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Published: June 22nd 2010
I´m back from my salsa class. My instructor Edgar is quite attractive..... QUITE (long division mom lol). I´ve danced salsa before with some Latino boyfriends from work, like at parties and stuff, so i felt pretty confident going into a free instruction. I normally turn with ease, but when he showed me the actual steps on how to turn and where my feet should be etc, i... completely.... messed.... up lol. i was doing fine by myself, but then when i danced with him, couldn´t do it! His girlfiend is una gringa. Que lastima! (too bad).
Well where was i.... ummm so saturday, we had our actual orientation at the school, and we did the tour, met some important people and some teachers, and then we went to EL CENTRO! El centro is... well, the center of the city of Cuernavaca lol. We visited the palace of Hernan Cortez, which is now a beautiful museum. Afterwards we ate dinner at an American type restaurant, in the sense that it felt like an iHop or Dennys. Then, i went barganing 😊 bought lots of stuff, met some interesting people, and didn´t pay more than 45 american dollars for the 15 kajillion stuff i bought in total. My roomate and i caught our first cab home (which i also bargained the price for) and we went to bed early to prepare for our next day in Mexico City (aka The City, OR, if you´re in Mexico, you would call it Mexico)
The City is filled with AWESOME graffiti, which is welcoming to me 😊 it feels like NYC or maybe even DC in its urbanisity (word?), but instead of basketball courts you have small soccer fields, and of course the language difference. We went to the national museum of anthropology which was beautiful. It had so many interesting exhibits, but my favorite was the Mayan exhibit. Next, we went to the Frida Khalo museum, which used to be her house. I got to know some of our group a little bit more there because my teacher is very artistic and into feminism - so she took her time/read every single thing/stopped to think about every single picture/applied it to her life etc, whereas the less artsy people sat in the courtyard (like me lol) and just hung out until she was done. Its upsetting because there are some people that speak spanish really well! but they´re not even trying to speak it with one another. Likewise for the ones in the lower level classes, they don´t even try to answer questions they know in spanish, even to our director! so its frustrating sometimes. My roomate and i have been really cool about speaking spanish even in the house. We only break if we´re in a cab, or we´re commenting about a hot guy, or if something serious happens, which is more than i anticipated from EITHER of us lol
ANYWAYS! the best part of Sunday in the city: we went to a town called Xochimilco (so-chee-meal-co) which is famous for its *Trajineras* - they´re basically long picnic benches on boats with a roof over them, made of wood, and they move through the river by someone pushing the boat in any direction with a long stick (like the guys standing on the edges of the boats pushing them through the river in Venice) but the ones in Venice are paid probably, they´re always uniformed, etc. NOT IN XOCHIMILCO! lol, if a family rents a Trajinera for the day - they make one of the young men people push the boat haha! And it was father´s day, so there were many familys out with food and drinks, just living it up on the river while the poor 15 year old grandson is slaving away pushing the boat LOL! So we´re on a trajinera, almost everyone sipping Coronas, just all on the far end of the boat looking at everything, saying hola to all the families (and in my case all the hott guys pusing them lol) (you can´t leave me alone in a latin american country) and we just had a GREAT time. there were some trajineras with live mariachi bands, and my teacher paid 80 pesos for 4 songs, so their trajinera and our trajinera were side by side for a while going up this crowded river, there were some people on trajineras selling food and more cold drinks, it was wonderful. By the end of the ride (which we were on the river for a good 2 hours) we finished about 25 coronas (i only had 1!) and then we went to bargain hunt some more before getting on the long bus ride back to Cuernavaca. Sunday is a day i will never forget, and when i grow up, i want a trajinera 😊
Yesterday I had my first day of school, which is like all others. I got lost and had to ask for directions to certain buildings at least twice lol. The campus is really small, but its a very nature friendly campus with like 17 gardens. I have an hour of conversation in the morning, 2 hours of buisness spanish, 2 hours of poetry and translation, and 1 hour of conversation. I´m in school from 8am-2pm (mexico time of course). My conversation classes are in the gardens, and basically i have a group.... and we have conversations! lol the whole idea is to practice spanish with a native speaker who is going to be able to correct us. I love both of my teachers (they call themselves volunteers). They´re like grad students, so they´re almost my age, and our conversations our informal. Immean we´re all young, so why are we going to have a stuck up curriculum when we can speak, learn, and have fun while speaking the language? My buisness teacher is funny, his name is Felipe, and his English is really good. My poetry teacher is my director Muñoz, the one i came with from VCU, so i´m accostumed to her and her rapid Colombian accent, others, not so much lol. After we´re done with classes, mamá picks us up and we eat lunch at home. Except today, because free salsa lessons are every tuesday and thursday at 4, and i don´t want to pay for a cab when i can stay here, eat cheap, and update my blog for you guys!!!
I am pleased to report that i have eaten just about everything that the CDC, AMA, WHO-E-VER said to stay away from, and i have YET to get sick 😊 about 2 people in my group have been sick so far, but not my roomie and i. Mamá fixes Huevos Mejicanos (Mexican eggs), Mangos, Sincronizadas (my FAVORITE thing in Mexico to eat so far) and Sanwich Calientes (basically grilled cheese). I´ve eaten apples, chillies, breads, everything. If you stay away from the water, you will succeed. I´ve had almost 1 alcoholic drink a day since i´ve been here, but i don´t have more than one because i don´t want to get kicked out of the country lol. But in our house mamá has special drinking water for us, and we brush our teeth with bottled water. I´ve walked to Walmart once, because it´s right down the street from our house, and it is WAYYYYYY different. I haven´t been to a McDonalds yet, but i plan to lol. Dorritos taste better here, and FÚTBOL ay Dios Mio!!!!
Mexico is doing well, so of course the entire country is in a state of excitement. They were very proud to beat france 2-0, and i, an American citizen visiting Mexico, almost cried when Mexico lost 0-1 against Uruguay this morning. My buisness teacher let us go over an hour ealy so that we could all watch the end of the game, which was great considering everyone in the school was basically huddled around a television on almost every part of the campus lol. I think everyone BUT my vcu group was wearing a green or black Mexico jersey at school today lol. I wore green, but its not the same, i stood out lol. That is something i plan on buying before i leave: a jersey with either the numbers 17 for Dos Santos, or 14 for Chuchirito - My 2 favorite players, which also happen to be hotties. BUT THEY´RE GOOD PLAYERS TOO I PROMISE!!! lol
But, it was a good idea to buy a new pair of converses because i see a lot of Mexicans wearing them. My Mexican friends in the states were right: only Americans wear flip flops. I see sandals sometimes, but most of the time its flats, or sneakers that i see. Older ladies wear sandals with a little bit of heal, but other than that, no heals. VCU is not the only group here, there is a group from NC State (who would have thunk? AND I WENT TO MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH ONE OF THEM!) also a group from CA Santa Cruz.... which is kinda funny, because out of 30 students, 5 of them are NOT native spanish speakers, and all the native spanish speakers are here taking grammar classes because NONE of them know how to read or write in spanish! so its funny because they may have me in speaking and understanding, but i can atleast write a paper without too much of a struggle 😊 there´s also a group from the naval academy here, and you can tell just by what they wear to school everyday: shirt, tie, dress shoes.
But, its 18:21 here, i´m done i think. am i missing something?..... temperature is perfect for me here. it´s rained ever other night, so the day after rain is a nice cool day. if i can i´ll try and upload some pictures of at least the Trajineras.
i love whoever took the time to read this, and i miss you and the united states, but i´m having too much fun here to leave 😊 sorry. immean i´ll come back for you, but not for another 3.5 weeks. lol
Adios
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Auntie
non-member comment
wow lots of updates
So glad to hear you are having a great time, and thanks for taking the time to update and post the pictures. The way you describe Mexico, it sounds just the way it sounds in movies, even down to the bargaining. And, they have a Walmart? Who would have thunk it? Don't worry about a blanket for me. Just get whatever you want (jewelry, ornament, etc.). Your cousin said he doesn't care what color the poncho is. I'm surprised that more of your classmates aren't speaking Spanish all the time. I guess it's something that takes getting used to. Anyway, thanks for posting, we love you, and now I know now to check back on Tuesdays and Thursdays.