This is the rainy season in Mexico, and when they say rainy season, they really mean it. It rains pretty much every day now, and usually it rains pretty hard. Today was the worst I've seen in a long time. It just poured for hours and hours.
We went to FHE, and the plan was that everyone was going to play soccer, but clearly that plan failed. So instead we just decided to play games in the pavilion down by the pool in Señora Stallings apartment complex (Señora Stallings is the trip director). We played The Human Knot (our group unraveled two knots while the other group was figuring out their first knot--clearly, we smoked 'em), and after that I got really hot. They were just too many people all crammed together. I went to stand by one of the open windows and thought how the rain was making everything outside much cooler. Then I thought, "What the heck, might as well just go stand in the rain." So I did.
I actually really enjoyed just standing out there, getting soaked, and watching the rain wash Mexico. I didn't do anything. I just stood there, letting the rain soak me. Then people from our group saw me standing out there in the rain and came and told me to come inside because I was getting soaked (which was the reason I was out there in the first place), and then they told me I was crazy because I didn't want to go inside. But I didn't want to go inside becauseI liked being in the rain. They didn't get it.
I'm just an odd duck. Sometimes I just like to be by myself, to think and read and listen to what everyone else has to say. Sometimes I just like to stand outside and watch the rain.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Guachimontones
We visited our first set of ruins this weekend! Yay! I was really excited to go because I love the ruins in Mexico. First we went to a town called Teuchitlán, where they have a museum about the ruins. The ruins are in a place called Guachimontones, which is about 25 minutes away from Teuchitlán, and these ruins are special. These ruins are circular instead of the normal pyramids that you usually think of when you think of Aztec ruins. Also, there are twelve (I'm pretty sure it's twelve, but it could be less) platforms that used to hold little houses that surround that ceremonial "mounds" (those are the circular pyramids). These ruins were only used in times of ceremony--the rest of the town actually lived in Teuchitlán. There was a whole bunch of facts that we "learned" when we watched a video about Guachimontones in the museum, but I was really tired and the movie was really boring...yeah, you can guess what happened about two minutes after they started the movie. But I loved Guachimontones--it was gorgeous! And the ruins were really cool too.
After Guachimontones, we went to another little town--I can't remember the name of the town, sorry--to go to another museum, but the museum was closed. So we just wandered around. They had a cathedral (of course) and in front of the cathedral was a really pretty garden with lots of rose bushes. It was great for taking pictures. Oh, funny story! So we all went to eat ice cream while we were in no-name town, and after, we all meandered toward the garden. As I was walking over to the garden, I saw two adorable street dogs. So, of course, I went over to pet both of them. After that, they followed me all over the place! Why is it that I can make friends with dogs in like five minutes, but it takes me FOREVER to make friends with real people?
Ha ha, anyway, enjoy some of the pictures of the beautiful Guachimontones countryside!
I thought I would show a picture of myself, so that you all knew I really was in Mexico.
I love the trees here!
This is one of the platforms that sits in front of the ceremonial "mound."
This is the bigger of the two ruins--they haven't restored it yet because it would just be too expensive.
Ok, so I really do have friends here in Mexico. From left to right: Melissa Stephens, me, Erynn Scott, and Romney Olsen. I love everyone in our group, but I like hanging out with these guys especially.
This is the ball court in between the two mounds. Two parties who were disputing something would come to the ball court and play ball all day long--literally. The only place they could touch the ball was their hips. At the end of the day, the one who won was killed. Yeah, I said the person who won the game gets killed. Apparently it's an honor to win the game. It's a good thing I live in 2010.
One last view of the ceremonial mound.
My adorable new street puppy!
After Guachimontones, we went to another little town--I can't remember the name of the town, sorry--to go to another museum, but the museum was closed. So we just wandered around. They had a cathedral (of course) and in front of the cathedral was a really pretty garden with lots of rose bushes. It was great for taking pictures. Oh, funny story! So we all went to eat ice cream while we were in no-name town, and after, we all meandered toward the garden. As I was walking over to the garden, I saw two adorable street dogs. So, of course, I went over to pet both of them. After that, they followed me all over the place! Why is it that I can make friends with dogs in like five minutes, but it takes me FOREVER to make friends with real people?
Ha ha, anyway, enjoy some of the pictures of the beautiful Guachimontones countryside!
I thought I would show a picture of myself, so that you all knew I really was in Mexico.
I love the trees here!
This is one of the platforms that sits in front of the ceremonial "mound."
This is the bigger of the two ruins--they haven't restored it yet because it would just be too expensive.
Ok, so I really do have friends here in Mexico. From left to right: Melissa Stephens, me, Erynn Scott, and Romney Olsen. I love everyone in our group, but I like hanging out with these guys especially.
This is the ball court in between the two mounds. Two parties who were disputing something would come to the ball court and play ball all day long--literally. The only place they could touch the ball was their hips. At the end of the day, the one who won was killed. Yeah, I said the person who won the game gets killed. Apparently it's an honor to win the game. It's a good thing I live in 2010.
One last view of the ceremonial mound.
My adorable new street puppy!Thursday, July 22, 2010
How about this new background?
I'm trying a new background for my blog. What do you guys think? Does anyone have any strong feelings against it?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Zacatecas
This weekend, we went to Zacatecas, and we got to stay for two days (no school on Friday--YES)! It was really fun, except for the part where I got stung by a wasp. Right on the nose. Not so fun. But I just keep telling myself that I must smell like a beautiful flower, which is way better than smelling terrible, right?
Anyway, Zacatecas is a really pretty town (the locals all call it "pintoresco") that's full of narrow, windy roads, old-fashioned buildings, and lovely little cathedrals and churches. The first place that we went to was a museum, but we had to walk through ruins to get to the exhibits. I immediately fell in love with this place. It was absolutely gorgeous! I took so many pictures, both of the ruins and of the exhibits. The museum has a huge collection of masks from all over Mexico, and while some of them were a little weird, they were all pretty cool. After the museum, we went searching for the various churches in Zacatecas. Apparently, each town has one main cathedral and all the rest are just churches that kind of look like cathedrals. Who would have thought? The cathedral in Zacatecas is beautiful. It's famous for the carvings around the outside of the building--and it should be. The carvings are so detailed; it's really quite incredible. That was pretty much it for day one.
On day two, we went to the silver mine (Mina: El Edén), which is where Zacatecas gets most of its income. The silver mine itself wasn't all that cool, but they did have a "museum" that displayed all the different kinds of gems, minerals, and rocks that can be found in the mine. That was cool. After the mine, we went to the teleférico, which is the cable car that runs across the whole city. It was really cool to see the city that way. Then we did some shopping, ate lunch, did some more shopping, and went home. If it didn't take about 6 hours to get to Zacatecas from Guadalajara, I would definitely go there again.
There are little craft stands like this all over the place.
This is the cathedral in Zacatecas. Aren't the carvings beautiful? Well, I like them.
This is the museum that I am in love with.
I absolutely love the colored houses here in Mexico. This is my friend Lauralee, a girl from our group.
Part of the ruins inside the museum.
A couple of masks...pucker up, girls!
Anyway, Zacatecas is a really pretty town (the locals all call it "pintoresco") that's full of narrow, windy roads, old-fashioned buildings, and lovely little cathedrals and churches. The first place that we went to was a museum, but we had to walk through ruins to get to the exhibits. I immediately fell in love with this place. It was absolutely gorgeous! I took so many pictures, both of the ruins and of the exhibits. The museum has a huge collection of masks from all over Mexico, and while some of them were a little weird, they were all pretty cool. After the museum, we went searching for the various churches in Zacatecas. Apparently, each town has one main cathedral and all the rest are just churches that kind of look like cathedrals. Who would have thought? The cathedral in Zacatecas is beautiful. It's famous for the carvings around the outside of the building--and it should be. The carvings are so detailed; it's really quite incredible. That was pretty much it for day one.
On day two, we went to the silver mine (Mina: El Edén), which is where Zacatecas gets most of its income. The silver mine itself wasn't all that cool, but they did have a "museum" that displayed all the different kinds of gems, minerals, and rocks that can be found in the mine. That was cool. After the mine, we went to the teleférico, which is the cable car that runs across the whole city. It was really cool to see the city that way. Then we did some shopping, ate lunch, did some more shopping, and went home. If it didn't take about 6 hours to get to Zacatecas from Guadalajara, I would definitely go there again.
There are little craft stands like this all over the place.
This is the cathedral in Zacatecas. Aren't the carvings beautiful? Well, I like them.
This is the museum that I am in love with.
I absolutely love the colored houses here in Mexico. This is my friend Lauralee, a girl from our group.
Part of the ruins inside the museum.
A couple of masks...pucker up, girls!
Monday, July 12, 2010
BIG News
On the 4th of July, after lunch and a whole lot of card games, I went back up to my room to relax for the rest of the day (which is not unusual). Getting bored, I decided to check my email (which I tend to do at least three times a day here in Mexico). I had an email in my inbox saying that Milanne Clark (my awesome roommate who has become one of my best friends) had sent me a message on Facebook. Figuring that the message would about my English portfolio (which she had kindly agreed to pick up for me, since I'm in Mexico right now and I can't get it), I trekked on over to Facebook to see what she had written. Imagine my surprise when I opened the email and read that Milanne had just become engaged! I was so exciting that I shouted for joy, right as my new roommate walked into our room. I'm pretty sure I scared her half to death, ha ha.
So ever since then I've been thinking of things to do for a bridal shower. It has to be completely AWESOME because I won't be able to go to her actual wedding, which is December 22, in case you were wondering. If you have any ideas, send them my way. I would much appreciate it!
So ever since then I've been thinking of things to do for a bridal shower. It has to be completely AWESOME because I won't be able to go to her actual wedding, which is December 22, in case you were wondering. If you have any ideas, send them my way. I would much appreciate it!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Tonolá y Tlaquepaque
So, every weekend our group goes on a "field trip." We travel around to different parts of the city--next week we're even traveling to a completely different city and staying there for two days, which is very exciting--so we can get a lot of "cultural activities." These trips have all been so much fun, but today's trip was especially awesome.
Hand-blown glass "factory" that's behind the store. It's literally BEHIND the store.
I can't decide if ceramic toilets are cheap junk or incredibly awesome
The best ceramic warehouse in the world!
We went to Tonolá first this morning (the pictures above are from there). Tonolá is a market town and they sell a ton of crafts there. You can find everything from ceramics to paintings to furniture, and everything is pretty cheap. For example, I bought a full set of ceramic dishware (six cups, six plates, and six bowls) for a little under $15, and there were large (and I'm talking LARGE) triptych paintings for about the same amount! It was really fun to go walking through all of the little shops they had there. A lot of the shops were full of cheap junk stuff, but every once in a while we found some awesome stuff.
After Tonolá, we drove to Tlaquepaque. Tlaquepaque is another crafty town, but the stuff there is of much higher quality. They had a lot of clothing stores and a lot of jewelry stores. Mexico is famous for their silver and so I saw some really pretty silver jewelery that I was very tempted to buy...Tlaquepaque was such a gorgeous little town. All the buildings had that picturesque old-Mexico feeling that we always think of when we think of Mexico. There were mariachi bands strolling through the street and vendors selling through wares in between store-fronts and people just wandering around. Ah! I loved it.
This was the best restaurant in Tlaquepaque. The food was absolutely delicious.
This is possibly my favorite photo of the entire trip. I'm really proud of it!
P.S. The mariachi band that I have a picture of up there is the first and only all female mariachi band that I've seen here in Mexico. I thought it was awesome.
Hand-blown glass "factory" that's behind the store. It's literally BEHIND the store.
I can't decide if ceramic toilets are cheap junk or incredibly awesome
The best ceramic warehouse in the world!We went to Tonolá first this morning (the pictures above are from there). Tonolá is a market town and they sell a ton of crafts there. You can find everything from ceramics to paintings to furniture, and everything is pretty cheap. For example, I bought a full set of ceramic dishware (six cups, six plates, and six bowls) for a little under $15, and there were large (and I'm talking LARGE) triptych paintings for about the same amount! It was really fun to go walking through all of the little shops they had there. A lot of the shops were full of cheap junk stuff, but every once in a while we found some awesome stuff.
After Tonolá, we drove to Tlaquepaque. Tlaquepaque is another crafty town, but the stuff there is of much higher quality. They had a lot of clothing stores and a lot of jewelry stores. Mexico is famous for their silver and so I saw some really pretty silver jewelery that I was very tempted to buy...Tlaquepaque was such a gorgeous little town. All the buildings had that picturesque old-Mexico feeling that we always think of when we think of Mexico. There were mariachi bands strolling through the street and vendors selling through wares in between store-fronts and people just wandering around. Ah! I loved it.
This was the best restaurant in Tlaquepaque. The food was absolutely delicious.
This is possibly my favorite photo of the entire trip. I'm really proud of it!P.S. The mariachi band that I have a picture of up there is the first and only all female mariachi band that I've seen here in Mexico. I thought it was awesome.
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