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??