My Quest in Querétaro

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Still moving, Still learning

Hello! I realized today that I hadn't updated anything on this blog in quite some time. Things have been normal and nothing interesting has happened. I had classes this past Tuesday but haven't had anymore the rest of this past week because there was a little break Thursday and Friday. And my last day of classes is this coming Tuesday! and I have my first final on Friday! I have to say, this is probably the most relaxed finals time I have ever had in my college career because I only have 1 real final that is an actual exam! The rest are group projects, or a paper, which I already finished (The paper, not the projects). The group projects are another story. I like my group members, but of course procrastination takes the best of us, basically all the time. My group members don't seem too worried about the final project or putting off different phases of the project until a night or 2 before that phase of it is due. Thankfully, they all seem to care about the grade we get, so they definitely do put in work, it is just all at the last possible minute, which kind of drives me nuts, because I like having projects done early, or at least not doing it all the night before, I'd rather gradually work on it. It will all get done though and I will be happy when we present this final project and turn in the other one in my other class - once someone in my group figures out or says they know how to join different video clips together.

We have our closing ceremony/ "graduation" for the international students on Thursday so that should be fun! I was told we even get some type of little diploma thing! I'll be sure to frame that when I get home :)

Since I didn't have to be at school all week basically this past week, I spent every day at home and just hung around and occasionally worked on a portion of the projects, and for the most part, I just watched netflix, mostly Friends, but an occasional movie here and there. I was quite upset when I found out that the gym wasn't going to be open this past Thursday or Friday or Saturday or Sunday, because that meant that I could only work out 2 days last week. I was really bummed, so I am actually quite excited that the school is open tomorrow and that I can work out again! I really missed it as weird as that sounds! I am also missing a ton of american food as my time here is coming to an end, so I guess it's just at the right time! The main things I miss are vegetables, any kind, I really just want vegetables, granted there are some here in this house, but it's like lettuce, onion, and those types of veggies that you can't really do anything with unless you have other veggies to make with it. I also miss cottage cheese a lot too, protein powder, and american ice cream. While I was thinking of all the foods I want to eat when I get back, I decided to make a list of them and then emailed it to my mom, so hopefully there will be a giant table filled with all those foods when I come home?! OR I will probably end up cooking what I desire when I get home. Either works fine for me!

Something else I was thinking of today was about starting to pack up all my stuff and put it back into my suitcases, I still can't believe it's almost time to go back to the US, this semester has gone by so fast, and as cliche as it is to say, I think it's true when people say that when you are in college, every semester goes by faster and faster. IT'S TRUE! Anyways, I have to figure out how to fix one of my suitcases first because I can't get it all the way zipped again and it's missing some teeth. I am very determined to get this suitcase shut because there's no way I want to buy a new one just to go home, which is only 2 plane rides of 2 hours long each! So if anyone knows of any temporary fixes or ways I can hold my suitcase shut, that would be great! It zips 3/4 of the way already.

As a little final thought or synopsis of what I have learned while I've been here in Mexico, I would say that I have learned a lot about myself, life, my passions, and about Jesus. This semester has been by far the hardest and that's not even relating to the difficulty of my classes, that's just relating to the ups and downs you experience when you are dumped into a country and culture that is completely different from your own, and being torn away from all that you think is normal and all your friends and family. I've been able to have a lot of time to myself to think and grow which I have enjoyed, but I have also remembered some advice someone else who studied abroad told me "Go out and don't just sit in your room all the time." I listened to that advice and because of that have been able to experience new things, go to new places, and meet a lot of interesting people! I have overcome a lot of fears here that I didn't really know I even had. Taking public transportation, taking taxis, flying alone, speaking with professors, asking for help, dancing on stage, using foreign ATM's, etc. All of these I wouldn't really like to do in the US, but I was forced to do all of them here and of course all of them had to be done with spanish communication! After facing all of these fears, I've realized that if I can do these in Mexico, surely I can do these same things and conquer so many more fears in the US while speaking in English! It feels so good to know how much I've grown in that area of my life, and I had to rely on Jesus throughout all of it so my faith was stretched deep and wide and I realized just how faithful God is. I also realized how much I love church and being in a christian community, because I never found a christian church or christian community here so I was stuck with only listening to my home church sermons online on the weekends, and sometimes I would listen to other sermons during the week because I missed it so much, and just needed to be with Jesus in that way and be taught, I was eager to hear and learn something from God. For the whole time I've been here in Mexico, my prayer has been that I don't backtrack in my faith or remain the same, and I can finally say that God has moved and worked within me and I'm not in the same spot in my faith as I was when I left, and for that I am so grateful!

That's all for now, I'll be writing my last post while in Mexico probably next week, and then a final post once I return to the US. :)

Hasta luego!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

It's almost finals week!

I realized I hadn't updated this blog for a while and then I realized that I won't have that many more posts until I'm back in the US! That's a scary and exciting thought to behold! After Semana Santa, I feel like among the Americans at least, there is a longing to go back to the US again and go back to our "normal lives" and what we perceive to be "normal." Nothing new left to explore, we have explored all that there is (within reason - I don't know of anyone who went to the North of Mexico). I have only 3 more class periods of each of my classes and then it is finals week! YIKES! On the bright side, my professor nonchalantly told me that we won't be doing the last four assignments of the semester that are on the syllabus and that we will only have to do our little essay over 2 books we read - the essay which I have already completed 90% of! That was music to my ears! Back to the longings to go home: Anyways, my original flight date for going back to the US was set for May 22, but then I realized that my last final is May 16. What on earth could I do for that time in between?! I thought and thought and talked to people and a ton of people are heading out (those who don't have their visas) back to their home countries before the 22nd. My roommate is leaving like the 13th or 14th I believe. After not coming up with anything I could do to occupy my time with or find people to hang out with for that time, I thought "hmm, maybe I will see if I can go home earlier" After all, if I go home earlier that means I can see my family and friends a lot sooner, and I won't have to pay for rent for those extra days. So I called Hotwire and talked to 2 very kind gentlemen - It pays to be kind to customer service because then they will be so nice and informative to you! Anyways, they told me there would be a fee of $200 for changing my flight date, but then there was also the airfare differences as well. After the man figured it out, and did the deductions necessary, it was only going to be a $5.00 fee to fly back on May 17th instead of May 22nd! I was so thrilled and definitely took that opportunity and accepted that offer!

Also, I was recently reading my friend Jenn's blog about her internship study abroad adventures in Scotland and she was explaining manners and such and the differences between manners of people from different places and then that got me thinking to the manners in Mexico and I have to say, I have become so accustomed to the manners here, where I find it rude to not kiss someone or be kissed on the cheek upon greeting no matter if you are male or female. How ironic because it's the complete opposite in the US! I have also become accustomed to the occasional cars beeping their horns or whistling at me when I'm walking to or from school. That's something you never have to worry about in the US, but just because Americans aren't being outright with their actions about seeing an attractive person walking along the street, it doesn't mean that they aren't thinking it. I've learned to definitely be aware of what I'm wearing and of my modesty. I would like to say that I dress modestly all the time, but when you get whistled at or a car beeps their horn at you, you definitely think about your modesty a lot more and try to be the modest you can be with 80 - 90 degree weather. As a Christian, the last thing I want is to cause other people to fall into lust, and with the whistling and horn beeping, it definitely made me realize that people notice other people and notice you a lot more than you think they do, and like I also said before - in American, just because people aren't being outright with their actions, they are definitely noticing you.

Those are my thoughts for the day! It's currently about 5:30 pm and I have yet to eat lunch, and dinner. so it will be combined. haha. I'm finally adjusting to the eating times here! breakfast whenever you get up - which was about noon for me today (I had a movie night last night on netflix!) and then ate my breakfast at like 12:30 which was a dense french toast with a concoction of chocolate oatmeal syrup instead of regular syrup. And then lunch is usually at 3 pm but I wasn't hungry so I worked on my homework and dinner ranges from like 7 pm to 9 or so. I guess I will be having a really late lunch and an early dinner and then a second mini dinner at like 10 pm before I have another movie night! (Perks on only having classes Tuesday and Friday).

Hasta Luego!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

more spring break pictures

My delicious pita. SO GOOD. It was quite hard to eat though. I had to use my hands and to many of you who already know - I don't like using my fingers to eat foods, I love using silverware.

delicious iced cappuccino that I ate with my burrito in the picture below. It doesn't sound like it would go good together but it does! The cappuccino mellows out the spicyness of the burrito.

Little mayan village

a machine the mayans in this village use to make blankets - when they don't make them by hand. Hand made ones are definitely more preferred though and more beautiful.

CAVE!

we went swimming in this cave. the water was about 70 degrees, so it was really cold compared to the ocean which had to of been at least 85 degrees.

Chichen Itza

Now that spring break is over.

I'm back from Spring break no unfortunately! It was so much fun though! I got to do a whole bunch of things that I can't do in the US or in Michigan like snorkel, swim in caves, visit a million pyramids and a Mayan village. It was really cool! I am glad to be back to reality - well, kinda. I only have classes Tuesday and Friday now that Salsa is officially over with. And tomorrow is Easter! I have no idea what my host family is doing for Easter, but I do know that it's obviously Semana Santa week so people have been spending a ton of time with families and extended relatives since like Wednesday. I have officially began a countdown until I will be back in the US. One month from this coming Tuesday! I truly am excited to get back to the US because I am missing my family and American traditions and customs now. Everything in Mexico seems like normal now - no more fascination or beginner's traveling excitement. The "honeymoon" stage of studying abroad is over. haha. When I say I have one month left until I'm back home - that means 2 weeks of classes left and then 2 weeks for finals. But I only have 1 final exam. The other 3 are projects/presentations, which means I have to work super hard for the next 2 weeks to get everything done! Spring break came at the right time because it was a needed break, especially before these "work weeks" that are ahead.

I'm putting pictures up of the rest of my spring break trip in a different post because the pictures take forever to load! Anyways, towards the end of our trip, we went to Chichen Itza, which is a pre-Colombian city built by the Mayans and a cool fact is that the earliest hieroglyphic date discovered there is equivalent to 832 AD. After visiting this place, we swam in a cave! It was cool! and the water was very chilly - like 70 degrees and there were these black catfish looking things in the water! It was kind of creepy! I have swam with so many fish since I've been here though, it's crazy. I have swam with fish far away from me at the bottom of the ocean, and swam with fish in a cave.

That's about all that I had left to say about my spring break trip! Hasta luego!