School Finished!!

Well guess what everyone. I just finished school and now I have a month a half of vacation. Oh I am so excited. This semester was definately hard. I think I know more grammer rules in spanish than I do in English. Actually I don´t think that I know that! I can´t believe how fast fifteen weeks of classes went but let me tell you, I will not miss getting up every morning to come and sit in school where I actually have to concentrate on every word that is said and not just kind of listen. Sometimes I feel like I haven´t learned anything but when I think of what I knew when I got here I realize that I have learned A LOT. It is just gradual so I really didn´t realize it! I basically am a mexican now! Haha. I will also say that I am very excited the weather has gotten back to normal and is in the 80´s once again. Oh I am not going to enjoy walking off the plane in Chicago on Jan. 3rd. I am not even going to think about it. Nope..... all I am thinking about is when my parents will walk off the plane in GDL in like three weeks. I am so excited to see them. Well my plans for the next month are a little scattered. Emely is staying til teh 9th so we are staying in a hotel and then will do some traveling around GDL and some towns within a four hour radius. When she leaves I will be traveling with some friends for about two weeks and then my parents come and they will get a crash course of GDL and then a relaxing stay in Puerta Vallarta!!!! My cousin Jane might be coming down sometime within that time so hopefully I will see her. Basically to lay it all out I will be sleeping in, eating off the street (YUM), exploring, and having a blast. Well gotta get moving. Hope you all have a great December and I don´t know if I will be updating this very often but I will see you all shortly!

Puerto Vallarta

Well the semester is winding down. I only have one week left of classes and then I am done. Can you believe that. Where does time go. I am really wondering. Last weekend Oscar, Phillip, Emely, Amanda and I went to Puerto Vallarta. It was the most amazing weekend I have had down here. It was nice and hot and we just relaxed on the beach pretty much the whole time. A lot of people here don´t speak very highly of Puerto Vallarta because it is such a touristy place but I personally thought it was better than Barra Navidad and Manzanillo. The waves were really tranquilo and it was just gorgeous. There was a tropical storm but it stayed out in the sea and so were not affected by it at all. I would recommend that you all go there. You don´t even have to know spanish to survive there! We didn´t have school on Monday so we decided that we would leave around fourin the evening and get back fairly early because it is like a four and a half hour drive... well that is not what happened at all. We ended up leaving at six because we just couldn´t get ourselves to leave and then we didn´t get home until four thirty in the morning. Yep that is right ten and a half hours later. There was a huge accident on the one highway with a gasoline truck so then we went on another highway and then there was another accident with like five semi trucks so we had to sit and wait while they sorted everything out. We were on a curvy road through the barrancas so it took them a long time. Needless to say we had some wonderful bonding time in Oscar´s little car. We were lucky though because a. we weren´t involved in any of the accidents b. at least it wasn´t freezing inside the car and c. we were in the beginning of the traffic jam so we got out pretty much right after they got the semis out of the way. Traffic was backed up for miles. Even when we did get to go the only ones that were able to go were small vechicles so all the semis and busses had to basically wait until the next mornign. I have never been in a traffic jam like it. Well I got to bed a little before five and set my alarm for seven and when it went off i jumped out of bed and went to school. Haha ummmmmm ok so maybe it wasn´t quite like that. I actually skipped my first class and slept in til 8:45 and then went to school and was pretty much dead all day long as I didn´t have time to take a nap. Oh well the rest of the nights this last week I have gotten a significant amount of sleep. This week it has gotten cold down here and I mean cold. In the mornings it is in teh 40s. I wish i would have brought my winter jacket because I have been wearing at least two sweatshirts all week along with like two to three other layers of clothes. The worse part is the school is freezing because the classrooms don´t get sun and there is no heating. Maybe 45 doesn´t seem all that cold to you but think of this... there is no heating ANYWHERE. Therefore it is cold! Carlos got sick with a really bad stomach flu two days ago and this morning Vero was sick with it too so I am thinking that I better avoid my house! I do not want to get sick the last week of school!! Well that is bascially all the news here. I am just staying in GDL this weekend and will be working on school things. Oh my friend Emely is looking in to staying an extra week or two with me so I am excited if she does. I am definately looking forward to sleeping in and not having to do things related to school. I´m ready to be a flojera!!! Oh wait maybe I already am :)

More from Mexico

Well I guess the time just flies as I feel that I haven´t wrote for a long time. Don´t worry I am still alive and kicking down here. After finals week we had a three day weekend and I really don´t remember what we did. We just relaxed and stayed put in GDL. We started our last set of classes on Tuesday and had a shocker when we went to look at the lists of the classes they didn´t post the class that we NEEDED to be in. There weren´t enough people but then a couple more joined so then we got our class but we didn´t have it on Tuesday. So basically I had three classes in one week because I had one on Tuesday and then both on Wednesday and then Thursday we had off and Friday I took a personal day! After school on Wednesday Emely, Amanda and I went to Guanajuato. We left GDL about five and got to Guanajuato around ten. Guanajuato is a very historical tranquil town. It is about the size of Mankato but it seemed extremely small compared to GDL. We didn´t make any reservations because we were told that that wouldn´t be a problem so when we got there a man helped us find a hotel and we actually set up a tour with him for the next day. We stayed in Hotel Independencia which wasn´t a too bad of a hotel. The pillows were really hard but I managed to sleep anyways. After getting settled into our hotel we walked around the town, yes that is how safe it is we can walk around at any hour of the night and not have any troubles, and got to see a little bit of the day of the dead festivals which were starting. Basically people were selling tons of flour and food and the streets and people buy it and then take it out to the cementery where they then have a big feast with their deceased relatives. We really wanted to go to the cementery but we would have had to almost know someone so we just watched all the action in the historical center. On Thursday we took went on a tour that took pretty much the whole day. We went to a lot of musuems, including the musuem of mummies which is pretty sweet, definately recommend it to anyone going to Guanjuato in the future, musuem of torture devices that they used in the old days, a haunted house thing, a couple temples, a mine, a lookout point over the entire town, and I think that was it. Then we went back and just relaxed. I had gotten a cold and therefore had a massive headache and ear ache pretty much the entire time I was there so of course we had ciestas!!! On Thursday we just started walking and basically walked where the road took us. We went to a couple more musuems including the house of Diego Rivera. The town is absolutely beautiful with European style buildings so we just enjoyed the scenery and people watching. We returned back to good ol GDL on Saturday. One the options I had to where to study was Guanajuato and I can´t imagine what I would think if GDL if I had studied there and came to GDL to visit. It is definately more fast pace and a lot more people. I am glad though that I decided to study here as it is absolutely perfect! minus the poplution which was really bad that week. By then I was really sick so on Sunday I just basically stayed in bed all day so I would be able to go to school. Last week was normal, school, gym, being lazy :).. just kidding do you really think I have time to be lazy :). Last weekend we just hung out around here again. On Saturday we went to the cliffs and jumped the fence and went for a hike and had a picnic. It was fun and the weather was nice and no one fell off the cliff and died so that was good. Now I am back in school and I have midterms this week so that means I gotta be studying. I am also working on a literary analysis that I have to have done in two weeks. Doesn´t that sound like a blast! That is basically all the news. Next Monday we don´t have school for some national holiday so we maybe will go to the beach. Depends on how hard we work on school work this week :) Ok well I am going to go home and eat and then go to the lavanderia and then the gym and then study study study :) Que vayan bien!!!

Culture Lesson

Well I am done with my second set of classes. Whoot whoot! They were a lot harder than my first set and I am still so confused about all these spanish grammer rules. It is like this.... Maestro de nivel 9: Well when you write you need to write like this but you will not talk like this unless you are really intelligent. Well I am not planning on writing novels in spanish as I can´t even write novels in English. Oh well I really did like my teacher for that class as he was cool and taught me a lot of noneducational things but interesting pieces of knowledge. I know know everything there is to know about the city busses because of him. I also learned a lot of politics in my culture class, funny huh. Basically culture was politics and history so I am glad that that class is over too. But get this. It took me like ten weeks to figure out this whole political mess going on down here and I can´t even remember how many people explained it to me. Finally I figured it out in Culture class. There are these two parties that are really close, PRI ( represents poor people) and PAN (represents rich people) and this year the winner, PAN won by .02%. Can you believe that. So basically they are recounting and recounting and both are saying they are the presidents. Guess we will see on December first because that is when they change. So I guess it was a good thing I took that class. What other pieces of knowledge can I share with you. For all you mothers that read this, down here the mother is the most important person in the man´s life. So when a man gets married his mom is still more important and has more say than his wife. On mother´s day down here the mothers get showered with gifts and it is a national holiday so no school. Education down here is GRATIS, aka free which is actually kind of sad that there are so many kids that don´t go to school. So if I become a mexican, which I am getting there as I have been eating quite a bit of chile lately, I can go to college at the UDG here in GDL for free. Oh... and for all you couples that read this when a man wants to ask a women to be his girlfriend he hires a marachi, which is a band, to sing underneath her window and so when you see a band coming down your street all the girls wonder who the lucky girl is. Needless to say I have had about ummmmmmmm five bands sing under my window. No no I am just kidding. Well that is your little clase on Mexican culture. Last weekend I just stayed in GDL with Emely and Amanda because Emely´s sister came to visit for four days. We were great tour guides and tried to do everything we possibly could in four days. On Sunday evening we went to a bull fight and that was really interesting. Basically they let a bull loose into the ring and get him mad so he runs into the walls and then the big man comes out and basically calms the bull down. He bascially knows that bull within minutes and can get it so he can turn his back and know for sure that he won´t get charged. Then they kill the bull with spears right in front of you. The point I think is to kill the bull in the least painful way. We watched seven bulls get killed in about two and half hours. The girls didn´t like it but I thought it was an art and really enjoyed it. It is actually really amazing. Although twice the bulls charged after the horses and I thought they killed them. That would have been sad. This week I have just been studying for finals and concentrating on school. We don´t have any plans for this weekend but will be staying in GDL again. There is always stuff to do here and I don´t doubt that we will get bored :) Well I hope you are all enjoying the winter that is coming in. It is getting cold here too, like high sixties so I know how it feels. Haha. Actually to me it is cold. Would love to hear from you all!

Beach Weekend

Well lets see. I went to the beach, had fun and now am back in Guadalajara doing school work. The end. Haha. I decided to make this one nice and short so for those that don´t want to read my nice long blogs, like you Michael, all you have to do is read the first couple of sentences :) On Wednesday I had my midterms and then I was free for four whole days. Actually I was really only free for one day because Thursday was a holiday in GDL for the virgen of Zapopan and then I skipped Friday. My teacher told me that it would be a good idea so at least I didn´t get into any trouble for it. We are allowed to miss three days every five weeks and that was the only day I have missed so far so I was due to use one of my days. We didn´t leave until Thursday afternoon though because Phillip had to work at the hospital. We left around three, we being Emely, Amanda, Phillip, Oscar and I. Oscar drove us in his car which was cheaper than taking the bus. We were a little packed but we all love each other enough that it was fine :) We did run into rain which slowed us down. I guess it should have only took about four hours but it really took close to six. It was nice to get out of the city and go through the mountains and through little towns. We first went to Barra de Navidad which is a beach in a really small town. It is very tranquilo, I can´t think of the word in english right now......... not many people there.... ummm peaceful. When we got there there was no electricity and it was pitch dark. We didn´t make any reservations because it is not the busy time yet and so we had to find a hotel in the dark. We did really good as the hotel we got cost us about $12 a night each and it was nice. Then we went out to eat and had a nice candlelit supper. We were all pretty much tired so played a couple games of cards and then went to bed. On Friday we got up went and had breakfast ( the hot cakes are REALLY good down here and a popular breakfast food is chilaquiles. It has tortillas, eggs, salsa, onions, tomatoes and a bunch of really good stuff in it. If you come down here you can try it :) ) and then we went to the beach. The waves were really big. Phillip was in heaven and sometimes I thought he was just going to disappear in them. They were really strong too as Emely and I found out after we got slammed into the ocean floor and got sand up our nose, in our eyes, in our mouth and basically everywhere. Basically after that just lying on the beach sounded like a smarter idea for me. The weather was ok. It was really humid but cloudy and it would drizzle on and off. The weather was like that all weekend but we all managed to get some sun. Bascially we just relaxed and by early afternoon it started raining hard so we went back and took showers and then went out to eat. We went to this restaraunt right by the beach and the guy there was really nice as he kept on giving us free stuff to try! It basically continued to rained so we just chilled out at the hotel and then later that night we went and walked along the beach. Emely got sick though so that was sad. On Saturday we got up and went to another beach Manzanillo which was about an hour away towards GDL. It is a much bigger town and the beach there was much nicer as the was more flat and the waves weren´t at big. We got a hotel there and then went to the beach and relaxed. On Sunday we hung out at the beach until about one and then went back and packed all our stuff up and left around two. We went out to eat and then left Manzanillo around three thirty which meant we should have gotten back around six thirty but since there was a lot of traffic and rain again we got back a little after nine. We had a lot of fun though and I was excited to get back to GDL as I missed it even after four days. I guess it rained here all weekend too. Just our luck. Actually it was probably a good thing that it was cloudy or else we probably all would have been fried. The last couple of days I have been working on my paper for my culture class. I am almost done with it and am excited as I am getting sick of it. We have finals next week and then have another four day weekend. Well I think I do anyway but the girls have one of their finals on that friday. We are thinking about going to Guanajuato which is supposedly a very pretty historical town about four hours away. This weekend Emely´s sister is flying in for four days so we will be giving her a crash course of GDL. We are hoping to go to a bull fight as those are going on right now so we will see. Supposedly if we dress up nice we can get good seats for nothing since we are Americans. Well I need to go home and eat lunch. Adios

October 6

Well this week went by really fast. I actually have been busy all week doing school work which has not been quite as fun! It is sometimes hard having classes that are only five weeks long because when I think I just started I realize that I am almost done. I have midterms next week already! Last weekend was my weekend to relax. All of us were really lazy and so I guess we deserved it! Basically we just hung out and played garbage which is now my new favorite card game. On Friday I went with my friend Leo to his friend´s house and we played soccer and let me tell you I looked like a fool. They play soccer really good down here and all I know how to do is kick the ball. We then grilled out and it was really nice to have a good juicy steak! That was baisically the only thing I did so yeah my weekend was really lazy. On Wednesday Phillip and I went to a salsa class at the gym we go to and that was another dumb mistake. Everyone in the class knew what they were doing except Phillip and I and people would come by and watch us and laugh. Oh well. It was really funny and I am sure that people didn´t even have to run to burn calories, all they had to do was watch us and laugh. Who knows if we will go again. People here are like born with rhythm and I am telling you I was not whatsoever. Today it was actually cold. Carlos told me that I am actually starting to act like a mexican because I wore jeans, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt to school today and it was 65 degrees. Guess I will stop making fun of the mexicans in the states that always wear a ton of clothes. The rainy season I think has left so I am excited. The last couple of days we have had really really bad storms with tons of rain. At least it only really rained in the evenings. What really made me mad was when people would drive by really fast through the puddles and I would get soaking wet walking on the sidewalk. Yes that actually happens quite frequently down here. Well hope all is well back in the states or malaysia :)

More Adventures

I seem to be getting worse and worse about posting on this. I can´t even remember what I did this past week anymore :) I really enjoyed my four day vacation. It was well needed. On Friday, Emely, Amanda, Emely´s parents, and I went to Tequila which is a town about an hour away by bus to see the Jose Cuervo Tequila plant. It was very interesting as the whole town works for Jose Cuervo. It is kind of sad because will all the money that the Jose Cuervo family has you would think that the people could get paid more but they don´t. The plant was actually going through repairs so we didn´t get to see it up and running but it was still interesting. We got to try tequila that was illegal to sell because it was too strong ( the tequila that you get only after one session of distilation). It literally feels like your entire throat, mouth, stomach, is on fire. The plants that they make tequila from remind me of aloe vera plants. There are fields and fields of the plants. I forgot their name, maybe Tequila plant :) Emely´s parents enjoyed the tour and I think they enjoyed their stay in Guadalajara. They left on Saturday. Saturday we had some errands to run like go change travelers checks, go to Wal-Mart which by the way are really nice down here. They have free samples of EVERYTHING, EVERYDAY. Basically we go there to eat :) We then had planned to go to a Mexican food show and then go to the grito del noche in Talaquepaque but once we got back from Wal-Mart we were tired so we relaxed and then went to the food expo and skipped el noche del grito. It was basically the same thing we went to last Friday but in a different part of town. Each section has their noche del grito on different weekends. The food expo was interesting and I bought some really good Mexican cookies!!! On Sunday we went to Tonala, yeah the place we went to the first weekend when we got on the wrong bus. This time we went to the marketplace. On Sundays and Thursday there is a huge handicraft market and everything is really cheap. It is overwhelming but it was a lot of fun and we now appreciate Tonala a lot more than our first visit. On Monday we didn´t have school because the new kids were having orientation. I didn´t get a roommate which means that I have my big room all to myself for the next five weeks! We got a lot of new kids though. A lot from Europe. A friend of my family Freddie thought that I needed to work on speaking more, which is true, so I went with him and toured a bunch of schools in Guadalajara. First we went to the poorest school which is in the section called Guadalupe. There are about 14,000 10-14 year olds in that area and only about 150 go to school. Out of that 150 60% live with a single mother because the bandas, or gangs there are really bad and the women hang out with all the gang members and when they get pregnant they don´t know who the dad is. It is really sad. There is no way I can describe the living conditions. I would never guess that people actually live in some of those houses. There is garbage all over in huge piles similar to piles that we would go sledding down. After that we went to the complete opposite. We went to the richest school in town. Basically it is just like the schools in the US. After that we went to the school where Vero and Terry teach at. Freddie used to teach there and he was basically a celebrity when we got there. He told all the kids I was his wife and they thought that Freddie was pretty lucky. Haha. That school is in between. The number of kids that go onto college around here is really low. Out of 100 students five will go on to college and 2 will graduate and when they graduate they usually have a hard time finding a job. So the education system here needs some help. On Tuesday it was back to classes. I am now in a culture class and another grammer class. I really like my classes a lot. I don´t even have homework this weekend :) Wednesday I woke up with a stomach ache but by the middle of the day it wasn´t too bad so I continued to do everything I normally do. That night we went bowling because our friend Louisa from Italy is leaving today to go back so we were saying our goodbye. It was Phillip, Emely, Amanda, Louisa, Oscar, and I. Oscar lives here and has a car so we all shoved into his little car and it was tight. He claims that he has gotten 8 people in it but I find that hard to believe. Thursday I woke up really sick but I still came to school. My friend Nicolas was sick on Monday and Tuesday and he said he had the flu and a girl in my class got the flu on Wednesday and my teacher hasn´t been here today or yesterday so I think I got the Mexican flu because I didn´t eat or drink anything that would have made me sick. I did luck out because on Thursday our teacher didn´t show up so we sat there and I relaxed for like almost an hour before one of the students in our class decided that she wanted to be taught so she went and asked the head lady to come teach us for the next 45 minutes. I was so mad. Who does that. There is only seven of us in that class and two of us were sick and the others wouldn´t have minded sitting there. Well then I had to concentrate which was really hard. My second class is just lecture so that wasn´t too bad. I went straight home and went to bed. My friend Leo got my a bunch of medicine and my senora made me a bunch of tea and this morning I woke up and didn´t feel all that bad so hopefully I am over it. I really don´t know what I am doing this weekend but am sure I will find something to do. One big difference between here and the states is that people never plan very far in advance and people hardly ever talk about what they are going to do and if they do they always say if god allows me to. It has to do with their religious beliefs. So I have learned not to tell all my plans to the locals because they think I am crazy.

Life Continues in Mexico

Well what can I say. I am getting worse and worse about updating my blog. Guess I have been just too busy studying eight hours of spanish a day. Haha, if I was studying that much I would be a genius.Ok well I finished midterms, like two weeks ago, and that Friday we went to Talaquepaque. It is another section of Guadalajara and is more of a tourist center. There are a lot of musuems and a lot of little shops with handmade crafts but I would not recommend buying them there because you can buy the same things in Tonala, remember the place I ended up when I went on the wrong bus, for a lot cheaper because that is where most of the stuff is made. We haven´t been to the market there yet but we have it on our list of things to do. We ate at subway because we were missing American food but it actually gave me a stomach ache. Guess I will have to eat mexican food every day when I come home :) We spent a couple of hours just walking around and then came home. I actually have no idea what we did the rest of the day. On Saturday we went to Lake Chapala. We left Guadalajara around nine and got there around ten thirty. We didn´t get off at the right place so it probably looked funny when we got off, walked across the road, and got back on the bus going in the direction we just came from. Lake Chapala is the biggest lake in Mexico and it is really nice. It is a really peaceful town, not too big, actually we were in Ajijic which is right by Lake Chapala. A lot of americans have houses down there, retired americans that is, so it was very common to see cars with lisence plates from the states. A lot are from either South Dakota and Texas but we did see a mini van with a MN plate. We walked around like tourists and then ate at a little restaurant. After that we decided to go horse back riding. Well somehow our five dollar horse back ride turned into a 20 dollar two hour, up the hill, along the lake horse back ride. Phillip was doing the talking which explains everything. No actually we all decided that would be fun but afterwards I was wondering why in the world we went for two hours as I was stiffer than a board. It was nice but Phillip wanted to go fast and Emely and Amanda didn´t and the horse that Phillip had didn´t want to go fast unless mine went fast. On the way back through town Phillip got his horse to gallop, through the street, and then Amanda´s horse went crazy and she was petrified, and Phillips horse was going to run right into a huge truck. We had a guide and I don´t think he ever saw a sight like this. Phillip tried to get his horse to stop but it didn´t want to and Phillip ended up falling off. It was crazy and now looking back it was funny, don´t know if Amanda would say the same thing. Well two hours was enough and I think they were probably glad that the crazy americans didn´t kill their horses. They had a festival of Chinese balloons at the futbol field so we watched that for a little bit and then we headed home. Once we arrived back into Guadalajara it was raining hard which meant the streets flooded like crazy. We tried to get a taxi from the bus station to our houses but no one would take us there because it was too flooded. We waited maybe an hour and then this taxi pulled up to us and asked if we needed a taxi. We told him where we wanted to go thinking he would say no but he was young and said of course. His name was Carlos and he was really funny. We learned quite a bit of spanish in that 30min ride. :) We were all over the place because Phillip couldn´t figure out his directions but Carlos didn´t charge us for the wrong turns which was really nice because that is almost unheard of down here. Then it was back to school. On Tuesday I went to the gym with Phillip and on Wednesday i felt like I had gotten run over by a bus. Guess I should be more consistent on working out. On Wednesday Emely, Amanda, Dan, and I went to the canyons that are about 40 minutes away. It was really pretty but there wasn´t a lot to do because they have everything fenced off. There is another place where you can go and I think I might be going there tomorrow. There are even waterfalls at the other place so we will see. Then we went to the historical center of town, which is by far my favorite part and bought some bus tickets for really cheap and a 30 cent ice cream cone. I have come addicted to them. On Thursday Phillip, Emely, and I went to the all boy ages 3-14 orphanage in town. At first it was fine. There were about 15 3-5 year olds outside and we just played with them, looked for worms, kicked balls, etc. Some of the boys would just want you to hold them and I think they would cry just so you would pick them up. Then we were told to put them all in the a room and start a movie. Oh my goodness. You wouldn´t think that would be hard at all but guess again. Once they got inside it was like they became crazy. They were drawing on the dry earse board with the wrong markers, eating candy there were not suppose to, throwing pencils across the room, broke the teachers glasses that were there, hitting, kicking, screaming, running, yeah yeah yeah. There was no way the three of us could control it. The funny thing is that when the people that work there came back there were like oh yeah thanks, didn´t care that the place was trashed. When the older boys came they flipped out and started hitting the little ones. I think they just wanted an excuse to hit them. It was really quite crazy but I am going back. We didn´t get on the bus until after seven thirty and by then it was packed and it smelled really bad. Oh well we survived. On Friday it was La noche del Grito, which is a big independence festival down here. Many people told us not to go because it is dangerous. People get shot, people get robbed, blah, blah. Well we went anyways because it is a cultural experience and there around millions of people there so the chances of getting shot are slim and if you are smart there is no danger. People had their kids there and everything. Baiscally the historical center shuts the streets down and people set up food stands, and other misc. stands where they sell everything you could possibly imagaine.We got there around seven thirty and it was already really crowded. There are people everywhere. It is really neat and would recommend anyone to going. There was music playing all over the place. I really don´t know how to describe it. Then everyone tries to get as close to the building where the governer was going to give his speech so basically people push, pull, and squeeze until you are packed like sardines. Then at 11 the governor gets up and says Viva (which is live) and then an area in our state and then we all said Viva. In the end he says Viva Mexico, and we say Viva, Viva Mexico, Viva, Viva Mexico, Viva and then the fireworks go off. It wasn´t as nice of a fireworks show as in the states but it was beautiful because they were over the cathedral. Then everyone tries to leave at the same time. HA. Oh well it was definately worth going to and I would definately go again.On Saturday Emely´s parents came and they are going to be here for a week so we got a taxi and went to the airport to pick them up. They are staying in a really nice hotel so sometime this week we might have to go swimming there. They rented a car, which I DO NOT recommend doing so it was a little crazy last night trying to get from their hotel which is about forty minutes away to Emely´s house. The majority of the streets here are one way and I can never remember which way they go and some of the bigger streets have dividers in them so you can´t cross it but have to go on it and basically make a square. Oh well we are all still alive :) Well this week is the last week of this set of classes. We actually have a four day weekend this weekend. I didn´t know that until last week friday! Today is Emely´s birthday so we will probably go out to eat tonight. Tomorrow I think we are going to the canyons, Thursday to the orphanage, and Friday to Tequila. That is all I know now. Well hope all is well and think of you all!

Life in Mexico

Sorry that I haveńt posted for almost a week. I have been trying but it usually doesńt let me post. Thanks for all the birthday wishes as it made my day even though I had to go to school which was hard because I knew in the states there was no school and Rodney was getting married. Oh well I survived :)The end of last week I cańt even really remember what I did. On Friday after classes we found a laundry service which we thought was a good deal but I guess it wasńt. I haveńt done laundry for about two weeks so I gave them my laundry and they did everything and then I picked it up on Saturday. It cost me a little less than $10 so about $5 a week. I guess you can get it for cheaper so next time I will have to find a cheaper place. Then Emely, Amanda, Phillip and I went to Vallarta street and just hung out around there. On Saturday we were going to go to the canyons but we forgot that we had to pick up our laundry between 3:00 and 3:30 so instead we went to the Plaza Mexico, which by the way we got there by using our bus map and didńt get lost, and went to the Wal-Mart there because I had to buy some things for a project that is due this week. Then we ate out at Jorges which is a chicken place. It was really good. The girls really liked it because they live with an Italian family so they dońt eat much Mexican. They are planning on going to Italy next so then maybe there they will eat Mexican food :) That evening I played futbol (soccer) with Bruno in the streets. He kept on telling me I played like a girl but he was just really jealous. Actually he is way better at futbol than me. We had a lot of fun and I think for once he was tired and went to bed without complaining. On Sunday we went to a town about two hours away to see some ruins. I wish I had my bus ticket with me so I could tell you exactly where we went. The ruins wereńt as big as we thought but it was still pretty. It was a good thing we had Phillip along because he is pretty good about not getting lost. The town isńt big at all and it was actually really nice to be in a small quiet town after being in Guadalajara for so long. We asked directions to the ruins and they told us about ten to fifteen minutes. It was about twenty five minutes up a STEEP hill. It was an adventure and we sure got our exercise for the day. We were the only ones walking up there so maybe that aught to have told us something. It actually wasńt that bad but when I told my family that we walked they thought that was aweful. There are supposedly hot springs in the area but we didńt find them but we did find some swimming parks. They wereńt too bad. They had like one big water slides and then a pool that was basically lake water and then a pool that I think had chlorine in it. We swam for quite a while and all got a little sun. We were also really glad that Phillip was along because there was this one creepy guy that kept asking Phillip about "stripes" which is what he called me. He was really the only creepy guy we met all day so that wasńt too bad but he was the creepiest guy that we have met yet. That is why when you travel it is good to have a tall guy in the group. Oh and I suppose some you know this but whenever any american girl goes anywhere the guys will whistle, tell you how beatiful you are, call you mamasita, offer you part of their taco, etc. They are sometimes just a little too nice. They even have a whistle as their horn in the car. I suppose I will feel really unloved when I come home and no one whistles or calls me mamasita :) Its kind of crazy but they areńt theatening or anything they just try to make you feel good I guess. The girls our age view us as competition so they can be really hostile. So we know if we get lost to ask a guy for directions because chances are they will help us where girls will not. Its kind of crazy but marriage is a big thing down here. If you are not married by 26 people talk about you and it is really humiliating. One of my teachers is older and is not married and she talks about how hard it is. Also another thing I learned in my grammer class, (as you will see I learn a lot of things not related to grammer in my grammer class) is that minimum wage down here is about five dollars a day. My profesoras which have a "good" job get about $5.00 an hour. Now the cost of living is lower yes but it is not as low as you may think, well not in the area I live in but I do live in the richest part of town. Things are pretty comparable to the states.So when you think that your job is bad just remember it could be a lot worse. Ok well I guess I got a little off track. We left the town to come back to Guadalajara around six and got on a crowded bus and had to stand for about two hours on the bus because there were no seats left. It wasńt all that bad but I guess transportation on Sundays is really crowded so that is good to know. Yesterday I had school and when I got done around noon I went over to Emely and Amanda's house and had lunch with them because their senora had invited me over. Then I came home and took a ciesta which I needed :) After that us girls decided that we wanted to find the DQ around here. Well no such luck but we did find another Wal-Mart and another huge centro and we did have ice cream so it was all good. I am on my third week of classes and my rotation is five weeks so therefore this week is midterms. I dońt think that mine will be too bad but we areńt making any plans for after school because we need to be studying. I am however buying a membership at the gym that is close to my house. It is really nice and has a lot of aerobic classes so that will be fun to try them out and see how they compare to classes in the states. Well I hope that I got you guys caught up. Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend.

Update

Well it is already the middle of the week. I haven´t done too much since I last wrote. Yesterday Emely, Amanda, and I went down to the historical center. We didn´t get lost either so we were pretty excited. It is really pretty down there with a huge market and lots of people. Even though there are a ton of people it is actually really peaceful and I could just walk around all day down there. We then bought a map of the bus routes so now we have a lot of confidence in ourselves. Haven´t decided yet if that was the best thing to do or not :) We were planning on going to Puerta Vallarta this weekend but they didn´t have enough people sign up so instead we will try to find more buses to get lost on! Well hope everyone is having a blast wherever you are and I love hearing from everyone!

Adventures!!

Well I guess I should tell you about my weekend huh? Friday after school I went over to Emiley and Amanda´s house ( they are the other two girls from Manakato). I was over there until about three and then I went back for lunch at my house. After that the senora and I walked vallarta street and she showed me where things were close to the house so that was nice. Of course it started raining but it wasn´t hard or anything. We were gone for a couple of hours and then we came back and had supper. After that we just watched a movie and then I went to bed around ten thirty. I got up on Saturday morning and said bye to Sen. I really miss her. She was such a sweet girl. Hopefully my next roommate is from Japan. She gave me all her contact info and told me that if I come to Japan she will show me her country so I guess that is where I will go next :) I was suppose to leave the house around nine twenty to meet the girls, Amanda and Emiley, at CEPE, well Carlos insisted that he made chiquitos for me so I left a little late but luckily the girls were running late too. We then had bus directions from Phillip, who lives with the girls on how to get to the zoo. We didn´t have a hard time getting there. We got on one bus for about twenty minutes and then we got off, a block later than what we were suppose to but a block isn´t bad for us, and then some guy helped us get on the next bus that took us to the zoo. The zoo is really nice and huge. We will definately go there when you guys come and I didn´t do everything so it will be new for me too! It only costs about $4.00 to get in so it is really cheap! Then around four we decided to head back. We got on the first bus fine, but missed our stop by five blocks so walked back. Then we didn´t know what bus to get on because we had came on a one way street. Well Phillip told us that the busses ran in circles so we figured we would just get on the bus we came on and eventually it would turn around. HA will not do that again. About an hour and half later we were in Tonala which is a realy poor part of town completely in the wrong direction of our house. We really weren´t worried until the bus shut off in Tonala. Our faces I think all went white. We didn´t see a taxi in Tonala so we knew that wasn´t an option and we didn´t know what to do. I talked to the bus driver, by the way the drivers are not helpful, and he told me to sit down and that we would return sometime. Well he sat there and ate his sandwhich while we sat there wondering when we would get back. Thankfully it wasn´t long until we left. Then it started to rain really hard and it eventually started to hail! It got really bad so now we aren´t only in Tonala, a very very poor part of Guadalajara but the streets are flooded. At one point we saw only the top of cars and the driver kept on looking to make sure the water wasn´t coming through the door. I have never in my life seen rain like this. There were times when I thought for sure we wouldn´t be able to move. Well we continued on and we started seeing things that were familiar. We had thought that the driver would tell us when to get off since we told him exactly the intersection we needed but no. We stood up to get off and pressed the button but he continued until about six blocks past our interection before letting us off. This is about two and half hours later and this bus ride was only suppose to be around twenty minutes! Just remember that it is pouring outside and I have a t-shirt and short skirt on and sandles. Well we ran into a 7-11 and bought some candy because we thought it would let up shortly. Well it didn´t so we took off walking. Five seconds in the rain and I was soaked. Also my watch got too much water in it and broke! Well we were about a block from Amanda and Emeley´s house when we came to a huge interestion that had like a river flowing through it. I tried to cross but it was too strong so we had to hop on a bus to go through the interesection. We finally made it to the house and all of us were in good moods even though we were soaked! It was an adventure and we will never ever forget it. Well I then had about five blocks to walk to my house. Well I got about three blocks away and had to cross a big intersection and there was no way. Cars were stalled in the street, the water had waves in it, all the sidewalks were flooded and by now it was dark and I was alone. It was pretty creepy and there are many OLD creepy men here. The young ones aren´t the problem it is the old ones. Well i basically went running back to Emiley and Amanda´s house and there senora took me in, made me take a shower, gave me new clothes, fed me, and then drove me back home. I had called my family telling them that I would be home late. So I was basically chilled the rest of the evening and really tired. Once I got home Veronica was having a party for her friend´s birthday so of course I had to have cake. Well on Sunday I went to Vallarta street to walk around. I was actually looking for a book store because I needed to buy a book for one of my classes. It was really calm because they shut down the street, which is normally really busy with traffic, and only allow rollarbladers, bikers, walkers, or runners. I also found a gym not to far from my street so I am thinking about buying membership today. Then I went home and did homework for a little bit and then we went to the market to buy food for the week. We were gone for quite a few hours. It was nice because I got to see quite a bit more of the town. Now it is back to classes!________________________________

Switch of Classes

Well today I changed my classes. I was in level five and six and I moved up to seven and eight. Carlos was giving me such a hard time yesterday because he said that I should be higher than five and six so I took another test today and got excepted in seven and eight. It will be a lot more work but I guess that is what I am down here to do :) I am really nervous though but I will just have to see. Not much has happened since yesterday. Last night my family and I played a pretty intense game of Uno and we have to continue it tonight because I¨m winning and the rest don´t like that idea I guess. I think I am going to go have a little ciesta and then I don´t know what maybe review for tomorrow!

Finally Mexico!!

Well sorry this took so long to post but I didn´t have internet access for awhile. I now bought it for a week so I will probably be on everyday for a week now and then off for a week because I guess I am cheap!Well ok Saturday I worked at the Badger Steam and Gas show scooping ice cream and then we got all packed up and went to Chicago to find an airport. Mom was a little nervous when we got into the bad side of town and think she was relieved when we found a hotel that wasn´t trashy. I flew out on Sunday morning at nine. We got to the airport at seven got checked in, they even let my suicase that was over by four pounds pass, and then they gave my family passes to come to the gate with me so that was nice. My flight was good. It only takes four hours from Chicago to get down here! I´m pretty sure I was the only American on the flight! When we arrived I was shocked because 1. it didn´t look like I was in a big city and 2. the airport was tiny. We got off the plane onto a bus that took us to customs. I got through customs fine and then I had to pick up my luggage which was a mess. There were people all over and I had to guess which thing my luggage would be coming out of and it took me 25 minutes to find my luggage. Crazy! I then got a taxi and left the airport. My driver really didn´t know where we going so we had to make a couple of stops but we got to my house within forty minutes. Guadalajara has a population of six million people and is not the cleanest but hey that is why I love it. The weather is nice. It is cool in the mornings, hot in the afternoon, and cool in the evenings. Average temperature is about 80. So when we arrived at my house I was just a little shocked. I was thinking that it would be a little house with like a gate, kind of like Ann´s in Peru, but it was just a brick building. The inside though is nice. It probably is a litte worse than the dorms but close to it. Everything is tiled and old but there is nothing wrong with that. I have a huge room to myself right now because I don´t have a roommate. There is a girl from Japan living there, her name is Sen, but she leaves this weekend because her course will be done. When she leaves I can have her room or keep mine as the senora said it is up to me. I like with the senora, her daughter Veronica, Veronica´s son Bruno, who is 9, Carlos who is the senora´s son, and then another guy who pays rent to live there as he works. They say that students will be coming and going throughout the time I am here. My family is very nice! The rest of sunday I basically unpacked, hung out with my family, and then went to bed as I was shot.Monday I had to be at school by 8:45. The school is only three blocks away and actually it is just one building which is for international students. The university is spread out through the entire city. The staff here are awesome. Sorry but they definatley are more understanding and helpful than those at Mankato! I had orientation, took a placement test, and then went home around 11:30. Then Sen and I went to the shopping mall that is close by. It is HUGE! Sen is so funny because she is so scared of the traffic that when we cross the streets she is already on the other side before I have stepped of the sidewalk. We hung out down there for awhile and then came back and I took a nap. The rest of my family gets done with work and school around two. The senora is a music teacher, Veronica is an English teacher, Carlos works at the school as an assistant, and Bruno is in 4th grade. Although they know english they are not allowed to speak to us in English unless we are in a pickle. We just hung out until lunch which is at four. After lunch Sen taught Carlos, Bruno, and I japanesse and oragami. We tell Sen that everything in Japan is hard and I am pretty sure it is! Then we ate at nine thirty and then went to bed.This morning I got up, which is really hard to do when it is pitch dark until seven thirty, took a shower which is pretty cold, and was at school by eight. I had classes today and really like them. I have ten kids in my class and we are already pretty close. My professors are funny and nice. I should probably now finish this up so I can get back home. Carlos says I should be able to make it from the house to school in three minutes but I am pretty sure that it takes longer than that. The sidewalks are very uneven so I haven´t even tried running outside but some of the girls and I are going to get a membership at the club that isn´t too far away. I will be on now probably every day for the next week and then I will see what I will do. I having fun and every minute is an adventure. Sometimes I have no idea what is going on but I smile and go with the crowd.

Leaving for Mexico

Well this use to be my English Composition blog but I changed it a bit and now it is my Mexico blog. Sorry but I guess you won't be able to read all my interesting English positings that I had! So if you are interested in what I am doing in Mexico I will try to post on here regularly to keep you updated but I am not making any promises! I have one week left here in the states and am really busy. I am really excited and a little nervous but I know that it will be a ton of fun and will go really fast. I would love to hear from everyone when I am down there too so either post a comment on here or email me at danelle.parsons@mnsu.edu!