School and class fieldtrip!

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¡Hola a todos!

Well, midterms are over and I passed! This last weekend our whole class went to Guanajuato, a beautiful town that once produced 20% of the world's silver. The city is located in a crevice between mountains and there are underground roads in the main part of the city for traffic which used to be mining tunnels (cool!). Nowadays the city mostly relies on tourism, and man are there a LOT of tourists. Three other girls and I stayed in a hostel along with Japanese, Swedish, English, and other Americans. Our list of things to do from the professors included some 17 places, which no one got around to doing all of them, and my group got about 14 done. These places included the House of Diego Rivera, Museum of Don Quijote, the Alhóndigo where Hidalgo battled the Conquistadors, the Cathedral (of course), and my favorite the Mummy Museum.

The mummy museum is really controversial for a lot of mexicans because they think it is disrespectful to display the dead in glass display cases, and to make money from it. But there were mostly Mexican tourists there anyways. The burial system is really interesting in this country because you have to keep paying rent to keep you relatives in the ground, or you can pay for a set amount of years. Once the years are up or the family can't pay anymore, they dig you up! Hence, all the mummies in the museum were dug up because no one could pay the rent and there were no relatives to collect the remains. However, it was discovered that the dry climate and the minerals in the soil preserved the bodies really well. The skin and hair was intact (even on the genitals), and some of them had eyes in the sockets! Slightly creepy, but really cool!

Salsa: so there are 2 kinds of salsa, Libre (freestyle) and Línea (line dancing). I've been learning Libre in Morelia but I've been wanting to learn Línea. A friend in Morelia had connections to a really good Línea teacher in Guanajuato so 4 of us took a lesson of Friday. It was really intense because Línea is WAY more technical than Libre, but it was pretty educational. My month of salsa lessons is done here in Morelia and I'm probably going to continue with another month - I'm asking the teacher to help me with learning Linea.

Anyways, Guanajuato was great, and the 3 other girls and I found this Indian restaurant which had fabulous food and great service for an awesome price. This weekend I was thinking of going to Mexico city but I feel like I'm a little traveled out. One of my brothers was telling me last night about sulfer hot springs about an hour outside of town, so a couple friends and I might take a day trip. I also want to see batman this weekend. Usually tickets are $5 which is half of what it costs in the US. However they have VIP theaters for $9 a ticket where you sit in a leather recliner and a waiter takes your order for popcorn, beer, whatever snacks (sounds like this theater is for you, dad). I think I might go there just for the experience.

There is still lots of family and family friends over to the house, especially because one of my sisters just had a historectomy, so she's been in bed for the past week in a lot of pain. Speaking of sickness, it seems that at some point or another, almost everyone has gotten sick and had to stay home a day...except for me! Maybe it's my diet or something, but I've been pretty good.

It's not been a good week for some people. 3 girls were in a combi accident, 1 girl was mugged (she's physically okay...just her purse was taken), and one guy had to go back to the US because he got salmonella. Oh, and since most of us are pretty fed up and tired of going to school, 2 girls decided to ditch school altogether this week and go south to Chiapas. Uhh, I wish I was there, but I also need to pass these classes.

More observations:
-Milk here comes in boxes like soy milk...you don't have to refrigerate it until you open the box. Weird.
-Guys are sometimes forward on the streets when you pass by, whistling and calling after you. Some of the cars even have whistling horns. I think the horn is a little much.

Well, that's all for now. I'll let you know how the hot springs go next week! And I've been emailing you all this summer, but I want to hear from you too and see what you're all up to. Hasta luego!

Mon

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Photos

guanajuato
una plaza

las calles
this town is very hilly and the streets are all windy