Classes

So far my classes seem like they’re going to be ok. I am taking Contemporary Politics and Society of Mexico and History of Mexico. They both seem like they are going to be very interesting. I am apparently one of very few people interested in these topics since my Politics class has 6 people in it and my history class has only 4 students enrolled. I am not exactly sure why so few students are enrolled in the courses…but I think it’ll probably be more beneficial in the long run. We will be able to participate more in class and get more individualized and personalized courses. On the other hand, it also means that the professors will notice me…which I’m not sure is a good thing. I am feeling very unsure of my Spanish since I’ve been here. I feel rather awkward when I speak and although I know that I (at least normally) get my point across…I know that I am making a lot of errors in regards to conjugations and gender agreement. It’s just so hard to think about these things when you are also trying to think about which words to use, what order to use them, how they are supposed to be pronounced, and every single other little aspect of what constitutes forming a sentence. I feel like I get all flustered and tongue tied when I am trying to talk a lot of the time. I know that I am not the worst speaker out of our group…but there are definitely kids who speak way, way, way better than me. Hopefully, I really will come out of this speaking better Spanish than when I went in. I know that I will probably never be “fluent” in Spanish and tha I’ll never sound like a native speaker…but I really hope that I come out of this significantly improved. Otherwise, I’m not sure what the point of all of this was.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand…classes. We’ll start with my politics class. I think that this is going to be the harder of my two courses. We have to write 2 five page responses and an 8 page final paper as well as do a 20 minute exposition on one of our lectures. That’s an awful lot of work for only 8 weeks’ worth of classes. However, it is a topic that I am genuinely interested in. Politics in Mexico are an interesting thing. We are covering contemporary politics, so everything from the mid to late 1930s until the present. This seems like a fantastic idea and like it will help a lot to understand relations between the US and Mexico as well as current issues such as immigration. Hopefully the knowledge gained will be worth the work…if nothing else it will force me to work hard while I’m here and stay focused on things other than being homesick and how utterly out of place I feel both in terms of being in Mexico and how out of place I am in the group of American students…I’m really just not a typical American student. I don’t want to go out drinking or dancing at the bars. In fact I hate drinking and I feel utterly embarrassed when “dancing” (in quotations because what I am capable of doing hardly counts as dancing, lol). I’m hoping to drown myself in my work to forget about how awkward I am…haha.

My other class is History of Mexico. I think that this class should be all around interesting. It is covering an extensive length of time and will move at a rather rapid pace.  We have significantly less homework in that class. Only one final paper of around 7 pages and one presentation on the same topic as our final paper. It seems much better than the politics class and I think that I like the professor better. He’s very passionate about his area of expertise. The only complaint that I have is that he’s hard to hear. He talks very softly and has a low voice. Other than that, I think that History will be my preferred class.

Here are some photos that took of the courtyard outside of our classrooms. It’s the place where we hang out between classes.

Day 2

Three days have already gone by! Que loco!! It already feels like time is moving in a blur. I am so busy all of the time that it’s practically impossible to keep up with the blog…but I promise that I am trying my hardest!

The second day in Mexico was the day of our “academic orientation.” We didn’t have class, but we had to be at the school from 9am to 1:30. We sat in the “auditorio” (auditorium) where they talked to us about rules, host families, safety, health issues, planned activities, and of course academics. All of the professors were introduced to us and they described their classes. Then we officially signed up for the classes that we are going to take here in Guanajuato. I am going to take “Contemporary Mexican Politics and Society” as well as “History of Mexcio.” I think that they will complement each other rather well and I’m hoping that it will turn out to be a good schedule. I will have class from 10:00 until 12:15 Monday through Thursday with ony one class a day. I think that this will make it easier to prepare for class each day with only to worry about. At the end of our orientation they took us on a little tour around “el centro” of Guanajuato. We saw “el Teatro Juarez” which is a large theater with fantastic architecture, the main cathedral, and “el jardin de la union” which is the main plaza in Guanajuato.

The top of "Teatro Juarez"

The steps up to the main building of the university

A little plaza in downtown Guanajuato

After that we came home and ate our late lunch (the second meal of the day in Mexico is eaten in the afternoon around 2 or 3 pm). I honestly can’t remember what we ate…I think it was chicken soup and tortillas with “nopales” cactus and avocado on the side, but I just can’t be sure. Already all of the meals are blending together. Then my roommate Jessica and I went back to “el centro” to visit with some of our classmates. We pretty much all just sat on the steps in front of the “Teatro Juarez” and chatted about anything and everything. Then it was time to walk back to the house…again.

The main cathedral in Guanajuato

I don’t think that I have described the absolutely horrific path that we have to take to get home. It is a decent sized “callejon” (which I guess translates to alley, although there are more callejones in Guanajuato than there are real streets, so it is very common to travel on these alleys) that is the steepest pathway ofany sort that I’ve ever seen in a city. Honestly it feels like I’m going for a hike in the middle of the city. I knew that we would have to walk a lot…but I was completely unprepared for the intensity of said walking. The first time that we took this path home was after orientation when our “mom” showed us how to get back to the house from “el centro.” Wow…at 1:30 when the heat is at its peak and you have a backpack on….goodness. I think I learned a lot about myself and what I was capable of. I am not normally one to exercise really at all and I’m definitely out of shape…so when we made it to the top (after stopping 3 times) I was so proud of myself. Then Jess and I went up the path again a second time that day. It was actually a little better the second time because it wasn’t as hot and we didn’t have backpacks on…but it was definitely still more than I would have willingly attempted before coming here. They say that in four or five days that we’ll be used to it…but I’m really not at all sure that that’s the truth. Hopefully by the end of the 2 months I’ll be used to it. Everytime I make it to our room and flop on the bed (which is up 2 flights of stairs after that climb(!) I definitely feel like I accomplished a miracle. Haha…I’m sure it seems like I’m exaggerating and I don’t think that photos can show really well just how steep it is or how far it is since it’s not straight the whole way up…but I’m serious when I say that it’s the steepest climb I ever hope to make!

So…back to Day 2 after my lovely litle rant about the walk home. We ate dinner after getting back (taquitos!) and then it was time to start getting ready for bed. I haven’t gone to bed this early in years…but after long days like this it’s impossible not to be utterly exhausted at the end of the day! I did forget one little aspect about my day that might provide interesting. Jess and I played Jenga with the kids. It was lots of fun especially since the blocks were different colors and there was a die that you rolled that told you which color block you have to pull. The kids really are great!

The Day Before Leaving

I’m going to go back a couple of days for this blog post to the day before leaving for Mexico. Obviously I was ridiculously nervous and had a million different thngs to do.

All of the things that I needed to pack...minus the cat of course

The day started off with a slight inconvenience. Nathan had asked for the day off of work (they are working on a big project at work and have been working lots of weekends ) and they granted it to him. However, things didn’t go as planned the day before and they needed him to go into work for a couple of hours in the morning. Apparently, things didn’t go as planned once again so he had to stay a few hours later than originally anticipated. It wasn’t a huge deal, we are rather used to his work not going quite as planned…but to be frank, it still sucked.

I went out to lunch with my friend Lantz who I don’t see very often. It was his only day off in the week before I left, so it was then or never. We went to Applebees and I had a rather delicious steak with cracked pepper and asiago cheese on top. After that little break it was back home to finish packing and all the other last minute details that hadn’t been accomplished.

I knew that Nathan was going to cook me a dinner that night…but I didn’t really realize the lengths that he planned to go to in order to make it special and memorable. I wasn’t allowed in the kitchen or dining room while he was preparing everything which wasn’t really that big of a deal since I still had so much that needed to be done! However, when I finally was allowed to go into the dining room I was met with a wonderful surprise. Nathan had sprinkled rose petals over half of the dining room table, placed 4 or so roses in a vase, and had the most appetizing tray of fruits set out for me. If you know me, you know that I love fruit. They were all berries too! We had strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberrys plus a chocolate dip and a cream cheese dip for added flavor. He also had my ring box on the table since it was time for me to switch my regular engagement ring with the diamond on it for one that would draw less attention in Mexico (it is a lovely white gold band that is engraved with “N&H Forever”).

Pictures from our good-bye dinner

He cooked my favorite meal that he makes. Grilled chicken with baby red potatoes and mushrooms. It is absolutely fantastic the way that he prepares it. I’m definitely marrying a good chef! We enjoyed a fantastic, romantic dinner together and I can’t express how grateful I am to have such a loving and romantic fiance. It is the type of thing that you see in the movies but never expect to happen to you. It definitely made me feel a little better about leaving. I know that he’ll be there waiting and ready to move forward with wedding plans when I get back.

1st Day in Mexico

What an exhausting experience so far!! Yesterday was perhaps one of the longest days of my life (although not too bad overall). I had to wake up at 2:30 am to leave for the airport by 3 am. That’s right!! 2:30 in the morning…not a whole lot later than when I normally wake up!!! Not to mention there was a distinct lack of sleep during the time that I was actually trying to sleep. I was excessively nervous the night before…butterflies in my stomach, tossing and turning. A generous estimate of the amount of sleep that I actually got is probably around 2 and a half hours or so. Yet somehow I managed to survive until we went to bed at 10 (central time…so 11 eastern). Nathan took me to the airport in Detroit (about an hour and a half drive from where we live) and stayed with me until I got in line for security. It was the most depressing part of my day….saying goodbye to him was heartbreaking. But I know that we’ll make it through this distance and be stronger for it. I’m sure that there will be many days ahead when thoughts of marrying him and our future together are all that keep me going in this foreign environment.

The first plane ride was rather boring to be honest. I had a window seat and both of the girls in my row were younger (although quiet). I tried my hardest to sleep…but I just couln’t get comfortable (you were right Nathan!! I needed one of those neck pillows!). After a rather uneventful 2 hour and 40 minute flight I arrived in Dallas. I don’t know what I was expecting…but the enormity of the Dallas airport was a little overwhelming. I had to take a sky train thingy to gt to the right gate. I ate some chicken tenders and went to sit down for the 3 and a half hour layover. After awhile of sitting around I saw 2 girls around my age walk by and lo and behold one of them had CIC written on a piece of tape on her luggage. I went up and introduced myself to them and we all sat down and started talking. More and more people from the group kept arriving and we all kept ourselves occupied by chatting. We had our passports verified and filled out our immigration forms before boarding the flight. The plane from Dallas to Leon, Mexico was significantly smaller than I was expecting.  I did end up sitting next to a girl from my program which was nice, but not unexpected since we took up nearly the entire plane. This flight seemed to take a little longer even though it was actually shorter and we even arrived early. I think that it’s because I was starting to get nervous again. Not to mention the fact that small planes just don’t fly as smoothly as large ones! As we neared our destination…the ride got bumpier and bumpier due to the mountains. I got to experience that lovely sensation of having your stomach go up to your throat a couple of times. Who needs roller coasters when you can fly in a small plane!

Finally we were there!! We climbed down the stairs and onto the tarmac and we had officially arrived in Mexico. Of course we weren’t really officially there yet since we hadn’t gone through customs yet! We went through the first customs stop where took your papers and stamped your passport. Then we went to the baggage pick-up for international travelers and it was a chaotic mess of CICers getting their stuff. Seeing the amount that a lot of girs packed made me feel a lot better. I had only packed one checked bag and two carry-ons…and nothing exceeded the 50 lb weight limit. The 43 lb suitcase was quite enough for me to handle! I can’t imagine having two that size. Next up was customs. They x-rayed all of our bags and then you went up to talk to someone. They had me press a red button and then a red light came on so they had to go through my bags. Yay for being unlucky on the random baggage check front! Haha. It wasn’t really a big deal though…the lady who went through my luggage was nice and we talked about how I was studying abroad. I don’t think she looked very closely…just opened the bags and looked  inside pretty much. Then we all met up again on the other side of customs and waited for everyone. Then it was into large vans to head from Leon to Guanajuato.

Our van was the last from our wave of arrivals to get there and I quickly found my luggage again. There was a lady calling out names and introducing students to their host parent(s). My host father and his son were there to pick me up. Then it was into the car and on our way to the house since my roommate had arrived a couple hours earlier. It was a slightly awkward car ride…but not too bad since they kept pointing out places of interest. The streets in Guanajuato are a mess…seriously, they are twisty and since the city is built in the valley of a mountain they have almost no rhyme or reason as to where they are. It took quite awhile to get to the house. Finally we arrived at the house! I met the rest of the family my “new mom: and my new little sister In total there are four people in the family: the mom (Edith), the dad (Alfredo), a son who is 9 years old (Fernando), and a daughter who is 7 years old (Alejandra). They are a wonderful family, very nice and welcoming. Plus the kids are a wonderful distraction. They are very amusing and a good source for conversation. Jessica (my roommate) and I share a bedroom, the two kids share a room, and of course the parents have their own room. The house is very nice. It’s located pretty high up in relation to the center of the city and has a WONDERFUL view of Guanajuato. So far my only complaint about our house is that I have a SUPER flat pillow. And if that’s my only complaint, then I think that I’m doing pretty good. Tomorrow we are going to the “mega” store and I’m hoping to be able to buy another pillow.  

The family had already eaten lunch (they call it la comida), which is the biggest meal of the day in Mexico, so when I got there they had food waiting for me to eat. It was fish tacos, which were actually pretty tasty! It was a little strange to be the only one eating when everyone was sitting around the table…but we were all talking and it wasn’t too bad. After that we rested for about an hour in our room and then it was time to see the city.

My roommate and I in downtown Guanajuato

We walked around the city for 2 or 3 hours and saw some of the sites. The central plaza is absolutely gorgeous and the city is beyond picturesque. The kids wanted to eat pizza so we had Dominos for dinner. Haha…yep, on my first day in Mexico I ate Dominos pizza! Then we all climbed into a cab and went home. By then it was 9 pm and we just took showers and went to sleep for the night. I was sooooo exhausted by that point in time. However, I had a really hard time sleeping because of that tiny pillow that I mentioned before.

Well, that aut describes my first day in Mexico. I’ll try to update as often as possible…but internet access is rather limited so far.

3 Days Left

Oh my! I can't believe that I only have three days left here at home. Absolutely crazy. It seems a little unreal to be honest. I've known my entire college career that I'd end up studying abroad and got pretty close to actually going last summer (swine flu outbreak in Mexico cancelled that trip), but it still seems completely and utterly surreal. I'm going through all the motions of packing and getting ready, but I'm still waiting for something to happen that will result in the trip being cancelled or something like that. I am kind of well known for being a pessimist after all. 

I also feel like I'm going into this whole thing a little blind. I'm not entirely sure what all happens after we get off the plane in Mexico. I know that my plane departs at 7:05 am in Detroit. From there I will fly to Dallas where I have a 2 or 3 hour layover. In Dallas I will meet up with the group flight. Or at least I'll be on the "group flight" out of Dallas...not entirely sure that there will be any meeting up since I haven't heard any instructions explaining where or how the group intends to meet up in a giant airport. Then it's on to Mexico (Leon I believe). Once we get there it's all pretty vague. I know that I will have some form of transportation to my host family's house. What type of transportation? Who knows! We will either be travelling with the group or our host families will come to the airport to get us...it depends on the host family. 

Which brings us to another case of extreme vagueness and lack of information: my host family. I know a grand total of 4 things about my host family. 

1. The name of my American roommate.
2. The name of my host mother.
3. The address of the house where I'll be living.
4. The phone number of where I'll be at.

That's it! I don't know if she's married or has kids. I have no idea what type of person she is, what type of home she has. The most unfortunate and worrisome thing that I don't know is whether or not she has internet at her home. From my understanding, some of the families have internet and some do not. Please, please, please let my family have internet!!! I know that might sound a little selfish and like I'm not being open to the experience...but I would like to be able to communicate with my family and friends from home via the internet and keep this blog up to date. Plus I prefer to write my papers in the privacy of my home rather than at a University library or an internet cafe. It's hard for me to work on school stuff when there are lots of people around. We were supposed to buy a gift for our host family. I bought a Michigan State University throw blanket. It's awfully hard to buy something for people that you know nothing about. After all...I don't even know how many people I'm buying a present for. The blanket seemed like a gift that everyone/anyone in the family could use and it's connected to my home University so maybe they'll think of me whenever they use it after I've left.

This is the blanket that I got as a present for my host family.

4 Days and Counting

It's really rather incredible to be honest...I'm not sure how time has gone by so fast. I have today, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday left. I leave so early on Sunday morning that it hardly counts as being a day. So here I am...four days left at home in the US. Yikes! It's crazy to think that next week I'll be in Mexico taking classes and living with my "new" family.

The last few days have been a blur of getting ready. I was really rather unprepared, but things are starting to get more under control. I spent most of Monday dealing with Michigan State University's Office of Financial Aid. In general, summer financial aid refunds aren't processed until 10 days before classes start. Well, Friday was the 10 day mark and I still had heard nothing about when I would be receiving my refund. Talk about having me sweating with worry! I had already had to defer paying for the program and I still had no idea when I would be getting the money!! Monday came around and I was finally tired of waiting to get an e-mail back, I called the office and talked directly to someone there. Of course there had to be a hitch though...one of my loans hadn't been released yet. So I had to call someone else, who of course wasn't there, and leave a message. By the time that 3 pm came around I was sick of waiting for them to call me back and ended up just driving over to campus to see if I could get it to work out in person. Lo and behold by the time I got there everything was already worked out and I just had to pick up the check and race to the bank to get it deposited, get a cashiers check to pay my bill, and get it in the mail. Whew! At least that major hurdle got tackled. It's pretty hard to go on a trip without the money that you were expecting.

Tuesday started off with a Dr's appointment. I needed to make sure that I had enough of my prescriptions on hand to last the 2 months plus extra written prescriptions to prove that they were mine. She also suggested that I get a Hepatitis A shot just to be safe since Mexico and Central America are known to have produce infected with the disease (just what I wanted to hear...). Then I went home and worked on figuring out what I still needed to get for the trip....and oh boy was it quite a list!! I was looking through all of the suggested items to take and I was really surprised by how much I still needed to get. After Nathan got out of work at 5 we started tackling my ridiculously long (and expensive) list. We managed to pause long enough to eat dinner at Outback and managed to make it home by 11. Haha...yep, we were shopping for at least 5 hours and we hadn't found everything that we needed!!

This morning we went to the bank again and tackled the rest of the shopping list before Nathan went into work for an evening shift. There are only 2 or 3 things left that I need to pick up so I'm feeling pretty good about that at least. I have no idea how I'm going to pack for 2 months with just 1 checked bag, 1 carry on, and my personal item. It's a mystery that I'll fill you all in on once I figure it out myself! The next four days are guaranteed going to be crazy busy and a little bittersweet. Even though I'm setting off on an adventure that I'm sure I'll enjoy, I'm sad to be leaving my home and fiancé.

DIY Project Wine Glass Lamps

We have settled on another DIY project for the wedding. Just having candles on the tables seemed too plain, so I've been looking around at other ideas to make our table lighting more personal and interesting. The winning idea was a candle holder that was a lamp made from a wine glass and a paper shade. I found the original idea and template here. We immediately went to the Dollar Tree and purchased 20 wine glasses for $1 each. They are actually rather nice wine glasses. Large and solid.

In retrospect, we should have made a sample shade and tried it on the wine glasses instead of buying the wine glasses first. Our lovely large wine glasses were just TOO big for the template provided on the website. So we either had to find a way to make it work or scrap the project all together since I wasn't willing to pay more than a dollar per glass. Of course we ended up altering the patterns!!

It was WAY more difficult than I thought it would be to make the pattern work. I should have just taken it to a printing shop and had them enlarge it, but instead I played around with my home printer for a couple of hours. In the end I managed to make the pattern work, but it was beyond frustrating. My printer only wanted to print the picture in standard picture sizes, it needed to be bigger than what would fit on a standard sheet of paper so it had to be printed on two sheets, and I'm not particularly familiar with any photo editing software. Luckily I finally managed to figure it out though! Here is what our final template ended up looking like.

I later put this template onto cardstock to make it more durable. Then proceeded to cut out a few lampshades  of vellum to test it out. Here is what our first tea light candle lamps looked like.

Sorry for the poor picture quality; these were taken on my phone. As you can see, the size is almost perfect. I do wish that I could have made the pattern a little bigger so that less of the wine glass showed, but I think that they look pretty nice. As you can see, we punched out cherry blossoms along the bottom of the lamp shade to add some personality. Hopefully our guests will be impressed with this creative little idea....I definitely think that they are rather cute myself!