Our American Day

PS: Tuesday was the most American day ever. Let me explain. First off, it was raining, storming, and icky all day: not Mexico-like at all. We are all confused and disappointed by the weather. Classes were fun and interesting as usual, but for once we did not have any homework!! After school we were lost . . . no homework to do . . . and no want to do anything outside because the weather was so bad!

So, I came home and slept for a few hours. When I woke up I ate some food, and what a shock I have no idea what I ate lol, and then went over to Lee Anne’s house. Mckenna met up with us, and when Lee went out with another friend, Mckenna and I went to the mall. The main mall here is very small, but very modern and expensive. Aka—American. There is a Starbucks, Lacoste, Zara, Athlete’s Foot, Sears, Steven Madden, the list goes on. Walking into it is like walking into any mall in the states, just everything is in Spanish.

Mckenna and I walked around for a bit like teenagers who think they are cool do after school in the states. Yeah…we felt really cool. For some reason no one was doing anything that night, everyone was just chilling at their homes. At 9 the mall closed, so we headed to what we knew would be open: Walmart. Awful right? Ah I know, but I really needed some loofas. So we hung out there for a bit and then figured out we were hungry.

To McDonald’s it was! Fries and a soft serve cone hit the spot. I seriously never do so many typical American things in California or Oregon. I never go to fast food, and Walmart in the US is bad enough, I cannot even imagine it in Mexico. Oh globalization.

Life is Good

Adjustment to living in Mexico has been reached.

I actually adjusted relatively soon after getting here, as I really enjoy the Mexican lifestyle. I wish I could be posting more, but my internet access is pretty darn limited. And since I have not been writing about things since the beginning, I feel like it might be confusing now. Luckily I have been able to connect to someone else's wireless at nighttime from my house, but it is a very bad connection, cuts me off a lot, makes fb chat difficult and slow, and likes to not save/post my posts (hm like right now!), or allow me to comment or update statuses.

I have only been here 13 days, and it some ways it feels like a lot more. Here is what I have observed thus far that makes living in Mexico easier than one would probably assume:

1. Mexicans love their ice cream. There are ice cream parlors on practically every block in Queretaro and Mexico City. Walking down the street at any given time, I'd say about 1 in every 8 groups of people are eating ice cream. Unforunately they are not blessed with knowing real fro yo or gelato yet, but their ice cream is still pretty darn amazing. And thanks to globalization at McDonald's ice cream cones are 7 pesos. That equals roughly .50 cents just fyi.


2. This is not a stereotype because it is actually true: a good majority of people who own dogs indeed have Chihuauas. My host family included. Walking around town I have seen a ridiculous amount of families with Chihuauas (Yo quiero Taco Bell?). It is sad though because there are a lot of stray dogs in the streets, especially in Bernal. And they are usually bigger sized dogs.


3. There is no concept of a personal bubble here. Your space is everyone elses space. This includes driving, as it is not uncommon to come to stops an inch away from the car in front of you, and make four driving lanes in a two lane area. Incredibly enough we have yet to see a car accident of any kind.

This also includes sitting insanely close to other groups of people at restaurants, meeting/greeting people by handshaking and kissing each other on the cheek, saying "Buenos dias", "Buenas tardes", and "Buenas noches", to everyone that you pass on the streets, and using a lot of body language when talking to others. it makes first meetings with people and situations in public much less awkward in my opinion.


4. They never kick you out of restuarants. They consider it rude to bring you the bill if you do not ask for it. So far, on two occassions we have stayed at a restaurant for 4+ hours after eating, just talking and doing homework and they could not care less. It makes for very nice eating experiences, and you get to know the servers and cooks pretty well (aka discounts the next time you come to eat :] )


5. Everyday is a party. Like actually. "The centro" translates into "downtown" in English, but the centro is SO much more. There are artisan vendors out everyday, bars and clubs are open and poppin' 7 nights a week, rallys, parades, Mexican heritage and culture events, live music of all kinds, random street shows, and pirate tours (long story)--these all happen every night!! It is absolutely wonderful, always something to do.

This brings me to

5a. The live music/music they play at clubs/music played on the streets? It is pretty much all a combination of Mexican music (new and old) and the randomist mix of music from the United States ever. Along with some top 40 music from the states like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Hannah Montana, etc., Mexicans seem to love our oldies but goodies. I'm talking musicals like Grease, classic bands like Journey, ridiculous songs like from Titantic, some super outdated Top 40 like Spice Girls, oldies like "Brown Eyed Girl", the list goes on. The music anywhere is basically always a pleasant surprise.

and

5b. Women run this place. We get into every place for free, get a ton of things for cheaper/free, get talked to about the cool things to go to, etc. And we have observed it is really not just because we are American, it is the fact that we are woman. Women run the households too because they cook and food (like actually) = life here. I could get used to this . . . oh wait, I already have.


6. They do not believe in modernizing roads, and it's great. Cobblestone streets, the street signs on buildings so no poles on corners, and sidewalks only wide enough to fit one person at a time are how things should be. It makes the landscape so much prettier, like you are on a movie set! There are very few pedestrian walkways over highways, so we have all gotten very good at the "Run across the busy highway" game. It's pretty fun.


More to come!

A Hike and a Futbol Game!

This has been one of the greatest weekends ever. Friday night a large group of us went out and explored the night life in Queretaro. Let me tell you--it's legit. After a long night of dancing and making friends, we got up early Saturday morning to go to Bernal.

And yeah, we hiked that bad boy.

View of Bernal. I took many many pictures :)

And in the evening we went to a futbol game!! Queretaro vs. Guatalajara!
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!

Crazy, crazy madness. GO GALLOS!!

In Mexico, they start 'em young.

Gallos, Gallos, ole ole ole ole!

Typical Day in Queretaro

Manzanas con Manzanas

Need I say more?

Mi Casa de Verano

After travelling Sunday morning via a bus and some taxis (btw—everyone in Mexico uses buses and taxis and the system is amazing, easy, and so incredibly cheap!!), I arrived at my host family’s home!

My beautiful summer home! A traditional colonial style Mexican home...With NO hot water or internet.

The courtyard.

Gracia! My summer kitty!! No doubt I would get assigned a host family with a kitty. She thinks she is a dog because she plays with this guy everyday...

Mollete! A little fat Chihuahua :) No joke-everyone in Queretaro actually have Chihuahua's.


My bedroom. I now sleep under Jesus every night as you can see.

The bathroom...that once again has no water lol. And it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. PS: you don't flush toilet paper here, you through it away in the trash can. No matter if it's 1 or 2. Makes for extremely smelly public restrooms.

Anyways, my host family is wonderful. My senora Maricela is an English teacher at a bilingual school during the school year. Her only daughterAndrea is 11. I’m also living with Maricela’s father, Luiz, who is retired.

I have so much more to post, but alas no internet at my home :( And I can only use it at school when I can. Much more to come! Miss everyone back in the states and wish you could all be here experiencing this with me!

The End . . . of Only The First Day!

We were out and about on the streets of Mexico City by noon today. Customs wasn't bad at all, they only thought one of us had swine flu, and poor Ben was detained an extra 20 minutes. Our taxi driver drove like a madman, and sang along to Radiohead's - "Creep".

I have never seen so many people concentrated in one area. 1 in every4 Mexican citizens live in Mexico City, giving it a population of about 20 million. Elections are coming up and politics are on everyone's mind here. Every corner had some sort of rally, and the streets in between were just bursting with people mainly trying to sell things.

I'm currently writing this from the room in our 4 star hotel that is costing me $25 for the night.

These are some views from out room. That is La Plaza de Armas with some other historical buildings, and THE Cathedral in the background of the flowers.

We (Lee Anne, Rebecca, Mkenna and I) took it easy tonight, just relaxing from an exhausting finals week and taking everything in. We are the only ones staying in Mexico City tonight, everyone else went straight to Queretaro.

There seems to be something monumental happening in the plaza this evening, and we think we might even be in the midst of something historical. Whatever is going on in the streets includes lots of tents, police, baracades, loud American hip hop music, fireworks, and lights. There version of our 4th of July? Possibly. Most likely political though. We wandered the streets tonight in the Zocalo district trying to figure it out and chatting with random hilarious locals (en espanol), alas we can't find out exactly what is going on. I'm currently trying to find out the best news sources to keep up with while I'm here.

What I do know is Fact: There are McDonalds (were ice cream cones are 6 cents) and 7-11's everywhere, and everyone listens to outdated 90's American music.

And PS:

Starbucks in Spanish actually completes my life.

Q: How many college students does it take to book correct plane tickets?

A: Apparently more than 3.

Going to print out my boarding pass from good old Orbitz.com on Friday morning, it wouldn't let me. It said my flight didn't exist. Confused, I called Continental Airlines and spoke with a man who probably thinks I am an idiot because apparently I had booked my flight for Thursday night . . . not Friday--and therefore had missed it.

....

$400 and a breakdown later I got the last seat available on the Friday night flight from Portland to Houston, and then Houston to Mexico (the one I thought I had originally booked). You see the same Continental Flights run every night with the same flight numbers at 12:30am. Kind of confusing! And for this program we need to be in Mexico City by Saturday so we can get to Queretaro by Sunday.

I immediately called the other two students with whom I had specifically bought my tickets with so we could be together to see if they had booked the correct flight. They had not. One had missed her flight with me the previous night, and the other had somehow mistakenly booked a flight for Saturday night. . . .wth, good job Mike. Since I grabbed the last flight out Friday, Amanda rescheduled hers to fly with Mike on Saturday night--cutting it extremely close to arriving to Queretaro on time.

After a crazy/hectic day full of preparing, getting everything ready, more packing, moving, helping friends move, and even more packing, Amanda and I headed for Salem where we had dinner with her and her family at a fantastic pizza place, and then her dad took me to the airport where I met up with about eight other obviously more intelligent students who had booked the right flight the first time.

In retrospect this is quite funny (though not $400 funny), and I feel like I would do something like this because how else would I start my summer in Mexico!