**this was supposed to be uploaded one week ago. scroll below for 9 new posts. :)
when you have more things to blog about than the time to blog them, it's a sure sign that you've been very busy. (or LAZY as 'manda puts it. :( )
Hmmm.. i've got a HUGE backlog of things to blog about so... will attempt to do so tonight (before i leave for guadalajara and create more backlog for myself...)
I've been in Mexico for exactly ONE MONTH.ONE DAY... how time flies! Got to remind myself to blog:
abt our apartment abt Tec and classes abt the mexicans abt the dinner parties abt church abt Monterrey abt Bungee/Cola de Caballo abt Chihuahua abt Frisbee abt Antonio's party abt mexican food and my attempts to cook
So let's get on with it.....
Our Apartment As you can see; it's quite BIG and COSY. :) We usually spend our time either in the living room or Ansen's room. (Don't get the wrong idea.... that's 'cos the Internet/LAN points are in both those places... the one in my room is just next to my roomate's bed so I never get to use it.) Basically, we've got everything we need... Kitchen/Study Area/Living Room/Dining Room/Washing Machine and Dryer and Internet!....and the best thing is- our house is 5 mins away from school!
This is the ONLY photo we have of us at the Independence Day celebrations because...... MY CAMERA GOT STOLEN. :'( working on getting some photos from the rest of the pple we met there.... so... this is gonna take a while but....
[clockwise from top-right: at tonio's(in frnt) party, my busted lip, at dinner after, w (L-R) Hector/Andreas/Luis/Fredrico]
So the Tec Frisbee Club has just been created this term. Went for the information session which was supposed to be a time for them to introduce the game to the mexicans but basically only the exco(mexicans) and exchange students (who'd already played frisbee) who turned up. May have had one or two newbie mexicans. As you can see from the photos... I was the only girl there! *one or two other girls have turned up recently
Anyway, everyone in the club's really nice... Mexican guys have a lot of "machismo" so they're always too afraid to block me...That's gradually changed. haha. And they even promised to bring me to watch Lucho Libre (Mexican wrestling)! They looked at me funny when I asked abt it- think only ah peks go to watch the matches... everyone else watch on TV.
AND... I sustained my first injury a while back... The field lights were off and luis(president and i) ran for the same disc. We didnt see each other and BANG. Fell backwards and bit my lip! Quite scary la... even in the dark I could see all the blood.
[went with the frisbee club to visit an orphanage. bottom right pic taken at training]
Yup. it's named that way cos it's where they first found chihuahua dogs. We decided to go there cos it has a funky name... and my sis loves chihuahuas. Quite a lame reason I know..
So anyway, we expected it to be HOT and DRY. but when we arrived there after a 10 hour bus ride it was COLD and RAINING!. We had to ask the bus conductor at least 3 times in our super-cannot-make-it spanish whether we were really at the right place before we finally got off the bus.
We also expected there to be chihuahua dogs everywhere... or at the very least-chihuahua memorabilia. But nope. We had to hunt high and low for anything depicting the association between chihuahua and the dogs. There were very few souvenirs... and the ones they had had COWs on them. Apparently, Chihuahua is know for it's cattle and leather industry-not it's dogs. Go figure.
The only chihuahuas we saw were the fibre glass ones that littered the city.(seen above)Nonetheless, it was a fun trip cos the place was quaint and it was our first taste of "mexico". (Monterrey ain't exactly the norm)
Oh, and there were cowboy boots everywhere! They had every single type of cowboy boots u could imagine. All designs and colours. They even had bright purple and baby pink ones.
Other highlights of the trip: - the yummy food at Casa de Los Milagros. The restaurant used to be a big house or mansion ... had a courtyard and everything. - Historical sights like Pancho Villa's house and a museum showcasing the history of Chihuahua and the feminist movement the started there!
[clockwise from top-right: Funky cowboy boots, Shoe-shiner booths, grumpy lady selling flags(twas 2wks b4 independence day), flooded streets, mexican potato chips, "the crazy shark", "the crazy horse", me and my flag, indigenous beggars]
[clockwise from top-right: Multi-tiered wedding cake... it stands!, casa de los milagros outside, CdLM inside, in front of the bus station, Feminist Movement, ansen w his burger, car Pancho Villa got shot in, random monument]
[clockwise from top-right:Ansen and I before our jump,view from the top, he's back!, in the bus with the aussies and bobby, scaling the cliff with bobby, ansen's thirsty, us at the waterfall, my jump!, "Enter at your own risk"]
One of the things I told myself I'd do at least once in my lifetime was go BUNGEE-jumping! Never expected to actually have the experience to do so during this trip... but when the school organised a trip to Cola de Caballo (highest peak in Mexico.. highest Bungee in LAtin America) I had no excuse not to go! So off we went...
The jump was AMAZING. exhilirating, scary, crazy.... ah, there's not enough words to describe it! I'm quite chicken though... didnt jump the first time the guy counted off 3...2...1.. Bungee! but who cares, I did it. and I've got the photos to prove it! :) (it's too bad I didn't realize we'd be jumping into trees rather than the waterfall... wore GREEN so the pics didnt come out too well...)
Next we went to the Horestail Falls... It's okay, but I guess after having been to Niagara... all other waterfalls pale in comparison. :p Only interesting thing we did there was climb through a fence which had a sign on it saying "Si Pasa Es Bajo Su Responsabilidad"... in other words, "Enter at Your Own Risk".... thereafter, we trekked a bit and scaled a rock wall...all in my trusty Birkies. :)
Monterrey's the most americanized and richest city in Mexico. This thus translates into it being.... modern, clean, english-speaking and.... EXPENSIVE. It has it's own charm I suppose... but most pple who come here are disappointed with it being so "un-Mexican". Besides the tacos and spanish-speaking pple, you could easily imagine it in any first-world country. Being nestled between a few mountains, the weather is usually at extremes... (extremely hot when we arrived... and now... getting much colder.) The thing that sucks the most is that.... there is no shopping! Even the mexicans drive down to US to shop cos it's cheaper there... (i'm suffering here! i've resorted to online retail therapy!)
Some interesting sites: (top left..clockwise)
Fuente de Papal: Fountain in the midst of Marcoplaza (city centre)
Colonial Architecture:prevalent in the city area
Puente de Papal: Pope's Bridge
Dios de Muerte (God of Death): Found at the witchcraft market... Even the catholics pray to it.. Evidence of syncretism of Catholiscism and Indegenious religions.
Street Musicians
Barrio Antiguo- Potted Plants
Barrios Antiguo-Street Market: Popular weekend hangout
Puente de Papal Flea Market
"Singapur Express": Restaurant in San Pedro supposedly selling Singaporean Food... nothing looks vaguely familiar tho...
[clockwise from top-right: me inside the church, the outside of the church, elena and diana cooking at the church fellowship dinner, with david/diana/david jr at their hamburger shop, sunday school kids performing in church, david cooking, me and marshmallow-girl, more church ladies, ansen/david/luis]
Basically 99% of the churches here are Catholic... (k la, that's an exaggeration...) and the Protestant churches are....well... SPANISH. So for Ansen's first 2 weeks here, he attended a Spanish church with a guy from school who whispered some translation to him. Thank God, He works in amazing ways and on the very day I arrived in MTY, we met the answer to our prayers-Alfonso.
On the day I arrived(a Sunday), we went to El Pollo Loco (the crazy chicken) for lunch. Whilst there, we saw a Mexican man and teenage boy eating with an ang moh couple at the table next to ours. We heard snippets of their conversation and kinda figured they were talking about church stuff. Ansen approached them to ask if they knew of a English-speaking church.. and the rest, as they say, is history.
The couple was Jannie and Ray- representatives from a church in Texas and they were in Mty to check up on the church they'd planted. Alfonso, the man, is a leader in that church and also.. a prof in Tec. Their service was held in Spanish- but Alfonso did an English translation during the service for J and R... and also to brush up on his english. They invited us for service the following Sunday and Alfonso even volunteered to drive us there! (The teenage boy was Louis- Alfonso's nephew.)
The following Sunday, Ansen, Venessa(HK gal) and I went for service. Wow, was so touched by the warmth and love there. Everyone welcomed us with open arms and there were kisses and hugs all around. :) Their church looks pretty shabby from the outside, but is actually quite comfortable inside. Many of their congregation travel very far distances just to get to this particular church and the clincher..... their service is THREE HOURS LONG. They start the service with some songs and prayer, then the children have Sunday school whilst the adults have Bible Study (more informal, by the leaders)... the children then return... more songs..more prayer...communion and tithes... then... the SERMON! (by the pastor)...more songs...and lastly, announcments.
The second week, the Church had a fellowship dinner. It's held once a month and the various families take turns hosting it. :) Good food, good sermon and fellowship... nothing more we could ask for. It was also our first experience having a home-cooked MExican meal. yum. Ansen was enjoying himself so much... till one of the ladies discovered his Spanish couldnt make it. so she sat him down and forced him to speak spanish to her. haha.
The week after that was Jannie and Ray's last week in mty... so David and his family invited them over for dinner.. and us being the new "guests" were invited along as well! The dinner was not held at their house... it was at somewhere better- his hamburger joint! David and Diana(his wife) started selling burgers by the roadside SIXTEEN years ago. Through the years, they'd established their clientele and expanded various times. :) you can just imagine how yummy their food is. Specially made bread with freshly grilled meat patties, avocado and vege...(we're lucky their stall is SO far away from our place... 'else we're gonna come home three times our size!)
So anyway, that's been our church experience so far... every week we're blessed by their love and inspired by their pure and simple faith. :) Hopefully, we'll get used to the 3-hour services soon!
So we've had 3 "dinner parties" so far.... Once with the Hongkongers, Bobby (American), Christian(Mexican who speaks Chinese), Zuzana(Czech) and YuMiao(Prof from China). Another time with some Japanese teachers in Tec and Daniel(Mexican learning Jap)... and the last with Alfonso and his family. (the prof who brings us to church)
Generally when we have these parties... it's quite a torture cos we have such TINY pots and pans... it's almost impossible to cook for so many. But it's fun... we get to make full use of our comfy living room and play stupid drinking games like 7up (but in Spanish! to help us learn the numbers. haha.)
Bobby is quite an interesting fellow. Sometimes, he truly is the epitome of the "typical american"... his views on Mexicans and Europeans are so... classic. i think by now, i've heard the whole "mexicans are lazy and they are only semi-succesful because us americans help them"-speech about 20 times already! But then again, he speaks flawless spanish and french(just spent a year in france on exchange) and prefers to hang out with the french rather than the american jocks. he's a nice guy and we've been spending a lot of time with him 'cos of frisbee. :) (more in the "Frisbee" post)
Christian is another "interesting" guy. He's lived in America, Europe and even China... (that's why he speaks Chinese). He's worked all over the world and the only reason why he's back in MExico is Tec called him up and told him that if he didnt return... they wouldnt be able to hold on to his credits for him any longer. in other words, he had to come back to finish his degree. A TEc degree is basically everything you need to succeed in LAtin America... so despite having a pretty established career ... (with no "real" qualifications yet) he's back.
Alfonso and his family have been a god-send. :) The story of how we met is in the "church post". Here we see his wife Iris, nephew Luis and daughter Priscilla. He's got another daughter called Lydia. He and his wife are leaders in church... and his daughters are in a Heavy Metal band called "The Undertakers". Quite funny actually, shouldve seen his expression when she started talking about her music.... Supposedly "Slipknot" is too mild for her. She's doing a degree in Classical Guitar right now... and she totally owned ansen when she did a short demo for us on his guitar. haha, dont think he even realised it could make sounds like that!
Anyone who ever said, "Go exchange can play.." obviously never went to Tec. (Tec de Monterrey or ITESM). For one thing, I've done more homework here than the whole of last term! sianz. It was only when we got here that we realized that Tec is supposedly the "Harvard of Latin America" and that's why it's so siong. Nevertheless, it's all good 'cos.... i'm enjoying classes! haha. the closet-nerd has been unveiled. :)
One class in particular, (Intercultural Communication) is especially interesting because every single continent in the world is represented in the class- so the discussions and sharings we have are truly enlightening. :) The prof started the very first lesson with the quote, "If the world were a village of 1000 people, there would be 607 Asians, 132 Africans, 120 Europeans, 79 North Americans, 57 South Americans and 5 Australians/Oceanians." Ever since then, he continously challenges us to redefine how we perceive the world... in light of "belonging to a world community".
Besides ICC, I'm also taking International Negotiation, Intro to Mex. Culture and of course....Spanish! I seriously love the language. :) Will hopefully continue it when I get back to sg. (wonder if SMU will offer Intermediate Spanish again? hmmm.)
One thing I realised when I got here... is that I'm a perfectionist. :( Even though all these courses are pass/fail... I still find myself putting in so much work; cos I wanna do well. (Haha... seems like jane's experiencing the same thing in Florida. maybe it's a rafflesian thing?) The passing grade here is 70. (yup. you read right... SEVENTY).... but generally most pple can scrape thru with a pass if u hand in all the homework.
So yeah, back to being a perfectionist- we just received our first "mid-term" grades 2 wks back.... (there are THREE midterms during the term. but if u get more than 86 by the 3rd one, they allow you one extra week of absences)... and I got grades I havn't seen since.... primary school! *grin* 100, 93.5, 94 and 89..... go figure which is for which. :)
Enough about classes. Besides Tec- the classes.... there's also Tec-the school! as in the school grounds. The Tec campus is everything SMU strives for... and eventually fails at. The grounds are the epitome of "City campus"! The buildings would be right at home in our CBD, there are art scuptures installed at strategic areas of the campus, there's lotsa greenery and landscaping..... and beat this- there are ANIMALS. not the typical cats and dogs mind you, rather... PEACOCKS, DEER, ducks, pigeons, chicks and various other species of birds. and they're all allowed to roam the grounds freely.
The mexicans tell me that if you get attacked by the deer, you're tuiton is free for the year! Haha. oh yeah, the only thing is, they put "something" (like benches, or the art pieces) in all the would-have-been open spaces to prevent students from congregation and staging protests.
The students in Tec are pretty warm and friendly. Most can speak English 'cos they have to pass a TOEFL test before they are accepted into the school. It is VERY amusing though to read their tshirts... cos they don't really get the funny phrases. for example... just this week i spotted a guy wearing one which said-I'm still wearing my clothes;please help me undress. and a girl wearing I need a sugardaddy. hehe. u should have seen her face when we explained to her what that was!
camera got stolen in Guadalajara- so guess I got no choice but to do a written post rather than a "let-the-pictures-do-the-talking" one. sigh. Coming soon yeah?.....
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-- Mark Twain
About Me
[ name :: debz ]
[ age :: 20 ]
[ bday :: 04/ 12/ 1985 ]
[ :: blessed child of God ::]
[ :: smu kid ::]
[ :: happy daughter n sis ::]
[ :: pampered gf :: ]
I wanna travel the world someday.. *wistful grin*
This is just another step in my journey...
I'm currently in Mexico right now (Tec de Monterrey to be exact).. on exchange.
So feel free to share in my adventure... :)
[went with the frisbee club to visit an orphanage. bottom right pic taken at training] 
[clockwise from top-right: Funky cowboy boots, Shoe-shiner booths, grumpy lady selling flags(twas 2wks b4 independence day), flooded streets, mexican potato chips, "the crazy shark", "the crazy horse", me and my flag, indigenous beggars] 
Monterrey
Alfonso and his family have been a god-send. :) The story of how we met is in the "church post". Here we see his wife Iris, nephew Luis and daughter Priscilla. He's got another daughter called Lydia. He and his wife are leaders in church... and his daughters are in a Heavy Metal band called "The Undertakers". Quite funny actually, shouldve seen his expression when she started talking about her music.... Supposedly "Slipknot" is too mild for her. She's doing a degree in Classical Guitar right now... and she totally owned ansen when she did a short demo for us on his guitar. haha, dont think he even realised it could make sounds like that!
