Despite the ever-growing work load, I am trying to make up for the long lapse from blogging last week (I just found out I have a fourth presentation this week for my services marketing class, the third one for that class this month...).
Anyways, I managed to get a hold of Marta's camera, so I was able to load photos from the bullfighting match we went to in August (better late than never I suppose). I decided not to post some of the more graphic photos (not that you can see a lot, I just thought for everyone's sake...)
By the way, as I was writing this post I found out that my fourth presentation was moved ahead two weeks! That's a relief, considering I just had a presentation in that class!
I know it's been a while since my last post. This past week has been really busy with work. I've had two group projects to work on in addition with other work (I have two exams and a paper coming up). Anyways, last week I got to go to Mexico City's historical district. It was my first time on the Mexico City metro! It wasn't as clean as Washington's, but definitely better than New York's subway. The one thing I had to get used to was the fact that everyone pushes to get on and off. I even had a little girl (about 7 or 8) shove me to get on in time! Also, there are always people moving from car to car selling things like snacks, notepads and CDs. The guys who sell CDs wear a backpack with a speaker inside and blast the music on the CD they are selling (the first time scared the crap out of me lol).
I hope everyone enjoyed the slide show of the first half of my visit to the Anthropology Museum. Yesterday I had the chance to go back and finish my trip. I was there for another two hours, and at the end I finally realized that I spent the whole weekend going through the museum backwards. One of the last exhibits I visited was entitled "Introduction to Anthropology", which tipped me off. Either way, it was still amazing and for anyone who ever goes on to visit Mexico City, this is a must-see. Below is another link to the slide show for the second 100 plus photos I took. Hope you enjoy them!
By the way, I also have photos and videos from the museum visit and my visit last week to the Historical Center. I will post all of these throughout the week.
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the Museo Nacional de Antropología. It is so huge! I was there for three hours and I barely got through half of the museum (I would have been there longer, but I got lost on my way and spent nearly an hour walking aimlessly). I took over a hundred photos, so instead of leading them here, I decided to attach a link so you can a slide-show of them on photo bucket similar to my safari photos.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I had a nice blog post worked out for today, but then my computer froze so I lost it :(
Therefore, below are the videos that I took on my trip yesterday to Teotihuacan, one of the largest ruin sites in Mexico. I will post more about my trip and the photos I took tomorrow.
Hope everyone enjoyed the videos from yesterday! Today I wrote about the trip and loaded the photos i took as well. Like I mentioned yesterday, Teotihuacan is one of the largest Pre-Colombian sites in Mexico, about 25 miles to the northeast of Mexico city. If you want some more information, below is the wikipedia link:
So, we got there at about 11 o'clock, where we first met up with our tour guide. He told us his name in the native language, but none of us could pronounce it, so we just called him Gorilla. We got to see a small workshop where someone was making artifacts out of jade, limestone and other volcanic rocks (we were told that no metals are used). He and someone else then showed us a large agave plant. They cut off the center stalk and explained to us that they drain the aguamiel (honey water) from the plant to drink. There was a shop there too, where I bought a sombrero (I couldn't resist).
By the way, this isn't the sombrero I bought. We all took turns wearing this stuff, it was a lot of fun!
After we finished up at the shop we went on to the ruins. What I really liked about Gorilla was that he wanted to do more than just show us the ruins, he wanted to teach us about his culture as well. When we first got to the ruins he gave us each a red headband, which his people wear during rituals and ceremonies. Below are the pictures I took. I have explanations with some of them, but some of them are just there for everyone to enjoy!
Calle de los Muertos- Road of the Dead that leads from one side of the ruins to the Pyramid of the Moon, in the back.
Gorilla is showing us their numerical system.
They Ladybugs that burrow in here are scraped out and crushed, that's how they get the color red to paint with!
Very steep!!!
Going inside the ruins...
After we visited the ruins, we went back to Gorilla's house for dinner. The food was sooo good! There were soups, rice, chicken, and fajitas.
Being entertained by Gorilla's granddaughter.
Hope everyone enjoyed the photos. It was an amazing day, learned a lot about their culture and got the chance to see some great ruins.
This week is the bicentennial of Mexico's independence, and therefore have off from school Wednesday until next Monday. I hope to go to the city center tomorrow to see some of the festivities. I hope to take some great pictures and videos for everyone!
So, today's post is mostly a catch-up about what has been going on here since my last post last week. Although I didn't go away this weekend, I still had a good time. Saturday night we went to see the Last Airbender, my first 3-D movie. It was an interesting movie, I liked seeing some of the action sequences in 3-D. This is kind of a rant, but I always wanted to know why just within the last year or so that movies have been made in 3-D? It has been around for a while (wikipedia says it started to gain popularity in the 80's). Maybe it's just me.
Sunday, we went to a local ranch to ride horses and go shooting. Unfortunately, it was raining all day so all we could do was shoot pistols at glass bottle in a bullfighting pin. I shot my first gun! Like my Facebook status said, I was a little deaf by the end. I came close to hitting a bottle, but that was all. After we finished shooting we had a big lunch with the other people at the ranch.
I have definitely enjoyed all of the food I've had here so far. The produce here is fresher than back home, plus I've been told they don't use pesticides like home. I never saw orange egg yolks before I came here! Plus, I know we've all heard about how spicy the food is here, and now I am setting the record straight: it's true. The dips for chips are SO hot! One little bit (and I'm talking like a flake) and my mouth feels like it's on fire! I've also gotten used to seeing chili powder and lime juice on everything. I have to admit it was a surprise one day when I asked for popcorn and I was asked if I wanted lime juice on it. The peanuts with chili powder are good though :)
Classes are going well; I have my first exam this Friday in my Operations Management class. For my International Business class, we are reading the Ascent of Money (or el Triumfo del Dinero) which is really interesting. It's about the history of money and how it has involved into what it is today. I just finished reading the section on how bonds were used by the English to finance their war against Napoleon. The readings for my Green marketing class are just as interesting. Today I read about how our economic and scientific systems fail to include sustainability, waste or social welfare in their models, and how "grey marketing" has helped promote over-consumption. While I'm not saying that I agree with everything I read (or maybe I do... :-D), it has been eye-opening.
So, that's all I have for today. I know there were no pictures or videos, but I hope you found some of this interesting. If not, that's ok because I have rewarded you again with this clip of two cats. Apparently they are having some martial issues...
It sounds like everyone enjoyed the photos from the Safari that I posted yesterday, that's great. Today, I'm going to finish posting about my trip last weekend to Puebla.
After the Safari, we went to the city center of Puebla. There was a convent near the city center, and we got to walk around the main plaza for a little while. Soon after we got there, though, a bad storm came so we spent some time inside a small mall- if you will- where we walked in and out of stores. For a while everyone was entertained by some clowns. They were bringing in children from the audience and doing tricks, it was a lot of fun. Until, that is, the cops came and scared them off. Apparently they were illegal clowns.
Below are some pictures from the City Center.
After an exciting day, we went back to the villa and hung out for the rest of the night. This included going swimming in 60 degree weather in a 65-70 degree pool, but it was still fun :)
Sunday morning, we just woke up and left. We were all pretty tired, but it was definitely a great weekend. Not soon after leaving, we passed by a great view of the volcano Popocatepetl. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend.
So that's all I have on our trip. This week has been going alright so far. I had three group presentations to give this week which was kinda hectic:
For my International Business class, we had to present the balance of trade of any nation, we presented on Canada.
For my Green Marketing class, we had to present an environmentally conscious company that operates (at least in part) in Mexico. We presented on Bacardi.
For my Services Marketing class, we had to present an assigned case. We had to present on a Dr. Beckett's dental practice located in California, and how they provide the best service possible to their patients.
Overall, I'm pretty relieved that tomorrow is Friday, even though I still have a lot of stuff to take care of. Not sure what's on the agenda for this weekend, but whatever it is I'll let everyone know!
