Brittni’s Blog

Wow, I can’t believe how fast this trip has gone…

Here are some video’s from past weeks in Cuernavaca that I just uploaded:

Cumpleanos de Julio a Chac Mool (The Director’s B-Day) from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

Lucho Libre from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

Bull Fight-Part 5 from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

Tuesday I went to the cooking clase and made rajas con crema y papas which is strips of chile poleno and chucks of potatoes in a cream sauce. I thought it was interesting how the lady cooked the chiles on her stove and I got a lot of good videos of it which I’ll upload. Friday was a rainy night so I stayed in with Paula, the 8 year old in my house and played games. I try to play with her at least one a week because she asks me almost everyday “Quieres jugar?” (”Do you want to play?”) and I usually have to say no because I have plans. But its good for me to play with her because it helps me practice my Spanish. Saturday I went on a 7 mile run, then to the Feria (fair) which is in town for a few weeks, and then out to a few salsa clubs to practice my salsa with friends. I’m still not great at salsa, but have definitely made a lot of improvement since I’ve been here. Sunday I went to a lagoon in the mountains called Zempuala with some friends. On the way there we stopped at a little restaurant in Huitzilac, a neighborhood in Cuernavaca, and had quesadillas de flour de calabaza and cafe de hoya. Que delicioso! We went horseback riding in the mountains near the lagoon and my allergies didn’t act up! Yay! Then we hiked around the lagoon and made a little campfire were we barbecued some meat for tacos. Tambien que delicisos! That night we went to Circus Chino de Pekin in Cuernavaca. It had the typical clowns and elephant tricks, but the main thing that its known for is the different gymnastic acts that are preformed by a traveling group from China.

This week I lived with a really nice family from the Bahamas. I hung out with them a lot at our house and tagged along with them to a bowling ally, an ecological park, and out to dinner. The oldest kids are twins (eight years old) and the youngest girl is six. I stayed up late talking with the mom who is originally from Ghana, grew up in London, and has been living in the Bahamas for about 20 years. They showed me pictures of the beaches in Nassau, where they live, and I told them to expect me for a visit in the future.

Brent’s last week! We went to Tepoztlan (a city close to Cuernavaca) again and climbed the mountain to the pyramid. Then on Friday we went to Mexico City and stayed in a hostel next to the Zocalo (center square). I heard Brent made it home safe and sound on Saturday.

Here’s a video of the hostel we stayed at in Mexico City:

Mexico City Hostel from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

This week we went to the VIP theater and saw Batman for the second time with our friends Carlos from LA and Woody from Sacramento. The VIP theater is only $6.60 on Wednesdays and it is so nice! There are really comfortable Lazy-boy recliners and they serve you you’re food. I got some Sushi! Yum! Then we went to a popular bar here called Freedom and hung out and watched the Olympics and danced a little.

Since it was Brent’s last weekend in Mexico we went to Acapulco for the weekend. We went right after school on Friday and came home on Sunday afternoon. We stayed at a nice hostel only a block form the beach (and only $15 a night). We relaxed on the beach, drank cervezas, and swam in the ocean. I also got my hair braided and got two messages (one on Saturday and one on Sunday).

Acapulco from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

This weekend we went to Taxco on Saturday and Puebla on Sunday.

I’m not sure who already knows this, but I’m signed up for another program at a different Spanish School. I’m really excited for this program because its one school, but in 3 different cities: Buenos Aires, Santiago, and Lima!
So, I have 4 more weeks at Chac Mool (the school I’m at now in Cuernavaca), then I have 1 week back at home (September 13-20), then I will have 4 weeks in each of these locations.
Buenos Aires: September 21-October 19
Santiago: October 19-November 16
Lima: November 16-December 13
Here’s the website in case anyone would like to check it out:
http://www.latinimmersion.com/specials/3schools.html

After that my plans are not certain, but I will probably spend some time in Guatemala at this Spanish school: http://www.xelapages.com/ica/eng/

Anyone want to come visit me somewhere?

Wow, what a busy week. On Thursday we went to Lucho Libre which literally means “free wrestling.” Its basically like WWF wrestling. Its a local show here in Cuernavaca that they have every Thursday. The little stadium was very packed with people standing up for the whole 3 hours.

On Sunday we went to Mexico City with our friends Carlos and Stephen. In the morning we went to Xochimilco and in the afternoon we went to a Bull Fight. Xochimilco is a neighborhood in Mexico City were there are many canals. We took a boat for a few hours around the river.
Here’s a description of Xochimilco that I got from Stephen’s blog:
“Xochimilco is a neighborhood in Mexico City that resembles the way the city was before the conquistadors arrived. Mexico city is built on a lake. The Aztecs carved this lake into canals separated by “floating” gardens. The spanish later filled the lake, leaving only Xochimilco in more or less original condition. Now the canals are a common destination for tourists and Mexicans seeking leisure. There are still many gardens on the banks of the canals, and the way to get around is still by boat. People rent boats and float down the river with family and friends. Mariachis are very popular. You can hire a Mariachi boat to float along next to you and play music.”
Check out his blog to see some pictures of us: http://spf-world.blogspot.com/2008/08/xochimilco.html

Then we went o the Bull Fight. We got front row seats for only $15 US. Unfortunately, it was a little too close for me. I ended up leaving after they killed the first bull. It was just too upsetting for me, but I understand that it effects people differently. The guys left after they killed the third bull, but we think they killed 5 or 6 in total. I’m glad that they use the meat (I’ve heard for sausage or something) and it was cool that a woman was the first matador, but the part that really got to me was seeing the fear in the bull’s eyes and the blood running down its back as they chased, taunted, and stabbed it to death. I guess it was relatively quick, but it was one of the longest 15-20 minutes of my life. I suppose it was a good experience in the end because I learned a lot about myself. I got it all on tape and I’ll upload it soon.

Xochimilco from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

WooooooooooooHooooooo! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT!!!

For his B-day we went to a really nice mall here and saw the movie Hancock. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. What a funny movie! I recommend it to everyone. I also surprised him with two cakes - one was with fruit for breakfast and the other was chocolate for lunch and dinner. I also made two big banners which said “Feliz Cumpleanos, Brent!” -one was in the dinning room/living room of our house and the other was at the school in the big lawn area. Here are some pics:

We also went out to a few clubs and bars this week. We went to one club that had good Salsa, one that had popular electronic music, and a bar that was more relaxed, but also had good live music.

On Friday the school had a fun party for there 3 year anniversary. At the fiesta there was a lot of good Mexican food, dancing, socializing, and there was a little fun game they did were everyone voted for people on papers the day before and they handed out the awards at the fiesta. The awards were similar to the ones that are for high school year books: “most attractive” “most likely to succeed” “biggest party animal” etc. I didn’t win anything, but you’ll never guess what Brent got!…….Most timido!…Yes, that means timid! I know, how crazy is that!? Hahahaha.

This weekend we went to a futbol game (of course, futbol is soccer here). It was America versus Santos, both teams of big cities in Mexico. It was so much fun! We took a bus to Mexico City and then took the light rail to the game. We went with our friends Carl, Steve, and Laura, all students at Chac Mool and we all bought jerseys and matched. Then after we took the metro to a nice part of the city, walked around, and had dinner at this place that is like a Mexican Dennys.

Here’s a video from the game:

Cuernavaca-Week 5-America v Santos from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.

This is just a quick video of me playing with the zoom on my camera. It has really great zoom, but its really hard to hold it still. I had it balancing on me knee and it still looks bad. It would probably be better if I had my tripod.

Cuernavaca-Week 5-This camera has great zoom, but its darn hard to hold it still enough from Brittni Daley on Vimeo.