to the beach! It was so nice. So we sat on the beach, drank, went into the water. I was too foolish to bring my swimsuit so I only went waist deep. OMG!!! The water was like, at least 72 degrees F. It was SOOO nice. Brian said it was too cold, and I was like, no. Haha, he is used to the hot Gulf water while I'm used to the cold Pacific. The sand on the beach was really rough and coarse. I met a guy from Wisconsin who was visiting his Mexican family. We talked for hours and hours. He's really smart and intuitive. Earlier that night, one of my friends got in trouble with the cops for peeing on the beach. He managed to bribe his way out. Later, as we were leaving, ANOTHER of my friends got in trouble. The guy from Wisconsin talked to the cops and managed to help us out. That's another thing I should have added to my bucket list: bribe the Mexican police. It's crazy, it's crazy. We went back to the hotel until the next morning. We had KFC for lunch around noon, cuz it was down the street from our hotel. In fact, if the KFC had not been located where it was, I might have remembered where our hotel was located. So we walked down to the beach, and me and a few other ppl stopped at the grocery store for water, etc. and by the time we rejoined the group at the beach, they had rented a tent and some chairs for the day. The people staying at the hotel on the beach came down and we all chilled on the beach there. Went swimming. Then! 8 of us took a ride on a banana boat. The boat didn't tow us very fast, so to spice things up, we decided to tip the boat over, lol. We all had life vests and stuff so the guy just drove off without us until he stopped and we just floated there laughing. We had a great view of the bay there and everyone enjoyed falling off the boat, haha. It was really fun. :-) So, yeah, just chilled on the beach. The other group left first, then the boys left, and us girls left around 7 and stopped for dinner. Me and Elaine had this, I don't even know what it was, lol. Some sort of meat, black beans, and rice. Whatever it was, it was really good. We went back to the hotel and cleaned up. We were all going to go watch the cliff jumpers but we didn't get ready in time to make the show, so we went down a block to Hooters. Yes, we went to Hooters. One of the guys hadn't been, so another felt it his duty to take him. We wanted to do something after that but we could not agree on anything, so we ended up going back to the hotel. Today, tho, 9 of us got up quite early for a 6 hr deep sea fishing boat ride. At the beginning, we got all excited: looked at the surrounding islands, looked back at Acapulco, took pictures. Then, we started feeling the heat. We covered ourselves in sunscreen, laid down on the boat, and we all took naps while the boat driver fished, lol. Not for too long, no more than an hour. When we woke up tho, we had just like a layer of sweat all over us, haha. It was so hot. After 4 hours, we talked to the guy and rented gear for snorkeling. So he dropped us off near this little island, and there was a 13 or so year old kid who showed us around. There were these really big blue fish, little tiny fish with shiny blue spots, nice fish that were black, white, and yellow. The kid would go diving and he let us hold a sea urchin and a sea star. I loved holding the sea star. It was black with long legs and small so it like, crawled on our hands. It was so cool! There was this one part when these school of small fish kept swimming right by me, it was just, so cool. So, after snorkeling we got back on the boat and ate lunch. From there we came back to Cuernavaca. All our groups got separated on the ride back, lol. Brian, Elaine, and Me took the last seats to Cuernavaca at Estrella de Oro for $500 pesos at 4:00 pm. We got to the ticket counter at 4:00 pm so they had to radio the bus to wait for us, lol. It was a really nice ride, which is good for the money we paid. We almost had to wait until tomorrow to come back but fortunately we didn't. What a tiring weekend, back to school tomorrow.

Ocupada, Ocupada

I have quite a weekend ahead of me. Today, we're going to Acapulco. I just finished writing my paper for my clase de literatura. I wrote it about "La Cena", la historia de los ghosts. I really liked it, it's very strange. Yesterday was a really nice weather day. All day the sun was out, and it felt so good. I presented my Pancho Villa project in conversation, and I seemed to have done well. Literatura was easy because we read one story then spent like, two hours talking, lol. Just talking in Spanish. It was fun. Lila has been cooking us new food for breakfast this week. Earlier she cooked huevos rancheros and some dish im not sure what it's called. It's like flat bread with refried beans on it. Whatever it is it's really good. A bunch of the Washington people are leaving this weekend, so a bunch of us went out to dinner which was really nice. There's a really popular Italian place across the street from the Cathedral at El Centro which is called Marco Polo. It's a little expensive, but it's recommended by a lot of people. Today, we're going to Acapulco, but we're not sure on our accommodations which I'm against, but I guess if we're homeless in Acapulco, we'll be homeless together. I guess there are at least ten of us going. It's mostly the Texas people going. I'm not very close with them but some of the other ppl going I am pretty close to and I'm certainly closer to more of the Texas people than I am the Colorado people. Ha! Colorado can't go because they're going to Pueblo. One of my Colorado friends is really disappointed because her friends are going to Acapulco. I can't wait, I don't think I'll write over the weekend, but you'll get quite an entry on Sunday. Peace out!

Un Dia Aburrida

Today wasn't very exciting. Although, I was supposed to have Taller this morning for my cultural class, which is like art and whatever, and Rufi's usually the teacher, but he's not this week cuz of the schedule change or whatever. So my grammar teacher from last week was the teacher, and she didn't show up to class until ten minutes until the class ended which was highly annoying. I still had enough time between that and the break to make the card I wanted. We painted bookmarks. I'll most likely post a pic tomorrow, I don't feel like doing it today. So that happened. Then, in conversation we learned about lexicos which are lexicons. It's mostly for the people who are learning to be teachers but it's interesting to learn about as well. Just like vocab and associations or something. Not like word associations, but like I guess like teaching a word and then words that go with it. Then also like how some compound words or series of words that have one meaning where if you break it down, it makes no sense. But together they have a specific meaning. In English, the example I remember was brainstorm. If you try to break the word down, brain and storm, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But together, the single word they form means coming up with ideas. Then we played a synonym game, and my vocabulary skills are horrible. Not only was I unable to find synonyms for 90% of the words, for 80% of that 90%, I didn't even know what the word meant. I mean, there are a lot of words, including the 80%, that I hear a lot and recognize when I read, but I just don't know the meaning. I've been here 3 weeks and I just figured out at the beginning of this week what a simple word as "entonces" meant. I've heard it so many times by my teachers and classmates. But there are quite a few words that I know that other people don't. Like, the guy sitting next to me in literatura didn't know what "sustener" meant. (It means to support and maintain) Some of the newer students, especially this guy cuz he has an electronic dictionary) But some, not all, of the newer students look up like every word they don't know. I tried that in the first story, and I couldn't do it. I suppose I wasn't translating Spanish to English, but still there are a lot of words and you're not going to remember them all anyways. It's better to be like a child and just keep reading until you learn how to use the word. Some words that maybe will show up in a story more than once or I see in more than one story, I'll look up because it's obviously a common word in at least writing. Por ejemplo, "animo" (con accento encima del "a") was in two stories that we read this week, so I decided to look it up and it means like "espiritu" which is like a soul or spirit. I'm getting better at the reading. I don't know if it's because the stories are easier or if it's because I'm just getting better at reading or both. Either way, this is getting easier. Which is good. I don't think this is the class I'm supposed to be taking but either way my Spanish is improving. So, Wednesdays are 2-for-1 at the movies, so we were going to go to the Galeria with some friends to see The Karate Kid but I was so tired so Oyinna and I ended up taking naps. I slept longer than she did, lol. I didn't really want to see it anyways cuz I had seen it already and I wanted to watch Eclipse instead. However, (or Sin embargo, I need to practice that one cuz I always look it up, always hear and read it but never remember the meaning) I did want to spend time with friends. So, Oyinna and I ended up eating ice cream we bought yesterday and just hung out all day. I did my Pancho Villa homework. Oh, yeah, for conversation I had to write a paper about Pancho Villa. Interesting guy. Like his intentions, not sure about his methods. Whatever.

Mi Primer Noche En Los Arcos

Omg, I just got back from my best night out of my entire trip. Tuesday night is Los Arcos and everyone from Kukulcan must have been there and all of Cuernavaca must have been there and at the Zocalo. School wasn't interesting. I'm enjoying my conversation teacher a whole lot. As well as the rest of my classmates. At last! I have classmates! Lol. So, after school, I took a nap and then Oyinna and I walked to Wal*Mart to get some things. I think Oyinna's gonna cook herself dinner tomorrow night. And I bought ice cream M&M flavor, something familiar, and Limon flavor, something Mexican. :-) I am quite happy that I can have ice cream every afternoon now. I've missed ice cream so much, lol. (Yes, Mom, even more than you, lol) After Wal*Mart I talked 2 Nick, had dinner, and quickly prepared for Los Arcos. My taxi driver for some reason didn't know where Los Arcos was and it was good he called because I got it mixed up with another bar and woulda sent him the wrong direction. Well, I got there, eventually, and a live band was performing. I was about to walk inside when some of my friends walked out and were like "we're gonna go dance." So, Los Arcos is situated across from the Zocalo on one of the four sides adjacent to El Palacio De Cortes. It's in this giant building but between it and the Zocalo is a walkway. Not a street like the other sides of the Zocalo, but a walkway so it's for pedestrians only. Los Arcos is open and the band is outside so ppl were dancing in the walkway in front of Los Arcos, so I decided to stay outside and dance with my friends. I danced with my friend Chris, the sixteen year old, and he didn't do a kind of dance I was familiar with, lol, but it was still fun. I had trouble following him at the beginning of the night but by the end I got it down pretty well, lol. We took a break when the band did, and he got me a Pina Colada, mi preferido, jaja. Some other girls hung out outside while we waited for the band to start again. They found a dance partner who was really good at salsa, so I danced with him at one point. A lot of dancing, basically, lol. With a live band! Los Arcos is the best. Totally going every Tuesday night for the rest of my trip. I LOVE that place and wish we had a Los Arcos or something similar in Long Beach there. The picture above is me and Lila, my host mom, and below is me on top of the mountain at Tepotzlan with a view of the pueblo in the background.

Tepotzlan y Nuevo Horario

Sorry I didn't post about my awesome day yesterday, guys. Well, yesterday we went to Tepotzlan which is un pueblo cerca de Cuernavaca. This pueblo has become quite a tourist spot and after being there I understand why. Tepotzlan means something like "abundant with copper" because this area's full of copper, and apparently because of this, it has a lot of engergia so a lot of the extraterrestrials come here. Bueno, first thing we did in Tepotzlan was go to one of the many colonial churches in the pueblo. We had to walk cuz the streets were too narrow for the bus. As we approached the church, there was a giant mural created out of seeds like beans and whatever. It was amazing! It had the story of indigenous gods, the origin of the pueblo, and the influence of the Catholic religion on the pueblo. It's just fascinating. So, this church was so cool! We could only go to the cloisters because we went on a Sunday and the church was in use. But the cloisters were hella cool cuz there were these murals all over the walls and ceiling, and they all had a meaning to integrate the current beliefs of the indigenous ppl and Catholic ideals. Which when I went to La Basilica I sorta learned from my tour guide. The reason La Virgen es muy importante para hispanic Catholics is because in the indigenous cultures, the mother goddess was most important so they needed that same mother-figure in this new religion. And I also learned that Mother's Day is WAY more important in this pais than Father's Day. No one does anything for Father's Day apparently. But moms, this is apparently the place to be, lol. So the more I learn about the integration of indigenous beliefs and Catholic beliefs in the Latin Americas, the more interested I am. Back to the cloisters. OMG!!! If I were to be a Monk, that would be the place to be it. They had an AMAZING view. These giant windows were cut in the walls and you could see the mountain covered in tropical forest, green EVERYWHERE. And, oh, my goodness, to see that every day? That's where I would want to be a Monk. So we walked back and as we waited outside the church, a funeral procession came by. There was music, a parade of ppl, and the coffin was very beautiful. I noticed ppl weren't really dressed up in anything specific or fancy like the funerals I've been to in the US. I was, well not glad, but interested to see that. So afterwards we walked to the mountain where the pyramid was. My friend Adam and I noticed these like, food stands that had food that looked like triangle pancakes that looked really good. Well, we walked and so much rainforest. There was this one rock I remember that had water dripping off it cuz it rained on Saturday. Gracias a Dios that it wasn't raining as we climbed the mountain because I had been looking forward to this. The mountain was so steep that the trail was constructed of rocks that you climb. We got really hot at one point and just covered ourselves in water, and I felt so much better after that. The rest of the walk didn't seem so bad. So many trees; I loved it. :-) We got to the top and had an amazing view of Tepotzlan and the surrounding mountains. There were these animals that our tour guide told us are aggressive and can bite, but they didn't bite anyone today. There were cool to look at tho. So we climbed the pyramid and the steps were so narrow that you HAD to walk sideways. Adam and I walked around the side and took a seat. We just sat there and watched ppl climb up and absorbed the tropical scenery. There were these awesome bees that were like, eating the moss on the side of the pyramid or something and they were like, green and black and hella cool. So many interesting wildlife. We took a group picture when everyone arrived. We had the same tour guide as Saturday and Teotihuacan which was awesome because he's super cool. He helped Onna climb up, lol. So we climbed back down and on the way to the restaurant Los Colores for to watch the World Cup, Adam and I saw one of those stands with the triangle pancakes and decided to grab something to eat. So the lady asked us wat we wanted on ours and I had chicken and Adam had potatoes and like pork or something. She cut the triangles in half and put them on this giant, metal, round plate over fire and fried them. She put our fixings on and fried those. Then, she put the fixings on one half and put the other half on top. They were freakin amazing. I have no idea what they're called, but they tasted hella good. Feakin, awesome. We kept walking and bought some roadside tamales de verduras. We didn't want to go to the restaurant so we went to the market which was interesting because there were all sorts of different shops and all sorts of different foods for sale and so many different smells. So many people, such a lively environment. We kept passing these stands that said "nieve" which I found quite curious so we stopped at one and Adam told me about it so I thought I would try one. He had cafe con leche, and I had limon, mi preferido. Apparently, they're like ice cream and a snow cone at the same time or something. Whatever it was it was muy, muy rico. Adam got something else to eat and we watched the game in the market until it started raining real badly and the satellites got all funky. It was almost the end of the match, I believe they had started overtime. So we ran to the end of the market and saw nothing but rain just pouring down, so we waited for a minute until I remembered my umbrella. We huddled together and hurried to Los Colores where some ppl were leaving but our tour guide was still there. We talked to him for a minute before we went to the TV to watch the last five minutes of the game. Viva Espana!!! Jaja, it was awesome. Then it was time to leave which was perfect timing cuz the tv started to get funky there too. The walk back was awful. The streets were FLOODED. Seriously, like rivers and whatnot. So our feet and legs obviously got wet, and I was glad I didn't wear jeans. The group leaders arranged for the bus to come get us cuz of the rain but by the time the bus arrived there was no rain and it might have been faster for us to walk. So we came back and when I arrived at the house, I got ready to go to mass at the Cathedral. I love going to mass There. It's actually fairly different than the masses I've gone too, and I love the crucifix. Probably my second favorite after the one at St. Bonnie's. That was pretty much my day yesterday.Well, today, we had a change in horario. Instead of my class schedule being literatura, conversasion, cultura, it is now cultura, conversasion, y literatura. It is quite strange that they would change like tht but I think it's because something about the French students and the teacher situation, idk. But, I now have a much bigger class. I have 7 ppl in my conversation class, including myself, and 6 ppl in my literatura class. I was worried about changing conversation teachers cuz I loved Norma so much but I have her for literatura. I have Gloria for my conversation teacher and she's really fun too. We played a game called "Password". Where we drew an occupation card and had to make the person next to us guess wat it was. This reminds me, pretty much every day during/after lunch, we watch tv and always there's the Mexican The Price is Right. And always when I see it, I think to myself, "What an odd show." People just guess the price of things, it's very weird. And they get prizes for it. I kinda like Password tho. So I had cooking this morning and we made, madre, siempre olvido el nombre de esta comida. Es fried tortillas con salsa verde. It was interesting. Not my favorite thing but I will probably cook it for myself in the states. Just like the Sopa de Tortillas es muy facil para cocinar. The sun was out today! No rain and STILL no rain. It's AWESOME. It got cloudy this afternoon, but no rain. Hay relampagos y tumbres pero no hay lluvia. Gracias a Dios. Por fin! Por fin.

Un Dia Larga en Ciudad de Mexico

Today we went to Ciudad de Mexico. We went to the Museo Dolores Olmedo which is basically her house and all the art she's collected from around the world. She has quite an AMAZING collection. The ivory collection made me a little uncomfortable but the jade was beautiful. She had tons of Diego Rivera's work and tons of really cool precolonial artwork. We then went to the Museo Frida Khalo. The Museo Frida Khalo is the Casa Azul where she and Diego Rivera lived. The house was full of their possessions and art. My favorite part was looking at the photographs that belonged to them. The pictures that Frida had taken, received, and had been in. They were so beautiful, and it was really interesting to see the life she had lived. Afterwards, we went to the park where there was the Bazar Artesanal Mexicano. They had a bunch of like, handmade beaded jewelry, silver, clothes. (A lot of clothes) And books. It was cool, but I guess the market at El Centro here in Cuernavaca is cheaper and has pretty much the same things. This market was huge, though. It was pretty cool. Then we went to have lunch/dinner at a apparently seafood restaurant. We just passed it on our way to the market and thought it looked good. So we went to this restaurant and while we were eating it started raining really hard and there was thunder and lightening. Most of us had Quesadillas de Pescado which was really good. We ate it with guacamole, lime, and hot sauce. I used one of my favorites, Valentino's. The toacos were only $45 pesos. They were really good, too. Bueno, we took a bathroom break and Lisa had to pay $3.50 pesos to use the restroom and we walked back to the bus. We stopped a couple times to shop but I was ready to get back on the dry bus and warm up. My sweater was fine, except I was wet. I wanted to buy a hat at the market, but I didn't find one. I did find this awesome rainbow headband that I will probably end up wearing every day. It's either that or get a haircut, lol. So, today's my roommie's birthday so tonight we're going out. Not sure to where yet, but definitely somewhere fun. :-) And somewhere with food cuz we're both hungry, especially Oyinna, lol.

Un Descubrimiento Nuevo De Cuernavaca

Last night we went to Carlos N Charlie's. I really liked el ambiente of that place. It was very chill. the lighting and decorations were pretty awesome. Maybe next time I go I'll take pictures. So we went around 9:30 and ladies get free drinks from 9-11, so we got free drinks. All we could get tho were rum & coke, tequila & carbonated grapefruit juice, and vodka & jugo. I tried ordering a pina colada even tho I was willing to pay, but the guy wouldn't bring it to me, so I just got a rum & coke and gave it to my friend. The three of us girls had a nice time. There weren't a lot of ppl tho but I guess they were all coming when we left around 11. Us girls had a nice time, tho. One of the guys from school who was there early tried offering to buy us drinks but we got them for free. It was sweet of him to offer tho. I like girls night out once in a while. Today was really nice, except for the morning. This morning, the school had trouble with the traveler's checks so a small group of us had to go to the bank to get it sorted out, so we missed our tests. Fortunately, I was able to take and complete my test within the half hour before my class was over so I wouldn't have to do it during conversation. We spent 2 hrs at the bank which was so annoying. Conversation was really good, and I was worried that I would get a new conversation teacher next week but my teacher said she was going to be my literatura teacher AND that my literatura class will recieve 4 more students which means that hopefully my conversation class will receive 4 more as well. Yes! Also, I found out yesterday that a group of French students were coming on Monday. I learned today that they are all staying on campus and are like, 15 and 16 years old. So we probably won't mix with them much. For our excursion today, we went to the Brady Museum, but it's more of a house full of artwork and arranged a particular way as opposed to a museum. After the Brady Museum, Oyinna, Onna, and I walked to Palacio Del Cortez to go to the little market there. On our way, we passed a Domino's and boy were Oyinna and Onna excited. The pizza was really good and Oyinna and I both had agua de jamaica (which we can't get in the US but both TOTALLY love). They gave us each a packet of hot sauce, ketchup, and Tabasco sauce. Being the spice lovers that we are, Oyinna and I put hot sauce on our pizza which was actually really good. And when I ordered, all I said was "esto y agua de jamica" and he asked me if I spoke Spanish. Then I told him my name was Violeta. Whenever I speak Spanish, that's what I say my name is even if I'm talking to Americans. We continued on and went to the little market. They had lots of handmade handicrafts and souvenirs. I didn't buy anything but I would come back within my last 2 weeks to buy stuff. We found a great dress shop near the palace where I will buy my dress. The dresses weren't that expensive but were so beautiful. :-) We didn't go inside the palace but took pics outside it. We didn't go inside cuz we woulda had to pay so we're just gonna wait 2 go w/the school. We went to the Zocalo, which is a park right next to the palace, and I think they were doing some sort of event for the World Cup or something cuz there was like a giant tv screen showing Ice Age 2 or something and like a place to play soccer. Oyinna, Onna, and I took pictures in front of the arena and this like pole or whatever and these two boys in the background posed too. It was really funny. Then! These like, middle school kids came up to us and asked for pictures with us so we took a bunch of pictures with these kids. They seemed very sweet. That's happened so many times. This is the first time I've gotten pictures on MY camera. Overall, today was an eventful day. Tomorrow I'm going with the group to Mexico City to the Frida Khalo museum and some market or something in the morning. It should be exciting.

Las Problemas de las Clases

It rained again today. It was cold all day and then after our nap this afternoon, it rained. Oyinna and I wanted to go to the store so she could buy alimentos to cook dinner for us because for dinner Lila doesn't really cook anything. Tonight she just made, I don't even know wat it's called. It's the thing with ham and cheese between 2 tortillas. I guess here they don't really eat dinner. I've never seen Lila eat in the evening. Well, we ended up taking a nap and ten minutes after we woke up from our nap it started raining. I really didn't want to leave my warm bed after that, lol. Class was good. We'll be done with our literature book when we finish the test on Friday. I don't know wat we're doing next week. Conversation, we just do whatever cuz there's no grammar for me to work on. So, today, we did word exercises and she showed me drawings of different settings and had me identify actions and describe nouns. That was the first fifty minutes and we were done, but we still had another fifty of class left. So, I spent at least a half hour talking about Nick because she wanted me to talk and asked me about him. The exercise with the drawings makes me realize how poor my vocabulary is because these were drawings that children could describe, but I had trouble doing. It's not that I've never learned the words, I just haven't had a chance to use a lot of them, for example the farm. I didn't know the word for farm. I learned it, I just never used it so of course I forgot. And whenever my teacher has me talk or describe something, I realize how terrible I am at grammar. I have trouble conjugating some words and discerning when to use preterite versus imperfect AND I have trouble with vocabulary. It's funny, sometimes, when I talk in Spanish and am trying to think of a certain verb and can't, I sometimes can't think of what I'm trying to say in English either. I don't know, I'm just struggling and don't know how well I will be able to develop my skills in six weeks. It's a process, just a very long and somewhat tiresome and little discouraging at times. My teachers never make me feel bad about my skills, never. I love my conversation teacher, she's so helpful and understanding. I'm getting a new one next week but I don't want a new one, lol. We'll see how it goes, though. I do have four more weeks.

Un Dia Lento Despues de Una Noche Emocionante

Today, we read 2 stories and one poema espanola. Son muy interesantes. La primera es una historia de una gallina. Eso es su nombre. Creo que sea para ninos porque es muy simple. Se entiendo menos la segunda historia es poco mas dificil para entender pero yo se que es sobre un perro. Para la clase de conversasion, practicemos foneticos. Una vez, necesite "cigarettes" en espanol. En Espana, la palabra para "cigarettes" es "cigarillos" pero en Mexico, la palabra es "cigarros" y cuando leia la palabra "cigarros," continuaba pronunciarlo "cigarillos" y mi profesora creia que era gracioso. Y yo tambien, claro. Mi profesora habia querido que vieramos cortometrajes porque me gusta peliculas y Norma queria mi opinion de las peliculas. Para la clase de cultura, teniamos la clase de salsa. Mas hombres bailaba en esa clase. Aprendimos una combinacion nueva. Para mi, salsa es un baile muy facil pero mucha gente tenia problemas porque es un baile poco dificil. Para mi, no es pero para otros, es. I was so tired after school. It was interesante porque para almuerzo, we had sopa como todo y teniamos los espaguetis. It was alright. Oyinna y yo both had siestas esta tarde, jaja. I was so tired after last night. When I came back from the bar, which was hella fun btw, I wasn't tired so it took me an hour to get to sleep. At the bar, there was a live band that played old American music. They were really good except we were like, right next to the speakers so we had trouble hearing each other. Haha, Onna thought that after Saturday I had changed, but I hadn't. I ordered a Pina Colada again, jaja. At the bar, I hung out with my friends for an hour or so. Then Adam and I met this guy who was very interesting to talk to. He was very nice. He spoke English really well because he studied it in Minnesota para 6 meses y su novia esta en Minnesota. However, we mostly spoke in Spanish because it was easier for him. Sometimes, though, we needed a little English. He was really friendly an interesting to talk to. I noticed a lot of people at bars and whatever are like that. When we were at Teotihuacan, it was kinda funny this happens often too, a guy came up to Oyinna, Onna, and I and asked for our picture. We took our picture with him and afterwards, we talked for a few minutes and told him our names. You don't really see that in the US. Like, you can't tell by looking at someone that they're from another country in the US, but here you can. And at Dubai Friday night, this guy came up to my friends and I and asked for a picture con nosotras. He never even asked for our names, I don't think. He took a picture with us then went back to his friends. It was actually kinda cool. Mujeres como yo y Oyinna son raras en este pais. I also met a guy who had an accent I didn't recognize nor could understand very well. We only talked for a bit but he was pretty cool. I like hearing different accents too. Como los de la puebla en espana. Los accentos de las pueblas en espana son dificil para entender porque son como los accentos de Californias in English. They slur the words together like we do here. Idk, I think accents are interesting.