Hace mucho tiempo que te escribo!

Sorry its been so long! I've been quite busy lately. Since I have soo much to talk about, this is going to be a 2 part story. The first part will be about my weekend 2 weekends ago in Cuetzalan..

So we embarked on our journey on friday, leaving for the small town of Cuetzalan, Puebla. Situated in the middle of the forest, it offered some cool cave exploring and waterfall view etc. When we arrived, we got settled in at the Hotel Posada, for only $8/night! We stayed up to play poker for a little while which was fun, and then out on the town. We had dinner at this small restaurant around the corner from our hotel, which actually got my order wrong 3 times during the weekend, I think we only at there maybe 4 times. Way to go.

The city itself was very quaint, and similar to what I would imagine an old italian city to be. But i've never been to Italy so I could be way off. Friday night we hired a tour guide to take us a few places the following mornings so..

We woke up early and decended into the small city, found our tour guide who took us to an archeological zone nearyby which was pretty cool!

Afterwords we took a long path through the forest to come to a watering hole with a huge waterfall pouring down into it. The seven of us changed and ran(while screaming) into the water which was cold as ice. It was quite a spectacle for the Mexicans that were watching(and laughing) all the gringos run into the freezing cold water. Truth be told only Joe and I out of the 7 are true gringos. There was a couple reppelling down the face right next to the waterfall. My buddy James went and asked the couple how much it would cost to rappell(we didn't know they were just a couple doing it for fun), they said nothing and that they would take us up if we wanted. So James and I got in the harness and climbed up this slippery, wet and dangerous slope to the top of the Waterfall about 100 feet up. James went first and rappelled down the face, and I followed after. I was trying to hop a bit, before realizing that the guy at the bottom was yelling "camina!" (walk!), James and I had both previously learned a belay-style rappelling which includes a belay, or a specific type of brake. This way you can leap a bit off the rock face and loosen up the break so that you're jumping down(and backwards) and allowing gravity to bring you back to the face. We didn't know that we were doing static-rappelling. Jumping off the face doesn't work, let me tell you. It wasn't like lightly jumping off the wall and returning to it easily, it was like jumping on solid ground and returning harshly only that you're 80 feet in the air, sideways/upsidedown. So after we figured out we weren't supposed to jump, we calmly rappelled and walked down the face, with the waterfall surging only feet from where we were. After getting to the bottom we bought a few beers for our new friends and thanked them repeatedly.



After our journey to the waterfall, we return to Cuetzalan and took a bus to a network of caves to explore. We were all exhausted and hungry but spent an hour underground in a cave. Every 50 feet or so we would arrive at a ladder or something to climb to a new section or descend to a different area of the caverns. We arrove at one point where there was a long ladder that descended about 3 stories, and next to it, the rope option that descended to the same place. The rope was tied at the top and bottom and had knots in it to let yourself down, the ladder was just secured and made of wood. I was feeling courageous so I decided to take the ropes option. Scary idea. Rappelling 100 feet down a rock face next to a waterfall was nothing compared to this. I was not secured anywhere, and although it was only 30 or so feet down, the rope was drenched in wet mud making it very slippery. My hands burned as I descended down the rope, being as careful as possible. If I slipped I would have a nice 20 foot fall down to pure rock. Not to mention the way that the rocks formed in the caves they made spear like hills on the ground from mud and gravel falling over time from the roof. I luckily made it down in one peice, obviously, or else you would be reading my obituary rather than my blog.
We exited the caves to a grave-yard like movie scene. Cuetzalan is well known for being very misty and cloudy at night. We stood in the middle of a field at night time with nothing but mist surrounding us. A truly erie experience.



We returned, took showers, napped, got some food and rested a bit before going out into town. Being such a small town we were suprised to find that there was in fact a club. After paying the $30 peso entrance fee, we entered the club that was playing salsa music. Come to find that we were the only people there. when I say only, I don't mean it wasn't very crowded, I mean that for the next 2 hours we, our group of 10(we picked up a few americans at the hotel), were the only people in the club (apart from the bartenders and the 1 DJ). Needless to say it was histerical.

The following day we took another journey to the other well-known waterfall. We had to descend a short ways to a small bank. The water was just as cold as before. We hid our things in the woods and started to cross the bank. In order to get to the waterfall, we had to traverse through the river a ways, with no land trail to get to where we were going. I wanted to take pictures so I wrapped my camera in a plastic bag and swam with it, making sure as to not get it wet. It was beautiful!






To be continued...

Los planes que tengo.. y todo que voy a ver.

So instead of the usual movie every night, which occurred around 4-6 nights a week has now turned into poker nights that last nearly twice as long as a movie. We've gotten a nice group of 5-7 guys to play poker nearly every night. Its been loads of fun! We bet 20 pesos a person each game, which roughly is about $1.50. Not much but allows you to win like $6, which is pretty cool. Most of the games end a bit earlier than one person winning so we end up splitting the pool of money between two of us. Luckily I have won a bit the past few games, and am up 65 pesos so far! Last night i was incredible lucky and got a straight flush 9-Q Spades, one card off from a Royal Flush, the best hand in poker. The odds of this hand are around hundreds of thousands to one, so it was pretty cool.

I had a pretty easy day with my only class being Etica y transparencia en los negiocios(Ethics and transparency in business). At lunch today I ran into a girl from my art class who asked me if I went to class today. A bit confused, I told her I thought we didn't have class, and that the class was cancelled this week. She said that she knew all the architecture students didn't have the class because they have "talleres" or workshop this week, so all of the architecture students don't have the class this week. I asked how many of the students were architecture students, and she replied with the majority, which is what I thought. So we ended the conversation both not knowing whether or not class occurred this week because she's an architecture student and I was under the impression that because most of the class had workshop, it was cancelled. However the possibility that something got lost in translation and caused me to miss a week of art is definitely possible. Sweet. Good think the teachers are pretty relaxed here.

After talking a bit about travel plans for the semester with a few friends, I'm getting increasingly excited about my schedule to travel. It's going to be crazy busy!

This coming weekend we're staying on campus instead of going to Veracruz because it'll be a bit expensive and the weather will be bad in which part or all of the carneval could be cancelled.

Next weekend the 20th/21st of Feb. we're probably going to go to Cuetzalan which is a jungle city with like 30kms of explorable caves, natural swimming pools, huge waterfalls etc. Its also super cheap, only around $20 round trip by bus and somewhere between $6 to $12/night to stay. Some of us who don't have class on friday may leave thursday and meet up with those coming on friday. We'll see.


The following weekend we may stay in Cholula, and either hike Popo, a glacier-capped mountain which stands 5400m above sea level(thats like 16,000ft), or maybe go to africam safari which is a animal reservation near where we are that aparently has 3000 species of animals, with cars that drive through and get up close and personal with the elephants and rhinos.

The first weekend in March 6th and 7th may be the weekend to go to Palenque, infortunately a long ways away(which mean we would definitely leave thursday after class) is supposedly increadibly beautiful. The place we're looking at to stay has a pool by the jungle where monkey frequent on a regular basis... how sweet is that? It also has jungle ruins in addition to waterfalls.


The next weekend is especially long, 4 days, friday because i don't have class, and monday is a day of rest, so we don't have classes that day. I'm trying to plan a trip where my friend James and I would fly to Ecuador to visit a close friend from SMC, Kath Hackett. The plane tickets are a bit expensive but I definitely wanted to travel to other countries while here in Mexico, but its just too difficult to get to Guatemala or Belize, and way too costly. It would cost more to bus to Guatemala than to fly to Ecuador, if that makes any sense. So I'm thinking we may miss a couple days of class on Wed and Thurs and travel from Wed to Mon and go to Quito, Ecuador. Maybe travel during the weekend once in Ecuador. I'm very excited for this trip to work out.

The following weekend is when reto negocios is taking place at school. Three days of business speakers and also during those three days, the business department has cancelled all classes. So I only have art on Wed. During this weekend there is a woodstock-style outdoor concert on a beach of Veracruz where you can camp out in a tent on the beach and listen to music all day and night. Sounds AWESOME! That's the plan for this weekend!

The next weekend of the 27th and 28th of March is the beginning of "la semana santa" or Saint's week(spring break). A carful of us are going to either rent a car and drive, fly(if its cheap) or bus to Cancun and then go to Tulum for the week. Tulum is basically a less touristy cancun. It still inhabits the gorgeous beaches of the Yucatan penn. Also theres a cool ruin-filled and jungle-like city with 300 inhabitants nearby called cobá. I'd love to check that out. But i'm looking forward to hammocks, surfing, windsurfing, snorkling, diving?, relaxing on the beach, and everything else Tulum has to offer for 8 days.


This week ends my travel spree but Acapulco, Puerto Escondido, and Guadalajara are still on the list of "must go". Hopefully we can hit everything we want to see. We have 15 days of exams in may, of which I only have maybe 3 classes with exams, and the exams are on only one day. Hopefully Ill have a stretch of time to travel a bit more. We'll see.


I wanted to add a bit of work that I have been doing, to prove to you all that I'm actually a student and that I do get assignment... I mean assignments- yeah plural. Its an assignment from my ethics course. The questions were in english but I did the answers in spanish. (its very possible that its grammatically screwed, but only those who speak spanish well will be able to tell that)


_______
1. How should we live and treat each other?

A todos, hay una respuesta diferente. Yo creo que deberíamos tratar al uno a otro como nos gustaría estar tratado: la regla de oro. También vivir con honor, cual significa que no haces lo que es injusto. Sin embargo, a todos, lo que es injusto podría ser algo diferente. Quienquiera que viva en paz, vaya a tener una vida tranquil porque la mentalidad controle sus acciones y humor. Es bueno tener paz y viver de tal manera que ayudes todo que toques. Ayuda a un extraño porque nunca sabes si el vaya a ser tu mejor amigo mañana.

2. What is right or wrong?

Una pregunta más profunda. Déjame empezar con la cuestión; es justo que yo diga cuál es justo e injusto? Es posible que en sí mismo sea injusto declarar la línea entre bueno y malo. Pero, si tuviera responder, diría lastimar a alguien no importa quién, es malo y va en contra de nuestros derechos de ser humano y de vivir en paz. Lo que me parece mal sea el dolor. Cualquiera que pueda hacerse feliz sin lastimar a alguien es bueno. El opuesto sería que lo que perjudica a alguien es malo.

3. What is up and down?

Quizá de avanzar sea lo mismo de subir. Son direcciones, palabras para expresar moverse hacia adelante o hacia atrás. En tiempo, nos estamos moviendo siempre hacia adelante hasta la muerte. Pero también tenemos la capacidad de pensar en el pasado o futuro. Con muchas cosas tenemos una línea, y con esta línea hay dos extremos. Con la vida el principio de la línea es crecimiento, al fin la muerte. Siempre nos estamos moviendo a través del fin. Con el humor, podemos subir y bajar entre dos extremos, otro ejemplo de la línea. Siempre estamos en un punto entre depresión y manía.

4. How can we know or decide?

Hemos aprendido de hacer lo que decidimos. Por la cuestión, ¿como podemos saber?, es una pregunta que te examina la manera de que pienses. ¿En realidad, como nos podemos pronunciar que sabemos cualquier cosa? Socrates de antes decía que necesitamos declarar que no sabemos nada antes que darse cuenta la verdad. ¿Hay una manera de que podamos saber cualquier cosa?

5. Where do our ethical ideas come from?

Creo que nuestras ideas éticos tienen sus orígenes en la sociedad. Ya que nuestras vidas están hecho de nuestras experiencias, la ética viene de las que nos cuidan. Entonces, los cuentos que nos decían durante el crecimiento para explicar algo teórico de la ética o de la vida también nos programaban pensar de una manera más sofisticada. La idea que tenemos una identidad o reputacion para mantener ayuda la idea que no somos animales, somos humanos sofisticados.

6. What are rights? Who has them?

Otra pregunta que no puedo contestar definitivamente, pero si tuviera, diría que lo único derecho que tenemos es la vida. La vida nos está dado, y creo que tenemos el derecho de vivir. Sin embargo, sin otras reglas o leyes, el mundo estaría en caos. Para asegurar que nadie va a causar estragos, implicamos leyes para controlar la gente, y definarla también. Tener derechos es una manera de declarar un nivel de intelegencia. Creo que nos sentimos los derechos que nos han dado también nos permitimos a vernos mejor que lo demás.

7. Should we coerce one another?

Además de la respuesta “Cualquiera que pueda hacer para hacerse feliz sin lastimar a alguien es bueno” a la pregunta sobre que es justo, agregaría la parte psicológica. Me parece que la coaccion sería perjudical, entonces no es justo.

8. Can we find an ethical system that applies to everyone?

Porque cada individual es único, es difícil creer que todos podrían acordarse en un sistema de ética. Por esto, no creo que sea posible creer en la misma cosa. Quizá podamos acordarnos que la vida es un derecho porque tenemos eso en común.

9. What is the ethical system made up of?

El sistema de ética es hecho de las ideas y influencia de las que tienen poder. Las que tienen la influencia pueden cambiar las definiciones de que es justo e injusto.

10. What do we mean by duty, jutice and other similar concepts?

A mi, me parece que tenemos una reputacion, o algo abstracto, y aveces se llama honor. Protegido del orgullo, honor representa la manera de que te presentes. Por nuestras vidas, creamos una reputación, y para mantener esa reputacion, tenemos obligaciones y aduedas.

________

¡Qué suerte tengo yo!

After finishing logistics today, which wasn't too bad, at least not as bad as it usually is, I left to head to Marketing. Now, lately i've been a bit worried about Marketing because my group (me and 2 other mexican students) have a 50 minute presentation about a marketing case about sports illustrated on thursday. In addition to the fact that I can't speak for near 25 minutes about this case in spanish, my group is terrible at communicating. The growing concern in my stomach that we have a 50 minute presentation in spanish on thursday in front of an entire class, where I'm the only exchange student, subsided when I got to class and found that the class was cancelled for the week.. ¿en serio? What are the odds that two out of 4 of my classes would be cancelled.. the whole week. Seriously, am I a student? That leaves the rest of the week to my ethics class(top tier class) tomorrow, and Logistics thursday morning, and done. That means I had 3 actual classes this week. Dios mio!

This weekend should be a fun one- we're heading to Veracruz for the annual carnival which I've been hearing is a must see. I believe that we'll be situated close to a beach if not on it, and we have a pool at our hotel too. sweet! Espero que todo vaya bien! Check back for news on Veracruz... what a rhyme.. yeah.

¿todavía estás emocionado?

After another long weekend, i'm beginning to feel as though calling myself a student is a bit unjust. My schedule, lucky does not include classes on fridays, so I'm running a 4 day week. And apparently, this week, the art students and architecture students have "talleres" this week so there is not art class this week: no classes today i guess! Which leaves another 3 day week. I've spent the majority of the weekend sleeping, playing a bit of poker with friends, writing a new song on guitar, and oh yeah! six flags!

Saturday morning i woke up with the backs of my eyes hurting a bit leaving me with a headache for the better part of the day. Getting on a bus to drive 3:30 hrs to six flags at 6:50 in the morning didn't help either. Besides spending the better half of the day a bit lightheaded and nauseas, the day was insane! spent with some awesome guys, of which included the dutchman(Bram), the Australian(James), and the spaniard(Gregor), we hit up every ride including superman 3 times, and got to hang out with dolphins in the sun watching them do flips!.. not bad.

Other fun activities included hanging out at Rock Pub playing pool and darts before going out. They played Dream On by aerosmith! Live! crazyness.
Also- heading out to the pyramid for some incredible views on a clear day. After talking with some locals, we found out that its rare for it to be as clear and nice a day as it was, probably explained a bit of why it was so crowded. The shots we got were pretty sweet though..



So last wednesday's art class was nice in that I just got to work on whatever. Out of the 16 or so students, I'm not only the only non-mexican student, I'm also the only student not in the art or architecture department which means this isn't a required class for me, its fun! And for that reason, the teacher lets me just do whatever I want. Sweeeet. So I just draw what he tells me to, while he gives me help on perspective drawing. He saw a drawing that I did in my notebook(a recreation of a friend's illustration) and I told him it was for a CD cover. He told me that he has studied making CD covers as well, so we can work on creating a CD. Love this teacher, and this class..


(recreation of a friend's drawing)

Nos Vemos

La lista loca de Mexico(cosas buenas y malas) de enero

The Crazy list of Mexico(Good and Bad things)

1. Man Selling Puppies out of a bag, on the highway
-I kid you not. I thought messenger bags were for laptops and designed for artsy kids(I'm just jealous I can't pull one off) but no! they also have the dual purpose of holding puppies.

2. Giving the Last Corona to a 14 year old girl
-Attributed to Mish, I can honestly say I had nothing to do with this one... this list, so far, could also double as a "things to do to cut the line into Hell".

3. Container City
-You know those shipping containers (if not i'm going to attach a pic), that are used to ship things over seas? There is an entire neighborhood made of containers, with stores, bars, clubs, houses etc. Pictures soon to come. Its a happening place. I'm learning so much in Mexico...

4. Speed Bumps
-There are speed bumps on every road approximately every 300 meters sometimes shorter. Cops aren't trusted to uphold laws like speeding because its just too hard... or they're busy being corrupt.

5. Real Hamburgers are hard to come by..
...damnit


6. Hearing "Dream on" by Aerosmith played live at a pub.


7. Coca Cola costs .60 cents in school vending machines and normal stores.
- Its only feeding my addiction. thanks Mexico.

8. A night out at the Cine(movies) is a little pricy. $3.40, what a rip.

9. They have a 6 flags here...
... and I'm going tomorrow! am I really in mexico?

10. Street tacos
-rule


Keep checking back for more lists of crazy and ridiculous things here in Mexico, and also to read about my travels to exotic places like 6 flags! Until next time

Tengo que descansarme

After a hectic albeit thrilling weekend, I came home sunday night to crawl into bed at the decently late hour of 2. Feeling myself get sick was terrible, I had an apple in my throat for the entire day, and I could tell it wasn't getting any better. I woke up on Monday feeling terrible. I've caught a cold my fair share of times but this was most definitely something worse. Tuesday was the worst day of all, unfortunately. I woke up at 9:30 in time for my 10 o'clock class of International Logistics, the only course i'm taking taught in english, and ironically my least favorite by strides. My throat felt as if someone shoved a knife down it and was twisting. With every gulp came a wince. After Marketing, I decided to grab a bit and return to my room for some R & R. I spent some time on the computer while I inhaled liquids and took an advil cold and sinus every 4 hours, meanwhile my linens were being thuroughly washed in la lavaropas. I grabbed a towel and took a shower. One nice commodity that I didn't get in Costa Rica was the water pressure we have here in Mexico. Along with the pirated DVDs for .80 cents, i think the water pressure is illegal, but still awesome! I turned it to the maximum temperature, which if i'm not mistaken could boil pasta in minutes. For this reason I made sure that I rested against the wall and took in the steam to clear my sinus' and system. after a nice steam shower, I went back to my room to play some guitar.

I definitely haven't been playing as much as I would like to. I've been experiencing writer's block and have had a hard to writing any new material, but luckily in the past few days i've written up a rough draft of a new song.

After new clean sheets were fitted on my bed I proceeded to go to bed at 11pm, the earliest I've gone to sleep thus far I believe. Luckily on Wednesdays my first class is art at noon. I slept 12 hours! Unfortunately, I woke up Wednesday not feeling much better than Tuesday. I left class slightly frustrated for not understanding how to sketch trees. It's difficult, trust me. But if my worst days are from not being able to draw spectacularly, i'm living well. I got some lunch and took care of some business and some homework before my 5 o'clock class of "Ética y Transperencia en Negocios" Ethics and Transparency in Business. Of all of the classes I'm taking, this is my favorite. Although it doesn't seem like an enticing course from the title, the subject matter, professor, and the way it which its taught makes it enticing. This is basically a philosophy course focused on the ethics portion of basic philosophy. What is Ethics? What is Morality? And its all in spanish! What more could I want to satisfy my nerdiness than maybe calculus again?


I leave the class two and a half hours later thinking so in-depth high off life. It's a nice feeling. Returning to my room to take another steam shower and finish some work. Although I didn't get to bed quite as early as 11pm, I woke up today feeling much better. Hopefully I'll recuperate. The weather isn't supposed to be great this weekend so we've decided not to travel to Cuetzalan just yet. Instead we'll probably go to the cine and catch a flick on saturday, who knows maybe even hike a nearby volcano. Until next time... (unless i'm consumed by magma).

Oaxaca, Ixtlan, y un fin de semana para recordar

Back again! And with plenty of stories to tell. This past weekend, some friends and I traveled to Oaxaca, another state in Mexico. This journey was quite large, as our group of 9 departed from the ADO station out of Puebla, embarking on a 4 hour bus ride to the center of Oaxaca. At the beginning, the Zocalo(Center) of Oaxaca didn't seem anything drastically different than the Zocalo of Puebla. We exited the station and walked for about 20 minutes to the hostel we had picked out to stay in. "La Casa de San Pedro" housed a few rooms with multiple bunk beds for $140 pesos a night, which comes out to about $11. Not bad!




Spending the night in Oaxaca was interesting, and much like spending a night in the center of Puebla. Many bars and markets, restaurants and vendors to see. The city was beautifully lit up but also was also a bit dirty. We went into town where we found a nice restaurant to eat at. Everything was smooth until the girls realized that part of the sampler plate they had ordered was crickets. That was entertaining for the other customers. We toasted, and they set out on the town. We settled at a modern bar and ordered a case of coronas. (24 bottles for about $32). After the bar half of us decided to get back to go to sleep at around 12pm so that we could get up early and explore the surrounding areas.







Saturday morning we woke up and decided to take a tour (costing $200 pesos ~ $16) which lasted all day. We started out at 10am and first stopped at Monte Alban. Famous for the ruins and pyramids it holds, its one of the meccas of Oaxaca. In the hot sun Bram, James and I raced up stairs which were about 1/3 my size each to the top of a pyramid to see the view of the world. Vendors push handmade crafts on you which rarely vary from vendor to vendor, trying to sell handmade jewelry, masks, marble carvings of Aztec gods.

Next we ventured to a wood-crafts market, where small and large statues of everything, mostly animals were carved and then hand painted with expertise. These have been the most expensive crafts I've seen in mexico yet. From small carvings at about $3 to $80 for medium, all the way up to $2,400 for the largest. Most of the carvings were extremely impressive.

After the woodshop we went to a church which dated back hundreds of years. Architecturally breathtaking and simply aesthetically pleasing no matter who you are. After touring the church we stopped for a lunch buffet and then moved to the next place. Drained of energy we all were nearly falling asleep after 6 hours of the tour, but we at last arrived at a well known Oaxaca pottery house. A simple modest house which held a family that excelled in pottery making. The oldest of the house had been doing it for about 60 years.











After the tour we arrived back at the Zocalo from which half of us went to buy tickets to a different part of Oaxaca. Some of us decided we wanted to venture into the forest to experience nature, whereas the other half wanted to stay in the city and experience more of the restaurants and bars, and citylife-scene that Oaxaca had to offer. So Bram, Gregor, Mish, James and I boarded a bus at 9 to head to Ixtlan, a city 2 hours from the Zocalo of Oaxaca, deep in the forest. The 2 hour bus ride was nice, and we all passed out from the 8 hour tour we had had before. The bus stopped in Ixtlan where we, only the 5 of us out of the entire bus, were ushered off by the driver. We exited the bus groggy and disheveled to a small center statue next to a gas station. The city seemed as though it was abandoned, and we looked around at the darkness that surrounded us as the bus skidded away.



Gregorio called the owner of the hostel/cabana place that we had made reservations to stay at.. the only place to stay at in town. This is where things began to really spin into a world of the unknown traveler. 10 minutes later, An old pick-up truck arrived at the statue where we waited. Gregor asked if he was from the Cabana place and he nodded and signaled for us to jump in back. The man was older and was driving with his wife riding shotgun and kids in the back. the five of us tossed our packs into the back of the truck and climbed up. We rode in the darkness deeper and deeper into the forest in the back of this man's pick-up as we looked around us into the forest. We made jokes about how we were riding in the pickup and being taken to be held for ransom. We laughed for a while until the road got darker and the jokes seemed more real. Eventually our worries were aleviated when we reached the log cabin in the middle of nowhere, Ixtlan. We were introduced to our new home. 5 beds, a fireplace and a nice bathroom.




As we settled into our new place, we all chose our beds and started to unpack a bit. The fire was roaring and things were getting a bit warmer. It was cold at night. Mish decided to go to bed and the remaining four decided to play poker by candle light for the last remaining corona. The game went on for about 2.5 hours, I was so close to winning! Bram came back from no where in the face off to take me out and win the beer. We climbed into bed and fell fast asleep...



While I was asleep I dreamt that I was snowboarding with the guys I was with, in Mexico. Obviously some dreams just dont use common sense. I deduced the reason my subconscious went to that scenario from 2 things: I love snowboarding and often dream of it, and 2) I woke up to an arctic fresh room where my first words from under the covers were not those welcoming the cold. We awoke early and set out to get some breakfast and find out what we could do in the limited amount of time we had. After breakfast we ziplined a bit, a short bit, and then rented mountain bikes for a couple of hours. The mountain bike ascent was painful but excellent at the same time, and you could only imagine how the descent went.. well if you can't imagine.. I'll tell you!



We kept ascending until we decided that we were short on time, and if the mountain we were on was as big as the ones we were looking at, we were much further from the peak than we thought. So we descended rapidly down the dirt and rock path skidding around the corners like a peloton of 5 racing to the bottom. I rode behind Gregorio as I saw him struggle to maintain control of the bike, he veered towards the edge and threw himself to the center of the trail as he was lifted off the bike and collided with the stones we were riding under. If I had been any closer to him I would have eaten it over his bike and been propelled ten feet off my bike. I skidded around him yelling "esperan" to the others, and stopped to see if he was ok. long story short, he's fine, but I think his battle wounds will be there for at least a few weeks.



We descended to the others and returned to the trail. Bram and James attached their cameras to their chest strap to videotape the decent. It was lucky that they did this or else we wouldn't have cinematically captured Mish flipping over his handlebars or me skid into the trees on an abrupt turn. We finally reached the bottom where we cleaned our wounds and grabbed another pick-up truck ride to a close by village-city known for it's shaman cleansings. The town was reminiscent of a small Italian city with cobblestone roads and very hilly. The views were the most astonishing yet, especially on the ride over. We met some Mexicans who worked security for the small city. They showed us to a nice place to eat and we ate, (or engorged ourselves) as the host, much like a mother, kept putting food on the table, half of which was typical Ixtlan and of which we didn't even order. We left full and satisfied on $4 a piece. Shortly after, we met up with the pick-up truck to take us back to Ixtlan where we were staying. This was most definitely one of the most memorable parts of the trip as we took the ride back we looked out into the expansive scenery which seemed to never end. We were riding on the carved out roads on the side of a mountain thousands of meters in the air. The lack of guard rails was disconcerting as many times the wheels came close to the edge, but it wasn't enough to take our eyes off of the entrancing view. We arrived back at camp where we packed up and took a taxi back to Oaxaca to take a bus back to Puebla where our journey would end... for now.

Finalmente, He llegado

I know, I know. Late to be the first post, but it's been difficult! I have been in Mexico exactly two weeks to the day, and it's wonderful. The culture and language mix to give an authentic latin-american feel, one that I live and breathe every day.

I have had a lot of firsts in Mexico, the change in culture has been swift yet smooth as I begin to transition into La Vida Mexicana, "The Mexican Life". One thing i've had to get used to is their greeting, the well-known european kiss on two cheeks is dulled down to only one cheek in Mexico. I still find it a bit strange, and sometimes lean back when my personal zone is being entered, but then quickly realize and greet.






Living on campus is nice, being close to classes. The Campus is absolutely gorgeous. You could get lost in all of the gardens that hide the buildings. Stone statues and exotic plants create a labyrinth to get lost in behind most of the academic buildings. A spouting fountain, la fuente, marks the center of campus where the student body congregates on sunny days, which is everyday. The architecture is notable as well. The first place i've been where I can hang out on the rooftops of some of the buildings, because some buildings are both half underground and half above ground, allowing the rooftops to be accessed to pass over. There is rarely anyone up there though, and I find it a tranquil place to stay. On the warm days, I get to enjoy sitting out on my balcony overlooking my section of campus and play guitar 3 stories up.










Yesterday, I traveled with a few friends into Puebla, the big City outside of Cholula. There, we witnessed our first car accident where a car tried to cut off a bus. It ended with the car spinning around and then, them both driving their separate ways. Strange. Both Puebla and Cholula, (everywhere in this area) are famous for the many churches that inhabit the city. There are dozens of beautiful churches lined with gold, dozens of statues of saints. It adds to the aesthetic feel of the city.






I've already had a week of classes after the inscription process. I decided to take Drawing:representation and perspective, Marketing, Business Ethics, and International Logistics. International Logistics is the only one taught in english, so it's nice that I'm getting a few classes to practice spanish in. I don't talk much yet in class unfortunately, not because I don't have anything to say, but because I'm thinking of what I want to say in english and then not being able to translate it fast enough. Also, being timid me, it's difficult to bring myself to speak out in class when I'm the only exchange student, a few of my classes are all mexicans, and me!

I just returned from lunch today, where I had a few quesadillas. I can definitely say that I could get used to the pricing here. Most of the time, lunch and dinner out for 3 with a meal and drink each comes to about $11 or $12... total. for all 3 people. I spend on average between $3-8 for a full meal. Can't complain with that!

This weekend has a few possibilities, travel to Oxaca with Gregorio(the spaniard) and Bram(The Dutch), or stay on campus this weekend and see Cirque du Soleil on friday. We'll see! I can't wait to travel a bit and experience a bit of the rest of the country.