18th May, 2005. 11:25 pm. Las Ultimas Semanas

My last couple of weeks in Mexico were BUSY. After partials, there was about a week and a half of classes, but most of the teachers didn´t have any new material to teach, because after that week and a half began finals. I was glad about not having to learn new materials, because i was snowed under with final projects. See...i´m one of those people who would rather take a test than do a project, because i can usually pull a fair grade on a test without stressing, whereas projects make me stress out because i always feel like there´s not enough time to do everything i want to.

But no such luck. I had only one exam, a final project, and two ten page papers. The exam was easy. The project was simple, but it was with a partner that never had time to meet until two days before it was due. And on top of that, i had two ten page papers due. Well, neither of them made it to ten papers, because after two semesters of writing essays in Spanish, my brain just quit and i went into a MAJOR writer´s block and just couldn´t write more. Nevertheless, i got an A on one and a B on the other. Got to love grade inflation!

And in addition to all this, i had to start preparing for moving out of the country! I managed to sell big items like my bed and my bike, but most of my kitchen supplies and clothes ended up getting donated. Hopefully someone will get good use out of them!

Once i turned in all my final projects and sold my bed, i thought i would be pretty ready to leave Queretaro, but i got caught up in goodbyes, and ended up staying three days longer than the original plan, sleeping on various people´s couches since i no longer had a bed.

Finally, Saturday the 14th i left for Mexico City. My flight was not until Wednesday the 18th, but i wanted to allow myself a few days to sightsee in Mexico city. I checked myself into a hostel, since i was by myself, i thought it would give me a chance to meet other people to sightsee with. Unfortunately, the hostel was ENORMOUs, and i didn´t really get to know anyone except a girl from Israel who was in the same room as me. I liked her so much i even ended up selling her my Lonely Planet guide!!! It was not easy to part with, after having been my tour guide throughout an entire year. But she didn´t have any guidebook, and the only ones available to buy in Mexico are extremely expensive. Plus, my edition is three years old already, so if i ever come back to Mexico it would make sense to buy the new edition. And in the meantime, someone may as well get use out of the old one.

I had plenty of stuff to see and do in Mexico City. I explored the vast metro system. I visited the Museo de Antropologia, i went to the zoo. I visited the Castilla de Chapultepec and la Basilica de la virgen de Guadalupe where i bought a beautiful painting of the virgen of Guadalupe. And last but not least, i visited the campus of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) where i asked about the possibility of studying my masters degree. Yes, that´s how much i liked Mexico, that i am considering living there for two years while i study my masters. I doubt it will actually happen, but at least now i know what it would require.

But even with all of that to keep me busy, the time passed slowly, and i began to wish that i had either stayed in Queretaro, or left sooner for the U.S. But...Wednesday came soon enough, and at just about 8:00 i was back on U.S. soil.

Make Notes

22nd April, 2005. 9:01 pm. Aguas Calientes, 3rd partial exams.

I knew that i coudn´t afford to keep traveling much after Yucatan, so i spent several weeks at home in Queretaro, being a good student, hanging out with friends at church, and would have been content to continue that way except for one little thing.....

There is a map in the front of my Lonely Planet guide which shows all the states of Mexico, and each state i have visited is shaded lightly in pencil. With all of the traveling i have done this year, the entire middle and south of Mexico are shaded, except for one little white patch Northeast of Queretaro, just south of Zacatecas. The small, sparsely populated state of Aguas Calientes doesn´t receive a lot of attention from its countrymen during the other eleven months of the year. But during the month of April, the capital city (also called Aguas Calientes) goes crazy with the Feria de San Marcos. According to several sources, it´s the largest state fair in Mexico, with presenters coming from all over Mexico and all over the world, with livestock, handicrafts, bull fights, and an international film festival during the day. And of course at night there is the wild drunk revelry that is requisite of any festival in Mexico.

Well, i just couldn´t resist the opportunity to fill in the little white spot on my map, and being that it´s the largest state fair in mexico, i even had a decent excuse. So even though it was (once again!) the weekend before partial exams, i made plans to go. To make it even better, my friend Pablo told me that he and his brother were planning to go to the fair also. And....they have a car, so that meant no expensive long bus rides!!

Well, the trip in car to Aguas Calientes is still pretty expensive with gas and tolls, so Pablo and Armando invited two other friends in order to split the cost. Unfortunately, Armando and the two friends were taking the TOEFL (test of english proficiency) the morning of the 16th, so we had to wait until past noon before we could leave. If i could have everything my way, we would have left earlier and wouldn´t have crammed 5 people in Pablo´s little compact. But, it´s so much more boring when i have everything my way :).

The trip was supposed to be shorter in car than in bus, but of course we took a wrong turn and had to backtrack. Ahh, the joys of roadtrips in Mexico. It took about four and a half hours....good thing there were only five of us!

Well.....by the time we finally got there, the festival was starting to wind down for the day, but the crowds were starting to pick up in time for the drunken revelry.

The scene that evening reminded me a lot of Carnaval in Veracruz. And even thought that had NOT been my reason for going, i ended up enjoying myself anyway. The dynamics of traveling with Mexicans, especially when they are all guys, is so different than when i travel by myself or with other foreigners.

First of all, they were super protective of me. I´ve never been in a crowd of crazy drunk people where i felt as safe as i did that night. For once, it didn´t matter that I was blonde....nobody came near me!

Speaking of which, this night was also the occasion of just about the biggest "blonde moment" i´ve ever had.

Armando was the only one in our group who got REALLY drunk, so when he started getting sick, Pablo and i carried him back to the car. And since i was busy looking after Armando, i walked off and left my purse under the table where we had been sitting. I realized it several hours later so Pablo and I went back to the bar, hoping that if Joaquin and Isaac were still there, the purse might also. Unfortunately, the bar was already closed, and Joaquin and Isaac were nowhere to be found. We managed to catch the eye of a waiter who assured us that if anything had been left there, our friends would have taken it with them. Honestly, there wasn´t anything else we could do but wait until morning to meet up with Joaquin and Isaac.

We slept most of the day away, since we had been up most of the night and even the people who hadn´t drunk very much were slightly hung over. When we finally woke up, we called Joaquin´s cell phone. It turns out that after the three of us left, they had met up with a friend of Isaac´s who lives there in Aguas Calientes, and had spent the night at his house. And unfortunately, they did NOT have the purse. Still, if they had been there until the bar closed, they would have noticed if someone had crawled under the table to steal the purse. So i had the confidence that at least the purse had still been there until the bar closed. All i could do was PRAY that the bar employee who found it was honest.

Unfortunately, the bar didn´t open again until that evening, and we all had to get back to Queretaro to study for our third round of partials exams. So what we did was call Isaac´s friend with whom they had stayed to ask if he could go to the bar that evening to pick up the purse, which he was more than willing to do, and as soon as he had it, he sent it to me back in Queretaro. Nevertheless, the days in between were difficult to say the least. Like an idiot, i carried EVERYTHING in that purse. When i arrived in Queretaro, i had no keys to get into my house, and my roommate wasn´t home. I had no cell phone to call her to find out when she would get home. Obviously my friends offered me to use one of their phones, but i didn´t know her number. Once i finally found her, she lent me her keys so i could make a new set. But i had no money, and no cards with which to withdraw them, nor even any identification.

It was over a week before i finally had my purse back, during which time i lived purely on borrowed money. I borrowed from my roommate, from Pablo, from my neighbors, from other friends. When i got my purse back, it still had a fair amount of money in it (thank you Jesus!), but i used all of it and more just paying back my debts.

And just think....dealing with all of that....AND exams, all at once :).

Make Notes

28th March, 2005. 9:15 pm. Trip to Yucatan, Part III

At 5:00 Saturday morning, i wasn't sleepy, but i knew i was tired, so i was ready to go to bed, because my plan was to go in the morning to either Xcaret or Xelha, both amusement parks/wildlife reserves located near Tulum. Myrna and Alexandra had been neutral about going, but since i had been really gung-ho about it, i had warned them i was going either with or without them. At 5:00 in the morning, the two of them were ready to go to an "after hours" club where you can watch the sunrise from a bar on top of an office building. It sounded interesting, but i really wanted to do something the next day, so i opted out and went home. Unfortunately, upon arriving, i found the deadbolt locked, and i only had the key for the regular lock, so i couldn't get in. A few minutes later one of the friends showed up who had been staying with the cousin as well, but he didn't have the key either, so the two of us hung out outside the apartment talking until the sun came up. It was quite a romantic atmosphere, but he was so drunk that he was probably one of the last people on earth i would have chosen to spend that moment with. I was explaining to him my plans for the day, when without warning he leaned in to kiss me. Of course i pulled back, which made the moment awkward for both of us, and just as i was racking my brain to figure out how to get away from him, i heard the sound of Myrna's drunk laughter. Thank you, Jesus.

She opened the door, and i quickly went into the spare bedroom where the three of us were staying, leaving my drunk admirer in the living room where he was staying with his buddies.

Naturally, i didn't make it to the park that day. I had planned on getting at least a couple of hours of sleep and getting to the park by the time it opened at 9:00. But since we didn't even get inside until almost 8:00, i didn't see the point. We spent Saturday on the beach as we had done Wednesday, although this time i hardly came out of the water at all. Part of it was that i was AMAZED by how comfortable was the temperature of the water. Part of it was that i knew it was probably the last time i would see the ocean until i went home. And part of it was that my now hung-over admirer was sitting on the beach with his buddies getting drunk again, and i really didn't want to be around that. It was windy at the beach, creating lots of tiny swells which advanced all the way to shore without ever breaking, and creating strong currents which tried to sweep you further down the shore. So what i did was swim against the current to the pier, about 200 yards away. That's a decent swim, when it's against current, and so when i was done, i would rest by floating with the current back to the place that i had started from. Once there, i was feeling well and rested, and didn't want to get out of the water, but knew if i just sat there i would continue to get swept down the shore, so i would start to swim against the current again.

Each of these cycles took me about half an hour, and i could usually do about three of them before i was so tired i had to get out. Then i would lay on the beach, have something to eat and drink while the boys made fun of me for drinking water instead of beer, fall asleep for a while, and go back in the water when i woke up.

So i passed my entire day. By sunset, Myrna and Alexandra were both completely sunburned from sleeping in the sun the entire day, but i was still just as white as before, even though i hadn't put sunblock on. I wondered if somehow being in the water had protected me from the UV rays, even though i know that doesn't make sense. Myrna was quite tipsy, and Alexandra was crabby. So Alexandra and I went back to the apartment to shower and change, while Myrna stayed on the beach for a few more drinks before coming home.

We went out again, as was our tradition, first to pizza, then for 1 liter margaritas. But after the margarita, Alexandra wasn't feeling well. I went with her planning to walk her home, but as soon as we were away from the loud music and the rowdy drunk group we had come with, she began to feel better. I think she was finally feeling what i had been feeling the whole week...just a little bit fed up with the whole party lifestyle, only it hit her a lot harder than it had hit me, to the point that she couldn't stand to be around it anymore. We went to look for the Joses, since their cell phones were dead and so we hadn't heard from them all day. We didn't find them, but what we did find was a nice tranquil hookah lounge, like the one we always hang out at in Queretaro. Usually when i go to Al-Seesha, i go to hang out with Alberto and Roberto, study, and drink coffee or tea. But every once in awhile i do enjoy smoking the hookah. The flavored tobacco has the same effect for me as a hot chocolate. It's a really pleasant taste, and a very calming effect. I wouldn't want to smoke it every day, any more than i would want to drink hot chocolate every day, but every once in a while it's a really special treat.

So Alexandra and I sat there smoking rose-flavored tobacco and i sipped a cup of coffee, while we reflected on our week, and really bonded more than we had all week. I was really glad for that time together.

Our waitress was friendly, and invited us to go to the after-hours club with her. It hadn't appealed to me the night before, since i had had plans for the following morning, but this time it sounded really nice. At 7:30 the next morning i was going to be embarking on a 27 hour bus ride back to Queretaro by myself, so i knew i would have plenty of time to sleep then. And since Alexandra had had a chance to relax and calm her nerves, she agreed to go with me. We went back to the place with the 1 liter drinks, and found Myrna still there, even more drunk than before. We had just gone to tell her where we were going, since she thought we were already at home, and she said she'd go with us. But we got there, and found that there was a concert going on, with a 250 peso cover charge, so we got back in a taxi and went to the apartment.

Myrna and Alexandra went to sleep, since their plane ticket home wasn't until Tuesday. But i couldn't afford to miss any more classes, so since i had only bought a one way plane ticket, i was leaving on bus with enough time that i would make it back in time for my Monday afternoon class.

The bus left at 7:30, and before leaving i had loaded up on snack foods, since i wasn't hungry for breakfast, but i figured we wouldnt' be stopping for quite a while.

We stopped several times throughout the day, and each time i bought more snack foods. The only chance i had to eat REAL food was at about 3 in the afternoon when we stopped at a roadside diner. It looked like a pretty seedy place, but i was so sick of snack foods that i would have eaten anything. I ordered a sandwich with carne asada, and a fruit smoothie. The sandwich came first, and i devoured it without hesitation. By the time i had finished, i was still hungry and the smoothie was nowhere in sight, so i ordered another sandwich. They brought me the second sandwich, but i still hadn't seen the smoothie, so i inquired about it. "The electricity's out, so we can't prepare the smoothie."

As i sat to enjoy my second sandwich, i was a bit annoyed that they hadn't told me right away that they couldn't fix me a smoothie. And then slowly i came to a deeper realization. Forget about the smoothie, if there was no electricity, that meant i was eating a sandwich with meat that hadn't been refrigerated. Yeah, wasn't exactly looking forward to being sick when i still had almost 16 hours to be on the bus.

I never did end up being sick, but the rest of the bus ride still wasn't fun. I had slept all during the first part of the ride, when there were movies being played, and when you could actually see the scenery. But about the time it started getting dark, the bus driver stopped showing movies so people could sleep. Well i'd been sleeping all day, and i couldn't sleep anymore, so the hours passed slowly.

By the time i finally made it into Mexico city, i had consumed a total of 3 packs of chips, a package of cookies, two pre-packaged croissants, a twix bar, a package of gummi bears, three bottles of water and one of gatorade, a drinkable yogurt, and an entire pack of Wrigley's gum. Could we get any less healthy?

My first bus dropped me off at about 6:45 at the East Mexico bus station, but in order to get to Queretaro, i had to change to the North Mexico bus station. I was tempted to take the metro, for the first time in my life, but since i was loaded down with luggage, i decided it would probably be safer to take a taxi. But since i had spent all my money on junk food, i had to stop at an ATM to be able to pay the 60 peso taxi ride. And then the taxi driver didn't even drop me off at the terminal! He stopped ACROSS THE STREET, and said, "Here you are!" So i had to drag my luggage across a busy street in the middle of Mexico city. That taxi driver did NOT get a tip.

The next bus to Queretaro left at nine, so i sat in the bus station playing games on my phone until nine, and three hours later, i was finally back in Queretaro.

Make Notes

25th March, 2005. 9:09 pm. Trip to Yucatan, Part II

It was a four hour trip Wednesday morning from Merida to Playa de Carmen. Playa is a relatively small beach town located south of Cancun, and is the exit point for ferries to the island of Cozumel. It's probably one of those places that would have been beautiful and virgin several decades ago, but due to its location, was destined to become the next resort town. Luckily, it retains a small-town atmosphere. The life of the town, at least the tourist life, is centered around the main boulevard, Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue). Walking down the Quinta Avenida, it actually reminded me of being in Santa Monica.

One of Myrna's many cousins lives and works in Playa De Carmen, so she picked us up at the bus station and took us to her apartment where we were going to be staying the rest of the week. It's a cute little place, with an entire spare bedroom that the three of us got to ourselves, and it lies just six blocks from the beach. Being walking-distance to the beach added to the small-town feel.

We spent the entire afternoon on the beach there in Playa de Carmen. It's the first time that i've ever been in the Caribbean, and i still can't get used to how warm, clear, and bright the water is. Up until then, the only place where i had seen such turquoise water was in swimming pools that were too heavily chlorinated. And indeed, the water was so clear and warm that there were times i felt like i must have been in a swimming pool.

In the evening we went to a bar called the Blue Parrot, which was the first bar i had been to all week that i actually enjoyed. It was huge, and situated right on the beach. On one side there was a DJ playing electronica/techno music so Alexandra and Myrna could enjoy, but on the other side, right in the sand, there was a dance floor playing "my" kind of music. At least that's what Alexandra and Myrna called it: "my" kind of music. In reality, it was an awful mix of rock, pop, oldies, hip hop, and R&B, but at least it was music i recognized and could sing along with, instead of the same old punchis punchis punchis punchis. They even played the Cha Cha Slide....

Thursday was an exciting day for me, because i was meeting up with my friend Ashlee Snodgrass from the states. Ashlee is someone that i've known for YEARS, but it had been over a year since the last time i'd seen her. She is from Washington State, but I met her through the FIRST Robotics Competition while i was in highschool and she was studying at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Even though San Luis Obispo is only a few hours away from where i live in Los Angeles, we've only seen each other on average twice a year since we met. Nevertheless, i consider her one of my best friends. She's one of those people that no matter how long it's been since i've seen her or talked to her, i still feel like we completely understand each other, and i could talk to her about ANYTHING.

It was an amazing coincidence that put us in the same part of Mexico at the same time. She was on a cruise ship with her family during her spring break that stopped for just a few hours on the island of Cozumel, which, as i mentioned before, is just an hour ferry ride from Playa de Carmen.

Even though i had only slept a few hours, i managed to catch the 9:00 ferry to Cozumel. Ashlee and I had made plans to meet at 10:30 at her dock, so when the ferry got in just a little before 10:00, i had to hurry, because i was on an unfamiliar island and i really had no idea where i was going.

Just a few hundred yards from the place where i got off my ferry, i saw another dock with several cruise ships. I had no idea if there were more than one cruise ship dock on the island, so i made my way over to ask. A security guard informed me that Carnival cruise ships come in to a different dock and i'd be best off taking a taxi to get there.

I got in a taxi and asked how much he would charge me to "Carnival Pier", as it was called.

"Six Dollars."

"Six dollars??" i repeated, incredulous. "Sixty Pesos?" By Mexican standards, that's one freaking expensive taxi ride. "Is it very far from here?"

"Yes, pretty far, about 7 kilometers."

Heck, i could WALK 7 kilometers. Cozumel is not even as big as Queretaro, but i can get anywhere in Queretaro for a 40 peso taxi ride. "That's very expensive." i told the taxi driver.

He asked me what price was fair.

I said 30 pesos, knowing there was no way he would agree to just half of his original price, but thinking that even 30 pesos was awfully expensive for a 7 kilometer ride.

Finally we agreed on 40, and he took me on my way.

When we got to the dock, i handed him a 50 peso bill, and i couldn't believe what he handed me in change: a clean, crisp George Washington. An American dollar bill. I haven't even SEEN one of those in 8 months! Are you sure i'm still in Mexico???

It turned out there were actually two Carnival piers, and the taxi driver took me to the wrong one. Luckily, Ashlee's parents had figured that might happen, so while Ashlee waited for me at her dock, her parents were waiting at the other dock when i showed up.

Her boat was only there a few hours, but it was some of the most fun i've had in Mexico. We hung out on the beach, we went and explored the city, we caught up on each other's lives.

Ashlee's boat left at 4:30, and since i still had about three good hours of daylight, i decided i wanted to see what else there was on the island. I knew there were several Mayan archaeological sites, so i asked around if there were tour buses that would take me to them. They told me the only way to get there was to rent a car. Or, since i was only one person, a motor scooter. The price to rent a scooter was so cheap that i was about to agree to it. I've never ridden a motorcycle before, but what better place to learn than on an island where there's not a lot of traffic anyway? But then they told me that the ruins close at 5:00 so there really wasn't any point in going. I walked all around the city, until my feet started to hurt from so much walking in flip flops, took a taxi back to the dock, and got on a ferry back to the mainland. Earlier in the day when i had taken the ferry to the island, the sun had been so hot that i opted to ride inside the air-conditioned cabin of the ferry. But the sun was about to go down and the weather was cool and comfortable, so i tried to get a seat on the upper deck, to enjoy the sea air. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea i did, and there were no seats. I started off standing, but about ten minutes into the trip, i was hit by an uncontrollable wave of sleepiness and had to find a place to sit/lay down. Well, since everyone and their grandmother were on the upper deck, i had no trouble at all finding a pair of seats in the cabin where i curled up into a little ball and fell fast asleep.

A short while later someone shook me awake, and i thought they wanted to sit down, so i sat up groggily and moved my stuff off the seat next to me. But then i realized it was because we had arrived, and the person who had woken me up was an ugly italian guy who spoke poor english and even worse spanish and invited me to go out with him that night. I gave him non-committal answers, and made my way as quick as i could back to the apartment, where i fell fast asleep.

As was the custom, Myrna and Alexandra woke me up about eleven so we could go out, but this time i just had to say no. Probably due to not having slept the night before and then spending all day walking around in the hot sun. So they left me and went out to a bar. I don't have any idea what time they got home, but none of us woke up before 11:00 Friday morning.


The plan for Friday was to go to Tulum, one of the smaller archaeological sites, but one which is supposed to be really incredible because the pyramids are built overlooking a gorgeous white sand beach. Unfortunately, Alexandra was so hung over that she almost didn't go with us. But when Myrna and I were both out of bed and dressed, and she realized that we were serious about going, she got up to go with us, though she hardly spoke a word until we got to the bus station.

For some reason, our seats were all separated on the bus, even though the bus was practically empty. Myrna was sitting in one row next to a tall gringo in a baseball cap. Alexandra was in the same row, but across the aisle next to a tall blonde european guy. I was in front of Alexandra, and there was no one in the seat next to me, but across the aisle was a short european with curly hair who was also sitting by himself.

I heard Alexandra being her typical friendly self talking to her seat mate, but paid no attention until all of a sudden i heard her excited voice saying, "Myrna! Myrna!"

Myrna and i both looked to see what the excitement was about.

"His name is Jose!"

The three of us all began laughing almost without realizing it, and it was at this point that the guy across the aisle from me turned around and said jokingly something to the effect of, "Y'all have a problem with Joses? Cause if so, you'll have two of us to deal with."

Alexandra and I started laughing even harder, and Myrna managed to relate the story of our conversation Sunday night. It's not too often you find even one white guy named Jose, much less two. But the two of them were from Spain, which i guess makes sense. If you are going to find a tall blonde guy named Jose, you'll be much more likely to find one in Spain than in Mexico.

As it turns out, Myrna's seatmate was from Maine, but who had studied in the city where the two Joses live. So even though we had started out as three different groups, by the end of the bus ride, all six of us were hanging out like old friends.

It was an amazing group of people. Even though we'd never met before, there was the sort of chemistry between us that i have only ever experienced in groups of people that meet while traveling. Even when curly haired Jose lost his wallet at the beginning of the day and had to go back to the bus station to look for it, the rest of us hung out there on the beach in front of the pyramids and waited for him. He never did get his wallet back, but somehow he still managed to enjoy himself.

Our gringo friend had to leave us early, but we stayed with the Joses until the sun went down, and caught a taxi together back to Playa de Carmen. Once there, we walked with them to their hotel, and we made plans to meet up that night. There was no sort of sexual tension or attraction between us, which i enjoyed. It was just relaxing, being able to hang out with our buddies the Joses.

We went to the apartment and showered and changed, and the first order of business was food. Myrna's cousin had a couple of friends staying with her also, who recommended a pizza place which is open 24 hours. Why anyone would WANT pizza 24 hours a day is a mystery to me, but i was hungry so i really didn't care. After that, we went next door to a tiny hole in the wall bar, but where 1 liter alcoholic beverages are only 70 pesos. Myrna and Alexandra are both rum & coke drinkers, but since i'm not a fan of that, the Joses informed me that the bartender makes an AMAZING margarita. I was unprepared for how large a 1 liter margarita would be, but i have to agree that it was one of the best margaritas i've ever had. See, margaritas in mexico are rarely as sweet as margaritas in the U.S., and don't usually come in different flavors other than lime. And usually, they are much too strong for my taste, since i'm used to strawberry margaritas which don't even taste like alcohol. But this margarita tasted more like a frozen lemonade than a margarita. It's a good thing it was frozen, because that was the only thing that kept me from drinking it way to fast. It was good.

After we finished our one liter drinks, we went to the Blue Parrot (the same place we had gone the first night in Playa del Carmen). Our group stationed themselves in the middle of the area where techno was being played, and i made my way immediately to the restroom. After a one liter margarita, i needed it bad. But when i came back out of the restroom, they were no longer there. I thought, that's strange. Maybe they went over to "my side". But i did not find them there either. I circled around the bar a second time, starting to become annoyed at them for leaving without waiting for me. Suddenly i felt a tap on my shoulder, and was relieved. But of course i was not so lucky that it would be one of my friends. It was the ugly Italian guy from the Cozumel ferry!!! He asked if i wanted to come sit at his table, and i mumbled that i was looking for my friends and walked away. But to my horror, i noticed over my shoulder that he was following me! My heart began to pound. My friends had abandoned me, and i was being followed by a creepy Italian guy! So i went to the only place i knew i would be safe: back to the girls' bathroom. Finally, in line to use the bathroom, i found Alexandra.

I did nothing to conceal the fact that i was annoyed. "Where did you guys go??? I came out of the bathroom, and you weren't there, and now there's a creepy Italian guy following me!"

She did not respond (i think she'd had too many 1 liter rum and cokes), but she led me back to the electronica section, behind a curtain to the "VIP section". Of course, why didn't i think to look in the "VIP section"?

But i didn't stay annoyed for long, because i made friends with an Argentinian guy who was also there in the VIP section, and we got into a discussion about the linguistic differences between Spanish from Spain, Spanish from Argentina, and Spanish from Mexico. That kept me entertained until 5:00 in the morning when the place finally closed.

Make Notes

22nd March, 2005. 9:38 am. Trip to Yucatan, Part I

My trip to the Yucatan Peninsula was from the very beginning different than how i had imagined it to be. I had known since Christmas that this was the trip that i wanted to make during my Spring Break, but for quite a while it looked like i might be making the trip by myself. All of my friends had either already visited the Yucatan, had other plans, didn't have money, or some combination of the three. Then one night by "pura caca" (pure casualidad), i was talking with a French girl, Alexandra, who came to Beto's cafe and she mentioned that she also wanted to go to the Yucatan. I had met the girl once or twice at school, but i didn't really know her. Even still, we made plans that night to go together, because we both figured it would be better to go with an almost stranger than by ourselves. And i think we were both hoping that by getting to know each other better we would become friends.

Now, this incident in the cafe was several months ago, and since that day we had met up several times to talk about our plans for the trip. At some point, the two of us became the three of us, since one of Alexandra's closest Mexican friends is from the Yucatan Peninsula and offered to let us stay with her family if we went with her. This Mexican girl, Myrna, is someone with whom i had been vaguely acquainted with before because she was the girlfriend of Arturo, with whom i hung out a lot at the beginning of the semester. But Myrna and i never really talked much until she broke up with Arturo. After this point, Arturo pretty much stopped talking to me. He is still, over a month later, trying to get back together with her, and so my best guess is that he stopped talking to me because he is afraid that i will tell her what kind of person he actually is. The truth: he's a good guy and a great friend, but a horrible boyfriend, and i told Myrna this to her face.

I considered both Myrna and Alexandra friends before we went on our trip, but i realize that my personality is very different than theirs', so i was a bit nervous of how the trip would turn out to be. Nevertheless, why am i in Mexico if not to try new things? So i put my doubts aside and took off on our trip.

First of all, the two of them are much more planned than i am. I would have been quite content to wait until the day we were to leave, and get on the first bus that left for Yucatan. But the two of them said, why would you want to spend so much time on a bus? So they spent time searching on the internet and found plane tickets for just slightly more expensive than the bus tickets would have been. They bought round trip tickets leaving the Thursday before vacation, and coming home the Tuesday after vacation. But i just couldn't be that planned! If i bought my return ticket from a specific city, i would be forced to stay in that specific city until my return date. So in the end i told Myrna and Alexandra just to buy me a one-way ticket, and i would figure out my own way to get home.

Our plane left Thursday night from Mexico city at 9:15. So that would mean we would have to be there at 8:15. It's a three hour trip from Queretaro to the Mexico city airport, so we should leave no later than 5:00, right? But Myrna (or rather, Myrna's parents) didn't think that was enough time, and urged us to leave earlier. Fine, 4:00? No. Myrna wanted us to meet at the bus station in Queretaro no later than 3:15. Ok. I'm just too spontaneous for my own good.

The whole time-situation was the first thing that went differently than i would have done. The second happened Thursday night when we got to Merida. Myrna's aunt picked us up at the airport and took us to her house where we would be staying while in Merida. And as soon as we got to the house, Myrna and Alexandra wanted to get dressed and go to a bar. Keep in mind, this was at 11:00 pm when they STARTED talking about going to a bar. It was nearly 2:00am by the time everyone was showered and changed and made up, at which point we FINALLY made our way out of the house.

Now that the novelty of legally being able to go to bars has worn off, i just don't really have any desire to go to them anymore. If there is a concert with a band that i'm interested in, i love it! If it's a salsa bar with music i actually enjoy hearing, i'll go for that too! But the typical club scene in Mexico consists exclusively of "punchis punchis" music, usually imported from the states. You know what i mean by punchis punchis? Techno, electronica type music where all you can do is bob your head and listen to "POON chies POON chies POON chies POON chies". I don't have a problem with techno music. Never have. But after a few hours in a club of hearing NOTHING BUT techno, i start to yawn. I just don't see the appeal in that.

Naturally, after having been in the club until 4:30am, we slept most of Friday morning away. In the afternoon Myrna showed us around downtown Merida, where she had grown up.

Friday evening we went to a karaoke bar with some of Myrna's friends. I was excited when she told me that was on the agenda, but it was severely disappointing. The bar was PACKED, there was barely even room to stand. The only people who got up on stage to sing were either AMAZING singers who have no place in a karaoke bar, or people who got nervous and sang so quiet you could barely hear them. What happened to karaoke?? where people get up on stage to make complete fools of themselves in front of their friends? And to make it worse, after each song that was sung karaoke, the DJ tried to "liven up" the place with a little bit of punchis punchis. Exactly what i needed to hear...

Saturday we went with Myrna's friend Victor (super buena onda--really great guy) to his parents' beach house about half an hour from Merida. Now, yes, Victor does come from a family with money. But what Myrna was explaining to us is that having a beach house in Merida is less about having money than it is about the culture. During the summer months, she explained, the main city of Merida practically closes down. Everyone moves to the beach. Even most of the restaurants, cafes, and bars close down and move to new locations at the beach. Now, to me, that sounds perfectly ridiculous. If they are all going to live on the beach during the summer, why not live there year round? But to Myrna, who lived there most of her life, it is perfectly normal. It's just the way life is lived.

That Saturday at Victor's beach house, there were strong winds all day, which made a sunny day a bit on the chilly side, so no one really wanted to go into the water. Not to mention that the water, while turquoise blue like the caribbean, was thick with seaweed and other debris. The beach, however, was beautiful: fine white sand speckled with amazing seashells of all different sizes and shapes.

We stayed there until the sun started to go down, then went back to the house and slept a few hours before going out again, to the same bar where we went Thursday night. Little did i guess that this was going to be our routine for practically the entire week. We would spend the day doing my kind of stuff: touristing, enjoying the beach, visiting archaeological sites, go home and sleep a few hours before going out and doing the kind of stuff that Myrna likes: parties, drinking, and dancing. We would come home from the bars about 5:00 in the morning, sleep a few hours, and then repeat the whole cycle again. I really wonder how any of us survived a whole week living like that.

Sunday we went to the archaeological site of Uxmal. It was beautiful, but it was an extremely hot day, and there really wasn't anything particularly amazing that set this site apart from any of the others i've seen.

The two particularly amazing archaological sites i've seen in Mexico are Teotihuacan, because of the sheer size of the pyramids there, and Palenque, because it's enshrouded in a beautiful jungle setting. All the rest sort of start to look the same after a while.

Sunday night was probably the only day the entire week that NONE of us went out at night, and it wasn't for lack of plans. We got home about ten, showered and changed, and waited for Myrna's friends to let us know where we should meet them. But we all fell asleep waiting, only to wake up at 4:00 in the morning with all our clothes still on, with the lights and the television still going, and we all knew that we weren't going out. Instead, we just sat around and had girl talk. Most of the conversation was fairly unmemorable, except for one particular excerpt in which Alexandra described to us the kind of guy she wanted to meet on this trip.

"Blonde hair...green eyes...about 180 cm, 70 kg. Skinny, i don't like them that buff. Tan, and whose name is..." Her voice trailed off here. I don't think she had actually planned to say a name, but Myrna thought this was funny, and played off of it.

"Go on, Ale, what is his name?"

"I don't know...Jose, or something."

That became the joke of the trip. Alexandra's tall, blonde, green-eyed prince charming...named Jose. From that moment on, anytime that we saw a tall blonde guy, one of us would just have to comment. "Look, Ale, there goes Jose!"
Monday we went on a trip with Myrna's whole family (aunts, uncles, and cousins). You see, one of really interesting things about the Yucatan Peninsula is the complete lack of lakes and rivers, at least above ground. Instead, what you find speckled all over the peninsula are underground freshwater springs called cenotes, many of which are connected underground through a network of yet-unexplored tunnels. The surface of the water in the cenotes is usually about twenty or thirty feet underground, reachable by small fissures in the surface of the earth. Most of the cenotes contain fresh, drinkable water due to the fact that it is filtered by the limestone shelf of which the entire peninsula consists, but very few are safe to swim in, due to strong currents that will suck you underground. And once you go under, there's no telling when, where, or if your body will ever be found. But we went with Myrna's family to a group of cenotes that are known to be safe. It's a set of three which are not reachable by car. The most common way of reaching these three cenotes is by truk (pronounced trook--a tiny pony-drawn cart that rides on a track like a railroad). It's frustratingly slow transportation, and one feels an infinite amount of pity for the tiny pony pulling a cart loaded with as many as seven people. But the cenotes were beautiful. You have to climb down a ladder through the fissure in the surface to get to the water, but once there, the water is clear crystal blue, and the sun peaks through the roof and reflects against the walls of the cave. In two of the cenotes, there are tree roots that dangle from the ceiling into the water, and make an interesting challenge to see how high you can climb on the tree roots.

Tuesday we went to Chichen Itza, probably the most famous of the Mayan ruin sites, in part due to a phenomenon that occurs only on and around the spring and fall equinoxes. The position of the sun a few hours after sunrise and before sunset creates the shadow of a serpent descending the stairs of the great pyramid, with the shadow ending at the bottom of the staircase, where there is a statue of the head of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent god. I have read about this phenomenon before, and thought it was quite good luck that our trip coincided with the spring equinox. The equinox is March 20th and 21st, when the effect is supposed to be the strongest. But since the position of the sun doesn't change very much in one day, the phenomenon is equally visible the 19th and the 22nd, and we were informed it's actually better to go one of these two days, because there are less people, and you might actually be able to see it. We went the 22nd, and saw the effect clearly. I took pictures, but i have to say it wasn't quite as impressive as i imagined. It's impressive thinking about the precision it must have taken to make it so that it only occurs on the equinox, but the shadow really doesn't look much like a serpent, and i'm sure i wouldn't have even noticed it if i hadn't know what i was looking for.

Tuesday was the last night we were going to spend in Merida, and we had bus tickets for the next morning at 6:30 AM to go to Playa de Carmen, so i thought it was a given that we weren't going to go out that night. But that evening, Myrna got a call from an old friend she hadn't seen in a while, so despite her better instincts, she decided to go out with him, and invited us to go with her. Alexandra went with her, but i just couldn't. I stayed home, went to bed early, and was well refreshed for our trip in the morning.

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13th March, 2005. 3:31 pm. Partial Exams, Round 2

So, i did the same thing this month that i said last month i wasn't going to do again. I went on a trip right before partial exams. It was different this time, though, because, number 1, i had already turned in my paper for literature (and i wish William Faulkner was still alive so i can tell him to his face how disturbing i find his book). Number 2, in order to write my report for Mexican Culture, i had to research something from the colonial era, so i was able to make my trip double count. Number 3, i had exams Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but i already knew the material as well as i was going to, so staying home to study wouldn't really have made a difference.

Monday i had my exam in Fonetics, which was the one exam i really wish i would have studied more for the first parcial. But this time, i did much better. I walked out of the exam with confidence.

Monday night, Molly decided to cook Jewish food. We had Matzoh ball soup, and latkes, and some dessert which had pasta, raisins, and noodles.

Tuesday i had my exam in grammar, which could have been better, but also could have been worse. I knew the material, but found out later that i had made several careless mistakes.

Immediately after, i had my exam in literature. This was the one i had been dreading. If you remember from the last parcial, it was a true/false exam that over half the class failed. But I had the advantage that at least the first time, i had understood the novels we were being tested on, with the exception of the one i hadn't read. This time, i was pretty much out of luck, because in addition to The Sanctuary by Faulkner, about which you already know my sentiments, we had Muerte in Venecia, by Thomas Mann, which i understood even less than Faulkner, and La Tregua, by Primo Levi, which i had only been able to skim hours before the exam.

Just like the last time, the teacher had told us that if we were unsure of the answer, leave it blank, because she gives zero points for blank responses, but negative points for incorrect ones. Well the problem is that i wasn't sure on ANY of the questions. Out of 10 questions on each novel, there were usually around 4 about which i was relatively confident. But then the mathematical side of my brain kicked in and reminded me that if i only answered 40 percent of the exam, there was no logical possibility that i could pass the exam. I was doomed to an F. In order to evem have a prayer of passing the exam, i had to answer at least 70% of the questions and PRAY that i didn't get any wrong. So i continued answering questions, making guesses, until i had 8 answers for each novel, and prayed.

Tuesday night i had to write my report for Zacatecas, but i was feeling quite lazy. Then i had the brilliant idea to write a photo essay. I had dozens of gorgeous digital photos that Alberto had taken with my camera, and i just wasn't in the mood to write an actual essay. Now don't think that i decided to do a photo essay because i thought it would be less work. I think i actually put more work into it than i would have for a normal essay. But since it wasn't just my typical same-old, it gave me motivation to actually put effort into it.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, i began to regret having written a photo essay, because i had to pay to print it out in color, and i had no idea how expensive that was. The normal price for printing black and white is 50 centavos per sheet. That's 5 american cents, which seems a little bit high to me, but not nearly as high as the price for printing color. $8 pesos per sheet. That's nearly 80 american cents.

Every student at the Tec starts out with a credit of $50 pesos on their account, and since i had an 11 page photo essay to print, i had to put more credit on my account. I added $100 pesos (nearly $10 U.S. dollars), of which i used $88. Not to mention, the document was SO large that it took FOREVER to send it to the printer. I clicked "print" at about 3:30, wanting to allow PLENTY of time before class, since my exam started at 4:00. Well, it wouldn't print the entire document, so i had to print it one page at a time, each page taking about 5 minutes to send to the printer. I realized about halfway through that it probably would have gone much faster if i had converted it into a PDF file, because do the math: 11 pages, at almost 5 minutes a page...i ended up getting to my exam about fifteen minutes late. Normally i wouldnt' have dreamed of arriving late for an exam, but i knew from last month's partial that the teacher isn't very strict about it.

Last month, my grades were 89, 81, 81, and 78. That's pretty low by my college standards, but i guess i wasn't worried since it was just the first month. I managed to bring most of them up this time. The 89 (grammar) stayed at exactly 89. I know it's not a bad grade, but it's always frustrating to be right on the limit like that. One of the 81s (fonetics) came up to a 98, which i could easily have gotten last time if i had studies. That's my strong area anyway. The 78 (culture) came up to a 84. It would have even been better, since i did much better on our homework assignments, but my grade on the exam went down considerably. The only grade that went down was literature, from a 81 to a 75. And actually, i should be thankful even to have the 75, because i failed the exam, and got in the low 80s on the paper. But i'm pretty sure the teacher graded me easily since she knows how hard i tried. You see, out of the 30 true/false questions, i answered exactly 15 correctly. That's not a very good margin. Then if you remember that i answered 7 for each book, that means that there were also 9 which i answered incorrectly, which she subtracted from my total score to give me just 6 correct. 6 out of 30 gave me a raw percentage of 20%, which was curved up to a 40. Ouch....

Well, i needed a weekend to relax from results like that. It's only the second time in my entire college career that i've ever FAILED an exam. And as my mother so wisely put it, getting an F means you didn't learn the material, and i sure as anything haven't learned the material. But i just want to clarify that it's not due to any lack of effort on my part. I TRY to learn. It's not my fault if the teacher doesn't want to teach.

I spent the weekend in Queretaro, getting stuff done around the apartment, hanging out with some acquaintances from church whom i don't normally see during the week, but most importantly, saving money, because next week is spring break!

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6th March, 2005. 2:47 pm. Trip to Zacatecas

So...i've spent both of the last two weekends traveling to new states in Mexico, and i didn't want to break the tradition. So Friday afternoon i got on a bus with a classmate named Angela and my neighbor Alberto to the colonial city of Zacatecas.

We left Friday about 5 on what is normally a five hour bus trip, but there was traffic, so we didn't end up getting in until about 11:30. Luckily, the hostel where we were staying will send someone to pick you up at the bus station, so all we had to do was call when we got into town.

When we got to the hostel, Angela was feeling sick so she went straight to bed, and Alberto and I went out to see the city and try to find a pharmacy for Angela.

Zacatecas is a colonial mining town like Guanajuato, which was for a long time my favorite city in Mexico. But since it so often gets compared to Guanajuato, a lot of people that i have talked to are disappointed when they see Zacatecas. But i had nothing to complain! Since it's a mining town, it's built in the valley between two different hills, and like Guanajuato, the city just climbs up the sides of the hills, interconnected by steep, crooked callejones (alleys). In Guanajuato, the majority of these callejones are accessible only on foot, since most of the actual streets run underground in the bed of a river which used to flow under the city. But since Zacatecas had no such underground river to build their streets on, the callejones are usually wide enough for a car to pass, even though they are often too steep for vehicle traffic and sometimes have steps built in to facilitate foot traffic.

The center of Zacatecas has a lot of the same archictecture as other towns from the colonial era, but i never get tired of seeing it. Most of the buildings are built of red sandstone that makes the city "glow with a sunset pink that is easier to recognize than to describe" (as described by my Mexico tour book). And just like i have come to love in Queretaro, the entire city center is illuminated by yellow gas lamps which make the streets safe to walk at night, without detracting from the quaint, antique feel of the colonial architecture and red brick roads.

Since we never did find a pharmacy that was open, Beto and i had started to wander back to the hostel when we both detected the smell of chorizo. At that time of night out on the streets, the smell of spicy mexican sausage could only mean one thing: Tacos.

That smell made us both realize how hungry we actually were, and so we went off to search for the taco stand. But what we found was not tacos, but hamburgers. I was a bit surprised, since in Queretaro you find a lot of taco stands and hot dog stands, but not so many hamburger stands. But more than surprised, i was disappointed, since i had gotten my hopes up for tacos.

I think Beto was a bit surprised too, since i heard him ask the hamburger man, "Do your hamburgers have chorizo?" He assured us that they were just regular hamburgers.

It had never appealed to me to eat hamburgers or hot dogs on the street, but I was hungry by then, and i figured, i eat enough tacos on the street that hamburgers can't possibly be any worse, so i ordered one.

I honestly was not prepared for how GOOD that hamburger was going to taste. It was by far the best hamburger i've eaten in Mexico. I kid you not, Californians, it was comparable to In-N-Out standards. I just wish i could figure out what was so different about it! Whatever they did different, it was probably the same thing that made it smell like chorizo. Now i'm curious to make a hamburger with chorizo to see if it tastes anything like that.

We finished our hamburgers (Beto ate two), and made our way back to the hostel so that we would be refreshed and ready for the next day.

Saturday being our only full day in Zacatecas, we wanted to make the most of it. The first thing we did was find a drugstore, where Angela described her symptoms to the pharmacist. The pharmacist recommended a medicine, and Angela bought it without questions just because she wanted to feel better. We then found a small restaurant where we had gorditas for breakfast, and started off on our exploration of Zacatecas. The must-see thing that i've always read about in Zacatecas is the silver mine, which in addition to continuing to mine silver, also hosts a museum and a night club. Unfortunately the mine was closed during our visit while a hotel and restaurant are being built next to the night club. Imagine that...you could come to Zacatecas and spend the entire weekend inside the mine.

The other must-do is the Teleferico (cable cars) which connect the two hills on either side of the city. We climbed up the shorter of the two hills, Cerro del Grillo, and got on the cable car headed towards Cerro de la Bufa, so named because, apparently, the odd-shaped rock formation perched on top of the hill, visible from all over the city, bears a strong resemblance to the bladder of a pig. Interesting concept, that. The rock formation doesn't appear to me to bear resemblance to anything i'm familiar with, but then again i've never seen a pig's bladder, so i can't deny it.

The trip in the cable car was a lot of fun. It's high enough off the ground that you can see the entire city (not a very big place, but still impressive), but at the same time, it's low enough that you can see the details of the buildings underneath you. But the best part was seeing Alberto get scared of heights. He's a goofy guy, but he's still got enough Mexican machismo that he doesn't normally let on when he's scared.

Once on top of Cerro de la Bufa, we stopped to take more pictures, and then went to explore the hill. As i mentioned before, the hill is most noted for the odd shaped rock formation on top of it. But in addition, the hill also hosts a small chapel, a museum, and a monument to Pancho Villa. We explored around the hill for quite a while, but after a while it was just to cold and windy to stay, and too expensive to go back down on the cable cars, so we made our way down on foot.

The rest of the day we spent walking around the centro. We saw several impressive churches and an aqueduct. The Spanish built many such aqueducts in various colonial cities, although i have to say that neither the one in Zacatecas nor any other i have seen is quite as impressive as the aqueduct of Queretaro. Maybe i'm just biased.

In the evening, we went out with some of the other people staying in our hostel to a pool hall/karaoke bar. I definitely wasn't in the mood for a typical club scene, but if you say karaoke, i'm there anytime. After that we went back for hamburgers again.

We slept well that night after having walked all around the city the day before, and in the morning it was time to go so we could get home and study for our exams.

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3rd March, 2005. 10:28 am. Thanksgiving dinner & Little blessings

You never know when staying in bed might keep you from seeing the little blessings God has in store for you. Today, that little blessing came in the form of the bus that i have to take from my house to school. The bus schedule says that it passes every 15 minutes, but normally i have found that it passes once about 7:45, which gets me to school about 15 minutes early, but if i miss it, it doesn't usually come again until 8:15, which gets me to school about 15 minutes late. Well, being....myself, i usually end up leaving the house about 7:50, and usually end up waiting nearly half an hour for the bus to pass again, becoming more and more aware every minute of how late i am becoming.

Well, today, i was particularly tired in the morning, and seriously considered skipping my first class. But i finally convinced myself about 8:00 that i had to get out the door. And just in the very moment i stepped outside the door, i saw the bus pulling up to the stop. I had to look again at my watch. 8:02. The bus NEVER comes at 8:00. I made it to school just in time for my class :). And just to think that if i had stayed in bed, i would have missed that little surprise that God had in store for me.

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So Monday was time for Molly and I to cook again, and the theme for this week was Thanksgiving dinner. Why Thanksgiving at the end of February. Well, Molly had a couple boxes of Stovetop Stuffing mix and i had a can of cranberry sauce left over from the real thanksgiving. We were going to make up mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. But that morning as we were reciting the menu to our English classmates, one of the girls protested, "But what about the turkey? You've got to have turkey for thanksgiving! Do you want me to bring a turkey?"

I was skeptical that the turkey would be ready by that evening. But she seemed awfully sold on the idea, and i sure wasn't about to complain.

That night i was at my house peeling potatoes when i got a panicky phonecall. "There's a bit of a problem with the turkey," came the British voice on the other end of the line. "It's still completely frozen, and you know a turkey's got to be properly defrosted or else everyone is going to get ill." (I love that--"properly" defrosted) "We've got it sitting in hot water right now. I think we are going to try putting it in the shower. Hopefully we'll be able to get it in the oven by 7:30, and then it should take two and a half hours to cook. Is that ok?"

Well, even if it wasn't ok, what were we going to do about it? But as it turned out, nothing was ready by then anyway. It took forever to to cook the potatoes and the green bean casserole because my stove just doesn't heat very quickly. The pies were done by then, but they still had cool. About the only thing that was done on time was the stuffing.

By the time we finally ate, there were probaby 25 people crammed into my tiny apartment, and we had finished two bottles of tequila. The food went on the table about 10:30, and by 11:00, it was all gone. Since it was Monday night, and everyone had class the next morning at 8:30, everyone pretty much cleared out right after that, except Roberto, who had had just a bit too much to drink.

"Just let me stay a little bit longer..."

"No, Roberto. You've been here long enough."

"Just let me pour myself one more drink."

"No, Roberto. You've had enough."

We finally got him out the door, and Herani went with him to make sure he made it home ok. Heather and Molly and I looked at each other, then at the pile of dirty dishes that was now overflowing both the sink and the counters in the kitchen. We got up to wash them, only to discover that we were out of dish soap. Then, even though we knew they wouldn't go away by themselves, it was nice to be able to go straight to bed and not worry about them right then.

The next day i had to go to class as usual at 8:30 in the morning, and i came home at 2:30 to find the house spotless. I was amazed. I was pretty sure it wasn't Heather, since she's been up to her pigtails in homework lately. Then i found Alberto in the kitchen drying dishes.

"Did you do all this??"

"I figured you all worked hard enough to cook it, the least i could do was help you clean."

What a guy, eh? Not only had he washed and dried all the dishes, he had cleaned the oven and the stove and mopped the entire house.

There were birthday parties both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but i didn't make it to either of them because it's almost time for our second partial exams, and i have a five page paper due on the Sanctuary, by William Faulkner, and it's not going well. If Faulkner is hard to read in English, he's downright impossible in Spanish. Wednesday night i stayed in the library until 9:00, and when i went home, i had planned to take a short nap before getting up and working again. I left the lights and the music on to keep me from falling sound asleep, plus i set an alarm, but nothing worked. I woke up early this morning to find that sometime during the night Heather had turned off the lights and the music, and that i had slept through my alarm. And because of never having woken up, i had never reset the alarm for my morning schedule, which is why i ended up leaving my house late this morning, and almost missed God's special blessing for me.

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27th February, 2005. 11:36 am. Rock Concert, Sushi Dinner, Camping Trip

Thursday night i went to a concert for one of my friends who plays in a rock group. He had told me that the concert was in the Museo de la Ciudad, which i have never been to, but i was very curious to see what kind of museum hosts rock concerts. I didn't get to see much of the museum, but let's just say it was definitely not what i was expecting. The building looked more like a house from the colonial era, and chances are it probably was. The concert was held in an open courtyard that smelled like marijuana. After the initial confusion about why a museum courtyard would smell like pot, i looked around and realized it was because practically everyone near me was smoking. Of course, why didn't i think of that?

The next day i went out to dinner with my friend Laura, who was turning 21. She wanted to go out for a sushi dinner. It was actually the first time i've eaten sushi since the last time Brendon came to visit. That was sort of....our thing. Since i really don't like seafood, i never used to eat it. But he likes it so much, that we used to eat it probably at least once every two weeks, and i learned to like it more and more. Even still, though, i always stayed away from the fish. I would go for the vegetarian rolls, or like a California roll that only has imitation crab. But i decided it's time i finally start getting over squeamishness. So for the first time in my life, i ordered a sushi roll with raw fish. I figured salmon would be pretty inoffensive, and i have to admit that it was not bad. It just....freaks me out, eating an animal that's not cooked. I ate each roll in one big bite with the minimum amount of chewing possible, and washed each one down with a couple large mouthfuls of rice. I tried to tell myself how silly i was being, but.....well, i guess i've still got some work to do. I made progress anyway!

This weekend was a camping trip sponsored by the International Programs Office. We left Saturday morning for the state of San Luis Potosi, and it rained the entire way there.

It had finally stopped raining when we got to the place, which turned out to be an actual camp, with horseback riding, archery range, and kayaking. No one wanted to go kayaking since it was still cold, and horseback riding cost extra, so we spent a little while at the archery range, took turns on a pair of go-carts, but spent most of the time playing soccer, volleyball, and jumping on the trampoline. There was also a lounge area with pool tables, cards, and dominoes.

The trampoline turned into our gathering place. It was right in front of the cafeteria, so we would jump on the trampoline while we were waiting to eat. We would take naps on the trampoline after we ate. We would sit around on the trampoline and play truth or dare late at night. By the end of the weekend, my butt and my abs were actually sore from jumping so much on the trampline. They should get one of those in the gym at school!

Sunday was actually sunny, and the camp leaders had planned a water balloon fight. But despite the sun, it was still pretty cold, so there were quite a few of us that chose not to participate, so then the boys got the brilliant idea to take those of us sunning ourselves on the trampoline and throw us in the swimming pool with our clothes on.

We got home about Sunday at 8:00, and even though i had homework i could have done, i was exhausted from my weekend of doing....nothing, and went straight to bed.

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24th February, 2005. 10:15 am. Middle Eastern Food and International Fair

Hallo! Ich heisse Amy. Ich bin zwanzig Jahre alt, und ich bin Studentin. Und du? Wie heisst du? Wie alt bist du? Welchen Beruf hast du?

Monday after our beach trip, i made it through my first class and then had a three hour break, so i went to take a nap in the library. In my dream, i looked at my watch and it was well past time for my one o'clock class, so i put my head back down to try and sleep again, and then i woke up for real, to discover that it was only 12:45. So then since i didn't have an excuse to miss my class, i dragged myself grumpy and groggy to the gym for my dance class. I hadn't really wanted to go to class, because all we were doing was rehearsing for a presentation that Thursday. And as it turns out, it didn't do me any good anyway to have been there. First we practiced our Cha Cha Cha routine, which i already knew completely. Then when it was time to practice our Waltz routine, the one that i actually needed help with, my partner had to leave, so i still didn't get to practice.

Monday night, Molly and I continued the tradition we had started earlier in the semester of making dinner on Monday nights. The first time we did it was Lasagna. Then we did Fajitas. This week Molly wanted to make it a middle-eastern theme. She made falafels and couscous from mixes that she had brought with her from the states, and i brought hummus, pita bread, and a big greek salad. It was good......i think that's the biggest thing i miss about the states, is the variety of ethnic foods you can find. In Mexico, it's pretty much Mexican, American, Italian, Chinese, and Sushi.

Wednesday night was our final rehearsal for the dance routines that we would be presenting the next day at a fair that was being presented by the International Programs Office. During this rehearsal was when we were supposed to choose the partners that we would actually be dancing with, but I arrived late and it looked like at first that there weren't any male partners left. The teacher told us single girls that we should just partner up together and make the best of it, so i ended up with my friend Dawn, trying to figure out which of us would be better able to do the guy's steps. I was finally starting to get the hang of it, when a couple of more guys showed up, so I had to forget everything i had just been practicing and go back to being the woman.

Thursday, the day of the fair, was a huge presentation. First of all, it was Mexican flag day, so there was a hug flag-raising ceremony at the beginning of the day. Then I went straight to the fair, because all of the international programs classes had been cancelled so we could help with the fair. In addition to the dance presentation, which included our samples of cha cha cha and waltz and presentations of hula, tango, jazz, ballet, and African, there were representatives from different universities around the world that have exchange programs with the Tec, and there were stands set up by each of the different language groups represented on campus. There was an English-speaking table, with "cultura y comida de Estados Unidos, Canada, y Inglaterra," a French-speaking table representing France and Quebec, and a German table. It struck me as a bit funny that they tried to lump American and Canadian food together with English food, and i'm not sure Quebecois food is anything like food from France. But since all the food was cooked by a Mexican woman, none of it really resembled the food from its representative country. The English speaking booth had barbecued ribs and salad, which was good, pecan pie, which i guess we do eat, but i don't exactly think of as traditional. But the winner take all was "Pure de Maiz." The literal translation of that would be "Corn Puree, although the word pure is the same as the one that is used for mashed potatoes, "Pure de Papas". So i suppose you could also translate it as mashed corn. When i saw that on the menu, i thought perhaps it was grits. But when i saw the food, it looked more like a cream of corn casserole. I've never eaten anything quite like it, ever. It wasn't bad, it was just different. So then, for curiosity, i asked one of the English girls if perhaps that's a typical food Britain. She laughed. "I was just going to ask you if that's something you eat in the U.S." The woman who cooked the food is a sweetheart, and you could tell she tried really hard, but i do wonder who told her that this is a traditional food of English speaking countries.

I heard similar comentarios from the people working the French and German booths. The French food was chicken in wine sauce (Which, i was told, IS a traditional French food, only with about 10 times the amount of wine), risotto, which is more italian than french, and croissants for dessert. But the German food was the taker. There was potato salad, which was good. But then for the meat....now, everyone knows that Germans eat a lot of sausages, right? But the thing is, the Spanish word for sausage (salchicha) can also be used for hot dogs. So the dear, sweet chef had fixed....macaroni with hot dogs. Now, i've never been to Germany, but i know they don't eat a lot of pasta, and i'm pretty sure the only thing German about a hot dog is the name Frankfurter.

My particular job at the fair was to help with the booth set up by the California State University System. But when i got to the booth where we were supposed to be, no one was there, so i asked what had happened. How surprised are you to find out that the CSU had never sent any of the posters or pamphlets that we were supposed to have to pass out to interested students? So because of that, our resident director had decided to cancel our booth. But just so that you all know right now what kind of person my friend Molly is, she grabbed me by the arm and said, "Let's do it ourselves!!"

We had all been wearing sweatshirts from our respective CSU campuses, which we took off to decorate the booth, since we didn't have posters. Then, since we didn't have literature to pass out, but we did have a couple of laptops, we set them up to the CSU website so prospective students could look up information online. We took the leftover buttons and balloons that International Programs had used to advertise the fair, and put them on our table as a giveaway. Then, as a finishing touch, we hooked up a set of speakers to the laptop and made a playlist of songs that included California Dreaming, Californication, California Girls, Hotel California, and other classics that Mexicans love just as much as we do. All in all, i think it went really well. We didn't get a lot of interest, just because most of the people who walked by were only interested in picking up a pamphlet to take home and read later. But we took an empty booth and made quite a production of it.

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