Barry Blount

Hey Everybody, I don't know if anyone will even think to check this blog anymore, I know it's been a very long time since I last updated. I have safely arrived back in Xalapa after a wonderful break full of travel. I am excited to had unpacked my hiking pack which was crammed full of clothes for a little less than a whole month. It's very nice to be settled in with a schedule again to fill my days. School is starting back up very well. This term I have another set of three classes which include a translation course, the intensive grammar course like last semester, and a intro to hispanic literature course. All sound interesting enough... it seems the classes will be much more dependent on comprehension with the assumtpion you already know some ... read more

Hello Family and Friends, All has been progressing well down here in Xalapa. With two weeks left of formal classes I am beginning to receive the first real set of work I've been exposed to since beginning classes in September. So I have just been trying to remember what time management is like and get some things done in a timely fashion. We have to do a lot of reading for our written expression class, just works of fiction from famous Mexican authors, then write a literary review of them. Not all that difficult but reading in Spanish still drags things out a bit. For my cultural studies the teacher waved the final exam and replaced it with a large presentation we have to give about a current topic pertaining to México. So that's pretty neat. ... read more

Hello Everyone, I know I have been very out-of-touch the past week or so. There have been many developments on my end including a change of residence from the home stay program to a beautiful new house with three other Canadian students from my school. Though I was not looking forward to living with three english speakers, an opportunity arose to move out of the house where I had been living since my arrival in Xalapa, with the three Mexican women and dog, and into a new place. The new residence is very beautiful, a two-story, 4-bedroom house place about ten minutes from my school and in the oppostie direction than I normally used to walk, which has allowed me to explore new parts of the city. It is a couple doors down from a very ... read more

Hey All, A few friends here happened to hang out with a basketball team from Monterrey that was in the city for two days for a game against the Xalapa Halcones, the local semi-pro team. The players invited us to come to the game and left us six free tickets at willcall which was really neat. Here are some courtside photos from a fun evening at the university basketball arena.... read more

Hey All, At the moment I'm sitting in the school library, looking out across the rooftops of orange spanish tile with a beautiful backdrop of blue skies and white clouds. This particular day has been very relaxing, just doing a little bit of studying for exams which are next week and listening to music on the computer at school. My birthday came and gone with little excitement but was pleasant none-the-less. The 13th fell on a Monday, so my family decided to have a dinner together to celebrate the day before, on Sunday when very little is going on. We had a nice dinner of empanadas, my favorite food here thus far, and a chocolate cake. It was very nice and relaxed. On Monday I had in the morning but enjoyed the nice weather outside at ... read more

Hello All, The week has started again and I'm back to lots of reading and writing for classes. But not before some relaxed weekend fun with the family. On Sunday the family went to a very "local" open air market, called mercados, on the outskirts of the city where they like to buy fresh produce. The people of the town close six very large blocks and all the local farmers, craftsmen/women and cooks sell out of tarp-covered stands and backs of pickup trucks. The street is packed with the locals and the smells of cooking tortillas and tamales followed us around to each stand. It was really neat. I bought a couple small figurines woven from dyed corn husks. It was a nice morning before the afternoon showers rolled in, something that has become consistent as ... read more

Hey All, I'm sitting in Jaurez Park, just a short walk from my house, using some free internet from our friends next door in the government building. How nice of them to extend their lightning-fast and free wireless connection to us in the park. Not much has been going on, just going through my daily routines with classes, hanging out with my my friend at the Univ. of Veracruz a couple times a week. All is well at home with the family but I might look into getting my own place in the next month or two. Renting apartments is easy and very affordable in Xalapa, especially in the general vicinity of the school where landlords are used to students. It's been nice living with the Hernandez family but their are certain luxuries I'd like to ... read more

Hello Friends and Family, I know that I have been out of touch for a couple weeks now. My apologies. School is now in full swing and my work has kept me quite busy. There is lots of reading and comprehension that rob the hours of the day from me. Everything has been going quite well down here in Xalapa. The weather is a little crazy, much like Victoria, with the frequent showers throughout the day but overall quite nice. Many parts of México are receiving incredible amounts of rain which has led to widespread flooding. Each day I thank our cities position way up here in the mountains. So I have had time to take a couple trips in the past few weeks. Over my long weekend for Mexican independence day the family and I ... read more