Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
This one is for you mom :-) These are the crazy acueducts we drove all over Spain trying to find. I think that Spains was way cooler, but it was fun to find them in Mexico. Remember where we slept that night? ;-)
Sunday, November 08, 2009
The mine!
Zacatecas is famous for it's mine. For over 300 years slaves and children dug this mine out without using any dynamite. Our guide said that between 8-10 people died everyday for 300 years. The children had to work in the mine when their parents died to "pay off their debt"...was super sad to hear that! 
In order to enter the mine you have to wear a yellow hard hat and hair net (super nice...not) and then take a little train that has glass surrounding it. Our tour guide kept making fun of us because when he asked us where we were from we said Torreon and he was like no...like where do you live and we answered Torreon he was just getting frustrated with us. I felt pretty good about this day because the tour was all in Spanish and yet I understood everything he was saying! He liked us so much that he gaves us each a stone to keep :-)
Inside their a statue that supposedly if girls rub his tummy and touch the rock in his hand you will have good luck for the rest of your life. The men have to hold his gun and touch the stone in order to have good luck.
It was kinda creepy because once the tour was over they say you can leave with the tour guide or you can walk out the other entrance to the cable car. This is what we did, but there is no guide and you just follow random arrows...major difference between america and mexico! We would never let people wander a historical site where they could get lost or hurt or damage something by themselves!
Also interesting info about the mine is that during the day it's a touristic attraction, but at night it turns into a club. It's the worlds first mine club. now there are like 4 one in mexico, germany, australia and somewhere else.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Here the cables are kind of close to our heads, but there were times when we were sitting and had to duck so we didn't lose our heads. A couple times we had to make people sit down so they didn't get hurt!
This was a beautiful way to see the city. Most of our time we were only within our 4 block radius, but we loved being able to see how big and old and pretty everything was! We all were dreading going home on Monday and wished that we had two or more days to see more!
There was a beautiful park which reminded me of being in Spain, we didn't get to go back and see it, but it looked really pretty....it was where our hostel owner suggested we go eat a picnic lunch and if we had had an extra day I think we would have!
Torreon is a really modern industrial city and Zacatecas was an old historic city that was so full of colors and where people were proud of their city! One morning we were sitting in the plaza outside of a cathedral and an elderly couple came up to us and asked us where we were from and if we were enjoying their city and that they were happy to see young girls like us enjoying the beauty too! People in Torreon don't stop and talk to you unless they are going to say something you don't want to hear!
Sunday, November 08, 2009
For the day of the dead (Nov. 2) we had school off which meant we had a 3 day weekend! We left Friday right after school and took a taxi to the bus station and then a 6.5 hour bus ride. This ride was fine, they showed two movies. 1- armagedan in spanish...needless to say we were all crying by the end. 2- lindsay lohans love bug or something like that...the remake of herbie goes bannanas. All my roommates thought I was crazy and didn't believe it was a real movie...I need to bring it back after Christmas dad! 
When we got there we took a taxi to our hostle which was in the perfect spot! Right out one of the rooms was the cathedral and out of the other room it was another side of the cathedral. Our side also had a bar outside of it which was a little loud! But it was only open Friday and Saturday night. The other girls' room had the bells that went off ever hour. However, the rooms were so dark that we had no problem sleeping in!
Friday night we went to a little cantina and then went to bed because we were tired. When we were getting ready for bed there was no water...we thought nothing of it...
Saturday morning we woke up and there was still no water. By this point were like crud...but we get ready and we go to this cute little restaurant that apparently has only the best breakfast and the rest of its food is bad....
Then we went to the cathedral which was beautiful and made me think of Europe. Next we took a double decker trolly around the city. We had to duck a few times so we didn't get our heads cut off by cables.
day of the dead. All over the city there were altars to remember the people who have passed before those who are left behind. After walking out of the cathedral we were wandering, trying to find the trolly and saw something very colorful.....a guard told us we could come in and look. What we saw was truly amazing! All of these are created by differe
nt colored rocks, pasta, or fruit. It was huge and truly amazing to see how much time and detail they place into remembering those who have passed. The tradition believes that the dead will come and eat what is left for them on the altar. Also, that it's important to remember what the person loved or what made them unique. For example at other altars there were stuffed animal dogs to represent their dogs. Or there are guitars if they played or loved music. Each family decides how the person would like to be remembered.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Thursday night Ms. Cassidy and I got invited to the kids halloween party! It was fun, but crazy to see. There was probably 250 people there. Keep in mind that between us we only have 48 kids. Then add one mom to each of those who were sitting at a table and smoking, gossiping, not paying any attention to their kids. Then there was at least one nanny for each kid and an endless amount of sibilings. It was so weird because it wasn't at a house, it was at a party spot. It was strange to see the division and to really watch people not care for their kids. Granted there were some moms who were excited and taking pictures and following the kids around, but there were many who were not.
It was awesome to see our kids so happy to see us there and the parents were also excited that we were all together.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Halloween party!
The week before Halloween we hosted a halloween party at our house. We did it a week early because during halloween there was a puente and we were going to travel :-). The party was a custom party! It was fun to watch everyone preparing their costumes and being inventive. It was a time we wished we had a sowing machine, instead we used hot glue guns, super glue, safety pins, a lot of creativity was used!
The party began at 9pm and did not end until after 8 am. At 8 I finally went to my room and slept for a couple hours! When we woke up our house was completely trashed, but everyone was super excited and said they had a ton of fun. We had pinatas, a giant candy bowl, and loud music.
Here are some pictures to capture the night!
My roommate Eda dressed up as a duck...she was going to be chicken little, but then she got duck feet instead of chicken and changed a little :-)
This is my friend Ale, I have gotten to hang out with her quite a bit and it's nice because she has a car so we have gotten to go to different parts of the city and see new things :-)
Katie and Rulas. This is KT's 3rd year in Torreon.
Jenn is one of the teachers who was here last year and is incredibly helpful!
how to help those kids! My kids covered twice the amount of material as we normally accomplish. Also that day we got to play with the parachute she brought me! It's like about half the size of the one we use for AWANA. The kids thought it was the coolest thing and so much fun. We went out to eat at a fun restaurant called Taco Stao. We also got to watch soccer both my roommate Kaite's and the Santos game. We also got to go to our friend Cecy's birthday party Saturday night, unfortunately it was outside and freezing cold, but Sarah got to try some nasty candy and experience a birthday party here! 
