Las Estacas

Sabado – 30 de Junio.

Día 16. “Las Estacas”

                So it’s official, Mom and Dad I just may never come home (: Another beautiful, relaxing day in Mexico. This morning we woke up to rain, which definitely did not make us happy because we were on our way to an Eco Park for a day of swimming and fun. After 2 hours, multiple detours, road closures, and traffic we finally made it to Las Estacas. While it was still sprinkling our true Minnesotan spirits showed as we were some of the only ones jumping off the cliffs into the crystal clear

water to float down the river. Don’t worry parents, they weren’t THAT high, but we did have lots of fun diving off and acting silly. The sun finally decided to come out around noon and our day really started! Cliff jumping, swimming down the river, multiple rope swings, pools, and zip lines filled our day with so much fun! The rope swings were definitely a favorite for all as we got quite creative trying to get as high as we could out of the water before jumping in- the girls definitely had advantage with the boys catapulting us as far as they could! (: At one point we started at the waterfall at one end of the park and swam down the river for about 30 minutes till the end of the park, it was quite the swim! Then Gina, Carley, and I decided we wanted to try and swim up the river against the current- That only lasted about 10 minutes and we were too tired to go any further and resorted to lying by the pool to get some sun! All together an amazing day spent in beautiful Mexico (:

Daily Spanish Lesson #17:

River- Río

Swing- Culumpio

To Jump- Soltar o Brincar

To Swim- Nadar

Jardín Borda y Orfanato

Viernes – 29 de Junio.

Día 15. “Jardín Borda y Orfanato”

                Another GREAT, beautiful day in Mexico. Today we really only have two and a half hours of real school- this including our first “big” test. That was no big test, I have decided I want to take these teachers back in Minnesota to teach my teachers how to give a reasonable test (: After our test we got to have a little birthday party for another student that is studying with our teachers, her name is Sani- and our group has kind of “adopted” her for our excursions and fun.

                Around noon, instead of our normal classes, we headed to El Centro and Jardín Borda for interviews and fun. When we were told we would be doing interviews we all imagined people sitting down ready to answer our questions. Our interviews couldn’t have been further from that. We were expected to come up with questions, and come up with our interviewees on our own. It was our responsibility to walk up to people, in a foreign country, and just ask them questions. That was quite interesting to say the least, but we did find that people are insanely nice here, and sure found it funny to mess with the American kids- who little did they know, understand quite a bit of Spanish.  Following the awkward interviews we headed to Jardín Borda for a walk where we say numerous fountains, tree sculptures, and the famous “lake”.  I have decided they don’t know what a real lake is here- it was tiny! But, we did get to go rowing in it, and Tommy claimed he learned to row from the movie The Notebook, Kenzie and I aren’t too sure that is true after almost ending up in the 

water a few times, until we took over. We had a little extra time so we bought a few gifts and then headed home- but our day wasn’t done yet.

                Following La Comida we drove about an hour to another orphanage where we got to spend a lot of time getting to know the kids, playing games, and we even brought them two piñatas! I got to know one little boy who was five years old, his name was Nicieto- he loved to take our cameras but didn’t like being in pictures at all- quite the cutie, but I was told I couldn’t put him in my suitcase and bring him home. He taught me how to make a paper airplane and how to play a game they play, much like rock-paper-scissors, but much more fun and they call it “Pikachu”. Kenzie and I found it fun enough to play with each other on the car ride home, much to the dismay of Nihal, who was stuck sitting in between us!

                After a great day, we are currently watching another movie; we do that a lot here. This time Sherlock Holmes. Tomorrow we are headed to an Eco Park for a day of swimming and fun! (:

Daily Spanish Lesson #16:

Very Easy- Muy Facíl

Interview- Entrevista

To Row- Remar

Gifts- Regalos

Xochicalco y Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos

Jueves – 28 de Junio.

Día 14. “Xochicalco y Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos”

                There aren’t really words to explain how amazing today was. We woke up to thunder this morning and the first thing that came to mine “Oh great, wet tennis shoes are my favorite..” But, it ended up being a beautiful day! In the morning we spent time reviewing for our test tomorrow, and learning about our horoscopes, in Spanish only! We weren’t able to go the El Centro for our afternoon classes because of the rain, but our interviews have been rescheduled for sometime next week. Instead, we stayed at school and played review games, and human web games, which was quite interesting, to say the least.

                We didn’t go home after school today; we immediately hopped on a bus for an hour and headed to Xochicalco (Zo-chi-cal-co), which is an archaeological site that shows the “fusion” between the ancient Aztec, Mayan, Zapotec, Olmec, Mixtec, and Toltec cultures. It was very interesting and the sites and views were beyond beautiful. In one direction we saw the first lake we have seen since we were here and of course all us Minnesotan kids got pretty excited about that one! (: We climbed pyramids and even went underground into an observatory where we were able to witness the extreme intelligence of the ancient astronomers. The views at this site were unexplainable, almost as great as the smiles on the faces of the kids on our next adventure…

                After visiting Xochicalco we headed about 20 minutes to an orphanage housing children and young adults ranging from infants to thirty year old adults. It is called “Nuestro Pequeños Hermanos”, which literally translates to “Our Little Sibilings”. This house, more like community, was donated by the government to give children and young adults a chance to get a good education at “home” in a dafe environment, and to promote success after shool. It was the most rewarding day I

have had since we arrived; it was amazing to see the young ones’ faces as we gave them gifts of school supplies, pillow pets, chalk, coloring books, and
 candy! They were mesmerized by our cameras and just wanted more and more pictures! The hugs were abundant and I can’t wait for tomorrow when we are off to visit another orphanage!  (:

Daily Spanish Lesson #15:

Interviews- Entrevistas

Lake- Lago

Orphanage- Orfanato

Community- Communidad

Madagascar

Miércoles – 27 de Junio.

Día 13. “Madagascar”

                Today wasn’t very eventful, but it was still pretty great. I mean what day in Mexico, with sunny 85 degree weather isn’t great? (: Speaking of weather.. we have finally had 3 beautiful days in a row! Now that the hurricane has passed the weather is back to normal. “Normal” you may ask, all year round 75-90 degrees, with rain in the evenings and nights. It’s beautiful. Cuernavaca is “The City of Eternal Springs” and it is just like spring time (hot spring time!) all year round. Today was the second day we were able to see the famous volcano, Popocatépetl on our drive to school in the morning. It is currently an active volcano and the picture doesn’t do it just. Classes were pretty normal today and the afternoon was spent entirely on speaking and conversations.

                Tonight’s excursion was back to the mall, Gallerías, to go to another movie. This time we saw Madagascar 3. Those dang animated animals talk at a million miles an hour and following their Spanish was nearly impossible, I might have taken a few naps throughout the movie.. Shh :P Tomorrow we are headed to the orphanage with our gifts for the children, and we are all very excited! (:

Daily Spanish Lesson #14:

Volcano- Volcán

Morning- Mañana

Nap- Siesta

Little Child- Niño

Just a little fun from Mexico :)

Voleibol

Lunes – 26 de Junio.

Día 12. “Voleibol!”

                This morning was just like others, 3 hours of grammar and vocabulary class, but we were missing Tommy so our teacher decided we were going to have a bit of fun today. We played Verb Bingo and spent a lot of time writing, which I have found to be really helpful- especially in the evening when I have to write my journals. In the afternoon it was again Piñata time, but this time we got to fill them with candy and break them open! We learned a little song to sing while hitting the piñata and it was quite the competition among the boys to see who could sing the best.

“Dale, Dale, Dale,

No pierdas el tino,

Porque si lo pierdes,

Pierdes el camino.

Dale, Dale, Dale,

Dale no la dio,

Quiténle la venda,

Porque sigo yo.

Ya le diste una

Ya le diste dos

Ya le diste tres

Y tu tiempo se acabó”

Translation for this song is not the best, but in a sense the song is telling you to “Hit it! Hit it! Hit it!” and don’t lose your aim! :)  After the fight for candy we headed home for La Comida and spent some time with our family- and the new addition to our house, Phillipe, our “cousin”.

Tonight we didn’t have an excursion but we headed to the high school, BIU, to play sports with some of the Mexican students. Tonight’s sport was volleyball, so of course I was really excited. My team ended up going 3-0 to win the championship, quite the feat for us! We sure cheered loud when Kenzie finally hit the ball over the net! :P The boys claim it was the training they made her do while we were on a break- basically running up and down the stairs! :P After sports it was just a night of rest, and we played some Rummy with family and then had la cena.  Off to catch up on writing my journals that I have been neglecting to write this weekend, shh! :P

Daily Spanish Lesson #13:

Volleyball- Voleibol

To write- Escribir

Cousin- Primo

I agree- Estoy de acuerdo

To Facebook- Facebookear   (No joke here! It is a legit verb!)

To Text- Textear (This one too! (: )

Amanalco Ravines

Martes – 25 de Junio.

Día 11. “Amanalco Ravines!”

                The second week of classes has officially begun, but getting up at six thirty in the morning is definitely not getting any easier.  After a full weekend of fun getting up this morning was not exactly enjoyable, but we did it, and headed off to school. Classes in the morning were the same as normal- 3 hours of learning grammar, vocabulary, the “textbook” Spanish stuff but then we headed off to the afternoon for some fun! We continued to make our piñatas… my group is definitely not going to win this prize, but that’s okay, we still get to smash our piñata! :)

                

         

After school we headed home for La Comida- today we ate cooked cauliflower with an interesting tomato sauce, rice, and beans. Mamá says that it is one of her favorite meals. We also were calling it the “piña comida” because we were drink piña coladas               and eating piña Jell-O. Muy Delicioso! After dinner we had a little time to just relax and then we headed to El Centro for a bus tour of the town and the Amanalco Ravines. Everything tonight was a little bit delayed because we were uniformed that there was a political rally going on downtown, the elections are July 1^st, and all campaigns adds must be down by Thursday so it was quite the rally. No cars were moving in the roads, there were hundreds of buses lining the sidewalks and sides of the roads, and there were thousands of people crowding the streets, it was quite the experience. The rallies were for Josefina, a women running for president this year, and from the people we have talked to, she isn’t the most popular.

     An ice cream cone later, and waiting for an hour we finally got our whole group together and we made it through the crowds to board the tour bus to Amanalco Ravines. On the way we saw quite a few monuments, famous houses, and even the first hotel in Cuernavaca, established in 1905. When we finally got to the Ravine 231 steps and 4 (terrifying!) bridges later, we got to hear the history of it all. Just 14 years ago the some 300 feet deep gorges were filled with over 300 million tons of accumulated trash. Kenzie dragged me across multiple bridges, we got some good pictures, and experienced a Mexican election rally- all together a great day!

Daily Spanish Lesson #12:

Prize- Premio

To Win- Ganar

Jell­-O- Gelatina

Election- Elección

To Vote- Votar