What Do You Mean It's March?!

Good evening blog readers! I'm back after a brief hiatus (they don't mess around with mid-terms here), but happy to say that I've gotten to see and learn a couple new things since my last post. As you can tell from this post's title, it's kinda shocking to me that I'm already in month number 3...

Quick little story: yesterday in salsa class, while dancing with my Cuban instructor, she finally got around to asking where I was from (obviously because she was so blown away by this white boy's salsa skills). I told her the United States, and she told me with a little chuckle that she's still waiting for her visa. Just an interesting dynamic, especially while dancing.

Since my last post in February, I've completed my first round of Spanish-language midterms, started the migration portion of my class with Lalo (favorite professor), and traveled to Tapalpa, Zacatecas, and Michoacan. One of the main reasons that I chose to study abroad in Mexico was to study Mexico-United States immigration, and now I've reached the point in my class La Historia de Mexico Contemporaneo in which I'm doing just that. We're reading three of Lalo's books about immigration, his main field of research. Honestly, I don't think I've ever been more interested in a class before! The one thing that gets my goat is that all three books are in Spanish, so I'm afraid I can't really appreciate them fully yet. But this is the kind of material to which I'm sure I will return time and time again.

During the weekend in the middle of midterms (midterms last two weeks) I went with some friends to the small mountain town of Tapalpa, where we went hiking, relaxed, and enjoyed a local strawberry festival. As part of the strawberry festival, a local cathedral/museum hosted an art exhibit put together by some local elementary school kids. This drawing below caught my eye, not just cuz it's a huge strawberry, but because of what is written to the left! Basically it translates to: "They give work to the men and then they put chemicals on the strawberry to make it bigger and take it to the United States."

Our group on a big ol' rock at Las Piedrotas

Two weekends ago I took a bus with my Canadian friend Sarah to Zacatecas, a silver mining town about 5 hours north of Guadalajara. It's a bit similar to Guanajuato, with gorgeous colonial buildings lit up at night, and small, meandering streets that are all too easy to get lost in. We hit up some really cool museums, toured a silver mine, and ended up returning to the same mine that night to hit the night club there, 300 meters underground! This was basically the vibe (for all you Adventure Time fans): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UCvKV012nU

IN DA CLUB

La Catedral de Zacatecas

Main government building (friendly reminder that yes, I am in fact in Mexico)

The old Convento de San Francisco that is now home to el Museo Rafael Coronel, the world's largest collection of masks. 

In Michoacan we saw Santuario El Rosario, the largest monarch butterfly reserve in the world. As cheesy as it sounds, it was a really magical place. When the 200 million butterflies open their bright orange wings, the trees seem to catch on fire! And then begins the butterfly hurricane... We also visited Morelia, Patzcuaro, and Isla de Janitzio, an island in a lake surrounded by mountains with a huge statue of Morelos, an independence hero here in Mexico, looming at the top. The statue is actually taller than Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro! Last on the long travel list for the weekend was Tzintzuntzan, a ruin of five pre-Hispanic castles that overlook the lake. Despite the rain, it was still magnificent.

Quick disclaimer: these aren't my pictures because my phone died this past weekend.

Mariposas!

Morelos looking like a baller (Isla de Janitzio)

Tzintzuntzan

Just as a little closing note: when I'm traveling through the countryside here, I swear sometimes it feels like riding a bus through a Dr. Seuss book! Look at these...

Maybe you can't tell from the bus window pic, but seriously, I've never seen anything like these crazy things.