Inquisitive stares to walking like a...Teotihuacan?

OK this post will really be mostly pictures!

Thursday my friend Vickey braided my hair into a faux hawk. I got plenty of stares that night and Friday. Walking around campus nobody stared. Friday I had Vickey braid the loose ends. When I left her house Friday night a man walking in front of me looked back at me. He looked back a few times. As I passed him he continued to stare. I'm not really sure when it became polite to literally stare at someone while they are looking at you watching them be rude. Once at the bus stop a girl my age walked by with her boyfriend and she said, "Que padre!" Literally it means "what dad," but it is slang for "how cool!" I appreciated her comment even though she did not say it directly to me. Friday morning I even received honks and waves among the blatant stares. That was probably the first time I felt different. Yes, in high school I wore crazy outfits that I thought were creative and cutting edge, but nobody ever stared at me. This is the first time I did not feel comfortable in my skin. Even before my hair was braided people here stare me down as if I cannot see them. Friday when I got home I talked to Blanca (in Spanish) about the stares. She said people are curious and have not been exposed to such a thing. I know that...but that didn't stop me from exclaiming "really" out loud to the guy who kept turning around to stare.

 

Thursday's hair do

      Friday's hair do

Friday night's dinner. A traditional Mexican dish called Pozole (Pa-zo-lay). It is the consistency of chili except instead of beans large kernels of a specific type of white corn are used. It is usually made with pork but Blanca used chicken. On top you add lettuce, onions, freshly squeezed lime juice (my favorite), freshly crushed oregano, and radishes (I just put a few on the side).

CORRECTION: Initially I called these borrador. That was a mistake on my part. Borrador means eraser :D. The dish is called Benuelos.

Saturday the international students headed to Teotihuacan where the pyramids are (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan). Many students said they did not recognize me at first and that they like my hair. Granted I did have my contacts in so that is a decent transformation. Anyway, the trip to Teotihuacan was great! It was very hot yesterday too.I was pretty amazed by the complexity of the structures and the belief systems and rituals of the people at that time. They were very in tune with the sky - the water cycle, constellations. The pyramids were made to reach the sky. The structures on the ground were a reflection of what the people saw in the sky. I began to think about the pyramids in Egypt and how vastly different the materials are of each civilization and how you go inside the Egyptian pyramids and you have to climb the outside of the Teotihuacan pyramids. Then I got to thinking about how blessed I am to have experiences with the Egyptian and Teotihuacan pyramids that I can reflect on the differences between them. God has truly blessed me with great opportunities in life that many are not fortunate to have.

Adriana and I on the bus headed for Teotihuacan early Saturday morning with our breakfast in our laps

They provided us with breakfast which included a huge juice box, shaved carrots and a lime (of course packets of chili and salt were included for that), a puffed rice bar that was lightly sweetened with molasses, raisins, and nuts, then there was a sandwich with beans, cheese, and ham. They weren't tryin to play!

The tour started with a show of a ritual. Men climb up the pole and position themselves on mere rods of wood and tie ropes to their waists. The man in the middle plays a song while the men spin and gradually descend. There are 13 rotations.

What you see to the left when you first walk onto the park grounds.

I think this is the Temple of Quetzacoatl

My tour guide Aldo holding a solid piece of obsidian. Obsidian is found all around that area and is very plentiful. Many of the wares/souvenirs are made out of obsidian.

There is a small museum that breaks up the outside tour. Here is one side of the city layout. The pyramid closest to the railing is the pyramid of the sun and the furthest one away is the pyramid of the moon. There is another half to this map/layout! It is thought that 200,000 people inhabited the area.

It is a bit hard to see, but these are excavated men (left) and women (right). The people sacrificed and practiced cannibalism for their rituals. The men that are sacrificed have necklaces on and the women are adorned with earrings. I thought that was interesting.

The pyramid above is the pyramid of the sun. It took a serious climb up the aged stairs, but I made it all the way to the top. What a view! I did a little crappy 360 video as well. In my defense it was very crowded up there.

View of the pyramid of the moon as we walk down the Street of the Dead

At the hotel for lunch. You walk through a nice lobby of smiling attendants and see this beautiful patio and pool area with pretty green grass. It literally was like seeing an oasis in the desert.

We had a buffet style lunch. On my plate I have thin cuts of chicken, rice, chicken with potatoes and carrots, broiled pork, veggie salad - green peppers, onion, cactus, then there was a cold taco that was topped with lettuce and crumbled cheese which was really good. For dessert there was a rice pudding garnished with strawberries (fresas) and starfruit and I got cake that had something like ambrosia between the layers.

The Mariachi band playing and the singer waved for my picture, lol

Above is a picture and video of traditional dancing and drumming

Hoy es mala onda!!!!

The title of today's post says "today is not cool!!!!" Today literally was a series of unfortunate events. I'm not sure what stars aligned or if I was supposed to learn a lesson today and what for, but it was one thing after another.

Before I get into sharing the few strange events of the day I would like to take the time for a few shout outs.

To my family: I would like to thank my mom and dad for always having faith in me and telling me to have faith in myself. They support everything I do whether it be summer camps where I go caving in Kentucky, to changing majors from engineering to international affairs, to deciding "hey it's a good time to study abroad in Mexico." Whatever it is they are there. To my extended family I thank you for all of your prayers and support throughout the years and specifically for my trip to Mexico. I greatly appreciate all that you do for me.


To my friends, family friends, and previous co-workers: Today a co-worker from my most recent internship with Cooperative for Education skyped me and said they enjoy reading the blog and learning more about me. It is awesome to know there are all kinds of people following this blog - friends, family, work mates. My family friends have supported me just as much as my family has and I am thankful for that. To my friends, thank you for following and I hope my experiences will inspire you to travel and/or study abroad at some point in your lives.

Now for the unfortunate events:

1. Today I did not have class until 1pm so I lounged around and took my time getting ready. I arrived at the bus stop right before 12pm, probably not enough time before class, but hey I should be fine right? After waiting a little bit I think to myself "hmm, I bet the bus will pass me today," random thought I know. Sure enough the bus passed me and another lady waiting with me because it was on the opposite side of the road and would have had to pass 2 lanes of traffic...As a bus driver wouldn't you ride near the curb lane to pick up passengers? Oh wait that is common sense. The other lady and I had a brief conversation in Spanish, which was more like her talking and me responding in few words as possible... The next bus stops for us and we hop on..a little down the road the bus driver passes a woman waiting by herself then passes another woman waiting by herself. Ironically he was riding in the curb lane and still did not stop for them, but he did stop at a stop past them that had a lot of people waiting at it. We round the corner and ride up to one of these sort of shady check points that men wait at all day to time stamp each bus driver's route. Who pays these people? One guy I see everyday mans the check point in a deserted street and his huge black SUV is parked behind him with the decal "Hecho en Mexico" diagonally plastered on his hood...I tell you. Oh and earlier on in the bus ride I realized the driver is the same guy who ripped me off on my first bus ride with Blanca. Seriously what are the odds?!

2. I have an agreement with the Salsa class teacher that I will show up every Wednesday for class because I cannot make the Tuesday part of the class due to my Philosophy course. A girl in my Spanish class told me Salsa starts at 4:30, but everything else I've seen says 4:00. I decide to wait in the gym near the classroom a little before 4. Nobody came around 4 so I waited for 4:30. Still no one...I run upstairs to check the cultural course board. The proper classroom is 9001 and I was waiting at 9101!!! Ugh! I run all the way from the top down to the bottom floor almost killing myself because I tripped going down the stairs. I find the classroom and see that they already started...I decided not to walk in because the class already started, the door was at the front of the class, and after all of my confusion I'm not sure if the class is at 4 or 4:30 and at this point it was 4:35...So basically I'm a chicken!!! After all of that I walk out the building with my head hung low and feeling down because I was so excited for Salsa today.

3. Luckily Alma text me during my Salsa confusion letting me know she will meet me at my house so we can go pick up my gift for my host family that I had framed down the street. I head to the bus stop and I wait an unusually long time. Once on the bus I kind of zone out on the ride home. I see the aqueduct/los arcos which is near my house. I get prepared to get off. I press the button and walk to the front of the bus to make sure I get off at the right place....and we pass my stop! Why America (in a Bernie Mack voice, R.I.P.)?! I told him a qui/here and he tells me no, I will let you down out there (there=a whole block away). He dropped me off right in front of Alma's job. I call her hoping she is still at work. She already left work, but told me to stay there and she was coming for me. Thank goodness!

4. Alma and I pick up the frame and go to Soriana, which is the equivalent to Kroger until I saw I lady getting her hair colored in the middle of one of the large aisles in a Wella station. Anyway, we get back to the car and I open her trunk to get my book bag out and the trunk door falls down and hits my shoulder...Again, why?!

After a weird day it was nice to come home to a meal and conversation with Blanca. I told her about my woes using my terrible Spanish and we laughed. But better than that I am in the comfort of my own room safe from the craziness of today's world and hopefully from my crazy brain activity or lack there of I guess...*sigh* I crack myself up.

This is the frame I had made for 3 prints from a local Cincinnati artist, Joanne Honschopp. I chose views that exemplify Cincinnati - Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, downtown skyline, and the fountain in Fountain Square. Luckily, the pictures were a good choice because my host family collects magnets and ceramic plates from their travels. This should be a nice addition to the other artwork on their walls...I just gave it to them and they love it! Blanca said she has to think of a special spot on the wall for it.

Rachael's Goodbye and San Miguel

What a weekend! I know the last post was super long (sorry). I will try to keep this one brief. It'll be a bunch of pics really.

**I forgot to mention that during orientation I met Brett who is the UC student here in Queretaro. We were both looking at the extra curricular courses board and he said hey and we found out we are the 2 students from UC (he's originally from northern Kentucky). He told me was enrolled in Intermediate Spanish and next thing I know in the middle of last week he switched to Basic Spanish because he didn't remember anything he took a couple years ago. Small world I suppose.

After being told she was going to leave, Friday night Adriana and I went out to the centro with Rachael so she could buy souvenirs for her family and friends in preparation for her trip back home Saturday. We headed out to the centro for the evening of shopping the vendor stands. To end our long night of walking half way to the centro then taking a taxi and trekking all around downtown we indulged in a new frozen yogurt place before going home.

 

Of course mine is at the bottom with  mango, strawberry, and granola!

Adriana, Rachael, and Me! Yes they are tiny because I'm not that tall.

 

Traditional dancing in Plaza de Armas in the centro

 Saturday Adriana and I headed to San Miguel de Allende with my old roomie Itziar and some of her acquaintances. The drive from Queretaro is maybe and hour/hour and a half...didn't really pay attention to the time, but I know the way (a.k.a. follow the signs) :D. Saturday evening we ate at the rooftop lounge/bar/restaurant at a new, super swanky hotel called the Rosewood. Later that night the other girls went out to dance but Adriana and I stayed behind. We ventured to the biggest Starbucks I have ever seen! We split a bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam. Sunday morning we ate breakfast, witnessed some religious ceremony that involved deafening sounds and some dancing, then we bought churros from a bakery owned by an old actress whose name I did not get, but she was there chatting it up with customers.

 Entrance of hotel

 Adriana and my room

courtyard
I also saw a large poinsetta tree/bush. I'm not sure if it is native to Mexico but it flourishes here both in the ground and in potted plant form.

 

Rooftop restaurant and the view from it

 

Me walking in town/delicious chocolate filled churro/church in the town center

Church Saturday/Church during the day where the parade ended. The set up is for fireworks.

 

Festival for a saint

Later Sunday evening Jorge and Blanca invited me out to the movies! We attended the 6pm showing of Sherlock Holmes 2 at a theater close to the house...It was in English with Spanish subtitles! After dinner I asked Jorge if they always go see movies in English. He replied that they usually do because the translated Spanish versions can get a bit annoying with the different voices/dubbing, but at the theaters you have the choice between going to the English or Spanish show so I thought that was interesting...Oh and the movie was $50pesos ~ $3.75USD! Can't argue with that.

Today after school I talked to Blanca in about 90% Spanish! We had lunch together and sat in the kitchen after that just talking. I struggled and she corrected me, but we agreed that my Spanish is awesome and that I've only been here 2 weeks and I've progressed rapidly. I'm really excited about that because it gives me hope for continuing with the language after I leave Mexico. She asked if I have someone to practice with when I go home and I said no, but I will do my best to continue practicing Spanish in graduate school and formally learning Arabic.

Oh this week starts extra curricular courses. I have Spanish and Salsa! Guitar class went well today despite the fact the man didn't speak a lick of English. So now I know the Spanish words for parts of the guitar. Oy!

Overview of the first week of school at the Tec

This week has been beyond hectic! I do not have a heavy course load because of the transfer of semester credit hours to the quarter system, but it was difficult get the few classes that I did. I was pretty much set in taking Spanish 1. After that I needed to figure out a good fit of courses for my other two classes. Besides class issues, there have been an interesting turn of events in Rachael's life after she moved in with my host family. Despite being busy with scheduling and such, I did find time to spend with friends. Well more like they just come pick me up and I'm surprised by their arrival...So let's begin with the recap.

Monday:
I had only Espanol Basico 1 (Basic Spanish 1). I felt like the class was in warped speed. We conjugate a couple verbs and did common questions and responses. For example, what do you do? Where are you from? What is your last name? The teacher is very energetic, maybe even overly energetic like she's a grade school teacher and we're her budding 5 year old students. During the day I met some girls from England and Ireland who were here last semester and they told a group of us that things are just "different" here. Not bad, but "different." And everyone seemed to share the same sentiments, lol. No matter who you spoke with the same word arose - "different."

Rachel wanted to move in on Monday, but the housing coordinator said to wait until Tuesday to give the host mom time to adjust. Adjust for what?! So Rachel waited until Tuesday to move.

Tuesday:
I have all of my classes on Tuesday (and Friday). I arose at 6am to get ready for my 8:30am class - Professional Ethics. The professor for Ethics is awesome! Weird guy as in his mannerisms, but a great and dynamic teacher! I'm really excited to be in his class, but I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get over how during his breaks how he slowly walks around ever so slowly with a coffee mug in hand. The sight of him doing that makes double over with laughter every time! Immediately following Ethics I make my way to The Study of Islamic Movements in the Middle East. I thought I would take the course because it's possible that it would have a different take on things than in my Terrorism class I took at the University of Cincinnati (UC) this past summer. After going through the syllabus and enduring the 6 person class discussion I realized that I did not want to sit through that for a whole semester. After all I am in Mexico for an enriching, life changing experience. Two hours later I went to Spanish class. At 4pm I went to Perspectiva Internacional (International Perspective). I signed up for this course thinking it would be a general outlook on the world from a Mexican international relations point of view (no the syllabi were not available when I was choosing courses to take back in the Fall). Turns out the course is the same exact course as one of the entry level course for International Affairs/Political Science majors at UC. Because we did introductions at the beginning of the class, the professor knew I was a last semester student and refused to have me in her class for a lack of a challenge and imminent boredom. After class she personally escorted me to the international programs office to vouch for me wanting to change out of her class. The academic adviser sent me the list of classes to choose from to select replacements for Islamic Movements and International Perspective. Funny thing is out of the three non-Spanish courses I thought I was going to drop the Ethics class, but that was my favorite. My goal for the evening was to find one course to replace the other two course. I found another class and Filosophia (Philosophy) which is also taught by the Ethics professor.

Mind you, after my 4pm class I'm running around trying to change courses and Rachael is too. We finally rendezvous and we ride the bus to her house to pick up her luggage. We get to her house and it is completely uninviting and eerie. The host mom did not greet us or even peek out of her room to see who was coming into her house. Instead a young girl working on her homework in the kitchen said hello and greeted us in the traditional Mexican way: a kiss on one cheek and a hug. After we bring everything downstairs, Rachael says her goodbyes to the house mom who reminds me of the house mom in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha (check it out for a reference, good movie too!). I'm trying to mind my own business and take the suitcases to the door. I go back to say good by to the lady and she says something to Rachael in Spanish that I didn't catch. On our way out Rachael said the woman told her, "Oh great, now I can go on vacation!" When Rachael first got to Queretaro her host mom told her  that she was her work...Ya, bad news.

We take a taxi to my host family's house and eat dinner and have a quiet evening.

 

Tuesday is laundry day. Blanca washed, line dried, folded, and neatly arranged my clothes for me on my bed. She also changed the sheets! Mommie I'm gonna be so spoiled!

Wednesday:
I spend the morning waiting on giving the immigration lawyer paper work and money for a student visa that I was told by the Mexican Consulate in Washington, DC I didn't have to get. It costs about the same amount of money, about $56USD. For anyone interested doing a program in Mexico that is 6months or less, be prepared to pay that money, because I wasn't.

After the lawyer I talk to the academic adviser to sign me up for Philosophy. She tells me I need to talk to the professor because the class is full. He then tells me the Humanities Department head is the only one that can physical enter me into the class and to tell the adviser that so that they can call the department head. I go back to relay that message. The adviser phones the dean, but has to leave a message because she was out teaching class. After my Spanish class I go back to see if there was any word about my class, but I forgot there is a break here from 2-4p for administrative offices for their lunch break. So I wait for almost 2 hours to be entered into the course. So that's finally settled. Later in the evening I email the professor for the syllabus so I can get the information for the right folder of readings at the copicenter (place on campus that has all of the student workbooks/readings organized by professor and students go there to buy books like at a book store or you can just make copies of books from the library or anything else you need).

Suddenly the doorbell rings and it's Alma and Mauricio (her fiance). They want to go out for dinner. I had no idea they were coming over!!! But of course I went out. We went to the Galerias Centro Comercial/Mall so Mauricio could look for shoes. We planned to eat a place people like to go to for sushi called SushiRol. Monday through Wednesday they do buy one get one free sushi and the place was packed! We ended up leaving and going to the centro/downtown. We ate at a place that has traditional Mexican food and is a diner kind of style. I finally got a chance to get horchata, which is a traditional drink made of rice milk...mmmm yummy!

 

Various chilies at the restaurant in the centro

 

Horchata - rice milk drink

 

Paris Restaurant that is part of a hotel in the centro. At night they have live jazz. This is the place I walk past that reminds me of Maurice playing. :'( *tear* The bass player is some younger guy too!

 

Cotton candy I bought from a street vendor. It tastes like it was made with 'sugar in the raw.' After all that is how real sugar tastes!

Thursday:
I had just Spanish class again, but I spent the morning going to the copicenter to get the reading packets for Philosophy and Ethics because I wanted to be sure those were my classes before I bought everything. After getting the copies I went on a witch hunt for a binder on campus...No such thing! Right off campus is an Office Max and an Office Depot (you'd think I was in the U.S.). I bought a binder and notebook paper. You will not find notebook paper like in the U.S. All the paper has separate boxes at the top for your name, course name, date, and whatever else you want to put up there and it's often square paper/graph paper. The closest I could find to regular lined paper was dark outlined paper that has no blank space at the top or the space for a header that I am used to seeing.

For Spanish class she told us to prepare a 1min. introduction of ourselves and to have it memorized to present to the class. I definitely wrote mine on the bus on the way to school :D. I'm not really sure why she had us do that..I know it was for the practice, but our class was barely able to successfully complete the Spanish alphabet nor could we count very well! Anywho, she did a random draw of who had to present and I was selected. The other half of the class will do their presentations on Monday.

After class I went to the gimnasio/gym to finalize my extra classes, but of course the person I needed wasn't there. So I had to wait until 4:30p to drop futbol/soccer class (advice I took from my father. love you dad <3) so I won't have to buy shin guards and all. Sadly all the other athletic classes are full so I can't sign up for spinning or pilates :( Now I just have salsa and guitar. I hope the salsa instructor will let me stay in the class because I will only be able to make 1 of the 2 days each week.

While I waited to change my extra classes I read for Ethics. After changing the classes I headed over to the library to type my response paper for the article. I did not know how to sign on in the lab nor did I know how to print..The greatest feat was the fact that keyboard was not the same. I struggle for the longest trying to figure out how to type the @ symbol. All of the punctuation marks and special characters are in different places. Now I know how to do things for the next time!

After the library I rode on the bus with a girl that's in the Islamic Movement class I attended. She asked me where I was from and I said the U.S. And she responded that she thought I was African. I'm not really sure why I took offense to this in my head...I told her I am African and that my dad is African and my mom is American. And I asked her where she is from and she said Hong Kong...To her defense I do have an afro (not that that is a real reason to thing I am African) and she studied in France before. In France there are a lot of Africans and that she probably experienced Africans there...I don't know I thought in my head and I just drop my inward analysis of her assumption.

Of course when I got home I Skyped my parents and Maurice and next thing you know Alma rings the doorbell to go out. This time I knew she was coming but did not know what time. If anything that woman will keep me on my toes. I had Blanca heat my dinner up because I planned on waiting for Rachael to get home to eat, but she told me to go ahead without her. Thinking that I had time I did not eat right away. So I took my food with me because I did not eat soon enough. We went out to a place called Kuku Ruku in the city center. It's a hostel/hotel/apartment building that  Mauricio's friend opened. It's sustainable/green. The rooftop has an amazing view, the decor is contemporary chic with stone native to Queretaro and original tiles from the colonial period. It was my kind of place...oh and the food was goooood! My meal was $130pesos (soup, extra avocado, my drink, and tip) and I kept thinking to myself that it was so expensive...definitely only $9.75USD lol. I feel like pesos just fly out of my hand, it's ridiculous. $750pesos for my visa, $4950pesos/month for housing, etc...but when you calculate costs with the exchange rate it's a steal!

 Kuku Ruku hostel/hotel/apartment complex

 Kuku Ruku hostel/hotel/apartment complex

 My meal: Tortilla soup with extra avocado

 

Alma's cactus dish. Cactus is used for cooking at restaurants here

 

Itziar's dish. Almost like sliders. They sandwiches had beans, chicken, cheese, and potato on them. The bread was brushed with a red sauce for flavor. This was really good!

 

Mauricio's quesadillas that had hamaica flower in it. Hamaica is used to brew a unique and yummy flavored tea. Blanca made hamaica tea the other day. When I tasted it I realized I had it before, but not sure when, why, or how.

Friday:
Today I have just Ethics and Philosophy and there is a International Programs Welcome Lunch at 2p.

Ethics was great. I'm so going to enjoy it!...After class though, I received terrible news. I saw Rachael walking across the courtyard and told her to come join me. She broke the news that she decided to go home tomorrow morning! She has been debating all week on whether or not she should stay in Mexico or go home. Since day one she has had nothing but signs telling her to leave: arriving in Queretaro at 11pm and not having her host mom pick her up nor is she at the house to greet her, her host mom did not create a good environment for her, the day she moves in with me Standford contacts her to say that she has been invited for an interview for medical school, University of Wisconsin Madison tells her no matter what she takes it won't count towards her Spanish degree (she double majored in Spanish and Biochemistry), the school told the Tec to charge her for the 4 classes she took this week, but the Tec said no. So she moved her flight for tomorrow.. I was excited having her at the house but I guess it was not meant to be. It's sad that her school is screwing her over on this because she could have gone to the interview for Standford and come back to Mexico afterwards, but sadly that is not the case.

From now on it's me on my own, lol...lone soldier hahahaha. Who let's me out everyday!

 Rachael and I on campus hanging out after she told me she is leaving. Of course I had to get a picture of us! I will miss her a lot even though I've only known her for a couple weeks. Bye Rachael <3