So… I haven’t written in a while! Last week was pretty mellow, just a lot of class and stuff like that. I went into town with Kate and Katie one afternoon and we did a little bit of shopping and went out for a drink, so that was really nice. It’s always nice to get out of the house for a little bit. It’s really fun to be in a big group, but can also be overwhelming.
We started our Spanish classes last Monday. They’re all going really well. My teacher’s name is Elia and she is really nice and funny. There’s only five of us in my class so it makes it much easier to learn than like in the huge Spanish classes that I’ve had before in school. It’s mostly conversation based which is good too, thought I hope my writing doesn’t get too behind. The class is three 50-minute sessions (10 min breaks in between) four days a week. It’s about 2/3 just having conversations, so it’s like chit chat time. My Spanish has certainly gotten way better since I’ve been here. I think a lot of it has to do with confidence and it’s really been a lot of fun since I started feeling brace enough to speak (which was surprisingly quick!) I’m really excited for my homestay because I feel like my Spanish will reallllly improve then.
Oh yeah… I learned something fun in Spanish the other day! We learn a lot about Mexican culture in our conversations.
The only other exciting thing that happened during the week last week was that we went out for Jessie’s 21st birthday on Thursday. It’s not as big a deal here because we can all already drink, but it was a good time. It started out with just like seven of us at Los Arcos, which I’ve talked about before. Then almost everyone in the program came and we took up three tables and everyone was looking at us funny, but it was a good time…
On Friday morning we had a lecture about the Virgin of Guadeloupe and then Betsy, Jessie and I took off for a beach called Pie de La Cuesta (Foot of the Hill), which is just a little bit North of Acapulco! After a week of more school like activities we were certainly ready for a break/ an adventure.
I learned a lot about buses also… mostly that they do fill up so you have to be really early or by tickets ahead of time. We ended up spending more than two hours at the bus station waiting for the bus. We finally got on the bus for a long ride at 4:30. The trip takes like 4.5 hours. We drove through some gorgeous mountains and saw the sun set over them which was so beautiful. There was almost nothing for a long time, just kind of dry, arid mountains, some low shrubbery and lots of cactuses… huggge cacti.
We stopped a few times on the way there and finally got there a little after 9. The bus actually goes to Acapulco and then we had to get a taxi to take us to Pie de La Cuesta, which is about a half hour ride. While we were waiting in the bus station we called the hotel and made a reservation so everything was pretty much all set when we finally got into Pie de La Cuesta. Our hotel was called Cabanas Maria Christie and was run by a nice man named Enrique who spoke a fair amount of English. We were starving, having not eaten since lunch time. He sent us to a restaurant just a bit down called Coyuca 2000. It was good food and Betsy and I had really good enormous drinks we were a bit tipsy after.
We called it a night and went to bed to the sound of crashing waves and the smell of sea salt which made me extremely happy.
When I woke up in the morning I was nervous that it was cloudy, but actually the sun hadn’t come up over the mountains on the other side quite yet. The sky was perfectly blue, with not one single cloud. We went right out to the beach to lie in the sun and play in the huge waves. After a little breakfast we brought from the little store next door we went for a walk down the beach to a shipwreck of a whale watch kind of type of boat. It was really cool because when there was an especially big boat it would wash through the deck and come flying out the other side. We lounged for a little longer on the beach and in hammocks that were right out in front of our room under a little cabana. The waves were huge and there’s a really dangerous under toe so we didn’t really go swimming, just a lot of playing in the waves.
There’s also a really gorgeous lagoon on the other side with lots of islands and bird life, but we didn’t really have time to explore both so we spent most of our time on the ocean. We’ll just have to go back to explore the lagoon…
We started our Spanish classes last Monday. They’re all going really well. My teacher’s name is Elia and she is really nice and funny. There’s only five of us in my class so it makes it much easier to learn than like in the huge Spanish classes that I’ve had before in school. It’s mostly conversation based which is good too, thought I hope my writing doesn’t get too behind. The class is three 50-minute sessions (10 min breaks in between) four days a week. It’s about 2/3 just having conversations, so it’s like chit chat time. My Spanish has certainly gotten way better since I’ve been here. I think a lot of it has to do with confidence and it’s really been a lot of fun since I started feeling brace enough to speak (which was surprisingly quick!) I’m really excited for my homestay because I feel like my Spanish will reallllly improve then.
Oh yeah… I learned something fun in Spanish the other day! We learn a lot about Mexican culture in our conversations.
The only other exciting thing that happened during the week last week was that we went out for Jessie’s 21st birthday on Thursday. It’s not as big a deal here because we can all already drink, but it was a good time. It started out with just like seven of us at Los Arcos, which I’ve talked about before. Then almost everyone in the program came and we took up three tables and everyone was looking at us funny, but it was a good time…
On Friday morning we had a lecture about the Virgin of Guadeloupe and then Betsy, Jessie and I took off for a beach called Pie de La Cuesta (Foot of the Hill), which is just a little bit North of Acapulco! After a week of more school like activities we were certainly ready for a break/ an adventure.
I learned a lot about buses also… mostly that they do fill up so you have to be really early or by tickets ahead of time. We ended up spending more than two hours at the bus station waiting for the bus. We finally got on the bus for a long ride at 4:30. The trip takes like 4.5 hours. We drove through some gorgeous mountains and saw the sun set over them which was so beautiful. There was almost nothing for a long time, just kind of dry, arid mountains, some low shrubbery and lots of cactuses… huggge cacti.
We stopped a few times on the way there and finally got there a little after 9. The bus actually goes to Acapulco and then we had to get a taxi to take us to Pie de La Cuesta, which is about a half hour ride. While we were waiting in the bus station we called the hotel and made a reservation so everything was pretty much all set when we finally got into Pie de La Cuesta. Our hotel was called Cabanas Maria Christie and was run by a nice man named Enrique who spoke a fair amount of English. We were starving, having not eaten since lunch time. He sent us to a restaurant just a bit down called Coyuca 2000. It was good food and Betsy and I had really good enormous drinks we were a bit tipsy after.
We called it a night and went to bed to the sound of crashing waves and the smell of sea salt which made me extremely happy.
When I woke up in the morning I was nervous that it was cloudy, but actually the sun hadn’t come up over the mountains on the other side quite yet. The sky was perfectly blue, with not one single cloud. We went right out to the beach to lie in the sun and play in the huge waves. After a little breakfast we brought from the little store next door we went for a walk down the beach to a shipwreck of a whale watch kind of type of boat. It was really cool because when there was an especially big boat it would wash through the deck and come flying out the other side. We lounged for a little longer on the beach and in hammocks that were right out in front of our room under a little cabana. The waves were huge and there’s a really dangerous under toe so we didn’t really go swimming, just a lot of playing in the waves.
There’s also a really gorgeous lagoon on the other side with lots of islands and bird life, but we didn’t really have time to explore both so we spent most of our time on the ocean. We’ll just have to go back to explore the lagoon…
After lunch Betsy and I went horseback riding on the beach. for the first half we just walked down the beach on the horses for a little bit, maybe a little bit of trotting. Then one of the guys we rented the horses from came on my horse with me to make it go really fast. We went so fast, it was such a rush and so scary! The horse was really runnnnning on the beach. It was so fun.
More lounging until dinner, a little homework and bed with the waves again!
The next day was pretty much the same… lots of lounging and walking on the beach. We headed back to the bus station at one for a 2:40 bus we had already bought tickets for (we learned our lesson after going there). This time we got the “plus” bus which is a lot nicer and also doesn’t make any stops along the way so takes a little less time. We were in the front row and I spent the whole time trying to figure out what the signals the bus drivers were giving the other passing buses were. He would wave in several different ways or wave a piece of paper. Needless to say… I never figured it out.
So that was my last week! I hear there’s lots of snow up North, it’s so strange to think about. Whenever I think about home it’s like the weather here… like mid June, but I guess that’s quite wrong… Whenever I sign onto the e-mail the Clark webcam shows me how snowy it is up there. Hope all is well with everyone! Let me know how you are!
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