When Ester and I got to Palenque, we stayed at a place called El Panchán. When you first enter, there are a few open air restaurants covered in tents, with 4 different sleeping accomodations places around it in the jungle (cabins, dorms, hammocks, etc.). We each paid about $5 for our cabaña for the night, brought our stuff to our very rustic room, then went to get some dinner at the restaurant with two other travelers, Alex, a German woman (taking a 5 week vacation here in Mexico) and Julian, a French guy (on the last leg of his 2 month [View Full Entry]

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Updating from my favorite Mexican city so far! I planned on updating just before I left for an 11 day backpacking adventure through the south of Mexico, but things were a little hectic with writing an 8 page final project until 5am last Thursday night, getting the backpack together, and wrapping up (my last semester of) classes in general. Today would be... day number 5 of my trip, and I am in beautiful San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Mexican state of Chiapas! I can´t post pics just yet... you´ll have to hold onto your pants until I get back [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's just around midnight on a Sunday night, and I'm feeling strangely inspired to (try to) recreate the amazing blog post I lost yesterday afternoon. For any of you that have studied abroad or spent an extended period of time in another culture, I'm entering the... "uh oh, my time is soon coming to an end, what would happen if I stayed?" phase. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'm coming home. It's just that Mexico is coming to a close (well, Mexico as a nation is not ceasing to exist, just that the end of my time here is drawing [View Full Entry]

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I created a new entry-- It was amazing. Then something happened and I lost it. I'll recapture everything when I have more time. [View Full Entry]

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Well everyone, Writing once again from my home here in Monterrey, Físicos 380 (interior). The past few weekends have been somewhat low-key, which is really nice. I completed my 2nd (and longest) internship paper this past week, I've been learning about Mexican culture and politics, I've surveyed more foreign visitors at the Museum, and I am now a Spanish compound sentence expert! I've said this before: time is seriously whipping by. Reality check: I've been here for 3.5 months!! Where did the time go?! This coming week begins our 11th week of classes, which end November 17. Finals o [View Full Entry]

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Hey y'all! I hope life is treating you well wherever you are! 24 hours ago I was looking out at the Gulf of Mexico, letting the saltwater tickle my toes, and enjoying some great fish empanadas... "We should travel this weekend..." --that's pretty much how this all started... James suggested we take a weekend trip, because he doesn't want to go back to Australia having regretted staying in Monterrey every weekend this semester. Soooo, Christin, James and I went back to my place, looked through the Lonely Planet Guide book and checked out a few places at the recommendation of our [View Full Entry]

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¡Hola amigos! I'm writing once again from Monterrey, but I spent the past 3 days in Guadalajara, celebrating Mexican Independence Day. This entails the top local government official (mayor/governor) giving the grito "¡Viva Mexico!" It's an amazing thing, central plazas all over Mexico packed with people all celebrating independence on the same night... We got into GDL before noon, piled into another taxi-van and got to our hotel, unpacked a bit, and took a walking tour. (See photos.) At the end of the tour was a huge 3 story market that sells EVERYTHING. I heard the phrases "A sus ordene [View Full Entry]

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And because I have some pictures to post and a couple of you have bothered me about updating, here's some eye candy and the latest from Monterrey. This past weekend, I headed downtown with an Austrian, an Australian and a Czech. Oh, good times were had all around and memories were made. We wanted to see some sights, check out some museums, and explore Monterrey a little bit more in depth. We arrived downtown, took some pictures and walked through Macroplaza or la Gran Plaza, in the middle of downtown. It is one of the biggest plazas in the world, with [View Full Entry]

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Hola everyone! I hope all is well in Chicago, Green Bay, De Pere, Virginia, Texas, or from wherever else you might be catching up. I myself have been a busy lass down here in Mexico but you're in luck because I have some time to update!! Since the last time I've written, I have waited in many, many lines, endured much confusion over seemingly easy processes (for example, who knew I'd have to go to 6 different places on campus to enroll in a salsa dancing class with some friends... or how difficult it would be to get the university to [View Full Entry]

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But it sure gives me something to write home about! ;) Life in Mexico: a few observations written over days/weeks I'd like to share with you all a few simple things I've learned. 1. The authentic way to eat a taco: Take a half lime, squirt the juice all over the taco, add spicy spicy salsa, and roll it up. Then eat. 2. Those hard "taco shells" that we have in the U.S.? They're pretty much non-existent in Mexico. 3. If there's not (at least) one taco stand on every block, you're not in Mexico. Some are open 7-7. That's right. [View Full Entry]

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