Tuesday I didn’t have class, since my sociolinguistics class ended last week. I was going to go downtown, but we didn’t have water Monday night-Tuesday evening, so I didn’t really feel like leaving since I hadn’t showered.
Wednesday I went to my first class for a review session. I thought that it would be nice, as we could maybe clarify some things about what would be on the exam. The professor came 30 minutes late, and this is how the review went:
“Close your eyes. Take deep breaths. Feel the air filling up your lungs. Feel the blood going through your body. Feel your hair. Feel every part of your body. Now think back to the first day of class…how you felt…your expectations for the semester. Think about the first thing we read…the author…the era…how it made you feel when you read it. Now do this for every book we read.” We then wrote about what we had reflected on. I think that meditation can be a great thing, but it certainly did not help me in terms of review…I already know what I remember, I want to know what I’m missing, or at least which readings we’ll be tested over! During the second class (which was the third time we have had that class this month…), we were told that we would have an oral exam. This did not make me happy. The professor wanted it to be the week of the 15th. This didn’t make the students happy. He decided that instead of an oral exam, he would bring in pictures next week and we would write about them for the final. This was a huge relief (although I’m still a little confused because he told me a few weeks ago that if you got higher than an 8 in the class, you wouldn’t have to take the exam…now it looks like everyone will do it).
Thursday was another free day, during which I was quite productive in studying.
Friday morning I met up with the Hope kids at 6:30 AM to leave for a trip to the Sierra Gorda. The sierra gorda is a mountain range in the northern part of the state of Querétaro. We hired a chauffeur, Jorge. Once you enter the Sierra, it is all curves and mountains and gorgeous scenery.
We went to a waterfall, La Cascada Chuveje.
we had a little hike to get to the waterfall, but the scenery was gorgeous:
La cascada:
Las chicas:
The water was cold, and there were signs that said you shouldn’t swim. We stayed there for a bit and enjoyed the sandwiches and snacks that we had packed. We then drove to Ayutla, where there are two rivers, the Santa Maria and Ayutla, which come together. One is warm water and one is cold.
We laid out in the sun for a bit and then hiked alongside the river until we got to a rock where you could jump off. I was pretty terrified (it didn’t help that on the rock there was one of those crosses that mark where someone died), but eventually I jumped in. I enjoyed it so much I had to do it again. We tried swimming back to where our stuff was, but there were rapids and rocks, so we had to get out and walk and some points. The warm water river felt so good, but the bottom was all rocky and the current was strong, so it was hard to stay put long enough to enjoy it. We then drove to Jalpan, which is the biggest city in the Sierra Gorda, but still tiny. Our hotel was nice, we hung out for a bit and then showered to go downtown to find food. By the time us girls were done showering, we looked out our balconies to see the guys playing soccer with some little (12-13 year old) boys. We went down to watch, and then had to wait for the boys to shower again. The field that they played on was concrete with dirt on top. When they were done playing, one of the Hope boys found a huge nail in his shoe. Luckily it had gone in sideways!
We finally went to el centro (which was right outside the hotel) and we saw the mission of Jalpan:
There are 5 missions in the Sierra to help convert people to Christianity. They were built by Franciscano Fray Junípero Serra and are especially important in terms of architecture.
We were hungry, and there were only 3 restaurants in sight, and one was closed. We had a nice meal and returned to the hotel, where me and the two other girls in my room accidentally took a short nap. Later we all went in one room to make sandwiches for the next day. Around midnight, we got ready to go in the pool, which was supposed to close at 9. Everyone said it would be fine if we were quiet. A manager came out and told us that we could stay if we were quiet. The group isn’t exactly good at being quiet, but the manager let us stay anyway. The hotel shower was wonderful, the first wonderful shower I’ve had since the end of spring break!
Sunday we woke up early and drove to Huichihuayan, which is in the state of San Luís Potosí. Here was the source of the river.
l sábado, fuimos a Huichihuayan en el estado de San Luís Potosí. Había un lugar que se llama el nacimiento de agua.
el grupo:
I had burned the day before, so I didn’t really want to lay out, and even though it was really hot out (we were in the region of Huasteca potosina, which is pretty tropical), the water was really cold. After awhile we packed up and asked if we could go to Xilitla on the way back, which was on the way. We went to a place called Sir Edward Jame’s castle. It was owned by Edward James, who was an artist, and there are all sorts of weird, surrealist structures.
There were also really great waterfalls and pozas (natural pools of water) to swim in. There were people jumping off of things into the water, and part of the rocks in the waterfall even formed a slide.
Unfortunately we were only there for an hour, which wasn’t long enough to see the structures and swim. It was even hotter there, so swimming would have been nice. We drove back and watched “El Estudiante” on the way, a Mexican film that was really cute. It was set in Guanajuato, so it was fun to see a whole bunch of places I had been to before. We got back around 9:30. Sunday I slept in, hung out at home and studied until Pierre made me go to Starbucks with him.
New food: Litchis. This is a small fruit with a coarse peel. Once you’ve peeled it, you eat everything around the pit. It’s pretty sweet and slimy, but good. I tried it for the first time last week when I went to the market with mis padres, but I had never heard of it before. When we were in San Luis Potosi, they were for sale everywhere. Next to the river in Huichihuayan, there was a huge orchard of them.
Pictures from the weekend: Sierra Gorda
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