This week my friend was floating in the drain outside in our cement patio. It was raining so hard and the run off from the roof combined with he drain being covered caused our back porch to fill and flood into the house a little. The cockroaches were outside and floating around outside in the water.

This truck was the truck of another student’s host father. It has “animo” painted all over it. The word basically is our equivalent to “be happy!”. He would drive around town shouting animo at people and encourage them to be happy. Apparently he has been doing this for some years and is well know across the city.

My senora and I at the last group dinner. It was great to think back to our first meal with all the senors and see how much we have all grown.

I went to a soccer game the night before we left. It was so awesome! We met some awesome people and had a really great experiences.

I am glad that I spent more time in the last week trying new things and getting out of my house more. It was hard to pack everything up and get ready to. Leaving was a bit awkward because my senora didn’t really seem that sad about me leaving but I was! haha. It was still sad and she was very sweet to me.

I opened my door in the morning and found the creepy critter right against my door. My senora again came and killed it before me. But first it ran all over the place!

The kindness of the people here is just so amazing to me. My senroa, who has to be at least eighty-five years old, spends her Sunday nights cooking for her sister. She walks to her sister’s home to bring her to food on Monday mornings. My taxi drivers are so kind and helpful. They give me there numbers to call them when my bus doesn’t come or show me where to go to take the bus home after they drop me off. I am just amazed that these men can be so kind and talkative when they work seven days a week for about fifteen hours each day. They drive around the same city, same roads and breath in the horrible fumes of the city. I have never smelt any exhaust and city stench as bad as this. I live in Portland and am used to a little city smell or car exhaust but I have never craved fresh air so badly as I do now. Another example of how kind these people are is when I am taking the bus. Men who have been at the bus stop waiting much longer than me will let me get on first. Also, people give up their seats for others who have children, many bags, or are old. This may be a rule on trimet in Portland but people seldom follow it. Lastly, everyone (and I mean everyone) says hello to each other on the street. Oftentimes they don’t say hello to me because they can tell I am from the US and they don’t think I will say anything back. However, to people of their own culture, they are incredibly friendly. I stop and ask for directions sometimes and people will go out of their way and take ten minutes no matter what it is they were doing, to help me.

This all just shows me how much more family and community centered this culture is compared to my culture in the US. In the US, we wouldn’t do this. We would just throw money at an elderly sister who can’t cook her own food or thinking for ourselves when taking the bus. I feel like the way that the people here act towards each other just makes everyone generally happier. It is definitely a lesson that I will take back with me.

As for this weekend, I stayed in Queretaro. It was so nice to relax and explore the city without the huge group of students. It was nice to feel more local and a bit less like a tourist. My friend and I visited a beautiful Museum of Art (not allowed to take photos) and explored little shops. I had a communication breakdown with a woman when I was getting my nails done. She told me that it was eighty pesos to get my nails painted with gel nail polish. That is maybe four or five dollars so I was thrilled. As she worked more on my nails and I read the bottle, I realized it was shellac! I have sworn that I would never get shellac or fake nails in my life. What is worse is that she did them very poorly and there are funky gaps in the paint. I will be spending my night tonight soaking my nails in acetone and scraping off the horrible nail job. I see this experience as positive though because I learned that I should make sure I fully understand what is going on and not be afraid to ask for someone to explain things again to me. It was a fun and new cultural experience for me.

1D is huge here.

Amazing Tamales!

When I went to walk across the hallway to the bathroom at 11pm, there he was, crawling in from the rainy outdoors. My senora came in and squished it for me.

This week went so much better that the last one. I finally have gotten into a routine and am not so homesick. I am also going into the city more.

We went to Mexico D F this weekend. It was a super fun trip but just way too many museums. There are so many other things I wish we had time to do! We also didn’t get to see the Leonardo Davinci and Michael Angelo. My one regret is that I didn’t take my photo with the golden wings. There a street that has each side separated by trees in the middle. When you go to cross the street, there are these golden wings made by a famous Mexican artist. People can step up onto these steps and take their photo as if they have those wings. It is a really cool experience to see all the people stand up there. The wings are called the angel of independence. I saw more by this artist in the Museum of Art in Queretaro this weekend and since then have been enthralled with this artist and his work. This was the first time I really felt like art “spoke to me”. I think that this is because it connects with people and is not just a solitary object to watch and not touch.

I had another first this week. I got my blood drawn. I am usually so healthy but I am just not getting over whatever it is that I ate to get so sick. Ends up my antibiotics are too weak. I am going to have been sick or on antibiotics for the entire five weeks of my trip. I found out just in time to have my blood checked again the day before I leave. I have learned two things from this experience. One is that my trust in God has increased greatly. I am in a foreign country taking medicine I have never taken before. I have been presented with so many decisions with such little time to think about it. I have just had to trust that I am doing what is right and that God will take care of me. I truly feel like He has. I am completely shocked that despite how sick I am, how little I am eating, and how much I am walking in the heat, that I still have energy and feel great. I strongly believe that if I didn’t’ have my faith, I wouldn’t be able to get through the day. I know that this is where God wants me and that I will learn so much from these hard experiences. If I didn’t have these hard times, I wouldn’t learn anything. Everything would be perfect and I wouldn’t have to turn to God for help. (James 1:2-4) Secondly, medical care doesn’t have to be expensive to be of good quality. Last week I went to a clinic and paid a few hundred pesos. This week I went to a doctor who works in relationship with a pharmacy and paid only thirty pesos. In my mind, the more expensive doctor would be right when in fact, she was the one who misdiagnosed me. This has taught me to not judge a book by its cover.

I have learned the same thing in my host mother’s house. I have been in about five Mexican homes so far and they are all rather plain. The furniture doesn’t match and the walls are usually white. Also, the trim is sometimes messy and the walls aren’t perfect. No one has covers for their lighting fixtures. All light bulbs are just hanging or mounted on the ceiling.

Yep, my friend the cockroach was in my shower. Didn’t have my contacts in so I didn’t realize that there was a dead cockroach in my shower the first time I took a shower at my new house. I am glad I decided at the last minute to wear flip-flops.

I did figure out the bus better this week. I take the 70 to and from class each day. It takes me about an hour to get to school and an hour to come home. When I have my night class I stay at school and work at an awesome café. I love Renov Arte Café because they are so nice and they play a lot of Christian music. It is comforting to not just have music in English but also music that I listen too. I think that since I am listening to music in English, I often forget I am in Mexico. I have spoken in English many times to the waiters.

I have been surprised at how much English there is present everywhere. Most people my age know English. People who are older know a little bit here and there. I am just amazed at how English and American culture works its way in to other areas. One Direction is constantly playing and everywhere I look I see a minion poster or trinket for sale. One thing that is funny is that since popular songs are played in English, they aren’t censored. I have oftentimes been shocked to find out that a song I listen to in the US is actually the cleaner version.

This weekend the whole group went to Bernal for the day. It was so fun! I was so glad to hike and visit another town. We climbed la Pena de Bernal. It was the hardest hike I have ever done. After the mountain/rock climb, we ate the famous gorditas. Gorditas are like a pita pocket made from tortilla and they fill it with many things. I got one with cactus and another with chicken.

This week was a really hard week for me. I missed my family a lot and have been pretty sick too. This week has been a good testing of my faith. I have to put my trust in the Lord. I am so mad to be sick while I am in Mexico but I know that God can help me through it. It has been amazing to see that I have enough energy to get through the day and have a good attitude despite how sick I am. I also had to change houses this weekend so that was stressful too. My new house doesn’t have internet which is incredibly hard considering how much I miss my family. I am a bit sad about these things but in the end I think it will be good because I won’t spend my nights watching Netflix or skyping with my family. Instead I can spend my time practicing Spanish with my senora and learning more about the city and culture.

I begin this post with this strange title because I am writing these a week or two late since I didn’t have wifi to post. About once a week, I have an encounter with a cockroach. I have never seen one before this trip. They are so huge and gross. They come into the house when it is raining, which is usually at night. I don’t know how they get in and I refuse to be the one to squish it. This is one thing I do not intend to overcome on this trip. Anyways, just thought it would be a fun way to title my posts.

I am so glad that I came down to Queretaro early with the WOU group. It was great to get to know the city and explore the center since I will be living outside of the center. We visited San Miguel Allende one day. That was a shocker. So many people and so many busses.

This week has definitely been a shock for me. I am looking forward to settling in next week and finding my groove. Sometimes, my experiences are so crazy and so shocking that I kind of just laugh. I took a bus home from school with one other student in my class. We knew we had to get off at an OXXO (like 7-11 store) but every single stop was close to an OXXO! We ended up not getting off and then all of a sudden the bus was going up a big hill and started driving faster and faster. We slowed down in this more sketchy area of town. We didn’t want to get off so we decided to just stay on and wait for the bus to come around. It was dark by the time the last person left the bus and we began descending down the huge hill. The driver turned off the lights inside the bus and we managed to explain to him where we lived. He gladly helped us find our stop. That first bus ride took an hour and a half. I hope to get a better hang of the bus system next week.

The WOU group.

In the downtown Queretaro.

Going through customs/immigration was so different! I had never done it before but it wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be.  We filled out some papers and pushed this “magical” button to find out if our bags would be searched or not. What came next was what surprised me. Behind the tinted glass doors were twenty or so people crowded up right near the door awaiting the arrivals from Houston. It was just a bit overwhelming to me because there were so many people. After the long flights and lack of sleep, the bright lights and the many people staring at us five Americans was just crazy.

The taxi ride was good. It was funny because I assumed all Mexicans would enjoy football (soccer) but my taxi drive said he didn’t. I guess my assumption was wrong.

He drove so fast and confidently! We came within centimeters of parked cars as we navigated the tight streets of downtown Queretaro.

Our hotel is great! So nice and clean. Most people are very friendly and helpful The waiters are so patient while we try to figure out the menus and how to order our food.

I am very nervous for my trip to Queretaro Mexico. I am bummed to be missing out on a whole month and a half of time with my family and friends. I am most nervous about not communicating well because I am not perfect at Spanish.

However, I am also so excited! I can’t wait to try new foods and experience new and different things.

I think that my host culture will be very inviting and welcoming but they might do certain things differently. I definitely understand that I have to take time to adjust to the different way they may do things.

I know that soccer is big in Mexico, so I guess that I think there will be a lot of soccer fans. 

I also think that the food will be a lot like the Mexican food we have in the US.

One last pre-conceived notion I have is that there will be a lot less diversity than we have in the states. I think that there will be people mainly of Mexican heritage. I anticipate that this will lead to me having feelings of being the odd one out when in public.