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| Hello my darlings! We had an experience in the rainy weather. A little lizzard friend crawled into our house to get away from the rain. We named him Frederico, we name a lot of things! We spent the last weekend in Guanajuato, it is the prettiest city that I have EVER seen! It was about 8 hours north of Taxco, but well worth the drive! Things have been the same here, but it did get hot yesterday, to my surprise! We ran out of water, so our host family had to buy a truck of water, apparently running out of water is common in Taxco. I did laundry for what will hopefully be the last time, though I did enjoy hanging all of clothes outside to dry for all of the neighbors to see...I am working on uploading my pictures with my friend's camera cord...when they are up, I will post the link here! In Guanajuato we saw the mummies in the museum, some were real! I loved visiting Diego Rivera's house (he is a famous Mexican painter and was Frida Kahlo's husband...murals were his speciality!) History is a huge part of Mexico, I know a certain person who would be all excitied about all of this history! I talked to my mommy and my Donna yesterday, I miss then so much! I think I finally finished all of my shopping, so many people with Birthdays in the summer (thanks mom and Donna and Kaitlynn and Jordan and Anna and etc.) No its ok, I love you all so much. Overall, things are winding down, I dance a lot, walk a lot, and absorb the culture! One of the professors here told me that my Spanish has improved, which made me really, really happy! I can't wait to share all of my crazy stories.....oh on a total side note, the big new grocery store here is called super che and they sell motorcycles, washing machines, etc. The markets are unlike anything that I have ever seen before, and the handpainted things are beautiful! Have a nice day everyone! | | |
| I cannot believe that we leave Taxco in 23 days. I love it here and school is difficult, but I enjoy the challenge...I wrote a paper about Iran and its wonders. I also have to present a 5 minute story based on an Iranian fairy tale. The interesting thing is all of the bugs, the look like a lot of the fake plastic bugs that a person would find in a trick shop, but they are all real. I have seen stick bugs, leaf bugs, cocroaches, all of it. Another funny thing is all of the little lizzards and stray dogs that want you to pet them, kind of odd. My favorite thing was finding some squrriels at Teotihucan, where it is hot, dry, and ancient, and there were squirrels climbing mini pyramids..reminded me of my lovely Cornerstone friends back home who love to take squirrel pictures and tag them as people (Cough Dan Cough). There is one squrriel here at school as well, we named him Pedro. Who knew that the squrriels are really out to take over the world, not just college campuses? We visited a very, very small town where I saw a lot of toads and fireworks as if it was the Chinese New Year...oddly enough its Independence Day tomorrow but nothing is going to be going on here as we are in Mexico! I have found a new love here, Doli, one of the dogs that our host familt owns..weird, me loving this dog, but shes so gentle and loves me too! Our professor is funny, he cracks me up every day. I swam the other day, but it has been cold and rainy over all, and I hear there is really hot weather in Illinois, so tengo celos (I am jealous) We go to a colonial town this weekend that is supposed to be beautiful. I cannot wait to tell you all my stories, most of them are very funny. We use a lot of Spanglish, and I feel my Spanish is improving, but I am not sure...help! When I am not near the computer I can think of so much to say, but when I type, I draw a blank! Hope to write more later on, Love Sheeba | | |
| June 3rd-June 9th: This week we started classes and explored Mexico some more...over the weekend we went to Mexico City, where we visitied Frida Kahlo´s house and Teotihuacan. Frida is my new favorite artist and I am taking a class here at school on her just for the fun of it. I have decided to write my 10 page paper on Frida and how Mexican culture influenced her art. I recommend the movie Frida to all of you...it's a bit much, but i loved the way her art and life were portrayed, she really is a fighter! Teotihucan (I cant spell it!) is an ancient city with pyraimds and ruins, and the piramide del Sol (Sun pyramid) is the 3rd largest in the world! I climbed to the top of it! The venders there chase you and take you by storm! On Monday, June 11th, we started school with the Mexican professors and it is truly amazing...I sit through 3 hours of class and never get bored! I am upset that I do not get to swim much here, even though there is a free pool at the school, however, it rains so often, or the pool is closed, or it is dirty! On June 15th, my roommates and some people from our group traveled to Acapulco and it was very exciting to take my first trip alone, without a professor or parents! I did enjoy Acapulco, even if I did sweat after standing outside for about 3 mintues! It was very humid there, and we made some nice friends as well. 6 of us went on a 'banana boat' where a speed boat pulled us through the water while we were on an inflatable, it was so much fun! Some of our friends jetskiied, but i opted out! I loved the beach, it was such pretty colors, but it smelled really fishy and i got sand EVERYWHERE! Our hotel overlooked the beach and it was BEAUTIFUL! We had 2 pools, one with a waterfall in it and it was just awesome, though things in Acapulco were overly priced big time. This past weekend it was my roommate Stephanie's birthday and we went out to dinner and to a discoteca (nightclub) to celebrate! I have never danced so much in my entire life, but it was a great time. On Saturday morning I went to the silver market, wow was it big and never ending, I don't even think I saw half of it! I got some cool things and I walked a lot. On Friday I went up to the Christo, which is a gigantic statue of Jesus that looks over the city...it was breathtaking...we walked 12.50 miles that day! I am definetly getting in my 10,000 steps a day, if not more as I am going up and down large cobblestoned hills, but I love it! I went to Catholic Mass on Sunday night, it was very interesting and different than what I am used to, but I liked the experince, even if I did get some weird looks! I have been making a variety of friends, I think I will be making a lot of visits in the years to come! Not too much else to say for now except that I miss you all...if you have any questions or things that you want to know, let me know! Love, Sheeba | | |
| Hi People! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY DONNA! Ok so I am getting complaints about my posts (or lack of posts), so I decided to try to give a full update: Thursday, May 31st We left Ohare at about 6 am but I got up at 2 am to be at the airport by 4 am.....really fun. We then flew to Dallas, Texas (or devil land as some of you like to call it!) Then we got on a bus for another 3 hours to Taxco from Mexico City! Agh! We stopped to eat in Cuernavaca, which is a pretty city! I liked the view, but it is polluted everywhere, even in Taxco! At the tollways, there are these gunmen that scare me, as the guns are bigger than any other guns I have ever seen close up. we passed by a gunman one day on the way to school, which was scary, since I usually walk with people in our group, which easily identifies us as Americans. we got to meet our host families, my host mom Vicki and her husband Jaime (hi-may) are really sweet. they have 2 dogs that live with them downstairs that are named Terri and Doli. They are cute and fun-loving! We live upstairs in our own apartment like place, without a kitchen though! But we have one downstairs, which is nice. I live with 2 other girls, Christi and Stephanie, who are so sweet! Christy and I share a room. We unpacked and went to bed. Friday, June 1st We took our placement test and had a tour of the school, which is a branch of the Universidad Nacional Autonomo de México (UNAM) for foreigners. I placed in level 4 out of 5, but we were told that 5 is usually for native speakers, so I was proud! We also toured a little bit of Taxco, starting with the Zocalo (main square) which is located right in the middle on the top of a hill. That night we went to a nightclub, which is a lot calmer than those in the US and only 2 dollars to get into!!! They played a lot of American music, which makes me a tiny bit sad. Taxco is beautiful, but mountain walking is hard....thank goodness we live on the main, flat, street! Oh and I talked to my mom today too..... Saturday, June 2nd Today we toured the Santa Prisca church, which is different than any other Catholic church in the WORLD! It has the only image of the pregnant Mary (if I didnt already say that) and its made out of a rare pink stone, and workers outside restore the stone every day. the inside is gold, but faded a LOT from its original color, and there are a lot of saint images and galleries inside of the church! We ate at a café that was called Café Sasha and is owned by a guy who came from Chicago (I think I mentioned this already, as I thought of Jordan!) That night I hung out with Jayme, who is awesome and we saw FIREWORKS! Afterwords I went home and talked with my roomates, then it was off to bed cause I was exhausted! Sunday, June 3rd I slept in today and afterwards my roomates and I went in hunt of a soccer game and we found it, but it was so so HOT outside and hard to sit on things! We walked around Taxco for a bit too, and got ready for classes to start, but my class was not starting until Wednesday! More probably happened, I do know that I helped some people look for a phone card, but I wrote it down somewhere and don't have it now! So tomorrow (or later today) I will post the rest! | | |
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