Class, clinic, and more trips

Soo…I haven’t said much about class/clinic. For the first 2 weeks we had class 9-3 every day, the 3^rd week we had clinic 9-2 every day, then the 4^th week I started my new program which is class 9-1 then clinic 4:15—7pm. Although they had said the schedule for the second program was less intense than the first one, that was a big lie. My day now goes like this:

7:30 Wake up

8:25—9:00 Walk/bus to class

9:00—10:40 Grammar class

11:00—12:40 Medical Spanish class

12:40—1:15 Walk/bus home

1:15—2:50 Lunch, homework, naptime

2:50—3:30 Walk/bus back to campus

3:30—4:15 Drive to clinic

4:15—7:00 Clinic

7:00—7:45 Drive back to campus

7:45—8:15 Walk back home

8:15—11:30 Homework, emails, PA stuff, whatever

~11:30 Bedtime

Not much spare time. I spend a lot of time in transit too…about 3.5 hours per day. But time passes quickly with this schedule, so I guess that’s good. I also end up walking about 2hrs every day which has been good for me. Class has been great—I have really learned a lot. It has helped to be in grammar class for 1 hr 40 mins every single day, I have less time to forget things. My current grammar class is also really cool because it’s extremely diverse—there are 2 Americans, 1 Chinese student, 3 Korean students, and 3 Japanese students. It forces me to use my Spanish all the time since it’s the only common language all of us have! One of the students is a Japanese lady who I would say is probably in her late 40s/early 50s. Her husband works for Honda and he got transferred to Mexico for a 4 year contract. She said she was an architect in Japan, but she couldn’t get a work visa so she has been taking classes in her spare time. Very cool lady.

Clinic is fun/interesting some days, and a little slow other days. My clinic is basically how I had imagined it would be—small with older/less technological equipment, but with basically all of the resources they need for the general medicine/OB-GYN/pediatrics/urgent care that they do here. Mostly we watch, listen, and learn here—occasionally I get to take a blood pressure or weight but that’s about it. I’m fine with this; my main purpose is to learn/practice my Spanish and I’m making progress with that. One thing that is different from the US is how casual and un-rushed things are here. I have not been in a single visit where I felt like the doctor was trying to move on to the next patient. They will talk and talk and answer the same question 10 different ways, and the visit is over when the patient ends the conversation. This might not be the case in all clinics but it has been very interesting for me to observe here.

I was starting to get down on myself about my lack of fluency the other day, but then I had several people tell me I speak really well so I guess I’m being my own harshest critic. I was definitely being unrealistic though when I thought I could become fluent in 7 weeks, but I have definitely improved a lot. The biggest benefit to being down here has been increasing my vocabulary, which is a hard thing to do when you’re not immersed. Some conversations I completely struggle and bumble through, but others I’m starting to feel like a pro. Just have to figure out how I’m going to keep it up when I get home.

I’ve still been doing a lot of touring around on the weekends. Last weekend we went to el Centro Historico (2^nd time for me) and got to go to the Instituto Cultural Cabañas and see more murals by Jose Clemente Orozco. The building itself is really cool, it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was built at the end of the 1700s and after housing troops during the Mexican Revolution, it was converted to the purpose it was originally intended to serve—an orphanage and a nursing home. The Orozco murals that are in it are considered some of the best of his career, with the “Man of Fire” being considered the most important. We couldn’t take pictures without paying extra, but here’s a link to someone else’s picture of the “Man of Fire”: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/471589056_ab4280d249.jpg?v=0

Then, on Sunday we went shopping in Tlaquepaque, known for its artisans and unique crafts. Not a whole lot to report here since the main attraction was shopping, but it was a fun day :).

Okay that’s it for now! Today we go to see the pyramids at Guachimontones, so I’m sure I’ll have things to write about after that!

Hasta luego,

Rachel

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/LastDinnerWithFriendsFromSession1

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/Trip2ToElCentroHistorico

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/Tlaquepaque

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/MyClinic

Travels from the past 2 weekends

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/Guanajuato

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/PuertoVallarta

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston/CasaBariachi

Well, I definitely lied when I said my next post would be shorter. Oh well!

The weekend before last we (the 4 girls in the program) went to Guanajuato, which was a lot of fun. We were originally going to go for just a day trip, but after being told we were crazy by both the travel agent we bought our bus tickets from and my host family, we decided to stay overnight on Saturday. Our 4 hour bus ride there was the most comfortable travel experience I’ve ever had, including having flown first class one time. Apparently we ended up choosing the best bus line (which was only like $5 more than the next cheapest one) and it was a great trip.

Guanajuato has really beautiful architecture and felt more like a European town than Mexico. One of the cool features of the city is its maze of underground roads. Originally the river flowed through this system of tunnels, but after it flooded one too many times a dam was built and the caverns were paved with cobblestones and lit for auto traffic. In the several times we rode in cabs in the underground roads I never figured out how you’re supposed to know which way you can go. From what I remember all of the caverns we drove through were one way, and they randomly intersect with other tunnels at weird angles. Really fun to ride through, wouldn’t likely be much fun to navigate.

In Guanajuato we went on a whirlwind tour of as many places as we could see in less than 24 hours. We started out with the Diego Rivera museum, which was what I was most excited about. He was born in Guanajuato, and they converted his house into a museum that included a lot of his works as well as works of other artists. Another cool place we visited was the Don Quixote museum, which included works by Picasso and Salvador Dali. Later in the day we went out to La Valenciana mine, where we got to climb down into an old mine shaft. This mine is still operational and was once the most productive/important mine in the city. The average life expectancy of a mine worker was 10 years from the time they started working—not surprising.

In the evening we made it to the Callejon del Beso, which is an alley so narrow that lovers can stand on balconies on the opposite side of the street and kiss. We had to watch way too many couples exercise their excuse for some PDA, but it was (mostly) cute. When we made it back to one of the main square areas there was a large group of people dressed up in really intricate costumes (see pictures). They were apparently celebrating some kind of religious anniversary but we never found out exactly what. It was cool watching them dance though. Then, after it got dark we got to watch a different performance of these people who were dressed up in medieval costumes and played different instruments and sang. According to an American lady we met, if you paid the 90 pesos you got a souvenir cup that they filled with wine and then you followed them through the streets. There were several groups of these medieval performers and if they met up with another group then they would have a performance ‘duel’—not sure how they figure out the winner or what happens to the loser.

Especially at night, Guanajuato felt like a lot like Disneyland—really quaint and idyllic. I loved the cobblestone streets and the lack of traffic, and the whole place was just a big party/festival after dark with the medieval performers in the streets, mariachi performers at restaurants, and abundance of places to just sit and people watch. We met a lot of Americans, as well as a really nice Mexican family with an 11 year old daughter who was very interested in learning more about us older American girls. Too cute.

Only glitch in the trip was the horrible night in the hostel we stayed in. That was my first experience in a hostel, which sucks because I know there are some that are wonderful but that was one of the worst nights I’ve ever had. From 12-4 there were a group of guys banging on doors including ours and playing loud music directly outside our door. None of us slept for longer than 20 mins at a time for those 4 hours and one of the guys had a laugh that really creeped me out, especially when he would laugh right after banging on our door. Ugh, not fun.

After that awful night we were glad to get on our super comfortable bus and sleep for the entire ride home. We had planned to tour Tonala and Tlaquepaque on Sunday when we got back, but after about an hour in Tonala Vanessa and I were hot and tired (and tired of carrying our backpacks around with our overnight stuff from Guanajuato), so we headed home.

All in all it was a really fun trip to a very unique city and I wish we’d had time to see more!

Then, this past weekend all 6 of us went to Puerto Vallarta. Given that it was more of a vacation than a tourist trip, there isn’t a lot to write about PV. The 5 hour bus ride there involved some really winding mountain roads but it was absolutely gorgeous, really lush and green. I tried to take some pictures of it but they don’t even come close to capturing how pretty it was. Once we were there we stayed at an all-inclusive resort which was an awesome idea so we didn’t have to go searching for every meal, and it was relatively cheap (though not what you would think of for resort standards in the US, but great for 6 students/recent grads without a lot of extra money). Food wasn’t amazing, but it was decent for the money. It rained right after we got there on Friday, but since it wasn’t storming we headed out to the beach anyway. Saturday we hung out by the pool most of the day, taking breaks to go sea kayaking and go on this ridiculous relay race that involved a whole lot of running on the most slippery tile you can imagine while trying not to fall really hard. In the late afternoon/evening there was a huge storm and we discovered that there was about ¼ inch of space under the windows in one of our rooms, which seemed to have been designed that way but wasn’t very functional for the rainy season. I guess that’s why the entire place had tile floors. Oh well. For dinner we ate at the resort’s Italian restaurant which was average food but awesome atmosphere with a piano player who took Roger’s request and played “What a Wonderful World”. Later that night we headed to the downtown area with some people we had met at the resort. There were a lot of really cool street performers out and I was sad I didn’t bring my camera. One guy was balancing rocks on top of each other (on their edges), which sounds boring but was actually pretty fascinating to watch how he did it. Then, on Sunday we had a few hours to shop in the extremely overpriced shops downtown before we headed back. Overall an awesome trip, other than the fact that I got sunburned on my stomach and back. Ugh, oh well.

Ok that’s it for the travel updates! I also have updates on class/clinic, but those will be up another day because this is already a ridiculously long post.

Hasta luego!

Hi, my name is...

Wow, I'm really terrible at updating this thing. Good think I'm not planning to go into blogging as a hobby. I've been doing a lot of blog-worthy things in the past 2 weeks, but I've been too busy doing them to write. I promise I'll get right on that. But in the meantime, you all should know that I am no longer Rachel. In Mexico, I have two names:

1) Raquel (I've started introducing myself this way, it seems to be easier on everyone)
2) Rah-chell (think 'rah rah'--this is what my host dad calls me and it cracks me up)

Hasta manana,
Raquel

My first week in Mexico!

So I've been planning to write for a while now, but things have been pretty busy here! I don't even know where to start. The trip here the Sunday before last (July 27) was uneventful, but long. After a 1.5 hour drive to Charlotte, a 2 hour wait in the Charlotte airport, a very tearful goodbye :(, a 2.5 hour flight to Dallas, an 8 hour layover in the DFW airport, a 2.5ish hour flight to Guadalajara, an hour to clear immigration and customs, and a 45 minute cab ride, I finally got to my host family's house at 11pm. My host family is extremely nice and immediately took me on a tour of the house, and I also got to meet my awesome roommate, Vanessa. On Monday morning we survived our first bus ride to class…holy crap. I didn’t know it was possible to get that close to vomiting in a 5 minute ride. Our medical Spanish teacher told us that someone is killed about once a month (I think usually a pedestrian) by a bus in Guadalajara, and I’m actually surprised it isn’t more like once a week. We made it to school safely though, had orientation, and then we started class right away. I got to meet the other four people in our program besides Vanessa and I, and they're awesome. I guess most of the other programs have had more people, but since ours is the end of the summer we have less. I love our group of six though--we're from all over the country with all different backgrounds and it's a great mix.

Monday through Thursday of last week was pretty routine--class for 6 hours per day, home for lunch at 4ish, homework, internet time, and bed. I was pretty homesick on Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday I was feeling better. Then, on Friday the fun started. First, we went on a school sponsored trip to Tequila, Mexico where we toured La Rojena, the Jose Cuervo distillery. The tour was complete with samples and margaritas :). We also got to meet other estadounidenses who are in different programs, and I met several UNC people (apparently they’re down here as a big group). It was nice to talk to some people who have been down here for a while and could tell us the cool things we should go see. Then, later that evening we went to the Chivas vs Tecos fútbol (soccer) game. Although I know next to nothing about international fútbol/soccer, I hear the Chivas are a big deal and they're definitely one of the most popular here. The game was pretty rowdy and I learned some Spanish curse words. Unfortunately, there was only one goal and the Tecos were the ones who made it, so I didn’t hear the big GOOOOOOOOOOL I was looking for. Oh well. After the game, we met up with some of the people we’d met in Tequila and ended up in an outdoor taquería. I love how the tacos are teeny tiny here, but they’re like 60 cents to 1 dollar, so you just get as many as you want. Vanessa tells me that lengua (tongue) is one of the best, but I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet. I’ll get there. I also discovered agua de horchata, which is sweetened rice water with cinnamon and it’s delicious.

Then, on Saturday Vanessa and I went to Chapala with our host family. Chapala is a cute little town on a huge lake (which though it is beautiful, happens to be severely polluted and is unfit for swimming, womp womp). We shopped around the mercado, and then we went to the nearby town of Ajijic for dinner. According to my host dad, Ajijic boasts the largest proportion of US Americans of any other town in Mexico (ie retirees). It also has some funny birds that burrow in the ground to get rid of their lice.

On Sunday, the group of 6 of us went to the downtown Centro Historico. We toured around a lot of cool places, most of which are depicted in pictures (see link at the bottom of this post). The neatest thing was seeing the murals by Jose Clemente Orozco. I’ve studied him in Spanish classes before, so it was cool to see the paintings in person. On the way back we had a slight adventure where we ended up in a bad neighborhood and a nice shopkeeper and a boy (her grandson?) helped us get a cab back home. All’s well that ends well…

Since then, it has just been class as usual. One of the things I love here is that everything is really open. Most places don’t have air conditioning, so the windows are open all day and the inside temperature stays decent. Even the places that have air conditioning aren’t so frigidly cold as they are in the states, which I like. The weather is cool in the morning, warm/hot in the afternoon, then usually rainy in the late afternoon/evening or at least cooler. Other than the sometimes hot bus ride/walk home in the afternoon, the temperature has been wonderful.

Overall, I’m learning a lot and having lots of fun. Class only goes through the end of this week, then I go to clinic for a week, and then since my 2^nd program overlaps with this one by a week, I start the 2^nd program after that (which is class in the morning and clinic in the afternoon). I’ve been amazed at how much I’ve been able to remember just by being in class for a week, and my Spanish is definitely improving (although still a looooong way to go). This weekend our group is planning to go to a couple of places within Guadalajara, and then the weekend after that we’re hoping to go to Puerto Vallarta. I’m looking forward to it!

My host family is also wonderful. They very patiently put up with my inability to quickly conjugate verbs in anything but the present tense, and they don’t laugh at me too hard when I use the completely wrong word (ie birds and planes are very different things, even though they both fly). My host mom makes wonderful meals, and I think my favorite so far is the chiles rellenos that she made today. She also makes delicious aguas frescas, which are like juice but more water based (and not as ridiculously sugar-filled as juice). It’s wonderful how cheap the fruit is down here, and there are several new fruits I have yet to try.

Hope everyone is doing well! Send me emails/facebook messages/comments/Skype me/etc!!! I promise I’ll update more often and the next post won’t be so ridiculously long!

Link to pictures (my host family's house, Tequila, el partido de futbol, Chapala, and el centro historico de Guadalajara) : http://picasaweb.google.com/rachel.holston