Te quiero Guadalajara! Voy a extrañarte!

I have officially fallen in love…with the city, the people, and the way of life of Guadalajara. Saying goodbye was not easy! Not surprisingly it involved a lot of tears between Court and I as well as our senora, Ivette, Maris, Melissa, Tina, Santiago, Tia Georgina, y todos. We didn’t want to leave just as much as they didn’t want us to leave. This has truly been an amazing experience and I am so grateful for every minute I spent in Guad this summer. The people I met and the friendships I made will for sure last a lifetime!

Final places we made sure to visit included a trip to the Bimbo factory where we watched all of our favorite sweets being made and packaged before getting to taste test freshly made dulces. On Wednesday with the human encyclopedia, we took a tour of the Panteón de Belén, this cemetery was built in the 1800’s for the wealthy to be placed. Graves were huge above ground mini castles with fine details. The more wealthy the family the bigger the grave was and with more statues to decorate the tomb. La familia del Cuervo (Jose Cuervo- the Tequila) are all resting here. Also, over the last 2 weeks, we tried out a couple new bars and clubs. One of them, Old Jack’s, is a live rock bar where they have some really good performers come play. It was a good time; more relaxed then some of the clubs. I also finally got to hang out with my good friend from school, Jose, so that was nice! Saw a couple good movies including the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, and for so cheap, such a lovely afternoon activity!! Went to this fun cute city with of course another beautiful church to go to one of Maris’ favorite jazz bars.

Last Saturday, we got up early to head up the mountain to a city called Tapalpa in the family van. This old city is again with the rocky narrow streets, a big cathedral, and lots of fun shopping! The buildings line the street in their old fashion white facade and wooden balconies. We walked around for a bit before going to have desayuno (breakfast) and the best homemade hot chocolate I have ever had! After breakfast we headed up the hill a little farther to go see these enormous rocks. Of course I had to go climb them! It was very fun despite the rain. After the big rocks we headed back into the city for comida y churros con cajeta and some more shopping! Overall, it was a lovely family day where of course we were spoiled.

Everyday we find ourselves asking the same question, “What it’s already … time, when did that happen.” For being in the most laid back city ever, time just seems to get lost. Our final week of course flew by just like all the rest of them, This week was different though we wanted to live it up but we had finals…yeah, I was suppose to be taking classes this whole time…? What? Well, yeah so I had an enormous 40 percent of my grade paper due Saturday, a photography and management final and two final photo portfolios due. But, don’t worry too much, we still managed to have a lot of fun! Tuesday we went back to San Juan de Dios to look at the long street of straight up jewelry, if I don’t have to go jewelry shopping again for a year I will be happy. O I also got my nails done…muy bonita, gracias Maris…haha she lost a bet and had to treat me! Wednesday was Courtney’s birthday so we went out Tuesday and Wednesday night, until…well you don’t want to know what time we got home both mornings. But, it was a good party. But, then before we knew it, it was our last night here. Last night was filled with tears as we said goodbye to all of our amazing primos Santiago, Fernando, and Javier.

So classes in Mexico are about like their lifestyle really relaxed. You are allowed to be 10 minutes late without being considered late. If your phone rings during class, by all means get up and answer it and don’t feel rushed to come back until the conversation is over. If the teacher has plans, no class that day, if he wants to make a phone call during class, the whole class gets a break.

A joke upon return to Colorado will be having to do things for myself again. Literally, I have not been allowed to help out with anything. Princessa! My food and drink is brought to me at the table, my plate is cleared and washed for me. My room and bathroom was cleaned once a week, and the crazy thing is these were not negotiable, this was how things worked. As a going away present our senora gave us our favorite dessert in the world Cajeta con Gallentas!! YUM! And of course, a bottle of Jalisco Tequila!

Things I have learned: slow down, life is precious, is it really necessary to always be in such a hurry? Stay out late, “este noche es joven,” you can always sleep in another day to make up for it. Have long, late dinners talking about anything and everything, and yes I can now kind of carry on a conversation in Spanish! Greeting people with a nice kiss on the check is comforting. Because it is always the same every time, I do not even think twice about it now, I walk into a room and greet every person in it the same way. I learned to sing loud and crazy, cause who cares what you sound like, Maris!! O and Mexicans, they always have something to say, there is never a time when there is not a story to be told. A phone is not a necessity, in fact it is kind of nice not having one. Tacos at 4 am are the best thing ever!

Things I am excited to go home for: normal food at normal hours! Making my own schedule of when I want to do things and when I don’t. Not getting ready to go out 4 + times a week! Making money not spending it. Putting toilet paper in the toilet. And, well I guess seeing all of you! Thank for reading this summer and sharing in on my amazing journey! Hasta tarde en Salamanca, Espana!


I have felt great love here, gracias senora por todos. Y mi familia Mexicana, Te recordaré por siempre y regrasando por la boda de Maris whenever that might be y even antes de una boda porque Tepeyac will always be mi casa de México! ☺

hogar dulce hogar

Time just flies when your havin fun! No, but seriously it really does, so not this last weekend but the weekend before we went up to Lake Chapala. My senora, Court, Christina, my Tia, prima Evet, y una otra Tia all headed out in the mini van at about 6 in el tarde. We arrived to this beautiful house in the campo (countryside). Played a quick game ping-pong then headed down to the lake. El lago es muy muy bonita! It is huge!! We walked around the cute town, got ice cream, walked out on the pier to the lighthouse and walked through the little market before nightfall. That night, Evet took us out with some of her friends to
this huge house in the middle of nowhere. The house had been transformed into a bar, still containing the normal bathrooms, sala, and all, even the kitchen had become the bar. The backyard over looks the whole lake. We hung out there for hours just over looking the lake and talking with Evet’s friends. The next day we got up and went to a bar with our senora and the fam to watch the Argentina vs Mexico game. Following the upsetting loss, we headed out to Monte Coxala, this resort built as if the prehispanic people built it. We walked around looking at the pyramids, jacuzzis, message restaurants, and spas. Next stop, Ajijic, this cute little town located on the water with the cobble stone narrow streets and colorful buildings. Our familia took us out to comida at this restaurant where our senora ordered for us, we all got the same things, but given no choice as to if that was what we wanted or not. Kinda interesting…she’s lucky it was good steak and mashed potatoes.

Well, we are officially in the rainy season. The intense thunderstorms are typically at night, or when we are walking home from the Soriana or even better yet after developing only half of my pictures for my class. We walked the 3 or 4 blocks (I don’t know what they consider blocks but its more like 23 blocks) to the pharmacy, waited for my pictures to print, waited for the pharmacist to fix the now broken machine, then waited for my money back and a free pair of swimming goggles…only to now have it start sprinkling. Not even 20 feet from the drugstore it starts pouring. Before I know it we are sprinting home in the hail and the pouring rain running through 6-inch puddles. Our senora literally fell on the floor she was laughing so hard at our arrival. We really like to make an entrance.

Other events of the week: On Monday we took a tour of the Corona Factory! Learned all about how beer is made and even got some free freshly bottled samples!! Tuesday, we hung out with our primos and tias until about 11 pm while waiting for the rain to stop. Finally our senora gave up and took us out to Cena. First salad I have had in a very long time. Wednesday, I traveled to the city of Teuchitlan, about an hour west of Guad, to visit Los Guachimontones’s circular stepped-pyramids. The site includes several pyramids as well as two ballcourts for the game of Mesoamerican.At the top of one of the pyramids a group was sitting in a circle calling to the Spirit and signing in praise. She invited us into the circle at the end for a final song of prayer. Also that night I learned the importance of not wearing Rainbows in the rain for the slippery marble like floors they have everywhere here. Fell flat on my back faster than anyone can blink. Luckily my head missed the stair and I fell so fast my whole body hit the ground at the same time. I had a couple nice bruises the next day though from that one.


Before leaving for Guanajuato on Thursday I brushed up on some basketball skills. Melissa, Austin, and I were challenged to a game of 3 v 3 by two tall guys and a girl. We thought we were doomed, ended up kicking their butts. Melissa and I had the most points of any of the boys. It was awesome!! After a three and a half hour bus ride we arrived in the beautiful city of Guanajuato, just in time for the rain. Guanajuato is another one of México’s 31 states to the east of Jalisco. With its charming narrow stone streets, enormous gold churches, and rich history this old mining city is BEAUTIFUL! After a good 20-minute walk in the rain, because buses cannot drive into the main city, we checked into Hotel del San Diego (coincidence) soaking wet. Melissa, Tina, Court and I walked into our enormous, old, fun room super excited for our weekend. That night we went to a salsa club with all the administrators and USD kids. Breakfast each morning came early at 8:30 but each day’s adventures were well worth it. Friday we went to the museo de los mummies. Super creepy, but pretty cool as well. The mummies were discovered when the families of the dead could not pay for them to stay in their grave. Upon being dug up they discovered that the soil had preserved the people perfectly. Most still containing skin, hair, eyelashes and everything. After we went to la Valenciana church. Guanajuato was a very rich city because of its gold and silver mine discovered during Spanish rule. Therefore, the churches all include amazing gold finishing in the inside. The Cata Mine was a cool visit because it is still one of the biggest mines in the world. After dinner and a nap we meet the group for a traditional “Callejoneada” where musicians play music throughout the Guanajuato alleyways telling stories of the history. The best story was the story of the street of el beso (kiss). It is a very narrow alleyway with two balconies up above, the story is of two lovers that would kiss from the separate balconies. I will have 15 years of bad luck after walking down the alley because I did not kiss anyone on the 3rd step. Haha Saturday after breakfast we went to the city of San Miguel de Allende where we had a short tour of the city and the Cathedrals then were released for free time to shop. San Miguel was a lot like Guanajuato just not quite as cool. It was a fun day though ending in some really good churros and rain. Sunday we took a final tour of Guanajuato learned a little more about the Mexican history in the amazing El Teatro Juarez, La Alhondiga, and El Pipila. We got on the bus to leave to go back to Guad completely drenched from the rain yet again.