Fun in the sun
Last weekend my friends and I made a somewhat last minute decision to go to Puerta Vallerta, one the more popular beaches in Mexico on the west coast. It was awesome in every single way, even the 9 hour bus ride there and the 11 hour ride back weren’t that bad. We left Friday at 2 in the morning so I was thankful for my Dad’s/ the Meeker “sleeping genes” because I was able to get a half-decent sleep unlike some people on the bus. When we got to Puerta Vallerta it was about 11am and started seeing the coast of sandy beaches with the mountains in the background everyone started to wake up pretty quickly. We finally got the hotel after stopping in one the nicer malls I have been in for lunch. The place we were staying was callled “Embarquadores Pacifico” and for the nice we payed which included food, drinks, rooming and transportation we did very well. There were a number of pools with built-in bars and one with a volley-ball net which we enjoyed thoroughly. The hotel also had a beach location on the waterfront with another couple of pools, a volley-ball net with a sandy but somewhat rocky court and it had a decent beach. When we got there our rooms weren’t ready so we put on our bathers and went to the beach until the sun went down. I was really excited to swim in the ocean becuase I had only ever been in the Atlantic. My first experience in the Pacific was wonderfully warm!
When we weren’t at the beach or in the pool we were napping, eating or suntanning essentially. I shared a room with my friend Lisa and it was huge with two king beds, a full kitchen and a balcony that overlooked the whole hotel… rough life right? During the evenings we enjoyed free beverages until it was time to explore the local entertainment on the strip Malecon. When we first got there I was somewhat overwhelmed by all of the people (lots of tourists), music and flashing lights. We ended up going to a club called Glam that was pretty cool and the second night we went to another place that was really similar. Both nights we stayed up really late and by the end of the weekend I was pretty wiped but very satisfied and significantly tanner 😀
On another note this week I’ve been pretty busy with homework from my online class but slowly and surely I’m chipping away at it. Today however I made time to go and check out the rugby team here and I am so glad that I did. It was a perfect day for rugby with the sun shining and strong breeze. There was me and one other girl there and probably about 25 guys. I was kind of nervous at first but they were all really nice and I held my own really well on the field during our 3.5 hour long practice. It turns out that I can actually play with them in games when visiting teams come to play. This weekend the Guadalajara Rhinos are coming to play but my friends are leaving for Belize on Friday after the Day of the Flowers which is one of big events here in Gto. I gotta get my work all taken care of though before I start getting exciting for the break.
Camping+ Puerta Vallerta
To say the least things have been really busy the past 2 weeks. School work has picked up again just in time for Semana Santa (our 2 week spring break) which is luckily starting next Friday. My friends and I are going to go to Belize. The plan is to bus it down there which should be interesting but I think based on this weekend where we were on the bus for roughly 10 hours, we will be able to make it. We were going to bugger off early on the Wednesday but I think we may change our plans so that we will be in Guanajuato for the Festival of the Flowers which is one the unmissable events here. We will just have to visit the places we were going to stop in on the way down when we come back. We have a long break so there will be time 🙂
My friends and I finally got in some travelling the past two weekends which were both really awesome! The weekend before this one my friends and I packed up to go camping for my friend Aly’s 21st as a kind of last minute thing. Having heard about the plans as I was coming back from a hike I was thankful that I had the extensive camping experience so that I could rapid fire things into my backpack. When I finally got to our meeting place most people had gone ahead to set up the campsite but there were still a few waiting for me. Finally we were all ready and piled into the car to be on our merry way… when we met up with the rest of the people in Leon (which is a city nearby) I was quite surprised to see how many people and stuff there was. Clearly this was not going to be the outdoorsy experience that I had anticipated. We had one truck solely for the food and alcohol and shortly afterwards I was told that we were going to the car rally that was happening in the hills of Leon. All in all I was a bit surprised but really excited as well. After all the provisions were packed up we continued along our way up a long, windy and dusty road into the countryside of Mexico. When we finally pulled over I was a bit taken aback with our choice of camping location. essentially it was a little ways off the road on a relatively small cement patch in front of a garage that was clearly under construction. So it wasn’t my first choice but once we got all the tents up and the food unloaded it wasn’t half bad. Also it turned out that the guys who had organized the trip were really well prepared with tons of blankets and water for everyone. We got a fire going and we did our best to come up with songs that could be shared between the english and spanish speaking groups… not an easy task but it was definitely a learning experience. At midnight we busted out a twinkie with a candle for Aly and we sang Happy birthday in spanish for her. Many drinks and songs later we crawled into our tents for the night for a surprisingly comfortable sleep. In the morning we woke up to the sound of cars ripping down the dirt road that we were camping beside. It turned out that we were actually going to get to see all of the cars race right by us. The first car to come ripping by and every single one after that did not take their time on the dusty, gravely somewhat precarious turny roads. They put it in gear and drifted around the corners no sweat and away they went in an impressive cloud of dust that covered everything. The majority of Saturday was spent drinking beers, tanning on the roof of the unfinished garage, eating authentic mexican carne asada with some deadly guacamole and watching the cars zoom by well into the afternoon. The race didn’t die down until around 5 o’clock at which we started to tear down camp. I felt a certain sense of pride with how helpful I was able to be with the tents. Finally it was time to go. Me and my friends all left significantly tanner and in the case of my good friend Lisa she resembled very closely to a tomato.
Everyone was pretty wiped when we got back but being the party animals that we are we decided to celebrate Aly’s birthday again that night until 5 in the morning. Let’s just say that Sunday was pretty rough after hitting up all 4 of our favourite bars in one night.
More to come soon about the beach…………… :D:D:D
Las Mariposas Monarcas
I am not sure why my other post didn’t get posted but that was supposed to be last week’s update, oops.
This week had beautiful weather the whole way through. The nights are still fairly cold but during the days the sun was out and shining with blue skies. School was a bit busier than usual this week with presentations, exams and assignments in almost all of my classes. Other than that I attended a couple of dance classes and have started running every other day which has been great in this weather. My group of friends and I were all holding onto the idea of the weekend after all of our work was done. My friend Kelsey who has been here since last July set up a group “excursion” with a tour guide to go to the state of Michoacan which was about a 5 hour drive away from Gto. We were going to see the Monarch butterfly migration. Having raised monarchs at my cottage during the summers with my siblings and cousins at my cottage I was really excited. They breed in the States and Canada and then migrate down to mexico to avoid the winter and they’ll be heading back North in a couple of weeks so I’m really happy we got a chance to see them. One of my friends told me it takes roughly six generation of them to make it Mexico. We left really early Saturday morning so we got there mid-day. As we got closer to the sanctuary, winding up a seriously windy road, we started to see monarchs just fluttering around. But nothing could have prepared us for when we got to the top of the mountain. There were literally millions of them everywhere you looked. The trees were covered in them and they looked orange because all of the butterflies. it reminded me of fall because they were all over the ground as well and when you looked up it looked like there were thousands of leaves falling from the sky but they would just flit by you. Also if you stood still enough in the sun they would just land on you or they would crawl on your fingers and you could put them on you. I thought that we would have had to hike a little more to get to them but since it was such a beautiful day they that they were much further down the mountain. After about 2 hours there taking it all in we piled back into our little van and headed back to Gto. Everyone was pretty tired but somehow me and my friend Lisa found the energy to go out dancing until 6:30 in the morning with our friends at our salsa bar.
Sunday was a recovery day with a little bit of homework on the side and that night went out to the movies. We weren’t sure what to see so I suggested Zombieland. I probably should have warned my girlfriends about the gore beforehand but my guy friends really enjoyed it lol. Yesterday a bunch of us exchange students went to another university not too far in Dolores de Hidalgo where we had an intercultural exchange with the students there. It was pretty fun for the first little bit and we got to make some acquaintances since we didn’t have much time with each group. However it was another beautiful day and we got to miss classes so it wasn’t the end of the world by any means. After we were all done there before heading back the bus driver stopped in the centre of the city where we got off for a bit to look around and to try their famous ice creams. They had so many different types like: cheese, tequila, guava, pistachio, mole and chili powder, avocado…. all the ones I tried were delicious!
Goal for the week is to plan our trip down to Belize with the girls 🙂
Work Term
Here we are at the beginning/ almost middle of another week here in the Republic of Mexico. The amount of work I is starting to pile up with my five courses plus the one that I am taking online back at X and finally last week I was able to sort out the work term I am going to be doing down here. The bonus is that the hours I compile doing the project here count towards my “internship” that I need to do as a thrid year aquatic resources student. As of right now I am going to a nearby city every Thursday and Tuesday with my friend Olivea who is from UNBC and is also in the NAMP program to where our professor’s office is. unfortunately this will put a dent in my social time/ whatever time I have to do actual homework but I really am interested in the topic that I will be studying. I am looking into the types of programs in place here in Mexico for the children and youth surrounding the topic of water conservation and education. Maybe if my spanish is good enough by the end of this I’ll be able to go into the schools here and talk with the kids myself. This past Friday when I went to Silao to check things out for the first time I met with the President of one of the cities here and we discussed specific problems concerning his territory and it was really interesting. One of the things he said is that the culture here still doesn’t have the appropriate respect for water and that a way of fixing it would be to make sure everyone was paying for it. One of the problems here is that roughly 20,000 people have disconnected their meters so they are getting it for free. When I get back to Canada it would be great to do a comparative study on the east coast if possible. This seems like a great opportunity to mix my two passions for educating/ working with children and my concern for the environment.
And of course how can we forget that this weekend was valentine’s day. I would have imagined that it would be a depressing event since I am so far away from all those that I love so much but it turned out to be a really fun night. I had a nice, long sleepin and after me and my friends headed to a friend’s house for a party with lots of delicious food and some of the boys from the bar. Afterwards my group of five friends and I got all dressed up and hit the town for dinner reservations. It was lots of fun! This thursday is also going to be a bit of a special occasion. I suppose one could call it a Welcome back party since I haven’t been able to drink for the past 10 days (in Mexico that is a lot bc all the time is party time) because of my antibiotics. But it’s not just for me but my friends have been doing it too to support me, they are the best! So we will see how it all goes, I’m sure it will be an interesting weekend!
Must get back to actual schoolwork now :S
xo
Being sick in Mexico.
I for one was hoping with all of my might to avoid getting ill while being in Mexico. To be honest I thought it would be a unpleasent experience to say the least and it wasn’t that bad. Last Wednesday I came down with a cold after we had had four days here of straight cold and rain. I think it must have had something to do with the wet sneakers I wore around the whole time and that the temperature dropped to near frosty on a couple of occasions. Normally I wouldn’t complain about this because I am certain it’s still significantly warmer than home, but there is no internal heating in the houses here so it gets chilly. I was able to recover really quickly partly because the weather changed for the better but mostly because of the care and kindness I received from my house family. They have been so wonderful to me were always asking how I was doing or if they could get me anything. I feel really lucky to have them. I feel especially lucky after they helped me get through the second sickness I was hit with right after my cold. I will spare you the details but let’s just say that I was spending a lot of time in the bathroom. My house Mom Sol was particularly wonderful, making sure I was getting enough fluids, taking my meds, eating the right stuff etc. Monday morning Sol and her husband Fito got up early to take me to the hospital after a rough night. I was so out of it there was no chance I could have gotten to the right hospital and my meds without their help. The doctor mentioned something about an abdominal infection and complimented me on my spanish which was a bright spot in my day. Both Fito and Sol kindly took time out of their busy work day for me to make sure I was feeling better. Now that I am feeling much better there are no words to describe how thankful I was for all of their help. I can’t drink for 8 more days because of one of the meds I am on but I look at it as a blessing in disguise because my body definitely needed a rest!
This afternoon (since I am done all of my classes early) I am going to go for a hike nearby with friends, hopefully the sun stays out!
Whoa, Mexico sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
The first week of classes has already come and gone and we’re already into February, goodness sake time flies when you’re having fun. I officially have class every morning at 7am and I have done this for some reason by choice, why I have decided to put myself through this has currently escaped me. I will keep you posted on how I fair. So far the only class that I can tell is going to be a challenge is Grammar because we are given so much work every day. Although it seems rather tedious I know it will force me to improve my spanish which is always a good thing. I have also started my online correspondance course with St. FX which is going to prove to be time demanding and in addition I am going to have to start my research project. Lots to do, lots to do. One good thing though is that I am officially in the country as a student and will not be deported anytime soon to the best of my knowledge. The whole ordeal was really complicated so it feels really great to have it done with, however I still need to become officially registered with the university, so we will see how that goes.
This past week my great group of friends and I didn’t go out as much since we had early classes but this weekend was a long weekend so we made up for it lol. On Friday I wasn’t planning on going out but of course I got roped into it by the girls. We started out at Barfly which is more reggae and relaxed atmosphere and then headed to a new bar I hadn’t been to before called “Why Not?” where we were offered free shots. While my friends did another shot on fire I watched a full grown bulldog sitting on a man’s lap drink a beer from a cup at the bar :O I was so fixated on the dog I didn’t even realize I missed the shot until later on in the night. From Why Not we headed to “El Bar” which is more of a salsa club where people go to do actual dances like salsa merengue and cumbia. My friend knows the guy who owns the bar and the guys that are there to teach during the day are a riot. I got a couple of pointers from some of them but I am going to go tonight for some actual lessons in salsa so we’ll see how that goes.
On Sunday we were invited over to the guys’ house from the bar for a bbq. Of course this was the day it rained for the first time in 10 days. However the guys were able to work around it by bringing the bbq inside for a while, however we soon had to change plans becuase of the smoke filling the entire house. Thus all the happenings were moved up to the roof with the lightning and thunder and rain. In the end though the food was really great and it was fun to hang out with them outside of the Bar. From the bbq me and 4 friends headed back to Casey’s for a sleepover where we planned to watch Crash and snuggle. In the morning we made crepes with nutella, bananas, strawberries, kiwis and cinnamon and Coleman made omlettes that had avacodo, peppers, bacon, cheese, tomatoes and safron. Needless to say we were eating for like 2 hours straight and it was so incredibly worth it. I didn’t feel so bad about it all becuase I have been able to run pretty consistently here without much difficulty.
Other than homework there is not too much on the agenda for the week but my friends and I are thinking about going to Leon for the weekend to check things out.
Keep you posted!
xo
Guacamole everywhere…
The past weekend and couple of days have flown by. I think the sunshine may the catalyst that is making time go so quickly here, it makes all the days blend into one beautiful, sunny mixture. Saturday morning was the last event planned for the exchange students for the month. We had a very early meet time to climb a local natural rock formation called “La Bufa” which means the clown in english. I think comes from the probiscous looking nose-like formation. It was another gorgeous day to spend with friends. Overall it took roughly 2 hours to climb La Bufa because of the rough and steep terrain but once we got to the top the view was unbelievable and you could see all of Guanajuato and Leon in the distance. We had a nice long break and a group photo at the top to commemorate the adventure. The return to the bottom was almost harder than the ascent because the unstable ground plus gravity made it a slow process. I would love to do it again soon but maybe go further.
After a lengthy nap Saturday afternoon one of my good friends was having a goodbye party for one of her roommates. It started out as a smaller event with a few of us for a potluck and it grew into a much bigger event. I brought a cake (which I did not make lol) and there was a delicious spread of food of all varieties: fruit platter with homemade chocolate sauce (p.s. the fruit is so much better here), the best mac and cheese ever, tacitos, sweet breads, alcohol of every variety, traditional Mexican dishes and more! I definitely ate too much. So much so that I was feeling slightly less than sexy when we went out to the bars afterward with a food baby. The only comfort for me was that I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling that way lol. However I did leave the bar one cellphone short, but I will take it since my wallet and camera were left untouched.
Today was the first day of classes and I am very pleased to report that my worries of not understanding a thing were quite unreasonable and I am actually really looking forward to them. Hopefully there won’t be too much homework but I think that it a false hope. All of my classes are have about 12 people or less and the profs prefer that you call them by their first names which I like a lot. I do not, however, appreciate my 7am classes that occur three times a week where I leave the house by myself and it is still pitch black outside. It makes it very difficult to get up! Well tomorrow I’ll be back at and hopefully things will go just as well!
Nos vemos!!
xoxoxo
Life in Mexico
As the days have gone by and I have become more accustomed to the city and its ways. From what I can tell and as many people have told me it is very much a student city, full with color and entertainment at every corner and on every street (which is saying something trust me because there are LOTS of streets and alleys to get lost in here.) Because Guanajuato is a university town there is a strong nightlife scene. Not only are there bars and clubs but there are live bands (mariachi) that gather in the main garden near Teatro Juarez and people selling food and flowers. It was especially busy last night in the Jardin because Thursday is the big day for going out in Gto because lots of students go home on Friday to see their families that live in other cities. Also it is hard not to notice how open people are (mostly the younger folk) about their feelings for each other. People don’t think twice about having a smooch in the middle of the street or the top of the stairs. I admit it would be difficult not to be romantic in a city as beautiful as this one!
Last night me and a couple of girls went out with friends and roommates to the Barfly. It was packed and after trying “crazy donkeys” (a typical mexican beverage) we went back to the Grill to get out dance on. To make a long story short the 3 of us girls (Casey, Lisa and me) didn’t get back to our houses until 6:30 in the morning. This fact was especially important since we had to get up for a 9:30 appointment which was essentially only 2 hours later :S Somehow we all made it through the day and were able to top things off quite nicely with a sun soaking session on Casey’s roof. It was absolutely heavenly without a cloud in the sky, tortillas and guac and cervezas all around.
Viva Mexico!
Los Estudiantes de Intercambio
In the past couple of days I have had the pleasure of meeting many exchange students just like me from a large number of countries. The majority of them are from the United States (mostly West Virginia and Oregon) and others are from countries like Argentina, Columbia, Japan, Czech Republic etc. There is only one other Canadian here from B.C. to back me up and some of the Americans are having a good time trying to make me say “about” and “out”. All in good fun lol.
The first day was almost like going to University for the first time with everyone looking to make friends. Obviously I was drawn to the english speakers but I have gotten to know a couple of the national exchange students from Mexico pretty well too. Day 2 was a very long day spent inside in a very chilly auditorium on a stunning day, however I suppose some of the material was helpful like what to do in case of emergency. After being held without a food break for much too long and with more questions than answers we, the students were finally set free. First stop was a food stop, so I took a group of friends to the bar that my papa di casa owns and we had some delicious food and my first mexican cerveza! A little later we hit the streets of Guanajuato as a mass of foreign students for a night of dancing and drinking. Because Guanajuato is a student oriented town there are many places to chose from and we happened to end up at el Bar de Guanajuato (where ladies got free drinks until 1am). Let’s just say that I am liking this city very much lol. All in all it was a great night, this morning however was not as wonderful, especially when the majority of us had to take a spanish placement exam at 9am. It is hard to complain though when one is finally able to comfortably sport sandals and shorts lol.
We have no planned sessions or activities for tomorrow but alas I must get up early again to figure out which classes I will be taking where. I swear I will never complain about registering for classes at X ever again because Gto. takes the cake! However I do plan to reward myself when it’s all done with by sun tanning on my friends roof for an extended period of time. I’ll be thinking of my friends and family in Canada 😉
Buenas noche!
Just a couple days in Mexico…
It is kind of amazing how much a couple days can hold.
Yesterday, when I woke up there was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining finally! Sol and I walked into town so that I could get a better idea of how to get places by foot. I got a glimpse of my school and it looks beautiful, tomorrow I start the orientation week for international students. It will be nice to chat with some people in english for a bit lol. After walking around the city a little bit more we went to see the Museum Mummies in another part of the city. It was quite interesting and I saw the smallest mummy in the world. Afterwards I accompanied Sol to one of her cousin’s houses (she has many many cousins) for a birthday celebration. It started off with just a couple of family members sitting around the table for dinner and then more and more arrived and it was a real fiesta I guess you could say. There were aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, grandmothers and grand-daughters, second-cousins with lots of dancing. It was all very merry and I was really happy to be a part of it.
Today was another nice day but not as warm. Sol and i went out on another adventure in the early afternoon. First we visited some of her friends who were from puerto rico and are building a house here. It’s not finished yet but it was beautiful and they were very interesting. A little while later we continued into the city again to check out the Pipila statue that overlooks the city.On our way into the city we came across a parade. There were multiple batallions of drummers and a group of girls dressed in beautiful white dresses on their way to their first communion. For some reason I found it really moving. Lovely, lovely, lovely. I remembered my camera this time so I took a couple pictures while i was up there. Well I look forward to the next couple days again! I miss you all! P.s. I gave my family a bottle of good maple syrup and they seemed very pleased!
Ciao!
Alex M.'s Mexico Blog 
