Week 3 in Querétaro

Next Tuesday will be the day I will have been here in Mexico exactly 1 month! That is so crazy to think about! When you think about it that way, time is going by fast! It's already Thursday! I think it's because I only have classes 2 days a week, and that helps a lot and makes time go by faster. Thank Goodness.

This week wasn't that eventful I went to class, went to salsa class, worked out 3 times this week at the gym (woohoo!!) and met with my tutor Marisol. My salsa class is going really well. I'm learning all kinds of salsa moves and turns and it's really fun! I can't wait to see how much of an accomplished salsa dancer I am by May! :)

I think my biggest struggle with school would be the reading because there seems to be a lot of it and it takes me longer to read than it does in english obviously, and so it's a struggle with how long it takes me to read something and also understanding and remembering what I read too. Hopefully continuing to meet with my Spanish tutor Marisol will help me out. She is so kind and is really helpful. Today and yesterday we met up and I read my reading material aloud and she read along with me silently and when I came to something I didn't understand, she would explain it to me and then at the end of every couple paragraphs or so, I would recap what I just read and if I am confused or didn't remember much, she would clarify things for me and that helped a ton.

It's 9:15 pm currently and I feel like the night is still so young! I'm eating dinner as we speak. I'm having frosted flakes, an apple, and this concha bread thing. It's not really "dinner dinner" but I like having breakfast for dinner. It's comforting.

I've been asked a couple times if I like the food here and to be honest, I LOVE IT! It's so good, every time. All of the food my host mom Laura has made, I've loved. I honestly don't think it's as spicy as I thought it would be. Laura could be holding out on me though. haha. I've tasted way spicer in the U.S. but that's not REAL mexican food. I've been taking pictures of my meals daily to show you what I've been eating. I can never remember the names of the things that are made, but they all taste so so good! And surprisingly, I'm pretty sure that the mexican food I've been eating is a lot healthier than the stuff made in the U.S. So that's always a good thing because it tastes amazing! One thing I'm slowly growing to like more is corn tortillas. I just like flour tortillas better, but we always have corn tortillas at lunch. Basically with whatever you eat here, you can add a corn tortilla to it. I think I like the corn tortilla tostadas better because it's like a giant tortilla chip.

Something I'm proud of is that I am almost a pro at taking the bus home from school! haha. It may not seem like anything to people here or those city dwellers, but for a person who never takes public transportation, it's a big deal. I know how the bus system works, I know when to press the button to let the driver know I wanna get off at the next stop, and I know which bus stops I have to get on and off at (just for going home from school). The other day though, I decided to be adventurous and took the bus to school, which meant a different bus number and route. I knew I could take B or X and I knew where I had to get on at, but didn't know where exactly to get off at because I heard different things.Thankfully, I ran into my friend Antoinette (from North Carolina) at the bus stop and she said to get off by the Mazda building before the bus turns, and so that's where I got off! :) I think the next bus route I want to conquer is taking the bus solo from where I live to el Centro. I have yet to go to el Centro by myself, mostly because I don't want to get lost by myself, but maybe eventually, I'll be able to figure out my way around el Centro or meet a friend there. We shall see.

This weekend I'm planning on going to the movies with my friend Judith (from Chile) I don't remember the name of it but it has Rachel McAdams in it and some other guy. I'm pretty sure it's some type of love story. haha. There is also this huge international beach festival happening this weekend in Jalisco, Mexico. It's basically one giant beach party with students from all over Mexico  and all the universities in Mexico and maybe even other countries. I decided to pass this up because I have class all day on Friday and if I have a ton of homework, I gotta do it unfortunately, and this beach festival thing lasts all weekend until Monday (we don't have school on Monday). I know that may sound dumb, believe me, if I knew I wasn't going to have any homework or very little assignments that could be done rather quickly, I'd definitely go. But I'm also happy just hanging out around here and going to the movies and maybe el Centro on Sunday. I'm sure there will be a ton of other opportunities for travel and the beach, like Spring break. And I'm going to Teotihuacan next Saturday!

I think that's all I have to update you on thus far, I will be adding a lot of pictures of the foods now, and watch some Big Bang Theory with Spanish subtitles.  :)

Hasta Luego

breakfast: tortillas filled with eggs, cheese and frijoles of course 

lunch: frijoles, rice and chiles rellenos

first sunburn of the year from visiting El Cerrito

breakfast: torta stuffed with eggs, some kind of spice, and I think chorizo 

lunch: mexican rice, veggies and some type of meat.

breakfast: tostadas with frijoles and cheese

lunch: frijoles, green beans mixed with eggs and tortas de papa (SO GOOD)

lunch: corn tortilla, pasta and spinach soup, and frijoles, and mexican meatballs (SUPER GOOD)

concha bread that I decided to take a picture of while eating to document the moment. 

El Cerrito

I know I just wrote a post like yesterday, but there's just so much that happened between then and now! Today I went to el Cerrito with a group of my friends. 

According to wikipedia: El Cerrito was an important political and religious center, which operated as a regulator of the regional population. Construction period: 300 BC to 1500 AD (there were 3 stages of construction. It was used as a place of worship too by cultures like Chupicaro, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Chichimeca, Otomi, and Tarascan at times as late as 1632. El Cerrito worked as a regional political and religious center of great regional importance, from 400 to 1500 of the Christian era.  Eventually, El Cerrito became a sacred space or sanctuary. The buildings and shrines around the pyramid are expressions of religious activities around the worship of a female deity, almost certainly the Old Mother or Mother of the gods. El Cerrito is one of the most important sites of the Toltec world, a place where Tollan or links to the great lords and warriors of the region legitimized. 

After visiting el Cerrito, we ate lunch in El Centro. The cool part is how we got there. So, there was a group of like 15 of us and one of the people that was with us was lived in El Centro and had a pick up truck, so he drove us all to El Centro. Most of us got in back of the pick up truck and then the rest of us squeezed in the actual truck part. Yes, that's illegal in the U.S. but here, people do that and it's like normal. People just cram into vehicles and don't really think that much of it. It was kind of fun actually :) 
For lunch, I had a torta con pollo, which was very good, and then we had ice cream and kind of walked around. After that, we all crammed back into the back end of the truck and he drove us back to the school and from there we went our separate ways. 
It was a lot of fun! and I'm really glad that I got to hang out with a bunch of people today and speak in spanish basically the entire time! And it's always encouraging to hear that your spanish is good when you are talking with other internationals and with people who's native language is Spanish. That encourages me all the more to just keep speaking in Spanish. :) 

Breakfast of today: quesadilla with ham, tomato, and cheese, and fruit

weird cactus things near el Cerrito

El Cerrito

Looking into Querétaro from El Cerrito 

in El Centro once again

Ice cream :) yum. 

Adiós Vaneshia

Today my roommate Vaneshia went back home and is then going back to Harvard. It's weird not having her here. I really hope that another student will come live with Laura and I soon because I want the company and Laura really enjoys talking to me and did enjoy talking to Vaneshia. I'm sure Laura would appreciate the company too!
Amelie and I were going to go to el centro this afternoon but we are both swamped with homework, so we are just going to see a movie tonight. It's called Shadow Recruit: Jack Ryan. I didn't see the movie trailer for it or anything but Amelie said it looked good, so I trust her judgement. Haha.
I managed to get my first 2 100% already in my cinema class! PTL because the assignments took me forever to do even though they were so simple and rather short. If that makes sense. We had to read an article and then write a 150 word or less report on it basically saying the main points of it. Of course it took me longer than I wanted because the articles are obviously in Spanish. But all that hard work trying to understand the articles and taking the time to do the assignments paid off and I am so thankful for that!
Today Laura bought tamales for breakfast and they were as good as ever. I don't know what flavor mine was though unfortunately. It wasn't the dulce one, but it was still good! And for lunch Laura made mexican rice and a type of guisado again. It has a specific name, but I don't remember it. Surely I'll figure it out once Laura gives me all of her delightful recipes :) OH and yesterday for breakfast Laura had went to the bakery (yippeeeeeeee!!!!) and I had this flakey type of pastry thing, and homemade coconut milk, and fruit. The coconut milk was made my abuelita and was SO SO SO good! I definitely want the recipe for that. It is just so delightful! Probably one of the best drinks I've ever had. And I had to with my breakfast today too! :)
I have to say, I am really enjoying this mexican cuisine. It is so good and I'm not sick of it at all! I love it! I do get my daily or semi-daily bowl of american food (fruit loops or frosted flakes), so that keeps my tastebuds excited.
It apparently got very very warm outside today according to Laura, I wouldn't know because the farthest I went was the the street to wait with Vaneshia for her taxi, but it stays at a very comfortable temperature in the house at all times. I've been wearing leggings and a cardigan all day and I'm just fine. It's supposed to be in the high 70s and low 80s all of next week though, which will be nice when I don't have to walk a half hour to school, and if there is a breeze. I do enjoy this weather though, it has been nice and it has only rained once I believe since I've been here and I didn't even see it raining because I was inside, so I just saw the aftermath of it. It's just always warm and sunny here, which definitely lifts my spirits up, along with hearing the bird Piolín chirp literally all day long. It reminds me of home because the birds are always chirping there!  :)

Breakfast one day: Pancakes with peanut butter & strawberry jam. We don't have syrup in the house, so I don't even know if they use it here. And my little bowl of fruit

Guisado with zucchini and chicken and some spices. Super good!

My tamale I ate today! and my fruit

close up of the tamale

tamale chopped up

The oh so good coconut milk Abuelita made. SO GOOD!

Thought I'd put at least one picture of myself in the pictures.

Mexican rice

More guisado with hamburger, carrots, potatoes and spices. 

My very first 100% on an assignment here that HAD to be documented! :)

Lastly, it's Jake's birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE! Enjoy all of that snow and spend lots of time with Julia, Mikaela, and baby 2! :)

Finally adjusting and trying new things

Lunch: Don't know exactly what each thing is called, but the soup has rice, carrots, and some little circle things that I don't know the name of but are good. And the plate on the right is a spicy chicken and onion something. 

Breakfast: fruit bowl containing apples, pears, bananas, and cantaloupe. And a type of toasted sandwich thing with frijoles, cheese and a homemade sauce. Something you get used to here is having frijoles added in almost any and everything, including eggs.  

Pretty house I saw walking to school.

Looking into the colony where I live. Colonia Arboledas.

Fancy house. And take notice of the gate- Every single house where I live, and most houses around here if not all (minus the ones in the gated SUPER wealthy community) have a gate that surrounds the front of the house and at night, the people put their car inside the gate. It's kinda cool.

Now that all of the pictures are done with and out of the way, I can write. I don't even remember what I wrote about last, all of the days seem to run together when you do the same things every day. On Tuesday I had class as per usual and nothing really exciting happened. School is school. Although, on the bus ride home, I didn't press the "it's my stop" button quick enough so the bus flew by where I was supposed to get off and I ended up having to walk like a quarter mile back and then cross the bridge like normal. Now I know that those buttons actually mean something and if you don't press it in time, say hello to walking. After that whole fiasco, I didn't feel like doing homework so I literally just sat in my bed the rest of the night, went online, watched the Big Bang Theory with spanish subtitles, and went to bed. On Wednesday I did homework pretty much all day and then went to visit 2 of my friends - Amelie and Julia- at school for a little bit, then I walked back home and continued the homework. Today I had salsa class, which is super fun and quite a workout if you ask me! We learned more turn moves that you do with partners and thankfully (PTL) we changed partners every couple of minutes so that we were able to dance with everyone in the class. This is good for me because it's so hard to dance with someone who can't keep the rhythm. It will be interesting to see how we all improve over the course of the semester. And how good we are by our final performance in front of an audience. 

It was also SO WARM today. It had to of been in the 80s. Laura said that it will be a lot worse by April and May. OH JOY. Thankfully, in the house and in the buildings on campus, it is always SO cold! I don't know why, but it is and I enjoy it thoroughly. 

Vaneshia and I were going to go to San Miguel today, but that fell through because there wouldn't have been enough time for us to take a bus there, actually walk around and sight see, and then come back, which is fine with me because I have all the way until May to go there, so I'm not in any hurry. Vaneshia leaves on Saturday morning to go back to LA and then a few days later, back to Harvard, so I think she is going to San Miguel tomorrow with a group of people, while I'm stuck in class all day. 

On Saturday I plan on going to a movie and./or el Centro with my friend Amelie. I think it's becoming a weekly thing, that we just automatically go to el Centro on the weekend because A: it's close. B:it's cheap. C:that's were all of the good shopping is. 

Oh and today, I decided to join a tutoring thing through the university where I will be paired with a Mexican who will help me with my Spanish and I will help this person with their English. I'm pretty excited about that because I want so badly to become fluent, and unfortunately, I haven't been speaking Spanish the whole time with every person I am with because they either don't want to speak in Spanish, or don't know enough Spanish to have a conversation or understand what I'm talking about. This tutoring thing is different from the big brother big sister thing that I'm also a part of. The big bro/big sis thing is like a Mexican friend you are paired with to do fun things with, hang out with, etc. I actually talked with my "brother" Daniel Tuesday night on facebook for quite a long time (IN SPANISH OF COURSE) and we got to know each other better and something that was very encouraging for me to hear from him was that he said that my spanish writing was very good and he bets that my spanish speaking will be very good as well. Little compliments like that given to someone who is studying a language, means SO MUCH! So I'm excited to eventually meet him in person, hopefully soon. He also said that he knows how to make tamales, and that he could teach me, so I'm definitely taking him up on that offer. Laura also said tonight that tomorrow morning she is going to buy tamales for breakfast. I will surely take a picture of that glorious meal. 

Also, I haven't "worked out" officially as in running/lifting/going to the gym since I've been here, and I think I should be adjusted by now, so my goal for next week is to go to the gym on campus at least 4 times. I'll let you know how that goes.

I think I want to watch t.v. now, and do some reading so....

Hasta Luego!