Update on Mexican Life

Sorry again that I haven’t written in awhile. It is so hard to find the time to write about the adventures I am having. It is Sunday night and I should probably be doing my homework but instead I am writing this….hopefully I will post it soon.

Last weekend we went to the beach and it was really, really great. We went to a beach called Zihuatenejo and we had a lot of time to relax and enjoy ourselves. We didn’t have classes on Friday so we could leave for the beach. We left school at 8:00 in the morning and arrived at the beach with the entire afternoon to enjoy it. We spent the day playing in the water, playing soccer on the beach (with a group of middle school students that happened to be there) and just relaxing. Then we went to a restaurant on the beach to watch the sunset. It was SO beautiful!! Then on Saturday we went out in a boat and snorkeled at a nearby beach. Some people also fished but didn’t catch anything. Then we got back and three of us decided to paraglide (maybe….I don’t know what its actually called in English) where you are attached to a parachute and pulled by a speedboat around the area. It was very fun and actually just relaxing because it wasn’t very fast so we got to just enjoy the beauty from above. Anyway that night we went to the town of Zihuatenejo for dinner and ended up choosing a not very good restaurant but it was cheap and the drinks were free so we were satisfied. Then we decided to go out but the nightlife in Zihuatenejo was slightly boring so we took a bus to Ixtapa (a more luxurious gringo-filled beach town) to go out. We found a bar that had live music and the guy singing ended up being a Canadian named Sebastian…how weird right? Anyway we had a good time. The next day we hung out on the beach some more, watched a soccer game and left. On our way back to Morelia (which ended up being a very very long trip) we stopped for lunch at another beach.

Anyway this weekend has also been really fun!!! Friday evening we had a Valentine’s Day party at the orphanage we have been helping at and I had so much fun! I haven’t loved going to the orphanage twice a week to help with homework but getting to hang out and play with the kids was a blast. We played a few games, ate, and just hung out with the kids. I think that they enjoyed it too!! After that we went out to a bar with one of our teachers Itzi (who is more like a friend than a teacher) and some of her friends. That was fun and we also went to the disco afterward! It was a really fun night but it made it very difficult to get up at 7:00 yesterday morning to go to Guanajuato. But we did and the trip to Guanajuato was incredibly long. The two hour (ish) trip there took like 9 or 10 hours because we stopped like 10 times at different churches or other sites to see. Some were really cool but some were just another church or another town just like every other. One of the stops we went to a plaza that sells weird flavors of ice cream. The guy let us try all of the flavors we wanted and some were good, some were not. I tried shrimp with octopus ice cream, mole ice cream, beer, tequila with pineapple, cheese, avocado, and a bunch more I can’t remember. I ended up getting mango and tequila and that was delicious. When we got to Guanajuato we went to this horrible museum of legends and stories. It was horrible….even Cherie our professor got in the van afterward and said well there’s nothing to say about that. It was also at the end of a very long, exhausting day (on little sleep for many of us). The museum was just weird and full of windows that have mannequins of the famous legends from Guanajuato. Part of it also had a story about these stuffed bears (maybe…possible woodchucks or something…we really couldn’t tell). That was the worst part of the whole thing. Anyway, then we went out to dinner and I ate pasta (and loved it of course)!!! After dinner we went to the estudiantina which is a tradition where a group of about ten men dressed in colonial (I think) costumes play music and sing and we walk around the city. It was fun but we were also exhausted! Then today we got the entire morning to do as we pleased. I woke up and went out to breakfast with Lisa Stoneberg (a friend from high school who is studying in Guanajuato). It was really good to see her and to talk to her about our experiences (especially since we got together right before I left to talk). Then we left and saw another museum in Guanajuato and a big statue before heading back to Morelia. Once we got back Brenda, Abby, Aaron and I went to a taco place that Christian had told us about and we ate really good tacos al pastor!! It was delicious….now I am back at home and ready to start some homework. Anyway I hope all is well with you all and I would love to hear from you!!!