Week 10 & 11: "Veo Veo Morelia es..."

Apologies to all on the week late blog-I have been really busy lately.  

On October 6 (Tuesday) we received a new schedule from the school, they told us we only need to pick 8 our of the 11 classes to get grades for.  Then the other classes we didn't have to go to, we could just work on our project for Mexican Culture.  Fran came to my house after school and we studied for our spanish test.

I got to school and realized that I had almost NO classes on Wednesdays, just gym first period and spanish the 5th hour.  Gym got canceled because my class had a big test so Simon, Caro, and I went to work at the computer room for the entire morning!  But this new schedule didn't last long, it turns out that the teacher who told us we didn't have to go hadn't asked the director of the school-so now we have to go to class and sit there because we can't participate (it is very strange and we are still trying to figure out what they want from us).  After lunch I went to my spinning class and then ran before returning home to put up my blog.  

The next day after school we had lunch with my whole family at my house.  Favio's aunt is a nun and she was going back to her house, so they had a going away party.  We had mole (traditional salsa/chili type thing from the town Puebla).  Then Caro, Mariana, and I went to watch a soccer game at Valla (school).  After we went for tacos then Mariana brought me home. 

The next day Mariana and I were heading to school and we got stuck in the middle of the intersection for 10 minutes waiting for a bunch of religious bikers to go by.  After school Caro, Fran and I went to the mall for a little while, then I took a taxi home.  At 10:30 Fran and I met up and took a taxi to Velvet (discotec right next to ego).  We got there and tons of people we are the door, I met a guy from the Dominican Republic and he said he was an exchange student to so he took my hand and I grabbed Fran and we got to the front of the group and they said they were letting more people in; but we told that we were exchange students so he said ok go ahead!  Tons of people from my class were there and I met some of my friends's friends.  We spent the night dancing, then we both went back to my house.  

Fran slept at my house and Caro came to house the next morning and we went to Tzintzuntzan with my family.  We got there and we cooked a Tuna Pasta Dish-which turned out to be really good.  We hung out the rest of the night.  Caro, Fran and I watched RENT on my lap top, and Fran asked if we could put Portuguese subtitles up, so I did.  Caro and I were laughing because she got REALLY excited but after 20 minutes she just fell asleep! (verdad Fran? jaja)

The next morning we had breakfast and despite the cold we went in the boat.  Fran, Caro, and I piled on the doughnut (pull behind the boat) and we went tons of times, getting flipped off and thrown into the lake.  I tried the "table" but I didn't get to get all the way up on it because a storm came-but another time.  We headed back with Caro and I on the doughnut, then it started to pour and the rain was hitting us so hard!  We finally got back and ran and jumped in the pool-it was like a hot tub.  We played cards then headed home.

After school on Monday we went to Applebee's because it was Mariana's birthday.  Then Fran, Astrid, and I went to the movies.  Later that when Regina and I were skyping with my dad we heard a crash and Regina and I had to check the whole house-turns out it was just Regina's guitar falling over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Halfway!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't go to school the next day because I woke up with a wicked headache.  I had planned on going to school late, but Isaura wanted me to stay home the whole day to make sure I was really ok.  

The next day after lunch I met Maria, Liz, Max, and Caro at Maria's house and we headed to a lounge to watch the Mexico futbol game.  After we headed to a Greek Taco place and we were goofing around and I was running and took a corner to fast and cut up my knee and elbow pretty bad!  We met our friends Guillermo and Miguel for tacos and lets just say no one forgot about me falling, not to mention they found it hilarious that tacos there were called gringos.  I went to Caro's house and slept there.

We went to a girl in our jazz class's house to work a little on our dance.  She told us it was food too, but we didn't get any so we left and cooked breakfast back at Caro's house then I went home with Isaura and packed for Puerto Vallarta (the beach we were going to with Rotary).  Then Favio took me to the bus stop, he is trying to teach me tongue twisters in spanish-they are really hard to remember!  Then at 4:30 all of us from Morelia and a couple other excahnge students got onto the bus and we spent 15 hours driving to Puerto Vallarta!  It should have taken us 8 but we picked up all of the other exchange students.  

We arrived at 8 am in Puerto Vallarta and changed into our bathing suits, then went right onto a boat.  We stopped and some people went snorkeling, but I didn't go because they didn't have a lot of equipment so I let those who hadn't gone before get a chance.  Then we went horse back riding up to a waterfall and then went swimming there for a while before going back on the horses back to the boat.  I even got my house so a gallup type thing-it was really fun!  We had lunch then headed to the hotel, showered, and had dinner.  

We went to breakfast then we went into the sea.  After we moved to the pool and we hung out there the whole day!  That night we went to a discotec and it was super crowded, but really fun!

We got up the next day, packed and headed to the center of Puerto Vallarta.  We shopped and ate for a little bit before heading home.  We arrived in Morelia at 8:30ish and Isaura picked me up.  We went shopping for some things before heading home.  I was greeting by a package from my family, including some candy that I have missed so very very much.  

And to explain the title, there is a popular reggaeton song and we changed it to "Veo Veo Morelia es la mas chingoda ve lo que es!"  We are the craziest exchange students so we decided to make a song about it!  

Week 9: "We need to work on my English or I am never going to understand your parents when they come to visit!"

Once again the week flew by, and I am posting a late blog-story of my life!  So lets get started:

September 29: Fran didn't go to school again, Caro and I had a waterfight, and school went by slowly.  After school I had lunch at my house and got ready for Caro's surprise birthday party.  As Isaura jr was doing my hair for the party (she really enjoys this) we talked to Favio for the first time on skype, and his english has gotten a lot better.  He said he was freezing and I just laughed and said "Oh you wait!"  At 8:30 Isaura took me to the party, it was fun but Caro knew what was happening, so the surprise part didn't really happen.  I went home around 12:30 and slept. 

I woke up late so I didn't get to skype with the spanish class like I had promised.  At 4:30 I went to Starbucks with Fran and then we went to Caro's house to have a small birthday cake to celebrate her birthday.  I left about 9:00pm and then did last weeks blog.

The next day in school we were in the middle of the class and I teacher showed up and said we needed to go downstairs.  Turns out everyone had to take a drug test, it is normal and all the classes have to do it.  After that I had English, I was greeted by the teacher saying you have a test today and laughing.  I thought she was joking so when she handed me the test I said "Oh we really have a test?!" she said "yes" then I said "Oh darn, but I didn't study!" everyone laughed.  I found a couple parts tough because they were more England English-but I ended up correcting a part-haha.  After lunch Isaura, Caro, and I went shopping for everything I needed for my "American Food" at my house the next day.  Isaura told me in the car that we needed to practice speaking English, I said why and she said "We need to work on my English because I am never going to understand your parents when they come to visit!"  I laughed and agreed to speak to her in English-that was a challenge in itself, I kept switching back to spanish!  After an interesting shopping trip we dropped of Caro and got Gaspachos for dinner.  Then I decided to skype with my spanish class the next day so I went to sleep.

I woke up at 6:20am to skype with my spanish class in the US.  Despite their microphone not really working it was successful.  I really like seeing everyone again and of course showing Senora how much my spanish has improved (it still needs some work).  At 11:00 Caro came to my house so we could start preparing food.  Caro was the only one who made something from her country- I asked everyone else but they didn't end up cooking anything.  It was hard work-we were cooking for 30 people!  I made my mom's BBQ meatloaf (which was a hit), along with apple pie (everyone loved as well!), pasta with cheesy sause, pancakes, and as a joke Isaura cooked some hot dogs and hamburgers.  Everyone came to my house after school (around 3pm) and I had about 25 people there from my school, 4 of Favio jr's friends, my second host family, and Regina and Isaura had some friends come as well.  My friends from school didn't leave until 7:30-8:00ish!  We enjoyed food, talked to Julia and Emily briefly on skype, looked at some pictures of my friends and house, jumped on the trampoline, and told jokes!  It turned out being really fun!  After the party Fran stayed at my house because Favio jr's friend Daniel invited me to a party!  He said about 9pm, so we went at 9:30 (here wen someone tells you a time you go AT LEAST 30 mins later then what they say).  The party was official, we had to have our names on the list (there were 2 bouncers at the door), our names were there but luckily Daniel showed up the same time as us and the guy let us right in.  The party was really nice, I met a girl who lived in NY for 7 years, and I spent most of the night talking to Santiago (my friends brother I met him in Ixtapa).  Santiago told me he has a very rich friend who lives near Morelia and in NY, and he said he thinks his friend will be back to Morelia soon.  He will be having a party, and apparently his parties are in this HUGE house and are really really cool!  Santiago said there is TONS of food, a whole bunch of Mariachi bands (they are expensive), then they change to rock bands, and its a dance party!  He said he told his friend he had a friend from NY here and now his friend told Santiago to invite me to the party!  So I am really excited for that!  

 The next day we left at 9am for a second weekend in Ixtapa, but this time it was with the grandparents.  We arrived at their house around 1pm and it was so hot Isaura jr and I immediately put on our bathing suits and went into the pool.  (At this point in time I would like to let all of you know I happen to have a tan!  Yes,yes its true...and no its not a burn....its a genuine -but not very strong tan...but it's there and that's what counts!)  We stayed in the pool all afternoon only getting out to eat lunch.  I tried one of the HOTTEST chili pepper's in Mexico!  It surprisingly wasn't that hot, but we couldn't eat more than a small piece or it would be bad for the stomach!  My host dad says I am more Mexican than Isaura jr.  Eventually we headed to a beach that isn't super popular, it's called Playa Ropa (clothing beach)-of course Favio and I took the opportunity to make some jokes about this, then he was telling me about the other beaches-and one was Playa Gato (cat beach).  I asked him why it was called that and he said "Because you can only wear cats on the beach" we laughed and then Isaura's dad said it was because it has lots of "insert a spanish word I don't know", so then I asked what that word was and he said "um cat-sharks"  I laughed and said "ahh catfish"  we laughed about this for a while.  We then went into the ocean enjoying the waves, some were so big Favio would shout when everyone needed to dive under the wave!  We left when it got dark and went back to the house and went straight into the pool.  We hung out there for a long time before going into the house to sleep.   However we didn't get much sleep because the house was SUPER hot!  

The next day we found ourselves in the pool again before lunch, then we headed back home.  But before we left the grandma said it looked like I got a little burnt on my face so she Globbed on this healing cream-everyone thought it was great!  When I got into the car I wiped off some so I had only  small amount on my face.  As we were leaving we got stopped by the army and as they were checking the car Isaura says to me "It's a good thing you wiped that junk off your face my mom put on otherwise the army would never let us pass!"  We all laughed then headed home.

Monday morning I woke up and turned on my shower (to get the water to warm up) and then returned to my bed to wait.  On the way back I spotted something black on my floor- I turned on my light and there was a small SCORPION just sitting there!  I couldn't believe it, i just stared at it for a couple seconds before running to get a shoe to squish it (it took two tries to kill it!)  I showed Isaura who told me it was a type of scorpion; smaller but still poisonous-sweet!   After that school went by slow despite entertaining everyone with my scorpion story and after school Simon and I waited for what seemed like FOREVER for Isaura to come get us.  I had forgotten that all of the girls that help clean and cook started their two week vacation so Isaura had to do all of their work.    

This weekend I am going to be spending in Tzintzuntzan at the lake, then the next weekend we are going to Puerto Vallarta to the beach again (with Rotary).  It's deffinitely true-I spend all of my time at the beach-but that's just fine with me!  

Miss you all- I'll be sure to think about you all in the snow while I'm sunbathing on the beach, not to rub it in or anything...