MY MEXICO TRIP IN PICTURES

This is a picture of my street sign with the mountains in the background. We have a beautiful view.













I took this picture (and edited it) last weekend in Cuatro Cienagas.

















These flowers are all over the neighborhoods. This one I took at a nearby park.










These are some friends who I climbed the mountain with. This was the halfway point where we took a much needed break.











Now that adding pictures is working, I will be able to add them with each post. :)

CUATRO CIENAGAS, Coahuila, Mexico

Well, finally I have something to write about, and to update everyone about!

This weekend I went with a group of friends to Cuatro Cienagas, an ecological preserve about 4 hours away from Monterrey. It has quite a few lakes, springs, etc. in a desert, where there are several different species of animals particular to this area. It is really beautiful.

So Friday my room mate and I had to go to immigration...again, and waited 2 hours, again. So that wasn't fun at all, but it had to get done. After we were finally done there, we went home and packed for the weekend, and left by around 4:00. We had 3 carloads of people, but only 2 left at that time. The other car left a few hours later. So when we got into town, we found our hotel, settled in, and then walked around to find a place for dinner. It was freezing, so we pretty much just went with the closest place. We found a small restaurant, and the food was delicious. After, we walked around the town a little, and then just went back to the hotel, played/listened to some music for a while, and then the other car arrived. As soon as we figured out our sleeping arrangements, we pretty much went to bed.

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast, and started our day. We first went to la poza azul and some other springs in the desert. They were really beautiful...clear blue water, fish, and they were actually thermal water. Even though we couldn't swim in them, we got to feel the water, and it was quite warm! It was really cool. After that we drove a few kilometers to the white sand dunes, where there were different sand structures and white sand for miles. It was also really beautiful, and a lot of fun. We just walked around, and were actually able to climb on some of the structures. It was a really good time. After we went into town to buy supplies for the night, because I went camping. The campsite was absolutely breathtaking. It too was in the middle of the desert, with mountains covering the horizon, and our tent was about 10 feet away from a lake. So after we heated up water on the fire to make our ramen noodles we headed into the tent for the night because again, it was freezing. I wore a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a coat, a scarf, leggings, sweatpants, and two pairs of socks, and slept in a sleeping bag, and I was still cold. But it was an experience. We woke up really early in the morning because we were still cold, and went to the car, turned the heat on, and then fell asleep in there for a while just to unthaw. When we could finally feel our bodies again, we made breakfast, and then when it was warmer outside, we went for a swim. The water was really pretty, clear, and there were lots of fish. When we got back after our swim, the rest of the group was arriving, and we spent the rest of the day eating, drinking, swimming, and just hanging out at the campsite. It was really fun. The ride home was really long, I was exhausted, and there was a lot of fog, so it seemed to take even longer, but we finally got home around 1:30 am. I went straight to bed, and slept in, because due to some Mexican holiday, we didn't have classes today. So I did absolutely nothing. It was a good relaxing day after a fun, exhausting weekend. :D

the last 2 weeks.

Well, again, sorry it has been a while. Nothing huge has happened still, but I am still really enjoying myself.

Last weekend Mom and Dad came from Thursday to Monday. We really had a ton of fun. I gave them the whole tour of Monterrey, and we jam-packed pretty much everything I have done in a month and a half into 3 days. So in other words, we had a great time and were completely exhausted. When they got here on Thursday, I was able to get a ride to the airport to pick them up, so that was really great. When we got back to our house, I gave them the tour, and then we went to get tacos with my room mates. Friday, the weather was quite disappointing; rainy and cloudy. We stuck around the house; went to Starbucks, walked to campus, gave them the tour, went to get tea, dinner, etc. Saturday was our big day. We did almost everything I have done since I have been here in this day. We went to the history museum, walked along our man-made river, went to el centro and the macroplaza, where they have all the statues and fountains, and then later at night we went to the mirador, which is a big hill with the mexican flag on it, and you can see the whole city. It is really beautiful. Later we went to Chili's for a drink and appetizers, and then went back to the hotel. It was a really good day. Sunday we decided to go to a natural park to do some hiking. This park, Chipinque, was also a first for me, so it was really fun. It was also a really good place to see the whole city. So needless to say, after this weekend everyone was exhausted, but Mom and Dad didn't want to leave. I also had a really good time, and it was really weird saying goodbye, knowing I won't see them for 3 more months.

Since then, nothing too exciting has been happening. I have had a lot of homework this week. Wednesday we went to a bar to see my roomie's boyfriend and their band play. It was really fun, and they were really good. Last night (Friday) we didn't do anything. 2 of my room mates and I just stayed in and hung out and stayed in. It was fun, but we went to bed early.

Today will be my day of homework. I doubt I will get as much done as I plan on. The weather is probably really nice again (yesterday was 100 F), so I will probably make better plans. :) Oh well, I'm in Mexico.

booooring.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...to tell you the truth, my life has temporarily become kind of low key. Which is fine..

Last week we had our first exams here, so the whole week was spent studying and doing homework. I had 3 tests, a quiz, and a paper due, so it was a pretty busy week, but meant I couldn't really do much, socially speaking. But whatever...it's one week out of the month, not too bad. So I think my tests went pretty well, but I guess we will see. This weekend I went out both nights, slept a lot, and didn't do a lot AT ALL! It was a fun weekend, but at the same time really exhausting, and the days were unproductive and kind of boring.

The parents are coming on Thursday, so I am getting really excited. My room mates and I are also starting to plan our trip to Mazatlan for spring break. We are really looking forward to spending a whole week on the beach. It should be great.

Seriously, nothing else is new. I am sorry my life has sort of become non-interesting. haha. I am sure it will just come in spurts. :D Soon, more.

It's been a while...

So, it has been a while since I last wrote, but nothing too exciting has happened. But, I will update you on the latest.

Last Thursday 2 of my room mates and I met some friends to go to a club in Barrio. Even though it was a school night, we were all in the party mood, and decided to go. We left around 10:30, and when we got to the club, nobody was there. We sat around and talked for a while, and after a while, they were playing more dance music, and as more people arrived, more people started to dance. It was a lot of fun.

This weekend has also been fun. On Saturday early evening we left to go to the summer house of a friend of a friend. The summer house was absolutely beautiful. It was in a small town about 1 hour from Monterrey, in the middle of nowhere it seemed. It had a building with a living room and little kitchenette, another building with a bedroom with two queen beds, a coverd grilling area, a pool, basketball court, soccer field..it was amazing. So when we got there, around 7:00 pm, we grilled out, and then as more people started arriving (we were about 15 in total) we had some drinks, and hung out outside, playing basketball, etc. It was a lot of fun. We ended up sleeping three people to a bed, and only got about 1 hour of full sleep, so now I am exhausted. But it was worth it. Today was absolutely beautiful. Probably in the upper 80s again. PERFECT!

No school tomorrow, due to some sort of holiday. As long as I don't have class, I don't really care what it is. :p

What I do when I don't have homework...

Even though I am physically exhausted, and my legs are sore, it's all because I had a really great weekend!

Early this past week, we made plans to climb the mountain on Friday. So, when Friday came around, plans were set to start our climb around 3:00. After everyone finally arrived around 3:40, we set out. In all it was me, 2 of my roommates, 2 guys from Australia, 2 guys from the States, and another girl from the States. So we had quite a group! Two of the guys in our group had climbed the mountain before, so supposedly knew what they were doing, and we just went with them, and listened to what they said. We took 2 taxis closer towards the mountain, where you can catch a trail. The first sign we saw leading to the trail was a yellow caution sign with a picture of a bear, saying "protegelo," which pretty much means protect against it..So, we continued, hoping we would not see a bear. As we started to climb the hill, I slowly realized that the whole way was going to be uphill...and it was. 2 hours of hiking uphill. And the path was very bumpy and hard to walk on, almost as if someone had just poured a bunch of cement to make a path, and over the years, it had just broken up and made it just like walking on rocks. So even though we were absolutely exhausted, breathing heavy, and really sweaty, we kept going and made it halfway in 2 hours. At the half way point, was a structure that reminded me of a parking ramp, constructed to the side of the mountain. So, we walked out onto here, and sat on the edge, caught our breath and looked at the awesome view of the city. It was quite amazing. We even went a little further and found a cave, which we explored a little until we heard rocks moving around (it ended up being little kids throwing rocks into the cave from a hole above, but it could have been that bear!). So we started to hike down, and before we knew it it was getting dark. This was nice, because the view was absolutely amazing once the lights of the city started to turn on, but it was really hard to hike down on the crappy trail when your depth perception was kind of taken away. But, we made it down unharmed, took our taxis back to our houses, and proceeded to shower, eat a lot, and then lay around.

On Saturday, 2 of my room mates and I and another friend woke up early to go to the Grutas de Garcia, which are caves about 1.5 hours away from campus. We went with a school group, so it was a whole bus load going. When we finally got to the caves, it was absolutely amazing. The Grutas de Garcia are these huge caves formed 50-60 million years ago, and there are stalagmites and stalagtites everywhere. It was really beautiful. After, we had about 45 minutes before the bus left, so we got some delicious burritos and churros, and then took the ride back. Later that night, I hung out with my room mate and 2 of her friends from church. The one guy that took us out was from Mexico, so he took us to a lookout place, where I again got a great view of the city at night, except this time it was a full 360. After, we went more downtown, and walked down by an artificial river. We met 2 of his friends for a late dinner/snack at a pizza place. It was a really great night...everyone was really friendly, and we spoke Spanish the whole time, which was really great.

Tonight we are going to see another play put on by our school in Spanish. It should be a lot of fun. I'm coming to realize that I really prefer my weekends without homework. :D

La Pimpinela Escarlata

So this Saturday, my room mates and I went to go see the school's production of The Scarlett Pimpernel, in Spanish of course. We got in for free because during orientation we received a card that allows us to go to all of the theatre and music productions without paying! Before it started we were kind of nervous as to how much we would understand, but figured either way, the singing would be good and it wouldn't matter. Well, the singing was wonderful, and we understood the whole play, only missing a few small details! I was really surprised, and happy! It was a really a great musical/play, and I thought the parts were well casted, and the singing was great. I think it would be worth it to see it in English.

After the musical we went to a pizza restaurant, and then to a party of a guy we met in a club. It was a pretty boring party, so we only stayed for a couple hours. We didn't know anyone, so only a few guys came over to talk to us. But we got free drinks. :)

Sunday I did homework all day, AGAIN, and then in the evening two of my roommates and I and Silvia went to Tacos Laredo, right down the street. It was delicious.

The weather today is in the upper 70s and low 80s, and if the weather site is correct, it should be like that for the next 10 or so days, at least. That makes me extremely happy, especially when people back home are excited for it to reach the 30s by this Wednesday. Now is when it is the perfect time to be in Mexico, and NOT in Wisconsin. :D

Maybe we are going to Tijuana?

So, i have an adventure to tell you about!

Oh boy, where to begin. So, yesterday one of my room mates and I decided to go downtown to el centro to do some shopping. It's really easy to take the bus there...it costs $8.50 pesos, which is about $0.80, and you just take Route 1 the whole way. EASY! So, we left for downtown around 2:45, and shopped for a couple hours. A very relaxing, easy going trip. We decided to leave around 5:30. So, we decide the best way to go back, is to take the same bus route, seems most logical right?! So we hopped on bus Route 1 again, happy and somewhat successful from our shopping trip (I bought a sweater).

So my room mate and I are sitting on the bus, and before we know it, we have been on there for about 30 minutes, and we have no idea where we are. At this point it was pretty funny. So, we go up to the bus driver, and in Spanish ask him if this bus goes to the Tec, just to make sure. He says yes, it does. Ok, so before we know it, we start getting into this middle of nowhere town, and the bus pulls into the bus station and the bus driver gets out. My room mate and I just kind of look at each other, and start to wonder a little bit what's going on, but not really worried at all. So a different bus driver comes on, pulls the bus around the loop so it can now easily pull out of the parking lot, gets off and the other bus driver gets on. At this point, a few other buses are starting to pull in, and we see another Route 1 bus that instead of saying "central" like ours, says "directo." This seems promising! So we get off our first bus and ask the bus driver if this one gets to the Tec faster than the other one. He says it does, so we get on.

After about 5-10 more minutes we leave, and we are thinking, we will be back to the Tec in no time! WRONG! After about 20-30 minutes more, we have no idea where we are, and ask the bus driver again, if this bus goes to the Tec, but this time we specify, the Tec of MONTERREY! He says yes it does, we will be there in about 25-30 minutes, after tracing the route out with his finger in the air. So my room mate and I have another good laugh about our situation, and we continue to drive into only God knows where.

A little time passes, and suddenly we start to recognize where we are...right back where we started, EL CENTRO! So we are pretty close to campus right now, easy. Well, we pass through the downtown area, and start heading towards the mountain, which is the part of town that is poorer. We drove through a really poor neighborhood, that looked like it could be dangerous for two American girls to get off. So we stayed on. :D Finally, after driving through this neighborhood the bus driver calls us up to the front seats and tells us we will be there soon. 5 minutes later, to our relief, we see the campus buildings! We get off, promptly start to laugh, and catch a taxi home.

By the time we got home, it was almost 7:30! We ended up spending about 2 hours on the bus. It was quite an adventure. When we told our host mom about it, and where we all went, she started laughing, and when we told her what neighborhood we went through, her eyes got really big, because it is quite far away from us. We also figured out that we left Monterrey, and drove through another city. WHAT AN ADVENTURE! It was actually quite interesting, but the only thing I didn't like was not knowing for sure if this bus went to the Tec. But it did, and everything turned out just fine. :D

I can see the end..

The first week of classes is drawing to a close, and not a minute too soon. Not that I don't like my classes or professors, it's just a lot to take in in one week, and I am already ready for a break.

So, I got the whole Latin American Literature class fiasco dealt with, and I went to the class today. It is another class with all Mexicans, except little me in the middle. It is going to be a lot of work, but those are probably the classes that are going to improve my Spanish the most. I think it will be ok. The professor was really nice about my not being at the first class.

What else has happened since I last posted...last night we went to a movie with a friend of my room mate's who is from Mexico. One day when she was trying to get a taxi home, this guy and his friend offered her a ride home, and we went to the movie with him. It was a Mexican movie, so all in Spanish, lots of slang that I didn't know, so it was 2 hours of a lot of confusion, and glancing back and forth at my room mate, seeing if she felt the same as I did. I got the general concept of the movie, but there was a lot that I didn't understand. For example, there were at least a few times when everyone in the theatre was laughing, and my room mate and I just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. We want to go see the same movie in 2 months and see if we understand a lot more. Hopefully, yes!

What else is going on....I am just feeling really mentally exhausted after this week. I just want to sleep. I feel like I am acting differently here...not really myself, but with some people I still am. I think I just get really intimidated in this different environment. At the same time, I really love it here. There is nothing in my head that is telling me I want to go home. I really just think it is going to take a lot to get used to. Once I am more comfortable speaking Spanish in my classes, I can open up and make more friends. Right now I just need to adjust to my new surroundings. And that's ok with me. :D

Classes..

So, my first two days of classes are done..FINALLY! They aren't as hard as I thought they would be, but at the same time, they are overwhelming. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have History of Latin American Art, so this was my frist class in Monterrey. When I arrived to class, I was the only American/International student in the class. It was really intimidating! But, it seems like it will be a good class.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Social and Cultural History of Latinamerica, Latinamerican Literature, and Spanish Grammer...so in other words, Tuesday (today) and Thursday are my eventful days..but today was more eventful than I hope most will be: first of all, I had to wake up at 7:00. That is enough to ruin anyone's day. So, my first class went well, it is with a really young teacher who seems to be pretty cool, and I have it with quite a few friends. I then had a break, and I passed the hour and a half on campus with some friends. At my next class, Latin American Literature, I went to the room assigned on my schedule, sat through the 1.5 hour class, and then realized that the syllabus the professor gave us said Mexican Literature. So, after class (and after listening to 1.5 hours of lecture in Spanish AND taking 3 pages of notes) I went to ask him about it. He told me, "no, you aren't supposed to be here. This class is completely different than what you have on your schedule." So I had to go to a certain building and a certain room to figure things out, which I eventually did. I emailed my professor, and hopefully he will let me join the class on Thursday without an absence.

After classes were done I was exhausted, but met up with my room mate to go find the post office, which we found 25 minutes too late, and then trekked the 30 minutes back home, where I stuffed my face with delicious food, and took another warmish shower, and laid in bed. :D Now I am here at Starbucks, again, catching up on emails and facebook and whatnot.

Other than these daily normal happenings, nothing is new. I have realized that I have now been here for exactly a week, which is really weird. It is definitely not a vacation anymore. And, I already want it to be the weekend....this week is just CRAWLING by.

Monterrey so far!

Well, my first official entry! I decided to start this blog to keep friends and family updated while I am in Monterrey Mexico for my semester abroad, so that is just what I am doing!
So far, I have been here since January 6, so that is a little less than a week. It doesn't seem like it has been that long! Our week has been so busy that it has just flown by. We have had meetings and orientation, but that's the boring stuff! I will try to summarize as best I can what I have experienced this past week:

First of all, the beauty of Monterrey is absolutely breathtaking. The mountains are everywhere you look. They are covered in trees or bushes, and at the base are many houses. It's almost as if these houses are the poorest and most rundown, but at the same time, they have the best spot to live in the city! At one of our orientation meetings they mentioned different trips the international students can go on, and one of them is to climb the mountain. As soon as I got here, I kept thinking, "I want to climb the mountain!" And now I probably can!

We also went to el centro, or the downtown area. Basically it is a few streets of a lot of shopping. The stores are relatively cheap, with relatively decent quality clothes. And almost every other store is a zapateria, or shoe store. It's heaven for a girl! We also explored the barrio antiguo, or the old neighborhood, which is cobblestone streets lined with old buildings. Later in the night we went back for a club. It is completely different at night..a completely changed atmosphere. In el centro the plaza has many statues and fountains which I think are worth visiting. It seems like a nice place to walk during the warmer months. I know there must be more to the city, because I have read about the museums and other attractions, so next time we go we will have to find them.

Other than the usual exploring, nothing really interesting has happened yet. I have been meeting quite a few international students at the orientation meetings, and they are really nice people. I think tomorrow when we start classes I will be able to start meeting some Mexican students, which is what I really want to do. It is fun hanging out with the international students, and I really like my room mates, but I want to speak more Spanish. We speak almost completely in Spanish with Sylvia, our host mom, but with a lot of the students we speak English.

I think for now, I have summarized my so far brief stay. I am sure as this next week finishes, I will have a lot to say about classes and other things I have experienced, but for now, SO LONG!