I absolutely cannot believe how quickly time is passing. I just now am getting back into the swing of things after a bad month, and I will be back in Oregon in about 44 days. How is that even possible?

This week has been spent on homework. And more homework. Wednesday night I realized that even though I was feeling better, I hadn't done anything fun yet, so I went to my first Cervantino event. Like I mentioned in an older post, Cervantino is a massive international arts festival that lasts the entire month. There are dozens of performances every day, in theaters and on the streets. Living downtown, I hear the concerts at the alhondiga every single night, and they keep getting more and more amazing. So, Wednesday night after my Cinema class, Cassie and I went and bought donuts and coffee, then went to see Vicente Amigo (flamenco guitarist) at the amphitheater in the plaza in front of the alhondiga. It was absolutely incredible. Not only was the music amazing, but it was our first warm night in awhile. From our spot in the bleachers, we could see the beautiful city in the background. Best of all? It was free. You can buy tickets to be guaranteed a nice seat at most of the events, but they also set up bleachers for people who just show up. Free is good.

Today was the most productive day that I have had in a long time. After my morning class, I went to my favorite coffee shop, treated myself to a delicious mocha, and spent the entire morning working on my 15 page research paper for history that I hadn't started yet. After lunch, I got started on the health insurance claim process, and later in the afternoon Lisa came over and we started to plan our trip. Then we went to another Cervantino event in the plaza right outside of my house, which was some sort of interpretation of a book or poem through dance and song. We got there about an hour into it, so we didn't really understand the storyline, but it was still really interesting. I'm still confused about how they managed to set up such a massive stage and fit an entire orchestra in my little plaza, it is tiny.

The last full week of November is when Lisa and I will be taking our trip. We just bought our plane tickets yesterday, and today we tried to roughly plan out what we want to do. We are leaving for Mexico City on the 19th, staying the night, then heading to Oaxaca bright and early the next morning. We will be there until the 23rd when we leave for Chiapas, where we will be until the 27th. We haven't solidified any of our activities yet, but there will hopefully be some nice hikes, good food, and lots of adventuring. From the looks of what we have planned so far, Oaxaca will be spent wandering slowly through the city, and Chiapas will be more adventurous. It is going to be a really nice way to end the term.

Tomorrow I have to give a presentation in my lit class. In front of a room of native speakers. AHHHHHHHH. But I am not half as terrified as I would have been when I first got here. I know that my Spanish has greatly improved, and every day I realize how much.

After a pretty horrible September, things have been pretty amazing. I have been feeling fine (doctor's appointment on Thursday to get the results of my throat swab). Keeping busy with TONS of homework. Things with my family are going really well. Looking forward to a problem free (hopefully) end of the term. The next two months are absolutely going to fly by.

This week is the beginning of Cervantino, which is a massive festival in Guanajuato. Tens of thousands

of people from all over are flocking to our tiny little city for concerts, art shows, parties, etc.

It is supposed to be nuts. And since it is the bicentennial of Mexico, this year Cervantino lasts four weeks instead of three. Tomorrow is the official start date, should be fun. But I am a little nervous about how loud it is going to be. Apparently celebrations last all night. I live right downtown where everything is concentrated. My family warned me that this month I am pretty much just not going to sleep.

November will be crazy busy. I will be taking finals, writing a huge paper for history, going to Oaxaca and Chiapas with Lisa, then going to Guadalajara before flying back home to Portland for December and January. We have such an enormous break, I can't even believe it. But I am also very excited to see friends and family.

I love those little moments when it really hits me how much I have learned since coming here. Especially since I have basically been stuck inside the house for the entire month of September, these moments keep me going.

Last week in my literature class our professor randomly decided to give us thirty minutes to read a short story and give a presentation on it. Thirty minutes. 10 pages in Spanish. I probably would have died before I got here, but I tore through the story and wrote up an outline with time to spare. Luckily there wasn't enough time for me to present. That still makes me tremble in fear :P But on the bus ride home, I was thinking about what had just happened, and I could not stop smiling. It took me a good hour to read and understand the three page short stories in the Spanish 303 text book, and I had just whipped through a ten page story in a quarter of that time. Incredible.

So as much as this month has sucked, I am making progress. And October will be good. No more doctor's appointments please.

Strep Throat, Take 2

I am frustrated beyond belief. Not so much anymore, now that the new medication seems to be working, but it has been a very rough week.

I managed to drag myself to all of my classes last week. By Wednesday I was feeling healthy, so it wasn't as hard, but Friday I woke up with my throat sore again. By the end of the day, my tonsils were covered in white spots. Again.

Back to my doctor Saturday afternoon. It was pretty much the same routine as my first appointment. He changed my meds to something stronger and made a follow up appointment for Monday. That appointment was the first one that actually went well. He said that things had significantly improved. Three more days of meds, labwork next week, and a follow up appointment next Saturday. That will be appointment #5. For a case of strep throat. Yeah, I'm frustrated.

Even though I have been sick and dying in my bedroom for the past two weeks, I have still learned quite a bit. In Mexico there is an interesting belief that eating cold things when you are sick worsens your health even more. The first thing the doctor asked me each visit was if I had eaten anything cold. Same with my host parents and host siblings each time they saw me and I looked worse. When I have a sore throat, all I want is a popsicle to numb the pain. But that is a big no no here.

Also, no walking around barefoot. At all. That is understandable though with the amount of insects here. Especially scorpions. In this area they aren't dangerous, if you get stung it is no big deal. But I still would not want to step on one barefoot. So far I have only seen/killed two in my bedroom. But the whole no going barefoot thing is a little difficult, because I broke my flip flops at the doctor's office on Saturday. So I was sick and dying and limping around barefoot. I was getting some lovely looks. Also, my bedroom has a rough concrete floor. Being barefoot is not so fun. Search for new flip flops will commence as soon as I can get out of bed long enough to go to the store without dying.

Luckily we don't have school tomorrow, so I get another day to sleep (the meds I am on now make me ridiculously tired.) The 28th of September an important holiday here. It is the day that the revolution reached Guanajuato. All of the Spaniards had locked themselves inside the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, and Hidalgo's army busted down the door and took them all out. The cool part is that I live across the street from the Alhóndiga. I walk by it every day. It is pretty incredible to live so close to something so important to the history of the country.

That is all for now. This new medication seriously makes me exhausted. I just took a five hour nap and woke up to eat dinner, and I'm ready for bed again.

Strep Throat

Ok. So the last blog entry was very angry. That was a really rough night for me. I was sick of being sick. And when you are sick, it is really hard to not be homesick as well. I just wanted to be back in my bed in Oregon.

But I'm feeling a lot better. Sort of. Still really sick, but I guess I just have a better outlook right now. So here is a better summary of the last few days.

Wednesday my friend Lisa and I went to the Bicentennial Expo. It is this giant expo on the outskirts of Silao showcasing the history of Mexico. And it is enormous. We only saw about half of it. We only went to three showrooms and it took all day.

The first was the Pavilion of Identity. It was my favorite. It just traced back the history of Mexican identity in documents and art, starting from the conquest and ending in the present. The last part was a huge display which showed all of the different indigenous groups in Mexico and their artwork, which was incredible. There was also a cool visual about migration patterns to the US.

Next was the Pavilion of Memory, which recounted the history of Mexico. You go from room to room watching little shows about key moments in Mexican history in spaces decorated to mimic the event. It was really cool at first, but there were at least 15 rooms. It took a good two hours. Around this time is when I started feeling really sick, so I wasn't even paying attention. It would be cool to go back healthy and listen.

After that we had lunch. Tacos smothered in salsa verde. Coffee ice cream. Yummm.

Then we went to the Pavilion of Tomorrow. It was all about the history of humans on earth and our impact. By this point though I felt like I was going to pass out, so I don't really remember a lot.There was really amazing artwork here, and lots of cool stats about global warming. My favorite was this room that was completely covered in trash, and in the middle there was a sculpture made from plastic bags of a woman hanging. It was intense.

After the expo, I went to a little party that Lisa's mom had planned to celebrate Independence. It was super cute. There was a Mexican costume contest and some really yummy food. Her host dad (also my Cinema professor) reenacted the Grito de Dolores for everyone.

Then we decided to head to the Alhondiga to catch the official reenactment of the Grito, but our taxi never showed up to pick us up (the two of us have a history of bad luck with taxis. Sad). We got there just in time for fireworks, then met up with Charlie, Erika, and Lindsey for some more tacos. I felt like I was going to die but went anyway. I hardly remember that at all.

After getting home that night I passed out and didn't wake up until midday Thursday. I hardly remember that day at all. I was feverish, covered in sweat, had no voice or appetite, and could hardly get out of bed. My mom wanted to take me to the doctor, but being stubborn me I said I wanted to rough it out another day to see if I got better. The minute I woke up on Friday I knew that was a mistake. My tonsils were completely covered in giant white spots. So I gave in and went to the doctor.

The minute he looked at my tonsils he took a giant step back and said OH MY GOD. Then he made my mom look and she did the same thing. It wasn't pretty. He said he needed to inject me with high doses of a medicine, but I am allergic to it. So I got pills instead, and a follow up appointment on Sunday. He said that if it hadn't started to clear up by then I would have to go to the hospital, so I was pretty worried. I had a liquid only diet and was banished to my bed for the weekend.

My follow up appointment Sunday was somewhat exciting. My mom was going to take me again but she got hung up somewhere, so I went by myself. At first I was super nervous, but I had more confidence in my Spanish than when I went with Lalo or my mom. Maybe it is better that I do these things by myself. Anyways, he looked at my throat and was not very happy. It wasn't hospital worthy, but I have to keep taking medicine. In October I have to get some labwork done and I have another appointment with the doctor. Great fun.

This week will be spent resting and tackling the massive amount of homework that I neglected all week. Lots of reading, two papers, and a presentation. Plus I have to get started on that research paper for history. Hopefully the gross feeling I always have when I'm taking meds fades away soon so that I can focus.

Also, my trip to Oaxaca and Chiapas is pretty muched planned. I think I am going the last week of November with Lisa. Hopefully my insurance reimburses me soon for some of these medical expenses, because otherwise I am basically going to have money for the bus and nothing else. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Highs and Lows

It has been awhile since I have written anything (as usual). Went to the expo with Lisa and learned a ton about Mexican history and ate yummy tacos. Had another run in with my favorite doctor. This time for strep throat. Banished to my bedroom. Follow up appointment tomorrow.

Not going to lie, I'm feeling very...frustrated. I'm tired. I'm sick. Again. I'm homesick. This past week I have definitely wanted to call it quits and go back to comfortable Portland.

Hopefully the next entry will not be so angry.

Two Months

Today is the two month anniversary of my arrival in Mexico. I can hardly believe that. So far it has been amazing. There have definitely been a few rough patches, but I am still happy to be here. I have learned so much in the past two months, and I can't wait to see how the rest of the year plays out.

I haven't been up to much lately because of the stomach infection, but here are some random thoughts.

Tuesday I finished up the meds for my stomach infection and I can now eat whatever I want. Last night I went out with a few friends to our favorite taco place and got myself some delicious tacos and a beer. It is funny, when I first got here I couldn't even eat green salsa because it was so spicy, but now I put it on everything. It is so delicious.

My family just got connected to Internet a few days ago. It is amazing to be able to Skype with friends and family NOT in Starbucks, amazing that I can return to my usual morning routine of waking up and reading the news in bed for a little while. And so far, my homework productivity hasn't suffered. Hopefully that keeps up.

September is a very special month for Mexico. September 16th is their independence day, and this year is especially important because it is the 200th anniversary of their independence. The entire town is covered in flags and decorations, and there have been parades and celebrations almost every day. I can't even imagine what next week is going to be like.