Still here, but not for long.

It's a good thing that I'm not getting paid for this, because I definitely wouldn't have a job anymore!  But for those of you who still keep checking and reading for some odd reason, here are some of the sweet things I've been able to do in the last few weeks!  (Also please note that you can see bigger versions of these photos by clicking on them!)

Jocelyn with a curious monkey.

Zoo

The Guadalajara Zoo was pretty cool!  We had quite the adventure in the first place just getting there using the buses, but once we did we had a great time.  One of the coolest things is that they actually let you go into enclosures with animals.  Monkeys and kangaroos anyway (what could possibly go wrong?).  But nobody died, we just had a very startled Jocelyn!


Tonala

We spent one morning at the tianguis, open air markets, in Tonala.  They have absolutely everything and more for sale there; it was insane!  After 11:00 or so, there was so many people there that you could hardly even walk down the aisles.  But there's lots of cheap and awesome stuff, which meant I probably spent too much money, but I would have paid a lot more for it all anywhere else!

Mexico City

Ruins at the Templo Mayor
(please excuse the rain-induced water spots)

Guys - I got to go to Mexico!  Wait, aren't I already in Mexico?  Well, turns out that if you're already in Mexico (the country), everyone says that Mexico City is "Mexico."  It's rather strange to go down the highway reading signs for Mexico when you thought you already were there... haha!

Tara at the Cathedral.

Anyway, we got to see so much while there.  After 7 or so hours on the bus, our coordinators from the university took us to see the Templo Mayor, which is an archaeological site in the middle of the city containing one of the largest temples of the Aztecs in the city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).  If you're so inclined, this site gives a good description of the temple site and history.

Also on the first day was the National Cathedral, an attempt at seeing the National Government Palace (closed that day of course), several other buildings in the downtown area, and dinner at the very classic Mexican restaurant.

View of the city from the castle.

Alright, day 2.  First was the Castle of Chapultapec, which is essentially a castle on a hill in the city that has inspired me to build a cabin-style castle on the side of some mountain in Montana when I win the lottery.  But really, this place is significant because it was a sacred place for the Aztecs (the name actually comes from their word for grasshopper apparently), and the buildings have served as a Military Academy (think West Point), the imperial residence, presidential home, observatory, and now a museum.  The views were also just fantastic.

Me in front of the Sun Stone

Next is the National Anthropology and History Museum.  This was definitely a favorite, though of course we didn't have much time there (only 2 hours or so!).  This museum goes through the history of Mexico, its indigenous people, the various civilizations formed here, and up through current native people's lives.  It was amazing to see the sheer volume of artifacts and that many of them were in fabulous condition.  One of those was the Sun Stone, which is not the Aztec Calendar, but actually a large gladiatorial sacrificial altar.

In the Casa Azul.

We then had the afternoon free, so most of us decided to go to the Casa Azul (Blue House) which was the home of Frida Kahlo.  I've learned about this artist several times, but it was definitely cool to walk through the house and see her paintings, some clothes (like braces she had to wear after her accident), and get a better understanding of her life.  The trip also warranted the use of the Metro in the city, which was an experience in itself!

Our group with the Moon Pyramid
as the background.

I think that day 3 was my favorite, because among a few other sites, we got to visit Teotihuacan, the so-called City of the Gods.  Guys, I got to climb the Sun Pyramid!!  It was amazing to see all of buildings and just experience it all.  Definitely a must-see if you ever get the chance.

Tequila

The university also took us on a day-trip to Tequila (the place), which is obviously a large producer of tequila (the drink).  We went on a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory (did you know that cuervo is Spanish for crow, the bird?) and got to see how they go from the agave plant to the beverage.  Sample shots were provided for

A demonstration of cutting the spiney
"leaves" from the agave plant.

those who wished to try (though they tell me that the first one with 30-something % alcohol was awful!), and we had time to wander around the village.

This trip was on July 4th, so many Americans in our group celebrated with the Tequila shots.  But while in the village they also honored us with several cannon shots (or fireworks? not sure).  In reality, the occasion was for the first Friday of the month, but it was fun to pretend.  Made us feel like we were home!

Chapala and Ajijic, again

The wonderful Ed and
Dorothy McCauley.

After returning from Tequila, I hopped on another bus and went down to Ajijic again to visit Dorothy and Ed (and dogs of course).  It's always a pleasure to visit them!  I spent most of Saturday with Dorothy at the Casi Nuevo (Almost New) consignment store that she volunteers at.  I helped some customers, shopped around a bit myself, but also got to meet and talk to lots of her friends who are regulars there.  It was an interesting experience, because apparently there are several students who come in who are learning English, and since Dorothy doesn't speak Spanish, they practice their English with her sometimes.  It was fun talking with these students, and being able to bounce back and forth between English and Spanish.


___________________

And here I am on Monday, and it's starting to sink in that I only have 5 more days here.  I'm kind of happy, because I'm ready to see the family and get back into my mountains and open spaces.  But I'm kind of sad, because I'm met some of the most wonderful people here and learned so much.  I've gotten to that dividing point where things are starting to become familiar and my Spanish isn't bad, and another month would seal things in a little more which would be awesome.  But my time is coming to a close, and I wouldn't trade it for much of anything.  This week will be full of goodbyes and trying to somehow pack my suitcase with all the things I've acquired.


One thing that has really struck me the last few days is God's faithfulness to me in this whole trip.  Before I left, and through the whole planning process, I was completely freaking out.  What if it wasn't as safe as they told me, and I was caught in the crossfire of a gun fight over drugs?  What if one of my buses was pulled over by criminals?  What if I caught some random disease and died?  What if my flights didn't go well, or they wouldn't let me into Mexico?  (What if they don't let me back into the States?)  None of those things have happened, thankfully, but even if they did that doesn't change that God has promised His faithfulness to His children.  He is still in control, still on the throne, and still loves me through it all regardless of my circumstances or attitude.  That's just insane, I would never be able to do that to another person.  We've been going through the book of Numbers in the church I've been attending, and we see over and over again that God's Chosen People just keep messing up, bad.  God has no reason to keep them, it would be easier to wipe them out and start over, wouldn't it?  But no, He keeps forgiving them, keeps drawing them in to Himself, taking care of them, and eventually fulfills His promise in His timing.  What an awesome God we serve!!

___________________

Finally, here's a picture of an insect of some kind that I found in the bathroom sink the other day.  You're welcome.

Photos!

Just wanted to remind anyone who was interested that you can check out some of my pictures from my trip so far HERE, which leads to the Facebook album (which you should still be able to view even if you aren't on Facebook or we're not "friends").  Thanks all for looking!

Un mes más.

Spanish music. Telenovelas (soap operas). Storms every night. Tortillas at every meal. Fresh juice. Ice cream. Vocabulary. Lots of laughing at our stupid Spanish sometimes. Card games. Spanish movies. Pesos. Camiones (busses). Cockroaches.

I think it's funny that this is all pretty normal to me now!

It's been a month.  The first session of classes is done, friends are leaving and new ones coming.  I'm moving from level 4 to level 5 (woo-hoo!).  And my days feel even more numbered now, only one month left!

But this has definitely been an awesome experience so far.  I love how homey it feels to me now, and that I know I have an equal amount of time ahead of me to improve my Spanish further.  I've become a lot more comfortable just trying to say what I want to say (even though I really don't know how, or can't do it correctly).

I've also found a temporary church family, which has been great.  It's a small English fellowship, which has a mix of people from the US, Mexico, India, and many others.  It's a rather interesting group, and it's awesome.  But we never quite know if we should talk to people in Spanish, or English!  They have a women's Bible study too that I was able to go to for the first time this week.  I have been so blessed by this fellowship, it's been so good for me.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to even find a Christian church (most of Mexico is Catholic), so I'm very grateful for this.

I'm excited to see what else will happen and what I'll be able to do/learn in the coming weeks.  I hope to have more weekend trips, more dancing, Church fellowship, and more learning of course.

Also, I'm almost done editing pictures!  I hope to have more posted tonight or tomorrow.

Until next time!

Dos semanas de muchas cosas.

Ouch, two weeks.  Well the good news is, I'm still alive down here, just lazy on writing apparently!  But gosh, where to I even start?

The weekend before last, right after I last wrote to you all, Sarah and I went down to Lake Chapala for the weekend!  This is the same place where the McCauley's live, and where I stayed for my first few days here.  The city and state has a pretty great bus system, so we were able to bus down to the lake, fairly easily, for a grand total of about $55 MEX, which is around $4.50 USD.  We walked around in Chapala for Saturday, popping into little shops, walking by the beach of the lake, all that.  Dorothy and Ed let us crash at their place for the night (thanks again!), so we also took the opportunity to enjoy the pool and relax a little.  Sunday we wandered around Ajijic, and took the bus back to Guadalajara.  Such a beautiful little place!

But I have to remember that I here to take classes to, so it was back to work for the week.  We had our first round of exams which went very well, and just more practice practice practice.  I think my conversation is getting a *little* better.  I know that it probably still sounds really bad, but I'm not quite as afraid to just go for it and try to say what I want anymore.  And that's only been in three weeks, so I'm excited to see how my Spanish will progress before I go home!

Last weekend was a great adventure too.  Sarah and I went to Barra de Navidad, a small town on the coast south of Puerto Vallerta, and north of Manzanillo.  There wasn't lots of people/tourists, so it was just perfect.  Again, we caught the bus over there for the six hour ride, and spend Saturday on the beach and wandering around the town.  The people were so nice, we ate some amazing sea food, and did quite a bit of relaxing.  I managed to get quite a sunburn even though I really did have sunscreen on pretty much the whole time, but it was fun regardless!

I was also able to take lots of photos at the beach, which always makes me happy.  But of course, my lens/camera got dirty, and now I have spots on many of my pictures!!  I'll post some when I get some edited.  I am definitely my mother's daughter though; Instead of taking the lightest bag possible, I had to put in my camera, extra lens, and tripod (along with lots of other stuff that I actually didn't need...).  The camera is definitely an essential though!

We have gone to the movie theater to watch some movies in Spanish twice, which has been educational I think.  This week was rather interesting though, because the movie turned out to be in French with Spanish subtitles.  Sarah was excited (I think?) because she knows French too.  Ah well, it's Mexico!

Yesterday the language department took us on a class trip to Tlaquepaque, a "district" if you will of Guadalajara.  It's very well known for the arts and crafts that people make and sell there.  Blown glass, woven rugs, silver jewelry, hand made clothing, leather items, ceramics, and so much more.  It's a beautiful area, and the prices are almost all very reasonable.  I probably bought more than I needed, but they'll make good souvenirs!  I also heard that there's an all-female Mariachi band that performs there, but we didn't get to see them.  Maybe another time.

I suppose that's all until next time.  I'll add some photos and post more to Facebook when I get through them (tonight?).

¡Adiós amigos, y gracias!

¡Qué padre!

Yup, I'm not so good at this.  I need to work on not ignoring my blog for so long...

In case you were wondering, here "¡Qué padre!" is slang for "cool."  But it's funny to me, because it literally means, "What father!"  But I guess "cool" doesn't make much sense either if you think about it... something that I like is low in temperature??  In any case, I'd say that Mexico is pretty cool so far (but definitely NOT in temperature).  The only thing I don't like is that it's about 90 degrees during the day, but only gets down to about 60 (maybe) at night.

I came into Guadalajara last Thursday to move in with my host family.  It's an older woman and her daughter that live here, but there's also 2 Mexican students that study at the university here, and another girl in my program from Canada.  Homestays are definitely the way to go; I've learned so much already in the house!  We talk a lot, especially at meals, and watch TV shows (Mexican soap operas anyone?) which is interesting.  They don't laugh too much at my strange Spanish, and answer all of our questions, so they're pretty great.

Meal times are kind of weird though.  Breakfast is 8:00, which is great.  But lunch isn't until 3:00, and dinner is at 9:00!  I have to eat a snack in the morning because 3:00 is just so far away, but Señora makes awesome food!  The bus is a little different too.  It doesn't actually stop anywhere unless someone asks, so to catch it you have to wave it down.  It's usually pretty crowded, but it only costs 3 pesos (about $0.25) per trip, so it's a great way for us to get around town.  And in Mexican culture (and others), people often great eachother with a kiss on the cheek.  Freaked me out once or twice, but it's all good.  Now I laugh every time because I remember when we watched Spanish videos with Mr. Seratt and he would say, "Poor guy, he missed again!" whenever a guy and girl would greet each other with a kiss on the cheek.  

Sarah and I at a park, the "Bosque" near our house.

Sarah (the Canadian student) is great to have around because I have someone to help me a bit who speaks English (and her Spanish is better than mine), and we can go exploring together.  We've wandered around the colonia, visited the city center, and other random places.

Our neighborhood, Providencia, is pretty nice too.  It's relatively quiet, close-ish to the university, and it has everything you need right there.  A five minute walk from the house gets us to the grocery store, pharmacy, ATMs, the bus stop, and a bunch of other shops and restaurants (Starbucks, DQ...).

On Sunday, Sarah and I went on an adventure to the Centro, the city center.  On Sundays they close down some of the streets for people to walk, ride bikes, and enjoy the city.  There's a ton of street vendors, beautiful parks, and a history.  We visited the Government Palace museum, and got to see the murals by Jose Clemente Orozco of the father of Mexican Independence, Miguel Hidalgo.  They really are massive and beautiful!

We also found a small church Sunday night that's an English fellowship.  It was definitely different than I'm used to, but it was cool to find a group of Christian believers in the city that wasn't too far away.  Hopefully we'll be able to go every week!

Classes started on Monday at the university (UAG).  I'm in level 4, which is exactly where I wanted to be, and I have 2 hours of grammar and 2 of conversation.  I really like the way they have it organized, because it really is great practice for students like me.  We learn some technical stuff, and of course have to use Spanish all the time to ask questions and explain things in class.  Then we get to have a lot of really good conversation about various topics like education, social events, and customs.  This is even more interesting because there are Korean students in my conversation class, so we have a lot of different perspectives.  I never would have thought that my trip to Mexico would include learning about culture in Korea and Canada in addition to Mexico!

Sarah and I have also joined the Latin Rhythm dance class.  We were learning Samba this week!  It was really fun; the other students were very welcoming and helpful, and we're learning some more Spanish by listening to the instructions in class.

Now for the photos:  I'm using Facebook to post my pictures, so you should be able to view them here even if you don't have a Facebook.

Thanks all for reading, and I'll try to be better about writing more often :)  Have a great day!

Well, I'm in Mexico!

Lake Chapala

¡Hola amigos!

I've been in Mexico since Monday, and I've had nothing but a wonderful time.  I've been staying with family (Dorothy and Ed) who are retired in Ajijic, a village on Lake Chapala.  The lake is 30 minutes to an hour from Guadalajara, and just beautiful as you can see from that picture.  We've dined at restaurants, visited the cemetery, wandered around the shops in the village, lounged by the pool, and had quite a lovely time.

For anyone who was wondering, no it's not dangerous.  No more than any other place in the states!  The people that I've met so far are all very nice!

On Tuesday one of the first things we did was drive to the old part of the village.  We stopped at the cemetery on the way there, and it's beautiful!  What amazed me the most though was the way that the people honor their dead.  All of the graves have some sort of elaborate decoration or building on them.  Some just had flowers, others had buildings built over them, others with statues.  Dorothy told me that family and friends of the deceased will come and visit the graves and basically party there!  They'll eat and drink, hang out all day, or whatever.  They celebrate and remember their loved ones instead of being afraid of it all.  I'm not doing it justice, but it was very cool to see. 

The peacocks and chickens like tortilla chips, and
Dorothy was happy to oblige them!

Wandering through the shops was fun too, and I have a beautiful new pair of earrings to show for it!  The interesting thing about this part of my day, was discovering what was hiding beyond the doors on the street.  We would go into these shops, and would find a huge amount of space back there that you never would have thought existed!  Some were just merchandise, but others were gardens, like the restaurant we went to.  They even had chickens and peacocks there.

Other pros:  STORMS!  I love watching thunder and lightning!  We're having a wicked one tonight, but the rain is needed!!
The food is delicious (what I've eaten of it so far anyway).  And it's lovely to take a swim in the pool when it's 86 degrees (which feels hot to me still).

Cons:  Cockroaches.  I know we have spiders and mice and things at home, but I just don't think I could much get used to the cockroaches.  They usually come out at night, and I need to watch my step if I'm outside...
And it is a little warm for my taste, though I will get used to it soon.  It's pretty close to the hottest time of the year though.  It usually only gets to 90 degrees or so (up by the lake at least).

Tomorrow I leave here and head back to Guadalajara to meet my host family.  I'll be going from a house of English speakers in a village, to a house of completely Spanish speakers in a city of 4 million!  But I'm excited to see what it's like, even if I'm a little scared.  The experience is what I came for, and I'm sure that's what I'll get!

Montana to Mexico

For those of you that don't know, I'm going to Mexico for 2 whole months!!  I'm leaving on Monday, and the nerves are definitely starting to set in.  But I'm excited, and I'm going to use this site/blog/whatever-it-is to post updates for anyone that's interested.

On my first trip out of the country (besides to Canada of course), I'll be traveling to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to study abroad.  I'll take Spanish language and culture classes at a university there, la Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.  I'll stay with some family for a few days, then with a host family for the rest of my time there.  I speak some Spanish, but not much and not very well!  The hope is that I'll become fluent in my time there.

I will try to post updates at least weekly, but we'll see how things go and what I'll be able to do.  I understand that I should have good internet for most of the time, so that will be nice.  At this point, I feel like I'll just need to stop worrying too much and just get down there and see what happens, though that's easier said than done!  I'm still trying to pack and figure out how in the world I'm going to survive in the heat and foreign-ness of it all, but it will be an awesome experience and I'm excited!!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."