Day 53, Week 8

Today was an okay day. I had class like always and then came home. I had a nice talk with Brian and then a good fish lunch. :) I have a lot of bass here...it's weird. I took a long much-needed nap after lunch and when I woke up I went to the movie "Charlie St. Cloud" with Jenny and Annina. It was such a good movie, I think I'm going to ask for it for Christmas. ;) I went to kickboxing right after the movie, which was good to let out some steam. I had a late dinner and did some homework and talked with Brian and some other friends too. I have a little quiz in my cultural class tomorrow but I'm not worried because our teacher told us it will only take about 5 minutes and I'm pretty sure he told us the questions he was going to ask in class-haha. Well I better get some sleep!
7 1/2 weeks down already...uffda!

-Whitney

Day 52, Week 8

Today was a very fun day! We all woke up at David's house in Chapala and went to the center again to see the market. It was really cool but a lot like the one in Guadalajara I've been to a couple times. The lake was beautiful and there were lots of people out on guided boat rides. It made me miss home to see the lake! After a couple hours we went back to the house where David's parents, grandpa, aunt, and some of his uncles were making lunch. His family is so great. They were all very nice to us and his dad was hilarious. He was joking around with us and trying to tell us he didn't know Spanish so he was talking in English and the rest of us in Spanish. It was a wonderful afternoon and early evening. I'm so glad I got that opportunity to meet those people. They made us fresh salsa and then chorizo and steak tacos on the grill. They were so delicious! I even squeezed in a four-wheeler ride in there too. :)

Tomorrow I have to go back to school-noo haha. But it's almost the weekend! I'm not sure what we're going to be doing this weekend.

-Whitney

Day 51, Week 8

Monday, October 11

I went to school and wanted to get done with my classes as fast as possible because I wanted to leave for Chapala! My friend Diego Luna came and picked up Allison and I and we got two other girls and headed for the lake. It only took us about 45 minutes to get there so we went to the center to see the boardwalk while we waited for the other car of people to get there. My friend David's house was so beautiful and it had a courtyard/patio between the garage and the house so that is where we had a little fiesta. There were probably around 30 people that showed up throughout the night. It was super fun but way too wild and crazy for my liking.

-Whitney

Day 50, Week 8

Today was a relaxing day. I got home from David's house at 11 and then I just laid low the whole day. I had breakfast and then lunch later with Allison. I finished my homework early and then Allison and I went for a walk to the ATM and the pharmacy to get popsicles. :) That's her latest fetish haha. We had a nice dinner and then I got to talk with Brian for a while.

Tomorrow I have class and then I am going to Chapala which is a lake about 45 minutes away with all my friends. We don't have class on Tuesday for the Virgin of Zapopan so David is having a bunch of people over at his house for the night. I'm really excited to get to know Chapala and to see what his house there is like too.

Starting week 8! Can hardly believe it.

-Whitney

Day 49, Week 7

Yesterday was so fun! I went to the tianguis cultural (cultural market) with my friends Tara, Jenny, Annina, and Allison. When we were getting off the first of the two buses you have to take, it started to take off while Jenny was mid-stride in the back doorway! The doors started closing in on her and everyone started yelling at the driver to stop. Oh it was crazy! The tianguis is toward the center of the town and is basically an arts and crafts show-mexican style. I bought 2 dresses, a tank top and a cover up for around $28, soo it's very inexpensive as well. I also bought some earrings and another bracelet. Gotta love that jewelry! I can't wait until I can bring my mom there when she comes. :) It attracts more of the alternative crowds, but there's a lot of neat things there too. If anything, you can sure do some top of the line people watching there. We went to Walmart after to grab a few things to make some more guacamole for the night and then headed back toward our houses.

Allison and I came home and got ready for the evening's activities and walked back over to Annina's house to make the guacamole and have a little snack. The other girls came over later and our friend David picked us up to go to his family's Argentinian restaurant. We all just ate a little bit because we had just eaten shortly beforehand, but it was VERY delicious. Another friend of ours, Diego was there too so when we were finished with dinner we all packed in the cars and went to the club. We had to wait in line for it to open, but when we got in it was like we were VIP or something because David got us in for free somehow. I had never been to a club before so it was a whole new experience, but I LOVED IT! It was so much fun dancing with everyone.

We left after a couple hours and by that time I think it was around 3 a.m. To the mexicans, that is very early! We went to David's house and had a little after-party. :) That was also a lot of fun and we danced some more. We stayed overnight there and Diego brought us all home around 11 this morning! :) I'm so thankful to have friends from here because it's so much easier to get around and also to get to know the city. They are wonderful people.

-Whitney

Day 48, Week 7

Last night was FABULOUS! :)
I went to class and my culture class was very interesting as usual, and then I came home to get ready for my night. I talked to Brian for a little bit and my mom too as I was getting ready for our lunch that Allison was making at our friend's house and then the concert after. I walked over to Annina's house where Allison made guacamole, homemade tortillas, and chipotle chicken with beans. It was so amazing!! There was 7 of us including some guys from school we know. After dinner we walked to catch a bus to the town where the concert was at. We were on the wrong side of the road apparently and had just missed the right bus on the opposite side of the road. When we got over to the right side, we waited for a long time and finally came upon our correct bus, but extremely full to the max and no room for 7 more people! We were already behind our schedule so we just walked to the fountain to catch a taxi. We made it to Zapopan in 20 minutes and were absolutely shocked to see how many people were already there. We waited in line for 2 hours just for general seats and actually came across some of our friends so they stood in line with us too. We got in the gate finally and figured out it was in a big "tent" outside and it seemed more like a music festival. My friend told me, "Any concert that sells tacos outside is alright with me." We got inside the tent and were expecting the concert to start at 9 like the ticket said, but we danced and danced and got more squished as the people filled in for 2 1/2 more hours. It was 11:30 by the time they actually came on stage and we were all so tired already! They were amazing and everyone was so loud I thought I was sure to lose my hearing in the left ear. :P Finally around 1 we were all so sick of getting squished and the cigarette smoke and so tired we just walked outside the tent to listen there for a while. I bought myself a t-shirt and we left soon after. It was a great night and I'm so glad I got to see Aventura in concert!

Day 47, Week 7

Boy how it helps to go out to get your mind of off things once in a while! Yesterday after school I took a nice long nap and then Allison and I went to the Cuban bar and Tara met us there too. It was really fun just to go out for some drinks and have some good conversation. After we left, we were still deciding what we wanted to do for the night, but I didn't want to just sit home and sulk all day because I knew that wouldn't do me any good. So, I watched the rest of the Twins game (upsetting), we had a quick dinner and then we met up with some friends to go do a bunch of things! First, we went to some bar where there were more people from school, then we went to some cafe/bar that was really unique. It was supposed to be for this polyglot (someone who speaks many languages) conversation table-type thing, but we all kind of sat at our own table and just had a couple drinks there. After that, a Mexican friend of my Finnish friend brought us to this rooftop house party where there were a ton of Europeans for some reason! haha We just hung out on the rooftop talking and then we left shortly after. We walked about 10 minutes to this salsa club called "La Muturalista" which is very well-known in Guadalajara. It was a big dance floor where a live salsa band played with tables all around us and a bar. At first it was so overwhelming because there were so many people and the guys grab you to dance immediately. We found a teacher from our school there with his girl friends so we sat with them and got some drinks. It was pretty slow at first, but then this middle-aged man came up to me to dance, so I did. He was really weird and danced too close for my liking! I decided to stay away from him for the rest of the night-haha. Then, this guy that is originally from Mexico City came up to ask me to dance and he was super nice and taught me a little bit more about salsa dancing. It was a good opportunity to really work on my Spanish, but it was so loud it was hard to hear. We danced a bunch of times and I went and sat down with him and some friends and just talked about where I was from, etc. I also met a guy from Edin Prairie, MN! He is one of my friend's friends so she introduced us. What a small world! :) It was a super fun night after it got going! I think I will probably go back to that club some other time! I got home around 3 a.m. and just crashed, uffda I was tired! I'm going to the Aventura concert tonight and Allison is also making us a lunch/dinner at our friend's house this afternoon beforehand. I'm pretty excited to have another good day! TGIF :)

-Whitney