Never a dull moment in México

Well hello there…

So here I am, post vacation, back to good ol’ Xalapa…a little wiser, a bit better traveled, and of course, a shade or two tanner… :) I don’t want to mislead you though; things aren’t quite back to normal here. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the swine flu epidemic is scarily present. The majority of the cases are in México City, but as a precaution because cases are occurring in other states, classes have been cancelled in all of México until May 6…today is the 26th….that’s a lot of days. The thing is we aren’t really supposed to travel cuz we are supposed to avoid buses, enclosed areas, and large crowds. So who knows what sort of adventures this next week will bring…and I hope everything gets under control soonish cuz it’s kinda scary seeing people walking around with facemasks on the streets…

Ok, but back to vacation station…traveling the Yucatán was quite the experience, really fun (to say the least), plus I learned quite a few things… for example…

1. 95% of the population thinks that I am German…even Germans were asking me if I was German
2. You should never assume that museums will be open…especially on Sundays and Mondays…
3. Buses don’t leave Chixchulub for the mangroves after 3 pm

I’ll start from the beginning…Héctor and I started the vacation in Mérida, a pretty town inland on the western side of the peninsula. Back in the day it had a lot of wealth so the town has mansions and pretty architecture from the 1900’s. We spent 2 days here, walking about and melting under the sun. It is probably the hottest place…ever…just a very thick, intense heat, with zero wind. This is where we attempted to go to some museums (key word: ATTEMPTED), the Picasso museum was closed on Sunday when we tried to go and the anthropology museum closed on Monday…but what can you do? lesson learned, check times…twice. Really though, there were lots of enjoyable moments thrown in here in Mérida.

We then headed to Progresso, a nearby beach to the north. It was nice, I mean, I’ll take any ocean I can get, but in all reality is rather unimpressive when compared to the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean that were to come in my near future…but this is besides the point, we went to Progresso so we could go to a nearby town and see the mangroves…and here’s how that went down: we started by asking some of the local people how one would get to the nearby mangroves, the consensus being that we first needed to take a bus to Chixchulub and then take another from there to the final destination. Excellent, simple enough. Arriving in Chixchulub we again asked about bus stops and mangroves, it was 2:30 pm. We were told that around 3 the last bus to the mangroves would come by, so we waited…and waited, I bought a bottle of water…and we waited some more…. at 3:30 we said to hell with it and headed back to Progresso. Moral of the story, if you need some water and want to waste 50 pesos in transportation, head to Chixchulub.

The next day we went to Chichen-Itzá. The ruins were totally impressive, but completely infested with tourists. We successfully robbed information from various guided tour groups walking around and managed to survive the heat, so all in all a success. That night we bused it to Cancun. In the morning we set out with plans to dedicate the day to the beach :) Me, being the sheltered girl from Eden Prairie that I am (ha), had never seen the Caribbean Ocean before…and good god, it is so ridiculously impressive.

Here’s the rest of the trip really quick—
Isla Mujeres- I loved it, totally relaxed atmosphere with beautiful beaches, plus we rented a scooter thingy to go around the island, soo fun. The hostel we stayed at was awesome and served a delicious mango daiquiri.
Playa del Carmen- We met up with Elena here, becoming a trio. The town, really touristy…but pretty… less overridden with Hotels than Cancun. It only merited staying one night. Big purchase…snorkel gear :)
Tulúm=love. We ended up spending 4 nights here and met up with Tina. It had everything: Mayan ruins on the beach, GORGEUOS beaches without big, ugly, hotels, nearby cenotes (sinkholes/underground rivers…great for snorkeling), and lagunas. It was here where Elena and I narrowly avoided death by coconut... free palmtree shade comes with risks…seriously scary. It was also here the guide book (aka THE ORACLE) totally lied to us about kayak rentals and we ended up walking way too far at high noon...i'm still a bit bitter, let's not talk about it.

And that was it, more or less...Not to mention getting to know/hang out with people from all around the world...we spent time with people from Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, Isreal, Germany, Australia, Spain....cool, huh? Then it was just a 23 hour bus ride sitting DIRECTLY in front of the bathrooms (sooo stinky) and we were home. I actually can’t complain though, I managed to sleep 18 of the 23 hours, not bad, eh? Ha.

Traveling with Héctor was really fun. I learned he has a lot of patience and can deal well with a crabby Laura…which tends to happen in the mornings or when I’m hungry. And I learned that he is like a 7 year old child when it comes to food and found myself picking off the onions of his pizza for him, haha.

here are a few photos, just for fun :)

Héctor and I at Chichen-Itzá. I´m not sure how we managed it, but it totally looks like we are the only people here...sooo not even true.

Cancun...beatiful Caribbean.

Elena, Tina, Héctor and I at the ruins in Tulúm.

Photo shoot on the beach in Tulúm, haha.

my life.

LOVING IT. I think I could leave my blog post at that and you would get the picture of how I’m feeling right about now…but just for the hell of it I’ll divulge a few more details.

Right now I find myself at the beginning of a 2 week long school break…where the premise is Semana Santa (holy week), but the practiced idea is more Spring Break :) My plans involve a trip that brings me in a loop around the Yucatán—it looks something like: Mérida, Chichen-Itza, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum. I’m really excited! I’m going the first week with my boyfriend Héctor and then for week two we are meeting up with Elena.

Ok, enough about the future, time for a little bit about the past. Many weeks ago now…like 3 or 4 (?!) I hiked a mountain called Cofre de Perote, just outside of Xalapa with 5 friends. It was fun; it had been a long time since I’d gone on a good, solid hike…7 hours in total, ha. We made it a little harder on ourselves because we decided to skip out on the provided switchback trail and head, more or less, straight up. I think it’s good we did this hike then because it just keeps getting hotter and hotter here…this past week it’s been hovering around 90 degrees, sometimes less, mostly a little more. Sidenote: people keep telling me Mérida will be at least 40* Celsius…104* Fahrenheit… so if I don’t return, I’m definitely melted somewhere on the sidewalk…

The next weekend Héctor, Elena, Jacob, Copi and I planned a trip to Catemaco, where Héctor’s family has a house/cabin. The place is absolutely precious. The landscape is gorgeous hilly green-ness mixed with a little jungle and a big lake… not to mention that the atmosphere of the actual cabin itself, it reminds me a lot of my own, it’s a place to spend time with friends and family, to relax, enjoy, reflect…hands down one of my favorite places in México. So back to the trip…the 5 of us quickly turned into a group of 14 (somehow the cabin has beds for 15—sound familiar ?! I told you it was like my cabin!) the weekend was amazing. We went swimming in the lake, enjoyed a couple beers, and had a dance party on Friday night. Saturday we went to a neighboring town and had a guided tour of a little jungle area, went on a boat ride to see an island with ugly monkeys, and had a bbq at the cabin. Sun we left and stopped at a waterfall on our way out of town. All in all a great weeked :)

The next weekend I stayed in Xalapa, relaxing and hanging out with friends. We played a little ultimate Frisbee and drank a few mojitos.

On to the good stuff…the boyfriend…Héctor and I met my first weekend here, but due to my inability to type numbers into my phone, didn’t hang out until a few weeks after that. Since then things have progressed and we hang out everyday, and I love it. Sometimes we just walk around the park eating ice cream, other times we are having coffee with Nominjin, a Mongolian pop singer (Héctor accompanied her with guitar here in Xalapa for a performance in a conference), or sometimes he even talks me into going to his marketing class with him, haha.

Last weekend I went back to Catemaco with Héctor, but this time with his mom, aunt and 4 of the aunt’s friends. It was another great experience, though really different from the first. We took out the boat and the jet ski, sat around and listened to stories from the friends (who, by the way, smoke like chimneys and aren’t too bad for a glass of tequila or 4…ha, it was fun), enjoyed a private concert compliments of Héctor, stargazed…another really solid weekend.

I returned from that weekend back to a reality check at school… I had 2 tests, a paper, and a presentation waiting for me…but I finished them all and now its vacation time, I leave tomorrow afternoon, Yucatan bound! I’m going to go pack my backpack right now (no worries mom, I’m packing LOTS of sunscreen) !

Much love and I hope this finds everyone doing well!

photo fun

Waiting for the parade at Carnaval in Veracruz. (Note the massive beer cups...and these weren´t the biggest available...)

After the parade was over the floats were just hanging out on some side street, people were climbing on them and taking pictures...so we did too.

The first night in Tlacotalpan. Elena and Tina are trying to figure out the ripstick...a skateboard like toy that some kids were playing with in the plaza. ps doesn´t the city look magical/haunted?!

Tlacotalpan by day...bright colors, beautiful buildings.

I absolutely had to include this...Elena and I are very, very excited...why? well... it was our first ride in the back of a pickup truck here in México, haha! trust me, it won´t be the last...

grilled rabbit

Hey all!

I feel mildly overwhelmed in starting this because I haven’t written in so long and I’ve done sooo much. I’ll see if I can’t just highlight some things.

So I had a brilliant epiphany, just yesterday actually, that everyday I spend here I fall in love a little more… with the city, with the people, with the lifestyle… The city is huge, so I doubt I’ll ever get to know all of it, but everyday I’m a bit more comfortable with it and get to know different places and areas of town, which is really fun.

Ok so here goes… A couple weekends ago I went to Veracruz with Elena, Tina and Gabrielle, for Carnival, which is Mardi Gras, Mexican style. What it entailed was a billion people (more or less), a huge parade, a massive free concert by Jaguares, beer in very large containers, more people, dancing, LOTS of food (mango on a stick, yum),more beer, ….you get the picture. It was fun for one night, a little too crazy for more than that (the festivities last a week). The parade scheduled to arrive at 8 where we were sitting showed up promptly at 10:30, and then we only saw 25 minutes of it because we thought it ended… turns out, it hadn’t, there was just a very long pause in the middle with out floats and people and whatnot... It was good though because we went to catch the end of the concert, which was awesome. The next day we traveled a little further south to a pueblo called Tlacotalpan; it was probably one of the most beautiful little towns ever. It is almost impossible to explain, but the town was so perfect and beautiful it was terrifying, we were pretty sure we were living a horror movie. Elena and I are working on the script, I’ll keep you posted…Anyway, we spent the night sleeping 5 people on two pushed together double beds and one on a cot, it was cozy :) The next day we wondered all around town, ate…a lot (I can’t stress this enough), took a boat ride, watched the filming of a Mexican soap opera, attempted to rent bikes (failed)…

Oh! Something important, I discovered the key to meeting people, there are really only two factors. 1. go out on the town (duh) 2. go to school... at the actual Mexican University. Easy enough, right? My philosophy class the UV has been really cool because it is a really great way to meet people that don’t usually hang out with “gringos”. They told me that it is pretty rare that there are foreigners in that department, so everyone is really friendly and wants to chat. Last week the teacher didn’t showed up for class, something that is far from uncommon here, especially in the beginning of the semester, but everyone just hung around chatting for an hour. I thought it was a pretty productive day as far as practicing Spanish goes :)

Ok last weekend went something like this:
-Ultimate Frisbee game à my team lost
-Party and delicious dinner of pizza and pasta provided by Gabrielle (from Italy…) and Rodrigo
-Unintentional bus tour of Xalapa..turns out the buses do not run circular routes and sometimes stop atop mountains in the outskirts of town…
-Day in the sun at the pool with Elena, Hector, and Jacob, followed by dinner and guitar hero (My skills are rusty…Jenna, what are the chances we can permanently borrow GH from Isaac next year?)
-Naulinco with Ana, her mom, and Elena. It is a funny little town where every shop sells shoes…well, boots mostly…and anything else made of leather. And I’m not exaggerating when I say EVERY shop. oh yeah, this is where the blog tittle comes in, Ana´s mom was shocked that we hadn´t eaten rabbit before, so we had to get some on the way to the town. I, of course, made some smart ass comment about the lack of meat on a rabbit, as it turns out, they are not only delicious, but one was sufficent for the four of us...haha.
-Um…you can also insert the words [hanging out/gathering of friends/party(!?)] between most of these events…

This is really long and I have sticky, yellow hands from a mango, so I’m going to go. But really I have more to say and pictures to share, so I’ll do that soon. love.

a little eye candy for you

This is the kitchen table and family room to my house, pretty exciting, eh?

This is the room Elena and I share...and yes, I am always this excited simply because I'm in México....and Elena made me promise I would post it.

Chachalacas! mmm...beachy.

Elena, me, and Ana at the waterfall in Xico.

The waterfall. This picture is cool cuz you can see where we started on the right and then we hiked way up and around.

Turns out, I´m a fan of 3 day weekends...

Hey all!
So I hardly know where to start, I feel like I´ve done so much in the past couple days. Appearently the school I´m going to has one thing (and I mean only ONE thing...) figured out for sure, which is no classes on Fridays. I don´t think I´ll have any problems adjusting to three day weekends, ha. I think I´m a bit closer to having my schedule figured out, basically my classes are literature, grammar, conversation, and history. I´m hesitant about history, we shall see... Also, I´m in the process of signing up for taking a philosophy of religion class at the actual Mexican university, La Universidad Veracruzana. I´m really excited about it but simultaneosly terrified...haha. It will be a really good way to push myself and my spanish. The hard part is the semesters are different between the schools so I have to go in and talk to the professor tomorrow to see if I can end early.

So this weekend....Thursday night there was a little fiesta at the school, nothing overly exciting. After, Elena and I went to a little bar, La Chiva, which I could see myself spending a decent amount of time in. For those in La Crosse, picture Bodega, but 4 times smaller and with outdoor seating :) What was extra cool about going there is that I spotted a poster for somthing called Animal Fest, a concert where all the proceeds went to help the animals of the city. Turns out it was on Friday, so that´s where we headed the next night. It was really fun! There were 4 bands, the first was like some guitar hero playlist of metalica and nirvana covers, it was hilarious. seriously. We ran into a couple girls and a dude that works at the school so we were hanging out with them too. It was cool though because we really did only speak spanish with eachother throughout the night.

Sidenote about that...It is funny because I find myself not that interested in getting to know people at the school. I don´t feel like hanging out with a bunch of Americans and speaking English, ya know? At the same time, how do you just go about meeting random Mexicans? I´m not completely sure, but I´ll let you know when I figure it out ;)

Back to Friday night, we ended up leaving the concert and going to a party at some girls from school (I know, people from school...) but it was pretty fun. There were a bunch of school people there and some seemingly random Mexicans. What I sort of figured out by talking to some of them is that they sort of circuit, if you will, the students from the school each semester...kind of weird, right? My host mom then later mentioned that there has been one boy who dated two different girls that stayed in her house! that is ridiculous! ha. I think I´m going to avoid that scene...

Saturday we headed to a beach called Chachalacas. It a nice little adventure figuring out the bus system. It didn´t go completely smoothly, we may or may not have bought a wrong ticket at some point and I´m pretty sure I almost got robbed...we were waiting for a bus and as it came i
grabbed for my backpack on my back and both zippers were open! possibly I had left it them open cuz I was in my bag minutes before, but I seriously doubt it. My stomach has never dropped so fast in my life, complete panic. It turned out fine though, all my valuable type things were burried in the bottom, but damn, I learned a lesson about paying attention and being aware. Anyway, the beach was great, and we ate freash seafood, which was amazing. I had a fish filete stuffed with shrimp and other sea deliciousness.

Today then, I went with Ana, my cultural aide, her mom, and Elena, to a town called Xico to see some waterfalls. It was great, really nice weather and the falls were gorgeous. We hiked up and around, it was a lot of fun and really sweaty.

I´m going to add pictures soonish, the computer Í´m on won´t let me...much love, and I hope to hear from some of you!

ps-marcy, I´m currently enjoying my second purchase of hot nuts, yummm :)

soy una jalepena?

First things first, I'm feel rather uneasy about this whole blogging process, but after some thought I've decided it's the best way to let people who care know a little about what is going on in my life here in Mexico, so here it is, feel free to visit at your leisure... :)

I'm in Xalapa, Mexico, in the state of Veracruz, close-ish to the gulf coast, about a two hour bus ride. I got in on sunday night, after a full day of traveling, which was rather uneventful. What kept me one my toes was that I have been dealing with a severly sore throat and some very swollen tonsils/glands. For a while I was pretty sure the changes in pressure during the flights were going to cause the swollen gland protruding from my neck to explode...it didn't...so yay? I'm feeling better today than I have for a while, which is good.

Family life here is pretty good. I was a bit worried after I had recieved an email about my supposed host mom, describing her as a 70 year old who was gentle, careful (?!), and active...anyway, there were some changes made and I'm living with a mom, dad, 18 yr old twin daughters, and a 22 yr old son who I haven't met yet. Also, I live with my friend from school, Elena; the program through La Crosse places people in pairs in the homestays. It is interesting because this family has been taking in students, year round, for about 15 years. On one hand it is nice, they know excactly what is up and can explain things really well. At the same time I find it a bit disheartening to realize that I'm just part of the routine for them. I guess I keep thinking about my time in Chile and how I was really a part of my family there, like realllllly. We'll see though, I don't want to judge the situation too soon.

Yesterday was orientation day, and today we started class. First, I need to mention that I feel no more oriented after the hour long session the other day, things are a bit messy. The classes I was intending on taking don't really work cuz they overlap times left and right. Really the school isn't offering THAT many classes, it seems it could be a very avoidable situtation if they had concrete time slots...as it is I'm still trying to figure what I'll be taking for sure. Today I guessed and went to two classes. One is literature and I'm really looking forward to it. The professora is really open, she wants us to learn to read and really understand and feel what the authors are trying to convey....game on, that is my kind of class.

Something I'm looking forward to is that with the program we get a cultural aide, basically someone from the University that we get to meet with and chat with who can let us know what is up in Xalapa. I met with mine, Ana, yesterday and she is really nice and we are planning on going to some waterfalls outside the city this weekend. Kind of a cool idea for the program, right? My host mom mentioned that with past students boy/girl pairs have been known to fall in love...haha. Elena's is a guy...we shall see...

ok this is long, but one more thing that I found funny--- at the airport in Mexico City I went to the bathroom and noticed it was being cleaned by some little lady. As I waited in line I read a sign that mentioned that the bathroom was to be CONTINUALLY cleaned....and sure enough it was. The little lady moped up where you walked, wiped the sinks, and divvied out paper towels...and never left. really Mexico? does that make sense, at all??