paradigm shift

Wow what a difference it makes in my life from before school and now. I have a WONDERFUL host family that takes great care of me and Tayna, my roommate. There is Elda, mi madre mexicana and Javier her husband and their daughter Patricia and her daughter Natalia who is 3 and precious. They have a really nice place and a pool in the backyard...so basically i live in a resort =) School is annoying right now because we are doing a bunch of registration stuff and so basically we wait a LOT....but that is kind of mexico so i guess i shouldn't complain. Another thing that annoys me is going around in massive groups of americans...no bueno. but on the whole it has been great and it will be great as soon as classes start and we aren't forced to bunch together. So...on Monday night I stayed at the AIM girls house and hung with them a little...we watched a movie called 'the island' and i really enjoyed it. Tuesday I had to take a taxi to meet my host family because i wasn't coming in with all the rest of the group. I got there and they welcomed me and it was great. The campus is amazing, with basketball courts and a gym and all that--i think i may have put that in here before but yea, i'm still happy with it. and once we get our passwords i'll be able to use the computers there, which will be good. Last night we all went out like seems is mandatory for american students and inundated the places around the center. it was fun but i just feel like its too much american sometimes...still, we had a good time. today we were all supposed to go take a tour of downtown and learn how to ride the buses...but i already know that and know downtown so i just told them i wasn't going...and took some people with me. it has been so much more fun.
tomorrow and saturday are free days so i don't know what i'm going to do but classes don't start til tuesday. I'm in conversation and like a composition class.
alright, i'm tired of typing so that's it! =)

singing and singing

So Saturday I went to Isadora's parents place about a half hour from here. We took her moped and it was the craziest ride! All the cars were so close and there aren't really rules about lanes and passing and such, so people just go when they can...and we were right in the middle of it! it was fun and mom and dad, i promise i won't do it again =) We had a wonderful afternoon at her place. One thing I love about houses here, they are usually surrounded by a walled yard, so the gate is all locked up but the houses don't usually have any big locks on the doors or anything because they just lock the gate. We got the hammocks out and laid in them and swam a bit and Isa made some jewelry. She makes amazing stuff and she gave me a pair that are really beautiful. She and her ex-boyfriend made their way around Spain making and selling jewelry. Then her mom made tostadas...oh man. I was very bad at eating them and got messy, but they were delicious. and she made passion fruit ice thing...so yummy. they have a passion fruit plant there and it was loaded with fruits that are almost ripe. We left there and Isa dropped me off where I could catch the bus to Paul and Sharita's because they had a group come to sing at their place. I was supposed to take the #6 but i took a different one cause he said he was going to the same place--and then, long story short, i finally had to take a taxi, all of which cost me maybe $3 =) the singing was wonderful! we went up on the roof of their house (almost everyone has a place to sit on the roof) and sang for a long time and then ate tamales that Sergio made...So good! i talk about the food here way too much but i can't help it.
Yesterday I went to church. They have services at a hotel. It was nice to sing in yet another language...and it is funny what songs i associate with what languages too. After, we went and ate at a restaurant and laughed and talked a lot. It is different here than in Europe because in Europe when we had 10 people it was kind of a lot for most places and they thought we were a little odd for bringing so many. Here it is welcomed! They mash as many of us as possible in and you can sit there for hours and no one cares.
Last night me and the AIMers and Tyler, who is also an AIM guy but has been in Leon for a year already and is Rudy's cousin...well we all went to eat tacos and we had a lot of good laughs and those laughs continued when we went back to the girls' house...they are crazy, but so am I so it makes a good combination.
Alright, this is already too long probably but tomorrow I start my homestay with my family. I am excited to meet them!

tulse luper and AIMers

Wed night my friend Isadora was showing a movie and talking about it a little at her university cultural center. It was called 'Las Maletas de Tulse Luper'--Tulse Luper's Suitcases. It was the oddest movie I have ever seen. It might be interesting if I understood it all--cause they put it in Spanish--but i dunno. Anyway...
Yesterday I had a really good evening because I got to spend time with some members of the church here. They were having their youth small group last night at one of the missionaries houses (there are three couples here, who have been here various lengths) There is also, like i posted before, a group from AIM who just got here. They are cool people. We had a good study and then Paul and Charita (two of the missionaries) and I went to another small group because the lady there was helping them with renewing their visas. That group was really cool--they 'started' at 8 but we got there after nine and still people were arriving. I might attend there though it would be challenging because they would speak spanish. Then we went to the house where the girl AIMers will be living (their names are Jennie, Amanda, Sarah, Andrew and Rudy) The girls' house is really amazing! It is nice and big and located near the center and has a rooftop view of the volcano when its clear--pretty great. I hung out with them for a little while last night and they love to laugh and have a good time and we had a lot of fun. I know they are going to love it here and do well. They will be here for over a year most likely. I also met a girl named Aileen at the study. She is from here and really has a lot going for her. She studied in the US, and because she was with a Christian family, she was influenced to become a Christian. Only her older brother is also a Christian in her family and none of her friends so she is even more amazing to me. She is going to be an au pair in Dallas this summer with a Christian family and I hope that is a great experience for her.
Also, the other night i got to witness an authentic mexican gossip session. It was fascinating! Isadora had some friends over and they just went on and on in very rapid spanish about this person and that person and what they were doing. it was really fun.
There is also another girl coming to do study abroad that contacted the missionaries. It is kinda funny to me cause it seems there's just this overabundance of Christian influence here--when really there's not but in comparison to other places i've been, it's more.
Anyway, that's what i've got for now. Tomorrow me and Isadora are going to her parents house to swim and relax and have a good time so that should be fun and a challenge to my spanish abilities. wish me luck...=)

food!

Ok, so just a quick post to talk about how delicioso the food is here...and the answer to that is VERY!! I went with a friend last night to a little corner taqueria and had something like we would call fajitas...they give you the cooked meat and vegetables on your plate and tortillas and you make your own. They have 5 different little bowls on the table with limes (which are like .50 a kilo here) pico de gallo, and 3 different salsas...all nice and spicy. it was the most delicious mexican food i´ve ever had.
One other interesting thing...while i was waiting for this guy to pick me up in front of the cathedral, there were these guys standing there next to white cars, one suv and two cars. they started talking with me and we chatted away about what i like to do here and what music i listen to, etc...and then they started talking about what they do--which they said was like 'state security' so i didn´t really understand what they were doing (there are like 15 different types of police here i´ve figured) until a family came out of the cathedral and they were like, ok, gotta go...and they ushered the family into the cars and off they drove. so basically, private security for government officials that is provided by the government...i thought it was great.

speed bump(s)!

Alright, well so per the title of this blog i am going to talk ( and rant a bit ) about speed bumps. First--they are EVERYWHERE in Cuernavaca! and i don´t mean in residential areas or near schools...they are literaly on every street in the city. sometimes it seems like a smart idea...like before those intersections that have no signal nor stop sign nor mirror to see around the buildings on each corner (and these are not wide streets) so the speed bumps make people slow down so they don´t bash into each other...however, when you are in a bus to Tepotzlan (more on this later) going UP a hill and there are speed bumps, which the driver often ignores, and i can´t blame him cause they are annoying (hint: never sit in the back of a bus here, you´ll be bruised) these on the hill weren´t too large so it wasn´t earth-shaking to go over them. However, in the city there are some that are MOUNTAINOUS and furthermore, what it encourages is cars slamming on their brakes, going over the bump, and then accelerating pell-mell to the next one. And Mexican traffic is anything but orderly, but somehow things work alright. So...
Tepotzlan:
it is about 45 min from Cuernavaca by bus and is in the mountains. It is a great little town in a beautiful setting with the mtns all around it...awesome views. The thing I want to do most is climb up somewhere--there´s got to be trails, but i didn´t bring the right shoes so that will have to wait til later.
I also went to the massive market where the bus station for Tepotzlan is. The place is so big you could really get lost in it. For sale there is everything from fruit and vegetables to clothes to kitchen utensils to dvds and cds. it is fascinating.
The girl I´m staying with is great...her name is Isadora and she runs the university art galleries. She is so helpful and generous and she lives really close to the center but in a gated place that once you get in her apt you can´t hardly hear anything of the city noise...just the kids at the school nearby in the morning. it is a great place.
she has a cat too...and its loco. truly. it makes me laugh all the time
today i´m going to walk uptown and see some different parts of the city and then have dinner with another friend. pretty relaxed, which is great!

Fresas

So they guy I'm staying with is apparently a 'fresa' as they say here in mexico--i guess the equivalent phrase is 'privileged' or just kind of one of those rich kids. but this is different than what we might think...
Cuernavaca is a great city, but highly confusing--it's in the mtns and so all the roads are like this labyrinth that never ends. i'll probably get lost many times during my stay here...which i find fun usually. i went to el centro yesterday and there were lots of people. i went into the palacio de cortes where there's a mural by diego rivera--it was pretty sweet. I also went into several markets and you know, they are the same here as pretty much everywhere else i've been--just selling different stuff. While I was walking around two separate groups of students (high school age) came up to me and interviewed me on camera--they were so cute because they had to speak in english (it was for a class) and they didn't want to make mistakes and such. It was fun, and it confirmed that no matter how hard i try, there's no use, everyone knows i'm american, or foreign at least =)
And this last event is just for Stephen and Smeal, if they read this....last night i played Guitar Hero! yes, you thought i would be deprived of it, nope. it was fun!
So, life here in Mexico right now is pretty lazy and laid back, which is a great thing in my opinion. we'll see how that changes when classes start. The campus is freakin far away and so i don't know how much time that will take out of the day....anyway, hope it's not as hot wherever you are as it is here =)

Viva Mexico!

Well, I have had an amazing time here already and it's only been 1 day! I almost missed my plane because Continental is silly but the nice guy at the ticket counter called general manager and got me on the plane. From then on, everything went really smoothly. I had an uneventful flight to Houston and then a great flight to Mexico City because I was sitting in between two really cool people. Sara is from Denver, a member of the church of Scientology and a really nice person. Ivar was on my right, from Veracruz, returning from Minneapolis where he was studying architecture. He and I talked a lot about Mexico and things I should do (mostly food I should eat!) He was wonderful company and very encouraging about my trip. I got off the plane and waited about an hour through passport check listening to these poor people talk about how horrible their vacation had started off because of storms and complaining that they weren't going to have as many days in Cabo or wherever they were going, poor guys ;) They I caught a bus to Cuernavaca and the first hour was major traffic--Mexico City is pretty much the biggest mish mash of people I have ever seen. There was also a football (soccer) game going on so that made for interesting scenery--the guys in the backs of trucks with their mexican masks and flags trailing from cars and cars with pretty much as many people in them as possible. Then we got out of there and went through the mountains south. It was really gorgeous and green. I got here and Alessandro picked me up. He is an real gentleman and has been a wonderful host. We went shopping because he wanted to cook for me and while we were driving I found out he is a software engineer and he won a contest for a software application for blackberry--obviously very intelligent. He made me something like quesadillas last night except with two tortillas, cheese and ham, then we spread fresh avocado on top and some chipotle chilis---oh man, you don't know how good that was! Then we went and played poker and blackjack with some friends of his til after 1 am cause it was so fun. His friend had this massive Weimeraner dog that was really beautiful but a bit excitable. Ok, I think that's all for now and don't expect future blogs to be so detailed but since he has a laptop and his own computer I have good access to the internet now, but maybe not in the future (he's leaving for New York in 3 days)
Hasta luego,