Probably my last one.

I've had a crazy couple weeks and, as I'm sure you all realized, much to busy to actually sit down and write out all that's been going on. This will likely be a quick update and a few stories. Let's see how this turns out.

DF: I went to Mexico City again and had an excellent time. This trip gave me a lot more free time to walk about and just explore/enjoy the centro and the people. Found a couple cool new places including an absolutely phenomenal restaurant that had an awesome environment, great food, good prices, and was incredibly cheap. This was made all the sweeter by the fact that just two of us found this restaurant and all the others went to VIPS which is basically Shari's but with more Mexican food and really expensive. So, essentially they got ripped off for mediocre food. Normally I wouldn't be happy over the misfortunes of others (this could potentially be a lie, but it depends almost entirely on who exactly those others are), but VIPS is such an American style place, and Kristin and I took some extra time to really scope out a legit restaurant and it paid off. I was pleased with that. After food Kristin and I went and got lost in the city for a while, which was fun, then got directions and headed back to the hotel. The night before Dwight and I went to the Plaza de los Mariachis (which is actually called Plaza Garibaldi) which is a plaza that fills (fills) with people and many many mariachi bands. We walked around for some time listening to the bands and just generally enjoying the atmosphere. We also bought a song and enjoyed the attention as four men serenaded us with Puerta Negra. Saturday night, however, we all went to a rave (dance club, but it had lots of colorful lights, so I prefer to say rave) that was at the top of a tall building across from the Plaza Zócalo, which is the primary plaza in DF, and got to dance and listen to really loud music with an incredible view of a huge super elegant cathedral and also the nation palace (which is basically the White House). If you wanna see the plaza I would recommend googling it because I did not have my camera at the party, so there won't be any pictures from mine (although I might be able to steal some from others off Facebook...).

After DF we headed to a City called Xochimilco (Show-chi-meal-co), which is sometimes referred to as the Venice of Mexico. The City has a lake/system of canals that you can get rides on in these large canoe type boats (that come with a guy whose got a stick to push you along and everything, ours was an obese middle aged man with a surprisingly pleasant toothless smile) and just generally relax. Well, relax.. hmm, that's probably not the right word. It was completely enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but man it was pretty crazy at times. There are way too many boats for these canals, so these incredibly colorful/painfully decorated crafts are slamming into each other in a manner not unlike bumper cars, which the exception that there are no bumpers, just wood. So between the jarring halts (one boat hitting another) and the vendors coming up along side you like practiced pirates ready to raid, there isn't much time to relax, but the fun was ubiquitous and I think everyone had a legitimately good time. I know that I did. (This I do have some pictures of and will try to put up on facebook soon).

The week after returning passed with out much worth mentioning. It was mostly just essays, speeches, readings, and preparing for presentations. I had very little free time this weeks, but it was fairly productive in finishing the over all work load of my classes.

Last weekend I returned to the town of Xilitla (He-leet-la) in the Sierra Gorda and enjoyed another weekend of swimming in rivers/waterfalls, and being entirely too wet the whole time. This time, however, I only smashed my toe a little bit, and we visited a different location on our adventure. We went to a place called Sotano de las Golondrinas, which is just a huge, huge whole in the ground where thousands of birds live. In the morning, they all fly in great big circles around the cave and make there way up and out, and in the evening they all circle and dive into the cavern which tremendous velocity. We went for the evening 'show' and were quite stunned. It was very impressive and beautiful at the same time. There are some pictures of me sitting with my feet dangling over the edge of this pit (I'm sure Carrick is going to love this) that, from it's highest point to it's lowest point, has a depth of about 376 meters. That's 1233.59 feet. We weren't on the highest point, but I am still pretty proud of how little it bothered me. I think that my brother got all of my vertigo.

This week has been a lot more of the same scholastically. I've just been working working working. I am, however, done with one of my classes except for some readings and participation, and in another I just have one exam left and that's it. My third class, however, I have to prepare and deliver a 15 minute speech, a pamphlet filled with like information, and also have an individual interview with the professor on Monday. I'm so close to finishing, I just have to really buckle down this week then I'm done. As I'm typing this I officially only have one week left. 7 days.

Last night was Friday, and for a kinda, 'hooray we're wrapping up the program' shindig we had a talent show. People sang, people danced, person did poi (which is fire spinning), and I, along with Marc (the resident director) and Jared (fellow student) we delivered a poem that Marc had written. Marc said his part in English, Jared in Spanish, and I singed it. It was actually a lot of fun and went really well. I think the other dug it. After the talent show I went to a play that one of my local friends is in, then we went to a bar and played what I think was a drinking game, only no one felt like drinking so it was just a silly game with animals. After the majority of the group dispersed a few of us walked to a nearby late night food place and ordered a late dinner. We went upstairs to sit down, and not only did our food take a really long time, there was also a family sitting near us (which is a little strange considering it was right around 1:00 in the morning at this point) and they would NOT stop staring. I even tried my normal tactics of waving, smiling politely, saying hello, and finally staring back with what can only be described as mildly uncomfortable intensity. They would look away for about 10 seconds, and then start staring again. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes all four of them. I can't even believe how persistent it was. Then after the rather uncomfortable dining experience (the waitress was also quite rude, but the food was delicious so I'd actually probably go back) I walked one of the chicas home and then returned to my house. However, while I was walking I heard a car coming down the street noisily, with the people inside yelling out the windows and all that. This is on a very large street that's near my house, me walking against traffic, the only reason I heard it at all is because there is a speed bump (there are speed bumps every where here) so they had to slow down a bit before they got to me. I prepared myself for what I assumed would be a barrage of insults that I wouldn't understand or perhaps a rude word or two in English, but the car became strangely quiet as they passed, and I thought, 'huh, that's strange'. Immediately after thinking this I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a CD bouncing off the brick wall next to where I was walking. It's funny because I think at the beginning of this trip something like that would have really bothered me, but now I just don't care. At all. Besides, now I have a reasonably interesting story and a scratched-to-hell blank CD out of it.

That's pretty much me up until now. My health has been decent but I'm still having issues on a regular basis. I'm beginning to think that that's just how it is for me here. My knee has been hurting quite a lot lately, I'm thinking I tweaked it while hiking in the river in the Sierra Gorda, so I've been going easy on it when I can. Oh, I also threw up for the first time in Mexico just this last weekend. My Senora made me a sandwich of avocado and cold hot dogs which almost immediately caused me to vomit, and then the following night as well. So my stomach and deal with Salmonella, but cold hot dogs? Forget about it.

Alright, this is me. I love you all and I'll be returning again in just a week. I may post another blog if I have time/something interesting happens, but in all likelihood this will be it other than a final 'I'm leaving now' sort of post.

Keep on rockin', keep on readin'

Love,

-Connor

We have New York, New York; they have Mexico, Mexico.

Salutation: Hey everyone! Hope all is well in the world of the Yanks.

Health: I'm feeling pretty darn good lately. My stomach is much stronger than it's been for the past few weeks, my foot is doing really well, I've no pain from in it for sometime now. My new problem is a strange pain in my lower abdomen that is rather inexplicable. In they beginning for the trip we were warned about bladder infections, so I'm drinking as much water as I can/is reasonable for a human body and hoping that sorts it all out (as I've been told it should).

School: It's still pretty loca, but I'm starting to get a little bit better at handling the stress, the readings, the essays, and the presentations all along with keeping up in my exercises and attending the new conversation circle that's been happening at 'Gabbi's school' in the middle of town. However, I do think that our teachers seriously overestimate our abilities (at times). For example, today we had an exam that our Teacher told us, 'Si, es un examen muy corto, entonces tenemos tiempo para hablar sobre otros temas' (Yes, it's a really short test, so we have time to talk about other things). Well we talked really briefly about some other things, and then jumped right into the test. I was the first one done, and I finished about two minutes before class was over. The test was short, but extremely time consuming considering what it was. That being said the test was completely fair, just not quick at all. That's also absolutely my favorite class.

Extra Curricular: Like I mentioned above I'm keeping up on some fun things along with school, and I've added another thing that I'm probably going to be doing four days a week for the next two weeks (and did it four days a week this week as well). It's a conversation circle that a girl who is a student at the university is doing as part of her major (which is linguistics in spanish, and literature(!)). She's very friendly, and knows a lot about Spanish in terms of metalanguage, not just how to speak it. These being my last few weeks I think it's a really good idea to spend as much time as I can speaking and practicing, not that that wouldn't have been great from the get go, but A: this is only available now and B: now that I can understand more and speak better I think that this will be more beneficial. I could learn a ton from just practicing my in my classes, a little on the streets, and in my house, but now I feel that more time just explicitly speaking a listening will really benefit my speech.

Excursion: Since I'm here for twelve weeks, and almost everyone else involved in this program is only here for 6, We have plans to repeat most of the excursions that we did in the first session. This weekend we will be returning to Mexico City, which here is called two things: DF (Distrito Federal) or Mexico. Since I've been hearing that a lot lately, it's getting less confusing as I am now able to remember that we are, in fact, in Mexico, so the mention of it as a place to go or where something is generally means the more specific DF (remember, this is pronounced day Eff'eh). This trip is going to be from tomorrow (Friday the 13th (!!)) until Sunday the 15th (stupid mundane dates...) Needless to say I will be out of contact for that time and will be unable to post a new blog, which is partially why I'm getting this one up here now despite the fact that my life is really much too boring right now to bother reading about, but of course now that you are this far in the blog you might as well finish (Muwhaha, Connor, the life thief). And on that note, I would like to tell a story from awhile ago that I'm pretty sure I have not put up on the internet, but it was one of the more fun experiences so I'm really not sure why I didn't blog about it. Possibly because it's a much better story in person, but I'll do my best.

Funny Story: The director of the program from the Queretaro side of things is an awesome lady named Gabbi, and she has some pretty awesome connections. One of these connections she used to get us $15 tickets to a comedy show for a mere, well, free actually. The show was in extremely rapid Spanish that used lots of puns and just a general playing on words, that being said I spent a great deal of the show just enjoying the more obvious spoken jokes and the physical comedy that requires no language to appreciate. At one point in the show, they were running with one of the jokes I actually understood, they took out a coat rack filled with ridiculous clothing and starting given them out to the audience to wear. Myself and my friend got more or less matching jackets that looked quite formal and were unfortunately made of something like wool (it was already hot in there). Just a little bit later in the show, a group of people came out dressed like soldiers and were about to start something, but started looking around nervously like they were missing someone; the soldiers were wearing the same jackets with which we had just been adorned... The "Director" of the show, who actually played a very large part in it, ran over to us and hurried us onto the stage with the other soldiers who actually turned out to be dancers. So as we are moving onto the stage (in front of a crowd of.. 60? 70? 90?) we have to watch what they are doing and try to mimic it (at one point I broke from the learning process and did my own silly little dance until I could again actually see the feet of the people I was trying to learn from). After dancing around for a bit and trying to follow the stage directions not only without knowing what was going on but also unable to understand what they were saying to us in whispers and playful commands, we had to rush to the fountain that was in the middle of the floor, grab a cup of water, make a Cherub like pose, and spit into the fountain. I did everything but the spitting into the fountain quite well, but the last bit ended with me wiping my chin furiously with my hand trying to save my shirt from being soaked for the rest of the night. We went back up on stage and danced for another few seconds and then ended in a dramatic (see: absurd) pose and the dance was over. Scott (my fellow jacketed amigo) and I returned to our seats and to the group of gringos who had come with us. They thought we were awesome, which was nice to hear, because I had a blast and it's nice to know that that didn't come at the cost of the show. I guess I'm just a born entertainer; language barriers can't stop me!

Departing Words: And there you go folks, I hope that is sufficient awesome to hold you over until I return from my trip to Mexico (the city not the country) and some how find time to post again.

Love you all. Keep rockin' keep readin',

-Connor

San Miguel de Allende (possibly is Spanish for 'awesome'); Differences part 5

This weekend we (Stacy, Jordyn, and I) decided to take off to a new location and get out of Queretaro a little bit on our own. Jordyn and Stacy both have senoras who recommended strongly that we head to San Miguel de Allende. I was skeptical of the idea at first because it is such a touristy town that I thought for sure it would suck (the last tourist town we went to, Guanajuato, I really didn't enjoy because of the way the locals treated us gringos). I decided to go any way just because if I didn't go I probably would have past the day doing homework and playing Diablo two, both related to spanish, one more so than the other, but not actually the Mexico experience that I'm looking for.

Friday night we headed to the bus station, but bus tickets for the trip (which were only 25 pesos with the student discount (that's about two dollars and ten cents for a trip that took two hours)), and headed out on the bus that showed up just an hour late.

The bus trip was pretty easy going, just sat and enjoyed the movies that were playing and watching as they pilled people onto the bus in a way that you would never see in the States. So this is not an ordinary public bus, this is a buy a ticket get a reclining seat with TV's that come down from the ceiling bus, and they had people piling on from random stops on the side of the road and standing in the isle completely smashed together. I had my seat and my 'Meet Dave' movie that was dubbed in spanish, so I got my $2 worth.

We arrived at the central station in San Miguel with just a little confusion on 'I really hope one of these random stops on the side of the road is ours, because I really have no idea what San Miguel looks like...' and took a taxi to our hostel. We Chatted with the incredibly nice lady at the counter, got our room, dropped off our stuff, and headed to the centro (with directions from the sweet lady at the front desk). We walked down a relatively unexciting street (it was dark by this point) and laughed at the 'great' idea that none of us thought to bring coats seeing as we were all under the impression that we are in Mexico. We walked just about six blocks, and the street opened up into the central plaza and I was absolutely blown away by the church that stood in front of us suddenly. It is a HUGE gothic church that happens to be one of the main tourist attractions of this whole city. We went to the church immediately, not unlike moths to the light, or Icarus to the ocean subsequently after going to the light (like a moth). Mass had just ended, so being good tourists we entered the church against the crowds and sat down in one of the front pews to enjoy the gorgeous and intricate work of just about every aspect of the place. Not three minutes after entering, however, the lights began to be shut off and we walked out to the sound of be singing quietly through my teeth 'Closing Time' by Semisonic ("Closing time, one last call for Jesus all, so finish your rose'ry or prayer" (not that I was quick enough to think of this before just now)).

All of that touring the church for five minutes and walking seven blocks really took it out of us, so we decided to go get some food somewhere we could sit down and relax. We didn't, however, want to pay a lot, so we decided to get a little out of the central. We walked for about ten minutes and found an awesome little taco place, sat down and order, then were told after about five minutes that they were out of propane and couldn't make our food, so our sodas were free. We were happy about the free sodas, but had all been excited about the tacos too. We left, and walked through what was quickly going from a light ran to a torrential downpour. At one point we were actually running through the streets asking places if they had food or quickly checking menus to see if they were gonna charge us $10 dollars for a meal (here that's really expensive). We finally ended up settling in at a nice italian place and splitting a pizza three ways. It was nice, and worked out financially really well.

After that we headed to a local cuban dance/restuarant/bar and each had a drink or two. The waiter was hitting on me, which was flattering, but HE refused to speak Spanish with us, which was a little obnoxious. In fairness to HIM, however, HIS English was way better than our Spanish.

We left the cuban joint and headed back to the hostel. Sleeping went very well save for the street light that was directly out side of our window (those shades tried so hard, but just couldn't quite cut it) and the inconsiderate drunken people running through the halls at around 4 in the morning yelling with all the force there inebriated selves could muster. These same inconsiderate yellings that woke me up and convinced me that something terrible, like a fire, was happening and that we needed to get out of the room quickly. I waited to see if they were gonna come pounding on our door, but then they started laughing and there voices drifted off as they went the other way down the hall and into their room... Needless to say the adrenaline kept me awake for a solid ten minutes (I'm a good sleeper).

In the morning we headed to breakfast and just generally toured the town. We went to the hot springs and got wicked ripped off by a taxi driver (who was really nice so I'm super confused) on the way out, but were offered a ride by a really nice Mexican couple for the trip back (it's only about ten minutes driving), so it really evened out.

The town was beautiful, the people were incredibly nice, and pretty much the whole trip was just awesome. There was, however, a clear winner in the highlight reel. It's a personal victory and I'm wicked, wicked excited about the whole event. Upon returning to the hotel, before the hot springs, we walked up to the extremely nice receptionist (I've said it three times now you better understand just how awesome this lady was), and were just about to ask for directions when she asked for a favor. She told us that there were some people there who didn't speak any Spanish and didn't have reservations for the same room, so they had to move. They didn't have to leave the hostel, just move to a different room upstairs. We went to their room, I relayed the message, translated and responded for the English speakers, and returned again what the receptionist was trying to convey. It was a very simple conversation and I believe that either of my companions would have done equally or better interpretation, but for me it was an incredible experience. The thrill I get from passing messages either between English and Sign for my deaf friend Sarah or between Spanish and English for things like this really make me think that being an interpreter is something I could do. Maybe it's not a lifetime sort of gig, but it's something that I really would like to pursue.

Here I am, back in Queretaro, enjoying the last of my time, but also eagerly awaiting my return home.

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Differences part 5 (it's like time travel!)

-Four wheelers (ATV's for some of you) are street legal and often used by both civilians and police.

-Water heaters need to be prepared about ten minutes before a shower.

-The summer vacation for students is only three or four weeks, depending on the grade.

-When a party or celebration is being held and you're invited, it is not only okay to invite all your friends, it's expected.

-Classes want to take away any sort of life outside of the classroom/homework (for architecture majors at the UO that's really not a difference)

-The hamburgers here are better.

-Simpsons are extremely popular and well liked by everyone (simpsons in the states has lost a lot of steam)

-A lot of businesses infringe on trademarked characters or phrases and no one really cares.

-Many stores don't have names.

-Many stores have names that are things like (english equivalents given) 'shoe store', 'jewelry store', 'bread store', 'chicken store', etc...

-People hang dry their clothes as opposed to using a dryer

-Clothes that are never dried by machine have more lint come time for wearing

-My bellybutton is FULL of lint several times a day

-There are only 31 states here

-People who put the Mexican flag on everything they own, aren't typically thought of as overly patriotic

-Fire works are only permitted by certain organizations including government buildings and churches. They are also really, really loud and going off at almost any given time due to the fact that everyday seems to be a different saint's day and every church seems to have a different saint that they consider their main.

-People here have never heard of ultimate frisbee

-The law states that smoking in enclosed areas, such as buildings, is illegal. Now that's the same as the United States, the difference is that in the United States people actually sometimes abide by this law.

-English here isn't even close to the main language, but it is the cool thing to do.

Love lots, hope this is enough reading for you all for a bit.

-Connor

That was...Wow.

I only have about twenty minutes to write this if I want to post it before I leave to go finish up the gigantic project I have tomorrow. However, I really wanted to get this up on the web because I'm still a little shaky from the adrenaline.

As a family we sat down around the table for comida, this is completely normal except for the fact that Aida, my sister, is here. I'm not exactly sure why she doesn't have work today, but it's cool to have her in casa, she always adds a nice little bit of sunshine when she's about. Any way, so we're eating carne asada, which is a very simple dish. It's meat, that's been fried in a pan. Pretty straight forward. Part of my meat was not cooked so I was kinda eating around that carefully trying to avoid any more reasons for my body to just completely give up on me and stop functioning all together. Aida takes a drink of water and then very abruptly puts down her glass of water and get's up from the table in an extremely rushed manner and heads for the sink. I assume that she's taken a bite of likewise uncooked meat and it rushing to the sink to spit it out, however, she then turns around with an extremely (one of the most if not the most I've ever seen) panicked look on her face with what can only be described as pleading in her eyes, and begins waving her hand in front of her face and neck. She also isn't saying anything. I get up as fast as I can, cross the short distance to her at the sink give her what is technically called an abdominal thrust, but most folk know it as the heimlich maneuver. This is something that I learned two winters ago in a first aid class, and have fortunately not forgotten it. It only took one and she began coughing and spitting into the sink. I stood with her patting her back and telling her 'esta bien' (only after I said, 'yes that's good, keep coughing' then tried to translate, realized I didn't know any of the words and stuck with the simple, 'it's okay'). She thanked me, explained briefly what happened to me in rapid Spanish. She then sat down, everyone kinda looking stunned and began eating again, but this time very slowly and with deliberately smaller bites (which both her parents recommended to her immediately upon her sitting back down).

Now, I don't actually know if she was choking, so I can't say for sure if I did the right thing or not, but I honestly can't think of what else could have happened.

Alright, other than school this is the only thing that's really happened. I'm feeling much better and almost done with my meds, my foot is healing up nicely (finally), and I'm getting back into the gym and loving it.

And now to steal an idea from my Carrick's blog:

Love you all, stay safe, chew your food, and take a first aid class if you haven't already.

-Connor

P.S. I've got a mental 'differences part 5' going so I'll probably have that posted soon as a nice little supplement to this.