Cuerna-Cow Craziness!!!!

Wooh these past few weeks have been so crazy. There are so many things to tell but with so little time, but I will try to get it all in.
So these past two weekends I stayed here in Cuernavaca, which I was so happy about. I had been here for almost a month and hadn't even felt all too acquainted with the city so I was really excited to be able to explore. The first weekend, some friends and I went to the Black Market. To be honest I am not so sure how I feel about that whole situation, yeah it is illegal but it is helping people who really need the money. So I don't know what to think. But I was so excited cause I bought a beautiful Mexican Soccer jersey(which I am wearing in one of the pictures)! I love it! That weekend, Claire and I visited Jardin Borda, which is a beautiful garden in the middle of the city. It was really relaxing and just a great time to walk around and just do whatever. We attempted to take a paddle boat out onto the little tiny lake, but it was a lot harder than we imagined, which made it pretty hilarious for us and the people watching. Overall it was a great weekend, relaxing and just fun!
The following weekend was great too. It started out with tons of plans that seemed to overlap each other, but it worked out in the end. Friday afternoon, I went to some friends house to make brownies, you have no idea how excited we were just to be able to bake and eat chocolate. That night I went with some friends to Jardin Borda again cause there was a concert there. It was absolutely incredible. There was one man who played the guitar and sang, he was so good. It was a beautiful concert, on the little lake of the Jardin with little lanterns floating everywhere, so chill! Saturday I slept in which was the first time in a long while. On Sunday Claire and I went to church with some girlfriends. I am so happy I went, afterward I could tell how much I missed being surrounded by Christians. It was a great service, the music was really contemporary and everyone was so nice, but get this it was 3 hours long. Wooh! But I really did love it. We met these two women who are missionaries that invited all of us to their house for lunch the next day. It was so great. They are both so wise and have so much love to share. It was great to talk about the love of God and hear stories about their lives. That definitely has been one of my favorite parts of being her in Cuernavaca.
Another one of my favorite parts of being here are Wednesdays. A group of about 4 or 5 girls and I go to one of the poorest neighborhoods and teach english classes at a little school to little kids for an hour. It is definitely extremely rewarding. They all have so much energy, especially the boys. Most of the girls like to learn words and will constantly be asking, how do you say this, while the boys can hardly contain themselves from hitting each other. Each one of those kids has so much potential and they all are so sweat. It is just such a pleasure and joy to be doing this. I have no idea how much they will ever remember or how much I am actually helping, but to have a positive influence in their lives is always a good thing.
Things have been really busy here. We are right smack dab in mid terms which are never fun. I have been studying a lot. I have less than 2 months left, next Wednesday is halfway, awwwww. I can't believe it. It definitely makes me sad. But I will definitely use my time wisely here. This friday we are leaving for spring break to Oaxaca (Wa-Hawk-Ah). I am really excited to have some time off from school and just relax and do some touristy things!
I miss all of you so very much and look forward to talking to you soon!

Hasta Luego!

Amenacer a Aterdecer

Sunrise to Sunset!

This weekend my group and I went to the beach! It was incredible. Full of little sleep, alot of swimming, awesome food, and some aweful sun burns.
We left on Thursday night at midnight and traveled by bus through the night. The first 3 hours I couldn´t sleep at all. I have a little cold and took some cold medicine, that was suppose to be for the night, but for some reason kept me awake. At about 4 am I finally fell asleep for a couple of hours. We arrived around 8 am to Marquelia, a little town. Then we took a truck, totally Mexican style, where 8 of us fit into the back, for 10 pesos a person. The place where we stayed was incredible. Basically there are a lot of little huts each owned by a different family. In front of their hut, they have a lot of hammocks. You don´t have to pay to stay with them, but the idea is that you order all of your food and drinks from them and then you get to use their hammocks for free. It was awesome.
The first night was awful. It was really cold and only a few of us brought blankets, I was not one of them. And of course I couldn´t fall asleep again because I took my cold medicine. So I lied awake for many hours freezing. Finally a few of us got up to build a fire. After many attempts at the fire, we got a pretty good one started. Then more people started to come to our fire and join us. We decided to stay up to sunrise, when it would start to get warmer and then go to sleep. So we watched the sunset, the moon set (which was incredible because it was all orange as it went down, it reminded me of a pizza) and then the sunrise. It was quite the night. Thankfully, the next night was better. The family we were staying with gave us some blankets, so we were all thankful for that.
But this beach was absolutely incredible. To my surprise the water was a lot warmer than I thought it would be. And it was really private. We probably were the only tourists on the whole beach. The waves were not to large but were just about right. It was so great just to be able to relax for 3 days. I layed in the sun a lot and just soaked up the sun (so did my skin, not so good). We drank coconut juice straight from the coconut! Even without a lot of sleep, it was a great time just getting to know the people in my group and playing in the water. This next weekend we are staying here in Cuernavaca, and I am really excited about that. I want to get to know the city a little better.
I hope and pray that you all are doing well. Please say hello to the snow for me!

Mi Viaje a La Ciudad de Mexico

This past weekend, my group and I went to Mexico City. We left Cuernavaca around 8 on Saturday morning and got to the city at 9:30. We took a bus (which is always an experience in itself) to Frida Kahlo´s house, La casa azul. If you don´t know who Frida is she is an incredible painter and is world famous. When she was young she was in a bus accident where a pole went through her abdomen, leaving her bedridden for months at a time. That was when she started painting. She ended up marrying the womanizer Diego Rivera, a famous painter that is known for his controversial paintings. They lived a very hard life together. But I think that is why she is such a great painter, because she painted what she knows and what she understands and sees. It was such a great experience! The last picture is of my roommate, Claire and I at Frida's house.
Then from there we went on the Subway, if you have been reading my blogs you can understand why I was a little nervous for that, but it turned out to be fine. Suposedly on the weekends the subway is less crowded, Thank God for that! From there we went to our hostel which was my first experience ever staying in a Hostel, but it was great! Seriously the place was so nice, not what I expected at all. It was located right in the middle of the city, near the grand Cathedral (which is the fourth picture, the view from our window), the National Palace and the Templo Mayor. After checking in we went to the National Palace, which is free with a student ID, AWESOME!!! It was incredible. It housed many murals, a lot of Diego Riveras. The concept of such controvercial murals, with communisitic messages and many political figures, in the National Palace is so strange to me, but they were incredible. The third picture is an examplt of one of Diego's incredible murals. Then we went to the Templo Mayor, which get this, is an indigenous ruin that they just discovered not that long ago that is right in the middle of the city. Basically what happened, as years went on the templo started to be covered up with dirt and stuff like that, then they started to build buildings on top of it without even knowing that something so grand and precious to their culture was right under their feet, literally. Then we went to the Cathedral, which was my favorite part. This cathedral was HUGE! The best part was that we took a tour on the roof of the Cathedral to see the bell tower. It was absolutely incredible. And we picked the perfect time to do it cause the sun was starting to set. I loved it! The second picture is of the Cathedral! Isn't it incredible. The first picture is from the top of the Cathedral!
The next day we went to more and more museums. It was great. First we started out at the Anthropology museum, which I went to before with my dad, but it was still great. That place it huge and we difinitely did not have enough time to check everything out. Then we went to another musuem, that I can´t remember the name of, but it was a museum of modern art. I loved it there. Sadly we couldn´t take pictures inside, but it was a great experience. They housed some huge and incredible murals of artists like Diego Rivera and other famous Mexican painters. After that, we took another bus ride, which was scarey and funny at the same time cause our bus driver was a maniac, to Xochimilco. Which was definitely an experience. Basically it use to be a lake, but now there are man made islands, and there are tons of little boats that you can take around the canals. They are all brightly colored with fun names. But the best part is that they are other boats with Mariachi bands that you can pay to come onto your boat and sing to you. Also there are other boats that sell food and drinks and random things. So for an hour you just hangout on a boat listening to mariachi music. It was great. Then we headed home.
It was a great weekend. Mexico City definitely has some good parts and some bad, but so does every city, you just have to know what to do and where to go. Tonight we are leaving for the beach! It is this little town called Marquelia, kind of near Alcopulo. I am super excited to be able to just relax and soak up the sun! I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying the cold weather, I miss it!