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