Tiana: Reflections of the first two weeks

Every day, I take notes in my journal about the occurrences of that 24-hour period.  Many of the stories that I’ve recorded over the past two weeks have already been shared, but I’ve composed a list of the anecdotes, observances, and other who-knows-whats that were left behind:

Observation Number 1: Height?  5’10”.  Age?  20.  Marital status?  Single.

Somehow, height, age, and perhaps even marital status seem to be correlated in the minds of several people that I have had the privilege of meeting.  Take Moiss, for example.  Moiss is a 29-year old that works across the street from my school.  While walking to WARC from the supermarket one fine day, Zawadi and I were called over for a brief conversation with him.  After basic introductions were made, the topic of relationships was addressed.  (Note: It seems that inquiring into your status in terms of personal relationships is about as common as asking how your day is going!)  Discovering that both Zawadi and I are single, Moiss proceeded to ask for a reason for said single status.  He mentioned that I, particularly, should be either in a relationship or married by now because of how tall I am.  Later in the week, I was asked my age, and truthfully responded, “Vingt ans”, 20-years old.  The inquiree’s reply was “Wow!  You’re tall for being so young!”  Both conversations were incredibly interesting, and both Moiss and the other were, of course, incredibly nice people, but such associations just struck me as odd!

Observation Number 2: If you’re open to them, they’re open to you – Not everyone is a creeper.

My eyes have been opened to the courage and resilience required to function as a minority in a society. Coming to Senegal, I was incredibly weary of practically everyone, paranoid almost to a fault.  Granted, there is a level of discernment needed when it comes to forming new acquaintances, but if you automatically assume the worst in someone or try to find ways to place them in the ex-communicate column, you’re going to miss out on a lot.  Enter Moustapha and The Man at the Shop Around the Corner (abbreviated: TMSAC).  Moustapha is my elderly neighbor.  One day, as I was leaving for class, I heard a man greet me with “Asalaa Maleekum”.  I was absolutely startled for a moment because I hadn’t seen him there, but as our conversation continued, I discovered he was harmless.  With broken English, he proclaimed, “Me, I thinks we should be friends.”  I agreed, and we’ve had a couple of brief conversations since.  Now TMSAC, he works at, you guessed it, the shop around the corner in relation to my school.  I often go to the little shop (which, quite honestly, looks quite unassuming and slightly dangerous upon initial inspection) to buy a giant bottle of Kirène purified water before school starts.  TMSAC is always there, and he is every bit the conversationist.  Knowing full well that I am learning Wolof at WARC, he one day pretended as if he knew no Wolof (although, of course, it is his native language!) and told me to teach him what I know!  I was able to recite the basic salutations and ask some basic questions, which he would respond to in fluent Wolof, and he offered an encouraging, “ça va venir”, “it will come” as I stepped out the door to head to class.  I love these kinds of conversations, and I’m very excited to participate in more as the semester continues!

Observation Number 3 : Life in a Senegalese community is just as wonderful as it seems from an outsider’s perspective.

I note this because, in a recent conversation with Maman, she mentioned that life with me in the house is no different than before I came.  “We haven’t changed anything!” she insisted.  They eat the same foods, pass their time the same way, interact in the same fashion, etc. and are allowing me to be a part of it!  Maman and I went on to discuss how beautiful the city is, how friendly people are, how much we love life here.  “People are always talking about the poverty,” she said, “Always focusing on what’s wrong, always concerning themselves with the problems and difficulties in Africa.  But we live comfortably, we live well, and we love it here.”  Despite the poverty, disease, and what have you that are absolute realities here and seem more grave than in the States, there is hope.  And everywhere I look, there is determination; there is someone who wants to make a difference, and that’s always where change starts, isn’t it?

Veronica: First week of school

Class started last week. I like my classes with Americans. Well, except Phonetics and maybe Grammar. I feel like an idiot in Phonetics making noises into a headset. Not fun. And grammar is always useful. I like having grammar, but we’re starting with things I’ve understood very well for 8 years. I do not need to re-learn passe compose (can’t do accent marks on here for some reason..). I think the ingregrated class will be difficult to like just because I can’t understand everything. It will be slightly frustrating, I think.

The school system is really strange. Everything is very unorganized. And classes only meet once a week (which is nice, really, but hard to remember what we’ve been talking about). The campus looks pretty ghetto actually. The buildings are all obviously built in the 60’s and there is graffiti everywhere. And it’s really small, which, coming from the enormous U of M, is weird.

Before coming here, I knew France was a very stylish country. I knew that very well. But seeing it is another story. Imagine how you dress up to look your absolute best. That’s their everyday look. Bring clothes you think are fancy and you’ll be fine. And everything looks really expensive and nice because it is expensive and nice. Be aware. The casual American look will not cut it here. At all.

I’ve been noticing so many things that are different here since I arrived. The way they eat is different (obviously). I can always tell when I’m eating like an American because I feel sick afterwards. We eat disgustingly and don’t even know it until we eat the (better) French way. Also, they don’t drink a lot of water. I’ve been so, so thirsty here because at home I drink water all the time, but it just doesn’t happen here. I don’t understand traffic, so it’s hard to know when it’s okay to cross the street and pedestrian etiquette. I know that sounds silly, but really, it’s hard.

I’m working on planning a trip to Italy (Rome->Florence->Venice) with my friends, and it’s so difficult to plan a trip like that! There are so many things to take into consideration that you wouldn’t realize, like getting from the train to the plane to the hostel and when it all has to happen. It’s crazy. And taking forever.

Everything has been hard. I’m homesick and miss my family and friends. Sometimes I want to go home. Sometimes I never want to leave. It’s so weird.

Before I finish my post I’m going to do a quick ‘day in the life’ to show you what it’s like:
Get up and eat a quick breakfast, make lunch and go to class (via tram–the Montpellierain version of the light rail) for a few hours. The time depends on when my classes start. Two of them start early, otherwise I start super late. After class I usually go to the U of M office near the Corum (conference center) and hang out, see my friends, steal food if they have any. Then I go home and have dinner with my family (late in the evening), which is always really good, and doesn’t take as long as I was told French meals take. Then we watch TV with our laptops at the ready for when the commercials start. Then it’s bedtime. It’s not incredibly exciting. I have tons of time to kill because my longest day of class is only 4 hours, straight. So I go and come back and try to find things to do.

Heather: Soccer!

I had hot chocolate yesterday! So good!

So this weekend 13 of us are going to Hell’s Gate National Park for the weekend. Somehow I was placed in charge of everything. I didn’t really mind because I know that everything will get done and we won’t have to worry about anything. The only thing was that some people wanted to leave on Friday, some on Saturday, and some wanted to return on Saturday, and some on Sunday. Way too much work to figure that all out. So I told everyone that I was planning Friday-Sunday, and if they wanted to do something else, they would have to find their own transportation.

I talked to Jane, one of the MSID advisors, and she hooked me up with this guy who arranges group trips like this. Last semester he took a group to Masai Mara. I met up with him today and got all the transportation and prices figured out. Not too bad. There are 10 of us leaving on Friday after class and heading to the park and the other 3 are coming up on Saturday morning. The guy told me he’s going to take us on an hour safari when we get there. We’re just going to hang around Naivasha for the rest of the night then.

We are camping in the park, so we’re renting all the equipment from him and he’s giving us a deal on it because Jane recommended him. I’m excited for the camping! On Saturday we are going to rent bikes for the day and we’re going to bike around the park. This should be fun, but probably really tiring. There’s place where we can stop and hike around too.

It’s really nice that we have this guy helping us plan the trip because he can get us the best rates. I think the whole weekend, not including food that we’re going to bring, is about Ksh3200 ($45).

Today we only had 2 classes, both Swahili. The second Swahili class was really nice for my class because we got to go to a market and work on our bargaining skills in swahili. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. I accidently said “Tofaa saa ngapi?” instead of “Tofaa pesa ngapi?” I asked what time the apple was, not how much it costed. I’m dumb. Liana and I found this mini watermelon looking fruits, so we bought them thinking they would be mini watermelons. Definitely not. They were cucumbers! Circular. And when you bit into them, they made your lips go numb for a few minutes!

At 4, a bunch of us went to play soccer against an actual team of 16-17 year old girls. It was a lot of fun but so weird. It was a dirt field and we only had tennis shoes on. There is no such thing as a quick stop, let me tell you. But we had a lot of fun. The girls weren’t the greatest, but they definitely weren’t bad. We tied 1-1 today. Every Wednesday we’re going to play against them. Show them what Americans have got.

I got an ACTUAL HOT SHOWER today! We had water today (thank god) and I was thinking it was just going to be warm water, but it was so hot! I am not going to complain because 1-I was extremely dirty and needed a good shower, 2-I haven’t had a good shower in 2 1/2 weeks, and 3-I don’t know when the next one will be so I am just going to embrace it!

Emma: Pre-departure

Looking back to last year at this time I never would have imagined that I would be flying to Australia, leaving everything I know behind to live what is going to be by far the best and may I add most expensive 6 months of my college life. On Saturday Feb. 6, 2010 I will embark on what is bound to be the journey of a life time.

It didn’t hit me until the other day on my drive home from Minneapolis that in a mere 96 hours I will be boarding a plane traveling to “The Land Down Under.” The past few days I have spent packing, saying goodbyes and just preparing myself for what I am about to get into.

The task of packing has been extremely overwhelming, but I feel somewhat confident that I have everything that I will need…It’s been pretty fun packing swimsuits and dresses while I watch the snow fall outside, knowing that when I land in Cairns, Australia it will be around 85 degrees! One thing I know I will not miss for sure is the brutal Minnesota winters. There are plenty of things that I will miss when I am gone, including family, friends, my roommates, favorite foods, but right now I am doing all I can to think of all the adventures and amazing times I am about to have in the land of Oz.

Traveling to Australia has always been a dream of mine and I am so excited that it is finally coming true. I am looking forward to meeting and making life long friends with people from all over the world, so I can someday travel back and see them again. Who knows maybe I will follow even more in my moms footsteps and nanny while I am there as well : )

Well, here goes nothing! This is real life…in a few short days I will be hanging out with Kangaroos, diving the reef, playing the didgeridoo, surfing, saying G’day Mate on a regular basis, and living with “no worries.”

Peace Out USA and Hello AUSTRALIA!!

Marisa: Zaragosa

Alright, so we left around 8:20 the morning right after botellon night, which meant that I had to wake up earlier than the sun, who tends to be a pretty good judge of what time is an acceptable time to wake up. Sometimes the sun gets confused and makes a wrong decision or two, but who doesn’t at least one point in their life? Anyways, some of my first thoughts upon waking were “if I was not going on this stupid trip I could keep sleeping for many more hours” and “I can’t believe I got talked into this” and “that giant donut better be the best thing I have ever eaten” and other similar complaints, and other inaudible grumblings. Eventually I told myself to shut up, finished packing, and we left. A lot of people in our group were slower than a sloth in molasses, and so we had to seriously book it to the bus station to buy our bus ticket to Madrid from Toledo. Now of course, there was a massive line and we only had about 15 minutes before the bus left. We got our tickets and then we ran to the door that we thought was the correct door, but it turned out to be the women’s bathroom. Imagine for me if you will the look that must have been on the face of the lady who saw a huge group of stupid Americans barging into the bathroom.

Anyways, we did miss the bus and we had to wait an extra half hour but whatever the ride was fine and I think I even got a little bit of sleep. Then we had to take some crazy metro and get on the other bus, and all I can say is I am glad that we had such an able minded group leader, because most of us were essentially lost sheep. That bus ride was even better (not sarcasm). It was about 3 and a half hours from Madrid to Zaragosa and I was completely passed out the whole time. We did make one rest stop where I bought the most amazing sandwich of my life- french bread with mayonnaise and salami. It was so good that there really are not words to describe its other wordly flavor and simplicity. It was such a sneaky rest stop in many ways. It might as well have been wearing a plaid suit and going door-to-door selling aluminum gauntlets (or whatever meaningless object, insert whichever you prefer here) to help “benefit poor children” (and by that he means to help benefit his own alcoholism brought on by too many years of being bullied in junior high). Side note: I am trying to say that the prices were jacked up about 10 times higher than normal no doubt an arrangement made by the rest stop owner and the owner of the bus company. Devious. At least my sandwich of wonder and awe only cost 2 euro.

The few moments that I was awake on the bus there was such gorgeous scenery. Red rocks (and I mean RED RED, not the slightly red rocks that give Colorado its name) covered with sparse little bushes all among rolling hills. Really nice stuff.

Alright. Then we got to Zaragosa. Fast forward a bit until we are at the hostel. The hostel was pretty great considering its price, except for the fact that there was no soap in the bathroom and I forgot to bring shower shoes. Needless to say, I hope I don’t get some weird disease from those two in combination. Anyways, we had a German roommate named Gilly for the first day. She was chill. So we all got settled in and then hit the lovely and underrated city of Zaragosa.

First we saw the ruins of the Roman wall that used to surround the city, to the left of which was an awesome statue of my man Caesar. They are really proud of that Roman history there, I will tell you that much. I tried to fathom the sheer age of that wall many times while on that trip and I don’t think I ever fully did. One of the times I tried to comprehend its significance was when my friend and I were tipsy sitting out front of the Irish bar that is about 20 feet away from the wall. That’s not the best time to try to comprehend Roman ruins. I would say that the best time to do that would be while reading a book about Caesar’s life or something, and while sporting one of those crazy Roman hats.

So we got some pictures with Caesar, and with the little frog statue next to him spitting water. Then we hit the two main cathedrals which were really impressive, absolutely gorgeous. It was their patron saint day, and at one of the cathedrals they had one of his bones in a silver canister that you could kiss. So cool! And there was this pillar where Mary was said to appear and so you could go touch that too.

Then we went on a tour of some building that I honestly say I have no idea what it was. We had to wait in a huge line too because it was the free day. There were a bunch of people dressed up who were walking along the line to keep us entertained.

We also got a donut! They were out of free ones because that was a morning thing and we didn’t get there until about 3 or so. It was not that exciting, but it tasted like lemon and I was just happy to have gotten a donut at all. Let’s see, what next? My friends and I parted from the group and went to get bocadillos, because we were all craving them. I asked the waiter for “jamon y queso y mayonesa” and instead I got some scary abomination with this weird meat that had fat on it and tomatoes and like a gallon of mayo. I could not even eat it. People traveling to Spain take heed- the jamon here is NOT the honey baked style goodness of the US. Then we took a siesta, and eventually my friends and I went to the aforementioned Irish bar (which I think was called Gallager’s) for drinks, what else?

I think this was one of my best bar nights ever. I don’t know how it is logical but it seems like every Irish bar is AWESOME in Spain. Maybe the Spanish bars in Ireland are awesome? I’ll find out.

Heather: Mamba na Mbuni!

So I learned how to handwash my clothes, quite the experience! Irene laughed at me because I wasn’t doing it right I guess. But I’ve got it down now. It’s pretty easy, except your back hurts after awhile!

It was one of the guy’s birthdays today, so on Saturday about 20 of us went to Carnivore to celebrate. Carnivore is a really famous restaurant in Nairobi that serves wild game meat. The inside was decorated awesomely. A friend and I shared a half kilo of meat; we got lamb, chicken, pork, mamba (crocidile) and mbuni (ostrich). The ostrich was served meatball style…really good. The crocodile was just served in chunks and it was ok. It tasted really fishy and had a bunch of bones in it. According to one girl, it “tasted like swamp.” Delicious. We hung out there for awhile and a lot of people stayed there to dance. A few of us went to a local Kenyan bar.

Kiersten and I played pool against some Kenyans too. It was Kiersten and a Kenyan on one team and me and a Kenyan on the other team. I made the winning shot of course. So then I had to play against my teammate, and guess who won. I was down by 6 balls and I totally came back and won. We hung out there for awhile, but then a couple drunk guys came up to me and we’re getting way too close for comfort. And then my friend was talking to this girl and this girl’s friend whispered into his ear, ‘If you mess with her, bad things will happen.”  And I saw my friend look at me with a face of terror and I looked back and just said “Yup, we’re outta here.” So we took a taxi home after that. Probably not going back there again.

On Sunday we didn’t go to church because mama yangu wasn’t feeling well. I pretty much did nothing all day. Irene and I made bracelets. She dominated me…she finished 3 before I finished 1. But it was fun making those. Baba came home with some lunch so we had that and then I needed to take a nap because I was so tired. I got a chance to Skype…yay for unlimited internet for the week! I headed over to my friend’s house after that to watch the replay of the Manchester/Arsenal game. We watch so much soccer here, it’s awesome!

Today we had Swahili and Country Analysis. About 10 of the Learning Abroad Center staff from the U of M are here this week so they took us out to lunch. They actually took us to the same Ethiopian restaurant we went to on Saturday. Still good. A few of us then headed out go to Java to meet Sara. Java is basically a Starbucks cafe that we go to when we want some American food. There’s like 7 of them in Nairobi. Sara had to go to the hospital because she wasn’t feeling well. It ended up just being GI upset, nothing too bad.

So while we were at Java, we were getting up to leave and Stosh couldn’t find his bag. Someone apparently stole it. He had it down by his feet, and they told us to keep our bags where we can see them. There was 5 of us sitting there, including Abdul, one of the Kenyan MSID advisors, and no one saw anything. The only thing he had in it that was worth something was his iPod. We were thinking it was one of the waitresses or something because when we asked her about it, she kept insisting that Stosh didn’t have a bag with him. Well, I think we would know if he had a bag or not. We just have to be extra careful when we’re out so that doesn’t happen. Everything seems to happen to Stosh…he’s 32 years old and has the most problems! He had his bag stolen, had to bribe a cop for not wearing his seatbelt, and had attempted pickpocketing on a matatu. I guess it’s probably a good thing that it’s happening to him and not us!

Kathryn: Los Baños

Quitumbe, the bus terminal in the south of Quito, sends buses all over Ecuador.  For $3.50, five girls and I took a three-hour bus ride on Friday afternoon to a town called los Baños.  Named after its famous thermal baths, heated to 118 degrees by the active volcano Tungarahua, Baños subsists on tourism. The six of us contributed our share this past weekend. We stayed at Hotel Chimenea for $6.50 a night a piece. We ate stacks of fruit, yogurt and honey-covered pancakes with jugo de mora (blackberry juice) for roughly $3.00 each.  On Saturday, we contracted guides from one of dozens of adventuring agencies to give us wetsuits and take us canyoning: rappelling down 30 foot waterfalls amidst lush green foliage, $25.

With unlimited finances, we could have zip-lined through the jungle, gone bungee/bridge-jumping, rented ATVs or bikes, or tackled Class 4 rapids. Descending a fifty-foot waterfall, however, was sufficient for me.  Saturday afternoon we walked around the town a bit, sampling malcocha—Baños’ signature taffy that is pulled and twisted on pegs in a shop’s doorway—and sugar cane, which is pressed through machines to yield sugar cane juice.  Here is a video of the taffy-making process on YouTube (30 secs). We also signed up for a chiva bus tour promising a view of the volcano, complete with visible lava on a clear night. Although we saw no lava, we did hear the rumbling and had the added pleasure of riding in the chiva—a rickety open-air bus with bench seats and painted sides, lit up with lights and music, as it hurtles around mountainous curves.  On Sunday morning, I attended mass at The Basilica of the Virgin of the Holy Water.  Although the spires of the church are fluorescent blue in the night (highly reminiscent of the Disney castle), in the day, it holds almost hourly masses, typically packed with devout Baños residents.  The interior of the basilica holds several large paintings depicting miracles that have been attributed to the holy waters of los Baños.  All in all, a beautiful get-away. Now back to classes!

Tiana: Hakuna Matata: it means “No Worries”

There is many a good thing to be said for the rhythm of life in Senegal.  It’s relaxed.  No rushing.  Almost completely devoid of any hints of stress, anxiety, worry, etc.  Last week, Waly told us, “Here, it’s you who control the time; the time doesn’t control you.” It’s very different than back in the States where we, or at least I, feel almost constantly “pressed for time”.  Like I have to be somewhere, do something, see someone, and if I’m not doing any of these three things, I’m somehow wasting my life.  Well, if “time is money”, I’ve learned here how much more valuable people, relationships, and experiences are than any kind of currency.

Sundays in my family are sleep-in days!  I found that after the Monday thru Saturday week of orientation, I definitely needed that extra sleep!  The grandkids were over for most of the day, and they proceeded to give me a French vocabulary refresher.  Doudou, my aforementioned little ‘husband’, had a batman mask and his sister was quizzing me on the anatomical features of the face.  She would tell me the French word, I would repeat it, and then I would test her on the English word.  We then sang, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” together (in English!), which she had learned at school!  So there I was, seated on the stoop just outside my house, with my adorable niece and nephew, sun shining above, neighbors and friends passing by the house and offering a kind Asalaa Maleekum…It reminded me of the Rascal Flatts song “Mayberry”, only in Africa!

And here’s yet another example of how amiable people are, and of how wonderful my family is: Bassirou, my big brother, spent a good 45 minutes trying to connect my itty-bitty computer to some kind of wireless network from home.  It worked for about five seconds, and then quit, and when we finally gave up, he said, “Well, you are now a part of this family, and in this family, we share everything, so if you ever do need to use my computer [because his connects to wireless from our house], you can use it when you need to.”  How nice is that!  Another thing I’m beginning to understand more profoundly here — true generosity, true selflessness.

Monday, class began.  But it certainly doesn’t feel like class when you’re sitting in a conference room at WARC, doors and windows open to allow the light breeze and the sound of rustling palm leaves in.  Our instructors are absolutely delightful, and the structure of the program is such that we, the students, can pseudo-dictate the topics of discussion in our classes, what lessons we want to do, etc.  Here is a brief breakdown of my coursework:

1) Country Analysis: Here we’ll be learning about the daily realities of Senegalese culture.  For example, on Thursday we went through a list of Wolof proverbs that serve as a basis for life here.  We’ll be talking about economy, traditional society, policy, ethnic groups, legends, etc, all to better inform us about the country and to allow us to better understand what we see every day.  This course also has a French component, where we’ll be intensively working on French communication, perhaps some grammar, but also some more pertinent, cultural information (e.g. on Thursday we learned about SMS French, or abbreviated French used in text messaging — bjr = bonjour!).

2) International Development: I have very little background in international development coursework.  Correction, I have zero background in international development.  This course, with it’s discussions and analyses of the definition of development, structural adjustment, the worldwide food crisis, etc. promises to be the most challenging for me, mostly because I’ve never before been very privy to economic or political strategy.  So far, it has been incredibly interesting to learn about!  This week, we took a look at Socialism as it applied to newly independent African countries back in the 60’s.

3) Wolof: For those who don’t know me, I have a colossal affinity for learning languages!  I loved learning Spanish back in high school, I’ve loved learning French and Russian, and I love learning Wolof!  It’s been a little bit tough to start a language from absolute scratch, but I know it will come.  We worked on salutations and some grammar this week, and goodness knows I can’t wait to continue.  It’s a lot of fun to learn a different language (Wolof) when the language of instruction is already in a foreign language (French)!

4) Public Health and Social Services: I haven’t yet had this class, our instructor was ill on Monday, but I’m so excited for it!  It seems to offer a introduction to the practice and structure of health and social service systems here, a critique on access to healthcare, an overview of infectious and tropical diseases, nutrition issues, and reproductive health — It seems just perfect!

5) INTERNSHIP and Research Methodology!: This is what I am supercallifragilistically excited for!  I went in to talk with Waly about my internship placement on Thursday, and had no idea that they’d have such a perfect match to cater to my interest in pediatrics and global health!  From mid-March to early May, I will be working at the Centre de Pédiatrie Sociale de Joal, the Center for Social Pediatrics in the beautiful, costal city of Joal, Senegal!  I am so excited and so thankful!  I don’t even know specifically what I’ll be doing yet aside from passively observing a bit, but it will most certainly be another wonderful chapter in this adventure!  Before the internship segment of the program, we’ll have a course in research methodology to build our research skills and prepare us for communication and interaction with the community at our internship sites.

This week in class, we covered everything from Socialism in post-independence Africa to salutations and ways to present yourself and others in the Wolof langauge to an analysis of Senegalese proverbs to a review of animal vocabulary in French, with several trips to the beach distributed between classes.  It’s cool to be learning so much and confronting so many obstacles and challenges here while still feeling so worry-free.  As they say in the Lion King, Hakuna Matata!

Daniel: Jueves, Viernes, y Xochicalco images

A carving atop the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, a structure that was constructed to commemorate an astronomical conference during the Epiclassic period, cerca 700-900AD. Each participant or contributor to the conference had their portrait carved somewhere on the walls of the temple.

Insane view.

Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

One of three ball courts, this one being the oldest and still has it’s rings intact. It’s relative age in comparison to the other two can be determined by how steep the walls are leading up to the rings. The steeper the wall, the more recent the construction.

Favorite pictures I’ve taken thus far. This dog doesn’t leave an intersection near the school. Ever.

Daniel: Xochicalco

I had the chance to go to Xochicalco yesterday with a group today and learned more than my mind could possibly handle. Charlie Goff (Charliopedia Gofftanica as I will now refer to him), who runs Cemanahuac, leads all of the tours we go on and knows more information about anthropology and Mexican history than I will most likely ever know about myself. The place was beautiful and exceptionally interesting as I had just finished an anthropology course on the rise of civilizations before coming to Mexico. Luckily, the last unit we did was Mezoamerica and specifically Teotihuacan, which was basically the predecessor to Xochicalco and may have lead to the fall of Teotihuacan during the Epiclassic period around 700AD. This made things both relevant and insanely easier to understand.

Last night, I also went to a birthday party for the brother of my host mother, who teaches a photography class (and is also a professional photographer) at another local university. It was a blast. I didn’t say or do much beyond eating amazing food and talking about what I was studying and such, but listening to his/her family was hilarious. I’ve found that while my Spanish speaking seems to have leveled off pretty sharply since being here (Instead of talking quickly and fluidly, I’ve been trying to speak using the correct words and enunciating a bit more), my comprehension is fantastic. I understood a fair amount of what was being said every time someone would tell a story a make a joke. Hilarious people.

On Monday, I’m going to have the opportunity to go with Martin (brother of my host mother) to attend one of his classes and also talk to the philosophy department about their exchange program with the U of M. Couldn’t be more pumped for that. He also said that if he gets any work any time soon, he’ll bring me so we can tag team it, and of course split the payment. I can only hope a wedding or something comes up.

I’ll post quite a few pictures following this post of Xochicalco and of some stuff that I took around the school. Enjoy.