Considering my epic failing at keeping this up-to-date in the last month or so, I think the title is an appropriate use of my new favourite phrase (it's french for fail).
So, what's happened since day of the dead? Well a whole lot considering that was over a month ago! Suppose top of the list would be that I'm currently sitting in Toronto airport writing this whilst waiting for my connexion home! But should probably cover up to now first!
Side Bar: I seem to have a bit of a tendency to over-use exclamations!
Finished up all exams and projects - such a relief. Was sooo much work, but came out of it with a pretty good score overall for the semester so guess it was worth it.
We had another rugby tournament. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so well, so didn't play that much given I felt pretty sick any time I had to run for a sustained period! Bit of a bummer but excited to go back and play some more :)
We did christmas lunch (giant lasagne) and presents in the house just before I left. Was nice as we had bought mini christmas tree with lights aswell. Got an awesome present, giant monkey, which as anyone who's met me knows is kinda perfect!
Also went away for a week to chiapas, state in south of mexico. Went with Xavier, Jakob and Angus, travelling with them was interesting especially as 2 of them are over 6ft, a ginger and a blond. Meaning we were probably the most obvious gringos around! Super cool trip, but will put it all in another post as easier to separate from the rest.
Thursday 19 December 2013
Sunday 1 December 2013
Dia de Muertos
In Mexico, rather than halloween, the day of the dead festival is the big event of the season. We went on one of the organized trips for the weekend to Michoacan, a state west of the city.
The night before the trip was a big halloween party. In pre-drinks I introduced everyone to the gecko rule (you have to 'gecko' yourself on wall / floor / flat surface and last one to do so loses), which provided a lot of amusement, especially when we started speed geckoing, so basically anyone could count 3..2...1...gecko!
Anyways, didn't have too late a night, back home by 3, so set my alarm for 5 giving me enough time to pack when I woke up (we were getting the bus at 6). Was all ready to leave, bag packed, dressed, all sorted, when I went to the toilet and upon my return, my room had shut and locked itself.
Inside my room was my packed bag with all my clothes / shoes, my money, my camera, my cards, todo! :(
I did briefly debate trying to go later and catch-up with the trip, but I would have had to pay again for the bus and on the friday the trip was visiting like 5 different towns before going to Morelia (where public bus would take me). So armed with a mini rucksack of clothes donated by my roomate Xavier, off we went!
Thankfully I had been wearing my glasses when I went to the toilet otherwise there's no way I would have gone - no fun if you can't see everything!
We were told that it would take roughly 4-5 hours to get there...... it was 8. Luckily the bus was pretty comfy and you could recline the seats pretty far so was able to catch up on some sleep. We also had the company of films, the intouchables was really good and would highly recommend it, although was somewhat ruined by lack of ending - bus' dvd player stopped working for the last 10-15 mins of every film?! HAve since watched the end though so I continue in my advice!
On Friday we stopped in one town for lunch before moving on to another. It was between 1-3 hours between each town/city. I don't remember what they called so I'm going to merge them into one. The offerings that they have for the dead are pretty cool and colourful. Although there was some confusion to begin with when someone told us that the items placed on the offering represented what the person liked most in life, so imagine our confusion when every offering was covered in bananas and bread! Turns out those are just the staples (along with the orange flowers). There were a whole range of offerings, I would include some pictures but I didn't have my camera so you'll have to wait until i've stolen some from my house.
The third place we went to was an island maybe a 20mins or so boat ride from the mainland. The whole island was basicaly a giant artesania market. The path up to the top of the island kind or zigzagged through all the various stalls on its way up. We also felt the need to sample most of the streetfood on the way aswell!
The tradition here is for families to go and 'celebrate' the lives of their loved ones in the cemetry. I thought it would be a bit more cheerful atmosphere but I found the whole thing a little odd with families trying to commemorate the lives and sitting on the graves whilst hundreds of tourists traipsed through thte cemetry and over the graves, taking photos and drinking!
We went to anotehr town after that before going to the city where our hotel was. For entertainment value I should add since the boat trip I was wearing a poncho that had been donated by angus (6ft something), so I looked like an abominable snowman as the poncho came down to my knees and the sleeves were like 10 inches too long!
Saturday was a bit of a slower start as we hadn't got to the hotel until 3/4 so got up around 11, just in time for our free breakfast :) We spent the day exploring the city which was cool. There was one street where they were running a competition for the best offering, so there were all different kinds of offerings from the traditional to the 'artistic'.
I have now left too long since writing the first bit of theis to remeber everything we did so long story short:
Saturday spent day in morelia, night went out to awesome club, pretty sure there were some kind of fireworks / at least sparkler thingys at one point
Sunday: went to volcano, also awesome however due to shoes also being locked in room, toms were not the ideal climbing shoes. Cool view from the top though and running back down was awesome cause it was just like hot sand / dirt so you could jump and it kinda felt liek you were flying for a bit before you landed again!Temporarily lost my shoes, but with some help digging them out found them again. Downside was ran rest of way down barefoot as shoes kept falling off so safer to hold, and there were the odd rocks or two that i managed to cut my feet open on!
Got the sucky seats on the way back cause me, angus and jakob had gone to find food and were late back to the bus! Meant no recline, no space and an awful smell as were next to the toilet and the door was broken! Couldn't have been happier when we got back to go to bed, even if it was only for a few hours before class started at 8.30!
Still gotta up date for rest of month but on a side note - can't believe i have less than a week left! Super glad that i'm here for a year but will be weird to come back and not know anybody (all my new friends are only here for 1 semester!)
The night before the trip was a big halloween party. In pre-drinks I introduced everyone to the gecko rule (you have to 'gecko' yourself on wall / floor / flat surface and last one to do so loses), which provided a lot of amusement, especially when we started speed geckoing, so basically anyone could count 3..2...1...gecko!
Anyways, didn't have too late a night, back home by 3, so set my alarm for 5 giving me enough time to pack when I woke up (we were getting the bus at 6). Was all ready to leave, bag packed, dressed, all sorted, when I went to the toilet and upon my return, my room had shut and locked itself.
Inside my room was my packed bag with all my clothes / shoes, my money, my camera, my cards, todo! :(
I did briefly debate trying to go later and catch-up with the trip, but I would have had to pay again for the bus and on the friday the trip was visiting like 5 different towns before going to Morelia (where public bus would take me). So armed with a mini rucksack of clothes donated by my roomate Xavier, off we went!
Thankfully I had been wearing my glasses when I went to the toilet otherwise there's no way I would have gone - no fun if you can't see everything!
We were told that it would take roughly 4-5 hours to get there...... it was 8. Luckily the bus was pretty comfy and you could recline the seats pretty far so was able to catch up on some sleep. We also had the company of films, the intouchables was really good and would highly recommend it, although was somewhat ruined by lack of ending - bus' dvd player stopped working for the last 10-15 mins of every film?! HAve since watched the end though so I continue in my advice!
On Friday we stopped in one town for lunch before moving on to another. It was between 1-3 hours between each town/city. I don't remember what they called so I'm going to merge them into one. The offerings that they have for the dead are pretty cool and colourful. Although there was some confusion to begin with when someone told us that the items placed on the offering represented what the person liked most in life, so imagine our confusion when every offering was covered in bananas and bread! Turns out those are just the staples (along with the orange flowers). There were a whole range of offerings, I would include some pictures but I didn't have my camera so you'll have to wait until i've stolen some from my house.
The third place we went to was an island maybe a 20mins or so boat ride from the mainland. The whole island was basicaly a giant artesania market. The path up to the top of the island kind or zigzagged through all the various stalls on its way up. We also felt the need to sample most of the streetfood on the way aswell!
The tradition here is for families to go and 'celebrate' the lives of their loved ones in the cemetry. I thought it would be a bit more cheerful atmosphere but I found the whole thing a little odd with families trying to commemorate the lives and sitting on the graves whilst hundreds of tourists traipsed through thte cemetry and over the graves, taking photos and drinking!
We went to anotehr town after that before going to the city where our hotel was. For entertainment value I should add since the boat trip I was wearing a poncho that had been donated by angus (6ft something), so I looked like an abominable snowman as the poncho came down to my knees and the sleeves were like 10 inches too long!
Saturday was a bit of a slower start as we hadn't got to the hotel until 3/4 so got up around 11, just in time for our free breakfast :) We spent the day exploring the city which was cool. There was one street where they were running a competition for the best offering, so there were all different kinds of offerings from the traditional to the 'artistic'.
I have now left too long since writing the first bit of theis to remeber everything we did so long story short:
Saturday spent day in morelia, night went out to awesome club, pretty sure there were some kind of fireworks / at least sparkler thingys at one point
Sunday: went to volcano, also awesome however due to shoes also being locked in room, toms were not the ideal climbing shoes. Cool view from the top though and running back down was awesome cause it was just like hot sand / dirt so you could jump and it kinda felt liek you were flying for a bit before you landed again!Temporarily lost my shoes, but with some help digging them out found them again. Downside was ran rest of way down barefoot as shoes kept falling off so safer to hold, and there were the odd rocks or two that i managed to cut my feet open on!
Got the sucky seats on the way back cause me, angus and jakob had gone to find food and were late back to the bus! Meant no recline, no space and an awful smell as were next to the toilet and the door was broken! Couldn't have been happier when we got back to go to bed, even if it was only for a few hours before class started at 8.30!
Still gotta up date for rest of month but on a side note - can't believe i have less than a week left! Super glad that i'm here for a year but will be weird to come back and not know anybody (all my new friends are only here for 1 semester!)
Friday 15 November 2013
Rugby!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can't believe haven't mentioned rugby as yet, but I suppose fact that haven't actually written anything in the past month has something to do with that!!
Anyways, a while back Cassie (american exchange student who also plays rugby) found a local club not too far from here so we went along to give it a try.
I managed to get hopelessly lost the first time I went to training as I had looked at a map before I left and noted a landmark (hospital) that I could use to get off the bus. Unfortunately it turned out there are two hospitals along the pereferico, and I of course got off at the wrong one with no idea where I was and turned out was really quite far from where I was trying to go! Anyways, several phone calls, running in circles and helpful people on the bus later, I finally made it to the training ground. Have to say at times like that really miss GPS on my phone. So easy at home when I get lost and can just pull up a map with a little flashing dot that tells me where I am / where I need to go.
Was a little disheartned when I first arrived and they announced, now we are going to do passing......
Just turns out there were a few people who hadn't really ever played before, but there are also a few who are pretty good so makes for a mixed bunch. The pitch where we were training didn't have floodlights for the first session so made for interesting times trying to catch in half-light! Luckily ever since then the lights have always been on when we're there.
Unfortunately cause I have classes on mondays until 10, I can only make training on Weds, and even then I have to go straight from class cause finish at 7!
First torneo was a few weeks back. O also forgot to mention they don't play 15's here, just 7's. Was a little worried going into it as like I said, quite a few of the girls hadn't played before / really ever tackled!
The whole thing was quite a different experience - we arrived at the place and they were still painting the pitch, which was more of a square than a rectangle. Not to mention the posts were just large sticks that had been duck-taped onto football goals, and the try zone was 1m and came before the posts!
However was a really fun day, even though we only won one out of 4 games. I got to play scrum-half and dropkick at one point, which made for interesting viewing! Excited for the next torneo in a few weeks, there was supposed to be one this weekend just gone but it got cancelled :(
As you may know, it's somewhat of a miracle that i've gone this long wihtout mentioning what i ate....
After the game we went to this awesome restaurant where you can eat all you want for 98pesos (less than £5), the only condition being that you finish everything you ask for. It was like 10 different flavours of chicken wings, ribs and fries, that came in little baskets of like 6-8 pieces. I thought it was great, although Cassie being a vegetarian didn't enjoy it quite as much!
Everyone on the team is super friendly and we got invited to one of the girls halloween / birthday party that was really fun.
Training's going well although for some reason I can't quite fathom, the others seem to be afraid of me in tackling drills?! Maybe cause I've won me versus everyone bulldog twice now :)
Last week we went along to the 'trials' for the 'estado de mexico' team, kinda like county. But wasn't a great turnout as for girls was basically our team plus 2 other people from other teams! Not sure how it works and I think there are two teams, under 21 and over. But everyone in our team is over 21 so not sure who's in this under 21 team! Anyways, I think it was the start of the selection process, so hopefully if I'm part of that then I'll get a few more games in!
Anyways, a while back Cassie (american exchange student who also plays rugby) found a local club not too far from here so we went along to give it a try.
I managed to get hopelessly lost the first time I went to training as I had looked at a map before I left and noted a landmark (hospital) that I could use to get off the bus. Unfortunately it turned out there are two hospitals along the pereferico, and I of course got off at the wrong one with no idea where I was and turned out was really quite far from where I was trying to go! Anyways, several phone calls, running in circles and helpful people on the bus later, I finally made it to the training ground. Have to say at times like that really miss GPS on my phone. So easy at home when I get lost and can just pull up a map with a little flashing dot that tells me where I am / where I need to go.
Was a little disheartned when I first arrived and they announced, now we are going to do passing......
Just turns out there were a few people who hadn't really ever played before, but there are also a few who are pretty good so makes for a mixed bunch. The pitch where we were training didn't have floodlights for the first session so made for interesting times trying to catch in half-light! Luckily ever since then the lights have always been on when we're there.
Unfortunately cause I have classes on mondays until 10, I can only make training on Weds, and even then I have to go straight from class cause finish at 7!
First torneo was a few weeks back. O also forgot to mention they don't play 15's here, just 7's. Was a little worried going into it as like I said, quite a few of the girls hadn't played before / really ever tackled!
The whole thing was quite a different experience - we arrived at the place and they were still painting the pitch, which was more of a square than a rectangle. Not to mention the posts were just large sticks that had been duck-taped onto football goals, and the try zone was 1m and came before the posts!
However was a really fun day, even though we only won one out of 4 games. I got to play scrum-half and dropkick at one point, which made for interesting viewing! Excited for the next torneo in a few weeks, there was supposed to be one this weekend just gone but it got cancelled :(
As you may know, it's somewhat of a miracle that i've gone this long wihtout mentioning what i ate....
After the game we went to this awesome restaurant where you can eat all you want for 98pesos (less than £5), the only condition being that you finish everything you ask for. It was like 10 different flavours of chicken wings, ribs and fries, that came in little baskets of like 6-8 pieces. I thought it was great, although Cassie being a vegetarian didn't enjoy it quite as much!
Everyone on the team is super friendly and we got invited to one of the girls halloween / birthday party that was really fun.
Training's going well although for some reason I can't quite fathom, the others seem to be afraid of me in tackling drills?! Maybe cause I've won me versus everyone bulldog twice now :)
Last week we went along to the 'trials' for the 'estado de mexico' team, kinda like county. But wasn't a great turnout as for girls was basically our team plus 2 other people from other teams! Not sure how it works and I think there are two teams, under 21 and over. But everyone in our team is over 21 so not sure who's in this under 21 team! Anyways, I think it was the start of the selection process, so hopefully if I'm part of that then I'll get a few more games in!
What happened?!
So, I may have got a liiiitle bit behind in updating the blog. But solo como un mes! ;)
The last month has been a bit of a blur but mostly because I've had so much work. I know i mention it almost every post, but seriously, they are crazy here. And while i'm on the subject, in case you haven't already heard my rant on the conversion of grades from here to Exeter...
So there is some debate on the actual conversion, but we're currently looking at a rough exchange of 90% average here being worth only 60%ish at home. Bearing in mind I thought this year abroad would help my overall grade not hinder it! I will take at least 12 modules here over a year compared to my usual 4/5 at home, making the likelihood of gaining an overall average of 95%+ highly unlikely. Apparently they're basing it on the fact that the min pass rate here is 70% but like i've already mentioned, whilst it's not that hard to get 70%, I had to work for the points above it. Also, most universities in Mexico have a pass rate of 60%, the TEC is just special in it's higher rate! Anyways, i've decided i'll wait to see my overall grade for the first semester and then start arguing for a better conversion!
As I'm remebering the most recent things first, this post is probably gonna be in reverse order / all over the place! Haven't really slept much the past week due to overloads of work / exams and maybe trying to fit too much going out into that aswell! This weekend I had to finish a 10 page essay on Corporate Social Responsibility and a presentation in spanish analysing the financial situation of some company. Plus revise for 2 exams today - as you can imagine, i've had a great weekend. To top it all off today we got told that our final project for business law (about the environment?!) which we had been told was due at the end of the semester, is now to be presented on thursday, giving us 2 days to do everything!! What sucks most is all of these things are worth like 10-20% of a single module, and each module is only worth 1/12 of my year = 1/7 of my degree. Putting it in perspective seems like of a lot of work for very little!
However, good news, this weekend is another long weekend (monday is a bank holiday) so taking a week out to go travelling in chiapas (south of mexico) woop! So photos and videos will be along shortly. I say shortly but I really mean in quite a while as when I get back I have all my final exams and the last few final projects to do in one weekend.
Then I'm coming home 7th Dec for a month! :) Excited to see everybody, although slightly jealous of friends here who are making travel plans to go to Belize, Costa Rica, etc for christmas, even though I am planning to do that when I finish next semester and have already got my first tripped planned for january when i return with some friends from this semester who will still be travelling!
On second thoughts i'm gonna split the posts and write about the weekend trips separately!
The last month has been a bit of a blur but mostly because I've had so much work. I know i mention it almost every post, but seriously, they are crazy here. And while i'm on the subject, in case you haven't already heard my rant on the conversion of grades from here to Exeter...
So there is some debate on the actual conversion, but we're currently looking at a rough exchange of 90% average here being worth only 60%ish at home. Bearing in mind I thought this year abroad would help my overall grade not hinder it! I will take at least 12 modules here over a year compared to my usual 4/5 at home, making the likelihood of gaining an overall average of 95%+ highly unlikely. Apparently they're basing it on the fact that the min pass rate here is 70% but like i've already mentioned, whilst it's not that hard to get 70%, I had to work for the points above it. Also, most universities in Mexico have a pass rate of 60%, the TEC is just special in it's higher rate! Anyways, i've decided i'll wait to see my overall grade for the first semester and then start arguing for a better conversion!
As I'm remebering the most recent things first, this post is probably gonna be in reverse order / all over the place! Haven't really slept much the past week due to overloads of work / exams and maybe trying to fit too much going out into that aswell! This weekend I had to finish a 10 page essay on Corporate Social Responsibility and a presentation in spanish analysing the financial situation of some company. Plus revise for 2 exams today - as you can imagine, i've had a great weekend. To top it all off today we got told that our final project for business law (about the environment?!) which we had been told was due at the end of the semester, is now to be presented on thursday, giving us 2 days to do everything!! What sucks most is all of these things are worth like 10-20% of a single module, and each module is only worth 1/12 of my year = 1/7 of my degree. Putting it in perspective seems like of a lot of work for very little!
However, good news, this weekend is another long weekend (monday is a bank holiday) so taking a week out to go travelling in chiapas (south of mexico) woop! So photos and videos will be along shortly. I say shortly but I really mean in quite a while as when I get back I have all my final exams and the last few final projects to do in one weekend.
Then I'm coming home 7th Dec for a month! :) Excited to see everybody, although slightly jealous of friends here who are making travel plans to go to Belize, Costa Rica, etc for christmas, even though I am planning to do that when I finish next semester and have already got my first tripped planned for january when i return with some friends from this semester who will still be travelling!
On second thoughts i'm gonna split the posts and write about the weekend trips separately!
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Forgotten weeks
Almost forgot to mention our trip to Six Flags (biggest theme park in mexico) a few weeks back!
Not that much to say except tell you it's awesome and such good value - if you show your student card it's only $225MX = £11 for the day!!
I also almost won a giant stuffed dino toy / monkey ( I hadnt yet decided which I'd take) by making basketball shots, but the last one bounced in then out again :( It's ok though, I've been practising for when we go back so I can win it then! And no, I have not in the slightest thought about the practically of bringing back a stuffed toy the size of me on the plane!
We had perfect weather all day aswell (I say this often as in the area where we live it rains almost everyday in the afternoon) so we went on all the water rides aswell. The rapids were pretty funny cause it's really tame and then near the end there's the unavoidable waterfall which just soaks everyone!!
Also went to see the university american football game that weekend. It was really boring and I didn't understand why they had to stop all the time and people kept coming off the pitch every 5 mins cause they were 'injured'?!
Our house is still having issues with things breaking - door still not fixed....
Also we have saucepans where tha handles heat to the same temperature as the saucepan, resulting in burnt hands when you forget this :(
BONUS PHOTO ;)
Not that much to say except tell you it's awesome and such good value - if you show your student card it's only $225MX = £11 for the day!!
I also almost won a giant stuffed dino toy / monkey ( I hadnt yet decided which I'd take) by making basketball shots, but the last one bounced in then out again :( It's ok though, I've been practising for when we go back so I can win it then! And no, I have not in the slightest thought about the practically of bringing back a stuffed toy the size of me on the plane!
We had perfect weather all day aswell (I say this often as in the area where we live it rains almost everyday in the afternoon) so we went on all the water rides aswell. The rapids were pretty funny cause it's really tame and then near the end there's the unavoidable waterfall which just soaks everyone!!
Also went to see the university american football game that weekend. It was really boring and I didn't understand why they had to stop all the time and people kept coming off the pitch every 5 mins cause they were 'injured'?!
Our house is still having issues with things breaking - door still not fixed....
Also we have saucepans where tha handles heat to the same temperature as the saucepan, resulting in burnt hands when you forget this :(
BONUS PHOTO ;)
Weekend of Events
So this weekend started last thursday after I finally finished my last exam (incidentally I did awesome in it - 95% just to let you know!)
One of the student houses was having an end of exam party so we went to that. All going well until about 1am where I suddenly decided that I was fluent in French and was trying it out on everyone (pretty much everyone is actually french so found it amusing!). Personally I am still of the belief that I am pretty damn good at french, the reality may not be so!
Of course the next day was pretty much lost while we all moped around eventually managing to make ourselves some pasta around 2pm. Friday was also the day of the Mexico vs Panama football game - really important for mexico because they needed a win in order to be considered for world cup qualification. The game wasn't until 8.30 but because of the traffic to get there we had to leave at 4 (good thing we did cause we only just arrived like 20mins before the game started!).
Unfortunately, on a hangover the last thing in the world you want is a 4hrs party bus with the WORST driver we have had so far, EVER. All the traffic meant it was really stop start, but he insisted on speeding as soon as there was any space and then slamming on the brakes! We also had 40L of 'agua loca' (some combination of alcohol and fruit juice) to keep us company on the bus.
The game was at the 'estadio azteca' which is pretty unimpressive from the outside but incredible once you're inside - it was massive! We decided to go all out for mexico so bought ourselves some knock-off football shirts on the way in and a couple of the guys had giant mexico flags aswell!
One of the student houses was having an end of exam party so we went to that. All going well until about 1am where I suddenly decided that I was fluent in French and was trying it out on everyone (pretty much everyone is actually french so found it amusing!). Personally I am still of the belief that I am pretty damn good at french, the reality may not be so!
Of course the next day was pretty much lost while we all moped around eventually managing to make ourselves some pasta around 2pm. Friday was also the day of the Mexico vs Panama football game - really important for mexico because they needed a win in order to be considered for world cup qualification. The game wasn't until 8.30 but because of the traffic to get there we had to leave at 4 (good thing we did cause we only just arrived like 20mins before the game started!).
Unfortunately, on a hangover the last thing in the world you want is a 4hrs party bus with the WORST driver we have had so far, EVER. All the traffic meant it was really stop start, but he insisted on speeding as soon as there was any space and then slamming on the brakes! We also had 40L of 'agua loca' (some combination of alcohol and fruit juice) to keep us company on the bus.
The game was at the 'estadio azteca' which is pretty unimpressive from the outside but incredible once you're inside - it was massive! We decided to go all out for mexico so bought ourselves some knock-off football shirts on the way in and a couple of the guys had giant mexico flags aswell!
As you can see, we didn't have the best view!
So like I said, Mexico had to win to qualify for the world cup, so the atmosphere was pretty crazy. There were tons of police in riot gear. Then there was a small fenced off section where the panama supporters were (maybe like 200/250 people) which as well as being separated by fencing was surrounded by almost 100 police in full riot gear with shields! One of the guys with us is actually from Panama but studies here in Mexico and he said it was too dangerous to wear his panama shirt in the stadium!
I'm not the greatest fan of football to begin with and the whole game wasn't that great quality. Plus whenever the mexican crowd was angry, happy or celebrating, basically whenever they throw beer (or occasionally pee - thankfully not during this game) but it's funny to see that everyone's first reaction if something lands on them is to smell it and make sure it's just beer!! So that wasn't so great especially as where we were sitting meant we had a lot of things thrown over us - had to use the giant flags as cover!
Both teams had quite a lot of opportunites which they squandered but Mexico scored midway through first half. Unfortunately, with about 5-10mins to go at the end of the game Panama also scored, at which point we were a little worried cause if mexico drew the game they also wouldnt qualify. A few mins later they scored what can only be described as a wonder goal! Some guy chipped the ball to himself before doing like a over the head bicycle kick that shot into the corner! The crowd went absolutely mental (unfortantely that did mean more beer thrown) but still it was an amazing goal!
What's also cool is whenever the other goalie is going to kick the ball everyone puts out their arms and shakes them going 'oooooooooooooooo....' and then when he kicks it they shout 'puto'. It sounds really cool when the whole stadium is doing it! Have to say though was a little surprised at the beginning when they jeered all the way through the panama national anthem which I thought was kinda rude!
Ooo almost forgot, one of the best bits, you dont have to leave your seat for anything, the beer vendors come to you as does the food! It's a much better system actually as you dont have to miss the game and you dont get massive queues at half time with everyone rushing to get food / drinks. My favourite is the personal dominos pizzas they bring round!
So after the game, took a while for everyone to get back to the bus and leave (we had been in groups in different parts of the stadium). I took a power nap on the bus as I was staying in DF with Jakob, Regis and Angus so we got dropped off on the way. On our quest to find a toilet before we got a taxi to where we were staying we found ourselves at 1am in a random little diner type place with our beers/ chips and singing along to some truly awful spanish karaoke songs that were on tv! Originally our plan had been to go out after we dropped our stuff at the hotel, but by the time we got there everyone was knackered (Angus - the bggest advocate for going out had fallen asleep as soon as we got in the taxi!)
Saturday and Sunday was Corona Capital - a big music festival on outskirts of the city. Last year's festival
Regis and Jakob weren't going, just spending the weekend in the city, so after our free(included) breakfast we split up. Me and Angus went to meet Charlene's roomates at the hostel where I was staying saturday night.
Side Note: Really weird, so before I left home, Exeter told me that no-one else was going to Mexico, but clearly they just meant from the business school cause Charlene (Charly who I live with's girlfriend) is going to a university in Puebla (another city in Mexico) and living with 3 other girls from Exeter!! So random. Anyways, point of that is met them on the weekend cause that was part of group went to festival with.
The metro here is pretty good as covers most of city / surrounding area and super cheap to use (15p a journey!). So we were able to take that all the way to where the festival was and then was still quite a trek as you are made to walk in the most roundabout way possible past all the people trying to sell you things!
We were really lucky with the weather all weekend as was just perfect, if anything maybe a little too hot on Sunday! There were 4 different stages although was quite a trek between them, then there was a food court, mini fair, stands and a beer garden (being the corona capital festival - only corona available). Was a pretty big venue obviously! They even had a zip line you could go on, though looked pretty rubbish as people kept getting stuck!
So our line-up for the weekend (well who we saw anyways)
SAT:
- The Dandy Warhols (wasn't sure who they were except for one song I knew but pretty chilled)
- Imagine Dragons (definitely one of the best bands of the weekend, knew all the songs cause they're awesome!!)
-Travis (only caught the end of the set which was good cause it was songs I knew)
-The XX (I'm not really the biggest fan, actually started falling asleep standing up, but the others loved them)
-Phoenix (didn't know who they were before but pretty good too)
-M.I.A (actually only know the song paper planes which was awesome, but all the other songs kinda just sounded the same, plus we had no idea what she was saying!)
-Blondie (one of the hits of the weekend - didn't know they were still around / alive!, also didn't realise they sang so many of the songs I knew!)
SUN:
Actually just stayed at same stage all day cause had pretty awesome line-up
-Jake Bugg (nice and chilled)
-Portugal the Man (no idea who they are but enjoyed it nevertheless)
-Matt and Kim (surprise hit of the weekend - only knew one song but thye were awesome live, very funny too)
-Stereophonics (great music to chill in the sun to)
-Vampire Weekend (worked our way into the crowd at the front for this one - love them - though maybe not as much as some of the mexicans who were going crazy around us!)
-Arctic Monkeys (What a way to finish the weekend!)
So yeh, other than fact spent far too much on beer / food (they had the wandering vendors here too - still loving the mini dominos). Preeeety awesome weekend :) We kept running into people we knew from TEC aswell cause there was a whole bunch of people who went! Also saw some guy being crowdsurfed in a wheelchair!
O almost forgot, had really weird moment on sunday. We were watching one of the bands and some strange looking mexican lady came up to us and asked if she could take our photo. She only had her phone so we were like errrr why? And she just mumbled something and kept insisting we group together so she could take our photo. Then she was like no, no you need to shout 'whiskey'?! Anyways, we obliged in the hope she would go away..... she didn't. She then gave me what appeared to be a goldfish bag minus the goldfish. I naively assumed it was a water bomb. Turns out it was a plastic bag of vodka! Don't worry though mom, we didn't drink the crazy strangers vodka in a bag - even I have standards! Thankfully after explaining that we were all tee-total and don't drink at all she eventually left - what a weirdo!!
Only downside was arriving home at 1am on monday morning, realising I haven't yet started my 5-10 page essay on mexican toys (such fun) due in at 10am and I start lessons at 8.30am and finish at 10pm! Thankfully he extended the deadline until 4pm though so managed to make it through the day (slept until 11am rather tahn go to classes!) Actually, other downside was had to wash all my clothes today as everything smelt like smoke / weed (not mine mom) :)
More exams and work!
So last two weeks have kinda gone in a bit of a blur as it was exam time again! yay for continuous assessment
Not to mention I had a lot of projects / other works to do and at the same time have been trying to do internship applications for next summer - not much success so far. Hopefully this week / weekend will actually have the time to sit down and do it properly!
So like I said lots of work so stayed at home weekend before one just gone to catch up on everything.
Did quite a lot though on the Saturday me and matthieu went to shopping mall for a little retail therapy / procrastination. (plus wanted to cut my hair again). Anyways several hours and a lot of money later, can safely say I didn't spend anywhere near as much as him! On the other hand, that's not to say I didn't buy more things than I actually needed! Faced with the prospect of another meal of pasta at home we decided to eat out whilst we there. TGI Fridays look out! Had an awesome meal of BBQ baby back ribs and an oreo milkshake to wash it all down - super content :)
Wasn't really much else occuring that weekend as some people had gone out for the weekend and the rest of us were just working!
Not to mention I had a lot of projects / other works to do and at the same time have been trying to do internship applications for next summer - not much success so far. Hopefully this week / weekend will actually have the time to sit down and do it properly!
So like I said lots of work so stayed at home weekend before one just gone to catch up on everything.
Did quite a lot though on the Saturday me and matthieu went to shopping mall for a little retail therapy / procrastination. (plus wanted to cut my hair again). Anyways several hours and a lot of money later, can safely say I didn't spend anywhere near as much as him! On the other hand, that's not to say I didn't buy more things than I actually needed! Faced with the prospect of another meal of pasta at home we decided to eat out whilst we there. TGI Fridays look out! Had an awesome meal of BBQ baby back ribs and an oreo milkshake to wash it all down - super content :)
Wasn't really much else occuring that weekend as some people had gone out for the weekend and the rest of us were just working!
Thursday 3 October 2013
Everybody's gone GoPro crazy!!
So basically since me and Charly put the photos and videos from Baja California up, half the exchange students have decided to go too. And to buy a GoPro to document their travels!
We're thinking we should get a commission for all the trips to Baja and the new GoPros bought!
Also the updated version just came out so a little jealous of them getting the newer one even though there really isn't that much difference! Gonna buy me a new accessory instead - woop more GoPro videos to come - so much fun :)
We're thinking we should get a commission for all the trips to Baja and the new GoPros bought!
Also the updated version just came out so a little jealous of them getting the newer one even though there really isn't that much difference! Gonna buy me a new accessory instead - woop more GoPro videos to come - so much fun :)
Baja Picture Time
First off if you haven't yet seen the videos from the trip here's the links:
https://vimeo.com/75159811
https://vimeo.com/75840071
They're kinda different but I had so many clips couldn't put it all into one video!!
Would take too long to load all the pics (they're on fb though) so here's a few highlights:
https://vimeo.com/75159811
https://vimeo.com/75840071
They're kinda different but I had so many clips couldn't put it all into one video!!
Would take too long to load all the pics (they're on fb though) so here's a few highlights:
La Isla Espiritu
La Isla Espiritu
La Isla Espiritu
Sleepy Seal
La Isla Espiritu
Todos Santos
Cabos San Lucas
La Isla Espiritu
Cool Fish
Close-up Fish
Muchos Fishies
La Isla Espiritu
I love my GoPro
La Isla Espiritu
La Paz
La Paz
Todos Santos
Todos Santos - Los Cerritos
Cabo San Lucas - El Arco
More Fishes
Cabo San Lucas
La Paz
The Sun is so bright!
Water drop accidentally blocked out Charly's face!
My Little Pizza in La Paz
5 of us at dinner
Genius of the walk-up
Casual stay at the Golf Resort
With it's two pools and a giant Jacuzzi (not to mention our suite)
La Isla Espiritu
Saturday 21 September 2013
5 Days in Baja California Sur
First things, for those of you who don't know Baja California is the peninsula bit of Mexico on the pacific coast. Cause most people's first assumption seems to be it's in the states, guessing from the california part!
We left last Friday and came back the following weds night. I went with 2 of the guys from my house (Xavier and Charly), Charlene (Charly's girlfriend) and Louise (Charlene's flatmate). Cause I booked my flight later than them I had a later one heading out, although turned out to be the better flight as I paid the same but mine was direct and there's was indirect. So although I left like 6 hours after them I only arrived 1 hour later in La Paz!
Things did not get off to the best start as we'd gone out to one the exchange houses the night before for someone' birthday. The others had left around 3.30 to get their taxi to the airport and I came home around 5 as I got a call from the guys saying Charly forgot his driving licence (we were renting a car and he was the main driver) so their taxi driver was going to post the keys to Charly's room through the door after dropping them at the airport. Also, had to find one of my other flatmates to ask what a French driving license looked like as is not a card like ours, its a little pink booklet! So having also not yet packed I set my alarm for 9am so I could get a taxi around 11 to head to the airport.
Anyways, imagine my panic when I wake up all nicely rested only to discover it's 10.30, I haven't packed, I haven't booked a taxi, I have to find Charly's driving license and I'm supposed to be leaving in 30 mins! I wasted maybe 15mins running around like a headless chicken trying to find the number for the taxi. It then took another 5mins on the phone to get them to understand my pronunciation of our address. I'm thinking it must have been terrible as even when I spelt it she got it wrong! Due to very short notice the earliest a taxi could come was 11.20, which suited me as actually gave me time to pack my bag!
If you've ever travelled with me before you'll know I'm not exactly the most efficient packer, and this was no exception. I seemed to feel the need to fill my big rucksack even though I used the same one to travel for 5 months so there's no way I needed that much stuff. However, given the time restraints, everything I found went in the bag!
By some miracle made it to the airport with all the important things (passport, money, etc) and even had a whole 15 mins to check-in! ;) The plane was really comfy so I had myself a nice little nap on the way over to try and catch up on some sleep.
Arrived in La Paz, not quite accurate to say airport as they're currently re-doing it so not really much there at all! Was early so through with my bags and all by given arrival time. As I had Charlys driving license they'd had to wait for me to sort out the hire car.
The picture online of the car and the reality were very different. The description had said a car for 5 people with space for 3/4 suitcases. What we received was a car that barely fit 5 people and only just 5 rucksacks!
Having the car though was awesome as gave us so much more freedom.
Wasn't long into La Paz and we found our hotel pretty easily, although had a bit of an awkward moment where we thought we were lost and stopped at some crossroads to ask the car next to us if they knew where our hotel was... it was literally opposite where we were stopped in clear view.
In the room, went to take out my ipad only to discover it wasn't there! Commence panic. I remebered having it at the start of the flight and had put it in my bag, and hadn't opened it again until the hotel, so the only thing could think of was it had somehow fallen out on the plane. Went to a nearby travel agent to try and get the number for the interjet (airline i'd flown with) counter at the airport. He couldn't find any contact number for anyone at the airport and told me there was no point going back to airport as there wouldn't be anyone there! Anyways, with the only number I could find I was on hold for over half an hour on 4 different occasions for the rest of the afternoon before I gave up. Decided to give it one last go late in the evening just before they closed and finally managed to get hold of someone, only to be told I needed to call a different office that wouldn't be open until the morning! Great. Anyways, an already long story short this process was somewhat repeated the next day being told i needed different offices each time until I finally got hold of the right person who told me he'd contacted both airports (one i came from and went to) and nothing :( Sad times for the iPad
Whilst I did feel kinda sorry for myself for the rest of the holiday we had an awesome time so was easy to take my mind of it!
On the friday we sorted our tour for the next day and then went and chilled on the beach, although didn't go in the water as was kinda dirty! Found an awesome seafront place for dinner, and having eaten next to nothing all day, ordered myself a giant pizza for dinner :) Food really makes everything better!
Day 1: Saturday we got up early as we had to be at the company's office at 9 for the tour. Was an all-day trip around La Isla Espiritu. Takes about an hour or so to get there on the boat but the views are amazing and we had unbelieveable weather all-day. The water there was incredible - really clear. One of the stops was at a tiny island full of seals and you could go snorkelling with the seals! We spent around an hour and a half there. There was also tons of different fishes and the seals would come and swim along with you. Me and Charly both have GoPro's so were having a field day! Unfortunately at one point when a seal came and swam around me for like 2 mins, what I thought was a video turned out to be just a photo! Oopsy, luckily Charly got a really cool video of the seals.
For lunch we stopped at a different beach on the island with the lightest and clearest water ever. We had a packed lunch included which was homemade ceviche and some kind of other fish salad type thing, both of which were really good. In the afternoon we continued around the island and stopped at another spot to do some more snorkelling. Again there were so many different fish and things to look at. Finally it was time to come back, so I had a nice nap on the way (a recurring event!).
We were back by 5 so headed to a beach about 30mins away. Was still tired so had another nice nap on the beach whilst the others chilled and the guys went on some jetskis.
Again found a very nice place for dinner and watched the boxing game. Was a mexican guy vs an american so was on every tv in every restaurant! The mexican guy was ginger and pale, couldn't have looked less mexican if he tried!
Day 2: Headed off early in the morning to Todos Santos, about an hour or so away. We stopped for petrol on our way out of the city, where we saw a whole bunch of police cars filling up. About 10 minutes later we see flashing lights behind us and are pulled over by the police truck that had been filling up next to us and had followed us from the petrol station. Asked to see Charly's license and then informs us we were speeding! (not true) so we have the following conversation
-So what speed were we going?
-Ahh, umm around 85
-Ah ok, what's the speed limit?
- It's err 80
Next he tells us it's going to be a US$200 fine!?
-Yeah, we don't have any dollars
-Ok, then US$100
-Still no dollars!
-Right you can pay in pesos then
Quick consultation in the car
-We only have MX$197 (less than £10)
-Ok that's fine
And off they go!? Blatantly only followed us because they heard us speaking in the petrol station!
Did a little car tour around Todos Santos when we arrived and then checked out some of the beaches before stopping at this random roadside restaurant that was called 'El pescadero' (meaning fishmonger). Naturally we weren't expecting it to be a fast food joint run by this old american couple. Greeted by the blond haired, heavily accented wife who did not have the greatest spanish and was very happy to switch to english. After talking to her it turned out they'd been living in Baja for 22 years but only opened there campervan restaurant 2 weeks ago! Kinda odd but the burgers were good although a little small so had a grilled cheese to follow up!
In the afternoon we headed to Los Cerritos a surf colony to rent some boards. Spent the whole afternoon there after haggling down the price of our boards. Probablt spent at least 3 hours in the water trying to teach myself how to surf. Never been happer than the first time I stood up, unfortunately it only happened 3 times during the afternoon. Mostly I fell off as soon as I got up or didn't even reach that far. I also had a succession of pretty impressive wipeouts where I just faceplanted before being crushed by the waves! Knackered by the end of it but again another awesome day :)
After the beach we headed down to Cabo San Lucas on the south coast where we had our accomodation booked for the next two nights. Weirdly (probably due to it being low season), the cheapest option we had found was a suite in a golf resort! Took us quite a while to find it as everyone in town told us they'd never heard of it and we couldn't reach them on their phone number! Was starting to worry wasn't a real place when we managed to access internet and get a map, then they finally answered the phone and helped with directions. The reason we kept missing it was it was up a long drive with no marked sigh (aparently it got knocked over a few weeks ago and they just havent got round to fixing it!) Was totally worth the search though. We pulled up to check-in (with it's own mini roundabout) and right behind it were the two pools connected by a small waterfall slide, and off to one side the giant jacuzzi. Our suite was insane aswell - we had two large bedrooms and bathrooms. Each bed was probably big enough to fit 5 people on it! And then we had an open area living room / kitchen with a nice little terrace outside! Did kinda debate leaving the resort at all!!
Monday was independence day here (hence the long weekend holiday) so on Sunday night they have this thing called 'el grito' where in every city the mayor/president says 'el grito' ending with 'Viva Mexico' 3 times, waves the flag, i think they then sing the national anthem and then there's usually fireworks and stuff. Anyways, it happens at 11pm, but since La Paz is one hour behind we watched it the one in Mexico D.F on tv before heading into town to see the local one. Unfortunately upon our arrival it turned out it actually happens at 11pm D.F time all across the country. So in our case we had missed it by an hour! Woopsy
Went to find food where discovered the genius of Burger King's walk-up! I'm sure this exists elsewhere but having never seen it before very much enjoyed
Day 3: Spent a few hours in the morning at the hotel pool before heading down to the beach where you can do a tour of a nearby island in a 'glass bottom boat' (the glass bottom bit was a tiny section in the middle of an otherwise ordinary boat), island is very small and has some cool rock formation creating an arch and on the other side of the island is the pacific. Also, there's the point where the sea meets the ocean, tbh it looked no different to all the water around it but apparently it's worth seeing!? As very small island only took 40 mins to see (and that was mostly due to the exceptionally slow speed of the boat). We had opted to do some snorkelling around the island so got dropped off. The local guys on the island who were in charge of sorting boats to return etc, agreed to look after our stuff for a small tip, plus one for his friend of course. In reality it seemed more like a bribe to not steal our stuff!
When we opened the bag with all the snorkelling stuff turned out they'd forgotten to put one set in and 2 of the flippers there were the wrong sizes! 10 mexican minutes late (30) they returned with the missing stuff. The snorkelling was again really cool due to the masses of fishes and the really clear water.
Back on mainland, had lunch at a nearby little place. We had fish and prawn tacos (almost all the fish we ate here was 'dorado' (mahi mahi) still not really sure what that is, but it sure tastes awesome! ;)
Then off to a different beach for a few hours to chill before heading back to the hotel via walmart to pick up some food for dinner. Had a very nice roast and then spent the rest of the evening trying to find somewhere to stay the next night further up the coast.
Day 4: Another early start to check-out and head to the next place. Our search for accomodation somewhat hampered by the lack of internet in the hotel that morning but luckily worked for long enough for me to get the number of a BnB nearby to where we wanted to be.
Tried to find the centro historico de San Jose del Cabo, but failed. Nobody we asked could direct us there and when we said about the old historic church a woman pointed to a garish bright purple church nearby!
Failing that we decided to look for a viewpoint and then head to Cabo Pulmo up the coast. A couple hours, several dirt roads and a warning about our tiny car we looped back to San Jose to take the highway instead having been told our little car would probably not survive the journey on the smaller roads! We followed it until the town where we were staying. Our BnB was a very nice little out of the way place.
The plan originally had been to head to Los Barriles (nearby) to see about kitesurfing (for Xavier). Unfortunately it turned out the season didn't start as yet and cause locals don't do it, there was nowhere to rent equipment. Instead spent the rest of the day at a beach before heading back early to the BnB, going out for dinner (more Mahi Mahi), then playing cards in our room.
Day 5: Last day so again up early. As you may or not know, Mexico was hit by a tropical storm earlier this week. Fortunately it hit south of where we were, but was heading our way so we woke to severe rain and a suggestion from the owner that we head off within an hour before the roads flooded and our little car got stuck! We had a few moments of worry when we reached some patches of water we were sure were too deep for the little car, but it pulled through and we made it to the highway. I say highway cause that's what it's called, but there are only the two lanes - one in each direction. We had another near miss on the way when we were driving through the mountains and there was a small rockslide just as we came round a corner. Thankfully Xavier slammed on the breaks quickly enough as one of the rocks that fell onto the road was pretty big and would have done some serious damage to the car!
Another hour north to La Paz and it was clear blue sky again and perfect weather!
As we were coming into La Paz, Xav didn't notice a red light and we went through it right next to a police car! Couldn't really argue this one as was an actual offence! But as with everything here, it was a negotiable fee. It started at MX$1300 (£65) before us finally paying MX$300 (£15), of course no paperwork or anything as signed as that would make it official and they'd have to give the money in!
We had a few hours until our flight so headed back to the same area of beaches we'd been to on Sat, though this time went to a different one. It was incredible, you could walk from one side of the bay to the other in the sea, it was so shallow! Took us an hour to get across and come back by which time unfortunately it was time to head back to the airport.
We tried to clear the car out of sand before we gave it back but it was useless without a vacuum. All good though and they took the car no problems. Whilst we were at the airport I thought I may as well try one last vain hope to check for my iPad. So I found someone from interjet and asked them about it, but they said they were busy and to check again in 30mins. In the mean time we went to check-in for our flight. After as we were sorting our bags the interjet lady came back to me and told me she had my iPad!!!!! I thought at first I must have misunderstood as I thought no way after 5 days it was for sure lost. But no, they had had it since friday when they found it on the plane. Couldn't believe it when I saw it and it was mine, did a small victory dance in the middle of check-in at which point I think the rest of my travel companions realised I was safe to approach. Apparently they found it straight away and had just put it into lost property. So don't know what the guy I spoke to on the phone was talking about when he said he'd contacted everyone and checked?!
Anyways, couldn't have been happier and was the perfect end to a pretty perfect holiday!
Pictures and videos to follow in a separate post as this one's already so long!!
We left last Friday and came back the following weds night. I went with 2 of the guys from my house (Xavier and Charly), Charlene (Charly's girlfriend) and Louise (Charlene's flatmate). Cause I booked my flight later than them I had a later one heading out, although turned out to be the better flight as I paid the same but mine was direct and there's was indirect. So although I left like 6 hours after them I only arrived 1 hour later in La Paz!
Things did not get off to the best start as we'd gone out to one the exchange houses the night before for someone' birthday. The others had left around 3.30 to get their taxi to the airport and I came home around 5 as I got a call from the guys saying Charly forgot his driving licence (we were renting a car and he was the main driver) so their taxi driver was going to post the keys to Charly's room through the door after dropping them at the airport. Also, had to find one of my other flatmates to ask what a French driving license looked like as is not a card like ours, its a little pink booklet! So having also not yet packed I set my alarm for 9am so I could get a taxi around 11 to head to the airport.
Anyways, imagine my panic when I wake up all nicely rested only to discover it's 10.30, I haven't packed, I haven't booked a taxi, I have to find Charly's driving license and I'm supposed to be leaving in 30 mins! I wasted maybe 15mins running around like a headless chicken trying to find the number for the taxi. It then took another 5mins on the phone to get them to understand my pronunciation of our address. I'm thinking it must have been terrible as even when I spelt it she got it wrong! Due to very short notice the earliest a taxi could come was 11.20, which suited me as actually gave me time to pack my bag!
If you've ever travelled with me before you'll know I'm not exactly the most efficient packer, and this was no exception. I seemed to feel the need to fill my big rucksack even though I used the same one to travel for 5 months so there's no way I needed that much stuff. However, given the time restraints, everything I found went in the bag!
By some miracle made it to the airport with all the important things (passport, money, etc) and even had a whole 15 mins to check-in! ;) The plane was really comfy so I had myself a nice little nap on the way over to try and catch up on some sleep.
Arrived in La Paz, not quite accurate to say airport as they're currently re-doing it so not really much there at all! Was early so through with my bags and all by given arrival time. As I had Charlys driving license they'd had to wait for me to sort out the hire car.
The picture online of the car and the reality were very different. The description had said a car for 5 people with space for 3/4 suitcases. What we received was a car that barely fit 5 people and only just 5 rucksacks!
Having the car though was awesome as gave us so much more freedom.
Wasn't long into La Paz and we found our hotel pretty easily, although had a bit of an awkward moment where we thought we were lost and stopped at some crossroads to ask the car next to us if they knew where our hotel was... it was literally opposite where we were stopped in clear view.
In the room, went to take out my ipad only to discover it wasn't there! Commence panic. I remebered having it at the start of the flight and had put it in my bag, and hadn't opened it again until the hotel, so the only thing could think of was it had somehow fallen out on the plane. Went to a nearby travel agent to try and get the number for the interjet (airline i'd flown with) counter at the airport. He couldn't find any contact number for anyone at the airport and told me there was no point going back to airport as there wouldn't be anyone there! Anyways, with the only number I could find I was on hold for over half an hour on 4 different occasions for the rest of the afternoon before I gave up. Decided to give it one last go late in the evening just before they closed and finally managed to get hold of someone, only to be told I needed to call a different office that wouldn't be open until the morning! Great. Anyways, an already long story short this process was somewhat repeated the next day being told i needed different offices each time until I finally got hold of the right person who told me he'd contacted both airports (one i came from and went to) and nothing :( Sad times for the iPad
Whilst I did feel kinda sorry for myself for the rest of the holiday we had an awesome time so was easy to take my mind of it!
On the friday we sorted our tour for the next day and then went and chilled on the beach, although didn't go in the water as was kinda dirty! Found an awesome seafront place for dinner, and having eaten next to nothing all day, ordered myself a giant pizza for dinner :) Food really makes everything better!
Day 1: Saturday we got up early as we had to be at the company's office at 9 for the tour. Was an all-day trip around La Isla Espiritu. Takes about an hour or so to get there on the boat but the views are amazing and we had unbelieveable weather all-day. The water there was incredible - really clear. One of the stops was at a tiny island full of seals and you could go snorkelling with the seals! We spent around an hour and a half there. There was also tons of different fishes and the seals would come and swim along with you. Me and Charly both have GoPro's so were having a field day! Unfortunately at one point when a seal came and swam around me for like 2 mins, what I thought was a video turned out to be just a photo! Oopsy, luckily Charly got a really cool video of the seals.
For lunch we stopped at a different beach on the island with the lightest and clearest water ever. We had a packed lunch included which was homemade ceviche and some kind of other fish salad type thing, both of which were really good. In the afternoon we continued around the island and stopped at another spot to do some more snorkelling. Again there were so many different fish and things to look at. Finally it was time to come back, so I had a nice nap on the way (a recurring event!).
We were back by 5 so headed to a beach about 30mins away. Was still tired so had another nice nap on the beach whilst the others chilled and the guys went on some jetskis.
Again found a very nice place for dinner and watched the boxing game. Was a mexican guy vs an american so was on every tv in every restaurant! The mexican guy was ginger and pale, couldn't have looked less mexican if he tried!
Day 2: Headed off early in the morning to Todos Santos, about an hour or so away. We stopped for petrol on our way out of the city, where we saw a whole bunch of police cars filling up. About 10 minutes later we see flashing lights behind us and are pulled over by the police truck that had been filling up next to us and had followed us from the petrol station. Asked to see Charly's license and then informs us we were speeding! (not true) so we have the following conversation
-So what speed were we going?
-Ahh, umm around 85
-Ah ok, what's the speed limit?
- It's err 80
Next he tells us it's going to be a US$200 fine!?
-Yeah, we don't have any dollars
-Ok, then US$100
-Still no dollars!
-Right you can pay in pesos then
Quick consultation in the car
-We only have MX$197 (less than £10)
-Ok that's fine
And off they go!? Blatantly only followed us because they heard us speaking in the petrol station!
Did a little car tour around Todos Santos when we arrived and then checked out some of the beaches before stopping at this random roadside restaurant that was called 'El pescadero' (meaning fishmonger). Naturally we weren't expecting it to be a fast food joint run by this old american couple. Greeted by the blond haired, heavily accented wife who did not have the greatest spanish and was very happy to switch to english. After talking to her it turned out they'd been living in Baja for 22 years but only opened there campervan restaurant 2 weeks ago! Kinda odd but the burgers were good although a little small so had a grilled cheese to follow up!
In the afternoon we headed to Los Cerritos a surf colony to rent some boards. Spent the whole afternoon there after haggling down the price of our boards. Probablt spent at least 3 hours in the water trying to teach myself how to surf. Never been happer than the first time I stood up, unfortunately it only happened 3 times during the afternoon. Mostly I fell off as soon as I got up or didn't even reach that far. I also had a succession of pretty impressive wipeouts where I just faceplanted before being crushed by the waves! Knackered by the end of it but again another awesome day :)
After the beach we headed down to Cabo San Lucas on the south coast where we had our accomodation booked for the next two nights. Weirdly (probably due to it being low season), the cheapest option we had found was a suite in a golf resort! Took us quite a while to find it as everyone in town told us they'd never heard of it and we couldn't reach them on their phone number! Was starting to worry wasn't a real place when we managed to access internet and get a map, then they finally answered the phone and helped with directions. The reason we kept missing it was it was up a long drive with no marked sigh (aparently it got knocked over a few weeks ago and they just havent got round to fixing it!) Was totally worth the search though. We pulled up to check-in (with it's own mini roundabout) and right behind it were the two pools connected by a small waterfall slide, and off to one side the giant jacuzzi. Our suite was insane aswell - we had two large bedrooms and bathrooms. Each bed was probably big enough to fit 5 people on it! And then we had an open area living room / kitchen with a nice little terrace outside! Did kinda debate leaving the resort at all!!
Monday was independence day here (hence the long weekend holiday) so on Sunday night they have this thing called 'el grito' where in every city the mayor/president says 'el grito' ending with 'Viva Mexico' 3 times, waves the flag, i think they then sing the national anthem and then there's usually fireworks and stuff. Anyways, it happens at 11pm, but since La Paz is one hour behind we watched it the one in Mexico D.F on tv before heading into town to see the local one. Unfortunately upon our arrival it turned out it actually happens at 11pm D.F time all across the country. So in our case we had missed it by an hour! Woopsy
Went to find food where discovered the genius of Burger King's walk-up! I'm sure this exists elsewhere but having never seen it before very much enjoyed
Day 3: Spent a few hours in the morning at the hotel pool before heading down to the beach where you can do a tour of a nearby island in a 'glass bottom boat' (the glass bottom bit was a tiny section in the middle of an otherwise ordinary boat), island is very small and has some cool rock formation creating an arch and on the other side of the island is the pacific. Also, there's the point where the sea meets the ocean, tbh it looked no different to all the water around it but apparently it's worth seeing!? As very small island only took 40 mins to see (and that was mostly due to the exceptionally slow speed of the boat). We had opted to do some snorkelling around the island so got dropped off. The local guys on the island who were in charge of sorting boats to return etc, agreed to look after our stuff for a small tip, plus one for his friend of course. In reality it seemed more like a bribe to not steal our stuff!
When we opened the bag with all the snorkelling stuff turned out they'd forgotten to put one set in and 2 of the flippers there were the wrong sizes! 10 mexican minutes late (30) they returned with the missing stuff. The snorkelling was again really cool due to the masses of fishes and the really clear water.
Back on mainland, had lunch at a nearby little place. We had fish and prawn tacos (almost all the fish we ate here was 'dorado' (mahi mahi) still not really sure what that is, but it sure tastes awesome! ;)
Then off to a different beach for a few hours to chill before heading back to the hotel via walmart to pick up some food for dinner. Had a very nice roast and then spent the rest of the evening trying to find somewhere to stay the next night further up the coast.
Day 4: Another early start to check-out and head to the next place. Our search for accomodation somewhat hampered by the lack of internet in the hotel that morning but luckily worked for long enough for me to get the number of a BnB nearby to where we wanted to be.
Tried to find the centro historico de San Jose del Cabo, but failed. Nobody we asked could direct us there and when we said about the old historic church a woman pointed to a garish bright purple church nearby!
Failing that we decided to look for a viewpoint and then head to Cabo Pulmo up the coast. A couple hours, several dirt roads and a warning about our tiny car we looped back to San Jose to take the highway instead having been told our little car would probably not survive the journey on the smaller roads! We followed it until the town where we were staying. Our BnB was a very nice little out of the way place.
The plan originally had been to head to Los Barriles (nearby) to see about kitesurfing (for Xavier). Unfortunately it turned out the season didn't start as yet and cause locals don't do it, there was nowhere to rent equipment. Instead spent the rest of the day at a beach before heading back early to the BnB, going out for dinner (more Mahi Mahi), then playing cards in our room.
Day 5: Last day so again up early. As you may or not know, Mexico was hit by a tropical storm earlier this week. Fortunately it hit south of where we were, but was heading our way so we woke to severe rain and a suggestion from the owner that we head off within an hour before the roads flooded and our little car got stuck! We had a few moments of worry when we reached some patches of water we were sure were too deep for the little car, but it pulled through and we made it to the highway. I say highway cause that's what it's called, but there are only the two lanes - one in each direction. We had another near miss on the way when we were driving through the mountains and there was a small rockslide just as we came round a corner. Thankfully Xavier slammed on the breaks quickly enough as one of the rocks that fell onto the road was pretty big and would have done some serious damage to the car!
Another hour north to La Paz and it was clear blue sky again and perfect weather!
As we were coming into La Paz, Xav didn't notice a red light and we went through it right next to a police car! Couldn't really argue this one as was an actual offence! But as with everything here, it was a negotiable fee. It started at MX$1300 (£65) before us finally paying MX$300 (£15), of course no paperwork or anything as signed as that would make it official and they'd have to give the money in!
We had a few hours until our flight so headed back to the same area of beaches we'd been to on Sat, though this time went to a different one. It was incredible, you could walk from one side of the bay to the other in the sea, it was so shallow! Took us an hour to get across and come back by which time unfortunately it was time to head back to the airport.
We tried to clear the car out of sand before we gave it back but it was useless without a vacuum. All good though and they took the car no problems. Whilst we were at the airport I thought I may as well try one last vain hope to check for my iPad. So I found someone from interjet and asked them about it, but they said they were busy and to check again in 30mins. In the mean time we went to check-in for our flight. After as we were sorting our bags the interjet lady came back to me and told me she had my iPad!!!!! I thought at first I must have misunderstood as I thought no way after 5 days it was for sure lost. But no, they had had it since friday when they found it on the plane. Couldn't believe it when I saw it and it was mine, did a small victory dance in the middle of check-in at which point I think the rest of my travel companions realised I was safe to approach. Apparently they found it straight away and had just put it into lost property. So don't know what the guy I spoke to on the phone was talking about when he said he'd contacted everyone and checked?!
Anyways, couldn't have been happier and was the perfect end to a pretty perfect holiday!
Pictures and videos to follow in a separate post as this one's already so long!!
Woo finished exams ....... they start again in 2 weeks!
I can't quite decide if I like the continuous assessment here or not. For sure it means you don't have so much to learn for every exam but on the other hand it feels like I constantly have tests (which I do). Partial exams are every month but there is a 2 week window in which the teachers can choose to do it meaning there is really only 2 weeks in between exams!
Not to mention lots of my courses like to do weekly mini tests which also count towards your grade!
However, overall, so far so good. I haven't yet failed anything, which was a little bit of a surprise although I am still waiting on my 'Cultura de Mexico' mark as despite emailing my essay 3 times, the teacher keeps saying he didn't receive it. Didn't help that he waited over a week to tell me the first time so I had no idea he hadn't got it and was kinda surprised when I failed the course with a mark of 1/100. Thankfully though this will change once he actually marks it. I have a feeling he just hasn't checked his email properly!
Had a nice long weekend last week cause monday was independence day so no lessons. Took the opportunity to head to Baja California for 5 days (see other post). Coming back to lessons was a bit depressing as in my short week off had kinda adjusted to holiday mode! Plus got quite a bit of work to do this weekend, even more so cause I took yesterday off as a rest / tv day.
Managed to hurt my bum/back a bit on thursday night when we went out: saw some friends who were jumping and hitting the disco ball on the ceiling and thought it looked fun, unfortunately as they were both 6ft something I couldn't quite make up the height difference with jumping. Still determined to reach it, one of the guys gave me a boost up. Wasn't the greatest plan as I missed the disco ball and fell back down pretty hard. Not deterred I was successful on my 2nd attempt and caught as opposed to dropped to the ground! Felt fine all night but next day very stiff and spent day feeling sorry for myself, didn't help that gone to bed at 6. Attempted to get up at 10 to go to my tennis class, but swiftly decided that wasn't going to happen! Last nights plan to get a good nights sleep instead of going out was minorly upset by one of my flatmates forgetting his key and holding his finger down on the buzzer at 5.30am until someone (me) answered the door. Was hoping if i ignored it long enough someone else would answer but obviously all thinking along the same lines!
Monday 9 September 2013
The house that Mexico built
So our lovely nice new house is slowly falling apart and it seems like as soon as one thing is fixed another falls apart!
Lovely from the outside - but it's the inside that's the problem!
It started with the kitchen when one of the cupboards fell off the wall whilst xavier was opening it. The microwave who insisted on just saying 'simply samsung' for hours at a time, not letting you press any buttons. It was taken away to be repaired and is yet to return! The new fridge wasn't broken perse but took a week of airing to get rid of the deadly cloud of gas it emitted every time you opened it! This was quickly followed by a large proportion of kitchen utensils etc such as the saucepan whose handle melted. Admittedly the Pyrex dish that blew up with the lasagne in it may have been our fault.....
Moving to the rest of the house, it recently started raining inside when the roof started leaking in 2 different spots. I am also suffering this problem in my room as after heavy rain a small puddle forms by my window. This has also happened in 2 other people's rooms. Although mine was fixed, it only stayed that way for a week and is now up to its old tricks again!
The latest thing is the front door, one day it refused to shut. It seemed the other side had warped slightly and no longer fit. Obviously we attempted to force it shut, resulting in the other side cracking slightly. Not yet sure if this will be counted as our fault or the doors, personally I vote door.
So I think that covers all the issues so far but I have a feeling there will be more to add to this list in the future....
Keep having to re-read posts and correct my English! #awks
Busy, Busy, Busy
So the party the other weekend had a few too many people as apparently the noise upset the neighbours! Also, cause people were outside the house the police also notified our landlady who was none too impressed. The whole thing was kinda hypocritical considering the other night I was kept up till 3.30 with the salsa music blasting out of the house 10 doors down! So much for keeping the 'tranquilidad' of the neighbourhood. However we did add to our list of how much certain offences cost. One of the guys in my house, Jakob, decided it would be a good idea to go to the toilet outside, despite our 5 perfectly good bathrooms inside, unfortunately for him he had bad timing, so went for a ride around the block before being offered the pay $300mx (£15). So now we know that's $300mx, drinking in the street is $500mx and some other guy on the exchange discovered accidentally breaking into someone's house thinking it is a club is worth $2000mx! 
The next day was not so pleasant when we had to get up at 9 to clean the house. Cause it had never really stopped raining, the floor was literally black and there was crap everywhere. Took a while to clean up and we weren't quite finished by time we left to go to Xochimilco. The bus ride was less than enjoyable and not improved by our bus (of course) breaking down about 15mins away. They decided that it was a short enough distance that all cramming onto the other little bus would be a good idea. Spent the next 15mins feeling sorry for the person who said I could sit on their lap and trying to absorb the I pact very time the death trap sped over one of the bumps in the road! It wasn't the nicest weather and periodically switched between raining and bright sunshine. It's quite a nice experience for a couple hours and then after around hour 3 it starts to go downhill! Having drunk enough the previous night I also wasn't drinking so hour 3 was also around the time some other people I think had had enough! The whole thing is like a small maze of canals, but not very large, so over the course of 5 hours you pass the same places over and over. There are are dozens of floating vendors who come alongside the boat offering food, souvenirs, drinks, etc. In the last 1/2 hour we saw two people fall off another boat and 1 person fall off ours when he attempted to jump between 2 boats!
We had already planned to spend the night in la D.F so got off as close as possible before catching another bus to the area where our hostel was. Was quite a cool little hostel though the next morning it ran out of water of all kinds so wasn't such a fan then! It was almost all our house and Charly's girlfriend (who is also studying in mexico but elsewhere) and two of her flatmates. Plan was to go out for dinner then out. By time we found somewhere to eat and finished was already midnight and everyone was so tired just headed back to the hostel to chill. Dinner was kinda overpriced (like (£9) each considering was small and not that great, but we were eating in the historical centre so everything' costs a bit more!
On Sunday we went to Castillo de Chapultepec which had some cool views over the city. Chapultepec is this giant park in the city with the castle, a zoo and other stuff. Headed back early afternoon though as everyone had quite a bit of work to do having done nothing all weekend!
First couple exams weren't at all as bad as I thought. Before the first one we spent an hour going over the material, the only bad thing was that hadn't learnt the formulas as he said he'd give them to us, which he did, but in a random order not saying what they were! Next exam I thought was going to be one of the worst (business law) but turns out you could ask questions during the exam. Now, in England if you so much as drop your pen on the floor during an exam your not supposed to pick it up as could be construed as cheating! So you can imagine I was kinda suspicious at first when people went up to ask teacher questions! However, once I saw someone go up with his paper and she made notes on it before giving it back to him thought it was worth a try. I explained I hadn't understood one of the questions and she told me what I needed to write and then went through my paper circling ones that I needed to change / add more to! Was a very different kind of exam than what I'm used to! What made the week stressful is that the workload seemed to increase around exam time! So I was revising but also had to do the group project, an essay and my other homeworks! I have a feeling it's more of a readjustment than a real overload having spent the previous two years with only 1 piece of coursework that was marked! This whole attendance / work thing is still a bit of a shock to the system!
On Friday I had to go to the immigration office with a few other exchange students to finalise my temporary resident status. Unfortunately this meant leaving at 7am. We arrived at 8.20 and even though the office doesn't open till 9 there was already a queue forming round the block, we were only round the first corner so didn't seem too bad. However it took just under 4 hours from then for us to get in and seen. Bearing in mind all we were doing was signing something and giving our fingerprints, a 5 min process, it was a seriously long time. I am now though technically a temporary resident. I won't actually get the card saying so for another month or two, by which time it will be between 2-3 months since I started the process!
In the evening we went to Regis' house down the road (another French exchange student who's a friend of xavier and practically lives in our house - he even does his washing by us!) for dinner. We had crepes - so French!
Had me a nice quiet weekend catching up on sleep and work :)
Friday 30 August 2013
Adjusting to life in Mexico
So just finished by 3rd week of classes (been here for 4 weeks now) and they're starting to get better / easier. On the other hand, was totally unprepared for the amount of work they do here, it's kinda like being back at school! So on top of the monthly 'partials' and the final test at the end of the semester, there is a combination of homeworks, essays, projects, presentations and quizzes, depending on the class. Most give some form of homework every lesson, so for those modules where I have 2 lessons a week, it's 2 bits of work a week! Definitely a big change from having had 1 piece of coursework in the past two years of uni!
Means I'm also realising I don't have as much spare time as I thought between classes, work and my extracurriculars.
Next week is the beginning of the partial exams, they're spread out over the 2 weeks, as the teacher gets to decide which lesson within that time frame you do it. Surprise though, if the exam doesn't take up the whole lesson, we have to stay and they'll just start the next topic! Wooooo
I think most of them should be ok, though my supposedly easy class 'Cultura de Mexico' is making us write a min 5 page essay when we have to do all the research etc considering that we haven't covered anything we can write about! Plus 'Business Law' has set a min 16 page group project as well as having a partial?! Not too bad as split between the group but no idea whatsoever how m gonna fill 4 pages on my topic!
However I also get the impression the exam setting is more relaxed as my 'Capital and Money markets' teacher asked whether i wanted to do the test in English or Spanish. I said I would like to try in Spanish and she said that if I had any questions during the exam I could just ask her or respond to bits in English if I forgot the words! So that's pretty cool :)
Still got quite a lot of revision to do over the next week as we seem to have covered an awful lot so far and the teachers don't upload the presentations so if I have any gaps in my notes think m gonna have to hit the library and check the textbooks!
Cause most of my classes are in Spanish I'm with Mexican rather than international students, but so far most people have been really friendly and helpful. Even though I understand what's being said in Spanish, it is nice to have someone explain it to you!
Last weekend I went to get my hair cut as was just beginning to annoy me, only to realise whilst I can understand my lectures on law, accounting, etc i had no idea how to say any of the words relating to a haircut, or how to effectively explain what I meant. Luckily miming and talking around the words I wanted worked out ok and for £6 I'm pretty happy :) especially considering how much it costs back home!
This week we had a bit of a food shortage as we didn't make it to the supermarket on tues, so ate out tues/weds night. Had quesadillas one night and what is kinda like a sandwich with kebab meat another. Both were really good, and still haven't gotten over how cheap it is to eat here. The kebab sandwich was particularly good, I think it's pork and comes with pineapple and some other sauces - kinda tastes like the toppings on shark and bake!
The weather here is a bit random but for the most part it tends to be quite hot and clear blue skies in the morning and then by late afternoon it starts to rain / bucket is probably more accurate! Had some massive rain storms past week! Also the few odd cold days but for the most part sticks to the same pattern!
Today is Charly and Matthieu's Birthday (2 of guys in my house) so we're having a party for them in the house. Been 'people proofing' this afternoon, which involved giving the sofa a new cover made from bin bags! #prepared Also, Hanna (roomate from Brazil) recruited us in making snacks - almost feels more like a dinner party with our trays of bruschetta and bowls of snacks! Hopefully it will have stopped raining by the time everyone arrives cause otherwise dunno how they'll all fit inside!
Then tomorrow we're going to Xochimilco just outside Mexico City where you can 'ride in colourful boats around the canal' should be cool. Then we're staying in a hostel in D.F so we can go out in Mexico City on sat night. Then need Sunday to work and prepare for Monday! So a pretty busy weekend :)
Decided each post should have at least one photo so:
(View from our roof)
Vamos a la playa, a mi me gusta bailar!
So 10 hours on a bus with broken air conditioning and no windows, having had no sleep, was not the best way to start the trip! We arrived at the beach (supposedly near Acapulco) possibly suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion! We were in the middle of nowhere, miles from anything, with just one small restaurant to get food / drinks. Not exactly the set-up we had been led to believe before! By the time we arrived just wanted to go in the sea to cool down, but we had to setup the tents first. Let me note here, I hate camping by the beach, I don't recommend it and I won't be doing it again! If you get over the discomfort and unbearable heat (which you can't avoid as opening the tent would mean being eaten alive by mozzies) then it's the fact that sand gets everywhere and 2 weeks later I'm still finding it in my bag/stuff!!
The plus side to being in the middle of nowhere was the beach - so nice. And as far as you could see in either direction there was no one/nothing else! Just us and out little collection of shade! (Definitely needed - soooo hot). The beach and water more than made up for everything else! Water was so warm aswell!
During the day we just chilled by the beach, played volleyball and attempted to skimboard (in my case just a succession of faceplants/impressive falls!) oooo, also saw a giant turtle on the beach that a Mexican guy had spotted from like 1/2 mile away! Went turtle hunting in the evening but didn't see any. Had an awkward moment where we were sure we had seen turtles in the distance so all start running towards the shape shouting 'turtle' only to get a bit closer and realise turtles don't have legs.... Maybe turtle hunting after drinking was the downfall!
Friday / Saturday night there were 2 parties with an open bar. Was interesting tasting mixtures but no-ones going to complain when it's included! Friday was neon/paint party and Sat was just 'white Tshirt' party. Also on Sat there were a whole bunch of Chinese lanterns. We didn't quite get the timing of all together down, so was like a few here and there but still looked pretty!
Beach parties were pretty awesome and cause was almost full moon meant we had a good amount of light all night aswell!
Trip back on Sunday wasn't as bad or long. Thankfully we stopped for food like an 1 1/2 in at first place we passed and all raided the small supermarket! However the AC was still not working very well despite them assuring us it had been fixed...
Trip back on Sunday wasn't as bad or long. Thankfully we stopped for food like an 1 1/2 in at first place we passed and all raided the small supermarket! However the AC was still not working very well despite them assuring us it had been fixed...
Wednesday 21 August 2013
Spanish Overload!
So first day of classes was kind of a shock to the system!!
I have to take more classes than I'm used to at home and you have a limited number of absences after which you auto-fail the course! So no more sleeping in just cause I don't wanna go to class.
Monday I started at 8.30 in the morning and didn't finish until 10pm (Thankfully I had two breaks of 1 1/2 hours but that was it for the whole day).
I am now taking 7 courses - I was originally taking 6, had a brief moment of joy when the exeter website said we only needed 4, only to then be crushed when they decided 6 was better. Anyways, when I went to change one of my courses that was too hard, I somehow ended up agreeing to keep it and take on another easier course as a back-up?! Very unlike me, can't imagine it will last! Everything had to be finalised last week as after that you could only drop courses not add them. My problem has been that Exeter has to approve all my module choices, and I'm not allowed to do anything which overlaps - so no economics and no maths at all. Finance ones are debatable it seems! And they were not the quickest at replying, which wasn't helped by the time difference meaning there was only like a 3 hour window each day to communicate! So I ended up with 7 courses, 5 of which are in spanish! Originally only 3 were going to be but one changed to spanish when i moved the time it was to fit it into my timetable and the other was changed to spanish but no-one told me. So I turned up to 'Capital and Money Markets' expecting it to be in english only for it to be in very rapid spanish! (I'm still not even sure if I'm allowed to take this course as apparently it's too similar to one I already did - even though it's predominantly on the Mexican financial system?!)
So I have almost all my lessons on mon / thurs, with my extra one on weds. Meaning on mon I have every class except the extra one - hence the insanely long day! The first lesson of everything was pretty tough. Let me take you through my day:
8.30 - 10: Business Law and Intellectual Property (Spanish); teacher speaks really quickly, oh and also all the classes here are really small, so the profs learn all your names and then pick on you! Wasn't overly keen on the whole circle time introducing yourself as no-one can pronounce my name, it is now simply kris or kristen at best, they don't like the 'ir'.
10-11.30: Mexican Culture (Spanish); much more relaxed as it's all foreign students and there are no parcial exams *. Plus he gave us the lesson off on thursday as he was busy :)
*The system here is actually nicer in terms of exams as you have 3 parcial exams each semester and then one final one, so it means you're not trying to cram a years worth of stuff into a 3 hour exam! England take note!
11.30-1: I have time enough to nip home or catch-up on whatever homework I almost certainly haven't done!
1-2.30: Advanced Spanish (Spanish, claro!); woop made it into the advanced class, it's pretty small as there are only 5 of us, and the range of ability is quite wide as some moved themselves into the class as found others too easy and the levels in between didnt work with their timetable! So far is pretty boring though, we've spent 3 lessons on Simple vs Compound sentences?! Useful .... I think not. Although on thurs we only had a 45min class as her computer broke down so that was it - no back-up!
2.30-4: My second break of the day with just enough time to go home, have some lunch, again catch-up on work and then head back to Tec for my awesome evening of classes! woo
4-5.30: Intermediate Accounting (English, finally): This one's quite an easy class as the teacher speaks incredibly slowly and it's all quite simple (so far), to the extent that the german girl in the class thought she must have missed something as it was too easy! I also like this class as he started by telling us that no-one fails his class :) My kinda subject! (The pass rate here is 70% - hoping that's easier to obtain than in england considering that's a 1st back home!!)
5.30-7: Capital and Money Markets (Spanish - was supposed to be english): This is by far the worst and hardest class I have. The prof speaks so quickly and moves all the slides on before I've even had a chance to read them! Plus in the last class the mexican guy I was sitting next to told me his friend hated the course so much he actually changed his degree! Doesn't bode well. I'm gonna try and stick it out though as having a sound knowledge of the mexican financial system plus the vocab would be useful. I've got one module extra aswell so I'm ok if it doesn't end well!
7-10 (Yep I'm still in class): Financial Statement Analysis (Spanish - again was supposed to be in english): Had an awful first lesson as I didn't know any of the right vocab, I could understand it in context but couldn't think of the words on the spot. That combined with my failure to know to know the date of Mexico's Independence Day meant I was treated somewhat like a child for the remainder of the lesson. Most of it was stuff I already knew, though was too afraid to volunteer my information after 2 hours of being belittled. This week was a marked improvement, even though I hadn't achieved my goal of memorising all the accounting vocab, the cash flow exercises were pretty easy so me and my partner got extra points for the pop-quiz by finishing first
So that's mondays, thursdays are the same minus the last lesson, so I get to finish at 7. Then weds is 4-7 something called Group Dynamics, think maybe a bit of a joke as last week apparently they just played games for 3 hours?! Will see as have this later today. Could do with an easier course though!
The facilities on campus are pretty amazing, they have a massive american football field, tennis courts, basketball courts(indoor / outdoor) and a 50m swimming pool. All are free to use, the downside is you have to sign up for activities and between sports and cultural activities (anything from drama to cooking / martial arts) you are only allowed 4 of which the gym counts as 1. So i'm doing gym, tennis twice a week, crossfit (kinda like circuits) and drum lessons (finally got to give it a go after previously settling for the trumpet as the 2nd loudest instrument I could think of). There were so many options it was quite hard to only choose 4, but the benefit of being here 1 year is I can always try different ones next semester :)
I have to take more classes than I'm used to at home and you have a limited number of absences after which you auto-fail the course! So no more sleeping in just cause I don't wanna go to class.
Monday I started at 8.30 in the morning and didn't finish until 10pm (Thankfully I had two breaks of 1 1/2 hours but that was it for the whole day).
I am now taking 7 courses - I was originally taking 6, had a brief moment of joy when the exeter website said we only needed 4, only to then be crushed when they decided 6 was better. Anyways, when I went to change one of my courses that was too hard, I somehow ended up agreeing to keep it and take on another easier course as a back-up?! Very unlike me, can't imagine it will last! Everything had to be finalised last week as after that you could only drop courses not add them. My problem has been that Exeter has to approve all my module choices, and I'm not allowed to do anything which overlaps - so no economics and no maths at all. Finance ones are debatable it seems! And they were not the quickest at replying, which wasn't helped by the time difference meaning there was only like a 3 hour window each day to communicate! So I ended up with 7 courses, 5 of which are in spanish! Originally only 3 were going to be but one changed to spanish when i moved the time it was to fit it into my timetable and the other was changed to spanish but no-one told me. So I turned up to 'Capital and Money Markets' expecting it to be in english only for it to be in very rapid spanish! (I'm still not even sure if I'm allowed to take this course as apparently it's too similar to one I already did - even though it's predominantly on the Mexican financial system?!)
So I have almost all my lessons on mon / thurs, with my extra one on weds. Meaning on mon I have every class except the extra one - hence the insanely long day! The first lesson of everything was pretty tough. Let me take you through my day:
8.30 - 10: Business Law and Intellectual Property (Spanish); teacher speaks really quickly, oh and also all the classes here are really small, so the profs learn all your names and then pick on you! Wasn't overly keen on the whole circle time introducing yourself as no-one can pronounce my name, it is now simply kris or kristen at best, they don't like the 'ir'.
10-11.30: Mexican Culture (Spanish); much more relaxed as it's all foreign students and there are no parcial exams *. Plus he gave us the lesson off on thursday as he was busy :)
*The system here is actually nicer in terms of exams as you have 3 parcial exams each semester and then one final one, so it means you're not trying to cram a years worth of stuff into a 3 hour exam! England take note!
11.30-1: I have time enough to nip home or catch-up on whatever homework I almost certainly haven't done!
1-2.30: Advanced Spanish (Spanish, claro!); woop made it into the advanced class, it's pretty small as there are only 5 of us, and the range of ability is quite wide as some moved themselves into the class as found others too easy and the levels in between didnt work with their timetable! So far is pretty boring though, we've spent 3 lessons on Simple vs Compound sentences?! Useful .... I think not. Although on thurs we only had a 45min class as her computer broke down so that was it - no back-up!
2.30-4: My second break of the day with just enough time to go home, have some lunch, again catch-up on work and then head back to Tec for my awesome evening of classes! woo
4-5.30: Intermediate Accounting (English, finally): This one's quite an easy class as the teacher speaks incredibly slowly and it's all quite simple (so far), to the extent that the german girl in the class thought she must have missed something as it was too easy! I also like this class as he started by telling us that no-one fails his class :) My kinda subject! (The pass rate here is 70% - hoping that's easier to obtain than in england considering that's a 1st back home!!)
5.30-7: Capital and Money Markets (Spanish - was supposed to be english): This is by far the worst and hardest class I have. The prof speaks so quickly and moves all the slides on before I've even had a chance to read them! Plus in the last class the mexican guy I was sitting next to told me his friend hated the course so much he actually changed his degree! Doesn't bode well. I'm gonna try and stick it out though as having a sound knowledge of the mexican financial system plus the vocab would be useful. I've got one module extra aswell so I'm ok if it doesn't end well!
7-10 (Yep I'm still in class): Financial Statement Analysis (Spanish - again was supposed to be in english): Had an awful first lesson as I didn't know any of the right vocab, I could understand it in context but couldn't think of the words on the spot. That combined with my failure to know to know the date of Mexico's Independence Day meant I was treated somewhat like a child for the remainder of the lesson. Most of it was stuff I already knew, though was too afraid to volunteer my information after 2 hours of being belittled. This week was a marked improvement, even though I hadn't achieved my goal of memorising all the accounting vocab, the cash flow exercises were pretty easy so me and my partner got extra points for the pop-quiz by finishing first
So that's mondays, thursdays are the same minus the last lesson, so I get to finish at 7. Then weds is 4-7 something called Group Dynamics, think maybe a bit of a joke as last week apparently they just played games for 3 hours?! Will see as have this later today. Could do with an easier course though!
The facilities on campus are pretty amazing, they have a massive american football field, tennis courts, basketball courts(indoor / outdoor) and a 50m swimming pool. All are free to use, the downside is you have to sign up for activities and between sports and cultural activities (anything from drama to cooking / martial arts) you are only allowed 4 of which the gym counts as 1. So i'm doing gym, tennis twice a week, crossfit (kinda like circuits) and drum lessons (finally got to give it a go after previously settling for the trumpet as the 2nd loudest instrument I could think of). There were so many options it was quite hard to only choose 4, but the benefit of being here 1 year is I can always try different ones next semester :)
So the first week of classes went by in a bit of a blur. Classes all mon/thurs, activities during the day and went to party at one of the other exchange student houses on tues - they have a really nice house aswell with a pool table and a small pool they bought for the garden, we're thinking we should do the same!
Then we left on Friday morning at 6.30am to get the bus to the beach for the weekend. Of course I had been convinced that it would be a good idea to go out to the 'Tequila Party' the night before. They crammed more people than possible onto a coach it was a 40min trip to the club. (I can't even begin to describe how many people were stuffed into the coach seats / aisles.) I was not a fan of this as I sometimes get a bit of motion sickness and the combination of terrible driving, having to stand up and neon flashing lights for 40 mins was not the best start to the night! Not to mention all the french people were singing songs I couldn't understand for the entire trip, seriously it was like a never ending supply! On arrival though all the girls got given a free 350ml bottle of tequila. Not the greatest fan of tequila and definitely not a believer of 'it grows on you' cause believe me, it hasn't! But I do love me some free stuff :) Anyways didn't get home till around 4, so had a quick power nap before getting up again to go catch the bus. I had been emptying the memory card for my GoPro before we went out on the computer and managed to forget to put it back in the camera. Meaning I had my cool camera with all it's accessories and no way of using it all weekend! Bummer!
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