You will never guess what I got a receipt for!

I cannot believe how fast the past three weeks have gone! It is amazing how quick time flies when you are busy all day long, every single day. My month here in Mexico is almost over. I am flying back to Omaha this Saturday and I am very excited. It has been a good experience down here, but I miss both Costa Rica and my home in the States so much. After having so much independence during the four months in Costa Rica and having two amazing host families to live with and learn from, sometimes I feel like I am learning so much less or getting so much less out of my experience in Cuernavaca. But at the same time, I know that I have improved so much with the subjunctive tense and without the intense class work, I couldn't have made that much progress. I am keeping it all in perspective and really trying to enjoy each moment, experience, and encounter I have these last few days.

Speaking of experiences...this weekend I was very busy. Saturday we left at 9 am from the school to travel to Mexico City. In the morning we went to Baazar Sabado, which was a display of local artists work in the market area. There were a lot of cute little stands and shops where we had some time to shop. Then we went to Frida Khalo's house and got to look at a number of real Diego Rivera paintings. Then we went to Xochimilco and took these boats around in the water channels. It was amazing. All the boats were decorated with bright colors and there were venders who had their own boats and would float along beside you selling corn on sticks or blankets or jewelry.

Hairless dogs - These dogs were at Frida Khalo's house and are a rare, almost extinct, breed that were actually around when the Aztec civilization was present.


At Diego Rivera House


Really Big Plant


Boat in Mexico City


Viva Laurita


I almost forgot, but on Saturday I felt awful. I had horrible motion sickness, combined with a severe headache from lack of sleep and change in elevation. I was so mad because I never used to ever have problems with motion sickness, but there have been quite a few times in the past 5 months where it has really affected me. (And yes, I know I need to go to bed earlier. But it wasn't my fault this time. I was in bed before 11 pm Fri night and just couldn't fall asleep. So I was a good girl and TRIED to get some sleep.) So Saturday night I took a Niquil around 9:00 pm and was asleep before 10:30 pm. (Mind you, we had to get up at 6:30 am Sunday morning and we were going to be walking/climbing all day).

Sunday we traveled to Teotihuacan, which is a ruins site on the other side of Mexico City from Cuernavaca. The ruins there were incredible! I was in awe. I have been fascinated with the ruins in Mexico for quite a while and still can't begin to imagine how intelligent those individuals had to be to create those huge structrues with such precision. I climbed three different pyramides, including the Moon and the Sun ones, which are the biggest at the site. It was an amazing experience, but lucky me forgot my sunscreen on the bus and didn't get to borrow any until it was to late. So my face and shoulders got a little red, though today they are already almost all tan. Yeah! I've been so good about that though and in all my time in Costa Rica and Mexico I have only burnt bad once.

Me in front of the pyramid of the Moon


Me at the top of the pyramid of the Sun


Group at top of pyramid of the Sun



Well even though this last photo is out of order, it was taken on Saturday after we got off the boats. We had a few minutes to do some shopping and go to the bathroom before getting on the bus to head back. When we went to use the restroom, we had to pay three pesos (30 cents). But the funny part is that the lady who we paid gave us each a receipt! I don't think I have ever gotten, or will ever again receive, a receipt for going to the bathroom. So being the dork I am, I made one of the girls take a picture of me with my receipt. You may laugh (as I know you are), but think about what a great scrapbook page this will make. Hahaha! Yes...some things will NEVER change.

Bathroom receipt


Love you!!

Vinagrillo.

I cannot believe how awful I have been at updating my blog while in Mexico! I apologize! I just get so busy and tired with 6 hours of classes and the excursions and everything, that I have no motivation when it comes to sitting down to write a blog. I need to change that these last two weeks. Especially since I am not writing in my journal (see past excuses again) and this blog will be a major reference I will use when I am scrapbooking my hundreds of pictures. Haha. Yes, I would be one in Mexico thinking about her scrapbook pages she wants to do in the next month. Go ahead and laugh or grin. I'm used to it by now.

So I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures and then do some journaling (and I am putting off my homework because I really don't feel like doing it at all. Which I'm sure I'll pay for later when I am dead tired and still reading. But oh well. Last night I was downstairs, looked over on the floor and saw this huge "bug" crawing across the floor. I thought it was a scorpian at first glance, but then when I looked closer I realized that it wasn't. I didn't get to take a picture of the actual bug in my house, but I looked it up online to get a picture to post on here and to see what kind it was. I WISH I could have caught it and brought it back for my collection...but I don't think customs would have been to thrilled. My mom called the bug Vinagrillo in Spanish, which has its roots in the word vinagro (vinager), because it releases a vinager smell when it senses danger.

Vinagrillo


This is our car. How sweet is that. Totally old school VW beetle. No AC. Nothing automatic. We just "putter" along. It is so much fun to ride it, especially with my host mom because she always has a running commentary to the people we pass on the road. It's not really road rage, but more road discussion you could say. I love it.



This picture is of me (Obviously! Just in case you missed me.) standing on top of a church in Taxco, which is a silver mining city we visited on Saturday. It was about an hour and a half drive from Cuernavaca. We left about 9 am and got back to the house around 6:30ish at night.

Me & the City


This photo was also taken on the church in Taxco. It is a group photo of the Nebraska students who were on the Taxco excursion. I think we were missing a few people, but I'm not sure without counting.

Group


Sunday was a really long day. The bus left at 7:30 am and we didn't get back to the house until after 9 pm. We got back to the school around 7:30 or 8 pm, but then Jill, MariaCarmen (my host mom), and I went to a taco place called La Gringa just down the road and had some amazing tacos. I'm going to try to get a picture of the place and the meat that I ate (and the way they were cooking it) and then post some more about it. The picture below shows me on one of the ruins we visited. I can't remember the name of the place right now but I'll try to find it later and added it. Sorry!

Me at the Ruins


And of course, in between all the traveling and excursions and ruins and Acapulco, I am being a very studious student and learning Spanish. (This really is the truth!) I feel like I'm starting to understand the subjunctive more and more each day and starting to think about when I could use it while talking instead of just using present and past tenses. For anyone studying Spanish, you will understand how hard this can be! And I am also excited to say that I have gotten an A on everything I have done so far. From grammer tests to literature essays to the weekly journals we turn in to our professor from UNO. So I am really happy about that.

Studying


Well I should get started on my reading now since it will probably take a few hours to read. Yeah! I'm so excited. Ha. I would much rather just have 6 hours of class a day and then have the rest of the day to enjoy the city. But I am here to improve my Spanish so I can't complain. And I don't want to complain. I have a great opportunity to be down here studying and am really trying to live in the moment. As much as I would really love to be home relaxing with my puppy and scrapbooking with my mom, I have two weeks left and I am going to make the most of them!

- Hasta Luego -

Boys in Speedos.

This post is going to be mostly pictures because I don't have time to write about the last week. Sorry! I promise I'll update you all soon. But at least this way you can see some snapshots of my past week. Yep. All these photos occured in only one week. One INTENSE, but very exciting, week.

My Bedroom



My House



Talking to my mom on Skype



This is the school where I'm taking Spanish classes.



Las Ruinas



La Hacienda Vista Hermosa - Hernán Cortés lived here!



Talking to my baby sis on Skype.



El Hotel Tortuga en Acapulco, Mexico.



Getting ready to watch the cliff divers.



The cliff diver boys. Haha.



Well I'm going to end the post on that picture. Too funny. Sorry I didn't type a lot. It took forever to load the pictures and I still have homework to do quick before bed. I'll try to post a real update sometime soon. But I talked to my mom tonight and she can translate almost all of the last post pretty well...so she will be waiting for your phone calls. Hehe.

Love you all!

Mi segundo ensayo

I thought I'd add two new posts today. In this post I'm going to copy and paste the second essay I had to write and hand in to the professor for my credit through UNO. But it is in Spanish, so I am going to try to get a post written in English as well, but that will depend on my internet connection. (If you don't know Spanish but want to know what it says, feel free to call my mom and have her translate. She'd love to help out! Hehe!)

Enjoy!


En solamente una semana he experimentado muchas cosas, lugares y personas nuevas. Miré hombres saltando de alturas altas en el mar. Caminé sobre ruinas en Xochicalco. Senté en la casa de Cortés, se llama la Hacienda Vista Hermosa. Tuve un tour del centro de Cuernavaca. Bailé toda una noche en una discoteca. Descansé en la playa por una tarde. Pero lo más importante, he practicado mucho español y he aprendido bastante información.
Antes de llegar, yo esperaba que mejorara mi conocimiento de la forma de subjunctivo y practicara mi español mucho. Durante la última semana, traté usar español por una gran parte del día. En mi casa, mi mamá casi no permite inglés porque estoy viviendo con dos otras mujeres quiénes son profesoras. Me gusta esta situación porque estoy aquí primero para estudiar.
Una cosa diferente para mí es la diferencia en palabras entre países que hablan español. También, es un poco dificil que algunas palabras aprendemos en escuela en los Estados Unidos no sean corectas aquí. Un ejemplo es la palabra "alberca", que significa una piscina. Cuando estudiaba en Costa Rica, personas usaban la palabra "chao" muchas veces en lugar de "adios". Pero en México no es muy común.
Como normal en un lugar nuevo, he tenido experiencias diferentes o malas en mi primera semana. Tuve problemas con mis clases porque no me gusta historia, pero tuve tres horas cada día. No sentí que estuve mejorando mi abilidad de conversar porque solamente estuve escribiendo información, como fechas y nombres. Pero esta semana cambié mis clases y siento mejor. También, me gustaría la escuela tener una regula que no permita inglés durante al día.
En resumen, me encantó mi tiempo en México hasta hoy. Creo que voy a aprender mucho sobre la cultura y la lengua aquí. Cada día hay muchas horas de escuela y mucha tarea, pero yo sé que es necesario. Espero que las proximas tres semanas sean increibles y llenas de español! Si las serían como la primera semana, yo no necesite preocupar.

I'm speaking Spanish again...

Hola de Cuernavaca, Mexico!

I will be living here for the next 4 weeks, attending class 6 hours a day during the week, and traveling a little to see some of the sites near here. I was only in the US for two weeks before I jumped (well...more like stumbled bleary eyed and yawning...) into another airport to head out of the country. But I'm thrilled to be using and practicing my Spanish again and only hope it continues to improve during my time down here. I am living with a host family....though I think I really only have a host mom at the house but a lot of extended family and sisters who are older and married. I have my own room with two twin beds, tv, ceiling fan, floor fan, bright lights, perfect sized red closet, and WIRELESS INTERNET (which I am picking up from some company or house somewhere near my house). I must say, I am quite content here. Though it is very different from San Jose and Costa Rica. And I think some small part of me prefers the life I had there just because I had so much family interaction....but at the same time my host mom seems amazing and the house is great and I am so lucky to have the opportunity to experience a whole different culture. I have two other Americans living at the house, but both of them are older women and Spanish teachers, which is GREAT because that means we will be practicing a lot of Spanish and they can help me out with vocabulary and stuff when I have questions. But the even more exciting part is that I feel like I can almost keep up with them using my Spanish, granted I probably have a few more conjugation errors here and there because I am still working on that but comprehension wise I'm good. So that makes me very happy about how much I improved in Costa Rica and it is nice I am living with them versus other students my age who would probably not know a lot of Spanish and be more likely to use English often.

Today I got up, had breakfast, read one of the articles for my paper due this week, and then went on a walk with Jill (the teacher/student from UNO who is living here too). We decided to go look for a supermarket so we could buy some snacks for during the day if we get hungry since we will be eating breakfast at 8 am and "lunch" (which is really lunch/dinner) at 3:30ish. We went to ask our mom if there was a supermarket close and she goes "ya...Wal-mart". Yes. Wal-mart. We walked 10 minutes from our house to a Wal-mart. Crazy. A super Wal-mart none the less. And there is also a Starbucks less than 5 minutes from the house as well. I think we are going to go there to study or work on homework at least a night or two. I would love to sit there and work and see how similar or different the atmosphere there is in comparsion to the Starbucks that I study at in the US. We bought a couple things at the Wal-mart and then walked home for lunch. The rest of the evening we sat around chatting and then I came upstairs to work on my paper. I decided to turn my computer on to listen to music and on the off chance that I could pick up a wireless signal. And just my luck....I had two wireless internet options pop up! So I am really excited about having internet. I just have to make sure to not get on my computer all the time but actually get work done at night. Haha. I'll be good about it though because I really don't have a choice. I am going to be super busy, but at the same time it is somewhat nice to get back to a regular class and homework type schedule....and even nicer that I can adjust back to it while in another country!

Sorry, no pictures tonight but I'll try to get some uploaded tomorrow or in a couple days. And if you are reading my blog, can you please please pretty please leave me a quick note/comment to let me know you are and who you are and what is going on in your life? I LOVE LOVE getting messages. The blog even sends me notes to my email saying someone left me a message. I keep finding out about people who enjoyed my Costa Rica blog, but NEVER said anything to me! Luckily you have four weeks to make up for it. Haha. Love you all!!

- Chao -