All done.

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. I guess that's because I never have been a writer and as I have mentioned before I would rather watch a movie, which I have done plenty of. Today we finished both of our finals, officially ending our semester. I have to say that I am very happy and thankful for that. I have been ready for school to end for some time now. We have two more days in Cuernavaca, both of which are free days, and early Saturday morning Caitlin and Whitney and I fly to Puerto Vallarta for a nice 5 day vacation in the sun before we return to our cold and gloomy lives in Oregon. As our study abroad experience is coming to an end, I have decided to really take a look at and reflect on all that has happened this last semester.

I am going to start with some of the negative things so I can end on a positive note. :] I have complained a lot about the food this semester, and recently I have been realizing why. My host mom uses hot dogs in almost everything (I do not like hot dogs) and we have left-overs allllll the time (I do not like leftovers) in part because her job as a real estate agent means that she has to travel a lot and she is gone for days at a time. Because she is not there to prepare food everyday we eat the same thing for many days in a row. My friend Steven mentioned that his host mom (Ana Maria) was wondering if I had had any problems with my food situation because apparently my host mom is known for making sub par food that many host students have problems with. The interesting and sad part is that Ana Maria mentioned that these problems started when my host mom's husband died a few years ago and she had to start working. Hanging out at my friends' host houses I have realized that they all have different relationships with their host families than I do. In my case, my host mom is often removed from my life and all of my experiences down here. There is a certain connection with my host family (my host brothers are usually always just hanging out with their girlfriends) that I have lacked. That being said, I have always had food provided for me, my sheets get changed, and there is a tv that I can usually watch. So I have not been neglected by any means, there just isn't that connection I hoped for.

Another thing that has made this semester very difficult at times has been our interactions with the staff of our school down here. We have really enjoyed most of our professors, and I am even going to miss a few of them, but our experiences with the administration at the school has been very rocky and stressful at times. Because we did not bring a professor from college with us like most other schools do, we have to be able to communicate for ourselves. For the first 2 months of the semester we felt like we were not listened to, and a couple of instances brought us to the breaking point. After we were able to express all of our concerns and issues to the president of the school, things got better at the school and so the last month has been much more enjoyable for us. Lesson learned: communication is key.

Besides all of the amazing experiences and things I have seen, there are a few key positives that I will take away from this trip. First, I have always had the idea of studying abroad in the back of my mind, but I have always wondered if I would actually be able to follow through with it. Thinking about that now is a great feeling because now I have done it. Part of the reason I was unsure if I could actually do it is because my whole life I have lived inside my comfort zone. Even at college I only live 35 min from my house so I am able to drive to my comfortable home whenever I want. In Mexico you can't do that. I think this will help me because I often don't do things because they look like they will be too uncomfortable. Although the food and interactions down here have not always been so good, they have helped stretch me, which is something I needed.

I have made some incredible friends down here from Gettysburg college and I am very sad that our homes that we are returning to are thousands of miles apart. I have also realized that I had many stereotypes about Mexicans and their way of life that were false. For example Mexico is far more modern and technologically advanced than I thought, and the people down here are for the most part very nice and welcoming. I have enjoyed seeing what it is really like in Mexico and I wish that everyone could see how different Mexico is than we think.

At this point my Spanish is not where I thought it would be, which is a slight disappointment. However I have already been thinking about ways that I can improve and practice my Spanish when I get back home. I am excited to see where my Spanish takes me and who I come into contact with because of it. I am excited to be able to have my cell phone back when I return. I am excited to have my car back and to be able to eat whatever I want when I want it. I am excited to see my friends and family, and I am excited to return to Fox for the spring semester. I am also looking forward to showing off my tan.

Alright well thanks for reading and I will not be rereading this so I am sorry for any typos or bad grammar that you may have found. If you have any questions about my experience down here feel free to ask. Oh and all of my pictures from this semester are up on Facebook so if you haven't already seen them feel free to browse them.

I will see everyone after I get back on the 17th of December.

Tyler

Got me thinking...

Yesterday we went to an orphanage in nearby Miacatlán. It was an incredible experience. The orphanage, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (Our Little Brothers), is a compound with dorms, a school, a farm, a chapel, and various play areas. There are over 500 little "pequeños" living there (the staff never refers to them as orphans, just pequeños). The children range from age 3 to 18, and they are brought their for lots of different reasons. Some were brought there because their parents cant afford to keep them, some are found abandoned, and some are survivors of a life of prostitution.

The reason we went to the orphanage was because a former Fox student is currently working at NPH, and she invited us to come visit. I was very interested in visiting because I had previously had some interaction with NPH. Last Christmas my Spanish class at Fox had the opportunity to pick a child from NPH and prepare a Christmas present for them. I chose a boy named Danny and received a picture with a small description of him. I chose him because in his picture he was giving a creepy smile like I often do. I sent him things to color with, some candy, and a big coloring book. Knowing that I would study abroad in Cuernavaca, I wondered if I would ever get to meet him.

Before arriving, I had pictured the orphanage being a a few small buildings with no more than 50 or so kids. Man was I wrong. It is huge. Michelle, the former Fox student, gave us a tour of the buildings and the school, and then we got to hang out with some of the other workers and ask tons of questions. All three of us have thought about living/working abroad in the future, so we had plenty of questions. After that, we got to eat with the pequeños, which wasn't too bad. Dinner is light in Mexico (lunch is the main meal), so we had a roll and a bean soup-type thing. I was pretty hungry, which I think helped the food to taste better. After dinner we were waiting with Michelle as her section of girls went to the clinic to take their medicine or consult the doctors about their "headache". Michelle let us know that a lot of time they will make up something for the extra attention. I told Michelle that I was pretty sure that she had come talk to my Spanish class last year about sending presents to the orphanage. She asked if remembered who I sent presents to, and she knew who Danny was. So we set off to find him before we had to return to Cuernavaca. After a short time looking for him, we found him playing soccer with his section. She called him over and I was really excited when I recognized his smile from my picture. Michelle asked him if he remembered receiving a coloring book and he timidly nodded his head yes. His shy smile let me know that he was a little uncomfortable with these random white people standing in front of him, and his frequent glances to his friends playing soccer revealed where he really wanted to be. Michelle asked him a few more questions, and before he left he gave me a hug and returned to his game. It was a very cool moment for me. I thought about him from time to time today and I would catch myself smiling.

As much as I like the idea of someday working for NPH, I don't know if it would be the right fit for me. I have never been the type of person that gravitates toward children and vise versa, and I think my general lack of experience with children would hinder my attempts to relate with kids. It would also be a huge stretch. I have lived in Cuernavaca for about 6 weeks now and am starting to get used to life here, but even though NPH is only 50 min away, it is a completely different world. The year-long commitment that is required to work there means a year of cramped living conditions, less than desirable food, 500 kids constantly in your face, and not to mention trying to deal with all of the problems that arise when that amount of kids are living with each other. However, how bad could it really be living the life that the pequeños live week in and week out, living in a different culture, learning the language better, and starting relationships that could forever benefit these children? That is something that I will continue to think about. We will see where God takes me in the next few years.

We have a trip scheduled to NPH in a few weeks with our school and the Gettysburg students. I am looking forward to going back.

Talk to you later,

Tyler

Once in a lifetime

Sorry it has been 5 years since the last time I updated my blog. As much as I want to inform everyone about everything that is happening down here in Mexico, I would rather watch a movie than write. But it has been too long and too many cool things have happened that I want to make sure everyone knows about.

One of the highlights from the last couple weeks was taking our excursion to Veracruz. First we went to the city of Jalapa, sometimes spelled Xalapa (they need to decide on one spelling in my opinion), which is the capital of the state of Veracruz. The city is famous for its coffee, which I thought was really interesting. You may be asking yourself "Well why haven't I ever heard of or tasted Mexican coffee?", well it's because when this coffee is shipped to the US it is packaged as coffee from Colombia. Mexico isn't a part of the big coffee association and so it isn't supposed to be sold in the US--I don't know something to that effect. Anyway we saw a lot of coffee plants and they showed us how it is roasted and all that fun stuff. For me, Jalapa was kinda boring because all we did was the coffee day and then the next day we went to a museum about the Prehispanic culture of the Olmecas. And the weather was a little bit cold and it was pouring. After the museum, though, we left for the city of Veracruz, which was really fun. The city is a port city situated right on the Golf of Mexico. It was really hot and even more humid. I was glad to be out of the rain though. We spent the first afternoon/night exploring the city and looking for the beach, which we never found (we only found the ship port that smelled horrible.) The next day we went to a fort and an aquarium. I was really pumped for the aquarium but was a little let down because it was pretty small. It was still fun though. Before we left for home, we ate at a restaurant on the beach. It was really fun because the weather was beautiful and after lunch we played on the beach for a little.

This last weekend we went to a city called Taxco, and they are famous for their silver. It is a really small town that was built on a mountainside, and all of the houses are white with reddish roofs because the city government says that all the houses and buildings need to be that color. The city is famous for its silver because there is a silver mine there and they sell all kinds of silver products for pretty cheap prices. We spent lots of money buying presents for our families. In the center of the city, there was a group of people with signs that said "abrazos gratis/free hugs". That was interesting to watch.

Yesterday was the best day that I have had in a very long time. It's up there as one of the best days ever. Caitlin, Whitney and I decided to go to Six Flags (except this time we would actually make it there). We got there and there was a ton of people there, which makes sense because Mexico City has about 24 million ppl in it. The park had a few less roller coaster than the Sic Flags in California, but it still had some pretty big ones. We started with the Superman coaster, and then we went to the dolphin show. Yes, they have a dolphin show. We had also seen that you could swim with dolphins, but it would have been a little too much money for us to buy a swimsuit and pay to swim with them. I was kinda sad because I have wanted to touch a dolphin since we first learned about them in second grade. Anyway the show was really fun, and afterward we went down the pool to get a closer look at the dolphins, and a lady approached us trying to get us to do the dolphin encounter. She was very persistent and after a while she decided to give us a little bit of a discount. She also told us that swimsuits were provided. I almost said yes right then, but we decided to think about it for a while. I thought about it, and it was only going to be around $35, and there is nothing I would rather spend that money on. And, there is no way we could do it for that cheap anywhere else. Needless to say it was a yes. So, at 4 we went to sign up, and I was so excited. The swimsuits that they gave us were pretty funny. They didn't leave a lot to the imagination. I was just happy mine weren't skin tight like some of the others were. After the orientation, they led us to the pool and brought out a sea lion for us to interact with before the dolphins. Although I was a little mad that I was wasting my time on a sea lion, it was kinda fun, too. We each knelt down next to her and she would kiss our cheek. It was just a little bit creepy. Caitlin ended up with a little fish chunk on her cheek after her kiss. Then we got to meet our dolphin, Audre. First they had her swim by us so we could pet her. It was incredible. For about 10 or 11 years I have wondered what a dolphin's skin felt like, and it was amazing to feel it for the first time. We each had an opportunity to swim out and she would come up to us and give us a kiss on the lips, cheek and then we got to do a dance type thing with her. It was better than I thought it would be. I want to be a dolphin trainer again. Too bad I would have to change my entire life to be one.

I will try to have pictures up on Facebook eventually. Every time I try to upload pictures the internet cuts out. My Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646896073&ref=profile

Hopefully I will update soon about more amazing adventures. Talk to you later,

Tyler

Substitute fun

Hiiiiiiiii,

Yesterday we decided that we were going to try to wake up this morning and go to Six Flags in Mexico City. This morning Caitlin's host mother told her that the buses leave for Six Flags at 8:30 and at 10. By the time we found this out it was already 9:30, so we got to the downtown bus station as soon as possible, which ended up being around 9:55. We ran to the counter and told the guy working that we wanted to catch the bus to Six Flags. He then notified us that the bus had already left, because there is only one bus that goes there and it leaves at 8:40. Great. Disappointed, we sat in the bus station going over our options. One of the options was going to a giant water park called El Rollo. We have been planning to go there sometime in the future, so we thought about taking a bus there instead. We decided to save that for another day, preferably when we have our swimsuits. After a while, we agreed that we were going to take a bus to a random city. The city of choice? Jojutla, because it had a cool name.

On our way to Jojutla (or Jojo, as we like to call it), we noticed a lot of signs for El Rollo. Our bus kept following the directions that the signs pointed. When we were almost to Jojo, I saw a sign that said El Rollo: 6 kilometers. Jojo was only about 2 miles from the sign though, leaving us a little short of the water park. Long story short, after wandering around Jojo for an hour, we found no traces of El Rollo, except for traffic signs pointing in the general direction, and so we decided it was time to return to Cuernavaca. So close, yet so far. We had a good trip nonetheless though.

Back in Cuernavaca, we spent some time at the Italian Coffee Company, the zocalo (downtown square) and in the artisan market. It was nice and sunny again today, which made the day that much better. Now I am sitting in my room, probably a little dehydrated, resting up for a long day tomorrow as we take an excursion to Teotihuacan with our school. It should be a good trip.

Talk to you all later,

Tyler

Gotta love the sun

Hi everyone,

Today is Friday, which means I don't have school. And to celebrate this, I slept in today and am now sitting on my terrace where the sun is out (and very strong) enjoying the rest of my morning. I just went downstairs to eat and my host mom had already squeezed fresh orange juice. It was so good. I don't normally like fresh orange juice but for some reason it tasted amazing this morning. Maybe she put some sugar in it.

Well Tuesday night was the giant celebration of the Mexican Independence day, which is actually Sept. 16. They start the night of the 15th, though, much like a New Years celebration. Actually, the whole festivity was very similar to a New Years celebration. We went to the zocalo (downtown square) because that is where everything happens. I had been a little bit nervous because our professors at school said that it would be packed and that we needed to be careful because there might be a lot of crazy and/or drunk people. However, when we got there it had already started to rain, so even though there was a large crowd there, I'm sure it was nothing like it would have been without rain. Anyway, it started raining really hard so after a few minutes of watching a concert we decided it was time to get out of the rain. It was an anticlimactic night, but we still had fun. There were also fireworks going off all night and all of the next day.

The 16th is always a day of rest, so we didn't have school that day. Already a good day. I met up with Caitlin and Whitney and we went downtown. I hadn't really eaten anything all day because my host family was not home, so I went to Burger King, where I accidentally ordered 2 meals. Woops. After that we went to La Fayuca, which is pretty much a black market. They pretty much just had a bunch of cheap dvds and cds, but they also had some clothes. When we were done there we found a movie theater downtown that shows movies for 42 pesos. That's about $3.50. We are going back there today. :]

It has been really rainy and cloudy for the last 2-3 weeks, which has been difficult for all of us to accept because we are in Mexico, and the weather is worse than in Oregon. Yesterday was amazing though. It started of rainy in the morning but the sun came out around 2 and it was sunny for the rest of the day with temps around 80. Today looks like it is going to be more of the same. At least it is so far. I hope it stays like that.

Oh yeah, one last thing. As I've mentioned in other posts, our school takes us on excursions to see other parts of Mexico. Well Gettysburg, the other group at our school, shares some of our excursions, but they also go on their own. Next weekend they are going to Veracruz on the east coast of Mexico, and the director of our school approached the four of us from Fox and asked if we would be interested on going to Veracruz with Gettysburg. He said he really wanted us to have that opportunity and he would be willing to give it to us for a discounted price of $200 US. That is for transportation, hotel, activities, and food for the 4 day trip. Hmmm YES! 200 dollars is a lot of money, but this is why I worked 40-50 hour weeks this summer. So Caitlin, Whitney and I are leaving next Thursday. Yeah baby.

Alright well talk to you next time,

Tyler

Lots of things

Helllllooooo,

Wow sorry it's been a while. Now I have to try to remember everything. Okay here goes:

On Sunday last week (Sept 6) we went back to the same church that we had gone to the weekend before, and it was once again amazing. During the worship songs, they have young women at the front that dance with tambourines and some with large ribbon type things. It was beautiful. I wish I could describe it better but it's one of those things you just have to see. I could even understand the service a lot better than I could the week before. I'm really excited to go back.

Classes last week were fine. If I remember right they were un poco boring. But I really cant complain because I would rather have a boring class than be stressed out of my mind. I still really like my professors though. They are really personable and really care about us.

Last week I started to notice that I haven't been feeling 100%. It's not that I have been feeling sick or anything (at least until this weekend), but I have just been feeling a little tired and not all there. I think is because of my new diet though. It's because I really want to lose weight and so I haven't been eating. Just kidding. But seriously, I was thinking about it and this summer I was purposefully trying to eat healthy (thanks to a semester of too much fast food), so I was eating a lot of veggies, and when I would make myself subway I would always opt for healthier sandwiches. Now, though, I am eating almost no fruit or veggies as my host family doesn't really keep any around, except for cooked veggies in some of the food. The food is really good, it's just that my body was used to getting a lot of fresh fruit and veggies and now that it is not, I am having to adjust.

On Thursday of last week we took a little trip to the city of Tepoztlán to climb the mountain that has a small pyramid at the top. We got there and it was really cloudy, causing me to worry because no one told me that it might be a good idea to not wear shorts and a t shirt. It poured. I have not been in that kind of rain for a very very long time (except last night, but that's a different story). After waiting for a good ten minutes at the base of the mountain (which has a path and some stairs that go all the way to the top), our tour guide decided we should give it a try. I was miserable. We walked for about 5 min (I was already soaked) when the thunder and lightning came. That's when we decided to leave. The school is going to take us back another day to try again.

This weekend we went on an excursion to a city called Puebla. Puebla is a city about 2-3 hours away from Cuernavaca and it is a little more sophisticated than Cuernavaca. The roads, sidewalks, and buildings were all well-kept and attractive. Our hotel was amazing, too. I was expecting a less than desirable hotel, especially for a group of college kids traveling in Mexico. I roomed with one of the students from Gettysburg College (there are 5 students from Gettysburg that are in a very similar program at our school, and we share some of the same excursions with them). A few times I caught myself forgetting that I was in Mexico, especially cause the hotel and the food on the trip were so good. If not for the red, green and white decorations all over the major buildings in every city, I would probably think I was home, because the climate has been similar to Oregon. It has been raining A LOT, and it has been pretty cloudy throughout the day. I would like to see a little more sun.

We went to a lot of museums this weekend, some were just interesting enough to catch my attention, others made me want to start running and see how far I could get before someone went after me. Sure the stuff is interesting, but we had already learned about the majority of the stuff that the tour guides at each museum repeated. We also saw approximately three thousand cathedrals, which after a while all start looking identical. The first few that we saw I was impressed but once again the repetition started getting to me. I felt bad but I could not hold back the yawns. Oh yeah, I should probably tell you that I was sick this weekend which definitely factored into my bitterness toward the museums and the cathedrals. I think I had a bit of a fever and my throat was (and still is) hurting a little. I am feeling better today though, which is a relief.

We were also given a lot of free time to explore the cities in small groups. That was fun because we could pick out the parts of the city that were interesting to us. And we could goof off a little. Each city has a artisan/handicraft market, and we spent a lot of time at the one in Puebla. There was an artist there who was painting with spray paint, a little scraper-art-tool-thing, a sponge, and computer paper. It was fascinating. I had such a hard time leaving his little setup because it was so interesting to watch. I even had to buy one of his paintings because they were really cheap, too. Nicole took a video of him painting part of my painting, so hopefully she will put it on Facebook.

Speaking of Facebook, I have pictures up now, and you can see them on my profile at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646896073&ref=profile. Well I think right now I am going to work on some homework.

Talk to you later,

Tyler

Water Park/Mexico city

Hola,

Right now I am laying on my bed taking it easy after a big first week. I think it caught up with me (that and the fact that my entire routine and diet has changed), and I am not feeling super good right now. I think rest will be good for me. But the last 2 days have been really eventful so I will give you an update on what I have been doing.

Yesterday (Friday) we went to a water park about 20 min away. It was really different, but we had a lot of fun. Apparently on weekdays no one likes to go to water parks, because there was no more than 20 people there. There was about 10 different pools, and maybe 7-8 water slides. There were a lot of trees at the park, which made it really natural looking. However, there were leaves all over in the pools, and some of them looked a little dirty. We did find a pool that was really nice though, and it had these cool jacuzzi tubs in the pool. Kinda hard to describe. Oh yeah, and the total cost of the trip including bus, snacks, and park entry was about $15. Nice.

Today we went to Mexico City with the school. It was pretty interesting. We saw the National Palace and the giant cathedral across from it. The cathedral was amazing. Then we went to another museum about the history of Mexico. That was okay, but I'm not a bug museum person. I also started to feel blah at the museum too, so that didn't help at all. I think I was dehydrated too, because I didn't drink a lot of water after the park yesterday or this morning. I feel better now that I am back in my room taking it easy and I have some water in me.

As soon as my camera cord comes in the mail I will start uploading pictures to my facebook. I will let you know when that happens.

Talk to you later,

Tyler