Suzanne in Mexico

Last Night

2008-07-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Time has gone so fast. I can't believe this is our last night in Mexico. To thank our family for all the did for us the past three weeks, Nicole and I took them out to dinner at a nice restaurant. It was pretty fancy! There were peacocks roaming around (one peacock actually came up and ate off of our table!) The food was excellent. Our host mom works so hard so often that I really liked seeing how much she enjoyed the time to relax.

After dinner we went back to Los Arcos for one last night of dos por uno and salsa dancing. It was a great evening but more rain and wind made it a little cooler than it usually is. The wind was strong enough for a while that the people on the end of the table had to use umbrellas to stay dry even though we were under the covered patio!

More Rain!

2008-07-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning the first thing I noticed as I was getting out of bed was that the floor was surprisingly wet! The more I explored out room, the more wet I found out things were! There was a pretty big storm last night and since the water had no where else to go it came into our room. My backpack was on the floor so my dictionary and verb books are pretty wet! Also, the picture I bought of Don Quixote got a little damp. Our host mom worked very hard to help the situation and brought up plenty of towels to absorb the water.

Farewell Fiesta

2008-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Since tomorrow will be our last day of school, most of us went to another school sponsored party this afternoon. This one was much like the one during our first week. Great food, free refills on your drinks, dancing and mariachi music. This one, however, was cut a little short do to rain! We all had to run for cover when it started but I was impressed to see that the mariachi band kept on playing despite the downpour!

Las Estacas

2008-07-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

We left class a little early today to go to a natural spring water park called Las Estacas. The park is actually where some of the old Tarzan movies were filmed and is a ton of fun! We could swing off of vines and jump off platforms into freezing cold water! It was great. We also rented masks and could see all sorts of cool fish.

Salsa Dancing

2008-07-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast time is going!! We only have a few days left here. The stress of being immersed in Spanish all day was getting to a friend today so we decided to go out for a fun evening. We went back to the restaurant that offers dos por uno but this time decided to partake in some of the salsa dancing. I don't think my salsa classes have helped my dancing ability too much but it still makes for a fun evening!

Mountain Climbing

2008-07-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day for an adventure. A friend suggested we go to Tepoztlan (a town near Cuernavaca) to climb up to a pyramid. From how he described it I thought it would be somewhat easy.... I was way wrong!! We hiked straight up the side of a mountain! It was very rock and narrow for most of the way. I felt a little like an ant working on an ant hill. There were long lines of people going both up and down the mountain. But the climb was worth it as we had a beautiful view from the top! While on the top we also saw a very strange animal that I had never encountered before! After the climb down we stopped for some food and drinks.

Mexico City Again

2008-07-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

We went back to Mexico City today. When we got there we went to a fun open market and walked around for a while. After that we went to a muesuem with a lot of work by Diego Rivera. It was a beautiful muesuen with lots of fun art. In the afternoon we went on a boat ride down a canal. It was somewhat crowded on the canal but also fun!

2 weeks down!

2008-07-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

I cant beleive we are already done with our second week of class!! Time has gone so fast!! After class today we walked back down to El Centro for some shopping and hanging out. We have found a resturant that offers dos por uno (two for one) and also has live salsa music and dancing. It is a pretty fun place! The only draw back is children selling various trinkets actually come INTO the resturant while you are eating!! But overall it makes for a fun evening.

Lucha Libro

2008-07-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

Tonights new adventure was going to see a Mexican wrestling match. We stuffed five people in a cab and headed to the fights! It was pretty cool I have to say!! There was alot of coregraphed pushing, pulling hitting and more!! I am not sure I would go again but it was somehting I am glad to have experienced at least once in life!

Xochicalco

2008-07-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

I went with a group of people from school to tour Xochicalco this afternoon. This is a fascinating sight of Mayan ruins. I was so impressed with the technology, and intelligence that went into this ancient civilization. There were cool etchings in the side of temples that depicted the history of the culture. We also got to visit an ancient observatory where the sun coming in looked like moving water. It was all pretty interesting.

Rain and Computer Problems

2008-07-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day meeting with the teachers from Mexico. We again had fun talking and then a large group of us went out for dinner. Dinner was wonderful but near the end of the meal a HUGE rain storm started. All the lights in the restaurant went out for a bit. Then we had to catch a cab in the rain. We were soaking wet so were happy to pay 40 pesos for the cab ride - even if it was a little expensive.
The down part of my day however was discovering that my computer is not working. Right now I am able to use friends computers at school and several people have ideas about what might work to fix it. All I get is a blank white screen when I turn it on. If any Mac users out there have any ideas let me know!!

Teotihuacán

2008-07-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

Today a group of us went to Teotihuacán, which is just outside of Mexico City to see some pyramids. It was really neat. We had to wait in line for a while before climbing but when we got to the top it was well worth it. The climb took about 20 min. It was straight up a bunch of really small stairs!! The view from the top was incredible! As an added bonus, the bus that took us to Mexico City stopped at a fun little restaurant for lunch. After lunch they showed us how they can harvest tequila, water, and paper from a cactus plant.

Taxco

2008-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today a group of us adventured up to Taxco. It is a beautiful town about an hour and half from Cuernavaca. The area is known for silver mining so there are a lot of fun shops that sell beautiful jewelry. The town is set on the edge of a mountain so it is amazing to visit. We ate lunch on a balcony perched on top of a five story restaurant/hotel. Lunch, the drive, and the shopping all combined to make a great day!

Tequila con limon

2008-07-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today was the end of our first school week. I feel that I have learned a lot and have had a great time. To celebrate the end of our first week my grammar class went to el centro for ice cream. I am happy to report that tequila con limon is an excellent flavor!!
After school I took a salsa dancing class. While it was very entertaining, I am not sure I am coordinated enough to ever be too successful at it! After class, several other friends and I went out for dinner, and then met up with some other friends.
We have had a 3rd roommate staying with us all week but today was Becca's last day in Cuernavaca. Nicole and I will miss the assistance she could offer with her Spanish abilities!

Fiesta!

2008-07-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a fiesta hosted by the school. It was very Mexican with pinatas, mariachi bands and margaritas. Our host family helped provide the food so they were all at the party with us. There was wonderful food and lots of dancing.
After the party we went back to our intercambio to meet with the Mexican teachers again. We talked to several different teachers and ended up going out for tacos afterwards with a few of them. The tacos were delicious!

Rained Out

2008-07-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Another fun day! The weather has been rainy here since we arrived. From what I hear, this is very unusual. We were supposed to go on an excursion today to a park of natural springs (Las Estecas) but opted not to go because it was too rainy. Hopefully the school will offer the trip again while we are here and we can go on a sunny day. Since we didn't do that we had comidia at home with our family which was of course delicious.
After lunch, Nicole and Becca (another student from New York who is also staying with our host family) and I walked to a local store. We stacked up on snacks to take with us to school as well as yogurt. The yogurt is supposed to help ward off the e-coli in the water - we don't drink the tap water but I figured a few extra precautions couldn't hurt. After we got back, we talked with Lara and her husband for a while and played with Carlito. Then we headed up to our room to work on homework.

Taxis again!!

2008-07-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Class went well again today. I added a picture of some of the people in my morning class. In conversation class we talked for a while about the school system in Mexico which I found very interesting. In Grammar class, we played a lot of Bingo so we could learn new verbs.

After school today Nicole and I braved the taxi system again to find the Central Offices for the Cuernavaca schools. We met all the other OPS teachers there, along with about 10 teachers from Mexico. It was fun to talk in depth with a local teacher about the school system here.

Classes Begin!

2008-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

We started class today. Things went pretty well. There are 5 other people in my class. Nicole, and Katie (who are also teachers in OPS), Jorge and Diana (a married couple from Texas), and Rhonda (from Canada). It is a fun bunch of people!! We have grammar class for 3 hours in the morning, then conversation class in the afternoon for 3 more hours.

Comidia (the main meal of the day served around 3:00) today was a bit of a learning experience for me. We sat down to a lovely meal of rice with vegetables, a hard boiled egg and fresh tortillas. I ate to my hearts content and found I was pleasantly full. Then... out came the second course! I tried to stuff a giant piece of chicken and a good helping of zucchini into my already full belly! I was not entirely successful. Tomorrow I will be expecting a second course and thus will pace myself better!!

This evening we went for a walking tour around el centro de Cuernavaca. It was fun but all in Spanish so I had some trouble understanding. It was neat to see some of the sights in the city though. We hung around an open air market for a while, then joined some other OPS teachers for snacks at a restaurant.

Welcome to Mexico

2008-07-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

We had a long day of travel... 2 planes, a bus and finally a taxi. We were thrown right into immersion when we had to take a taxi to our house - since neither my roommate nor I speak too much Spanish it was a little scary! We arrived at our house safely though and met our family. They are wonderful! Esther and Romillio (our parents) are in their 60s. Their grown daughter, Lara, is living with them for the summer with her 4 year old son Carlito. Esther makes wonderful food and I was happy to find out that we can understand each other when we talk!! Below are some pictures of our room and the view we have from our room.

After dinner we went to the school and took a placement test. Now I know exactly how it feels to be a newcomer and know that you don't know the answers to most of the test (2 out of 3 pages in my case!) But despite my performance, I did make it into class "102" which is a step up from "101"!