Michocàn

Yesterday: met pete at mass, then walked out to a resturant and hung out there for a while. walked to the bus stop at night with a girl who goes to Olè too, Jess. She is super nice and here to teach at a school similar to the one i worked at. Had a bit of an adventure with the buses because they stop running at like 9.30 so i waited for a long time after she told me that they stopped at 10.00 and ended up taking a cab home.
Hola. Today we had no classes yet instead left early for Michucan. (sp). We first stopped in Morelia, the capital of the state of Michocan, visited the cathedral, a house with a bunch of murals, and the famous "candy market." i was not too adventurous with the candy. i settled on a coconut stick thing. it was okay. then we got on the bus and drove to Pas-qua. (sp) there we were told that we needed to come to the library, where we were given an assignment to do for out history class. are you kidding. ugh. we were all tierd from a long day of sightseeing and now we had to do a research assignment. boo. we then checked into our hotel, i am sharing a room with jamie. then we went to go eat. i got a hamburger.. ha. everyone else is eating as we speak... ha. i feel like a bit of a loner.. but i am not trying to be. i enjoyed my dinner with jamie. whatever.

A typical day.

Before I start my regular entry here are some questions i will address.
What time do you go to school what are the class titles, How much time is spent in each class? Do you have much free time? How long is the bus commute? Do you head home for comida every day? What time is comida and cena?

I get up each morning at 7:25 earlier if i need to shower, eat breakfast, generally consisting of apple juice, maybe eggs, yogurt or quesidillas. I catch the bus at around 8:00 and it drops me off infront of my school at aroung 8:25. My first class called language in context, which is a coversation class starts at 8:30-9:30. this is my favorite of all the classes, the teacher is upbeat and peppy and she prepares fun and interesting activities. I stay in the same room for composision at 9:45-10:45. this class is all about grammer.. and killer. we have 3 page papers due for the first couple weeks. After 10;45 i have a couple hour break which i usually spend on the computer writing emails and typing or researching. then off to history at 12:45-1:45. this class will be interesting in the future but now we are talking about mesoamerica stuff which i am not really into. i walk along way to the bus stop get on the bus and go home. Comida is served sometime after i get home, at like 3 maybe. I usually do some homework after that.. really you are supposed to take a nap, but no time for naps. and then at night i either stay there and continue the homework, or go out to coffee to walmart or to the centro. cena is served anytime between 8-sleep and i usually eat yogurt or cerel.

first test...

Hello.
Yesterday consisted of school, home for comida, (with a crazy crazy bus drive, we all almost flew down the isle... numerous times. i think he was having a bad day and taking pleasure in seeing all these american kids nervously laughing after slamming into eachother). then i did some homework and headed to the centro, where i took a nice long walk and once again tried to look for some watermelon something for my host moms birthday. no luck. Dr. Merrill told me where the semianarians were going to mass and i decieded to say hello. It was great to be back with the guys! I went to mass with them, and then went for drinks with everyone. after that peter and jess (a recent graduate of a catholic school in DC) and I headed to another church where we heard a kids choir from boston. they were really good! it was fun... came home by taxi, alone... which supposably you arnt supposed to do, so i just got really nervous but it was fine. i think people like to scare you. today was fine until i got my first test back... now it is not so fine. BLAH. bad bad grade. i finished writing my second composition, but now it makes me super nervous because i got such a bad grade on the test. off to history class.. which is not very enjoyable, then home for comida, to walmart to get my senora flowers, in place of the watermelon, homework, then back to centro for coffee with peter.
up early tomorrow to meet everyone to go to morelia.. and another place i cannot even begin to spell. i guess i will report on that excusion on monday.

oh a kid in my class got bit by a scorpin last night. it was in his bed. EWWW.

Yesterday after I wrote I went to my killer history class, where no one really can understand her... its actually a bit comical, you can look around the class and see blank stares, mouths open. ha. I then ventured to the centro to try and find a gift for my host mom. (the attempt failed, due to our sore feet and not really wanting to walk around to look for a watermelon something.) We walked all the way from our school to the centro, which is a pretty good walk. then we walked around trying to find a waffle resturant for comida. no luck. we settled on the italian cafe in plaza de perros. we let our sore feet take a rest then ventured to the bus stop. home i went then studied for an insaine amount of time for the test that i just finished taking. ugh. yucky. now i should be starting on a composition. no time for sitting around here. i am torn, the fun things here could be just as benifical to improving your language, but you are not getting graded on them. ugh. yesterday we got some really good churros and my stomach is rumbling for some more. tonight i think i will go and try to meet up with dr. merrill, peter, and yancy... i still cannot get over the fact that almost the whole crew is here from last year... minus jason, lee and ignacious. ha. hope all is well. off to start my composition.

Another day of classes. Tough... ha. but alas yesterday I finished my first composition, and went home for comida of chicken rice and potatoes. I did some homework, which I hardly made a dent in. everything in spanish takes so much more time than anything else. Then I took a break and met a couple friends on the corner to walk to the coffee shop (convieniently named the italian coffee company.) ps. dad-it has that coffee maker with the gold eagle on top. i went crazy. an oreo cappy frappee thingy and a peice of cheese cake with strawberries. i ate it fast too... wow. i havn´t eaten sweets in a while, and i had a bad stomach ache after... ha. we sat and chatted with our coffee and treats for over two hours. yum. then i came back and tried to do more homework, but ended up just writing in my journal and going to bed. today i am going to skip comida and venture to the centro to find comida, and ole and maybe some old friends. so odd. oh also i am on a mission to find something with a watermelon on it for my host mom´s birthday.

Update...

So a quick update from the couple of days that I have not had access to a computer. On friday, we went to copy a book for class and about an hour later, we came out. Definitly a mexican thing.
On Friday night we all met at gabis school for emilys birthday. we had cake and candy. then it started POURING. all 25 of us walked to the centro and everyone was wandering around looking for a bar, i suggested the one by the really good resturant...to get out of the rain... We all hung out there, then they ventured to a discotec, kaitlyn and and i went home. up early for a day at bernal. Bernal was beautiful. it is the third monolith in the world. i sat out over on this rock over bernal. wow... it was so pretty.
on sunday it was a low key day. i went to church with my family and then ate at home while they went to a birthday party for a church kid. I watched the soccer game and some spanish music videos while doing homework.
then it started raining super hard. and i had to walk to walmart to get something for my class. torillas and poztle.. it was an adventure.
then i came home and watched a movie with the family, and ate cena and did more homework and went to bed.
only to wake up to another week of brutal classes... ahhh..

Wal-Mart and McDonalds

I made it home on the bus, and got off where I was supposed to despite the vague directions in spanish. Yesterday me and a couple of friends went on an adventure to walmart. I wanted to see a movie, but that plan got squashed. We went to walmart and waited for jamie for a bit then walked over to mcdonalds and the girls i was with both ate. we walked back only to be greeted with an annocement looking for us. yikes. we got our stuff at walmart, and then headed out. Our group split up and jamie and I walked emily a bit of the way home then we went to an internet cafe for her to finish her work. It is right on the corner of my house but i still had to wait for her because she says she is not good with directions. I walked her home, then went back and worked on my essay for a while. wrote in the journal read a bit of blink and went to bed. oh yeah. i ate my reeses. last american candy for 5 more weeks...

día 4

I should be doing some homework now, but instead I am catching up on my emailing and other sorts of correspondence. Yesterday we took a tour of the centro but I was leading the pack. I also asked my resident director if I could get money and he was like... well I dont want you to get lost. ha. I had to remind him that I have been here more time then he has. I got my money and met back up with them. Everything here is an experience nueva. We (mi señora y hermano) went to blockbuster, and that was different. Andrés got a squeezy candy flavored which was called spider man. I tasted it and in good ol´ mexican style it tasted like, lemon or lime, and salt and chile. ew... not my idea of a tasty treat. He enjoyed it though. Tonight my friends and I are going to be venturing to walmart, and then hopefully to the centro to see a movie with the group, considering we make it there... ha. I lead some people back to the school we met at, and we made it although I second guessed myself. Off to finish some homework.

Today was the second day of classses. All is going well. Yesterday we all ate at a taco resturant and it was pretty good. I have been told I dont eat a lot like everytime we sit down. Andrés cooked me cena yesterday and asked if everyone in my family eats as little as i do. I replied, si. I took the bus with my señora this morning along with a bunch of other students. Tonight we have a group visit around the centro, but I need to buy some books so hopefully I will be able to slip away and get them. We also went to walmart yesterday which is in walking distance of my house. Wow. culture shock. Just go into the candy isle and you will see what I am talking about. Adios.

En Queretaro

I have arrived safely in Queretaro. All went as planned with the flights and such. We turned out to be the only UO people on the flight. We got through customs and immigration okay, despite the mishap of me saying that I know a little bit of spanish to the immigration officer, but then couldnt understand what he was saying. Oops. We all (or most of the students ended up getting on the same bus 8am to Queretaro) we all arrived in the station and got off. Then we stood in the station waiting for Pedro our resident director, because we all were nervous to call our familias. I ended up calling and she said she was leaving for church at 12. I tried to get in a group to share a cab, yet in reality we ended up with two cabs and three people. I volunteered to venture to my homestay alone. I tried to figure out where I was going, with little luck. But I was dropped off right infront of my house. I undid the locked gate and stepped into the patio. Diana is my señora. I caught them right before church. I decided to skip out on church because i was zonked. I unpacked in my new room, which is really the 14 year old boys room (complete with gun, dried snake spine i think, and other 14 year old boy prizes) I layed down to close my eyes and ended up taking a nap. For comida we had spegegtti and chicken with white sauce. It was fine but I wasnt that hungry. I gave them their gifts and they really liked all of them. A candle holder with beeswax candles, and an oregon rain drop and the favorite the pink martini cd. I sat down to read and a short while after the family jumped up because their crazy neighbor had fell. I read some more and then the next thing i knew i was woken up for our meeting at the school. We drove to the school and got our schedules and such. i turned down the chance to hang out with the extended family, because i didnt feel quite right, and was convinced i needed more sleep.
i feel like i am in a new city. i dont know the area i am in, and am a bit confused on where the tec. is in comparision to where i was last year. still just confused on all of it. I have a class at 8:30, one at 9:45 and one at 12:45 so I will have a bit of time to correspond unless my homework load is horrible. Hope all is well.

And the adventure begins...

Hello All,
I am headed off to the airport and figured I'd write my first offical entry. I feel like I have overpacked, and I probably have. I will hopefully unload some stuff there, like the gifts for my family. After much debate, we settled on getting them an Oregon raindrop, A pink Martini CD, Beeswax candles, and a "american museum" candle holder. I also got the kids (14 and 17) some candy, that is if I don't eat it on the ride there. I have also been trying to plan out my telephone conversation to the family when I get to the Queretaro bus station. Zoe helped me out with figuring out how to say "This is" "Esta es." Best case senario I can understand what they say back.

In the words of some song I cannot remember right now: Here I go again on my own...