Catching up

I have so much to catch you up on.... and probably I don't rememeber half of it.
For starters, last week we got a four-day weekend! because Mexico celebrated being independent from Spain for 200 years. On Wednesday after school we (Michael, Eduardo, Victoria and me) went to Guanajuato for a party of sorts. The city of Guanajuato was a major city in the history of the Independence of Mexico. Wikipedia says (yes) that the Roman Catholic priest who "uttered the cry of independence" was from Guanajuato, Gto, Mexico. When I told people at school that's where I was going for the day, they gave me the impression that it was The Place to Be.
The girl who was having the party lives in an apartment in the downtown area of Guanajuato. It's a really cool city because it has a lot of history. If you want to go places, you need to walk because most of the roads are only for pedestrians. Victoria and I were really craving some kind of donut or cookie so we walked to the panaderia and bought four pastry things. They were awesome. The best ones were a coconuty cookie and a brownish lump which was some kind of sweet bread. Delicious.

Most of the night was spent on the roof eating, drinking and dancing. At 1:30 I almost went to sleep, even though most of the people who didn't go to a club were still partying away. But as I was waiting in line for the bathroom in my pajamas, some people I didn't really know convinced me to stay awake with them. So I put on my street clothes and danced until almost 4:00. You wouldn't believe how many people have tried to teach me how to dance Mexican Style (without success). When I hear Mexican music I think that I hear the rhythm that I would dance to, but it turns out that what I'm hearing and what the music is are two different things. I obviously cannot keep time with my feet. I'll work on it.
One of the last guys I danced with was a very little guy, whose voice went very high when doing a Mexican yoodle. The only words he knew (and kept saying) in English were "check it out". For example, if I continue to misunderstand the dance lesson, he will stop dancing and say it. Or if I step on one of his tiny little feet... he will take off his sock and point to his hurting toe. Check it out.

I'm at school right now during the time when I would usually have History of Art. I don't know why, but we dont have this class on Fridays! I don't really care why.

The other night Papa Ernesto, Mama Ceci, Michael and I went to a Marimba concert. I will post a picture when I am at home. It was at the museum auditorium close to our house. We were going to walk, but somehow the people here can predict the weather fairly accurately. And my parents said it was going to rain later, so we should drive instead. And it did rain later. Mama Ceci would say in the morning before school "The weather man said it will rain today but the clouds are here and the sun is there." Sure enough, even though the sky was 3/4 covered in dark clouds, the clouds and the sun were not in the same piece of sky, so it did not rain. Sounds about right! But the people know.

Anyways, the Marimba concert was really cool. There were four or five guys on one massive marimba and three on another. Sometimes someone also played the bass and some kind of box drum. They were all family. The oldest guy must have been about ninety, and he was really cute, because he shuffled only like you would see in a cartoon. Like Jacob Two-Two or something. I thought of Kelsi because I know for sure she would have loved him.
After, there was free food, martinis and desserts outside! It was really nice the way it was set-up. It was like a lounge with a bar and couches, and people walking around with octupus in dishes ready to take your order. I tried some kind of tequila martini and also a bunch of dessert-like foods. My favourite is churros. They are like warm doughy things, kind of in the shape of a corn on a cob, with carmel and condensed milk inside then rolled in brown sugar. I only ate two but would have loved ten more. Also there was a typical Mexican postre that kind of reminded me of fudge. Yah, it was that good.

Gorditos

YES I just got the best news of life, which is that I do not have a History of Art class today. I´m not lying when I say that it made my day go from really bad to incredibly good. I don't even know why my day wasn't going in a positive way.... I woke up ten minutes before we had to leave for school, but instead of feeling rushed (as I should) I just felt extremely rested. I didn't eat breakfast but my mom packed my a yogurt and granola bar to eat at school. Even though it's much more comfortable to eat at home, I kind of like eating at school because now I'm not hungry between classes. Usually I feel tempted to buy a panini or a muffin at school after Spanish class, but I feel no hunger!

I just wrote my first Spanish partial exam this morning and I think it went pretty good. I wasn't feeling very confident about writing it because I didn't study at all last night. I have two friends at school who invited me to go to church with them; I went with one on Sunday and then other last night. They were both different from my "Thunder Bayan" church but I feel it was a good experience to go. They kind of reminded me of like a program that would be taped and shown on TV. I am still in search of a church more similar to the one I am familiar with. I think there are two baptist churches in this city. I need to find them.

Me and my Canadian host brother, Michael, have decided we don't want to become gorditos (little fattys) while we are here, so we risk our lives daily and go for bike rides. I am contemplating whether or not I will continue to join him on these thrilling adventures though, becasue I really actually truly do not feel 100% safe. It's hard though because riding a bike is one of the only ways to be independant here. Even though I am in Mexico by myself, I am more dependant on my Mexican parents, than I needed to be in Canada of my real parents. I am not allowed to drive here, so if I ever need to go anywhere I need to ask someone. Although yesterday my friend Victoria (from France) and I went to Plaza Mayor and it took about 15 minutes in a taxi, and it was only $5.

Before we went shopping, we were at my house eating tacos with Michael and Regina. They were super. There is a service that brings tacos to your house... I hesitate to use TAKE OUT as a way to describe these little miracles, and DELIVERY reminds me of a cheap pizza. But you get the idear. Victoria and I each ate nine and Michael only four! Maybe he is sick, I don't know. I ate mostly tacos del pastor and I loaded them full of salsa, onion, guacamole, some kind of green onion leaf, and lime juice. The best.

The other night I tried these awesome things called Enchildadas Verdes. They are like tortillas with cheese, rolled and put in a frying pan. Then you bathe them in salsa verde with more cheese melted into it and bam, there it is. I will take some pictures soon of them and post them here.

To all my university friends(!) please tell me about your university experiences!!!!!! I think school is starting soon....... and it's kind of strange to think we are old enough to do such things as attend university. I am sorry for the lack of updates.

Hmmmmm in October or November! I am going to Puerto Vallerta with Rotary! And I am assuming that means beach, but I don't know for sure. There are a lot of exchange students in this district. Haha I just realized that my paragraphs are getting shorter and shorter because I just have random things to say. So there is this water here, called Agua de Jamaica. When i first tasted it I thought it was kind of familiar and now I realize why. I think we use it as popery (yah?) for like decoration or to stuff doll pillows with. But here they put the flowers in water and drink it. For meals here they hardly ever drink just water or milk. Well, at least in my family. There is this really good drink that I always have when I go for tacos its made with water, rice and cinnamon.... agua de horchata. Or they will use watermelon to make agua de sandia or cucumber to make agua de pepino. It's really good, and I think pretty healthy.

One thing I do find a bit strange here is how many cookies they eat. Not that they eat them a lot, but a package of cookies has like... six cookies in it and whenever I've been watching (creepy), one person eats the whole thing. In my house in Canada it seems if you eat more than three you should feel guilty ahahah. But there are these really good oreos. I don't usually like oreos, but these ones are covered in white chocolate.

Tamales

I have a lot to fill you in on. But I can't really remember where I left off and what has happened in the time between now and then. I just know it's a lot! In just a few hours I will have the same number of siblings as I originally had in Canada because all three of the triplets have gone on their exchanges. Ceci is the last to go and she leaves today in a few hours. It was be so strange to have such "few" siblings again.

I'm trying to think of where to start..... there's a bunch of random little things that I feel I should say. Well first of all I don't know why I've never put lime in soup before but it tastes great. And the other night I tried tamales, which is some product of corn with cheese and other fun stuff. You put cream on it (kind of like sour cream but not very sour) and also a hot salsa. They are good but tacos still have my heart.

Last weekend I went to Salamanca with the other exchange students for our first Rotary conference. There are like.... over 60 exchnage students which is crazy! Lots of Europeans. Me and Michael (host brother) are the only Canadians, which I was kind of surprised about! We went to a dog show one day (?) and then we had a water fight. The next day we went to a "home for the ancient" where we talked with, well... old people! In Spanish, of course.

I'm sorry, my brain is dead. I will write more later.