Classes have been going extremely well. I love my communication class the most. I am able to understand almost everything the professor is saying. I just wish I was able to practice more with my group of friends. We try to speak Spanish most of the day when we are together but since we all understand English it is much easier just to switch over to it. It is also a little break from the Spanish. My home stay has been the best. I love the food my host mom makes me more and more. I love her white rice with zucchini soup. It is my favorite so far.

We visited La Peña de Bernal. It is the second tallest monolith. With the support of my friends I was able to make it to the top. I’m super out of shape and don’t hike/climb much anyways. It was so worth it. I wish my real family could have seen it. One day I will bring them and have them climb up.

-Anahisse Gonzalez

It took us forever to get here. But it is so worth it. Everything about Queretaro is super beautiful. I’m so happy that I choose to go on this trip. The plane ride wasn’t too bad. When we got to Mexico we finally got onto our three hour bus that would take us to our finally destination. The bus we rode is one of the nicest buses I have ever been on. It had wifi so we were about to communicate with our families from back home and the seats were able to almost lay all the way back like a bed. I had a really good nap. I think everyone did. When we finally got to Queretaro It was nice to have Carmen around. Being one of the ones that spoke Spanish the best I would have to translate a lot. Carmen gave me the role right away. I didn’t want to step on any toes so I would let others take over when asking for directions but at the same time I need to work on my Spanish as well. I’m happy that Carmen decided to stay around for a couple of days. It made the transition stage a little easier. She also helped us get to know the centro in order for us to have a little bit of an idea where we could meet once we were reunited with our host families. Before meeting our host families we stayed in a hotel for three days. It was nice because the six girls and I were able to explore the city together and got to know each other before we had to begin school for the summer. We met locals who quickly became our friends and we had out favorite restaurants and night clubs. All seven of us plus Carmen had a blast. It was nice having Carmen around because I able able to get to know her as a person not just an adviser.

When it was time to meet my host family I was nervous once again. I wasn’t sure how I would greet them. Should I hug them or should I just give them a handshake. Once I did meet them I couldn’t believe why I was so nervous. My host mom lives alone. She has a daughter who is expecting and a niece that is three years old; Penny. Penny has days when she loves to play with me but also days where she doesn’t. Its a love hate relationship. So far I would say that this trip is going to be amazing.

Ps. I’ve never felt so bad about all of the plastic water bottles I haven’t recycled.

-Anahisse Gonzalez

I had a wonderful last week in Mexico. I successfully finished up all of my homework and managed to get A’s in each class. Classes started for many of the local students during this week so it went from being mostly just study abroad students on campus to a full campus of native Spanish speakers. It was fun to have more people around to interact with although it made for some crazy bus adventures. All of the sudden the buses were packed full and they came at different times then they had been the past month.

We went out to the main centro most nights  to see as much of the city as we could before going home and I feel satisfied with all of the things that we did. I feel like I got to do everything I wanted to do. On our last day we had a goodbye lunch with all of the students and their host moms. My host mom was unable to make it to the welcome lunch on the first day so I was very glad she was able to come to this one. It was really cool to get to see the improvement in all of our speaking skills. I remember we all had our difficulties speaking to our moms at the welcome lunch but everyone seemed to be doing just fine at the goodbye lunch. It is amazing how much improvement can happen in just 5 short weeks. I feel much more confident with my Spanish now and while I know I still have a long way to go, I know I would not have gotten to where I am now for a long time if I hadn’t had this opportunity to be a part of the Spanish culture for 5 weeks.

Now I am home and am working on readjusting to The United States. Before coming home I had no idea that there would be things I would miss right away. The biggest thing that I miss is speaking Spanish. It was fun to actually be able to understand and communicate with people in another language and now that I am back to speaking English all the time it seems almost too simple. Although it may take me a while to stop thinking “gracias” first before I say thank you to people. And I can’t get over the fact that water is free here. There are many things that I have here that I take advantage of and I am much more aware of that now and am thankful for a lot of things that I haven’t had for the past 5 weeks.

The trip had its ups and downs but I learned a ton, made some wonderful friends, and pushed myself to do things I never thought I would. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go to Mexico and to be a part of the culture there. I may not ever get a chance to go back but I know I will never forget such a beautiful city!

My arrival home was stressful.  We had a one hour layover in Huston.  Our bags arrived late and we missed our plane.  Stress was high and we were all tearful.  We all wanted to go home.  We waited in line at customer service and were able to get a plane ticket for a plane two hours later.  We all breathed a sigh of relief.  I was so excited when I saw my parents at the airport.  I was revealed when I got in my parents car and made it home.  The next day I continued with my normal life in the states.  I started unpacking and making my place my home again.

This was very different than when I arrived in Mexico.  I was comfortable in my host parents house, but it wasn’t home. It was stressful at first because I wasn’t able to speak English, but I was soon more comfortable speaking my Spanish with my host family. It was stressful, but in a different way because I was in a different culture and speaking a different language.

Culture is almost always different than what you expect. Mexico was no exception. Space is a lot different in Mexico. The two biggest things were personal space and independence. Everything is closer together, the houses and the stores especially, are a lot closer together. Almost every house in my neighborhood is touching the neighboring house. Even the people stand closer when talking. That was different for me because I have a bigger personal bubble, even for those in the United States. Standing closer to people isn’t that hard for me to accept, and I became very accustomed to that.
I realized how independent people in the United States are. My host parents were very respectful of how independent I am. People are more community oriented in Mexico. I missed being able to take myself places. It didn’t take me long to get used to use the public transportation system, which is very common in Mexico. Public transportation is very common and very cheap in Mexico. Many more people use transportation use it in Mexico, than in the United States.
I am ready to come home. I have enjoyed my time in Mexico thoroughly, but I miss home. Stress is very hard when you’re away from home and not in your comfort zone. I am so very glad I had this experience and I learned so much while being in Mexico, but I am ready to be home. I miss my home and I miss my family. I want to come back to Mexico. I loved everything about Mexico, but I am ready to come home.

As I finish my study abroad experience I am sad to leave and at the same time I am ready to go home. I am done with the school part of my trip and wish I could have visited the city and been a tourist more. I have learned so much here in Mexico. Hopefully some day I can come back and visit.
School was hard last week and the beginning part of this week. Breaking it up has made it better, but I still got super stressed. Being away from home and out of my home country made it harder for me, as well as for my friends. We all felt so stressed, but we did it and survived and are stronger because of it.
This past weekend was a blast. I remembered why I don’t like humidity while visiting the city of Jalpan in Sierra Gorda. It was nice to keep cool while we hiked along, over, and in a river. The hike felt more like being in Oregon with all of the trees and river. The water was so clear, and came right out from the rocks.
While there, we learned about what makes a magical city in Mexico. I don’t remember all of it but, it can’t be super touristy, there are no chain restaurants, and it has to have hotels.
The city also has a mission. The priest who built it also built five others in Mexico. During some part of his project, something happened to his leg, but he continued on anyway. He did all of his traveling on foot.

Another full week of school and fun! For one of my classes I had to write a 4 page paper (typed and 1.5 spaced) in Spanish so my evenings were filled with research and typing in Spanish on an English keyboard…but I finished it with time to spare and still had tons of fun this weekend!

Saturday some of the other girls and I went to a huge shopping mall. We spent hours there and didn’t even come close to seeing everything! Then on Sunday we spent most of the day at an amusement park/water park. Lots of sun and fun with great people!

My Spanish has most definitely improved since I have been here and I am feeling pretty confident. I only have one more week to go so I am doing my best to make sure I will get to do all of the last minute things I want to do before coming home and still get all of my homework done. I am looking forward to being done with classes but sad that I don’t have more time to explore the city. It will be nice to come home to familiar things though. I know it’s not quite over yet but it has been an amazing experience that I know I will remember for a long time.