Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Traveling in Mexico

While being in MexicoI have discovered that traveling here seems to be easier than at home.

For the most part that is, for example the bus system here is actually very dependable.
Local Buses: They don't have an exact schedule but usually you don't have have wait more than 10 minutes.  The bus routes are slightly difficult to figure out when trying to learn the street names.

Travel Buses: I've mentioned these before, more specifically Primera Plus, which is the nicest bus in the station (there are about 6-8 different companies), and they give student discounts.  You can buy the tickets the day of, or buy in advance (which I recommend for holidays or long weekends).

Taxis: I've never taken so many taxis in my life, they're cheap but they do add up after a while.  Also maybe 1/4 of the drivers knew where my house was, (my street isn't very common), so I learned to say I need to go to the corner of *insert 2 intersecting street names close by* and that works almost all the time.

Planes: Are also surprisingly cheap--also when in advance.  I personally have not taken any planes while here, but I've had several friends say they bought round-trip tickets for places such as Cancun for $300.

I have a large list of places I want to go while in Mexico, but unfortunately not enough money or time.


Monday, February 17, 2014

Campus Life

So this particular blog, I will be talking about campus life, and the sort of things that can be done and/or seen on campus.  I took a lot of photos from my phone and unfortunately I do not know all the names of the places, so please bear with me. 
First off, the TEC is about half the size of CMU which is nice because some classes start within 5 minutes of each other.
The TEC mascot: Borrega (Ram)

The Main Plaza

I am not sure of the actual name of it, but here are a few photos!
The school has a very open set-up, with hallways that overlook the plaza(s) as you can see in the left photo. Fountains are quite common in Queretaro, not just on campus--the campus has 2 that I know of.
The right photo is still in the main plaza but a closer look at the buildings' setup.  





Sitting Areas
There are a lot of sitting areas on campus!  Benches, picnic tables, etc.  Some people sit and/or lay in the grass (like at CMU) but most tend to sit in designated spots. This particular spot is across from









The TEC Gym

The gym is smaller, but it has everything ranging from cardio to strength training.  The exercise classes are free!  They have classes ranging from dancing, weight training, boxing, yoga, and aerobics.  
One of the things that they told us at orientation was to make sure to take care of our physical health while here.  I personally have taken advantage of the gym, and I work out at least 3 times a week because I want a healthy well-being while here.   

The gym is always closed on Sundays


Some of the buildings
 In the left is photo two buildings, the left has the school of business and the right is for the school of media.
Across from these two buildings is an Oxxo--which is like a 7-11 convenience store.  There are several similar stores like a snack shack and cafe on campus, but I like this the most since it's cheaper and has a large variety.

Palm trees! I like this building the most (I have 1 class, 1 club in it) and it's all because of the palm trees.
I don't remember the name of this building and what department(s) are/is in it.
The buildings here also have a numbering system, I believe it goes to 15?
So the way classrooms work for example is 4323, the first number 4 is the building, the second number 3 is the floor, and last two numbers is the room number.





Other fun stuff!
This is the campus "T" for TEC, it is made of wood, I believe.  What is fun about it, is that he travels all over campus.  I'm not sure who is in charge of moving him (or if anyone is in charge of moving him) but he gets put in different places.  For those of you wondering why it hasn't been stolen, the TEC is a gated university with 24 hour surveillance and security.  You have to scan your ID in order to enter/leave campus--cars included.

Anyways, I want to take pictures of it in various places on campus and treat it like the traveling gnome.



Now I have not ridden on this yet, but I hope I will before I leave.  There is a mini-bus on campus that drives around and drops off/picks up student, faculty and guests.  It's free too!
Another cool part about this campus is there are bikes on campus, free for anyone to use (or you can bring your own) some have baskets as well.  Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of the free bikes, but you can see them (most are blue/yellow) in front of the mini-bus.



There are more places I need to take photos of, such as the library and the International Programs office, but I will have to update that later.  As for now, time to study!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Easy Week

After what seems like years, I finally got over being sick!

My classes so far, seem more laid back than back home with exception of some classes having a large work load.   All of my classes are in Spanish, but I am in all international student classes so the advantage is that they speak a little slower.  It's still 100% in Spanish, so at times things can still get confusing.

I have 2 extra curricular classes, the first is Photography the 2nd is Salsa.  I really like the Photography class, we're learning the basics of the technical parts and photo-taking.  This class is difficult because it is in 100% regular speed (which is fast) Spanish, but my professor is very kind and very patient.  He really tries to help each student.  Unfortunately for my Salsa class, it started a week late, then she cancelled one of our classes the first week we actually started.  I don't know if I will continue it.

This past weekend, I was invited to a party for my host mom's family.  I don't remember the name of the town we went to, but it was very small, maybe half the size of Mount Pleasant?  Her family was very kind and welcoming, and of course very generous with the food.  Once the first batch of food was gone, they either made more, or they would eat snacks.  They all were very patient with me and my poor Spanish speaking skills.

At one point, I played board games with the kids, which was quite fun.  They asked questions mostly about music, such as did I like Taylor Swift or One Direction, did I like rock or pop etc.  At one point a little girl between the ages of 6-8 was helping me with my Mexican Monopoly money because one thousand is "mil" and one million is "millon."  If they spoke too fast I would get them mixed up.

One of the little boys, maybe 8-10, seemed very confused by me.  So I explained to him that the reason I was talking strangely was because I learning Spanish.

I didn't take any pictures at the family party unfortunately.