So I've just completed my first week of farmwork, which was definitely a little labor intensive prepping this area for growing. We planted beans (lots of varieties), cucumbers, eggplant, passionfruit, basil, lettuce mix and arugula, and we've still got lots of room to plant. Everyone here is great - we have family dinners on wednesdays and jen made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream with the mint we've got (not vegan...but delicious). A few days ago we had some excitement in the morning when some pigs were wandering on the farm (introduced species...but so is almost everything else). So ben got his gun and killed them, and then a guy who's working on a house on farm came down and gutted them...so now we've got pig galore (and those were BIG pigs), our freezers are all ... read more

Well, I've finally made it here after a VERY VERY long journey (2 nights in a row sleeping in airports...ick). I don't think I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I came here. I think mostly I wasn't prepared for the weather, and how TROPICAL it is here. Just coming from Puerto Rico to here, our small 8 passenger plane had to wait while a humongous iguana crossed the runway. But it was a great plane ride because I could see out the front window and on both sides for a good caribbean aerial view. And even though St. Croix is the biggest of the 3 U.S. Virgin Islands (only 28 miles by 7 miles), it still doesn't seem that big. My thoughts exactly while on the decent to the island: "Well, here's ... read more

¡Hola a todos! Less than a week here to go till I leave Mexico. Today was the last day of classes, and there´s only finals to go on Monday and Tuesday. This last weekend was pretty eventful in D.F. navigating the subway system and seeing the sights in the little time we had. D.F. reminded me a lot of San Francisco because there are so many tourists and different language´s being spoken, it made me nostalgic for the real S.F. Oh, but I forgot to include my trip to the zoo the weekend before last. Anyways, the zoo here in Morelia is huge. I went with my friend Ashley for a few hours and even in those few hours where we were constantly walking, we still didn´t see everything. One huge difference with the zoo here ... read more

¡Hola! Well, it´s been a week so read below if you want to get filled in: I decided not to go to Mexico City last weekend (a little tired from traveling every weekend before that). But last Friday (and today too), me and a friend went to the sports complex nearby where there´s an olympic sized pool plus diving pool with all of the diving platforms. I had been swimming at least a mile almost every day before coming to Mexico, and since it had been a month and a half, I was a little rusty. And in the diving pool there were about 30 waterpolo balls that we tossed around. There were tons of kids taking swimming lessons and whenever we dived off the boards they all cheered, especially when I got up the nerve ... read more

¡Hola amigos y familia! This last weekend I went to San Miguel de Allende, a town so beautiful and picturesque that it was featured in Sunset magazine! I traveled with 4 other UC students for a short trip from Friday to Saturday, but it was packed in with fun. We arrived and found ourselves a nice inn to keep some of our things while we walked around the hilly town. It was definitely a little touristy (so food was a little more expensive...but compared to the US still pretty cheap). There were lots of shops for things to decorate the home with, and a lot of art galleries (mom you would appreciate that). There were lots of churches and cathedrals (like all cities in Mexico) but the main one was pretty neoclassical looking, and when we ... read more