Tequila

I am definitely falling behind in updating my blog on all of my latest adventures and experiences here in Mexico. Now has come the time where I am slowly going to begin to summarize a few key points of my stay and travels. First up, TEQUILA...

While my parents were still here, we took a trip to the town of Tequila with IMAC, an intensive study abroad school located in Guadalajara. In total, the group only ended up being five students (the three of us included) and the driver. We took a large van to Tequila, which was a pleasant drive overlooking the countryside and mountain after mountain covered in blue agave (a.k.a. tequila plant). We visited two distilleries (one family owned and one more corporate and fancy). To sum it up simply, tequila tasting is just like wine tasting... minus all the wine. The agave plants covered the hills and even resembled vineyards in Sonoma at times. Two shots and a thumbs up to the tour from IMAC.


For my bday, I went back to Tequila with three friends in my program. Except this time we took the "Tequila Express" train to the town. What I was told was going to happen was all you can drink on the train, tours of distilleries, tastings, lunch, mariachi and folklorico dancing. Well... it was basically all true except for the tours and tastings. On the way to Tequila on the train, they gave us chicharrones to munch on and pre-made beverages in a can which included Tequila. A little suspicious...

Then we got to the distillery and walked around with a guided tour. Where in which the coolest part ended up being the original distillery built in the 1800's basically in a cave. Then we were led to an open area where we ate lunch from a buffet and watched the dancing and mariachi band. Afterwards, they boarded us back on the bus to go back on the train to head home.


In the end... I would recommend the Tequila Express for people and families who want to see all of it (music, tequila, food) in one day. I felt that the smaller and more personal guide was more bang for your buck and a memorable experience. Especially after I had such an amazing time with my parents and IMAC.

**Side note: The big plus about Tequila Express was that they kept giving the four of us more tequila on the way back. Annnd it ended up being more personalized with a private dance party once all of the other patrons got off the train. If this was included in a daily program, it would be a little more fun.

Bucket List for Mexico

It's that time again! When I first arrived in Guadalajara, I scribbled out a few things I knew I would have to do before leaving. I'm only in Guadalajara till December so I created once again a new and shiny bucket list a.k.a. GDL "Fun List."

It's pretty rough, but here's what I have so far:
* Attend at least one Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling with the really "cool" masks)
* Attend a few partidos (UAG and Chivas)
* Torros
* Zip lining through trees
* Tequila Express
* Oaxaca
* Ride bicycles in downtown GDL
* Salsa Dancing

All and any suggestions are more than welcome!

Day One: Student Teaching

Earlier this week, I started my first day at the school I will be student teaching at in GDL through December. I ended up having my friend Gabi with me the entire time the first day since administration was still figuring out placement for her classroom of first graders. Lucky us got to sit in on the first day of school for 45 students, where they drew pictures and discussed what they did during vacation and wrote from 1-100 and backwards on graph paper. First impression is that the kids, teacher and staff seem awesome.

However, there are definitely differences in the classroom which I immediately noticed. First off, every kid showed up with about four rolls of toilet paper and antibacterial soap! Also, some of the kids have to sit three to a desk (short table) since there is not enough room to just do two to a desk. The rules were not gone over on the first day and there was complete disorder during the entire three days I observed. When I spoke to the English teacher about the students' current level, he told me they are a strong group even at 45. He also said a classroom with 45 students in Mexico is considered normal and that I should check out the 5th grade class with 51 students!! Holy mackerel!

So I begin actually instructing in a week and a half. I'm supposed to start off with one hour of an English lesson and then there's a week in September where I will have to teach an hour of Art, PE and Math to the kids. The only thing that makes me nervous is controlling all of the kids at once. There is hardly any order in the classroom as is, with about five of them coming up every few minutes saying, "Maestra! Maestra! Puedo ir al bano??!!?!?"

Deep, even, breaths...

Tapalpa

I spent this past Saturday and Sunday with two friends, Patty and Alex, in the town of Tapalpa located in the mountains outside of GDL. After a 3.5 hour bus ride, we arrived in the white washed and red tile roofed puebla with cobblestoned streets. Walking through the main plaza seemed almost too surreal. Not a single car allowed on the main street, vendors lined up and down selling the freshest fruits and meats, and almost complete silence. Coming from the crazy bustling city of GDL, I could already tell that Tapalpa was going to be a nice break from the big city.

Once we found a decently priced place to stay ($400 pesos among the three of us), we took a little rest and headed out on a little venture. First off… food. Patty and Alex ate at one of the local taco stands lined up on the side of the church. Once all of the tummies were full, we began our trek to Las Piedrotas (The Rocks) outside of Tapalpa. After about an hour walk uphill, we finally arrived at the plateau of the mountain to see… big rocks. Definitely anti-climatic, but we hung out on the rocks and took a few pics before our descent back into the city. After eating an early dinner, we sat in the main plaza and watched all of the families hang out, play with their kids, watch the fireworks above the church and listen to some music. This city is definitely a smaller town with zero to none nightlife. However, it was a great change of scene. Once we ate our churros in the plaza, we decided we should probably head back to our place to play cards and go to sleep early (around 10 p.m.).

After nine hours of sleep, we woke up to shower in our freezing cold water, check out of our hotel, and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed hot cakes and chilaquiles. Next up on our itinerary was to get to the nearby waterfalls. We wandered around town trying to find Jesus Ruiz, a guy the locals told us to find by the church for a tour and ride to the falls. To no avail, we ended up back in the plaza asking for more exact directions on how to find him. Turns out he works in the funeral home across the church. But of course, how could we not know that! Welp, he was going to charge us $200 MXN each for a five hour tour. Although it sounded tempting, we definitely didn’t have five hours to spare nor the money to blow on the tour. So we ended up taking a taxi to the falls.

Originally we had asked for a one way fare, but after realizing how far away we would be and that it would be primarily uphill on the way back, the taxi driver agreed that he would come back to take us back into town. The drive there was absolutely beautiful. Green pastures, farm animals, small mountains and a little bit of an overcast. The trail down to the falls was almost completely downhill with muddy rocks. I knew this was going to be a problem for me going back to the top since I was already out of breath going down. When we finally arrived at the “falls” we were all a little stunned, yet not surprised. The falls were a merely 100 ft. Just like the rocks… anticlimactic. We all realized there HAD to be another waterfall nearby. Taking a small little trail, we then came across the actual waterfall. It wasn’t the biggest waterfall I had ever seen, but I guess it was worth the hike down to see muddy falls.

After about 30 minutes of hanging out on the rocks by the falls, we decided to make our way back up. I KNEW this was going to be an issue since I was already a little shaky and dehydrated. Sure enough, about 50 steps up I was already done. This ended up being an issue hiking all the way up and stopping about every 25 steps up since I was wheezing and out of breath. With a deadly combination of high altitude, being out of shape, and breathing issues, it probably wasn’t the best idea to do this hike or any hike for that matter. Patty and Alex were great friends who constantly waited for me, coached me through breathing issues and hiked with my backpack. I did make it to the top… eventually after about 45 minutes. And the rest of the day is just a sweaty blur. Just kidding.



Once we got back into town, we went to a restaurant to eat a little queso fundido, sopas and tacos. Patty and I also ordered their infamous “Ponche” which is an alcohol infused fruit drink made with guyaba or pomegranate. It ended up being absolutely delicious and we each ended up buying a bottle, a merely 60 pesos, to take home.



A few hikes, yummy meals, and a sweaty 30 hours later, we boarded back onto the bus and headed back to GDL, home sweet home.

My Assignment

Today everyone in class received the grade level and school they would be working at during the next five months. I sat in anticipation hoping the professor would say my name for a nearby school and a second grade classroom as one group was given their assignment. Then, finally I heard my name on a list and realized I would be in the second grade classroom based on the order she read off the names.

I immediately did two quick little arm pumps in the air and "quietly" said with a huge smile, "YESSSS! oops, I mean...." So, in three days I will finally be in a classroom where I will be observing and student teaching in Spanish through December. The school is located two bus rides away which looks like it will take at least one hour one way based on the map. No complaints from me though. I have my favorite grade and I don't have to take a bus all the way out to Tlaquepaque (about 1.5 hours away on bus) like other peers do.

Now comes the time of figuring out what to wear on the first day of school.

Bday Shout 081509

A very special bday shout out to a woman we all know and love all too well, LOLA!

During the past year, my grandma Lola has been featured quite a few times on this blog. She is known to be feisty, opinionated, outspoken, and "right" all the time. She is a woman full of wit and classy quotes we all have learned to love. She is also my grandmother whom I love dearly and couldn't imagine being who I am without her.

Unfortunately she had her latest spute being in the hospital for about a week last week. She's still fighting and kicking along the way. I'm only hoping that she'll remain out of the hospital and will look 10 times better than when I last saw her. Get well soon and...

Happy 77th Birthday, Lola!

Traveling Machine

I have one week off between semesters from Sept. 25 - Oct. 4 and am now in the process of booking flights to maximize my time off from school.

Here's the lowdown:
I will be in Mexico for a total of seven months and the stamp customs gave me is only good for a six month stay. This in mind, I need to check back into the states and return at some point during my six month period. Originally, I had no clue what I was going to do and thought it was going to be a waste of money. However...

One of my gf's from college, Michelle, just so happens to be getting married on Sept. 26th!! So now I'm waiting to hear back from my professor on whether or not we have finals on Thursday or Friday because I may be in LA even earlier than I previously thought. I'm extremely excited to be back in the states for a quick breath of clean air, clean streets, and clean water. Actually, come to think of it, LA slightly lacks the clean air and clean water part, but you get the idea.

So here's my tentative itinerary:
Thursday, Sept. 24: Fly out of GDL to LAX
Saturday, Sept. 26: Michelle's wedding in Malibu
Sunday, Sept. 27: Brunch and continuation of celebrating Michelle's new marriage
Monday, Sept. 28: Fly out of LAX to OAXACA
Tuesday, Sept. 29 - Oct. 3: Check out Oaxaca and the outlining areas
Sunday, Oct. 4: Fly out of OAX to GDL
Monday, Oct. 5: First day of Fall Semester at Autonoma

And tomorrow I'm headed to Guanajuato for a weekender with six other friends from my program. Whew! Ready, set, GO!

Bday Shout 081009

Today is my 26th birthday.

Not quite sure how I feel about turning 26 since I always looked at it as so much older when I was younger. I had an amazing weekend hanging out with friends, going out to anthros, and jumping on the tequila train to Tequila. However, now that it's the actual day of my bday, I'm sadly stuck indoors working on homework ALL DAY. I'm hoping to finish up within one hour so that I can at least grab one glass of wine to celebrate.

One thing which did brighten my day was all the Facebook love I've received from my family and friends. Last night I came home from going out after Tequila feeling pretty down about turning 26. I must admit that at first I wanted to delete the bday notification in the first place.

After coming home from school and facing a couple hours of homework full steam ahead, I signed on to FB to see about 40 new bday messages. Since then, seems like I've received about one new message every five minutes. I'm pretty amazed with the power of social networking, Internet, and connections.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see an album created by my dad, a new FB member. He created an album consisting of about 30 pics from when I was kid. If anything, this made me happy, sad, and wishing I could be home for my bday with my family. This was undoubtedly the first moment during my entire trip where I even vaguely wished I were home. It's all so bittersweet.

On that note, happy bday to me. Thank you to all of the friends and family for sending me amazing bday wishes!

Besitos...

School's NOT OUT for Summer

I have been lacking on updating my blog due to the overabundance amount of school and homework I've had in the past three weeks. My classes consist of 20 students, all of which are in my same program and are from California. Every morning, Monday through Friday, my classes begin bright and early at 8 a.m. Depending on the day, I may take anywhere from two to three classes which are ALL IN SPANISH. Trust me, I am definitely not bilingual... YET.

I understand the gist of majority of my classes, but I definitely get caught up on phrases or words which completely stump me. I swear one of my teachers talks without even pausing or taking a breath!!

So, long story short... after school, I eat a big lunch, take a 15 minute power nap and get down to the grind with my homework. Majority of my homework consists of a few hours of readings in Spanish on theory and discipline and anywhere from 30 minutes - 5 hours of writing!!

But don't worry. I'm still finding time to squeeze in a bit of leisure time with salsa classes twice a week and going out at least once a week.

Bday Shout Out 080109 - BROTHER

A huge bday shout out to my favorite (and only) brother, PHILIP!! It's kind of weird being out of the country and not there for his birthday, so I'm hoping all of my shout outs via my blog, FB, and phone will suffice.

Brother, thanks for letting me call you brother. Thanks for always giving me what I wanted and letting me win when we were kids. Thanks for letting me bite you in the stomach and not getting mad at me when we were playing crocodiles. Thanks for tutoring me endlessly in Calculus for hours and hours. Thanks for being annoying when you drink. And THANK YOU for your secret indulgence and love for Gossip Girl and The Hills(oops).

HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY, SPILL-BOB!