Scott's In Mexico

Mexico City Pictures

2006-12-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

It says: Scott doesn't want to translate right now.

Protestors on Stilts

Some Art

That is a bunch of Poinsetta plants in the shape of a tree in front of the Monument to the Revolution

"We do not accept the propoganda of other religions"

Yay Police.

The City

These are actually pictures of Monterrey at night, or early morning.

These kids were enjoying themselves so much, it was just a great opportunity. A Kodak Moment, if you will.

This is the outside of our house.

Inside of the Hostel

Mine's the bottom one

A Gay Club in Mexico City - I found it funny

A Fountain

The Flag

Albert Einstein - In Mexico!

The Protestors

Cuahtemoc - The Aztecan Emperor

Cooking - Me and Ben

Patrick and Ben

Communists

Colombus

A Church

Monument to Benito Juarez

Belinda - she is Patrick's girlfriend

Yay protestors!

Zacatecas Pictures

2006-12-05T18:11:00.000-06:00

I'll put up the Mexico City Pictures tomorrow.

The City

Indigenous People Working

This won't make sense unless you speak spanish

I don't know what building this is

In a Park

Pictures of the Street Dance

Steeple

A Statue

Revolution and Reformation Wall

Parade Pictures

My Homeless Friend Playing the Panpipes

The Mine

It says "I thank the Child Saint of Atocha because my dad feel beneath the tractor and glad that nothing happened."

That's a hotel

Fountain

Cathedral

Some Pictures of the campus before I left for good

Statues

Aquaduct

Tequila Plant

:(

2006-12-04T15:30:00.000-06:00

First off: Rafi pointed out something interesting in his comment. He said his Colombian prof pronounces "S's" like this: "Es-tress. Es-train" Actually, people who speak spanish as a native tongue only have trouble pronouncing "S's" when the "S" is at the beginning of a word, and is followed by a consonant(Not: A, E, I, O, U, Y). Stuff like "Subway" is fine.

Second off: I got robbed in Mexico City. I was on the metro and they took my wallet out from my pockets and I didn't feel anything. Not one thing. Luckily I had made some good friends and they loaned my some money for a phone card so I could call my parents. They wired me some money so I could get back to Monterrey.
I left Mexico City at 3pm yesterday and arrived in Monterrey at 2am. I didn't have a key, so I set my stuff outside the house and climbed the hill that is close to the house and took some pictures of the city and then went to Walmart to pass the time. I got back to the house at 6am and waited until Senora came and opened the door. I slept until about 2 and then went to eat and now I'm here typing.

Zacatecas -> Mexico City

2006-12-02T08:29:00.000-06:00

Tuesday:
Ryan and I went to Gabby's house(his girlfriend) before we left to go to the bus station. We hung out there for awhile and I got some more good advice on what to do and where to go on my voyage. Gabby also called me a warrior for doing this whole thing solo. At about 10:30 Ryan took me to the bus station and I got my ticket to Zacatecas, no problem.
The bus took off at exactly 11:15, which is amazing for Mexico. I know we stopped in at least 2 cities, but I don't know for sure how many we stopped at. And needless to say that the bus isn't the most comfortable place to sleep...
Wednesday:
We arrived in Zacatecas at about 5:30 in the morning. After getting my bearings a little bit, I went outside to wait for the Number 8 bus, like my directions for the hostel told me to. Well, the busses didn't start running until about 6:30 or 7 - all the while, I'm waiting outside in freezing cold weather.
As soon as the bus got there, I got on and before I know it, we are stopping. The entire bus is empty except for me and the driver - he tells me to switch busses and the other driver will drop me off at the place I need to be. Ok, awesome. I get dropped off, and by now the sun is starting to rise a little bit. I have no idea where I am in this city, and all my directions say is "the hostel is just a little bit behind the cathedral." Sweet. So I start walking aimlessly around looking for the streets and nothing comes of it for quite awhile. Eventually school kids start walking by in their uniforms, so I ask one where I need to go and he points me in the right direction.
I get to the hostel and informed that the rooms are still occupied and that check out time is noon. That's what I expected and told them that I would just leave my bag there and start exploring.
So that's what I did. I just started walking around. I found an interesting statue and then spotted a huge steeple, so I walked that way. On the path, I saw a fountain, that wasn't working, but it looked cool anyway, so I took a picture or two. I got to the steeple and yep - it was huge.
I continued walking around and decided that I wanted to go to the cable car thing so I started walking towards that. Well, there was a slight problem with that - I didn't know where there was. Eventually I got on a bus that said it would take me by the cable car. Well, it didn't quite work out that way.
I finally had to get a cab, which I hated doing. And he kinda ripped me off, but it turned out for the better. I told him I wanted to go to the place where the car will take me up the hill, but instead he took me up the hill. That's ok, because the cable cars weren't running that day, because it was too windy. At the time I got up the hill, it was 10am. I explored around and went as high as I could and took some pretty pictures.
I bought some presents at the stores there and started walking down. It was at least 3km, or about 2 miles down the hill. I caught a bus at the bottom that took me to the aquaduct that was built to funnel water to the miners. That was fun.
Then I found a small coffee shop and got a coffee and donut, because I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. It was tasty. I sat and enjoyed the time by watching the little kids chase the pigeons. After my coffee and donut I went back to the hostel and took a nap for about 3 hours, which was a good time.
After my nap, I wanted to go to the mine, so I started walking(notice a pattern?) towards where I thought the mine was, well it turned out I was wrong. However, on my way down, there was this informal parade from a college that was promoting their school. They were honking horns and had mascots and things like that. I giggled. Then I got a cab to go to the mine and by the time we got there, the mine was closing for the night. I decided I would walk back to the hostel. On the way, there was a band playing in a little plaza, so I stopped and listened, and soon enough, people were dancing and having a good time.
Well, guess who showed up? Our friends from the college with their mascots and things like that. They had a pretty good time. So did I.
At this point, I head back to the hostel.
Thursday:
I got up fairly early, so I could get to the mine on time and then start my journey to Mexico City. The mine was interesting, but there's too much to tell here on the ole blog.
After the mine, I went to the bus station to buy a ticket and then I found that the next one left in about 45 minutes. I rushed back to the hostel, grabbed my suitcase, and then shared a cab with a couple of Mexican girls that were going to the bus station too. There was all kinds of traffic, because it was lunch time in Mexico. I barely made it on the bus - the lady had to tell the driver to wait for me!
The lady told me there was going to be one stop - in Leon. That 1 stop turned into 3 - Aguascalientes, Leon, and Guanajuato. The bus trip turned into 11 hours long. I got to Mexico City at 1 in the morning. I will leave the story of my morning for another time, because it's too much to type.
Yesterday, I went to the Zocalo, or main plaza, and saw all of the protestors. It turns out that they changed power at midnight - while I was still on the bus - but I think it was better that I wasn't there. The senators fought! Like fist-throwing chair-launching fights! Inside the senate!
After the Zocalo, I started to walk to the Museum of Pretty Art(translated directly) and met a kid from Texas. We walked around together for most of the afternoon. Turns out that he wanted me to give him money - yeah right.
During the afternoon, the protestors started marching again, and police showed up right behind them. There must have been at least 100 cops there, maybe more. Naturally, we followed the protestors and cops down to the Zocalo again and luckily nothing happened.
We saw a monument to the Revolution, that has the bodies of 4 of the important people buried in it - I don't remember who they are right now, but I have the information.
I walked back to the hostel, which was probably at least 1 1/2 hours on foot. I met some nice people. A few australians, a french girl, a swedish girl, a guy from canada, among others.
A girl from Australia and her boyfriend from Canada and I are going to the pyramids today, as soon as they get back.

Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and Joel, that's all I have right now. I hope it's sufficient enough to waste part of your work day.
Nos vemos en 6 dias!

I am in Mexico City

2006-12-01T19:37:00.000-06:00

Hello to all of my loyal fans!
I just wanted to update you all on my progress thus far. I'm going to keep it short, because I'm on a shared computer. I might update with all of my stories thus far later on tonight when everyone else is gone or asleep.
I'm currently in Mexico City breathing the most digusting air ever. I wiped my face off today and it was a weird gray-ish color. I know, it sucks.
Here's a short story for you all - I didn't eat for 24 hours! I know that you are not supposed to do that, but it couldn't be helped. I had a donut in Zacatecas at about 10 on Thursday and didn't eat anything until about 10:30 or so this morning - when I had 5 minitacos - which were delicious!

Well, that's all for now. I have many stories to tell you all - some are good, some are bad, some will make my mom very worried about me ;)

(Mom, don't worry, I promise I won't die)

Love you all,
Es-cot (As the Mexican's say)

Double Post!

2006-11-27T16:50:00.000-06:00

Wow, you guys are really lucky - you're getting two posts in one day. You have no idea how much of a privledge that is! Anyway, I wanted to update you on my travel schedule. Here's what I'm thinking:

28 Night	Trip to Zacatecas
29 Day	Zacatecas
29 Night	Zacatecas
30 Day	Zacatecas
30 Night	Trip to Guadalajara
1 Day	Guadalajara
1 Night	Guadalajara
2 Day	Guadalajara
2 Night	Trip to DF
3 Day	DF
3 Night	DF
4 Day	DF
4 Night	Trip to Puebla
5 Day	Puebla
5 Night	Puebla
6 Day	Puebla
6 Night	Trip to Monterrey

My trip will stretch from the 28th(tomorrow) to the 6th.

I've got a story for everyone. It's a fun story.

2006-11-27T10:47:00.001-06:00

So everyone knows that I had a final saturday afternoon, right? Well, that's what I thought too. I got to the school at 2 and waited until 4 - and no one showed up. At that time, I realized that I either had the time wrong, the date wrong, or the place wrong. I quickly sent out an email, as soon as I got back home, to my teacher. I told him what happened and told him that I would pretty much do anything to let me turn in the paper.
He told me that the time was at 11:00, instead of 2:30 - I must not have written it down or I wrote it down wrong. Anyway, he also told me that I could come to the school today, Monday, and turn it in with his other class. So I went and turned it and there were no problems.
I can tell you though that I was very scared. The paper is worth 40% of our grade - meaning you CANNOT pass without turning it in. I think all is well in the world again.
I just have one test left - tomorrow at 9. Yes, I'm sure of the time.

It's been awhile

2006-11-24T22:24:00.000-06:00

Well to all of your faithful readers out there, I am again asking for your forgiveness. I know that I haven't put a new post up in awhile, and I'm sorry.
I'll be honest, I haven't done anything for about a week. Ok, I take that back. Today I wrote 12 pages of spanish, made a family tree for the book I read, and made a bibliography for my essay. Some of you may not even know what what a bibliography is anymore, hehe. Tomorrow I have to go and turn it in and present on it. Shouldn't be too bad.
I've decided that after my final next Tuesday, I'm going to go travel around Mexico. I have 9 days that I can be out of Monterrey. I plan on going to Mexico City for sure - I have to see the biggest city on the face of the planet. For those that don't know, Mexico City has about 21 million people living it in. Thats about 9 times the size of the population of Kansas all in ONE city. Or about 53 times the size of Wichita or about 775 times the size of Newton. That really puts it in to perspective. I don't plan on being anywhere near Mexico City on December 1st though. Can anyone guess why?
If you said that the official changing of the presidents, then you would be correct. And why is that going to be a dangerous time in Mexico? Because in the elections over the summer, Felipe Calderon won by a margain of .006 or .6% of the vote. His opponent, Manuel Lopez Obrador, as of November 20, declared himself as president of a parrellel government. He has a cabinet and everything. This guy is insane. Anyway, back to the topic. It's predicted that Lopez Obrador will do something on Dec 1st, but no one knows what. Probably riots or something like that and for that reason, I don't want to be in DF(Distrito Federal, or Federal District, or Mexico City) at that time.
I also plan on going to San Miguel de Allende, because Paco has told me that it is the most "Mexican" city to visit. I haven't decided where else I will be going yet.
Yes, I will be sure to take pictures.
No, I will not be updating my blog during my trip.
Why? Because I won't be taking my laptop.
Why? Because it's heavy.

Fun Fact for the day: The original name for Los Ángeles is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles"

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We are having ours tomorrow. The reason for this is that all of the Gringo friends I have work and thus Thursday was not a good day for them. We are going to have a turkey and everything, so it's not like I'm completely missing out.

How do you think he is it?

2006-11-18T11:16:00.000-06:00

What am I doing? Writing a post.
What am I listening to? The Who - Tommy - A Rock Ballad
What was I reading? An article about how software engineering and regular engineering is different.
What did I just do? Ate an egg with ham and 2 tortillas the Señora Fina kindly prepared for me
What am I going to do today? To be honest, I have no idea. Probably sit around and watch TV. Might go see a movie with Marcela and Paco and some other Mexicans. <--- That's not racist, because I'm in Mexico.
Which movie might I be seeing? It's called "Los Inflitrados" in Spanish or "The Departed" in English. I've outstanding things about it.
Who's in the movie? Jack Nicholson. Matt Damon. Leo DeCaprio. Marc Wahlberg. Need I say more?
What did I do yesterday? See "What am I doing today?" + I watched "Maria Full of Grace." If you want to see about Colombian drug trafficking, I suggest seeing this movie.
What did I do Thursday, you lazy punk? Thursday I went to Prob/Stats class and learned about Hypothesis Testing. Then I sat around for a couple of hours. At 2, we watched a movie called "The Children of Sanchez" for my Culture of Mexico class. At 4:30, I started writing my final project for Culture of Mexico. At 9:30, I printed my final for Culture.
What did my final for Culture consist of? My final consisted of 10 pages in Spanish about the movie.
What am I going to do next week, you not so lazy punk? I'll be writing my final for my Latin America Class.
What does my final for LA class consist of? A 12-15 page paper, in Spanish, about a 600 page book that I had to read.
When is my last final? That would be Tuesday the 28th.
Why haven't I updated my blog lately? Damn good question.

My Weekend

2006-11-14T12:20:00.000-06:00

Here's how my Saturday and Sunday went.
Woke up at about 11:30 on Saturday and got some breakfast and then lounged around until about 1 o'clock when Deborah and Franc showed up to the house. Sandra came shortly after that. At about 2, Marcela asked where Ryan was. I told her that I didn't know for sure, but I thought he was at his girlfriends house. I told her that I couldn't get directions, but I could get there in a taxi.
After Sandra got there, they went to the supermarket to get the food and stuff, at about 2:30 Marcela called and asked if Ryan was there - obviously he was not. I offered again to take a taxi to go get him, but she said no.
3:00 o'clock rolls around and Ryan is still not there yet. Paco shows up, he had to work until 2:30, and Paco, Franc, and I go to find Ryan. We get there and he is in the shower. So it's about 3:30 before Ryan and I get back to the house. Marcela was very, very, very angry. She was saying things that I had never even heard before and basically, it was not pretty. So we get all of the things loaded up and start driving to the cabins. That trip goes well and we get to the cabin about 1 1/2 hours after starting.
It's up in the mountains and the view is absolutely gorgeous. There is nothing around but nature and the other cabins. We start listening to music, cooking, and having a good time. The food is amazing, the girls were dancing like crazy, and no one had any problems. It was a grand ole time.
At about midnight, Ryan passes out on the bed. Marcela then tells everyone that she is going to put makeup on him, or "paint his face". As you all have seen, she does, and he does not wake up for a thing. They even jumped on the bed and he didn't wake up.
Well, that was pretty much the end of the excitement for the night, but Paco, Vicky and I stayed up talking until about 4 in the morning and when I went to bed, the girls were still up too. They said they went to sleep at about 5.
Well, 8 o'clock rolls around and I decide that I can't sleep any more. You all know how I am at the cabin at Beaver, so I get up and start making breakfast. Marcela and Vicky are already up too. I made some scrambled eggs with ham, onions, cheese, and garlic salt. They were tasty. Paco then made some more eggs with ham and they made some taco sort of things with them, for the people that weren't awake yet.
I decided that it would be a good idea for me to start doing dishes. After most of the people had woken up, I was still doing dishes and making things for them to eat, and Deborah insisted that I stop. But I wouldn't have any of it. After all of the dishes were done, Deborah and I drank some coffee (there was only enough for us 2 :)), and Ryan and I drank some Maté, which is a type of hot tea from Argentina.
Basically what I'm telling you is that I needed some caffeine. After the caffeine boost, we decided to go to a Canyon of sorts, that you saw lots of pictures of. It was about 5km or 2.5 miles each way - down and back up. My legs did not want to work after that trip. We came back and made some lunch and starting packing things up. I pretty much didn't do anything because I was wore out from the hike and I did my share that morning, althought I did go back and do some more dishes, which Paco latered commented on "Scott, you're ready to get married, since you can do dishes."
Oh, I forgot one thing from Sunday. Ryan asked Marcela is she was still mad at him and she said yes, she was going to be mad at him for a long time. She was like "You crashed my car, you were late for my birthday, you didn't tell me happy birthday because you didn't come home Thursday. Hell, Scott even made me a cake!" Ryan then turns to me and was like "You made her a cake!???!!!?
Yes, yes I did make her a cake. I used the mix that my mommy sent me for my birthday and I even used the candles. She sent me a pack that had "C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E" all in seperate candles. Well, I decided not to use the "T" and the "E" and make the spanish word "Celebra", which is a command for someone to celebrate. So that worked out nicely. Well, I hope that's enough to satisfy the thirst for those junkies out there.
I'm out.

Fotos

2006-11-13T15:54:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos from the cabañas. I hope you enjoy.

Here I am with the girls. Leaning down is Deborah, going up it's Sandra, then me, and then Marcela in the green, Vicky in the white, and then I don't remember her name in the blue...

Sandra

Ryan was passed out at about midnight, and Marcela was very angry with him(more on this later) so she decided to "paint" his face as the Mexicans would say. It says "Soy Mexicano a Nuevo" or "I'm a new mexican"

Paco and Marcela

Paco after having just slept for 6 hours on the ground.

Marcela is killing Ryan..

Marcela and Vicky

Marcela is doing a handstand for some reason

And sitting in a little cabaña.

The girls

and Ryan's finger

The infamous salsa that Paco and I prepared.

Making a tower...

Hanging from the roof...

The group

From the left: Roy, his wife(name unknown), Vicky, Ryan, Marcela(hidden), Franc, Deborah, y Sandra

Franc and Deborah. Deborah is Paco's sister.

There was much dancing going on

Pictures of the canyon:

It says "This place is a paradise, not a dump. Keep it clean, don't litter"

Marcela's birthday cake

I will be writing all about the weekend when I get time, probably later on tonight.

Oops

2006-11-11T11:30:00.000-06:00

I missed yesterday. Sorry. It's because I didn't do too much yesterday.
I made a cake for Marcela's birthday. That was fun.
I watched The Silence of the Lambs.
I relaxed.
We're going to some sort of cabins today. I don't know much about them, other than we are going to cook some good food and enjoy each other's company.
Only 4 more days of regular classes. That means I only have to walk to the Tec 8 more times for classes and 6 more times for finals. That's amazing.
At the beginnig of the semester Jaime told me that I wouldn't make it 3 days walking back and forth. Looks like I proved him wrong. Just goes to show what wanting to save a little money will do for ya.
I'm taking my camera to the cabins today so I'll take some pictures.

Under Pressure

2006-11-09T22:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm under much pressure now. Nana emailed me and said that she checks every day to see if I've updated. Well, I'm going to do my best to bring you new news every day. This is actually news from yesterday, but I rode the bus to the market. The bus from the Tec to the Market was a nice one, with AC. However, I decided to be daring and take a less caliber bus back to the house. Mainly because there aren't any nicer ones that run that way. There were seats for 25 people on board. At max load, all seats were filled and the aisle was packed. And by packed, I mean that we were turning down passageners. My guess would be that there was anyone from 35-40 people on the bus.
What can you expect for 40 cents, right?

My test today in Prob/Stats went well, but could have gone better. Sometimes the wording on his problems are weird, because his maternal language is Spanish.

That's about all I've got. I hope it's enough!

Ok Nicole, I'm updating

2006-11-08T19:28:00.000-06:00

As the title says, Nicole has been hounding me to update, so here I am. For those of you that don't know, Nicole is one of my friends that left all of us alone in Newton, and went almost as far away as me. That's right, John Brown University - in Arkansas, is almost as far as Mexico. Think about it, I didn't.
Well, I'm glad to know that everyone of you that could, voted yesterday. Now, I have no way of knowing that you all actually did, but I can feel it in my fingers that you did. I have this feeling because I know that everyone that reads this is an American that takes their rights very seriously and any lack of taking advantage of these rights would be a huge mistake.
Enough about politics.
What have I been doing lately? That's the question on everyone's mind. Well, I tell you what, I've been doing some reading, some writing, some studying. I finished my 650 page book and now I have to write a 12 page paper over it. I also just found out that I have to write 9 pages, at least, for my culture class. I have a test tomorrow, or Tuesday, I can't remember and I have one next Wednesday too. Fortunately, all I have to do is take 2 more tests for probability - one of which is tomorrow (or Tuesday), 1 more test in Phonetics, and then the two papers I already talked about. I can't wait to be done.
So I come home in exactly 30 days. That seems such a short time. It's weird.
We're going to some sort of Lakehouse this weekend, to celebrate Marcela's birthday. She's turning 28, I believe. We're going to grill and talk and do all sorts of fun things.
I went to the Market today, I bought some presents, it was a good time.

Que Les Vaya Bien

I'm a slacker

2006-10-30T17:26:00.000-06:00

Well, I promised to update more often, but I haven't. I'm sorry.

I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. Read my book, which I am getting close to being done with. Watched some football. The Chiefs won, Broncos lost, Cowboys won (the only reason I mention it is because Ryan is a huge Cowboy fan and forced me to watch the game). All in all it was a pretty good weekend, lots of relaxation, no car crashes, no one that is close to me died - I call that a pretty good weekend.

There is one more day left in October. There are 30 days in November. And I am in Mexico until December 8th. That makes 39 days left in good ole (not New) Mexico. I hope you all can survive without me - I know I couldn't. Think about it - I didn't.

Sorry this has been such a lame post, but I don't know what else to write. You all are free to send me ideas as to what I should write about, I wouldn't mind.

Later.

2006-10-26T13:44:00.001-05:00

Here's what went down yesterday.
Ryan got off work at about 7. Marcela called him and asked him to go pick up a huge painting and take it back to our house. So Ryan followed her to the house and put it in his truck and was following her home. Yesterday afternoon it started raining, which in turn made the already bad roads terrible.
A lady driving in front of Marcela suddenly decided to brake for no apparent reason, which caused Marcela to slam on her brake which, you guessed it, made Ryan hit his brakes. Ryan's truck decided that it wasn't good enough to stop and slid along the road until something made it stop. Yay Physics! Boo for it being Marcela's car!
Now, here's where the problem comes into play. They both pulled over and assessed the damage. The policy in Mexico is to call the Police about your accident, as well as "Transito" or insurance assessors. Ryan could not find his insurance information in his truck, so he called our house. I had to find his insurance information in his room, and try to find the 800 number to call, but I couldn't find the exact packet of papers, and therefore couldn't get the right number.
No matter, though. Marcela's insurance guy put Ryan in touch with his insurance. All is good.
Then another phone call comes for me and Ryan asks me to grab all of the packets of paper about his car from his room, get in a cab, and come over to where the crash was. So I dig through his room another time, grab another packet, and start jogging down the street looking for a cab. On my way down the street, a couple of guys pull over and are like "Where ya goin?" I tell them I'm heading to San Pedro and they offer to give me a ride down the street to another intersection to save me some cab money. It was sweet.
Well, I finally got in a cab and had a nice long chat with him while we drove almost cross town. The cab was about $60 pesos which isn't alot compared to the States, but it's 4 times the amount I pay when I go to school. I got there fine and everything, but the insurance guy that was there was from the wrong company. By then it had been at least an hour and a half since the accident, and we had to wait another 20 minutes for the Transito to arrive and then a long time for them to assess the whole situation.
Overall it was a very exciting night...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...Learn to Face the Strange

2006-10-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

A few changes have been taking place here in Mexico lately. Most noticibly is the extreme change in temperature. One day it was about 90 F and the next it was about 60 F. All overnight. Now, to us Kansans, 60 degrees doesn't seem that bad - maybe time to put on a jacket and some jeans. Not these silly Mexicans. They are throwing on their winter jackets - and I'm not exaggerating. It was not uncommon to see people at the Tec walking around with a winter hat on, a scarf, a HUGE winter coat, and gloves occasionaly. Meanwhile, I'm strolling through in a T-shirt and shorts....
I haven't done a whole lot lately, other than read my book. I have to finish it by the end of next week and then write a 12-15 page paper on it, in Spanish. Should be more than exciting.
I watched the Monday Night Football game at Bennigan's with Ryan and a few of his friends. As you may have guessed, Ryan wasn't very happy with his Cabelleros.

ttocS

EXPOTEC

2006-10-22T18:10:00.001-05:00

While in Kansas last week, I was told by many of you (my fans, I guess you could say) that you check my ramblings nearly every other day. I would like to say that I am sorry for disappointing you. I know that I haven't been writing much, and I'm going to try to work on it.

I miss the cold. When I stepped off of the plane in Wichita it was 43 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 6 degrees Celsius. When I stepped off of the plane in Monterrey, it was about 97 F, or close to 36 C. A 50 degree difference, for those of you that can’t or don’t want to do basic math. I was not excited to come back to the heat.

Last Wednesday night, we – Ryan, Gabby, Ben, and I – went to the EXPOTEC. EXPOTEC is an event put on by the school that showcases all of the states of Mexico. There are 31 states and 1 federal district, in case you were wondering. Anyway, the students of the Tec that are from the different states cook traditional foods from their area. It was excellent. I think I’ve found my new favorite kind of cheese: it’s from Oaxaca. It’s excellent, and none of you have any idea! I hope that I can get it in the states, because it makes some excellent Quesadillas.

At the EXPOTEC there was a band playing called La Gusana Ciega, or The Blind Worm. I surprised myself and everyone else by singing along, but not knowing why I knew the songs. Yesterday I was looking through my music and found that group and listened to their CD and finally made the connection. Jared had given me their CD before I left and I had listened to it a few times.

Well, that’s about all I got. I hope everyone had a good week.

Everybody's working for the weekend...

2006-10-16T12:07:00.000-05:00

Is anyone else waiting in DFW for their flight crew to arrive? I didn't think so. I've been sitting here for about 3 hours. The crew is supposed to arrive in DFW, terminal B, at 12:05. I'm sitting in Terminal D. I expect we depart at about 1 o'clock, even though the schedule says we'll be leaving at 12:25. We'll see.
I almost missed my flight in Wichita. It turns out that everyone decided to arrive at the same time, for the same flight to Dallas. I got checked in and through security and boarded on the plane in about 15 minutes. It was exciting.
It was a fun weekend. The Emporia/KSU(Rafi) crowd is good. The wedding was a success. The reception was a fun time. Family fest was exciting.
I got some kitchen utinsils for my birthday: A cookie sheet, garlic press, measuring spoons/cups, and some other things.
Overall the weekend was a fun time. I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did.

Over and out.

Hooray Mexico

2006-10-02T21:54:00.000-05:00

Today at lunch Senora asked me if I was sad because Jaime was gone. I pretty much told her flat out, not really. She laughed. It was a good time.
Ryan and I are going to a function on Wednesday for a group that he belongs to. It's a group of people that weren't born in Monterrey or in Mexico. He said there are people from all over the world: Pakistan, US, England, South Africa, the Phillipines, etc. It should prove to be a good time. Ryan and Marcela will be there, so there will be people that I know. Not much else is going on, other than watching some Monday Night Football. I hope everyone has a good week, because I know I will.

Take er easy.

It's now the best month of the year

2006-10-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

Well, classes are still going well. Mexico is good.
We had a barbeque yesterday. Ryan and I went to the store and got Portabella Mushrooms, Bell Peppers, Onion, Tomatoes, and Serrano Peppers. We soaked the Portabellas and the Bell Peppers in a mixture of Balsamic Vinager and Olive Oil.
Ryan's friend, who happens to be named Ryan also, and his wife Marcela came over.
They brought the meat. It was imported American beef that had been marinated in the bag. They also brought a few ribs of Borrego, or lamb.
I was the official cook. I grilled up the Portabellas, then the Peppers. Then the Serranos and the tomatoes. We mixed the Serranos, the Tomatoes, and a diced onion together, to make some dang good salsa. While the salsa was being kept warm on the grill, I continued to grill some of the other things. We made Quesadillas too. Next was the meat. It was excellent.
I spent probably at least 2 hours in front of the grill yesterday. It was nice to be able to cook again.

So, Jaime left today. He decided that he wanted to move closer to the Tec, so he's moving in with his friends. I've got a nice big room all to myself now. That's about all I've got.

Oh yeah, The Chiefs won today, in case you didn't see the game. It was 41-0.
Have a good week.

Story of the Day

2006-09-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Today Ryan and I went up to the mountain range that surrounds the city of Monterrey. We drove for about 7 hours straight. It reminded me alot of Arkansas - Green tress, Mountains, Water, the views, the silence. It was profound. In most parts the only thing you could hear was the truck running and the water gushing, if you happened to be near some water that is.
We stopped a few times to take pictures and admire the views. But for the most part it was driving.
We stopped and talked to these 3 guys who were hitting hammers against the rock face. They were self proclaimed "fans of palentology." Turns out they were looking for fossiles. They found some small shellfish and things and told us that they have found molars from dinosaurs and things before. Pretty interesting.
There are little villages stuck up in the mountains. For the most part they farm, but they also have roadside stands to sell passerbys, like us, food and wine and trinkets and such. We bought some "empanadas de manzana." They are little snacks filled with apple filling. Very delicious. There are pictures of the terraced farms that they use. Obviously they are poor enough that they can't afford modern equipment so the work is done using old technology. Horses, cows and burros were common to see on the side of the road and in the fields.
The weather was much more appealing in the mountains. I'd say it was probably 20 degrees cooler up there at Noon, than it is in Monterrey, right now, at 9pm.
After driving through the mountains we ended up in Saltillo, which happens to be in a different state of Mexico. We stopped and had lunch and got gas, and headed back. There is a story about the traffic in the pictures post.

Someone, who shall remain anonymous, has asked what I miss the most. I would have to say that would be driving. I haven't got to touch the wheel of a car in almost 2 months. Oh yeah, and Ice Cream. We all know how ice cream is important to the survival of the human race, and I haven't had any since I've been here. What I have had though, is a little bit of a cold for the past 3 days. As the locals call it: "La Gripa" Stuffy nose, sore throat, stomach that doesn't always agree. I've taken all of the Airborne I brought along. I've been taking some sort of herbal stuff that Ryan told me about. I've taken pills. Nothing seems to clear it up. I went to sleep at 11:30 last night because I was so tired from being sick. Usually on friday nights I'm up until the early hours, but apparently not last night.

And for those of you wondering, I will be home Thursday, Oct 12th, at 10:55pm in the Wichita Airport. I will be leaving Monday, Oct 16th, at 7:45am.

I hope everyone is having a good time at school, work, home, or where ever you happen to be at the moment of reading this. I'm out.

And no one dared to disturb the Sound of Silence

2006-09-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

This is the same river bed that was gushing in the post below. This was taken about 3 days after it rained. It's dry as a bone now.

This is a picture of a village that is situated in the mountains.

This is a picture of two seperate trees that have grown together and then apart again. There is about 12" of "togetherness." But, in the middle of the growth, there is a hole about 5" in diameter. It's about the craziest thing I've seen.

This tree seems to have gone through a midlife crisis and decided to change it's entire path in life.

This shack is just on some random mountain.

Can anyone guess what this building is? If you want to know the answer, don't read the next sentence. It's a school.

The sign says "Community School. Thanks to the Saints Torrez and Garcia. Community San Sebastian. The "Peñita or Little Girl" Ranch."

Here is Ryan, next to the crazy tree.

This is the riverbed where the crazy tree lives.

Lots of pictures of the mountains. They are gorgeous.

This guy, although you can't actually see the hombre, is selling Garlic on the side of the road. Below the sign are strings of cloves of garlic.

Yay forest!

Here is some of the terraced farming. They have a lot of apple trees, peach trees, corn, etc.

This is a pretty cliff.

Here is "the Mountain" - Cerro La Silla. This was taken right outside of a Walmart the other day. Our house is about directly on the other side, to the left.

In the middle of the picture is a cave.

Coming back, we face quite a bit of traffic. The guy on the right is trying to get around the traffic by using the shoulder. However the semi driver decides that he doesn't want to be taken advantage of. The Semi driver pulls over on the shoulder enough that the guy in the truck can't pass. This goes on for about 20 minutes. It was hilarious.

Fotos de Fin de Semana

2006-09-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

This is during a rain storm this past week. Normally this "river" is dry as a bone. I'll take pictures of it dry.

These are the venders I was talking about.

Some lights in the city.

My sombrero.

The governmental building

Flag on museum

Jaime

Flags at night

Fireworks

The Band

The crowd

This is the cat, sticking it's butt in my face. Yummy

This kid's headband says "Cabrones" which means B---ard

More of the band

¡Viva!

2006-09-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

It's officially been 12 hours since all of Mexico united in re-declaring their independence. Let me start at the beginning.
At about 6:10 or so, Jaime and I started our adventure. We took a cab to the central plaza, in front of the governmental palace. You can look at pictures of this place in some of my old posts. When we got to the plaza, there were already all of the vendors set up and selling all kinds of food, drinks, gifts, baubles, bears, and other things. I was lying about one of the things that they were selling, can you figure out which one it is? Anyway, we walked around for a bit, found the stage and started listening to music. After awhile, we went and got some food and drinks from the vendors. For basically the next 3 hours or so we were just walking around, listening to the band, and checking out the sites. I bought a sombrero, which you will inevitably see in the pictures that will be following. The were literally thousands of people there by the time we got there, and it only got more packed. The real fun started at about 9:30. We got as close to the stage as possible and just kinda chilled. Jaime left to go see if he could find a bandera or something, and didn't get back for like 45 minutes. He didn't have any luck, unfortunately. We kept pushing our way closer to the stage until we were only like 40 feet from it. There were probably 10 bands that we saw play last night.
Well, come 11, and it's time for the Grito. The governor of Nuevo Leon, the state that Monterrey is in, comes out and gives his speech. It is a rendition of the speech that Miguel Hidalgo gave on the day before Mexico declared his independence. The end sounds something like this:
Gov-¡Viva Hidalgo!
Crowd-¡Viva!
¡Viva Allende!
¡Viva!
¡Viva Juan Ignacio Ramon!
¡Viva!
¡Viva La Independencia!
¡Viva!
¡Viva Nuevo Leon!
¡Viva!
¡Viva México!
¡Viva!
¡Viva México!
¡Viva!
¡Viva México!

And that is the infamous Grito that most Mexicans shouted at 11 pm last night. Although, it will obviously vary from state to state. I took video of the crowd shouting the Grito, it's pretty impressive, and you can kind of get an idea of how many people were there.
After the Grito, there was a fireworks show. It was pretty sweet. I took pictures and video. We decided that having thousands of people around us for the last 4 hours was not the most comfortable thing, so we decided to go to a bar and listen to some live music. Well, needless to say that all of the bars around were very crowded and we just decided to skip it and head home. About 5 minutes before we got to the road that would have taxis, we found a relatively empty bar with some music, and no cover charge. We stayed there for about an hour and a half or so. While we were in there, the singer was like "Who here yelled tonight? Let's hear a yell for Independence! Let's hear a yell for Mexico! Let's hear a yell for the United States!" I bet you can guess what happened: After all of her previous questions, there was a yell and clapping and when she asked for one for the states everyone laughed. It was great.
Well, I think that about sums up my night, so now I'm off to rename pictures so I can post them up for you all.
¡VIVA!

Dia de Indpendencia

2006-09-14T10:48:00.000-05:00

So this weekend is Independence Day for Mexico. Here's a little history on it. We all know, or should know, that Mexico fought for their independence and won it in 1821. August 24th to be exact. Now, the smart ones out there have put together that August 24th has already passed and that it cannot possibly be this weekend. Very good students, congratulations.
Why don't the Mexicans celebrate their independence on August 24th then? The same reason the we, in the States, don't celebrate our independence on September 3rd, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. We celebrate our independence on July 4th, which is when we actually declared the independence. Well the Mexicans do the same thing. September 16th is when they declared their independence.
The night before, which happens to be friday, the Mexicans go down to the Plaza of the city and yell ¡VIVA! I think I'm going to go to the MacroPlaza tomorrow night and participate. It sounds like fun to me.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm a slacker. Something funny just happened in my class. My teacher was trying to say Peasant, but with his Mexican accent, it sounded like PissAnt.

I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake.

2006-09-05T19:24:00.000-05:00

Jaime climbed to the top of the little mountain where the antennae is on Saturday. He left at 7 and got back around 4. You can now see why I didn't go.

I saw a fish all by itself, I said, "Dude, you should stay in school."

2006-09-05T19:21:00.000-05:00

These are pictures of a waterfall, in case you don't know what one is. These are from when I slept through that trip.

Mmm Hmm

2006-08-30T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official. Don Emelio's brother died yesterday morning. At least he didn't suffer long. I don't know for sure, but I would assume the funeral will be this weekend. I think I'll skip it. That's about all I got for ya.

Bad News Bears

2006-08-28T01:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so there was a change of plans on Saturday. Turns out if you wake up 2 hours past the time you were supposed to leave, that doesn't leave much of an option. That's right, I didn't go to the waterfall. Jaime went, but his group was bungie jumping, and we all know how I opted out of that. I let him borrow my camera though. Pictures will come when I want them to. I can do that, because this is my blog. It's like that song "It's my Party." Except, I don't want to cry. And I'm not having a party. And I don't want you to cry either. So it's not really like that song at all.....

Ok, now for a more serious topic. There has been some serious drama going on in this house lately. On Thursday, August 17th, at 3:00pm a very bad thing happened. Don Emelio's(the dad here) brother had some sort of heart failure. He has been in the hospital ever since. Even worse, he has been in a coma ever since as well. They performed open-heart surgery on him on Friday, but his condition hasn't changed at all. They figure it's only a matter of time before he leaves.
Marcela, the daughter, has been crying alot lately because of it. It's very hard to be around that, knowing that I can't do anything to help. I can't even comfort her because I don't know her; I don't know enough Spanish to help her.
Don Emelio is gone pretty much all of the time. He is at work before I get up at 8:00 on Tues/Thurs and he is out until well past Midnight, most nights. He spends alot of time in the hospital, as well as alot of time at work.

Well, I thought I would give you all the heads up. I'm out.

* I have no problem not listening to The Temptations, which is weird.

2006-08-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

I'm going to go to a waterfall tomorrow morning. It's an hour by bus, I might have to stand all the way there though, because the buses are going to be packed. It was $120 pesos, which is about 12 bucks. Not bad. It includes the bus ride up there, food, and possibly a boat ride around the waterfall/lake surrounding it. Yes, I'm going to take pictures.
School is going well. Every class is about group work. I can't ever do any sort of homework by myself. I don't necessarily like this, because I don't trust my classmates to get their part of the job done, so I'll end up doing quite a bit of the work.
Not much else is going on. It's nice not having class on fridays - gives me a chance to sleep in and rest and recover from the long, hard week that I had just gone through...
I took a Mexican bus for the first time on Thursday. Some of you may be thinking, "Why doesn't he take the bus instead of walking 45 minutes every day to school?" Here's my answer: There wasn't a bus that came close to our house that went to the school, until this past Sunday. It's only 6 pesos to get on the bus, making it pretty cheap to get to school in the mornings.
If anyone who reads this has Skype and ever wants to talk to me, search for "Scott Goering" with the username ziptieboy.
Over and out.

Pool, BBQ, Sounds like the States

2006-08-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

Friday night, Ryan was going to take Jaime and I to a bar to hang out and listen to some Mariachis with a friend of his. Well, about 2 hours later, and we still haven't found the bar, we decide to give up and go shoot pool. We were there till about 2 in the morning. Turns out I can beat Ryan and Jaime in 9-ball pretty easily.
Not a lot happened Saturday, except it rained like a mother. It was very exciting. Senora and I just sat out on their front porch and watched the rain for like 30 minutes. I don't think we said 1o words to each other. I watched Real Madrid lose to some stupid other soccer team. Twice in two days, I couldn't believe it.
Sunday we decided that we needed to have an American Style Barbeque. We went to the supermarket and got meat, onions, peppers, portabello mushrooms, and some charcoal. After getting the meant and veggies put into bags for marinating, we tried to start the charcoal. Well that turned out to be a fiasco. I've had better luck getting water to light on fire than this damn charcoal. It seriously took at least an hour to do. We finally gave up and used some of Don Emilio's charcoal, which worked much better. But, there were casualities. We were using this dustpan that had some dogbites on the handle to fan the nonexistant flames. Well, needless to say, after an hour of fanning these stupid coals, there was a blister on the middle of my palm. Look, I took a picture of it today:

Kinda looks like stigmata to me. It hurts when I shake hands, make a fist, write, eat. Basically it sucks. You can kinda see another little one the bottom of my top finger. There's also a little one right below the big stigmata-ish one, buy you can't see it very well. Not the most fun I've ever had. But the BBQ was a success.
This part is going to be in spanish, because I want it to be.
Hoy es el dia del aniversario de la primera vez que yo besaba a mi amor. Se amo a mi amor.

Diferencias Culturales

2006-08-18T01:30:00.000-05:00

Carrie wanted me to update on some of the cultural differences, so here goes.

First of all – driving. Now, some of you may think you have seen bad driving in your day, and that no one in the States uses turn signals, blah blah blah. In Mexico, most, no all, people adopt a policy about stop signs that goes something like this: “If I’m not going to die by running this stop sign, then I’m running this stop sign.” And I’m fairly confident that many of the cars have the blinkers taken off of their cars to reduce weight, because NO ONE uses blinkers. Something that all Mexican drivers use though, and very frequently might I add, is their horn. For some reason, honking seems to make the driver feel better about himself – even if he was the one that caused the reason for the honking! It’s ridiculous.

Second – Seat belts. I firmly believe that there are only about 6 people in the whole city of Monterrey that use their seatbelts while the drive. The city has about 4 million people in it – that’s 1.3 x 10^-6 or .0000013 percent of people that use their seatbelts. Yes, it is the law to use your seatbelt, just like it’s the law in the states. Most of the taxis I have been in do not even have their seat belts any more. It’s like the drivers didn’t feed the seats enough and they went and ate the damn belts. No one knows what happened to them.

Third – Taxis. The taxis in Mexico are extremely cheap. They start out at 7 pesos, which is about 65 cents. Here is an example. It’s a 45 minute walk to school. Or I could take a cab, without a seatbelt, mind you, for about 25 – 30 pesos, depending on where I catch him at. That’s like 2 – 3 bucks, each way. There’s no way you could get a cab for that cheap in the states, anywhere. Also, almost all of the taxis are either made by Nissan or are VW Bugs. I can’t tell you why, because I don’t know.

Fourth – Pop/Soda/Coke/WhatEverYouWantToCallIt. Here in Mexico, you can buy pop in two fashions: Glass bottle or Plastic bottle. Essentially, the plastic bottles are more expensive for the same about of liquid, but easier to transport/save for later/etc. I can get essentially 12 ozs(or a can) of Diet Coke for 3 pesos, which is basically a quarter. Even better, if I bring a used glass bottle in to the gas station, I can get it cheaper, because they recycle all of the bottles here. And not only is it cheaper, it tastes better. That’s right, the Mexicans don’t fool around with that High Fructose Corn Syrup crap, hell no, they use only the best sugar cane. Diet Coke here tastes like regular Coke in the states and Regular Coke tastes completely different than anything you’ve ever had related to a Coke product, but it’s really good.

Fifth – Pay/Public Phones. These don’t operate like they do in the US. In the US, as you all know, you put 50 cents into the machine and make your call. In Mexico, you have to prebuy your minutes. Kind of like a calling card, but it only works in these payphone type things. These payphones have a slot and you put your card into it, like a credit card and it automatically takes away X amount of pesos, depending on how long you talk. Pretty straightforward, but just something different.

Sixth – Air Conditioning/Electricity. The cost of electricity is apparently astronomical compared to the cost in the US. Therefore many families don’t have AC and even those that do don’t use it very often. When I first arrived here, I didn’t think there was an AC unit in the house, so I just gave up hope. However, one night last week, Senora came and closed all of our windows and I suddenly felt a very cool air blowing on my feet and it was coming from the duct near the ceiling! I was very excited to feel this, for it meant we had AC. We only use it at night, when we’re sleeping – because as everyone knows, trying to sleep while it’s hot is almost impossible. The Mexicans are also a lot more energy conscious than we are. I mean, I have to turn off my ceiling fan if I leave the room for more than 5 minutes. I have to turn off the light if I don’t really need it. I turn off the TV if I’m not watching it, but just have it on for background noise. It was kind of difficult to get used to, but I’m doing ok with it now.

Well I think that’s all for now. I hope that gives you some insight into the life of a Mexican. Also, I was told by an informant that all of my former colleagues at Intrust now have the address to this and to not bash on any of them. It is with great displeasure that I hold myself back from this, as I had planned to make today’s post purely with propaganda and blasphemy towards the employees of Intrust. Burk, I’m watching you…

If you didn’t catch the sarcasm in the last paragraph, you may want to go and buy a baseball glove, it might help.

Scott

Photos

2006-08-13T19:48:00.000-05:00

This was a picture of spiderman we saw walking around yesterday. It really is Tobey Maguire...:

This is a fountain of Neptune. It's cool:

A statue of Someone:

Mexican History Museum:

Jose Morelos, the plaza is named after him:

A Monterrey Medal:

This is Jaime, my Roommate

This is a hunger strike for the recount of the votes in Mexico

This is on top of the governor's work place:

This is founder of the city

This is a plaque of Escobedo and the subsequent statue.

These are in front of the Mexican History Museum, Jaime included. He had to stay and hold those down.

That's all for now.

Pictures

2006-08-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

Some pictures of the Mountain Cerro La Silla, which is right behind our house. These were taken during our walk back and at the school.

That's right boys and girls, Monterrey Tec also has Deer on campus. Take that crows of ESU!

Even more pictures of Peacocks, they just seem to want their picture taken. This one got within inches of me. It was cool.

This is a picture of a picture that was taken Saturday night. If you can't tell, we are in bar, and this was after the party that we went to. It was about 3 in the morning. Jaime, my roommate is the one on the far left. He was really, really drunk. The guy on the right is a cousin to the guy that gave me a ride home last week. We hung out with them at the party. It was a good time, because they didn't speak much English, so we had to use Spanish with them.

Also, here are some pictures of the duckies on Campus. This is the same water structure as pictured earlier(I think). Duck, Duck...

Not a Goose. Gotcha!

Apparently I Need to Update

2006-08-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

Well, It is now about 7:15 and I am relaxing for about the first time today. I had to get up at 7:45 so that I could shower, eat, and walk to school by 10 for my probability class. All went well, and I found a new way to walk to school that cuts about 15 minutes off my time. Long story short, I walked to school, walked back home for lunch, walked back to school for my culture of mexico class and then walked home. That's a lot of damn walking for one day and my legs are tired.
Classes are going ok, mostly orientation so far, however it was kind of a shock when I realized that my teachers that are teaching in Spanish won't allow you to talk in English. This is new to me, because in the past, I could always communicate with my teachers about problems I was having in English, which makes things so much easier. Plus we have to do presentations and papers and things in Spanish which could be difficult. I am however, catching most of what they are saying, which is a good thing. The trouble is that I cannot communicate back to them as well as I can understand. Minor problem.
What else is new? Oh, I drank 4 Litres of water today, which is about 1 US gallon. I like water. It sustains me. Other than that, not much, except I enrolled in another class today. It's a Mexican cooking class. It's going to cost me $100 USD, but it's well worth it, in my opinion. Speaking of spending money, my book costs so far: $10 - Culture of Mexico, $45 - Social History of Latin America, $??? - Probability and Stats

Well, that about all that's new. I have some pictures I'm going to put up in about a second and then I'm going to write some things about Mexico that you may not know.
Scott

Pictures are Below!

2006-08-03T22:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday:
Slept in till 11 . Had a late breakfast and then went to the Tec. Tried to attend the meeting we were supposed to, but it was jam packed. So we went to get our schedules. Turns out there was some sort of problem with mine and I had to go clear across campus to get it figured out. But the place wasn't open until 3:30 and it was only 2. Jaime and I had lunch and then I went to get my schedule while he went to some stupid meeting. I waited for like 45 minutes and nothing was happening, so I decided to go back the next day. A friend I met while standing there, Andres, said he'd give me a ride home. However, I have only been in the city for 2 days and didn't really know it that well. Needless to say, we got really lost and ended up heading towards the city limits. We finally made it home ok, so it was a good trip.
That night I got a call from Luis, a friend of Jared, my friend and ex-prof, and he wanted to know if I wanted a little tour of the city. I of course accepted. He ended up taking me outside of the city, to a little, authentic village known as Villa de Santiago. It is very pretty in some parts and very not in others. For example, the buildings, as you can see below, are painted many different colors, but around the block, there will be a building that is collapsed and falling down with a jungle growing inside it.
After Santiago we stopped by a lake where there was dam. The dam is called Presa de Boca, or Mouth Dam. Nothing too interesting, but local scenary is always fun.
After the Dam he took me downtown to see some of the buildings there. We stayed in the car, but we saw the government building where the governor works, a couple of museums, a statue of the founder of the city, the plaza, and a bunch of other things. There is a huge Mexican flag in the middle of the city, up on a pole. And by huge, I mean it looks big from the mountain. And that was about it for the day.

Today:
Ate some chorizo for breakfast, which is spicy mexican sausage. Very good stuff. Went to the Tec at about 9 because we thought there was going to be a big long line for this stuff we had to turn in, turns out there was only like 10 people in front of us. I went to get my schedule stuff figured out while Jaime went wandering off. Turns out there was a conflict with my schedule, so I just dropped the class that was causing the problems. Here's my schedule:
Monday: 4-5:30 and 6-9
Tuesday: 10-11:30 and 2:30 - 4
Wednesday: 4-5:30
Thursday: 10-11:30 and 2:30 - 4
Friday: None!

Pretty easy, right? You damn right it is. That's how I like it.
After getting my schedule, I walked around campus for like 2 hours trying to find Jaime, finally giving up and started to walk home at about 12:15. I got home at 1:05. Yes, it's a very long walk, especially since it was very warm out today and very humid as well. All in all it was a very boring day, but I got a lot of excercise in, so that's a good thing. I talked to Ashley and my Mama today on the phone. Good times. Ashley had her teeth out today, she is doing ok, but not able to eat solid foods. I feel so sorry for her and wish I could be there to take care of her.
Well, that's all for now, talk to you all later.

Pictures

2006-08-03T22:48:00.000-05:00

Some pictures of Villa de Santiago:

More Peacock pictures for Ashley:

Some pictures of the park that is about 1 block from my house:

Picture of the Mountain on the way home today:

A picture of the outside of my house:

Flags outside the international education building, err the UN:

Some pictures of the dam outside of town. It's called Dam of the Mouth:

El gato de la familia:

More Pictures of Campus:

Me trying to be artistic and take a picture of a butterfly:

Our Room. For some reason it looks like I'm 9 feet tall - I assure you I am not.

Address/Phone Info

2006-08-01T23:44:00.000-05:00

Quick post:
Address:
Scott Goering y/o Josefina Villareal
Tintoreto 848
Colonia Contry La Silla
64849 Monterrey, NL, México

Phone:
Mexico Code: 52
Monterrey Code: 81
My Phone: 8365-6863

Pictures

2006-08-01T23:19:00.001-05:00

Here are some Pictures of some Painted Rams on Campus. They are real, but are very good at holding their position:







Here are pictures of Peacocks that walk around on campus. The pictures don't really do them justice:





Pictures of Campus:

Parte Dos

2006-08-01T22:39:00.000-05:00

So, to continue the last post....
The campus is beautiful. Lots of greenary and buildings and things 16,000 students go here. They have 600 exchange students. I'm not used to having a huge campus. There are literally like 20 buildings just for classes, yet the library's computer lab - 12 computers. Fantastic, I know.
I hope to have pictures up for you all soon. It takes quite a while to upload them.
After orientation, we got lost trying to go home. We went in the wrong direction and ended up walking for about an hour before we ended back up where we started from and took a cab.
Cabs are pretty cheap here, it costs us 30 pesos to get to campus, which is about 3 bucks - for a walk that would take about 45 minutes, with hills, is not bad.
Well, that's all for now folks, check back often for more updates.

Orientation, Ugh

2006-08-01T22:03:00.000-05:00

So, today was all orientation. As in, we sat in a classroom with 200 other kids and listened to lectures for approximately 6 hours today. We learned all kinds of neat things, like insurance policies, academic behavior, etc etc. It was more than exciting. Well, I guess I need to do some backtracking...
Dallas was kind of a fiasco, but not really. The chairs were semi comfortable, but they changed my terminal 4 times. I went from D27 to D37 in a matter of about an hour. Lots of moving, and we all know how I hate that.
The flight was ok, I slept, so that helped. After we departed, we of course had to get luggage and then go through immigration. Lots of standing with heavy bags = not Scott's favorite thing to do, surprisingly. After immigration, we got on a bus with like 25 people and their luggage. Doesn't sound bad right, but the bus was only meant for maybe 15 people and small bags, neither of which we had. Let's just say it was a very cramped ride.
Mexican people drive very crazily. No one uses turn signals and everyone speeds. It's hard to comprehend what's going on, even as a passenger. The pizza delivery guys are the worst! They're on motorcycles and are very intent on getting that pizza delivered on time.
When we got to the school we went through some prelim registration stuff and then they tried to call my host family...for 2 hours. It was busy all of the time. Finally, they got through. But, after sitting for a long ass time, I was sleepy, and wouldn't you know it, I was sleeping when my host mother came to get me - A very good first impression.
Speaking of host families and their homes, the lady of the house is Senora Josefina Villareal and the husband is Senor Emilio. They have a daughter that lives with them, Marcela. They also have another gringo living with them, Paul. He was an exchange student here 2 years ago and then went back and finished school and then came back here to work. Kind of the opposite of the norm, isn't it? I live with a roommate, Jaime. Jaime is from Houston and is really cool. We get along real well. He speaks spanish very well, as does Paul, obviously.
The house has no air conditioning. Just open windows and ceiling fans. It's really hot during the day, but at night, it's not too bad. Cold showers before you go to sleep help a lot. They have a cat, I don't remember his name.
The house is super nice. It's kind of small, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in ammenities. It has all marble floors, 5 beds, at least 2 baths, a formal living room and a formal dining room.
Senora's cooking is amazing too. And I know what you're thinking, no, we don't eat burritos at every meal. I actually haven't had any Mexican food, as you all know it, since I've been here. She feeds us likes kings and takes care of us like kings. She makes our beds in the morning, even though I made mine. She cleans the bathroom and cooks us 3 meals a day. It's kind of strange having someone do all of this for you, but I could get used to it. The parents don't speak English, but the daughter and her boyfriend do, as do Paul and Jaime.
Paul gave us a tour of the city last night, it was sweet. The city is huge. I don't really have a conecpt of big, because Kansas, as a state, only has 2.6 million people in it. The city as a whole as 4.5 million!
I'm going to continue this on the next post, stay tuned!

July 31st in DFW

2006-07-31T10:04:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting in Dallas Fort Worth International Airport waiting for 1 O'clock to roll around so that I can be on my flight to Monterrey, Mexico.

Exciting, I know!