Blogs from Mexico, North America
Day 7
Published: May 27th 2012North America » Mexico » Distrito Federal » Mexico City » Centro Histórico
May 26th 2012
Louis were supposed to go running this morning with Aly, but neither of us woke up. I guess I will just wait until we have access to the Tec campus gym to start working out. Leslie and Arturo picked us up at 9 am, and we drove to Mexico City. The other students from Tec couldn't come today, so it was just Louis, Sarah, Aly, and me until the new student from MIT arrived, whose name is Carol. When we got to Mexico City, we first went to the nationa anthropological museum. It was huge! There are many different rooms, each with a different focus. We visited a room about the evolution of humans, which had the remains of Lucy. There was a huge room with Aztec relics, including the pierdra del sol, or rock of ... read more
May 25th 2012
Today was the day of exploring Hidalgo. I definitely needed to see the beautiful parts of the state, because the area where our residencias are are is not very nice. Before Leslie came to pick us up at 9am I tried out the little gym in the residencias. She ran late, so we had time to play a lil b-ball out front. First, we went to a gorgeous outdoor garden called San Miguel Regla. It is an old, old, old Mexican hacienda in the country side. This is where rich plantation owners controlled large areas of land and all the workers on it. Instead of paying the workers, the hacienda owners (or reglas) housed them and built municipal things (churches, post offices, etc.). Today, it is transformed into gardens, a hotel, lakes (where we rowed around ... read more
May 24th 2012
Today we travelled to the Tec campus in Pachuca, Hidalgo, where we will stay for the next few weeks. Our guide is named Leslie and is very pretty and friendly. We settled into our residencias, which are private dorms associated with Tec Hidalgo. They are very pretty, and Sarah and I will share a room. However, it is a little strange and will take some adjusting because the owners of the residencias are very conservative. Boys and girls stay on separate floors and may not enter each other's rooms. Also, we have a normal curfew of 9pm. If we ask Leslie (text, call, email) we may be able to stay out later, if she agrees with our plans. She will then give us a later curfew and let the dorm keepers know what time to expect ... read more
May 23rd 2012
Today we took a day trip to Guanajuato. Diego told us that is the most gorgeous town in all of Mexico, and I definitely believe him. After breakfast in the hotel, we walked down to the Tec campus and began the two hour drive to Guanajuato. Louis brought Catch Phrase and we played couple really intense games. Once we got to Guanajuato, we went to the famous mummy museum which has dozens of mummies on display that were exhumed from the surrounding area. I don't really know why the bodies were preserved so well, but Diego said it had something to do with the dry climate. I thought the museum was incredible and really looking at the mummies was SO interesting. I bought a little ash-tray souvenir that I can use to put rings or paper ... read more
May 23rd 2012
After the night before, it was a little difficult to wake up this morning. We had to be at Tec at 9 am to go visit the Querétaro social incubator. Once there, we did a little exercise where each pair presented some information from part of the incubator’s website. Ulysses was my partner and we presented about three of the programs that run there. This was a great way for us all to learn more about exactly what a social incubator is. Then, we heard a presentation from a woman who is one of the beginning entrepreneurs that the incubator supports. She is started a pastry business and participates in classes, business model development, and group meetings at the incubator. She was so lively and passionate about the work she has done at the incubator, and ... read more
May 22nd 2012
What a full day! The Tec de Monterrey Campus Querétaro had a packed schedule for us today. After Sarah, Aly, Erin, Ulysses, Louis and I had an awesome breakfast in the hotel, Diego picked us up and we headed over to the Tec campus, where we met up with the other students and the rest of the Tec team. After a couple welcome speeches and lots of coffee, a woman from the international office led us in an icebreaker game. We stood in a circle and tossed a ball of string from person to person. Whoever had the ball introduced themselves and talked about why he/she wanted to come to Mexico. Each held on to their segment of the string, so by the end of the game it made a net, which she said represented the ... read more
Aussies, Coffee Mescal and Mexican Dentistry!
Published: May 22nd 2012North America » Mexico » Oaxaca » Puerto Escondido
May 22nd 2012
Good early morning people! Haven't blogged for a few days, namely because I've been properly lazy! Ok explaining the title...I'll start with "Aussies". There are numerous here in town given the surf culture here. Anyway Saturday night I decided to see if I still had it in me for a night out. Proved I do but I Paid the next day haha. We left here at 6pm with a bottle of coffee flavored mescal (yummy) the 4 of us wandered up the beach to the party hostel. The evening wound up with 4 Aussie guys 3 Aussie girls...I think the 4th girl was a Kiwi, A Sepo (me) and a Mexican noone knew. As my evening wound down at 515am i found myself following my compatriots down the road with one stray Aussie reaching through the ... read more
May 21st 2012
Today was my first day in México! My flight left MIA at 6:20am, and I slept all the way to Dallas. Once there, I met up with Erin, who works with DRCLAS at Harvard and will be helping us during our first few weeks in México, and Juan, another Harvard student on the SIPSD program. Juan lived in northern México until he was 10, then moved to Texas. We boarded the tiny plane to Querétaro together and were met by our guides from Tec. de Monterrey upon arrival. Our guides, Diego and Arturo, are students at Tec. who work in the international office. We all waited in the Querétaro airport until the rest of the students arrived: Sarah, Louis, Francisco, and Sofia. Sarah is my girlfriend from club swimming, and we will be together for the ... read more
May 18th 2012
So Ellis came home from school yesterday with news that he would not be able to participate in his class pictures because his hair is too long. He went on to say that there is a particular standard for boy's hair that is strictly enforced - forehead must fully show, hair above the ears, no hair down the neck... Ellis brushed it off and was happy not to have his picture taken anyway. My belly still hurts from laughing so hard.... read more
May 16th 2012
The title says all! After days of dry lightening last night at 1030 pm I heard it...faint raindrops! Exciting for the simple reason theres been no rain here for 8 months! After a few minutes it came down hard!!!!! The Aussie surfers all popped out and into the palapa for beers to cheer it on. And the temp. dropped a glorious 10 degrees instantly. And tho I too came out and joined in the cheers i soon realized this was perfect sleeping weather and retired. As i walked down the steps a huge toad jumped out and we stared each other down in the deluge..myself perfectly happy to be getting soaked to the bone! And this morning over a pot of coffee well before anyone else is stirring i snapped pictures of the 30 or so ... read more
