Thank God for Starbuck's Internet

Hello!

As silly as it sounds I am eternally grateful for the Starbucks not too far from mi casa. Its quite a happening place but best of it has internet and chair tea, perfecto. Let's see what have I been up to. Two weekends ago I visited D.F. again I really love Mexico City. Its so massive I could never have imagined a place a) so full of people and b) so sprawling. The metro seems unending at it only connects a fraction of the city. This time around I was with a group of students in my program. Saturday we visited Teotihuacan a city of ruins found near Mexico City. It is perhaps best known for the Sun Temple and corresponding Moon Temple. However there are pyramids scattered everywhere that form a faint image of the city that once dominated the area. Not so long ago all the remains were buried under dirt and appeared to be only hills! 

After Teotihuacan we continued on to Mexico City and while the rest of the group checked out the very cool Museum of Anthropology which I visited the first time around myself and a couple others headed out to see more of the city. We made our way to Zona Rosa which is the liberal/gay district. It was a nice little area but annoyingly full of American chains I didn't even bother to take photos. Along one of the main streets we did discover a series of "artistic" benches which lead us to El Monumento de Independencia. We also visited Garibaldi Square home of the famous mariachis although it was too early in the evening for too many to be performing. 

Sunday was a hectic, jam packed day. First to El Templo Mayor, Aztec ruins right next to the heart of Mexico City, the Zocalo. The Spanish built right on top the most impressive and sacred part of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec City). Before checking out of our hostel we did get to watch a replay of Michael Phelps final olympic race. Most of the Olympic broadcasting down here covered sports like archery, taekwondo (Mexico won two golds), speed walking, weight lifting, wrestling, and occasionally swimming. Speed walking was pretty interesting to watch, who knew? Any how we also visited Los Bellas Artes, more murals, Frida Kahlo's house which is now a museum and awesome, and La Plaza de Tres Culturas site of a student massacre in 1968. Drove by the Olympic Stadium from that year too then headed back to Querétaro utterly exhausted.

Last weekend was another trip this time more laid back and without a guide. Saturday we headed to Guanajuato about two hours away. Its a gorgeous city nestled in an amazingly green valley with colorfully curving streets just like I expected to find in Mexico. The city also boast the childhood home of Diego Rivera which we visited so I have now been steeped in the fascinating  history of two of Mexico's most famous artists. That afternoon we journeyed to San Miguel De Allende a major ex-pat city and home to many skilled artisans. The best part was easily the hot springs just outside the city, the most relaxing sunday yet.

I only have about 10 more days here in Querétaro and I just can't seem to get enough of the city! Classes are getting busier as we near finals but my friends and I have also become more adventures in the evening finding new cafés to study, pastelerías, resturantes and places to find souvenirs. This weekend will be my first and last full weekend in Querétaro who knows maybe I'll even go with my family to church, maybe.

Besos,

Cara

BYOTP- Bring Your Own Toilet Paper

¡Hola! I have now mastered using accents, the upside down question marks, and exclamation points on my computer, very exciting. Today I turned in my first essay and had a pretty intense midterm. TGIF, I'm done with the terrifying stick shift autobuses, university bathrooms that lack toilet paper, and long-winded presentations! At least for this week. 

Ever since I returned from Arkansas things have been pretty hectic. I didn't seem to miss that much during my trip other than illness. In addition to a couple outbreaks of food posioning two students were really ill and ended up going to the hospital Monday. Both are doing fine now but one of them actually had typhoid and decided to go home so our merry bunch is short one :(which when you only have 9 in a class and 22 overall is quite a loss. Wednesday I had a presentation about Mexican weddings, my partner and I each had to talk for 8 minutes so if you have any questions on the topic, I probably have an answer. The weather has been milder, at least temperature wise, than when I first arrived with thunderstorms in the evenings after really nice, warm days. These thunderstorms are unlike anything I've ever experienced. Tuesday night I swear the thunder and lightening was right in my neighborhood. 

Tomorrow morning we leave for D.F. for the weekend and I will finally get to see the pyramids in Teotihuacan! Until I return to Querétaro.

Love,

Cara

Los Luchas Libres

Buenos dias!

I guess I'll begin with last Tuesday which turned out to be pretty hectic. After classes a group of us went to have a cooking lesson with one of the señoras, their family actually runs a bakery out of their home. We made fresh pineapple juice, bomb guacamole, and chalupas. My favorite part had to be the guacamole, the chalupas were pretty good, simple, but a little to fried in grease for my taste. That same evening our group had tickets to a lucha libre, Mexican wrestling match, headlined by the famous Dr. Wagner. We watched several fights before the main event. It was quite a production. Dr. Wagner and his partner entered in blue and white practically demanding the crowds' attention. Their two opponents were clothed in black and red spandex, which is always....attractive. They were clearly the villains of this match. It was pretty ridiculous to watch and the crowd got equally ridiculous. And just when you thought Dr. Wagner was getting his butt kicked he made a spectacular come back and claimed the last two rounds (they do actually have three rounds and a ref, all official like). It was a pretty fun evening and, its safe to say it was an important part of our, "cultural experience."

Tomorrow morning I have to get up super early to catch a bus to D.F. for an intermission in my Mexico experience. Next destination: Monticello, Arkansas.

Until I return,

Cara 

Mi primero fin de semana

I have officially been in Querétaro a week! After finishing classes friday I went home and collapsed, speaking Spanish so much is certainly tiring. It's a good thing I didn't go out friday night because on Saturday our group took a trip to Bernal about an hour away from Querétaro. Bernal is famous for its monolith, one huge piece of rock kinda like an iceberg with only a piece of the whole formation visible above ground. We hiked a good ways up the monolith and had an amazing view. The hike was more difficult than i thought it would be in part because of the increased elevation and the route we chose. It definitely seemed worth it though as we ate lunch up top with amazing views all around. After we descended we spent some time in the town of Bernal which is much more touristy than Querétaro. After we returned to Querétaro I was exhausted and took an extra long siesta. Somehow though around 9:30 I managed to find the energy to go out to a local bar called Barro KDA (like barracuda).

Sunday was a wonderful day of rest. I only left the house in the evening to go with my señora and señor to visit some family. My señora's brother did not approve of my American pronunciation. So for the next 45 minutes I was being drilled on how to say my "R's" roja, rey, carro, arroyo, etc. He even took a page out of My Fair Lady and had me reciting "the rain in spain falls mainly on the plans!" He was very nice but es muy insistente, or persistent.

Today it's back to classes including a field trip to the mercado to practice our food vocabulary.

Hasta luego.

besos,

Cara

Querétaro

I know it's been a while between posts but the computer lab on campus has all blog pages blocked! However, I know have wireless for my laptop and am in business!

To begin, Mexico City. My first night I was lucky enough to run into two other Oregon students that were staying at my hostel. We made plans to meet up the next morning and begin our whirlwind tour of D.F. Our hostel was in a prime location next to one of the main plazas. We were a short walk from the Palacio Nacional and the Diego Rivera murals, as well as the city's main Catedral which was built in the 1500s. We also visited the Anthropology Museum which was really interesting and included a lot of the early history of Mexico. 

After the two guys headed to the airport to pick up some of the other students I hopped on a bus tour that took two hours, I saw a lot of Mexico City but I didn't expect to take so much time getting back to my hostel. By the time I got back, there were several new faces in our group. We went to bed early since we were planning to get up and go see the Basilica de Guadalupe. The metro system in D.F. is unbelievable. It can get so crowded at times your simply along for the ride and there are so many different lines since the city itself is so vast I had to transfer so many times. All for only 2 pesos per ride!

After visiting the Basilica which was unfortunately under renovation and sported some impressive scaffolding, myself, Markus, David, and Dana took a "tour" of sorts from the hospital to a futbol game! The match was between Cruz Azul and Chivas. Dana and I decided to support Chivas because they sold flattering women's jerseys, haha. The game itself was really fun and the second half kept things interesting. In the very last minutes Cruz Azul scored to tie the game 2-2 the fans went crazy and we got showered in beer.

Following the game we grabbed our bags from the hostel and caught a taxi to the bus station to catch a bus to Querétaro. Barely a block from our hostel a little green slug bug cab came hurling towards us and crashed into the back of our cab! No one was hurt and the damage to our taxi was minimal. The other cab though, had its front smashed in. Needless to say we were all pretty shaken and when our replacement cab arrived we quickly put on seatbelts and begged him to drive slow, which of course this being Mexico City, he didn't.

We caught a 9:00 luxury bus to Querétaro which was the most comfortable 3 hour trip i've ever taken. Arriving in Querétaro around midnight we checked into our hotel and immediately went to sleep.

Sunday was my first day and after a quick tour of the downtown along with a call to my host family I headed to their house at about 2:00 in time for the main meal of the day, La Comida. My señora and señor are a very sweet older couple who have been hosting students for more than 20 years! My señora Irma is a crafts teacher and the house is filled with her creations, mostly dolls (they aren't too creepy though). Their children and grandchildren came over for comida making a grand total of 10 around the table. It was my first attempt conversing for a significant period of time and by the end of the meal I was exhausted. 

Classes began at 9:00 Monday. I have 3 hours of class a day, five days a week. One class is composition with Lulu (best professor ever) and the second class is oral skills and vocabulary with Betty. There are 9 of us studying 200 level Spanish and its been a really fun group. We finish class at 2:00 and head home for comida and a siesta, my favorite part being the siesta.

The city of Querétaro itself is far bigger than I had imagined but it's really easy to get around between walking and taking the buses(which make me fear another car accident). El centro is full of great places to eat, drink, and hangout. So far the weather has been pretty warm and sunny interrupted but only the occasional thunderstorm. 

Well, my second class is beginning soon and tomorrow we have our first prueba or quiz so today i'll be studying instead of siesta-ing!

Besos,

Cara

On the Road Again

¡Hola!
I have just begun my next great foreign adventure of the summer. Its been pretty unexciting so far. I flew from Oakland to LA then to Mexico City where I will be staying the next two nights before heading to Queretaro for my stay. So far the only thing I can really say about Mexico City is that it is sure crowded! Unbelievable. Tomorrow I plan on heading out and seeing as many of the sites as I can in a day. Everything has gone smoothly thus far but it sure feels strange to be traveling without my other half! Dakota you better read my blog now that I´m not writing about you! haha. Well my love to all and I will let you know how Mexico City is other than full to capacity.
Besos,
Cara

The Longest Day

Hello again,
Monday following Euro 2008 we got up and headed out to get tickets to tour the Parliament building (definitely not Dakota's idea, haha) which was a very interesting, concise 45 minute tour so she didn't have anything to complain about. We also visited St. Stephen's Basilica which is home to St. Stephen's forearm(?). We climbed numerous spiral staircases to reach the top of the tower which turned out to be spectacular. 360 degrees of Budapest.
Tuesday, our last day we slept in a bit because the first leg of our flight home leaves Budapest at 6:45 a.m. local time meaning we are leaving for the airport at 3:45 (very soon here) so we decided to not go to bed. Once we did get up we visited the Market Hall, Statue Park which is where they put all the communist statues after the Soviet Union fell, and cooked dinner. Packing was also a major event of the day. The only explanation for the cluttered state of our dorm was that our backpacks threw up. Putting them back together wasn't that easy especially with our purchases from Market Hall.
Budapest has been an interesting city, frustrating at times (when resturants or bars are closed when they are suppose to be open) as well as fascinating. However I am very excited to spend time at home and to have my phone back :P so i can talk to everyone that isn't at home.
We're heading out to wait for the cab in a few so until I head to Mexico in a few weeks...
Love,
Cara

Buda and Pest

Hello,
Dakota and I got into Budapest Friday evening after a few hours on the train. We set out to figure out the public transit here and find our hostel. This, however took far longer than expected due the "off-yonder-ness" of our hostel. There were no resturants nearby and the so called "10 minutes to downtown" was really "a 15 minute tram ride to the metro station which you then have to take to get downtown." It seemed like a pretty chill place but it was loud with this annoying dog, needless to say we found plenty of faults. So, we packed up the next morning checked out four nights early and moved to a hostel that was actually in the city. Our new hostel has been nice. There is free internet and our room has these cool little balconies. Also there are numerous resturants, bars, and signs of life nearby.
So far in Budapest we've visited a House of Terror Museum which was about the Nazi occupation soon followed by the Communist regime. We visited replicas of their prison and execution room, fun. Also, we spent a wonderful saturday night at the Turkish baths. That was very relaxing although we smelled like sulfur after. Sunday we ventured across the rive to the Buda side of things where there are several old churches, a labrinyth, and of course a palace which is home to the current Hungarian president. All of this is on top of a hill with a fabulous view of the Danube and the Parliament building (where we are heading today). From up there we saw some type of street fair taking place on one of the bridges so we trekked it downhill and found a neat arts and crafts type fair. There was music and performances on the far side of the bridge so we wandered all the way across before heading back to our hostel. Last night was also the Finals for Euro 2008 between Spain and Germany. We got great seats outside of this bar called Jolly Rogers with a big TV and surround by football fans. It was very unAmerican haha :)
Anyhow we're off to see more of the Pest side today. And kota is anxious to check her email so until later.
Love,
Cara

Slovakia

Hello Again, sorry for my tardiness between posts.
We just got settled in our second hostel in Budapest, the first one didn't work out too well. But more about that later. We had a fun last night in Prague, which included meeting a street performer from Montreal named Alex who was really quite entertaining. We also ended up going out to possibly the coolest club I've ever been to. From the courtyard, to the bar, to the dancefloor everything was made from recycled industrial materials, mostly from the communist area apparently. There were light fixtures made from tire wells and irons (there were little blinky lights coming through the holes in the irons). And the entire outside/balcony was an intricate work of metal. I'm not quite sure how structurally sound it was but it looked cool.
Tuesday morning (not too early though) we took off for Bratislava the capital of Slovakia. It was suppose to be a 4 hour train ride but it ended up taking a little more than 6 so most of our day was spent traveling. Bratislava is a good size city along the Danube and was the site of many Hungarian coronations, fyi. I won't regurgitate much more from the tour book but we did visit this Palace which is now the Presidential residence and has less obvious security than the American embassy (surprise, surprise). They also have a castle too which was fun to walk around. And of course cheap beer. We liked that about Slovakia. We spent our first day walking around the Old Town and seeing most of the major sights(there really aren't that many especially if you only visit one church, like us). The next day we took a ferry boat that was really cool it went 62 km/h through the narrow canals of the Danube all the way to Vienna for the day. Unbeknowst to us this was the day of the semifinal game between Russia and Spain(woot woot). The streets were filled with fans and the Imperial Palace was home to a "FanZone." Which kind of ruined the effect. It was pretty wild and the Spanish fans were by far the more enthusastic group. We only got to see a few main sights in part because of the game and in part because of the intense thunderstorms that set in.
For example, it was overcast but still warm and we were wandering around outside of the main cathedral when all of a sudden I see all the fans that had been partying in the street running towards us. Not quite sure what was going on Kota and I ran too just as we felt the rain pelting our backs. We hid in an exspensive scarf store while it was absolutely pouring and the gargoyles on the church were releasing impressive streams of water. Nearly everyone had taken cover and the ladies in the store were really nice, but we still didnt touch anything. Like I said, it was pretty wild. We returned to Bratislava that evening where it was storming beyond belief. Winds, rain, thunder, lightning, the whole deal. We made it back to our hostel eventually but nonetheless we were pretty wet and carrying our purses in trash bags they gave us on the ferry. We stayed in after that.
Our last day in Bratislava we mostly hung around, had a nice lunch and some ice cream, then headed to the train station for Budapest, Hungary which we are exploring now.
More to come soon (I swear) I just hate to monopolize the computer.
Love,
Cara

p.s. I can not for the life of me find an exclamation point on this keyboard so please bear with me and just imagine my exclamations. Kisses and hugs(imagine...)

Prague-ness

Hi!
Today is our last night in Prague and we just got back from buying our train tickets. We head to Bratislava just before midday tomorrow and should be there by late afternoon. Prague has been great! Our first day we mostly wandered around the district we are staying in called Zizkov, which is pretty laid back. The next day, Saturday we headed to "Old Town" and saw some of the more famous sights like the Astronomical Clock and the Jewish Ghetto where there's this insane graveyard that is crowded beyond belief! It looks like something out of a Tim Burton film. It was a really nice day until we got fined on the metro :( our bad for not having tickets. That's just how the cookie crumbles. Sunday we visited a contemporary art museum that was...interesting, very interesting. We also got tickets for a classical music concert at the Rudolphium which is a gorgeous building and the show itself was pretty epic. Today we got up and out to see the Charles Bridge and Prague Castle two of the major tourist spots. (Liz, I took a photo in front of your saintly likeness). The weather has been really really warm which is a very nice change from Oregon but drains my energy. Between that and all the walking we've done I will sleep really well tonight!
Love,
Cara

The Clown and Bard

Hello!
Now over 19 hours after we left home, Dakota and I have reached Prague and our hostel. We both took wonderful naps during our five hour layover in Frankfurt and now are trying to stay awake long enough to be on Prague time. Nothing too exciting has happened which is a good thing in many ways. We'll be here for like five nights so we have a real chance to see a lot of the city.
Love,
Cara

Preparations

Hi all,

Today Kota and I begin packing for our Prague/Bratislava/Budapest trip. We fly out from SFO tomorrow at 1:00 which is the beginning of a very very long travel day. We'll arrive in Prague at 5:30 on Thursday local time which is 8:30 a.m. West Coast time. Dakota and I are having a panini breakfast with the girls tomorrow morning before heading out to the airport. Next time I post I will have officially begun my trip! 

Until then,

Cara