Adios Mexico!

Estoy al aeropuerto en Mexico y estoy esperando el veulo.

This day has been bittersweet to say the least. I am so excited to return to
my sweet family, but at the same time it has been kind of difficult to say
"Adios" to everything that I have experienced and to everyone that I have
befriended here in Mexico.

It is amazing how adaptable the human race is! I have gotten used to the
sound of the roosters crowing as well as the man who walks down our street
every morning at 8:45 screaming "GAS" and "Agua" at the top of his lungs. I
have even gotten used to keeping my mouth firmly closed in the shower and
not putting toilet paper in the toilet. Besides that, I have fallen deeply
in love with the Mexican culture and people. I love the fact that Martha's
mother (Abuelita) lives right next door and that family (in Mexico) is so
incredibly important. I also love that the people here are as genuine as
they come and that they also know how to throw a fiesta!

Before coming here I honestly thought that Southern Hospitality was as good
as it gets. However, after this experience, I think that Mexican hospitality
may have us beat...just by a little though! :) Anyways, to say the least, I
am sad to leave but am pumped to get back and use some of what I have
learned with some of the hispanic families at our school.

Here are some final pictures in Mexico:

My Spanish Class with Chely, our fabulous teacher (Chely is the the right of me)

Kiki, Martha, Sarah and Me

Picture with Martha

Me and Matt

Oren and I after graduation

Me and mis chicas

Speech at graduation

Mi Ultimo Dia

Today is my last full day here. I am writing this last blog entry in Mexico
with much gratitude. I am thankful for having this opportunity to study
abroad in a Spanish speaking country as well as getting to live with such a
precious Mexican woman. I am thankful for all that I have learned about the
Spanish language and culture, for making dear friends, and for overall safe
travels. Lastly, I am thankful that I get to return to Brian, my family, and
friends. Thank you so much for the prayers, support and warm wishes
throughout my trip. I am eternally grateful!

My last few days here have been fun! One of my friends from school had a
birthday yesterday and we celebrated it by going to Applebees. I have become
so used to the cheap prices in restaurants and was shocked to see that
Applebees was so incredibly expensive in comparison to all the other
restaurants around. For a coke and a quesidilla hamburger the total was $15.
That may even be more than what it costs in the U.S. Anyways, it was fun to
go to a restaurant that had ice in the cups and free refills.

Today was pretty much a normal day. I went to school as usual and then came
home to a delicious lunch prepared by Martha. Later Martha, Sarah and I
tried to go to Zumba class but realized (after we had descended the steep
mountain) that there are no Zumba classes on Thursday. Oh well! On our walk
back a car started honking at us and then I realized it was my Aunt
Guadalupe. It was fun seeing her out of the blue and saying goodbye for the
second time!

Okay, so I am going to get off this computer and try to make everything fit
in my suitcase.

Muchos Abrazos,

Katie

Me and my sweet friend Claire

Martha in the Cucina

Mi Familia Mexicana...just kidding! These are all my American housemates with Martha and her friend Blancita.

Afternoon cookouts and Tacos

Hola chikos!

I wanted to share with you some of the fun Mexican food that I have eaten lately. I must be honest...it has taken me several weeks to get used to the different kind of food here. However after 3 and a half weeks I am really starting to appreciate the different kind of food here. I am going to have to scope out some authentic Mexican restaurants when I get back to Birmingham.

The other day Martha's son came over and grilled out for the family. Martha's mother (known as abuelita--she actually lives next door) came over as well as her brother, her son, her son's wife and her grandson, Carlitos. Carlitos is a little tornado! He is 2 and a half and is into everything. Anyways, he is as cute as can be!

One of my new favorite things about Mexico are the abundance of taco stands. The tacos here are nothing like the tacos in the States. They are absolutely AMAZING! It took me a while to gather up the courage to venture to a hole-in-the wall kind of place, but now I am becoming a regular at one of the taco stands.

Tacos are so insanely cheap here! To give you an idea, yesterday I went with two of my friends to get tacos for dinner and the bill for all three of us was 36 pesos ($3.60). We went again tonight!

Anyways, if anybody knows where to get fresh tacos in Birmingham, please let me know!

Steak, beans, rice, potatoes, and a grilled onion

Cutie Carlitos

Delicious taco and quesidilla from our favorite taco place. The restaurant is low key, but quite fabulous!

San Miguel

What a weekend!

This has been my overall favorite weekend so far! My sister’s roommate Triveni from NYC came to visit for the weekend. Triveni is in the same Global Health Program with Emily at Columbia. She is currently doing her Public Health Internship in Puebla, Mexico which is why we were able to meet up this weekend.

So anyways, Triveni got into GTO late on Friday night. We woke up early on Saturday morning and headed to the gorgeous town of San Miguel de Allende. San Miguel is about an hour and a half bus ride away from Guanajuato. We were so excited because we got a 50 percent discount on our bus fare because we are all students. The bus ride cost a little over 3 bucks…quite fabulous!

We arrived in San Miguel at about 11:30. Our first stop was STARBUCKS! Some of us took advantage of this unexpected opportunity. I have missed drinking coffee these past few weeks. Starbucks hit the spot!

After our quick coffee break we were off to explore the beautiful city of San Miguel. As I mentioned in earlier posts, my Uncle Bob lived in this town for several years. He married a Mexican woman and had a fantastic life living in San Miguel. San Miguel is a really laid back community and it is known as a stomping ground for retired Americans. The American population of the city is about 10 percent.

After Starbucks we went to the church where my Uncle was married. Upon entering, we saw about 10 babies in white garments being held by parents. A joint baptism service was about to begin. I have noticed that Saturday mornings are for Baptisms, and Saturday afternoons are for weddings. It seems like Catholic churches in Mexico have very busy Saturdays!

After this church, we walked to the nearby church where my Uncles remains are. Upon arrival at Templo San Francisco, we noticed that another Boda (wedding) was about to take place. Upon entering the church, I felt something wet fall from the sky. It was definitely a pigeon with a really good aim! I wasn’t the only one who got attacked either. A man dressed up in a beautiful black suit for the wedding got white Pigeon poo all over him. I am not a big fan of pigeons!

When we made it inside the church, we had to do some major exploring to find the masoleum. We finally ran into a nun who pointed us in the right direction. Her first question for me was where he was buried…in the “antiguas” or “nuevas”. I said the new ones because it has been only a couple of years. The church was really old, so it probably had people who had been enterred there for hundreds of years.

We finally made it down to the crypt and realized, “wow, there are a lot of names”. The way this works is that each family has a closed in box/ locker looking space that is numbered. Some of the boxes are just sealed, and some of them have a key so that they can be opened and closed. Some of the boxes have nameplates too. We probably skimmed 500 or so boxes looking for my Uncle’s name, however we were unsuccessful. We even found a woman who had records of the people whose ashes were in the masoleum, however she was not able to find out where he was in the room. The woman did though remember his name and was perplexed that she could not further help us. It was just special being there!

After that we went to my Uncle’s restaurant: Barbecue Bob’s. This restaurant was AMAZING! The food was so good…and it was all my uncle’s recipes. I hope that someone in the family has the barbecue sauce recipe! I promise that I am not being biased when I say this, but seriously, THE BEST barbecue sauce that I have ever had! Watch out Jim N Nicks!

Guadalupe has done a fabulous job expanding and running this restaurant. Uncle Bob had laid out plans for the restaurant before his death…he was in the process of running a deli/ small restaurant. She started the restaurant up and it is a really classy place! I know that Uncle Bob would have been so proud!

Later on in the day we went to the Market in San Miguel. I found so many cute things…I wanted to buy everything! I did however get some cool things. By the way, Congratulations to Kim Parker and Susan Cronier…they are the winners of the blog contest ☺ Your prizes will be in the mail shortly ☺

Okay, so I am going to get ready for my class. Hope that you have a great day!

Love, Katie

Friday night at an Irish Pub with Sarah, Laurel, Hector and Mary. I am going to miss my Texas friends!

The beautiful Starbucks in San Miguel.

Como se dice Caramel Machiato?

The Church where Uncle Bob and Guadalupe married. This church has French architectural influence.

The Church where my Uncle is. Also the location of a very nice wedding and the pigeon incident.

The market in San Miguel

It seems like almost every Mexican Casa has a bird. Anyone know the significance behind it?

Fruits made from Paper Mache in the market

Smushed in a taxi on our way to Barbecue Bob's. Pictured from left: Matt, Claire, and Monica

In front of the restaurant.

Lemonade is served in Mason Jars with straws. I think that is so cute and southern.

Some pictures of Uncle Bob in the restaurant

The inside to the restaurant. So classy!

The food was delicious! This is the pulled BBQ plate with greens and potato salad!

The bar

Gloria working in the kitchen. She knew Uncle Bob for 8 years.

Gloria and me. She is super sweet!

This was the scene from the street. Does anyone think that this is a little odd?

A gorgeous view from San Miguel

Courtyard

Random retired american woman who we met in the street. She knew exactly who my Uncle was. She said that he was always so kind and funny!

All of us after an eventful day in San Miguel.

Day 18-Celebrity Sighting

Celebrity Sighting

You will not believe who we saw today in GTO! Well maybe you will.

Anyways, today Matt and I were on our long walk home from school and we were just talking away, when all of a sudden we see this stand out looking guy coming our way wearing a bright yellow jacket and some squeaky clean air jordans. The first thing I noticed was that this man was walking in the street and talking on the phone really loudly in English. He was saying something about “the camera”. There was a man walking next to him who looked like he was helping him out. As soon as we passed these fellow Americans Matt said to me “Katie, that is ___________”.

Although I didn’t recognize him physically, I definitely recognized the name. As soon as Matt told me who we had just passed, I said “we have to follow him”. So we did. We followed him into his hotel. This celebrity was still talking on the phone so we decided to just leave it alone. However, two seconds later he got off the phone and I said, “Hello, Mr. ___________, would you mind if we get our picture with you?” He didn’t seem too thrilled, but he gave me a little nod. His assistant was super nice and offered to take the picture.

I will give you a hint. There is a big deal film festival going on in GTO this weekend. This celebrity is being recognized for some of his work in the past. I will give a Mexican prize to the first one who can identify this celebrity in the following photos. Whoever is the first person to post the correct name on my blog is the winner. Anyways, I thought it might be fun to have a little competition ☺

This evening my housemate and I went to see what the film festival was all about. Throughout the city there are several locations playing many different short films. First, we went to an American documentary about twins. After that film we went to a taco restaurant/ street restaurant and ate authentic tacos. I may be sick tomorrow, but they were really good! After tacos, we went and saw a mystery film in Spanish. Unfortunately with my 3 weeks of Spanish I was only able to understand one line “ I know who you are”. I must say, it was a very important line in the film ☺

Sometimes it is hard to not get frustrated with this process. I am realizing that I am doing well for 3 weeks of intensive Spanish, but I want to be able to produce so much more than I can! Today I went to the store and asked where the peanut butter was located. I can understand and convey very simple conversation such as that, but I have to think so hard. I am so excited about getting back into the classroom and working with my ESL students! I have always had a deep compassion and respect for my students, but this experience has intensified it even more!!!

Okay, off to bed! Buena suerte!

Hanging out with some of my new friends during our 30 minute break between classes.

Celebrity sighting! Celebrity is in yellow jacket, assistant to the left, and big body guard to the right.

Me and Matt with Mr Smiley :) HA!

Days 16 and 17---La Zumba

Buenos Noches!

I am about to go to sleep, but before I do I want to give you some details into my eventful day. Actually, it wasn’t jam packed, but I do feel as though I will sleep well tonight.
I went to class as normal from 9 until 1 and then made the 30 minute hike back to my house. After lunch and some homework, Martha, Sarah and I decided to make the 20 minute walk to our Zumba class.

For those of you that don’t know what Zumba is, it is a group exercise class that works many different parts of the body through dancing. By the end of the workout you have had a complete body workout while also having tons of fun.

All three of us went on Monday and we had a blast. The weather was perfect, the music was catchy, and our instructor quite entertaining. His name is Pepe and he is a fabulous dancer! I think that he could win “So you think you can dance” or at least the latino version of the show. He is so much fun to watch because he is extremely enthusiastic with every move.

Today Pepe came in with the same amount of pep, the music was as upbeat as the last time, however the weather was not quite as good. Some of you may be wondering why weather is a factor in this. Well, it is because the class is held outside in a really big courtyard. The temperature here is neither hot nor humid so it is the perfect climate for outdoor aerobics.

We started the class with much gusto. Actually, we were a few minutes late but that doesn’t seem to matter at all in Mexico. Also I might add that Martha has an infatuation with stepping on these little tiny acorn looking things that are on the ground outside the entrance to the courtyard. Even though we were late, Martha still wanted to spend 2 minutes stepping on them. She likes the feel of stepping on them…it is a little like stepping on bubble wrap. So the scene is this: two gringos and a 50 something Mexican woman staring at the ground trying to crush as many little acorn things with our feet. I should have taken a picture!

When we finally got inside, the class had already started. No worries though because we were already Zumba veterans. We jumped right in with all the moves. I must say, some of the moves are a little inappropriate ☺ Quite hilarious trying to shake it like Pepe who is a natural at it! We hung in there though. After about 30 minutes of dancing we began to hear thunder. Then we started to feel a few drops of water that then turned into steady rain. Did this stope Pepe? Of course not! Pepe kept on going and so did we. We danced in the rain for a good 20 minutes until it really started pouring. Pepe decided that the class was probably over at this point.

After much debate Martha, Sarah and I decided to walk the 20 minute path home in the pouring rain instead of taking the bus. Martha feared that the air conditioner on the bus may make us sick…especially because we were soaking wet at this point. At one instance during the walk home we stopped under a canopy for about a minute to avoid being hit by the hail falling from the sky. None of us had our umbrellas so we waited a second for the hail to pass. At this point of the journey I took a picture to show the rushing water that was coming our direction from the elevated streets above us.

We arrived home and all took showers and put on comfortable clothes. Martha made us dinner and hot chocolate. It was the perfect evening to a tiring day.

When I get back to Birmingham, I am going to look into Zumba classes. Anyone interested?

Love to you all!

Katie

Work it girls! Pepe is in the very front with a green shirt on .

Sarah in action before the storm

Martha, Sarah and I taking shelter from the storm

Rain water coming our way

sara holding out her water bottle to try and accumulate some of the rain. This picture was taken from the awning during our escape from the hail.

Mi tia Guadalupe

Mi Tia Guadalupe

Yesterday was my favorite day since coming to Mexico. It was beyond special!

Most of you know that my father’s brother, Uncle Bob, lived in Mexico and married a Mexican woman named Guadalupe. Unfortunately, a little over three years my Uncle passed away suddenly of a massive heart attack. My Uncle's sudden death was extremely shocking to our family and to Guadalupe, Bob’s wife.

Yesterday I was able to reunite with Guadalupe and her family. Guadalupe currently lives in the nearby town of San Miguel de Allende, where she met my Uncle. This town is full of gringos! Many Americans retire in this city, which is why my Uncle managed to be able to live in Mexico without speaking Spanish. Guadalupe currently runs a restaurant called “Barbecue Bobs”, which she named after my legendary Uncle.

Words cannot describe how special yesterday was! Guadalupe picked me up at my house in GTO and drove me to her parents house in GTO for her sister’s birthday party. Guadalupe is originally from GTO and is in the process of deciding whether to move back here. Her parents live about 15 minutes from mi casa. It was so exciting seeing Guadalupe…it had been about 6 years since I last saw her. She looked even more beautiful than I had remembered.

When we arrived at the house I got to meet the entire family. When I say entire family, I mean all of Guadalupe’s 6 other siblings, brother/sister in laws, parents, aunt, and many nieces and nephews. Upon entering the house it was evident that it was a house that was full of love! Her father was in the middle of playing hide and seek with his granddaughters….too cute!

Everyone made me feel so much at home…especially with my lack of Spanish. I was able to communicate even with my beginning Spanish skills and I had so much fun! I felt so welcomed by Guadalupe and her family!

We played lots of games, talked a lot, sang, and ate fabulous food. At times I found myself getting very emotional about the fact that I was among my Uncle’s in-laws and family. It made me so happy that Uncle Bob had such an amazing family in Mexico! I couldn’t help but cry and laugh at times. It was just extremely special.

I heard some really funny stories from Guadalupe’s family about my Uncle Bob. Guadalupe told me that when Uncle Bob would come over to her family’s house he would cook lots of food and drink lots of tequila. I can only imagine! It sounds just like him! I still think it is funny that Bob didn’t speak Spanish while living in Mexico. Guadalupe said that although Bob was not able to say much to her family, he absolutely loved coming over to her parent’s house in GTO…I can completely see why!

I learned a ton of new Spanish words just by spending time with Guadalupe’s family. I was taught how to play Chess by Natalia, and then played “Basta!” with the entire family. Basta is a game very similar to Scatagories where you have to fill different categories with words beginning with only one letter of the alphabet. Guadalupe’s sister helped me play and I kept the game card so that I can look up some of the words in the dictionary today. At one point in the night we had a sing along. I sang an Alicia Keyes song with Carlos, one of the family friends who is an excellent guitar player/singer. Some of Guadalupe’s nieces and nephews practiced their English with me…they were impressively good English speakers! Their English was way better than my Spanish ☺

I had such an amazing day! I am so happy that my Uncle married a wonderful woman and married into a wonderful Family. I know that he was so extremely proud of Guadalupe and her family, and I was so honored to be apart of the family gathering yesterday!

These are the sweetest little girls!

Me with Natalia, Paula, y Daniel. They are all taking English in School...and they speak really well!

Hanging out during the live music/sing along

Family dinner. They had a mole and a beef stirfry.

Aren't these girls so cute? I think that Mexican children are the cutest!!!

Guadalupe's Father, Sister, Aunt, Mother and other Sister