I thought I would post the blog for my program for the semester. Each week someone in the group has to write a blog entry to what we are doing each week. If you are interested the web addresses are below.
The MG Blog ( My program blog)
Migration and Globalization Blog
I am off tomorrow to experience a wonderful adventure of living in a village that deals with many of its residents immigrating to the United States. I am very excited to spend the next 4 days there and have a fun educational experience. I will write next Thursday/ Friday before we leave for our three day weekend trip to watch the migration of the monarch butterflies, and then see a soccer game.
<3 Meira
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The 10 day push
First off let me say that I did nothing interesting last weekend. I stayed at home and I did homework. It was a blast from the past and the most fun ever!!! The next 10 days are going to be a push. I end Spanish ( the first session ) on Thursday with a rather large 2 hour test with 100 questions. Then Thursday afternoon we go to Mexico City and go to the Embassy ! Friday I go to my internship, and then have a histroy test. Then Sunday I go to Amitlan , the rual village for 4 days . We get back a week from tomorrow , and then have a 3 day weekend. I am going to see the monarch butterflies, and then a soccer game in Mex. City. So that is a small recap of what is going on in the next 10 days. I will write more when I have something interesting to say/ not in the middle of doing homework. I will also post pictures when I take new ones. Have a good week/weekend.
Meira
Meira
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Meira the lost nina.
Hello my followers . I am alive and have been enjoying my time in Mexico. I am sorry that I have not written in forever. Just yesterday , Mom was telling me that I NEED to write a blog because no one knows what I have been doing and I have been doing some really cool things. The next 10 days are going to be way hectic and I am in the middle of a very hectic last couple of weeks. This week alone , I was in a rual village yesterday learning about the impact of trade has on indigenous people and also seeing and learning about their rituals, then on Saturday I am going on an all day excursion to another rual village form 7 in the morning to 8 at night . Half of the group is going tomorrow and then the other half is going on Saturday. I am looking forward to it all . In between all these trips , I got to history class , and then have spanish every day from 8 - 10:50. I rarely have time to relax. The past 2 weeks have been filled with going to Acapulco , seeing the Diego Revera mural , and then going to Tepozlan to participate in the carnival for the beginning of Lent. I also start my internship tomorrow , which I will decribe along with everything esle below. And Sam, this post is dedicated to you . It is culture overload , just the way you love it .
Internship: My internship is at Don Bosco , which is a elementary to high school. It is a private school. I will be working there on Monday and Wednesdays. In Mexico high school starts at 7 in the morning and then they go to 11. Then from 11- 2 , the middle school kids go to school. Then from 3-8:30 the elementary aged students go to school. I will be working with the middle school aged students teaching english. I will be doing pull out classes, for kids that are more advanced. I will be developing my own lesson plans and then being a real teacher. I will have a bunch of different classes of students. Then from 4- 6:30 on Monday and Wednesdays , I will be facilitating an English round table where students of any age and any level can come and get help with their English . I am really excited to start feeling like an Ed major again , after not doing any education stuff for 2 months. For anyone that is an Ed major , be lucky you will be teaching in the US of A . Here in Mexico there can be anywhere from 40-50 students per class in the ELEMENTARY school.
Amitlan: This was the indigenous village that I went and visited yesterday . It is where I will be doing my rural home stay in two weeks. We first got a talk from a healer , who is also a shama , a spiritual leader of the community . After our talk , He took us up to to the sacred place where they perform ceremonies . We had to climb up a mountain and trough rocks, and over rocks and it was a very interesting and beautiful climb. We participated in this ceremony which heals people and brings positive energy. It was super neat . I am excited to go back in two weeks.
Tlamapec- I do not know what I am doing there this weekend , but I will let you konw when I get back.
Considering that this post took more FOREVER to write because I was doing it between other stuff , I am going to end it here for now . I will try to post more often , and about cool stuff. Happy Ash Wednesday from the land of the Catholics.
Meira
Internship: My internship is at Don Bosco , which is a elementary to high school. It is a private school. I will be working there on Monday and Wednesdays. In Mexico high school starts at 7 in the morning and then they go to 11. Then from 11- 2 , the middle school kids go to school. Then from 3-8:30 the elementary aged students go to school. I will be working with the middle school aged students teaching english. I will be doing pull out classes, for kids that are more advanced. I will be developing my own lesson plans and then being a real teacher. I will have a bunch of different classes of students. Then from 4- 6:30 on Monday and Wednesdays , I will be facilitating an English round table where students of any age and any level can come and get help with their English . I am really excited to start feeling like an Ed major again , after not doing any education stuff for 2 months. For anyone that is an Ed major , be lucky you will be teaching in the US of A . Here in Mexico there can be anywhere from 40-50 students per class in the ELEMENTARY school.
Amitlan: This was the indigenous village that I went and visited yesterday . It is where I will be doing my rural home stay in two weeks. We first got a talk from a healer , who is also a shama , a spiritual leader of the community . After our talk , He took us up to to the sacred place where they perform ceremonies . We had to climb up a mountain and trough rocks, and over rocks and it was a very interesting and beautiful climb. We participated in this ceremony which heals people and brings positive energy. It was super neat . I am excited to go back in two weeks.
Tlamapec- I do not know what I am doing there this weekend , but I will let you konw when I get back.
Considering that this post took more FOREVER to write because I was doing it between other stuff , I am going to end it here for now . I will try to post more often , and about cool stuff. Happy Ash Wednesday from the land of the Catholics.
Meira
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Acapulco and Carnival
Hello, here are the pictures that I keep promising from Acapulco. I was not feeling well today when we went to the Carnival in Tepozlan, so I did not take many pictures. I believe I caught the bug that everyone has had in the past week. But, that is life . I will attempt to post a new blog post in the next couple days. It all depends on homework and how I am feeling in the morning . Good Night. Have a great Saturday / Sunday.
Meira
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| Meira in Mexico 3 |
Meira
Monday, February 8, 2010
New Pictures
I have finally got around to posting pictures from my trip to the ruins I went to about a week and a half ago they are on the side of the page or if you go to
then you can look at the pictures in a larger view. I will attempt to post the pictures from this weekend and a blog post by Wednesday. Happy Monday!
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| Meira in Mexico 2 |
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Let the fun begin!
Hola chicos. This starts my blog posts that will be about what I am doing and as I promised Sam cultural stuff. I am also taking on a project this semester. There is a local bakery down the block from me. They sell cookies, donuts, bread, and everything in between. I have decided that I am going to try everything that they sell besides the donuts (because I do not like donuts) and then rate each thing. It is a very small bakery but it is going to take all semester because they bring new things out all the time and at different parts of the day they have different stuff. I am also not trying to eat something everyday. This project isn’t going to cost much as I got 2 pastries today for less then 70 cents. But it might turn me into a bowling ball, which I am willing to risk for FANTASTIC tasting baked goods. I will also include a picture with my rating so that everyone knows what I tried. I am naming this endeavor “project deliousioso”. (Project Delicious).
Project delicious:
Tuesday 26- Today was the first day of my project, and I started with a cookie with coconut on top. I believe it was a vanilla cookie with shredded coconut. It was fantastic. The cookie tasted very coconutty. I really enjoyed the flavor combinations that were in this cookie. I give this cookie 5 chef hats out of 5.
Wednesday 27- For today’s baked good, I tried my favorite cookie, that I love in Mexico. Even though I have had this cookie many times, I still wanted to try it as part of my project. It has a vinilla taste and is quite good. I really liked the flavor . I give this 5 chef hats out of 5.
Saturday 30- My third day of the project was a pastry with goo inside. It was very soft and fluffy. The goo seemed to be apple flavored. The pastry was a little too sweet. Paired with the apple-flavored goo, it was too sweet. I give this pastry 4 chef hats out of 5.
Sunday 31- Today I tried the muffin, which I thought was a nut muffin but it was a pumpkin muffin with nuts on top. It was very rich and moist. The muffin also had a great taste and great combination of pumpkin and nuts. I give this muffin 5 chef hats out of 5.
Classes: I had my first History class. Classes are taught much different here then at Drake. We aren’t getting a syllabus until next week and they still do not know assignment deadlines. Both the social work students and the Migration and Globalization students are in the class together. I am in the Migration and Globalization program. There is a social work program going on at the same time as mine. We are going to have some papers, discussion groups , and then we will have to sign up to write an entry in a blog about our experiences and connect it to the reading we are doing . We will also be writing on a blog for students that are studying abroad in Thailand. I personally believe that is it super cool that we get all these opportunities. Next week I start my Spanish courses along with my History class that has already started. I will also be sitting in on the internship classes because I dropped that class even though I will be volunteering at the Middle School teaching kids English, and then working in the Elementary school in a classroom. I am super excited for all the things coming up.
Field Trips: On Thursday morning, we left to see the nearby Pyramids that are close to Cuernavaca and then go on a mini retreat to the Ex- Hacienda Santa Cruz for a short one night get away. The pyramids were amazing and it was SUPER hot up on top of them. They are not as large as some of the others in Mexico that I have visited but they are still super neat. The pyramids were spread out and it was a large compound. After we finished at the pyramids we left for the Hacienda, which was more then 100 years ago a sugar and rice plantation. We stayed at the bed and breakfast part of the complex. We were able to hang out by the pool, or in the hammocks or walk around the complex. I mostly walked around the complex and then sat by the pool and talked to the other people in my program. It was very weird to me to be at “school” but be at a retreat type thing where we were swimming and then every now and then discussing articles that we had to read. We even had a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun. I got totally eaten alive by a trillion nats/ tiny bugs I learned a lot more about the people I am going to be spending the next 4 months.
Cultural: Why are Mexican graves above ground instead of below ground? This question came up today, when a couple girls and I were walking around where we live looking for the local soccer field that people go to run. We were told it was past the graveyard. Now this graveyard is not the average graveyard. It is filled from the moment you walk into it with graves. I do not think there are any plots left. Just like in Mexican culture. They fit a coffin wherever it will fit. I found it very interesting that the graves are above ground. Some of them were really elaborate, while others were very plain. I have only been in a graveyard a handful of times, but this one was interesting, and I really enjoyed walking around. Most graveyards in the states are very plain and grassy. That is not the case with this gigantic graveyard. There was no grass and the graves were really pretty. This graveyard probably glows and has even more life during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in October.
Weather: I have now been in Mexico for 11 days (at the time of this writing) and the weather has been amazing. The first week it was warm, but the last couple of days , it has been really hot here. The forecast is that in less then a month it will be in the upper 80’s everyday. Luckily the houses retain coolness to help during the day. So the weather will stay hot here, and will stay cold up north.
The other week I came up with an analogy of sorts. When asked about Mexico and the United States I decided that I am living in a different reality. Home and Des Moines are in a whole different world then Mexico. It amazes me that two totally different places can be located within the same continental land that makes up North America but be total opposites. Time seems to go much faster here. It is really strange. I am in a totally different universe, and even though my house, family and Roger are still at home, and my friends are still at school, I am living a different reality this semester then everyone else . It is one that you can not fully understand without being here and feeling and knowing the differences between the two realities. So to end this post today, I hope everyone is having a great day in their reality and their universe, because it certainly is great down here in my Universe.
I will post pictures from this weekend and the bakery pictures tomorrow!
Meira
Project delicious:
Tuesday 26- Today was the first day of my project, and I started with a cookie with coconut on top. I believe it was a vanilla cookie with shredded coconut. It was fantastic. The cookie tasted very coconutty. I really enjoyed the flavor combinations that were in this cookie. I give this cookie 5 chef hats out of 5.
Wednesday 27- For today’s baked good, I tried my favorite cookie, that I love in Mexico. Even though I have had this cookie many times, I still wanted to try it as part of my project. It has a vinilla taste and is quite good. I really liked the flavor . I give this 5 chef hats out of 5.
Saturday 30- My third day of the project was a pastry with goo inside. It was very soft and fluffy. The goo seemed to be apple flavored. The pastry was a little too sweet. Paired with the apple-flavored goo, it was too sweet. I give this pastry 4 chef hats out of 5.
Sunday 31- Today I tried the muffin, which I thought was a nut muffin but it was a pumpkin muffin with nuts on top. It was very rich and moist. The muffin also had a great taste and great combination of pumpkin and nuts. I give this muffin 5 chef hats out of 5.
Classes: I had my first History class. Classes are taught much different here then at Drake. We aren’t getting a syllabus until next week and they still do not know assignment deadlines. Both the social work students and the Migration and Globalization students are in the class together. I am in the Migration and Globalization program. There is a social work program going on at the same time as mine. We are going to have some papers, discussion groups , and then we will have to sign up to write an entry in a blog about our experiences and connect it to the reading we are doing . We will also be writing on a blog for students that are studying abroad in Thailand. I personally believe that is it super cool that we get all these opportunities. Next week I start my Spanish courses along with my History class that has already started. I will also be sitting in on the internship classes because I dropped that class even though I will be volunteering at the Middle School teaching kids English, and then working in the Elementary school in a classroom. I am super excited for all the things coming up.
Field Trips: On Thursday morning, we left to see the nearby Pyramids that are close to Cuernavaca and then go on a mini retreat to the Ex- Hacienda Santa Cruz for a short one night get away. The pyramids were amazing and it was SUPER hot up on top of them. They are not as large as some of the others in Mexico that I have visited but they are still super neat. The pyramids were spread out and it was a large compound. After we finished at the pyramids we left for the Hacienda, which was more then 100 years ago a sugar and rice plantation. We stayed at the bed and breakfast part of the complex. We were able to hang out by the pool, or in the hammocks or walk around the complex. I mostly walked around the complex and then sat by the pool and talked to the other people in my program. It was very weird to me to be at “school” but be at a retreat type thing where we were swimming and then every now and then discussing articles that we had to read. We even had a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun. I got totally eaten alive by a trillion nats/ tiny bugs I learned a lot more about the people I am going to be spending the next 4 months.
Cultural: Why are Mexican graves above ground instead of below ground? This question came up today, when a couple girls and I were walking around where we live looking for the local soccer field that people go to run. We were told it was past the graveyard. Now this graveyard is not the average graveyard. It is filled from the moment you walk into it with graves. I do not think there are any plots left. Just like in Mexican culture. They fit a coffin wherever it will fit. I found it very interesting that the graves are above ground. Some of them were really elaborate, while others were very plain. I have only been in a graveyard a handful of times, but this one was interesting, and I really enjoyed walking around. Most graveyards in the states are very plain and grassy. That is not the case with this gigantic graveyard. There was no grass and the graves were really pretty. This graveyard probably glows and has even more life during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in October.
Weather: I have now been in Mexico for 11 days (at the time of this writing) and the weather has been amazing. The first week it was warm, but the last couple of days , it has been really hot here. The forecast is that in less then a month it will be in the upper 80’s everyday. Luckily the houses retain coolness to help during the day. So the weather will stay hot here, and will stay cold up north.
The other week I came up with an analogy of sorts. When asked about Mexico and the United States I decided that I am living in a different reality. Home and Des Moines are in a whole different world then Mexico. It amazes me that two totally different places can be located within the same continental land that makes up North America but be total opposites. Time seems to go much faster here. It is really strange. I am in a totally different universe, and even though my house, family and Roger are still at home, and my friends are still at school, I am living a different reality this semester then everyone else . It is one that you can not fully understand without being here and feeling and knowing the differences between the two realities. So to end this post today, I hope everyone is having a great day in their reality and their universe, because it certainly is great down here in my Universe.
I will post pictures from this weekend and the bakery pictures tomorrow!
Meira
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The pictures so far .
Hey . So as everyone up north is freezing their booties off , I am frying here in Mexico. I am going swimming outside tomorrow, in JANUARY!!! Today I was sweating as I was walking because the sun is so hot . And to think it is January. I am sorry you all are cold. Just think you only have 4-5 more months before it gets to a point where you can wear a t-shirt and shorts.Looking at the weather , I am excited to know that I am skipping the yucky winter and get to skip right to summer time weather.I am even happier that I chose to come on this program during the Winter semester instead of the fall semester . So anyhoo , besides the weather, I have some news!!!!
I have uploaded the pictures that I have taken so far . I picked the best pictures because I do not think you want to look at the same picture from a different angle over and over again. If you want to see the pictures larger the link to the web album is
Just click on the words above , and then it should take you to the website . I am also posting them on the side of the blog in a slideshow.There will be a picture of a sign in Spanish , basically it says that there was a outdoor iceskating rink in the middle of the town square . They had to bring in major ice machines and cooler trucks to make it work. OTher then that some of the pictures are from Taxco , and others are from the hotel. I will write more later today maybe if I have time , if not I will write again on Saturday when I get back from my overnight trip to the ruins and the ex-hacienda Santa Cruz. I will let you know how it goes . I am excited but a little bit scared.
Sending some rays of sunshine northbound.
Meira
I have uploaded the pictures that I have taken so far . I picked the best pictures because I do not think you want to look at the same picture from a different angle over and over again. If you want to see the pictures larger the link to the web album is
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| Meira in Mexico 1 |
Just click on the words above , and then it should take you to the website . I am also posting them on the side of the blog in a slideshow.There will be a picture of a sign in Spanish , basically it says that there was a outdoor iceskating rink in the middle of the town square . They had to bring in major ice machines and cooler trucks to make it work. OTher then that some of the pictures are from Taxco , and others are from the hotel. I will write more later today maybe if I have time , if not I will write again on Saturday when I get back from my overnight trip to the ruins and the ex-hacienda Santa Cruz. I will let you know how it goes . I am excited but a little bit scared.
Sending some rays of sunshine northbound.
Meira
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