Oh... my days have been busy! Wednesday I think was the worst day I've had here, and Sunday was the best. So, overall this past week averages out to have been just fine...



I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night because of big storms that rattled the bed and lit up the room. I was not ready to get up at 6:30 on Wednesday morning when my alarm went off and I struggled through most of the day. I felt tired, and to go along with that I just started to feel sad. I definitely had my ''I don't want to be here anymore'' moment. After a long afternoon of class, during which my professor became frustrated with me (and he let me know it!) I walked home from school and cried behind my sunglasses the entire way. This didn't go on for too long, though. I gave myself a pep talk, ate some triple chocolate ice cream and got over it. It's not that I don't want to be in Cuernavaca. I am happy to be here and feel so lucky to have this opportunity. I just miss everyone. I miss being around people who know me and understand me. I think it's tough in general sometimes to communicate with others. Especially strangers. Throw in a language barrier and things can become complicated. I believe that was the root of my frustration, but I think (and hope) I'm over it now!



Wednesday night I went and met some friends at the movie theatre. The movies are located in the mall, which is huge. I had no idea Cuernavaca had something like this! We all met to see the Hulk, which ended up being sold out. So everyone decided to hang out in the mall until the next show started. I didn't think I could handle walking around the mega mall for 3 hours, so I decided to go see a different movie by myself. An, for a treat, I decided to go to the VIP movies, where you sit in lazy boy recliners and there are waiters that come around and take your order... I was excited. I had never heard of any of the movies that were playing, so I just picked one, El fin de los Tiempos. In the states, I believe this movie is called The Happening. Now, had I known prior what this movie was about, I would have NEVER gone to see it. So, not only did I have my first solo movie theatre experience, but I also went and watched a scary movie... (Now those of you who saw this movie and know it was stupid and think it wasn't scary, that's fine. I don't do scary movies. To me... this was a scary movie). But I did enjoy that I was able to order a glass of wine and recline in the lazy boy... even though I was only able to drink half the wine, because I spilled the other half of it all over myself when I jumped at a scary moment...



Thursday I expressed some of my frustrations about learning Spanish to my Professor, Alberto. I told him that I felt like we kept learning more and more things, without having enough time to practice them... So, Alberto invited our class to go with him and his friends to Los Arcos for dinner to practice our Spanish. We all decided to go, and actually had a really great time. Afterwards we went to a Drag Queen show... which was really wild. My camera ran out of batteries, so I was not able to document the experience, but I know that I will never forget it!



On Saturday, My friend James and I took the bus to a town called Puebla, about 3 hours away from here. The ride there was absolutely beautiful. We only had about 6 hours to do as much exploring as we could, so we kind of did a running tour of the town, went to a lot of shops, saw another beautiful church, watched some salsa dancers and tried really hard to stay dry (it rained all day while we were there.) On our bus ride back we met this 17 year old boy from Fairbanks, Alaska. He is an exchange student and had been in Puebla for 10 months. He rode with us on the bus back to Cuernavaca, where he was going to meet friends. He gave us a list of things we have to do in Mexico before we leave. I was very impressed with this young man. It is hard for me to be traveling alone for 2 months at 27 years old... I could not imagine doing it for a whole year when I was only 17!

On Sunday, my roommate Alexandra and her friend Julio took me to the mountains for the day. It was so nice. I really enjoyed traveling in Julio's car, instead of on the bus, and being able to be on our own schedule. The forests here are so beautiful... It's like being in the jungle. We went and saw a few different pyramids, which were incredible. We also went to La Bañita, which is a place that has all these different ''baths'' (or pools). There were bigger pools to swim in, and a mud bath... where you cover your entire boy in mud. It's good for the skin and even more fun than it sounds! And also really hot baths... pretty much just like hot tubs. It was relaxing and fabulous and I was just so happy to spend a day in the mountains.


Now it's back to the grind... (right... like my life is so hard here!) I have ''graduated'' from my morning grammar classes and have moved up to ''conversation'' class. This class I like. I am in a group with three other students and our teacher gives us topics and we just have to talk about them (in Spanish, of course). Then they correct us on what we say incorrectly, and offer suggestions on other vocabulary that may be useful.


I need to give a little shout out and say... Congratulations Tanya! I am so excited to welcome baby Nathan into the world. I cannot wait to meet him when I come home. I'm thinking about you. Rest up and take good care of yourself. I love you!