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!)
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