Why Ancient Latin Americans looked like 80s Arnold Schwarzeneggers

This is a 3/4 blog entry. I am currently working on my normal blog but I found that I have left my devoted fans to have nothing from here in Mexico, so I decided to let you in on a little sneak peek and to let you know that I have pictures below from my trip around Mexico. Also to let you know the newest entry will be on shortly.

So if you haven't guessed on my trip around Mexico we visited many ruins and I had heard tons of interesting stories, seen what the villages looked like, and even got goosebumps by standing in a place where Mayas and Aztecs actually lived. But one thing occured to me that I didn't quite expect to get out of this trip. That the people living in these civilizations must have had KILLER calf and glut muscles. You may be asking yourself; how in the world did she come to this conclusion- (if you haven't asked yourself yet, please do so now). I made this hypothesis due to the over-welming amount of stairs that we had to climb. Normally I wouldn't be complaining about the extra muscle I acquired while on the tour of Mexico, I mean who doesn't like going back with a legit farmers tan, toned calf muscles, and a firm glutous maximus; but the worst part of having to climb up these ancient stairs was the fact that they never seemed to be at a convenient size. Most of the time there were up to my knees, causing me to struggle to climb them at a steady pace, and leaving those of... well shorter proportions to have to literally use their hands to help them up. Not to mention the uneven surface area that they had created-as if it wasn't enough to make them a foot and a half tall; they were slanted and uneven too!

But that's not all- the way down appeared as though you were sitting at the top of the hill of the roller coaster right before it plumits down the track, the only difference, there were no state approved safety harnesses-just you and those terrible piles of rocks that they called stairs. Instead of just stepping right on down, which is almost guaranteed suicide for the shorter people, and 20% chance of a good fall for people of my tall stature- that's when we discovered. After you had toned your behind area you had to use it to get yourself back down the 247 steps you had climbed up 10 minutes ago. I believe this is where the sit and schooch tactic came from, but who am I to know.

When the stairs weren't so daringly steep I often got the job of holding my australian friends hand because she literally felt threatened by the fact of going down alone... Of course, I did enjoy the views on top, and as much as I despise the Mayan stairs and still find myself awake at night wondering why they made these stairs so large that people under 5'5'' couldn't climb them; I felt as though I had earned the view I got. So to those of you that are going to just sit in your comfy computer chairs, or are lounging on your couch with your lap top and a cup of coffee and are planning on scrolling down to the pictures I previously mentioned without more that a click of the mouse- BE WARNED! Your time will come when you must tackle these stairs of terror, and as you are climbing them wishing you hadn't ate that piece of cake for breakfast- you think of me and of my trip, that I have now conveniently changed the name to for this particular incident, The Trip of Too Many Stairs (in Mexico). It's a catchy name isn't it? You think of me and of that time that you got to see the views without so much as a flex if the right pointer finger. And to those future Outbounds to Mexico good luck, you get the chance to go on a beautiful trip and get your fair share of exercise as well!

Week 25-29: "Ella habla Ingles, Espanol, y Pendejadas!"

Its been many moons since my last blog, and as I have heard through the grapevine people are just itching to read the next chapter. Well, I have to apologize for the wait but it has been just crazy lately for me to get a chance to write my blog, and I apologize for this apology because that is not a good enough excuse. So now I will be sure to update everyone on what I have been doing here in Mexico.

The feelings I am experiencing now are more over-welming than I have ever known. It feels like two places have mixed to make up my life, and yet I feel that they are two completely different places that I can never have at the same time. As I near my date to return to the USA i feel that it gets harder to even think about leaving my friends and "families" here. I know deep down I will see the majority of them again, but the fact that I can't just call up Kike and talk to him for hours, or laugh for 10 minutes with Caro about nothing, or even try to translate the strangest words in English for Luis; makes me feel like I could lose the relationship that we have established in less than a year. More than half way through my exchange year I have made friends that seem like I have known forever. Despite this sadness about leaving I know that I will keep in touch and continue to visit Mexico. However it won't be the same, and although Rotary had warned me and I thought I had prepared myself - it still happened. I let my guard down and I met people that made me feel comfortable and let me be myself, while at the same time helping me mature and blossom. It takes a lot of guts for someone to put up with another that is finding himself. Therefore I thank my friends that I have made this year AND those friends that currently reside in the USA and have made an effort to stay in touch and listened to millions of stories. I also apologize if I don't seem to make sense, but it is a saying that Rotary has; sometimes only other exchange students can truly understand. Although this may be the case, I wanted to try and share at least a part of what I was feeling and try to include everyone in every aspect of being an exchange student (or at least my experiences as one).

When I left the last time I had returned from my best friends birthday party, the next two days Caro and I worked on the Kike's birthday present. It is a poster of our jokes and pictures of us that he can hang up in his room. After school we brought it to him at his school, and he loved it! We ended up staying and talking to him for a long time; later I had a basketball game and as Mariana and I were heading home we passed the circus advertising (driving the animals around the city in their cages) and I got within a foot of tigers, zebras, camels, and leopards. Friday all my friends from Tec and I met at Erick's house then we went to Velvet. Saturday Patti, Mariana, and I went to Moroleon, a nearby town that puts the tags on expensive clothes, and we walked about 15 blocks which were filled with JUST clothes! That night I went out with Kike and all of my friends from Valla to San Topez. Sunday I went to church with my family, and then met Kike because he had invited me to his birthday celebration with his family. I met some of his aunts and uncles and even his grandmother. His family is really crazy, so I fit right in. That is where my title comes in. Kike's mom explained to the family that not only do I speak English and Spanish but all the slang of Mexico as well.

Februrary 1st, and we had no school so Mariana and I spent the day lounging in the house, we even rented movies. The next day I spent in school working on my project on the USA and Kike came to visit everyone at Valla. Then Mariana, Mau, and I went to the circus, but it was horrible. We ended up leaving 3/4 of the way through because they had been beating the animals and we didn't want to support that kind of behavior. The next day, it had continued raining (2 weeks straight) so besides going to Immigration we didn't really leave our houses for anything but school.

We left for Mexico City at 3:30am and after picking all of the Exchange students up from all of their cities we headed to Mexico City; in reality Mexico City is only 3-4 hours from my house-it took us 11. We got three new exchange students: one from South Africa, one from Germany, and one from Austraila. I talked with Erin (from Austraila), Mackenzie from USA, Trinity from USA, Jenny from Korea, Robyn from Canada, and Fredi from Germany-and thus formed my group of exchange student friends. When we arrived to Mexico City we went to a mall to eat and hang out after the long bus ride. After we went to the hotel and finally got to shower before going out to dinner. On Saturday we went inside the President's house and even got to meet his two dogs! His house/land is the same size as Milford! Then we went to Six Flags for the afternoon. On sunday we didn't see Erin from Austraila (we found out later that her mother had passed away so she had went back to Austraila. Erin is coming back to Mexico very soon to start spend her exchange year here) then we went to Teotihuacan, which are the ruins of the Mayan civilization that first settled in Mexico. This is the story of Mexico and is the symbol on the Mexican flag: this ancient Mayan civilization were told by there gods that they needed to search for new land and they would know the land was there's when they saw a bird holding a snake in its mouth perched on a cactus that was on top of a rock! As you could imagine this would have taken a long time to find, and when they finally found this it was basically in the middle of a lake. But according to the prophecy this was there new land and so they proceeded to build on top of the lake. Later on the Spanish attacked a destroyed many of the structures-but what is still standing today we got to see! There are still a lot of remaining structures and you can climb most of them, one including the SECOND LARGEST PYRAMID IN THE WORLD (and we climbed it in 7 mins!). After a tour and looking all around we went to lunch and then returned to the center where we took a group picture. The final day of the trip we went to the famous Anthropology Museum and looked at the Mayan and Aztec exhibits; the museam is so big it ould take all day to see everything-so they only allowed us to see the two most important civilizations in Mexican History. After they took us to the Chapultepec Castle which has some of the most famous Mexican Independence murals painted right on the walls! It is also home to many very ugly paintings of Mexican leaders, apparently they painted leaders exactly how they were, unlike a lot of English Victorian paintings that made people look better than they were. We got Starbucks before heading home- I would like to take this moment to say that it must be a Rotary/Exchange student thing because everyone was craving Starbucks at the same time-it wasn't my idea to go. We got back to Morelia at 4:15 am and then Rocio picked us up and took us home. That following day was considered my catch up on sleep day, so I did nothing all day long.

Then I went to school and Caro got home from her visit to the USA. So that night we went to Starbucks with Kike and talked. The next day I worked all day in school on my presentation and we prepared for the Valentine's Day party that we were having the next day at school. After school Mariana and I went out form sushi and later Patti and I cooked brownies for the Valentine's Day party. We had no classes the following day, just a HUGE Valentine's party where people sold food and sweets and there were even dances prepared. The Exchange students were told that we were supposed to have something prepared, but they hadn't told us before I came up with the idea of getting two boys and two girls up on the stage and having the girls be the arms of the guys and get them to prepare some food for themselves and eat it-of course they prepared whip cream and jam covered crepes and every laughed when they got their faces covered. That night I went with Luis, Kike, Pedro, Caro and a whole bunch of people from my school to Velvet. We ended up having a lot of fun dancing around and just making fun of Valentine's Day. Saturday I spent the entire day with the family, going out to eat and talking. At night I went with Luis to try to go to Justine's birthday party- but she had lied to the security at the door and had way too many people inside so we weren't allowed in; it turned out to be ok though because Luis wasn't feeling great, but we did stop by Ego before going home. Luis is a DJ so he knows a lot of people in the clubs so we just walked in said hi to some friends of ours and then left. After church on Sunday we went to the movies as a family and we ended up running into Kike and his mom at the movies too. After Mariana and I went shopping for an hour or so before heading home.

Monday was a normal day at school, and after we ate I went to basketball practice. Later Caro showed up at my house and we decided to go to the movies. We didn't have school the next day so I got to sleep in. Mariana and I hung out all day and then that night Luis came over and we watched Mean Girls. Luis has friends from Canada and so he knows a lot of English-and now he is learning slag, so I have been teaching him little by little and we figured Mean Girls would be a fun way to learn some "American" slang. Caro presented the next day about Germany and after school we went as a family to an Ash Wednesday gathering. The following day I presented about the USA, NY, Milford, Friends, and Family (all in Spanish) and let me tell you, trying explain the Polar Bear Jump and Donkey Basketball in Spanish is a lot harder than you think. Then I went to my first host family's house to eat, and they had prepared my favorite meal! I went home later on and talked with Maru to get permission to go visit my exchange student friends in a near by town- Leon. She gave me permission so the next day I went to Immigration again before taking a bus to Leon. My friend Mackenzie's mom picked me up and Mackenzie and I met Trinity and Fredi at the mall. We had lunch then went back to our houses to get ready for a party that night (I stayed at Mackenzie's house). We went to a friends party and they introduced me to all of their Mexican friends, and to my surprise they all tried to speak to me in English! Of course I refused and spoke to them in English and they all complimented my spanish and said I spoke very well! It turns out that almost no one in Leon speaks good Spanish and so all the Mexicans just speak English with them. After 3 friends of Mackenzie took us to what they said was a new club, which turned out to be a joke. They had taken us to a gay club! It was really funny, but we didn't stay long. Saturday Mackenzie and I just hung out and then in the night we met up with the Exchange students before going to meet Mackenzie's best friend Andrea and some friends of hers. Then we all went to the most popular night club in Leon "La Nuit" and we met a girl from Austraila that had been an exchange student 4 years ago and had come back to study and ended up getting engaged to a friend of hers from Mexico (who was the DJ at the club)- and no, I am not getting any ideas! Sunday Mackenzie, Trinity and I went to Starbucks and then out to eat before I went home. I got to Morelia around 10pm and then went home to sleep.

The following week fell into quite the pattern: school, lunch, basketball, sleep. On Wednesday I met up with Kike and we sat in a cafe and just talked. Kike and I have declared the Wednesday is our "new Friday", which just means that we promise to hang out and talk every Wednesday night. For those of you that haven't noticed Kike is my best friend here and we literally are inseperable, he was an exchange student to he gets what I am feeling which makes it easy for us to relate to each other. He also is planning on studying engineering in the New England region, so we have so much to talk about. Thursday we were supposed to have a game but the other team didn't come, so Luis asked if I would stay and watch the boys team play, I did and then after Luis took me home. Friday I was really sick, my throat had been bothering me ever since I went to Leon- I had spent 5 hours or so in a house where everyone was smoking and it had gotten me sick. Saturday I had a basketball tournament and they really needed me so even though I felt bad I played two games then went home with Luis again. When I got home I showered and my whole family went to Patti's dad's ranch to eat lunch. I made plans to go to Velvet with my cousin, Mayita (20 years old), and when we got home at 8 Mayita had called and said she would be at my house in 8 mins. Luckily she said that we were going to her friends house to get ready so I just packed a bag and we left. We went with Mayita's friends and we ended up picking up Luis before going to Velvet. I met some of Luis's friends and we got to go in the DJ box and watch him play-which was cool. Then my other cousin Gustavo took Luis and I home. Finally, this week is following the pattern nicely: school, basketball, and meals. That concludes this hectic month, thank you and goodnight.

Week 23 and 24: "Aprende La Bomba!!"

Caro spent the night at my house and then we went to school the next day.  The following day was a normal school day as well, and after school Mau (my little brother) and I went to the gym and worked out.  The following day we went to school, then home to, eat and then to an inter-school dance competition!  It was pretty cool and I got to see some friends from other schools.  The next day I was told at 5am that we didn't have school due to dangerous winds, then at 7, my host mom said that we DID have school.  So we showered and went late.  After school Caro and I went to a friend, Daniela's house.  We had lunch with her and her family and then we went to the school soccer game.  After I went out to a little club with Caro and some friends from Valla.  

On Saturday I went to Kike's house and we talked for a while before we went to one of our best friend's birthday lunch.  We stayed there until 10pm then I went home and talked with Mariana.  Then on Sunday we went to chruch and then to the mall the whole day.  On Monday I paid for part if my Ruta Maya trip (trip around Mexico with Rotary).  Then we ate lunch with some friends at the mall, and then I went to basketball practice from 4:30 to 6:30.  The following day Caro got sick, so we got to go home at 11.  Later I went to basketball practice and then I called some people from my local rotary because I wanted to see if I was allowed to go to Ixtapa for my best friend's birthday party!  The next day I found out that I was allowed to go to Ixtapa so I was super happy, and after Basketball practice Caro and I started working on Kike's birthday present!  The next day was tough, Aurore (from France)'s friend had died in France and she wanted to go back but they wouldn't let her-we tried to tell her that it is better to be here, but it is really tough on her.  We had a little funeral here in school for her friend and we talked with her and gave her all of our support.  After school Mariana, Simon, Mauricio (my host dad), and I ate shrimp tacos.  Then I went with Kike, Andrea Tapia, and Pedro (friends from another school) to get the food for the trip to Ixtapa.

Friday I went to school with all of my clothes for Ixtapa.  After I went with Laurisa, Judas, Karla, Bienvenido, Fedee, and Qiqe to eat before the trip.  Then we all met at Kike's house and piled into the cars and we were on our way.  When we arrived Kike's Mom's boyfriend bought us pizza.  Then we went to our apartment, WHICH WAS HUGE and had a hot tub on the balcony!!  It was amazing!  We stayed up all night dancing and hanging out in the jacuzzi.  Saturday was Kike's actual birthday, and we spent the WHOLE morning and afternoon on the beach and in the ocean.  Then we went up to the apartment to eat then we went back down and went on the banana.  It is a long tube type thing that is pulled behind the boat, and it is even crazier than the doughnut in Tzintzuntzan because the ocean is a whole lot choppier.  So Kike, Marta, and I were the last three on the banana(which is the part with the most control, but the first part to fall off).  So then Kike, Marta, and I were jumping and then we decided to lean one way and well ALL fell off.  After as we tried to climb back on we tipped it over AGAIN.  After falling a couple more times, Kike said I needed to lean MORE to one said so then he said "to the right!" and I leaned extra far and ONLY I fell off!  They found this absolutely hilarious!  After we met Kike's older sisters and then we went up to the apartment to eat dinner and sleep before going to a salsa club.  We danced and had a lot of fun, I even got some salsa lessons!!  On Sunday we left for Morelia and Mariana picked me up at Kike's house.  I was really tired because we basically didn't sleep the whole weekend, I think I slept 5 hours!!  

Despite being SUPER tired I still went to school Monday and to basketball to 2 hours of basketball.  Tuesday I was still tired but I made it through school.  Then I went to basketball and then Caro and I finished the present for Kike.  On Wednesday I the whole family had lunch together at my house and then I went to basketball practice.  On Thursday, Caro and I went to Tec (Kike's school) to give him his present.  He loved it and we ended up talking for an hour, before we left to go eat.  After lunch I changed and went to basketball practice (saying goodbye to Caro because she was going to the United States with my first host family).  At basketball we practiced for an hour then we had a game for two hours.  On the way home we drove past a caravan promoting a circus and I got to be literally a foot away from tigers, zebras, camels, and buffalo!!

The title is a saying from my house, it means turn on the bomb!  I know that sounds bad, but it means that the water is low and so we need to turn it on downstairs and once you do that it shoots the water up just like a bomb!  I'm still not sure if I want to shout that out at 6am, but we'll see! 

Week 19-22: "Can't you just 'forget' to pack your bags?"

Good Afternoon New York,

I apologize for the absolute tardiness of my blog, but I have been running around so much that I hardly have time to sleep.

I left you on December 16; Caro and I went to Justine's posada that night.  A posada is a type of party anytime in the two weeks before before Christmas it traditionally involved all the houses in the town.  It is supposed to represent Mary and Joseph traveling looking for a place to stay- and everyone would be involved sometimes with a chosen Mary.  Now in cities like Morelia it is used as an excuse to have a party-which I have found Mexican's are the masters of making excuses to have parties.  There are still towns that have traditional posadas, but you have to know where to look.

The next day I cooked brownies with my host sisters and after we finished we watched a movie eating brownies.  After I went to Kike's house before we met up with Kike (a different Kike from my school), a couple others from my school, Kike's  cousin; then we all went to see a local singer and a fashion show.  the next day was about the same I met up with Caro for sushi, then we went with Bienvenido, Elsa, Judith, and Kike to Bienvenido's house and talked for a little while.

Regina woke me up the next day, she asked me to come help set up the Nativity Scene.  Here in Mexico the Nativity Scene is more important than the Christmas Tree.  We had a HUGE Nativity Scene set up with moss and everything for the ground!  After I asked if we were going to set up a Christmas Tree, my parents said no because we would be spending Christmas at Isaura's parents house in Lazaro.  Regina and I were sad, until I came up with a great plan!  We asked Favio if they had been planning on using the Christmas lights for anything, he said no.  So we wrapped the lights around the trunk of a palm tree in the house and declared our newest Christmas Tree!  

The next day we spent with Favio's family and we got ready to go to Lazaro.  I also spent this time packing up my room, because I would change my house as soon as we got back from New Years.  Later I went with Simon to a Christmas dinner at a friend's house, then Kike picked me up and we hung out with Pedro and his sisters.  Caro and I spent the next day shopping, and getting our hair cut.  Then I went with Kike (from my school) to burn his video (I helped him make one on my computer).  

We left for Lazaro at 3, but didn't leave Morelia until 5-due to Favio's store.  We went to Isaura's parent's house and I got to sleep in Isaura's childhood room with Isa.  Christmas Eve day was spent with the whole family, and in the night Favio took us to church.  When we got home we had a secret santa type thing.  We shared a huge dinner and then went to sleep.  Christmas day we woke up and went downstairs and there was one of each one of our shoes in front of one present.  I got a purse from the secret santa, and a sweater from santa.  After all the "kids" went to the movies and ew saw Alvin and the Chipmunks 2.  The next couple of days we spent with the family and we even went out fishing in the ocean in a TINY boat.  

The 28th we left Isaura's parent's house and headed to Ixtapa to a friend's house (where we stayed the first time I went to Ixtapa).  We had seafood for lunch then we spent a long time in the pool.  When we got back to the house all of the adults were there except Favio-they said he was "stuck" at a party!  So Regina and I walked over to rescue him, and after meeting all of the people at the party they finally let him leave.  After Isa wanted to watch a scary movie, but as we were watching it she was literally beating me up because she was so scared!  Of course she didn't really hurt me, but we found ourselves making fun of it the whole time.  

The next day we spent on the yacht, literally the entire day!  We ran into some other families and swam back and forth between yachts.  And the following day just the "kids" took the yacht out (with a hired driver, the club doesn't let the people drive without a license).  The next day we lounged around before getting ready for the New Year's part that we had reservations for, and was very formal.  We left at 10:30 and ate dinner there, and five minutes before 12 we all got a little bowl of 12 grapes.  It is a tradition that you eat the twelve grapes after midnight as fast as you can and make wishes for everyone.  After they turned on music and we spent the night dancing.  We didn't leave until 4 in the morning and we didn't go to sleep until 7:30.  Later on we went shopping in the center of town. The follwoing day a couple of friends came over and we went to the beach, I ran into a girl from my school and we just hung out.

We left Ixtapa at 7:30 in the morning to try and beat some of the traffic.  We stopped to eat at 11 am, and the we got to see Isaura's blackberry farm.  I spent the night talking to Isa and Regina; because they were sad that I was changing the house.  

My second host family I have already met, and I get along with all of them really well.  I am living with Patti (the mom), Mariana 16, Julia 13, and Mau 11; the Dad lives on the outerskirts of Mexico his name is Mauricio (he and Patti are separated).  Patti picked me up at 12 at the house and we loaded my 11 bags into the car!  After I said "goodbye" to Isaura, Isa (who cried), and Regina (who refused to let go of me) we went to the house.  I had already slept in this room once, when my first family was out of town, so I knew the house well.  At 3 we went to Patti's sister's house, I have already met her and her daughter (Pau 16, she is in Valla with me).  My "Aunt" has another daughter and a son, then Patti's parents came, and one of her cousins.  After lunch Mariana and I went to get Caro in Tres Marias and then we went to the movies.

I have found that this family stresses being together for meals and events whenever possible.  We ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together.  We spent the day running errands and in the evening Patti skyped with my parents; speaking English!  The next day was "Day of the Kings" and in the night you put out a shoe by the door and the Kings (from the Bible) bring you a present.  I got perfume from the kings, and then the kids went to Gloria's house.  Gloria as you might remember is where Simon is, and she is also Mauricio (my host dad)'s mother.  We got the Day of the Kings bread out and got ready for another tradition.  The bread is in a giant circle and there are sweet parts, chocolate parts, vanilla parts, parts with peppers even; and you choose what you want and cut out your piece.  But the trick is if your bread has a little white boy in it you have to eat a tamale!  The rest of the day I spent with Mariana running around doing things to get ready for school, when we finally got home Mariana and I just hung out in my room talking.  

I went to school for the first time since vacation, we weren't sure if we had school because Mexico is in a "freeze wave".  It is the coldest it has been here in a very long time, I believe it is a record!  I know you're all thinking I am crazy because it is obviously colder in NY-but you have to remember they are not prepared here so they are suffering all day from the cold!  Later that night I went with Caro and my frist host family to my "x cousin"'s 15th birthday party.  It was laid back but it ended up being really fun-all of the adults were dancing with the kids, which made for some very interesting entertainment.  

The next day Mau invited me to the movies with his cousins, so I accompanied 3 pre-teen boys at the movies and then to the arcade.  Later that night I hung out with Bienvenido, Marta, Valia, Kike and Erick.  The next morning Mariana and I met her best friend at the club for breakfast and we ended up staying there talking for a long time.  Then Mauricio took Mariana, Julia, and I out for pizza then Mariana and I hit up Starbucks taking advantage of the Starbucks card I received for Christmas from my parents.  Then Caro came to my house and we got ready for a party-it was the 16th birthday of one of Rox's friends.  It turned out being really fun!  On Sunday we went to church then to the "Hacienda" (ranch type hotel thing that my host dad owns) to eat lunch with his family.

After school Mariana and I got Starbucks before going to her aunts house for lunch.  That night Memo (from my class), Kike, and Caro came over-we went out to eat dinner and just talked.  Caro ended up staying the night at my house.  We were up and ready for school on time, and as usual school was pretty uneventful-but very cold!

The title is what Regina told me to try and keep me from changing houses.