Wednesday I had gym as my first class-at 7am in the morning mind you (it was still dark). And let me tell you, gym classes in the United States don't even compare to gym in Mexico! We ran so much! Then we had all of these sit ups-at least DOUBLE what we do in the US, and the same with pushups. After that we had to do step ups and then we ran again! I was so tired after, but I was proud of myself for surviving it at 7am in the morning! School went slow because I was excited for after school- Caro, Fran, Aurore, and I were going to Plaza Americas (the mall thing). Aurore's dad picked us up and we went to Pizza Hut-it was hilarious because we were trying to figure out what we wanted, and the girl behind the counter was laughing at us trying to speak spanish and understand each other. Then I finally told the girl (and the rest of the kitchen who were now watching) that we were all exchange students and we spoke 4 different languages! Everyone found this quite funny-eventually we figured it out and I got a personal supreme pizza. It didn't taste like anything I could get from NY pizzeria's but it made me feel a little better. After, we went to Starbucks and talked for a while with the girl working there. Finally we headed to the mall to shop. We had planned to shop for a lot longer but Isaura told me that Laura (from Rotary) had called and said we HAD to go to this Rotary thing at a nursing home- Isaura tried to explain that we had plans but Laura didn't acknowledge it. So we left the mall at 4:45 and went to a Nursing Home, turns out that no one knew why we were there. The president of the club came and talked to us and we explained that we were exchange students-turns out this wasn't even our club, and we all have different clubs throughout Morelia. We ended up staying for not even an hour and leaving. After Isaura dropped off the other exchange students Regina, Isaura and I went to the MEGA super market and got some stuff for me room before returning home. Then I fell asleep at 9pm, and woke up at 10:30 to tell my host dad that I didn't want supper.
The next day went by slowly-in Mexican Culture we sang mine and FRan's favorite song "Mexico en tu piel" (Asi se siente Mexico)-which means Mexico on your skin and This is Mexico. The after lunch at my house Isaura and I went to the gym and we ran before Pilates, and then after the pilates class we showered and headed back home. I really like Laura the pilates teacher-and I know she gets a good laugh at me, the first class I was like WHOA phew when we did this one thing for the thighs-it was crazy hard (now I can do it haha). Then at the second class I kept falling off the yoga ball, so when I come she always laughs, but she is glad that I try.
Today I got to wake up later because Mariana (future host sister) and her family moved into their new house which is closer to my house, so I got to ride into school with her and Simon. Then at school I found out that on Thursdays I get to have a Jazz class for two hours (DURING SCHOOL), I am really excited. After school (Caro, Fran, Simon, Aurore, and I) along with tons of other people from our school went to a party thing at a neighborhood across the street from the school. We enjoyed some tacos and we got to meet some new people-we made plans for that night to go to another party at my friend Enrique's house (you know him as the boy who was teaching me all the dances at the last party). We left the party and went to our houses to get ready. I talked to Arika on skype and showed her my house, then got ready for the party. Isaura and Favio ended up driving Aurore and I to the party because my friends didn't have a car. Fran's parents brought her and Caro had to go to another party with her sister. The party was again-very fun! We danced and Enrique and I did the Souja Boy and Cha Cha Slide for everyone. During the Cha Cha Slide I asked if he knew the "Charlie Brown", which is part of the dance, he said yes but when it came he and I didn't something different. Everyone cheered when they saw me do it and then we all starting dancing again. I got to do some salsa, the other dance that I learned, and the Mexican partner dance with another friend. After the party I went to Aurore's house and slept because the party was really far from my house.
Isaura picked me up from Aurore's house and we went home. Isaura said we were going to Tzintzuntzan for one night and Favio was going to cook his famous burgers (apparently my dad has some Mexican competition). But later Isaura said we weren't going to go because it was raining and kind of cold out. So some family came to the house and we had a nice lunch. After a while Isaura jr asked if I wanted to go to the movies with her and her friends I said yes. We saw "The Time Traveler's Wife (El Amare por Siempre)", it was really good- and I got to understand everything because it was in English I paid attention to the subtitles somewhat and caught some spanish. After we returned to the house and had cake and icecream. I talked with some of the family that was still there and they told me that I understand a lot, and my spanish was really good! I watched "Hey Arnold" (Oye Arnold), "Rocket Power", and "The Angry Beavers" in spanish which was hilarious, but I enjoyed seeing all my favorite shows from a while back. (DAD AND JACLYN-there were commercials for As Told By Ginger and that show with the comic book and Action League Now!...I was really excited!) Regina told me that they played these old shows only on Saturday nights on this special channel. After that I talked to Jaclyn, Mom, and Dad before going to sleep.
We all woke up late today, Isaura and Favio don't normally wake up that late but they stayed up with their friends til 4am. I had breakfast and talked to Allie on skype. We spent the whole day lounging around and catching up on sleep.
The day off worked really well for me because I was well rested for the horrible monday morning headed my way. I went with Mariana to school again today, and we picked up Simon. As we were driving down the road we hit this HUGE bump, and after a few seconds Mariana said "Oh No!" and pulled to the side of the road- I got out and sure enough her front tire was completely flat! We called her mom and she called a taxi, but it missed us the first time, so we had to call again. Once we finally got the taxi Simon's door didn't want to close and the driver had to get out and shut it. Then on the way to school there was more traffic than usual and of course the taxi was a standard and we were stuck on the hill; it was tough. We decided that it just wasn't a day for school, there were too many signs telling us not to go. We waited outside because we were so late to our first class. Then the rest of the day passed quite quickly, Simon and I didn't go to our last classes because we were excused to work on our project. After school Patti picked us up (Mariana's mom and my future host mom); she brought Simon and Mariana to Simon's home and asked me to move up front. She said that she was amazed because Simon talked so much around me. She was really happy when I told her that Simon and I are good friends and we talk all the time, she also complimented my spanish and said I had come a long way from the last time she had talked to me (at Tzintzuntzan). This was nice to hear! Then she told me that she wanted us (my family) over for lunch tomorrow, I believe she said for tacos (what a surprise). But let me tell you something, for those of you who think Mexican is the same thing over and over- your wrong. Every meal is so different, and although most do include tortillas I never seem to get bored with what we are served. And I have determined I am slowly becoming Mexican- I put more and more salsa on my tacos now, I am quite proud of myself and my stomach. Eventually Isaura, Isaura jr, Regina, and I went to Regina's guitar class, then we went to find a wire for my camera (you know how that turned out), and I went to a dance class. We learned a couple different partner dances- I am not sure if I returned. I didn't mind the class but it wasn't really a challenge and it was all adults that had obviously never danced before. After an hour and 15 mins Isaura picked me up and we went to the mall. Isaura jr needed a blue sweater for school and she wanted new clothes. Isaura tried to get me to shop, but I didn't see anything I couldn't live without so I didn't try anything on. We returned home and Isaura and Favio left for a party, Isaura said she would see us in the morning.
I am having a lot of fun here, and I hope I am conveying that in my blog's-it is tough to express how beautiful it is here and how nice everyone is. I have a lot of friends at school and I am starting to understand more spanish-sometimes it catches me off guard. This month has gone incredibly fast, and although everyone warned me it would fly by I didn't always believe them. I am enjoying this culture, and I hope you are too through my blog-if you have any questions please let me know I don't mind sharing some stories!
Miss you all very much,
Mariah
PS: Aye Perdon- has become part of my permenate vocabulary here. I say AYE every time someone is picking on me or anytime I trip, basically all the time. Perdon is a way to excuse yourself, so whenever I run into Isaura jr or Regina (on purpose) I always say Aye Perdon! They find this quite amusing, I haven't really figured out why. I like to say oye also, it is like "hey or oh yeah".
I am honored to be in your blog this week,
ReplyDeleteI love you.