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!!!