Spring Break: Intro

The week leading up to Easter was spring break, which I spent with my college friend Carissa. We went to three different cities in one week, which meant hypothetically a whirlwind tour. However, our trip was quite tranquil as we didn’t overly pack our time and had great lodging, which meant I was able to return ready to get back to studying. I enjoyed leaving my studies; being able to talk, share, and listen in English with an old friend (aka be understood and understand); and getting to see more parts of the country,although it was just enough to know where I'd go should I return there some day. Check out the next three posts for photos of our three stops. (Photo of Carissa, myself, and Andres, when we met up with him in Mexico City)

Picture of Raul and Ofalia, a couple I had met on my fall trip with Karen. They were fabulous help: advice and reservations on a hotel, prebought our bus tickets, picked us up from the airport, and a reminder to watch my purse! Much appreciated, especially in Mexico City.

Spring Break Part 1: Veracruz, Veracruz

Veracruz: A great place to begin our trip:

Sunshine for my Seattle friend Carissa and humidity for me with a beach to enjoy them (although not the place for true beaching),

drinking coffee with a view of the port and the great blue of the Gulf of Mexico,

a festive atmosphere in the plaza in front of our hotel with the

celebration of Palm Sunday and all the vacationing Mexican tourists on holiday (Spring Break occurs at the same time for all schools and universities, although the south gets an additional week after holy week),

plus many kind helpful locals to welcome us.

(1st picture: distant view of jam packed beach; 2nd pic: San Juan de Ulua Port;
3rd pic: plaza in front of our hotel, 4th pic: plaza at night.)

Spring Break, Part 2: Xalapa

Xalapa: The town where I was going to study before I was found out I would be in Hermosillo. It has a very different feel: colonial buildings, San Francisco hilly streets, Seattle rainy weather. However, we spent most of our time in the neighboring pueblo, Jico, with its beautiful waterfalls surrounding by lush green and cloudy mist: a much needed nature fix! Xalapa has more of my type of nature, although their gray skies would have been a harsh switch from Denver’s 300 days of sunshine, and I would have missed out on the Hermosillo’s fabulous people and University (they are still the best part). No regrets!

Spring Break Part 3: Good Friday in Mexico City

Last day, Mexico City:
Beautiful day, great weather, no noticeable pollution. Fascinating city with lots of history, definitely worth visiting. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to go back. Highlight was seeing Diego Rivera’s murals depicting Mexico’s history in the Governmental Palace, plus meeting up with my friend Andrés from from the 1^st semester threesome.













Top pic: Historical Cathedral in the traditional plaza of the Zocalo Procession


2nd: Viacrusis, i.e. Stations of the Cross procession, in Alameda Park










3rd: Andres and I in front of the Main Aztec Temple ruins, 1 block from the Zocalo


Last pic: Carissa and I in the Zocalo,, also with Cathedral in background.

Karen’s visit…spending a week with a friend here in Mexico

1) Vacation/Visitors

I had been worried about trying to do school and have a visitor. Attending classes helps me understand the topics more, and I also spend a lot of time studying. However, this week was a great week to have a visitor. First, I ended up having a lighter week of classes the two weeks previously due to several canceled classes. This meant I was able to work ahead on school work. Second, we had Friday off for Day of the Dead. I decided that I could afford to take two days off of classes and do a trip with Karen out of town. As a result of all of the above, it was a week of vacation even with two days of attending classes, and it was absolutely fabulous to not have to worry about school work for one week!

2) Jam-packed:

I don’t think I could repeat this week if I tried in terms of the amount of the amount of varied activities that we did. It was fun to have Karen see so many different parts of life here in addition to see various aspects of Mexico.

So here’s a list of what she/we did:

· Experience the heat of Hermosillo (it’s still hot in comparison to the US, but it’s nothing compared to what it was)

· dinner out with my Intercambio (Exchange student) friends

· church

· lunch out with the women of the family

· stay at my house

· visit my classes and the University

· do a mini-self tour of the town and see the Cathedral (that’s about as touristy as Hermosillo gets)

· go to Hermosillo’s Naranjeros baseball game

· take a trip to La Barranca de Cobre/Copper Canyon

· go to the beach (Maviri Beach near Los Mochis/Topolobampo)

· get Mexican hospitality with staying a family in Los Mochis that are friends of Luz Belia instead of staying in a hotel

· try some good Sonoran and Coastal Mexico food: Carne Asada, Tortillas Gorditas “Fatty” style, the pastry Coyota, fresh fish from the sea, and coconut

· try out all types of transportation (train, bus, plane, taxi, feet)

· interact with the people with her Spanish (she has a similar undergrad degree as I do).

3) Barranca de Cobre/Copper Canyon: One of the places I wanted to make sure I got to see this year was Copper Canyon. It is comparable to the Grand Canyon and it is actually deeper in parts. The canyon is located in Chihuahua state between the city of Chihuahua and Los Mochis ( Sinaloa state)and primarily accessible to visitor’s via train. Although it’s just in the next state over, it took us a seven hour bus ride to get to Los Mochis and another 8 hours on train just to get to a town in the middle of the Canyon/train route. We only spent 24 hours at a town (Posada Barranca)in the Canyon, however it was great to be in the mountains, see another part of the country, learn a little about the Tarahumara Indigenous population that live in the Canyon, and be in the cold!

4) Reflection: Karen did a great job of asking a lot of questions about life here. It helped as she had spent a semester in Honduras. She can relate to living abroad in a Spanish speaking country. This brought up many cultural thoughts and questions.

5) Culture Shock: Due to a variety of factors (including the reflections with Karen), I experienced a lot of culture shock this week. This seemed odd, because I have been here for three months. However, here’s why I think I had culture shock: 1) Karen was my first visitor to Hermosillo. She also got one of the best glimpses into my world since she also knows Spanish. I felt many times that I also suddenly was suddenly looking at my own life from an outside perspective (albeit mine). It was like I was a tourist of my own life. So weird. 2) Due to all the reflection, I became more self-conscious about my adaption here. Where am I in the process of adapting to the people and culture? Do I see it the same as Karen? Have I been so not self-conscious here both in embracing the experience but also been comfortable with various differences that I have been oblivious to some cultural differences that I should be paying closer attention to? What areas do I wish we better? 3) Karen is not only a dear friend, but also someone whose presence reminded me constantly of my life in Denver/US and the friends I left behind. Obviously that causes some grief and stress due to that loss. Furthermore, in being in new places and new situations while traveling, there were new situations that caused us to examine what potential cultural differences were going on and I think I became overly sensitive to trying to avoid miscommunication because of those differences. Today, I feel fine. We’ll see how this week goes. I think parts will be extra hard. However, as I have much to do for school in the next month with 3 big projects due, studying will help keep my mind from over-thinking and get me back into the groove of life here.

6) Final comments…

It was a great week. Tomorrow’s Monday and it’s back to Sola in Sonora. Even though it might be hard, what a lucky woman I am that I get to do all this!

Photos from Copper Canyon/La Barranca de Cobre

Karen and I

The train

Copper Canyon/La Barranca de Cobre

Pic for my dad of a "Bonsai" tree.

Tarahumara woman weaving with the basket I bought from her in foreground

Foreigner's Perspective on a Foreigner's Life in a Foreign Country

Karen and I at Naranjero's Baseball game with Beto, the Coyote, mascot

Karen, Andres, and I

Michelle’s Visitor

This past week, I had the opportunity to come to Hermosillo and visit Michelle. “Who am I?” You must be thinking. I am a friend of Michelle’s from Denver. I first got to know Michelle when I moved to Denver just over four years ago. Anyway, I am a middle school math teacher who had a week off and was excited to use my Spanish and get a chance to see Michelle in Mexico. I studied Spanish in college as well as spent a semester in Honduras, so coming to Mexico was something that immediately excited me and what better excuse than to come and visit a friend!

So, why am I writing on her blog? Well, we thought it would be interesting for me to write in her blog as a foreigner’s perspective on a foreigner’s life in foreign country! So, I am going to try and give you some insights and share things that I have appreciated seeing and learning that Michelle might not think of. It has been extremely fun to see her life here and meet the people she comes in contact with every day, so with that, there are three things that I have to share with you.

1. Michelle knows a lot of people here in Hermosillo! Every where we went I was introduced to somebody new. It was crazy to me how many people she knows from class, church, her family, and just random friends! She is well connected! She had people she would just run into, call, or send text messages to. What was even more impressive to me was that most of the people she interacts with are Mexican, not other people from the U.S. She is embracing the culture, people, and way of life here in Mexico. She hasn’t been afraid to make friends, fit in, and be part of life here. It has been so fun to me to come to a country and meet locals and be a part of their everyday life; going to classes, parties, eating dinner, getting rides, and having conversations.
2. Michelle SIEMPRE esta usando su español. Michelle is always using her Spanish! This became apparent when all of her friends would give her a hard time about talking in English with me this week. Seriously, all of her friends asked her if she was going to speak English with me! I realized that I should be extremely thankful that she was willing to take a break from Spanish despite the fact that I was able to speak and understand Spanish. Apparently it is common knowledge here that Michelle won’t speak, write, or listen to things in English, even with other people from the United States! It’s her rule! She is here to learn, study, and practice Spanish, and that is what she is doing, hard core! Very Impressive! (Although she did admit that it was nice to have a break from Spanish this week and not have to think about every word she said.)
3. I have been blown away by Michelle’s courage and confidence. After seeing Michelle’s life here and talking with her about many things, I was constantly blown away by what she is doing. I have thought to myself over and over, wow! Some of the things I had heard about and read on her blog, but they struck me strongly while here. Here are some of those wow moments..

- She came and is here by herself, not knowing anyone! Everyone she knows she has met in the last three months.

- Michelle had to find a place to live all by herself! Yes, look in the newspaper, make phone calls, visit houses, meet strangers, all in Spanish! I speak Spanish and this freaks me out!

- Michelle doesn’t have a network of people who speak English. In fact she doesn’t even know or want to know if people speak English. She is disciplined enough to not use English even when should could!

- Things are different and can be uncomfortable and it doesn’t phase her.

- Michelle is confident. She doesn’t let the fact that she is a gringa in Mexico change who she is or what she does. Yet, people are comfortable with her, accepting, and welcoming

Although, I miss Michelle in Denver, it is great and amazing to see what she is doing here in Mexico. I don't feel as if she is so far away now that I know what an amazing new world she is a part of.