Today I woke up and then Patty and I left to walk to the train station (and that’s about 10min away from their house!!). I’m going to have to take that EVERYDAY to school, but she took me downtown today and showed me around MANY places! We stopped to eat at a restaurant she likes and it had Mexican food and American food. One of her friends met up with us there. There were old guys playing dominos and I guess that’s popular for them to do there, and it was funny because at one point, an old man stood up over there and was mad about something, probably because another old guy cheated, it was funny. After we were done eating, then we started to really go through the city. We went inside a REALLY old and nice Catholic church, in a library that used to be a church AGES ago. She showed me around the stores and a place that’s kinda like a HUGE flea market. Throughout our walk through the city, there will be MANY people coming up to you trying to sell you something (that most likely was stolen), but all you have to do is ignore them or say something like “No Gracias or No Tengo Dinero”. I even saw one the street MANY people one the ground or something needing money. I felt so bad for them, but I was told that most of them are there ONLY to make money and aren’t really homeless or filthy poor. I saw this elderly lady on the ground and I just felt SO bad for her! I kinda felt like at least giving her a coin, but I didn’t. And at one point I saw these children on the ground and one of them sleeping, but people will ask their friends to borrow their kids so it can seem like their poor. We got on the buses and those things are CROWDED! I didn’t like the bus experience, because not only did I have to stand up like many others, but I was like so close to many people. I didn’t like riding the bus AT ALL!! **KEEP READING MY BLOG FOR MORE UPDATES!!
The End.
August 23rd 2009
On this day we all departed from our families. We had breakfast and then headed to the buses to be taken to either the airport or the bus station (for me and some others it was the bus station). We got there and waited for a few hours until our bus would take us to our places (3 other kids and myself we’re on the same bus to Guadalajara, but they were placed in Colima, Jalisco). We were on that bus for about 7 HOURS!! On that bus ride I made two more friends with kids I hadn’t talked with during the camp (a guy from Germany and a girl from Norway). I was happy though that one of my New Zealand friends was on this bus ride. Once we arrived in Guadalajara, we went got in a taxi to take us to this little outside patio restaurant called “Las Sombrillas” and let me tell you this, YOU HAVEN’T DRIVEN UNTIL YOU’VE DRIVEN IN MEXICO! There’s like NO rode rules really. Not a lot of lines on the street, people ALL over the place, honking none stop, make what we would call “Illegal turns” because there’s cars that might turn right, but they’re like 4 lanes over from spot were it would be safer to turn. Pedestrians do NOT have a right of way, don’t think that just because you’re able to cross the street that a car will stop for you, because they most likely won’t. After awhile at Las Sombrillas, my host family showed up there! So I went my separate way from the others. We came to their home and I was shown around a bit then I went to bed.
The End.
August 22nd 2009
Ok, today was the official day that we started camp in Cuernavaca. I was shy at first because I didn’t know ANYBODY and everyone seemed to at least know somebody because they we’re from their country. Once we started the activities, that’s when people started socializing with me and me socializing with them. I am VERY happy for today because I made MORE friends!! They come from New Zealand, Norway, and Belgium and a few from other countries. So far this has been a GREAT experience for me. Tomorrow we all depart for our families, but let’s talk about today. We did various activities today and tonight after supper was the Talent Show. Everybody did something from their country (it was usually ALL the kids who were from that country did something together). Since I was by myself, I decided to sing the United States National Anthem. I think that I’ve accomplished something so far. Many asked if I was the only American because they couldn’t really believe it. Whoever we talked to we asked questions about one another’s country. In the end, I’m just really glad that I’ve made “foreign” friends! :)
The End.
