TravelStream™ news feed for member btb387 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/btb387 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:59:19 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206924120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206924120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206924120/tpod.html Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:59:19 -0400 Monterrey '08

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Morelia, Mexico

The last leg of my Spring break was spent in Morelia. I have a friend from school here who lives there, so she showed us around.  Morelia is said to be the most beautiful colonial city in Mexico. I would have to agree. It has a really cool cathedral and an old aqueduct, and there weren't many foreign tourists at all, which was nice. Also, we stayed at our friend's house, which gave me another good look at Mexican culture. Besides seeing all of the city, we went to a lake house in Cucuchucho (I think I can, I think I can...). Lake Patzcuaro is a very nice place. This was another family gathering.  There were three belated birthday celebrations all at once, they even had 3 different cakes.  After that, we went to the actually town center, which was also very nice.  There is a large indigenous population, and many people speak indigenous dialects instead of Spanish. The celebrations for Semana Santa are very important for Catholics. It was basically a mixture of Christmas and the 4th of July.  A lot of Mexicans come to Morelia for these celebrations because of the cathedral, and the fact that Morelia is a nice place to visit. I had a great time and would like to go back sometime.  We left Morelia on Sunday night.  I was pretty worn out from the week, so I slept pretty well on the bus. It was the second 12-hour bus trip in a week for me, so I'm basically a bus riding expert. I arrived back in Monterrey at 8 in the morning. I got all of my stuff in order, took a nap, and went to class at 4.  My Spring break lasted 10 days, and I saw a little bit of everything. I'm really glad I decided not to go to the beach.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1207546320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1207546320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1207546320/tpod.html Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:56:55 -0400 Monterrey '08

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Cuatro Ciénegas, Mexico

This weekend I went camping in Cuatro Cienegas with some friends. I had a great time.  Cuatro Cienegas is a very interesting place.  It is in the middle of the desert, but it has several pools (pozas) that are fed by ground water. I'm not sure, but I think they're heated by some kind of geothermal activity. The water was warm even during the night.  A lot of these pools have fish species that are unique to Cuatro Cienegas (NASA has been studying some of the pozas lately). The camp site was typical and relatively empty.  There were also sand dunes nearby.  By far, the best part for me was the sky. There were no lights within about a 15-mile radius, so the stars were amazing.  Also, there was no moon, which made it even better.  I would actually put the nighttime sky I saw on the same level as seeing the Grand Canyon. There were tons of shooting stars. Swimming in 80-degree water in the middle of the desert while watching shooting stars--I'm not sure if it gets any better than that. The next day, we hiked out to see the dunes.  We walked about 4 miles during the heat of the day to see them.  I drank about 3 liters of water and wore a long sleeve shirt.  It's so hot and sunny that you'll burn even if you're wearing 45-spf sunscreen.  The white sand was also very cool.  The camping itself was also quite a bit of fun.  We had hot dogs and good old marshmallows, or bombones, as they are called here. Everything went extremely well.  I'm definitely planning on going back to Cuatro Cienegas someday.  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206923460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206923460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206923460/tpod.html Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:41:37 -0400 Monterrey '08

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Cuernavaca, Mexico

The second part of my Spring break was a day in Cuernavaca, the city of eternal Spring.  Cuernavaca is about an hour south of Mexico City.  While I was there, I stayed with one of my Mexican friend's relatives. Instead of going to the beach, they had everyone in their family get together.  There were a lot of people (probably about 20) and lots of really good food.  I got to eat a mango right off the tree.  I was the only foreigner there.  I spoke with 4 generations of their family (in Spanish) which was very interesting. I tried my best to understand everything they were saying, and they were all patient and hospitableCuernavaca's downtown is really nice. It was a nice break from Monterrey and Mexico City. It has a lot of nice architecture and history, as well as really cheap, good food.  I only stayed there for 2 nights and a day, but I'm glad I had the chance to visit.   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206921960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206921960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1206921960/tpod.html Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:31:11 -0400 Monterrey '08

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Mexico City, Mexico

Spring break this year was a lot of fun.  I traveled Mexico City with a group of 8 (5 Americans, 1 French, 1 French-Canadian, 1 Mexican). Semana santa (Holy week) is the equivalent of our Spring break.  During this time, most Mexicans go to the beach, so Mexico City was relatively "empty." An empty Mexico City still has more people than Chicago, so I can't imagine what it would be like with everyone there. We stayed in a hostel that is right next to the famous cathedral and Zocalo plaza.  It was really cheap ($10/night w/ breakfast included).  We stayed there for 4 days.  Mexico City was a lot different than any place I had ever been.  In the center, there are temple ruins mixed with Spanish colonial buildings, some of which were built from stone taken from the ancient temple. The Spanish influence is really strong. Although I've never been to Europe, much of the city looks like it belongs in Europe.  There is also modern development in form of skyscrapers and the metro.  The metro was especially interesting for me.  It only costs 2 pesos to go anywhere in the city.  For this reason, it was incredibly busy.  People walk around in the metro cars selling gum and bootleg CDs. If you know where you want to go, the metro is the best way to get there. We used it everyday without any problems, and it saved us a lot of time and money.  We visited many museums, the campus of UNAM, which is the oldest university in the Americas, and a few of the suburbs.  We also took a tourist bus around. This was a good way to see most of the most notable parts of the city.  On the third day, we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan, which was the largest indigenous city ever built in Mexico. Another memorable event was a public demonstration against current government.  There were probably about 25,000 protesters.  Overall, Mexico City was great. It was extremely interesting and not at all what I expected it to be.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1204399680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1204399680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1204399680/tpod.html Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:41:56 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Santiago, Mexico

A few weeks ago, I went on a trip to Cola de Caballo.  It's a really nice waterfall that isn't too far from campus.  At Cola de Caballo, there is a bungee jumping platform (actually the tallest one in Mexico).  I had never jumped before, so I decided it would be a good idea. I thought I was going to get really nervous, but I actually was not until I was on the edge of the platform. I thought I was going to die for about the first half-second of the jump, but I didn't, so that's always a good thing.  I had a lot of fun and would probably do it again.  After the jump, we went to the waterfall, which was beautiful.  Nothing like a nice waterfall to calm your nerves after bungee jumping. Overall, it was a good day trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202515980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202515980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202515980/tpod.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:25:42 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Monterrey, Mexico

My first exams were this week.  Instead of having midterms and finals, they have 3 parciales.  I didn't really know what to expect.  None of my professors said what the format would be, so I was a little worried.  The first day, I had my international econ. test and a history presentation to give.  My econ. test didn't go too well at all.  First, it is a Spanish class, which makes things difficult.  Second, and most important,  I forgot my dictionary. The test had true/false with justification, and also graphs and written response questions.  I have no idea how it went.  I can drop the class if I have to, but I would rather not.  My history presentation wasn't too bad.  I was the first person to go, so I don't think he was expecting too much. I had my Spanish test the next day.  I also had trouble with knowing what to study for this test.  I think it went ok, but who knows.  I should know how everything went by the end of next week.I'm pretty excited about this weekend.  Saturday I am going to Cola de Caballo (a waterfall) where you can also bungee.  Its the highest bungee platform in Mexico, so it should be pretty cool.  I've never done it before, so I hoping I have the nerve to try it. On Sunday, I'm going to Huasteca, which is basically like a little canyon.  I'm going with my rock climbing class.  It will be the first time I've climbed on real rock (so far its only been on the rock wall at TEC).  The weather is supposed to be great both days, so I think it's going to be a good weekend.   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202167680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202167680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1202167680/tpod.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:14:13 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Monterrey, Mexico

This weekend, which was four days long, was great.  On Thursday night, after my climbing class, I went out to eat with some of my friends here.  We ate a a restaurant called "Tacos Leal." It was really good food, as is most of the food here. The drink situation was confusing though.  I asked for water, which is fine for drinking in Monterrey.  They charged me the same price as the soft drinks.  It turns out that they don't have water there, so I ended up drinking jamaica.  It was fine, I'm just not used to eating at a place that doesn't have water.After eating, we went to the movies.  We saw Antes de Partir (The Bucket List).  I thought it was a pretty good movie, and the tickets here only cost $5, which is cheap compared to what I'm used to. The movie was in English with Spanish subtitles.  I enjoyed it because I it helps improve my Spanish-English translation skills.  After the movie, I headed home for the night.On Friday, I didn't do much until the afternoon.  I love not having classes on Fridays. At 3:00, I had my first meeting with my partner in the conversation club. We practiced speaking Spanish for 30 minutes, and then English for another 30 minutes.  I think it will help out a lot. She doesn't speak much English, so I was trying to explain things about the English language while speaking in Spanish. I look forward to more of these meetings.  Afterward, I met up with friends again.  We went out to eat at El Pollo Loco. One of the guys paid for everyone's dinner because had just received his first paycheck from a new job.  The "Crazy Chicken" is basically like a Mexican KFC, but a lot better.  The chicken was grilled and you it eat with tortillas and salsa.  There's also unlimited chips and salsa.  I thought it was really good.  After eating, we went to a place called the Luv Pub.  It's a little bar across the street from campus.  It was a lot different from other places I've been.  We sat on the floor--there were tons of pillows--which I thought was pretty cool. Most of the music was techno and in English, but all of the Mexicans knew all of the words.  They thought it was crazy that I didn't know the words to from my own country. The music was good, but a bit of a problem too.  I'm still learning Spanish, and loud music doesn't make comprehension any easier. It was a good time though, so I can't complain.On Saturday, I woke up relatively early to go swimming in the lap pool on campus. The last time a swam laps was my freshman year of high school, so it was good to get back in the pool. I ate lunch at home, which was delicious as always. One of my friends here, Sen, had a birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant at 7. About 12 of us all met up for the dinner, which was very different and good.  It was an interesting atmosphere for me.  Out of the 12, I was the only English-speaker.  There were 2 French, 5 Japanese, me, and 4 Mexicans.  All of the speak Spanish, which is good.  It's cool to be able use Spanish to communicate with people from non-Spanish-speaking countries.  They are all really nice people, and going to a Japanese restaurant with Japanese people means that you are going to eat some good food. On Sunday, I stayed at home the whole day.  My host family, all of whom are big NFL fans, had a superbowl party at our house.  We have a nice patio with a brick grill and plenty of room.  We brought the t.v. outside (it was about 75 degrees). Mexicans know how to have fun. We had really good burgers and carne asada, among other things. About 15 people showed up, so it was quite the superbowl party.  It was interesting though, because they don't have superbowl commercials in Mexico (and the play-by-play was in Spanish).  The Giants won, so I was really happy.Today is a national holiday (Dia de la Constitucion).  It's basically the equivalent of Labor Day. I have a lot of homework to do, but I've been taking occasional stops to eat leftovers, so it's not too bad.  It also means that I only have 3 days of class this week. I have my first exams on Wednesday, so that will be interesting.  I'm taking international economic theory in Spanish.  I know Spanish, but not well enough to understand everything that the professor says.  Hopefully the test won't be too difficult.  I also have to give a 10-15 minutes presentation on Wednesday.  It's about the colonial history of Mexico, but it's in English, so it shouldn't be bad.  I also have to finish my student visa application this week.  I've got a lot to do, but the weekend will be here soon.  All is well in Mexico.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201502820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201502820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201502820/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:26:42 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Real de Catorce, Mexico

I just got back from our trip to Real de Catorce.  Before we left, I didn't really know what to expect (it's an old mining town, what were we going to do for two days?).  It was much better than I had anticipated.  The bus ride there took about five hours, but I didn't mind it too much. Real has an elevation of about 9,000 feet, so the ride up there was through some mountains. The last couple of miles of road leading to the town is cobblestone.  When we got there, we were greeted by a bunch of vendors and a tunnel. I ate some stuff called quijote, which is a root. You chew just chew on it.  It was very different, but I thought it tasted pretty good. We stayed on the outside of Real for about 30 minutes.To get to the actual town, all of us had to load up onto the back of a pick-up truck.  We drove through the tunnel, which is about two miles long and goes right through a mountain.  It was almost like a roller coaster ride.  When we arrived in Real, we checked into our hotel.  It was very old, but in a good way.  After that, we rode horses up a mountain. It was a lot of fun, and we got to see a ghost town area as well as a great view of the town from above.The shops and restaurants at Real were very interesting.  Everything was pretty good and cheap.  We ate dinner at one of the restaurants, which took a long time (there were about 50 of us).  After dinner, things became very interesting.  The guides told us that they had two "surprises" for us. These surprises were completely unpredictable:  A cockfight and a wedding. In Real, there is a really old amphitheater used for cock fighting.  We watched two roosters fight, but their claws were covered, so they didn't hurt each other (I would have felt badly otherwise). After the fight, we headed to the wedding. Weddings in Real are open to everyone in town, so we went.  If you ever want to feel completely awkward, crash a Mexican wedding with about 40 other gringos.  I actually felt bad about it.  Everyone was looking at us instead of the bride and groom.  The guides told me that our being there wasn't disrespectful, so I just tried to take in all that I could.  There was a lot, and I mean a lot, of free beer.  There was also a bunch of dancing. I have never seen so many really happy people all in one place.  We actually participated in one of the rituals.  All the men went out onto the dance floor. The bride and groom stood on chairs.  The bride's veil was used like a limbo bar.  It was crazy and a lot of fun.  I would have never thought that I would be able to participate in a Mexican wedding festivities. I tripled my knowledge of Mexican culture in an hour.After the wedding, me and a few guys went to a cantina. Cantinas are only for men, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was just like a saloon from an old western movie.  We stayed there for about half an hour.  Most of the guys in there were really rough looking, so we thought we would leave before wearing out our welcome.  It was another great experience.In the morning, we ate breakfast at a little restaurant.  I had the huevos rancheros. It was probably the best breakfast I've ever eaten.  After breakfast, a member of one of the indigenous population taught us about his people's traditions, on of which is chewing a special cactus that has hallucinative properties. It was all very interesting.Once we had learned about the indigenous traditions, we checked out the markets.  The people sell just about anything you can imagine. The vendors don't speak English, but it shouldn't have mattered, "no" is the same in English and Spanish.  They would not take leave us alone.  One lady followed us for about two blocks (She really thought we needed to buy here gorditas).  We eventually slipped into a restaurant for lunch.  Once again, the food was delicious.We headed home shortly after lunch.  The bus ride back wasn't bad at all.  The whole trip was great.  I am really glad I decided to go.  A cock fight, wedding, and cantina:  I'm not sure what else we could have done to learn about Mexican tradition.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201059480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201059480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1201059480/tpod.html Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:01:34 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Monterrey, Mexico

It's Tuesday of the second week of classes, and things are starting to pick up.  My classes are going pretty well.  I'm having some trouble with my two classes in Spanish.  At the TEC, teamwork is a part of every class.  In all of my classes, we have formed teams.  I tend to work better alone, so this will be a good learning experience for me.  The only thing that I really don't like about it is the scheduling part.  It's hard to have a meeting with three or four people who have completely different schedules.  Other than that, it has been great so far.  In my international economics class, I am the only non-Mexican student, so my group members only speak Spanish. It's really forcing me to think in Spanish almost all of the time.  I also am in a group with a guy from Mexico and a guy from France.  The Mexican speaks Spanish and a little bit of English.  The French guy speaks French and a little bit of Spanish and English.  That's a lot of languages.  I think by the end of the semester I will probably know a lot more about a lot of different cultures, which is a great thing.In addition to my five academic classes, I am taking a rock climbing class and will be playing intramural basketball.  I'm also in the conversation club, which should really help my spoken Spanish.  The first climbing class was tonight.  When I signed up for it, I didn't really think too much about the fact that it would be taught in Spanish.  I now realize that this class will be like an additional Spanish class, and I might learn a little bit about climbing.  Learning how to tie climbing knots seems like it would not be difficult, but when you can't understand a good part of the directions, it's a little more confusing.  I am also the only American in this class, so I've been able to meet more Mexicans, which is a great thing since I've really been trying not to hang out with Americans.On another completely unrelated note, my host family experience has been great so far.  The Mexican food is delicious.  Half the time I don't have a clue what I'm eating, but it is wonderful.  Mexicans don't really seem to use specific words for meat. Every time I ask what something is, they just say "carne."  In Mexico, there only seems to be chicken (pollo) and every other type of meat (carne).  I guess it doesn't really matter. Also, my dinners are often in the company of several generations of my host family.  Tonight, I ate with my host parents' granddaughter, son, daughter-in-law, and mother.  That's four generations at one table.  It's very interesting to me.  These kind of dinners happen about two or three times a week. The way Mexican families interact is much different from what I am used to, and I am really enjoying the experience.Well, that was a lot, but I figured I write down what I've been thinking about before I get too busy.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1200777240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1200777240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/btb387/1/1200777240/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:21:37 -0500 Monterrey '08

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Villa de García, Mexico

Today, I went to las grutas de Garcia with a big group of international students.  It took about an hour to drive there, and it only cost $12, so I thought it would be a good idea to go. The cave entrance was near the top of a mountain, so we rode a cable car to the top.  The caves were really big, and there were many. It was very touristy, but I still had a good time.  Also, the view of the mountains around the entrance was impressive.  Overall, it was a good trip.  I look forward to going on more of these trips each weekend.
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