Too much to catch up on!

Hello Hello....

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I've been majorly slacking on the blog front...but let's see...my month home was busier than ever. Nevertheless, it was great see friends and family and I couldn't have asked for a better vacation before coming back to Mexico. I won't go into details about December since the focus of this blog is my time here, but I will say that Christmas and New Years was great as well as all the events/get togethers/visits that happened in between. Thanks to everyone who made it so much fun & sorry to those I didn't get to catch up with!

Well then...

I got back to Mexico January 10th, but to Tuxpan, Veracruz instead of Guanajuato. There I spent 2 great weeks with Miguel that probably couldn't have gotten any better. His family is so great and I really enjoyed spending time with them. The weather was really cold the first weekend I got there, and then unexpectedly it got hot and sunny everyday. If you can believe it, I wasn't too happy about this climate change considering that all my summer clothes were left in Guanajuato. The "coolest" shoes that I had with me were my Ugg moccasins with fur on the inside...ha. I ended up buying flip flops after pouring enough sweat into them.

One of the first nights we had our own Christmas where we gave each other our gifts and then watched a movie. Most mornings we spent walking around downtown or going to the gym until Miguel had to work at 3:00. One night we went to the movie theater, another we went to the new casino. We both got really sick after we (think) ate something that still remains unknown. It was only a 24 hour stomach sickness thing thankfully...he was sick on a Sunday and I was on the following Tuesday. That put a damper on things, but we were both fine by the following morning. Other than that, we made food together a lot, watched movies including Paranormal Activity which I did not enjoy, he had a soccer game one of the nights, and pretty much spent as much time together as possible. After spending everyday together it was weird to come back to Guanajuato and I miss him a lot now, but I'll be back to Tuxpan soon! :]

So I got back to Guanajuato a week and a half ago. Everything has been going pretty well...my family was really excited to see me, I'm once again enjoying eating almost everything, classes are classes, and the weather has had its ups and downs. My university classes started last week (Seminar on Literature and Mexican Contemporary History). Both seem fine but are going to have a pretty heavy reading load. My CIEE classes started this week (Literature & the Mexican Revolution and another Mexican History class). I'm going to be full of Lit and History by the time summer rolls around!

All the new kids seem pretty nice..everyone is from all over the U.S....Colorado, New York, California, Washington, Wisconsin, and I don't remember where else. I've mostly been hanging out with my new neighbor, Sara (not to be confused with Sarah from last semester haha). I'm definitely missing Jack and Sarah a lot though. It's weird when you're used to hanging out with someone everyday and then it just stops. We all have Skype though and are trying to set up a Skype date amongst our busy schedules.

Last weekend, my family, Sara, and I went to Michoacán for a couple days. The first day we were there, we went to this town, Tlalpujahua (don't ask me how to pronounce it), where we walked about 45 minutes through the woods to see the monarch butterflies that had arrived from Canada. Because it was cold, cloudy, and damp, all the butterflies were hanging from the trees in big bunches instead of flying around as if it were a nice day. It would've been better if the weather was, but it was still pretty cool seeing them and it was a nice walk through the forest. After getting out of the woods, we ate lunch and then headed back into town. The rest of the night we stayed in the hotel room and played dominos.

The next day wasn't as fun as I had hoped. We spent almost the whole day driving in the car trying to figure out where we were going to stop. After a few hours of doing this everyone finally decided to stop at Laguna Larga to swim in the pool. It was a little too cold for me so I stayed out of the water. After Anai, Sara, and Mickey swam, we had lunch and then left town and headed for Morelia, which was about a 2.5 hour drive. We arrived at night and walked around for a bit before having dinner. Morelia is a really beautiful city, but very dangerous. I was bummed to find that out since I was thinking to come back for a weekend since it is pretty close to Guanajuato. (Don't worry Mom, I probably won't go back)..

After having crepes for dinner, we headed back to Guanajuato and arrived around midnight. It was a really fun weekend, just more driving that I had initially thought.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well back home. I will now get back on the blogging front and write when anything fun is going on. Miss you all!

Here are the pictures from Michoacán :: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028890&id=1604040019&l=a0e83da64a

Day of the Dead & 21st Birthday!

Hola!

Last weekend was quite eventful to say the least. On Halloween, Jack & I went to a birthday party of his brother's girlfriend. I only had a few beers since I had to leave the next day at 7AM for Michoacán, but we still had a good time. Like always, we made a few new friends and heard plenty of Mexican jokes - some which were hard to understand because the translation wasn't exactly the same. Anyways, it was a good night - I left around 2AM and I guess Jack stayed until about 7AM....at that time I was already awake and showering haha.

Sunday was Dia de los Muertos (Day of the dead), so the family and I headed to a nearby state called Michoacán where the celebration of this day is pretty big deal. The city we went to is called Pátzcuaro, where we stayed on this island in the middle of this huge lake called Yunuén. Actually, this lake has five islands; the one we were one was an indigenous island and the cemetary we would later visit was called Janitzio, which is the largest of all them.

The car ride was about 3-4 hours, most of which I slept & when we arrived at the lake we took a boat ride over to the island. We stayed with the family of our neighbor in Guanajuato & everyone was very welcoming. After arriving we ate lunch which was incredible - I had fried fish and ate the whole thing. Of course it was accompanied by a Corona, which made it even better haha. We talked for a little while after lunch and then Anai and I went to take a nap since we had been partying the night before. Around 9 we woke up and were ready to start our night. I came downstairs to find the women wearing the traditional dresses of this area which were so beautiful, but I couldn't help to wonder how cold they would be when we went outside (yeah, it's starting to get cold here!)

Everyone got ready and then we left to go to Janitzio to see all the activities going on there. We had to take a boat ride there and although it was a little cold for me, I think everyone else was suffering pretty badly since the weather is now "very" cold for them. After arriving at the island, we walked around and found some indigenous dancing that we watched for a little while. It was pretty cool, but one of the dances I had seen before when I was on vacation in Ixtapa. Then, we headed our way up the island to where the cemetery was. There were people everywhere, which got really annoying at times because it was hard to move. Despite all the people, the cemetery was beautiful and put all the ones in the U.S. to shame. All the graves had candles all around them along with baskets of Pan de Muerto (bread), marigold petals all over the ground, candy skulls, and sometimes something that the deceased person really liked (there were a few graves with beer around them). It was definitely a very unique experience and different from anything I've seen at home.

After a few hours at Janitzio, we made our way back to Yunuén around 1AM. When we got back we had dinner and hot drinks to warm up. Everyone was pretty tired so we all went to sleep around 2:30-3AM. I woke up before Anai and Norma in the morning, so Miguel and I went for a walk around the island. It was a beautiful morning and I took a lot of nice pictures. We walked by a bunch of cabañas (cabins) and now the family is talking about renting one for a weekend with the whole family. Once everyone was awake, we had breakfast - I had fried fish again...it's was so delicious that I didn't even mind. After, we packed up all our stuff and headed back to the mainland.

We left the lake around noon and headed into downtown Pátzcuaro to do some shopping and walk around. Norma bought some curtains for the kitchen and then we headed back to the car. They wanted to go to this other town called Santa Ana de Cobre which is a town known for it's copper. When we got there, we walked around the plaza where copper stores were located all over the place, mostly right next to each other. We went to the copper museum for a little while where we saw some guys making pots and little things out of copper which was pretty cool. Definitely not the kind of profession I would want to go into - to make the stuff, all they do is pound it with different hammers to shape it in different ways.

After looking at all the copper, we had lunch which was good and then we headed back to Guanajuato. Of course, it's always nice coming back home.

Then, Tuesday was my 21st birthday! I had a great time and everyone here made it a very memorable day. I spent the day hanging out with Sarah & Jack and then around 9PM the festivities began. Some friends came over to my house for pizza and drinking games before we headed downtown. Jack, Sarah, & I introduced beer pong to all the Mexicans which was definitely a hit. We played for like 2-3 hours and it was great. Around midnight we headed down to the bars - most of which weren't open since Cervantino just ended so no one wanted to work. Anyway, we went to one of my favorite bars and stayed there until 2AM or something. Sarah bought me a party hat which I wore all night, and I think this helped me to get a lot of free drinks ... plus Sarah was telling everyone in the bar that it was my birthday. It was cool because I had 3 shots that night that were on fire - it was pretty cool haha. After the first bar, we went to a second one where we just hung out and drank some more. That bar closed so I went to a friend's house until a little after 6AM, then I went home and got back around 6:30AM. It was funny when I got home because Norma was up and getting ready for work and just laughed at me when I said goodnight haha. More events happened than what I want to write on this blog, but it was a great night and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Hope all is well with everyone at home! Gosh, I can't believe I'll be home in about a month! It will be great seeing all of you for sure! Here is the link for the Day of the Dead pictures::

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022220&id=1604040019&I=d138f0aa41

Cervantino is in the air!

So Cervantino started last week Wednesday and already there have been some great concerts that I've been to! Cervantino is an international festival here that lasts for 2 weeks and consists of a variety of concerts, art venues, dances, etc. Not only does it bring some great shows, but also a ton of people to the city (which I'm not looking forward to very much).

Sarah, Jack, & I went to see Willy Chirino on Saturday night and it was incredible. He is from Cuba and sings Salsa music. I now have a new love and appreciation for Cuban Salsa. The concert was great; after a while a bunch of people went down to dance in front of the stage as well as in the stands. The best part of the concert though was that it was free! Can't beat that....

I would definitely suggest checking out his music on iTunes....from what I've previewed it doesn't sound as good as seeing him live, but it will still get your body movin'.

Our new "cuban fever" carried on through Sunday so we went to see Paquito D'Rivera y la Zinco Big Band, who are also from Cuba. This was another good concert but a little bit more mellow than the night before because it was mostly jazz-y music. Of course we want to hit every free concert possible because there are some things you have to pay for, so it was definitely worth our time. Plus, because it was the first weekend of Cervantino, there wasn't so many people. I guess the majority of Mexico arrives next weekend and the last weekend....from the way everyone who lives here makes it sound, it seems that going out on the weekends is going to be a nightmare because there will be so many people.

Other than Cervantino arriving, everything else has been great. Sorry that I haven't updated in like a month, but classes have gotten a little busier, leaving less room for something exciting to happen on the weekends. Regardless, I still go out to the bars here with Sarah and Jack ... we usually meet up with our friends from here and stay out pretty late sometimes. Last week I had my first presentation for my literature class which is worth 50% of my grade. It was about Octavio Paz and I'm hoping the grade comes out to be a good one.

I'm also less than 2 months away from coming home! I'm sure everyone is really excited right?! haha...I'm pretty excited too, especially since it will be so close to Christmas. Although I have to say I'll be a little sad to say goodbye to Jack & Sarah since they're not coming back next semester. I can't believe how fast the semester has gone and that I'll already be halfway done with my time here...how sad!! Well, it's too early to be worrying about that...I'll be back again in January for second semester which I'm soo excited about! (Thanks mom & dad!)

Coming up in the next few weeks is Dia de los Muertos (kinda like halloween but not really), which I believe is on November 1st. Sounds like I'm going to Michoacan that day with the family to celebrate it. I guess Michoacan is THE place to be for Dia de los Muertos....so I'll probably have a new blog up after it. Also, my 21st birthday is on November 3rd which I'm really excited about. I suppose it won't be as awesome as it would be in the US because it's already legal for me to drink here and it's also on a Tuesday, but don't you worry, I'm going to celebrate regardless! Sounds like Norma wants to make me birthday dinner and said I can invite any friends that I want. After dinner we'll head downtown for a night of fun I suppose!

Also in the news: I lost my iPhone last Wednesday ... I say lost because I have no idea if I left it on a bench, if it fell out of my backpack, or if it was stolen. I was pretty upset about it when it happened, but there's nothing I can do now. Just wanted to let you guys know so you don't call/text it anymore because I obviously won't be answering. The only reluctant thing I can think of is that I put a password on it to unlock it to the home-screen, so at least if someone has it they can't really use it. So there's some advice for everyone: put a password on your iPhone/iPod Touch!

It's finally starting to get a little colder here which I am not enjoying! I still think it's warmer than it is at home, but I'm just not ready for the season to change from summer yet! I'll probably go through climate shock when I get home since it gets to be I think in the 30's - 40's here during the winter haha. Anyway, that's about all the new stuff that's been happening around here. Hope all is well with everyone and I suppose I'll be seeing you guys soon! Miss you all!

Jourie

P.S. Here is the link to my Cervantino album...keep checking back because I'll be updating the photos for the next couple weeks!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020947&id=1604040019&l=6e0df704ad

Viva la Revolución! Viva México!

Hola Todos!

The last couple days have been pretty exciting here because... (drumroll) ... it was Independence Day! (---> no it's not on cinco de mayo like everyone in the States thinks!!!!)

So on Tuesday the 15th, I headed to Dolores Hidalgo with my sister, Anai, and this group called AISEC (she works for them). In the group there was about 30 students, most from around Mexico, but also some Germans, Italians, Brazilians, Colombians, etc. Regardless, it was a good group to hang out with. This is the city where Miguel Hidalgo made the cry (el grito) for Independence from Spain, which then began the Mexican Revolution....so it was pretty amazing to be in the same place.

Here is Miguel Hidalgo's wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Hidalgo#Grito_de_Dolores

We left Guanajuato in the late morning and arrived to Dolores in the early afternoon (the drive was only about an hour). After dropping our stuff off at the house, we went downtown to the museum of Jose Alfredo Jimenez. He's a pretty famous singer here in Mexico and the museum was pretty cool. After that, we headed to lunch which was also really good. I had chorizo with tortillas, rice, and pasta. Then we went back to the house so everyone could shower and get ready before the grito, which was at 11PM.

Sometimes the weather here surprises me. It was absolutely beautiful weather all day on Tuesday, and then 6:30 came around and there was more or less, a hurricane outside. So we waited about 30-40 minutes for it to stop before we made our way downtown while walking through rivers and small ponds in the streets. We got to the church at about 7:30, which meant we would be waiting 3.5 hours in the rainy weather for the grito. During the wait, we went to get some pizza, sang songs, and played games. When more people started to show up around 9:30 or 10:00 everyone in the group decided to start the wave, and I swear it took like 20 times before everyone else started to catch on. I can't even tell you how entertaining this is after already waiting outside for two hours haha.

Finally 11:00 rolled around and the grito began. What happens is a government official of Guanajuato comes and takes the microphone and says something like: Viva Miguel Hidalgo! and everyone yells, VIVA! And he says Viva la Revolucion!, along with other things, and everyone again proceeds to yell, VIVA! The last thing he says is Viva Mexico! and everyone yells, VIVA! VIVA! ... it was incredible. After el grito, they had a fireworks show for a little while and after that we made our way back to the house for dinner and the after party, which lasted until like 6 or 7AM.

Independence Day here is definitely more patriotic than in the States. There is such a sense of unity and a love for one's country here that is unexplainable. It is just something that you have to experience. It's like everyone is so proud to be from this country that you can feel it around you, it is so infectious. I've never really felt a similar feeling during the 4th of July. The only way I can explain it is that the Mexicans keep in mind the history of their independence - what their people had to go through & how it happened, whereas Americans think about drinking and fireworks. I mean how terrible is it for me to say that I think I know more about the independence movement in Mexico than in the U.S? How well do you know the history of our independence?

The 16th is actually Independence Day, but the 15th is the day for partying. So I spent my day on Wednesday getting back from Dolores, taking a much needed shower, and then working on a presentation for my Spanish class about Amnesty International with Jack & Sarah. We decided we could probably be most productive at a cafe and because I was the last one to arrive downtown, I got stuck going to Starbuck's. I seriously hate Starbuck's, especially because every American in town goes there to use the internet. It drives me nuts. I don't even like Starbuck's in the U.S., but I dislike it even more here. It wasn't my decision either; I would've much rather gone to one of many other cafes in town that have real coffee and that aren't monopolies.

Other than Starbuck's it was a good couple of days & only showed me that I'm still really enjoying my time here. Below is the link for my album from Dolores Hidalgo.

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018804&id=1604040019&l=acde40c0bf

P.S. The title of the page has changed to a year in Mexico because I've decided to change my location for next semester from Chile to Mexico. No worries though, the URL is going to stay the same to avoid confusion, although in a way it still doesn't make sense haha.