My internet is down at the house so this week will be shorter as I am using the computer at school. So here´s a quickie update...
1. Countdown to the end. With everyday, the fact that my time here is almost done becomes more real. With that has started to come the nostalgia for what I will miss here. So yes, I am ready to go home, but I am grateful for the year I have had and all the great experiences and people. All I have to say is strange.
2. My time not in school isn´t as "free" as I expected. I feel like I have had a lot more social interactions lately, mainly because I will be leaving soon. (I have people I´d like to hang out wiht before I go, and sometimes they are "Let´s invite Michelle" quick before she leaves.) Either way, it has been nice, but it sometimes makes school work hard to get accomplished. The plan is to make a list of "must do" for social, school, and moving-transition needs and desires so that everything will get done (as well as start to say no!).
3. The house: Love my new housemate! She is super easy to live with, considerate, younger than I expected, she has a 3 year old son who stayed with his dad back in the Baja, is gone much of the day so I still have space to my self, but we also get along well when we are around.
As of tomorrow, I will have a roommate, a fellow exchange student from Spain, who has had many unexpected difficult events happen at the end of her year stay here and so the Exchange program (and I) invited her to live at the house.
4. BGSU work... like stated above, time is slipping away. Sometimes all the other time demands make me super stressed and sometimes it´s a good break and motivator. Anyway, with that, I have changed my goal to getting all of the work done here and so will be saving 1-2 papers for the US. (I´ll have until the end of the TA training week in August.)
5. Ok, all! Have a good weekend!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Jesus and Carmen´s Carne Asada: pics
Top left: The carne asada grill with Carmen and I
Top right: Delicious veggies to make the salsa
Middle left: The carne and onions! (It´s really steak, then it´s cut up to make yummy tacos!)
Middle right: Happy Michelle post carne asada tacos and Tecate light beer (the whisky...just for show, sorry!)
Bottom: The gang (Yessica, Paco and little Paquito, followed by Ruben aka Tíó and Eloy, and my friends Carmen and Jesus)
Hungry anyone? I will miss Sonora´s famed food! (Their carne is considered the best in Mexico, hence the steak comment!)
Farewell fiesta pics!
Top left: Mexican Literature class
Top right: Friends from Mex. Lit class: Pedro, Marta, María Elena, and Ruby
Bottom left: party yumminess!
Bottom right: Writing composition workshop (maybe 2/3rds of the students are pictures)
June 15, 2008
Past two weekes update:
1. Still feel good about my living situation. I have loved the last two weeks living alone. However, as of today I have one (maybe two) roommates; a professor and her daughter, although I don´t know if her daughter is coming or not. I have met the professor, but very briefly, so I haven´t really gotten a chance to know her yet. She will be here the rest of the time I will be. I have been a little anxious about this change, but I knew it was a possibility when I decided to live here and was willing to take that "risk". As school is out, it might be nice to have a little company. Either way, it is for only for three weeks.
2. Farewells continue. Classes are finished, and most are also done with exams. I threw two official goodbye parties (celebrated with cake) with the two classes with whom I have been both semesters. I also said goodbye, earlier than expected, to my friend Alberto who is off to France for the summer. Needless to say, the these farewells have made me sad and melancoly. However, I am grateful for having gotten to know them: they have helped make this year a great experience and some of my best memories are with them. (It´s a good thing there are still friends here who I haven´t had to say goodbye to yet.)
3. Social time: Carne asada with Carmen this weekend, farewell for Alberto, lunch with Carlos (Veronique´s boyfriend), salsa/excercie classes, lunch with the family at the old house, running into classmates at school, etc. (I haven´t had a lack for those of you that worry about me!)
4. Reflections: saying goodbye, end of semester, almost the end of my year here have made me very reflective. Much of this year has been so different than I expected; with many parts more wonderful than I antipated, and other personal things more painful and difficult than I thought. I have so many feelings that surface: readiness to go back to the US (to understand everything again, to be finished with my papers for BGSU); nostalgia and grief that comes with saying goodbyes and approaching the end; disappointment and suprise at the goals, hopes, expectations that haven´t been fulfilled like I had wanted them to be; realization about the changes that I will have upon returning to the US and the areas that wouldn´t get any easier (starting over again in a new place), desires to take advantage of the time I do have left with the people I know. Again, many many reflections. Shocker I know!
5. BGSU papers...still working on them. Slower than I´d like or should. (One reason to appreciate having classes done and some goodbyes made already).
6. Three weeks left. (10 1/2 month completed). Very strange to think that will no longer be my home.
7. Still cooking yumminess! Still insanely hot!
1. Still feel good about my living situation. I have loved the last two weeks living alone. However, as of today I have one (maybe two) roommates; a professor and her daughter, although I don´t know if her daughter is coming or not. I have met the professor, but very briefly, so I haven´t really gotten a chance to know her yet. She will be here the rest of the time I will be. I have been a little anxious about this change, but I knew it was a possibility when I decided to live here and was willing to take that "risk". As school is out, it might be nice to have a little company. Either way, it is for only for three weeks.
2. Farewells continue. Classes are finished, and most are also done with exams. I threw two official goodbye parties (celebrated with cake) with the two classes with whom I have been both semesters. I also said goodbye, earlier than expected, to my friend Alberto who is off to France for the summer. Needless to say, the these farewells have made me sad and melancoly. However, I am grateful for having gotten to know them: they have helped make this year a great experience and some of my best memories are with them. (It´s a good thing there are still friends here who I haven´t had to say goodbye to yet.)
3. Social time: Carne asada with Carmen this weekend, farewell for Alberto, lunch with Carlos (Veronique´s boyfriend), salsa/excercie classes, lunch with the family at the old house, running into classmates at school, etc. (I haven´t had a lack for those of you that worry about me!)
4. Reflections: saying goodbye, end of semester, almost the end of my year here have made me very reflective. Much of this year has been so different than I expected; with many parts more wonderful than I antipated, and other personal things more painful and difficult than I thought. I have so many feelings that surface: readiness to go back to the US (to understand everything again, to be finished with my papers for BGSU); nostalgia and grief that comes with saying goodbyes and approaching the end; disappointment and suprise at the goals, hopes, expectations that haven´t been fulfilled like I had wanted them to be; realization about the changes that I will have upon returning to the US and the areas that wouldn´t get any easier (starting over again in a new place), desires to take advantage of the time I do have left with the people I know. Again, many many reflections. Shocker I know!
5. BGSU papers...still working on them. Slower than I´d like or should. (One reason to appreciate having classes done and some goodbyes made already).
6. Three weeks left. (10 1/2 month completed). Very strange to think that will no longer be my home.
7. Still cooking yumminess! Still insanely hot!
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