Friday!!!

Today was the last day of class for the week! YAY I got to talk to Matt for a little bit this morning on skype from Kara´s computer. Right after class we went to the Mercado de Dulces with the group of students. It is a really big market full of individual stands where people sell their hand made goods (that mostly say Morelia on them) and home made sweets! We walked around the market and I got some souvenirs. After our shopping trip, we headed home to have lunch with our host family. We had chicken, our senora´s version of mac-n-cheese, salas, and beans. She has been trying to make the food as American as possible...I wish she wouldn´t though. I really like original Mexican food. We had cooking class today at 5. The teacher of the class hosted the class at her house. She had a really fancy and big house. We cooked agua de Jamaica, sopa de frijoles (bean soup), stuffed chicken (don´t remember the spanish name), and arroz con leche for dessert (rice pudding). She gave us a sheet with all the ingredients so I can make it for my family when I go home! After we made all of the food we got to eat all of the food! It was all so delicious. The chicken was pretty spicy so I´ll have to figure out how to make it a little less spicy so my mom can eat it! When we were finished talking and eating all our yummy food we headed back to our houses. Some of the group went out, but I was too physically and emotionally tired. I went home, showered, and tried to fall asleep. Back home I live pretty far out into the country, but here we are surrounded by other houses and it is pretty noisy sometimes! Buenas noches!

Class and late, late, late

This morning we were late to breakfast again. I thought I would have a really hard time adjusting to speaking only spanish to my host family, but I am actually having the hardest time adjusting to having a roommate. I have never lived with a roommate before. My roommate takes a long time to get ready and we are always late. Even if it is just by a few minutes, we have been late to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is different when you are the only person and know one is depending on you, but I have to wait for her which makes me late too. I feel rude showing up late, especially when we should have plenty of time to be ready before the time they have set for meals or activities. After class today I was able to get on line and talk to Matt for a bit and check my emails and bank account. After returning to the house, Kara and I spent some time talking with our host family before doing our homework. After we finished most of our homework we had lunch and then walked around the city for a bit. We got a little lost from the directions. I got from our host dad and so we stopped in a gas station and I bought a map of the city. That was a much needed purchase anyways. Kara and I figured out where we were going and headed to the Plaza de Mercado. It was kind of like a shopping mall but there was also a grocery store at the back side of it. We met up with Patricia and Nikki on the way there. We did a little bit of window shopping. Kara and I were able to bond and talk a little more while we walked through the mall. I bought some vitamin c disolvable tablets at the grocery because I was starting to feel a slight sore throat coming on this morning. We stayed in the shops while it was raining and then headed home. We had a sandwich for dinner. It was really interesting, but also very good. It was ham or maybe turkey in between pinto beans on white bread. Lunch here is the biggest meal of the day so we end up eating lighter for dinner, but the sandwich filled me up. We finished our homework, I showered, and then we went to bed. One thing I have noticed about doing my blogs is that it is more difficult to spell in english as I learn more spanish!

More of the culture!

Today we walked to class early so that Kara could get her book from one of her classmates and do her homework that was due today. While she was doing homework I got on her computer and called Matt and then my mom on Skype. It was really really good to actually talk to them. After talking to both of them I had to go to class. Class was good today, we are learning and telling short stories in class that are goofy, but help me remember the different rules and vocab in each story. During our break for class we went downstairs to the taco store and got a couple small tacos. They were so delicious and ordering my food is an extra way to practice my spanish. Today we have more homework because we have to read and teach our host family the stories that we learn in class. I enjoy learning all of the spanish but they did warn us when we got here that this was not a vacation. The point of the trip is to learn spanish and experience the culture of Mexico. After lunch and doing some of my homework, Kara and I met up with Brittany and Natalie and we walked to downtown Morelia where we were going to have our Salsa Class. Salsa class was at la Casa de Salsa. Class was so much fun, but it was most definitely a work out too. The teacher stood in the front of the class and did the moves as she explained it in spanish. We then followed her to some music. After that she paired us off and we began to salsa. I had to dance with a few guys from the trip and it was a lot less fun and more difficult because they had no idea what they were doing. The teachers were a lot more helpful but all in all the class was really enjoyable. I will most likely be sore tomorrow! After class some of the students walked to AppleBees...yes there is an AppleBees here, but Kara and I walked home and had dinner with our family. Kara and I talked for a long time in our rooms as we finished our homework before going to bed.

The first day of class

We woke up at 8:00 this morning and had plenty of time to relax and get ready for the day. Class started at 10:30 this morning and we headed to school after eating breakfast with our host dad. This morning we had cereal and fruit. They had special K, apples, bananas, and mango. She prepares all of the meals to accomodate to our American taste buds with a little bit of Mexican flare. We went to school and Kara went up one more flight of stairs for her class. I am taking spanish conversation. My teacher from MTSU is my teacher at the KIIS center aka our school. We had an hour of class, a 30 minute break, and one more hour of class. It was a very quick and informative class and I feel like I am going to learn a lot on this trip. I have really enjoyed living with a host family because they are extremely helpful with our conversation skills. After class I went to the internet cafe beside the school to talk to my family and my boyfriend on skype. I got to the internet cafe and found out that I was not able to download skype to the computer which was a big disappointment. I got on facebook and was able to chat with my mom, Matt (my boyfriend), and my cousin Autumn. It was so nice to talk to them, even though it was only on chat. It´s really difficult to adjust to not speaking to the people that I´m used to seeing every day. I am making a lot of new friends and really enjoy my experience in Mexico, but I wish I could talk to or see my family and boyfriend back home. We had lunch with our host family after leaving the internet cafe. She prepared pork chops, salad, potatoes, and soup. It was all very delicious. Kara and I walked back to the school because a bunch of the students wanted to go hang out at a cafe and get snacks and coffee and talk about our families. We´re waiting on one more of our friends and then we are going to a popular cafe in Morelia. After that we are going back to the house for dinner and then I have to finish my homework. I will have about 45 minutes of reading homework everyday for my spanish class. Until tomorrow. Hasta luego.

Morelia is a beautiful city!

We woke up and got ready in time to eat breakfast with our host family at 8:30. Maria had cut up apples, bananas, cantalope, and watermelon. We also had toast with strawberry jam. Oh I forgot...last night she made us chicken with a very delicious pasta with white cream sauce and salad. After breakfast we rushed to the KIIS center to meet up with our class to start our walking tour of Morelia. We had to rush because my roommate is a little bit more high maintanence than I and it took her quite a long time to get ready in the mornings. We will have to work on that because I really don´t want to be late to class when we live closest out of all the other students. It only takes us maybe five minutes to walk to school! We went to lots of Cathedrals and saw downtown Morelia. It was filled with history and the buildings were so much prettier than Mexico City. We saw tons of beautiful murals again and took tons of photos. We returned to the KIIS center at 1 where Antonio had walked to pick us up (walk us home). They have a car, but it is so close and we will have to walk to school everyday. We rested at our house for a while before eating lunch with our family. She made a meat and veggie pie that was delicious, some soup, bread, and salad. I came to the KIIS center to use the internet and then we are going to a welcome banquet with our host families at 8:00 tonight. Classes start tomorrow morning.

Last tour of Mexico City then off to Morelia

The alarm woke me up before I was ready to get up again. I´m not used to getting up at 7:30, but the breakfast buffet is from 7:30-8:30. Thankfully I did sleep well last night, the first night was a little rough for sleep. After breakfast Brittany, Natalie, and I walked around the corner to the ATM to get some more pesos. After meeting back at the hotel we walked to the Plaza where we saw the ruins of Tenoctitlan and the Cathedrals built beside it. The Spanish cam over and destroyed the Aztec cities and then used the stone and lava rock to build their new empire and cathedrals as a sign of power and converting the people to Catholicism. The ruins at this site were spectacular. The were very well preserved and you could tell that there was still much underground that had not been uncovered. I could still see the paint in some of the main rooms on the carved stone benches and walls. We went into the Museum that held the other loose artifacts from the Aztec civilizations. After we saw the ruins and took many photos, we traveled across the Plaza to the old Parliament building that was originally Cortes´s Palace that was built on top of Montezuma. We saw tons of wall murals done by Diego Rivera, a famous Mexican painter. We went into the Cathedral that had been built out of the stone taken from the Aztec citty and I could tell it was the same stone they had uncovered in the ruins. After all of our picture taking we walked back to the hotel. We walked to 7 Eleven and bought some snacks for the 4 hour bus ride to Morelia where we would meet our host families. Most of the students slept the whole way to Morelia. The lady of the family was waiting at the KIIS center (our school) to pick up me and Kara. Her name is Maria and her husband is Antonio. They are both very nice and do not speak hardly any english...which is good for learning. Kara and I talked to our host parents for a few hours and got lots of practice as we got to know more about their lives. The house was very pretty. They have beautiful tile floors and extremely nice wood furniture. I think I was not expecting their house to be as nice as it is. After our long talk, Kara and I headed to bed because it was another long day!

The first day to see Mexico City

The first stop of the bus was at the Plaza de las tres culturas. It was a church that had ruins beside it and a new part of the church added onto the back side of the church. The second stop of the day was to the Basilica. It is a church deemed holy by the pope in Rome. It was originally built because the Virgin Mary, known here as the Lady of Guadalupe, told one of the conquistadors to build a sanctuary. There was a lot of religious history and there were three buildings. The oldest and first was built on the hill and the second larger structure was built down the hill. They had to build a third building because the second building was on uneven ground because of a fault line. The majority of the people in Mexico are Catholic so there was lots of church history and many people in the Basilica to pay respect or pray. The bus then took us to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids and ruins there. It was amazing...truly breathtaking. Our tour guide´s name was Ricardo. He knew so much about the temples and pyramids. Everything the Aztec´s built had a purpose and was built to perfection. The angles of the steps were made at 92 degrees so that it would make great accustic sound that if at the right angle sounded like the song of a bird when you clapped. The history and culture or the Aztec people was fantastic. We climbed three pyramids all day. The tallest, the sun pyramid, was 245 step up and 245 steps back down. I was very tired but the view was phenominal. I´ve never seen anything like it or experienced such history with a landmark. We went under some of the ruins and Ricardo, our tour guide, told us the story of how the Aztec´s believed the sun and moon were created. It was a story passed generation to generation that was really interesting. He turned the lights off in the cave and started a little fire so it felt very real and I felt like I was experiencing the history. The Aztec´s believed in Harmony with the Earth and the animals. The people selling souvineers they had made were very very pushy, but it was all part of the experience. The Aztec´s believe that something big will happen on December 23, 2012 at 12:23 am when their calendar ends. We had a late lunch at the family of the tour guide´s house. They prepared and served us a 5 course meal. We started with sopa de frijoles (a bean soup), then we ate tortas, then rice and chilis poblanos, then chicken, and for dessert ate cactus pear and cantalope. It was all very delicious and although I had worked up an appitite, I did get very full. We headed back to the hotel after talking for a while. Me and Kara stayed in the room for the night to relax from a very long day.

Mexico!

Hola! Matt took me to the airport this morning at 7:45. I had to be at the aiport at 9:15 because the flight was leaving from Nasvhille at 11:15. I was able to meet and talk to the people from our group going on the Morelia Trip. The personalities going on the trip range as widely as the levels of spanish speaking. I met most of the people that would be taking the spanish conversation class with me and some that were taking entry level spanish 1010. Some people had traveled to other countries and some had not even been out of Tennessee. It was very interesting getting to know all of those different people throughout the flights and waits at the airport. We had to fly to Houston where we had a 50 min wait for the next flight to Mexico City. I scarfed down a pizza and ran to the next gate to make the plane. I saw and heard many spanish speakers while we were in Texas. The first plane had two seats, an isle, and another seat. It was very small but only about two hours. The second flight had three seats on each side of the isle which made for a much more comfortable flight. Sam and Bobby were my seat buddies on the plane. They were also in the Kiis program. We arrived in Mexico City around 4:30 and headed to the hotel. We stayed at Hotel Gillow. The room was pretty big. 4 of us girls in one room that was subdivided into two rooms with a hallway with a bathroom in it. We all had our own bed. I picked the second part of the room and Kara, another student I met on the trip, was in that room as well. Brittany and Natalie, the daughters of the professor from MTSU, were in the first part of the room. We were in room 513 (the fifth flour). The view out our window was incredible. It was a little chilly in the evenings in Mexico City. One main thing in noticed in the city and from the plane was that there is not much grass in Mexico City. They have planted trees in every possible place, but hardly any grass. The buildings are all wall to wall covering almost every square foot possible. It rained a lot on the way to the hotel. I was able to talk more in depth to my new amigos y amigas on the bus. I am really excited to be in Mexico and have really enjoyed getting to know so many people that I could be friends with even after the trip. We had dinner at Cafe de Tacuba which was made in 1919. It was a beautiful building and the food was amazing. I ate tostadas con chorizo. I sat by Brittany and Kara on the other side. A local band played some tradition Mexican music while we ate! I was extremely exhausted by the time we made it back to the hotel and very ready for bed!