Most embarrassing moment

I stayed at the university late tonight studying and once it gets dark, its not safe to walk home. So, I took the school bus for the first time. It runs all night. I get on the bus and tell the driver my street. Well, he starts driving in the opposite direction of my house and then stops. Apparently I’m the first one to be dropped off. He says, “ You live here?” And well, I have NO idea where we are. So he asks what streets I live around. I have no idea. I know the name of my street and the one next to it. The bus driver, looking not so very happy, parks the bus, walks outside and makes a phone call. He comes back and says, “Where do you live? You don’t know? “ So, I call my neighbor. He tells me one more street name. I now have a total of 3 streets that I know. So, with the collaboration of THE ENTIRE BUS, he starts driving to the intersection. Then, he stops and says, “Look familiar?” Yes, except I realized that we had PASSED my house and since I was at the back of the bus, I couldn’t see. So we have to turn around. The students then suggest that I move to the front of the bus so I can find my house. We finally arrive and I exit like a true American.

How come I always forget photos?

This is us at our favorite lil local bar where we always leave within 2 hours because of how hot it is...they have AC, but they don't seem to enjoy using it....These are my two roomates. The one in the middle of from Asheville and goes to school in Charlotte. The one on the right goes to school in Boulder CO and I share a room with her.

Better

I'm feeling better today. Still kinda out of it just like how I was feeling in the states when I thought something was wrong with my head...But, my stomach is fine so thats good. The heat here is exhausting and I hardly slept last night- had to get up at 6:30 for class.

I just got a hair cut. I loved my last hair cut but it had just grown out to much. Needless to say, it was quite the experience. Pretty scary actually. They just used a razor the entire time....pretty sure I shut my eyes for half of it! But, its not thaaatttt bad. I will see if I can put gel in it when I get home and hopefully give it some life. My hair just grows so fast here that I had to have it cut cause it was a mess!

I can't work at my house. It is SO hot unless I run the AC and its really hard to study in heat in my bed without pillows to sit up. So, I came back to campus but now Im so hungry that I have to make the trek back home to eat....its a 20 minute walk (which is 110 degree weather is reaaaallllyyyy long!)

I have no idea when is best for family to come visit me. We have only two days off. We don't get thanksgiving off or a fall break. I am leaving the city on Oct 30-nov 2 to travel south. This is for day of the dead and they don't really celebrate it much in the north so we will fly south for this...Its something that nobody can explain. They spend all night in the grave yards, but its a celebration. very different from anything anyone has experienced. We are going to go to the center of where this is at its height(which means a day or two of school skipping.) The only other date I know about is Spt 16 which we have off for independence day and I will travel then as well.

Basically, if you want to come visit, you would probably want to only stay in the city for a few days and then take a cheap flight down south. (take a flight through a connector like aerobus) Looking right now, it seems like the beginning/mid of october may be the best. I am done with school at the very end of november and then I will travel for 2 weeks. If you want to make a vacation by going south, I have some great recommendations on where to go and how.

Ok, I'm off to do a tad of homework and then home to eat dinner. I AM SO TIRED OF GROUP PROJECTS! This entire school is about group work- can I please just write an essay?!?!?! :)

love,

jordyne

sick? or something weird...

Not feeling very well today. Had a stomach ache since yesterday and not sure why. Also been really tired and hot today. My friend in class said she has been feeling the same way and something is going around....It's not bad enough to where I wouldn't go out but it's not quite sick enough to actually take anything. Just been really hot and yucky feelings...hoping it goes away soon. I've been in bed since I got home today.

I'm currently spending time trying to figure out where to travel once I'm done with exams in December. My friend and I are trying to find a couple more people to travel with us. We are meeting with a professor to help plan an itinerary. We want to fly to Mexico city, and starting there, make our way down south. There are some amazing cities and we plan to use hostels only with few exceptions....still a whole lot of planning for that!

Cool Vs Not

Ok, I am going to start a ''cool things about mexico vs not so cool things'' list....Im sure I will have more to add everyday. By not so cool, I don't mean bad, just things Im not used to....Different is not inferior.

Cool Things About Mexico:

If you are Catholic and pass by a Catholic church, you are supposed to do some prayer/sign thing to pay respect for that particular church and wish them the best.

- F food on the roads. Always people selling food.

- S salsa. Lots of it!

- D drinks are really cheap. A bottle of purified water is like 50 cents. A can of coke is like 55 cents.

Taxi’s are really cheap. (Though I rode in one that had a dead deer foot hanging from the mirror and for every turn, the deer foot hit my leg….not to mention the risk of death from riding in one)

Not So Cool Things About Mexico:

- A Always being late. TO EVERYHTING EXCEPT CLASS! If you are to meet a friend for lunch at 12, it will be at least 1:00 before they show!

- S Service. Everything is SLOW. I mean, really slow. Its not because they are busy, its just because nothing moves fast in this country. The supermarkets always have long waits because the cashiers are so slow, and going to dinner consumes an entire night. I went to lunch by myself yesterday and was the only person in the place. It took them 30 minutes to bring my drink. I was there for 2 hours!

- Y You are strolling along the road, and all of a sudden, you get a whiff of shit smell (its waaaay worse than poop). I mean, really really gross. It smells like someone pooped on top of a dead animal and then put it in the oven.

- T Too much starch. I am so tired of beef, rice, and potatoes for dinner. It’s amazing how similar Mexico is to the Midwest.

- N Nothing is ever refrigerated. The meat from lunch, sits on the stove until you are ready to eat it for dinner. I have seen our meat sit in the 95% F house for 10 hours.

- T The pedestrian respect. Pedestrians do not have rights in the streets. I have seen so many close calls….You even have to be aware of what’s going on in the street when you are walking on the sidewalk.

- - The streets may have been built recently, but I’m pretty sure the Mayas build the sidewalks. The sidewalks are so slick, that I have slipped and fallen like 4 times. The sidewalks have not been maintained and so they have so many cracks and dangerous things in them. Everyones’ feet are busted up from falling. P.s- I have even seen a bunch of Mexicans fall…It’s not a gringo thing!

Hard Day

Little down today. My classes are harder than anything I have ever had. I have a 15 page paper in just about all my classes. I have one presentation tomorrow and had 45 pages of spanish history reading assigned for one day! The reading is intense and so 10 pages in spanish about boring history takes me like over an hour. It sucks!

Im talking to ASU and trying to figure out which class to drop. I have to get credit for this one class or I wont graduate on time so thats really stressful.

Im stressed with school and thats bringing me down. I don't have time to go out and meet people or travel cause I have to get a C in all my classes to pass and graduate! Also feeling pretty alone cause it's amazingly hard to meet people. The campus has 18,000 students and its a big city feel so people pretty much keep to themselves and their clicks. Its getting pretty tricky.

I know it will get better, but today sucked. OH, and I set my alarm but forgot to turn it on, so I woke up at 8:05. I was supposed to leave my house at 8:00 to make it to my class at 8:30- So I went all day looking and feeling disgusting...ugghhh

I was hoping for easy classes so that I could spend lots of time doing the volunteer social work program and learning spanish outside of the classroom but it doesn't look like thats going to happen. I don't know if I'll even have time for the social work program and thats why I came here.

-Frustrated

Just 2

Finally a Post

Cool things about my university:

-It is the most respected university in Latin America. It is world-renowned for its engineering school, international policies, and biotechnology. They equate it to MIT. Thus, everyone dresses up to go to school.....It's like going to Harvard or Yale; so the prestige is huge and the the buildings are incredible.

Although they are a technological school, they want to bring nature to the city, so inside the campus they have deer, ducks, and peacocks. Its so cool when you are eating lunch, and a real deer comes up to you! I will take pictures of that soon! They also have a huge recycling program and really promote it well.

To graduate from the school, you have to do 480 hours of community service. If you don't finish all the hours, you don't graduate-no exceptions. I have never heard of a university requiring that, let alone 480 hours! To finish, you have to start doing community service in your freshmen year, and really do it weekly.

Also to graduate, you have to take the TOEFL and place advanced in English. The TOEFL is an international language test and if you don't receive an advanced English score, you don't graduate.

The school is amazing. I have never been to a school in the USA with so much commitment to making good people/citizens and world-changers. Everything about this school is focused on social incubators- and its not a liberal arts school! The school is technological, but with the goal of changing the world.

1st pic- the technology building on campus.2nd-mountain shot!

3rd- the poorer the houses/people, the father up the Mountain they live. Those with more money, live in the valleys.


4th- more mountains5th- These angles on are one of the buildings on our campus.

6th- a fallen angel on the grass. There are a bunch that look like they fell off the wall but they are there on purpose.
7th- technology building again.
8th- Tons of flags in front of the building with the angels9th- again
10- some statue on campus
11-campus walkway shot
12- outside the library....becomes a very popular/crowded place!
13- another statue
14- Pond area with tons of ducks.
15- More of the pond

Estoy en Mexico

So I had to change my blog because the other blog site was driving me crazy. So, here is my new site to keep up with my time in Mexico!