Semana Santa! DF, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta

So I had the biggest adventure ever on Spring Break (Semana Santa: Holy Week). I traveled with one of my roomies and a bunch of girls from the basketball team all over Mexico for a week!

First: Mexico City, DF
We toured the DF because the girls I was with hadn't seen it before. We ate a ton of delicious food, went on a double-decker tour bus, and even got caught in a snowstorm. Okay, fine, it wasn't a snow storm, but it was a thunderstorm that turned into a hailstorm. The hail collected in the streets and looked a LOT like snow to me... I made a snowman. Needless to say, I was frustrated and kept stating that had I wanted snow, I would have returned to Wisconsin for Spring Break :) We also went to the Basilica, the hill where Juan Diego first saw the Virgin of Guadalupe, for Palm Sunday mass. It was very crowded, but very cool. Lots of churches!

 Turibus!

 Cathedral in DF

 Zocalo of DF

The storm

Snow :(

 The Basilica 

Second: Guadalajara
Guadalajara is a really beautiful city- much smaller than DF, but has a lot to offer. We stayed at a friend's house, and even got to have a pool party at her grandpa's house- it had a pool, a bar, food, sunshine- everything! We saw the centro of the city and ate some delicious seafood! I would definitely go back!

The main attraction: Puerto Vallarta
Saying we went to Puerto Vallarta is really a lie. We actually stayed at a beach called Sayulita, about 30 minutes from the downtown tourist part of Vallarta. A few of the girls we were with knew that this was a better idea, as everything was cheaper than in Vallarta, and we got to go to a different beach every day! We went to Sayulita, Los Burros, Punto de Mita, San Pancho, Vallarta, and a few more secret beaches that we didn't know the names of.  We ended up camping on the beach to save money, which was awesome (sand is comfy!) and completely crazy at the same time. There were SO many people! I swear, all of the poor students from Mexico stayed at our campground- wild. We did go into downtown Vallarta for an afternoon, which was very fun, and very hot! The whole week was hot, the sun is so strong there! Needless to say, we all had way too much fun and got very tan. :)

 The group!

 Sunset at San Francisco beach

 Campsite in Sayulita- crazy!

Señor Frog's in Puerto Vallarta!

Xochicalco and Taxco

So I finally sucked it up and went on a school-sponsered trip with other foreign students and Mexican freshmen. We went to see ruins in Xochicalco, where we saw ancient Aztec ruins. After that, we traveled to a town called Taxco, which is the Silver capital of Mexico, and probably of the world. It was a really pretty town, filled with cheap jewelry stores! I spent plenty of money.

Pyramids at Xochicalco

 Look, it's me!

 Oswaldo, the guy in charge of the "Viajes" who looks like Indiana Jones, and in the background, Gorila, our Indigenous tour guide who led us through a sun ritual to gain energy from the Pyramids. He also gave us our Nahuatl names based on our birthdays, and mine is "Osomatl," or the Diosa de la sonrisa, Goddess of the smile :)

 The landscape of Taxco, the city. You can see all the white buildings on the side of the mountains. 

 Church in the Zocalo of Taxco

Tabasco and Chiapas!

This weekend I continued my tour of the beaches of Mexico and traveled to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, the closest I've ever been to the equator. We were there for 4 days, so I got to see so much cool stuff!

On Friday, we went to Yumka, a Rainforest Reserve in Villahermosa, Tabasco, and La Venta, a Museum/park with Indigenous ruins and monuments.  The nature was incredible, and I got to see animals up close and in the wild. 

             

  Monkeys!                                     They have WI style raccoons
                                                         in a cage at the zoo! 

He was feeding manatees! They eat vegetables!

Mexican cows.

From Tabasco we went to Chiapas, to Palenque, a very tourist-oriented rain forest village with hundreds of Pyramids built by ancient Indigenous cultures. They're even older than the Maya civilizations. What I didn't realize is that it was the day to "Receive the Spring," and the park was FULL of people wearing white and climbing the Pyramids to do rituals. It is believed that if you wear white and climb the pyramid on that day, you receive energy from the gods. 

We went to 3 different beaches in Tabasco, one which was called "Paraiso" or Paradise. And that it was. We got to see the sun set in one direction while the giant moon rose over the palm trees in the other. It was incredible- doesn't get much better :)

Veracruz!

Last weekend we vacationed to Tuxpan, Veracruz with a group of friends. We spent a lot of time on the endless, beautiful beach and just hung out. Can't beat that!

So I'm an English teacher.

I have an internship here to teach English at a local elementary school. I have two 6th grade classes, one with 42 students and one with 39ish. Needless to say, it's an adventure. The students are wonderful and a TON of fun. I treat it a lot like Day Camp and make sure to keep it interesting, but whether or not they are making progress is up for debate.

Now, I would never make fun of my students, but I can make fun of myself and my minor failures as their teacher. Here are some unexpected challenges that I have had (the list is sure to grow weekly):

• Pronunciation issues with the animals: Really, what is the difference between bear/beer, bird/beard, and duck/duke? They seem interchangeable to me... 

• Assignment: 5 sentences describing me, the teacher. After learning colors, clothing vocab, description words, and the verbs to be and to have (unfortunately I wrote them side by side on the board), I thought this would be possible. I have a lot of work to do. Some favorite responses include:
• She has eyes black. (black?!)
• Is my teacher is fat. 
• She is thicher? 
• She is has tall/ she is has blonde/ she is has pants, etc etc etc. (whoops)
• She is teacher the inglish (aww)
• She is sock. (I did not teach sock. Props to this kid for calling me a sock.)
• She jamie she tall she thin she blonde she smart. (who needs verbs, anyway?)
• I AM THIN. YOU IS FAT. (yes, in capital letters.)
• And my ultimate favorite: We are have. 

• The other day, a squirrel came onto campus. Yes, a squirrel. Everyone FREAKED OUT. Squirrels are very rare around here, and since there are only about 2 trees on campus, it was the highlight of recess. Kids were throwing things, feeding it, trying to capture it- any possible entertaining activity that can be done with a squirrel. Very fun to watch. 

• Yesterday, I accidentally wore two different shoes to class without realizing it, and the girls in my first class noticed it. Needless to say, it was pretty fun for them to laugh at me. When I went out to recess with the kids, I told my next class about my shoes so they wouldn't make fun of me. The boys in that class felt bad and decided to all switch shoes to make me feel better :) Whoever said middle school kids are difficult should really meet my students!

• Dancing. For some reason in Mexico, dancing is an important part of the school day. My students are preparing their performances for el Día del Niño (Kid's day... why don't we have it in the states?), and all they do is dance! Each class has a choreographed routine and their teachers spend class time every day practicing it with them! This is a little taste of my 6a group's routine, to the ridiculously popular song, Danza Kuduro 

Acapulco = Paradise

The song to describe my 3-day weekend would definitely be "Sit right here and have another beer in Mexico. Do my best to waste another day." 

We traveled to Acapulco, where it was 95 degrees and sunny the whole weekend. I have never been so happy or tan. The Pacific ocean beaches were incredible, there were a ton of fun activities to do, and the seafood was SO delicious. 

Pie de la Cuesta beach- it was private and REALLY nice. The sand was perfect. 

People sell horse rides on the beach, and if you tell them "maybe later" they WILL come back every 10 minutes.  

 Sunset on the beach :)

 The more popular beach along the high rise resorts

 Near the area of cliffs where the famous Cliff Divers jump- I even got to meet them!

 We did a boat tour in a touristy part of Acapulco- very pretty! Got to swim in the open sea! 

One of the lovely cars we traveled in- we had some minor tire issues the last day... 

Distrito Federal- Trip to Mexico City!

This weekend we traveled to Mexico City, and I fell in love! My friend Claire and traveled with our Mexican friend Aldo (God bless him) to the city, where we met up with his Mexican friends. Don't worry, we were outnumbered by locals and completely safe.

On Saturday we traveled to Chapultepec, the largest city park in Latin America. It's very similar to Central Park, with a lake, markets, cool historic building, and a lot of green space. My favorite thing was the Castle- it used to be the home of the President but is now a historical museum. I've learned so much about Mexican history that it was very cool to see real artifacts and buildings.

Later we went to the Centro Histórico and saw the Cathedral, the Zócalo, the National Palace, the ruins of Templo Mayor, the giant Torre Latinoamericano, and of course the markets and the giant masses of people everywhere! Loved it!

At night we went to Plaza Loreto in the South to see a band called Quiero Club at a really cool bar/music venue. We got VIP seating because they asked us where we were from, and they were so excited that we came all the way from Canada (I just said Canada to make it easier... close enough, right?) to see them! We got to meet the bands and sit in a really cool area. The concert was greatttt.

Sunday we went to Bellas Artes to see the Art museum/palace. It was really neat, especially the architecture of the Palace itself. We ate lunch in the Casa de los Azulejos (House of Tiles is the translation), a huge old mansion that is covered in blue and white tiles. It was delicious. Afterwards, we spent hours in the Sunday market in the Centro.

(Forgive me for not having more pictures- I hate looking like a tourist! Wikipedia has better pictures anyway)

 

 P.S.- Sunday, on the subway, I met this girl wearing a Packers t-shirt! Needless to say, we talked and she told me that her whole family is Packer fans and they were all heading to watch the game together! How cool is that! And don't worry, I had someone updating me during the game and I caught the end.