Last weekend in Morelia

Today was the last regular day of classes. We start our presentation exams on Monday, but I´m not scheduled to present until Tuesday. We finished reading Los Ojos de Carmen today in class. I have already finished my story for my exam and today I got it checked and ok´ed by the professor. I read it to my host family after we finished eating lunch today. It´s pretty goofy, but they all will be. My host parents thought it was funny. I still have to get my props and practice reading the story this weekend. Kara stayed home and took a nap after lunch and I went to the internet cafe to say hi to Matt and email my professor back home. I also bought some more minutes for my cell phone here (I forgot to tell you I bought a cell phone for $15 US at the beginning of the week to keep in touch with the other students because we aren´t really supposed to use our host family´s phone). I also found out that I could text and call to the states on it, but it uses a lot more minutes. After Kara woke up for her nap we met up with Nikki, Patricia, Sara, Josh, Professor Watson, Shermail, Bobby, Whitney, and Sam to go to a restaurant downtown. We ended up going to a little local place. I had tostadas and a pepsi! Oli, Kara´s boyfriend or whatever, met up with us and we all headed to a bar to hang out for a bit. There was live music, but I was pretty tired. Plus I just sat there by Kara and translated to her all the sappy things Oli kept saying. We stayed for 45 minutes and then I told Kara to tell her lover boy goodnight.

Morelia is such a beautiful city

Today we picked up our last three cuentos (little children´s books) to read for tomorrow. We have been reading three different grade level children´s books every night and reading one of them to our host family or roommate. We are also almost done with our chapter book, Los Ojos de Carmen. I don´t normally read that much, but I have actually really enjoyed reading this book. It has a dictionary in the back of the book which is extremely helpful. I like reading it because I can see how much I´m learning based on how quickly and how much of the story I understand. It´s only a fifth or sixth grade spanish reading level, but that is perfect for me! After class and after eating lunch with my family I met up with Sara, Whitany, Meghan, and Tiffany. We took a bus to meet up with Sara´s host sister, and Sam. We took taxis up to the top of the mountain in Morelia. The view, even on the way up, was amazing. We got out at a park that surrounds this really tall flag poll. I could see all of Morelia from the top of the mountain. It was so gorgeous (it would have been nice to have a certain someone here to sit with me!). I took so many pictures as the sun set and as the lights of the city started to shine. It was a little chilly and I´m glad I brought a sweater, but I still broke out on my face a little from the wind. After it started to get too dark we headed back down the mountain and hung out at Casa de Salsa where we met up with Kara and her new Mexican boyfriend. We had a really good time hanging out and listening to their salsa music before we headed home.

Almost the weekend

School was really good today...we found out what we had to do for our final exam next week. We have to write a short story in spanish that goes along with four story comic pictures we were given out in class. I have to write a story and choose actors from the class to act out my story. We have to create a quiz and teach the class our story. It sounds like fun and hopefully not too difficult. After lunch every day we sit and talk to our host family for about an hour. It really helps me practice my spanish. Especially because I sometimes have to try to translate for Kara when she doesn´t know how to say something. After taking with them, we went to a piano concert downtown. It was at the art museum. The concert only lasted about 45 minutes, but it was really enjoyable. A big group of the students hung out downtown for a while before we realized it was getting late and we should all head home. The taxi driver got a flat tire on the way to our house and I tried to help this not so smart little Mexican man change his tire...it was ridiculous. He was not even sure he had a spare! It took quite a while for us to get home, but we made it safely.

school and homework

Today was pretty uneventful. I woke up early this morning so I could take Kara´s computer to school and use skype. I was able to talk to Matt for a while before class which was really nice! Class was good and it went by pretty quickly. After going to the internet cafe for a bit we headed home for lunch. We stayed home to do homework and study. That is all we did all day. Kara doesn´t feel well and I´m pretty tired so no plans for tonight. Goodnight. Miss you Matt, Mom, Dad, Kayla, Haydon! And all of you others...I miss you too!

Back to class

School was about the same as always. Learning a lot and class is always so animated. Our professor is really good at making class enjoyable. I can tell my spanish is getting better but it is difficult to keep the tenses straight. The stories we have been reading are in the past tense and I have caught myself speaking in the past tense when I shouldn´t. I´ll get there eventually! After class and after blogging we went home to eat lunch. My señora made a Mexican dish and it was great. After eating we hurried to meet up with the group of students that were going to the zoo today! At the zoo I got to hold a snake! They draped it over my shoulders and I held the rest of its body in my hands. The snake kept moving its face towards mine and I was a little nervous becaue it was a pretty large snake! I´ll put picture on here when I get back to Tennessee. I waited on two other students and we lost the group. I tried to catch up and the two girls I was waiting with stopped to look at something else. I didn´t catch up to the group and by that time, I lost the two other girls I was with! I was walking through the zoo by myself. It was kinda fun though because I got to go at my own pace. It was a huge zoo. I saw a baby lion, monkeys, turtles, ponnies, etc. My favorite was a parrot that I walked by and it said HOLA to me! When I told Matt I was going to the zoo today he asked me to find out if the animals speak spanish here too and they did! It was so funny. I was by myself standing there saying hola back and forth with the bird. I laughed for a while about my conversation with the parrot. It started to rain so I had to hide under different umbrellas or animal areas that were covered until the rain stopped. When I was walking through the area with the baby animals or smaller animals I saw one of the really big turtles stuck on its back! I was so worried because I could tell she had been struggling for a while. I ran to get help from one of the zoo employees who was inside a room. I told him in spanish that the tortuga was...and I had to do hand motions to show him flipped, because I didn´t know the word. He came and flipped the turtle over. He said the turtles are trying to mate and the male turtle had flipped her over! The zoo was about to close by the time I met back up with the group. They were so excited to see me...they thought I was really lost! I didn´t mind at all though. I saw some animals that the group had missed. After coming home from the zoo, eating, and getting ready to go back out, Kara and I met some of the group at a bar. After hanging out there for a while we headed home.

A Late Heads Up!

The internet cafe is not open on Saturday or Sunday so the posts will be slightly delayed. Ill get to the internet on the Monday after each weekend. So don´t worry if they aren´t up right away!

Free Day

Today we slept in till 10:30. It was amazing. I do have a difficult time sleeping though...I have not slept a whole night through since I´ve been in Mexico. After getting up and dressed, I called Brittany and Natalie to see what they were getting into. We met and walked to McDonnalds where we met with our Watson, our professor, Andre, and Josh. We went to the movies and split up to see the movie we wanted to watch. I saw My Sister´s Keeper. It was good but extremely sad. I cried through the entire movies. After the movie Kara and I headed home to do our homework that is due tomorrow. It was not a very eventful day, but it was relaxing.

Excursion day

We started the day very early. We had to be at school by 8:30 to take the bus to our first stop of the day. We were headed to Santa Carla de Cobre (copper). The town is known for their copper making skills. I got to see how they mold/hammer the copper into the shapes of the different pots, plates, and more. I bought something for my mom today! She has to wait to find out what it is till I get home! It was so interesting watching the entire family for generations and generations, work on copper. The family´s house we went to had workers that were the fifth generation of copper workers in their family. It was such intense and strenuous work. The little boys were even working to help with fan the fire. After shopping around their house for the copper products they had made, we walked around the little town and did some more shopping. Our second stop for the day was a town called Patzcuaro. The town was so pretty. The buildings were all connected but were all the same white and dark red color. We went to the Basilica there and a tour of one of their museums! The city was really unique and extremely beautiful! There was a wedding at the Basilica, but I didn´t get to see the bride. We did a lot of walking today...like always here! I love the exercise though. We walk almost everywhere we go in Morelia. My host mom packed me a sandwich and and apple, but by the time we got back to Morelia I felt like I was starving! We went to Subway at the Centro Commercial! It was funny eating there, but also kinda nice! We went home and changed before going back out to downtown Morelia. Every Friday and Saturday they have a big event downtown and they light up the Cathedral. They had live music, put on a light show, and set off fireworks. It was fantastic! There were dancers in the streets and music everywhere. After watching the fireworks, we all got ice cream! We sat around and talked for a while before finding taxis and heading home. It got a little chilly out so I was definitely ready to go inside. It was pretty late so we headed to bed for a long night of sleep. (Sunday is a free day so we get to sleep in!)