Last week my study abroad group went on our first of two weekend excursions. We went to the town of Zacatecas (isn’t that fun to say? It’s almost as fun as Popocateptl. Go on and try it. Say it outloud.). We visited a mine (I bought some cheap silver), we rode a cable car above the city, and we went to an archaeological site that was really cool and reminded me of the ruins of Masada in Israel.

Day of the Dead is next week and people here go all out to celebrate it. Halloween isn’t really celebrated much, but Mexicans love to honor the dead. They buy candles, skulls made out of sugar, and skeleton dolls and make altars dedicated to their loved ones. On Nov. 1 many people go to the graveyards and have a big all-night party.

We have a school holiday on Monday and then Wednesday is a national holiday, so I’m planning on making this a 5-day weekend and going to Mexico City. We’ll see how that goes.

This whole month there is a festival going on in Guadalajara called Festival de Octubre. It’s pretty much the equivalent of a county fair, minus the animals. There were rides and fatty food and great people watching. And it only costs $1.50 to get in!

Sorry this post was so boring; hopefully I’ll do some really cool things in Mexico City that I can write about.

Okay, so I have a bit more time, so here's some more random photos from my roommate's camera.

Mariachi dancers














My friend Paula and me. Aren't we cute?














Me being silly at a restaurant.














The three girl roommates--Doreen (from Germany), Molly (San Francisco), and me















Molly and me going out on a wet night.

Okay, I won’t keep you all in suspense any longer. I’ll tell you about what I’ve been up to.

Last weekend was my time for nature, I guess. I went to an archaeological/hisorical site that was just recently uncovered called Gauchi-Montones. There were three large round pyramids and a bunch of smaller ones. The number and positioning of them had significance for the indian’s rituals and stuff, but unfortunately, I can’t remember what it was.












The next day three friends and I went hiking in an area outside the city called La Barranca. It’s essentially a huge drop-off into a valley. It was so green and gorgeous! We walked straight down (literally, like a 50-degree incline) a bunch of switch-backs. Then we decided to take a “short cut” down the trolley-car tracks and ran into a swarm of bees. We didn’t want to turn around so we just ran through them all the way down the tracks. At the bottom there’s a river with a bridge you can cross if you pay this guy a peso (10 cents). I guess it was legit because he gave us a ticket saying we had paid the government of Jalisco. The trek back up the hill was definitely demanding and the best exercise I’ve gotten since I’ve been here. We were all sweaty and gross and I got a good picture of us but unfortunately it’s on my film camera (pinche cámara).

































This weekend my friend Mary (also from Washington!) and I decided to be adventurous and hopped a bus to the gorgeous colonial town of Guanajuato, four hours away. There is a huge arts festival going on so we weren’t able to make reservations anywhere before going. During this festival a lot of people just sleep on the street so we figured we could rough it if we couldn’t find a room. Turns out we didn’t have to, though. We were inquiring at a hostel when a guy informed us that he had a room in his house we could rent for $15/night. We decided to go for it. It was nice enough (well, cots for beds, toilet that wouldn’t work), but after seeing it and how far away it was, we talked him down to $10/night. But then, an hour after we had settled down to sleep (mmm... 5 am) we were awoken to the lovely sound of ROOSTERS right outside our window. They wouldn’t shut up so we finally just got up and left at like 10. We had met some nice French girls the night before so we hung out a little with them and their friends. We went to a mine and were given a tour by an eight-year-old girl. We couldn’t understand her so we asked her to speak slower, but she didn’t. Mary and I couldn’t stop laughing cause the whole thing just seemed so ridiculous so be led around by a child. At the end she was like “That’s it” and then stood there waiting for her tip. We also visited the home where Diego Rivera lived as a child. I didn’t know anything about him before (like that he was married to Frida Kahlo) so it was pretty interesting. Of course we did some other stuff but I think it was most fun to just wander the streets looking at the vendors and musicians playing on every corner. There were so many people on the streets all night and day and there was always someone to strike up a conversation with. Mucho divertido.











































I've discovered that I really like writing about myself and I could probably write a lot more, but I’m not going to. You’ll thank me later. Ciao.

I'm going to be brief so I'll have time to put more pictures on here, which I know is all you really want to see!

My roommate and I saw "The Skeleton Key" last Wednesday, which is 2x1 day at all the cinemas, so it only cost us about $2.50 each. Movies here come out a little later than in the states, I guess so that they can get subtitled. It was pretty scary, but not too believable.

I went to a little suburb of Guadalajara last week to their open-air market. It's famous for their ceramics and pottery and everything is very reasonably priced. Turns out I didn't buy anything except for a Coke, which was given to me in a bag! They like to reuse the glass bottles, so they pour it out into a bag and give you a straw. Here's a pic of my friend Nathan with his.
















I got a new Amistad partner since my first one moved to Ellensburg! This one is a girl who just graduated from college and is just kind of hanging around looking for a job in tourism. She's really nice and we're planning on going out dancing on Friday. It's nice to have a Mexican girl friend, since all the Mexicans I hang out with here are guys!

I went to a Baptist church on Sunday with some girls from school. I really liked it and there were a bunch of young people there. After church we all went out to lunch and then the guys challenged us girls to a competition in the arcade. It was a game where you had to punch this thing as hard as you can, so of course they won. Then we played a kind bowling that I think was magnetic. The pins had strings on them and the balls were only about softball sized. I had never seen that kind of thing in an arcade before.

Okay, here come the pictures.

Fancy farewell dinner.













Tequila harvester.














A toast. Yeah, I look stupid.














This was at the graveyard. Alex, she's not that scary!














These are our "scared" faces at the graveyard. Or maybe "scared stupid."














Musicians on a bus. I love these guys!














Lucha Libre wrestling.















I think that's enough for now. I don't want to overload your senses!

I don't have a lot of time, but I want to write about last weekend. Molly and I were invited to go to the beach with some Mexican guys we had met. The trip was fantastic and completely different from Manzanillo (where we went the week before). In Manzanillo we stayed in a 4-star, all-inclusive hotel. At this beach, we stayed in a cabin-like building that had a palm-leaf roof but wasn't entirely enclosed. This enabled us to fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean, which was like 20 feet from our front door. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest town (maybe 200 people) a few kilometers away. All day long we sat around in hammacks, talking, playing cards (I learned some new Mexican games), played in the ocean, and watched a million crabs crawl around on the rocks. I sat underneath some lizards that were crawling around on our cabin. The boys said they were called "kissing geckos" because they made a loud smooching sound. I learned a ton of new Mexican slang during the weekend. OH, question for those Spanish-speakers who read this: We got some Doritos and the flavor was "queso atrevido." When I asked what atrevido meant, all I got was Flavio saying "Atrevido, como yo!" What the heck does it mean??? Yeah, so anyways, probably the most fun thing we did was swim in the warm ocean at night in the middle of a downpour. I had so much fun I didn't even mind the smelly brown tap water and 100% humidity. Oh, and losing one of my flip flops. The first night I got a little too close to the ocean and one of them just washed out to sea. So I went barefoot the whole weekend, which really wasn't a problem. There was a tiny outside restaurant at this place where we could get breakfast for $2.50 and dinner for $8. All they served for dinner was seafood, but it was good stuff. I took a gamble and ordered something random from the menu and ended up with a whole fish staring at me on my plate. It was so good, once I got past all the bones. Molly wasn't too fond of the menu selection since she's vegetarian, so she got by on tostada shells with lime and salsa. I think this place would be the perfect place to honeymoon cause it's so secluded and almost like camping, but in a very beautiful place. And it's cheap--I only paid $15 for two nights in the cabin.

I'm still working on getting my camera to function, but for now I'm going to steal some pictures from my roommate's website.















The view from the restaurant. Those are the cabins down below.
















Doesn't this look like heaven?

There's lots more to tell but that's all I've got for now. Email me if you want to hear the unedited version of the weekend. Besos.