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 -