Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in writing since the last entry. This last week especially has been extra busy, but full of fun things. Last Sunday, 5 friends from Goshen arrived, Jacob Brenneman, Brian Wyse, CJ Hague, Chris Neumann and Cody Felton. It was a lot of fun having visitors here and showing them around the places that I'm familiar with already as well as exploring some new places with them. Among the highlights of the week with them were a day at the beach, a day at some waterfalls in a nearby city, a day of whitewater rafting in a nearby river, having them over to my house for a meal, a soccer game with some local mexicans in the soccer field in the volcano in xalapa, salsa dancing, singing karaoke, touring xalapa, and the famous hotdogs and tacos al pastor of xalapa. We kept ourselves very busy and on top of classes during the second half of the week, it was an extra busy week for me. Luckily, they picked a great week to come as I didn't have classes on Monday or Tuesday due to holidays for Carnaval. This week, the homework is definitely piling up faster and I'll have to buckle down a bit on school work after a week of what felt like pure vacation. For me, exploring a few of the small towns around Xalapa where we went to the waterfalls and the white water rafting was especially fun because it was my first time exploring the more rural parts of the region. We took a number of buses to arrive at the various places which is always a fun experience as well. Usually the bus rides are accompanied by some form of live music, whether it be accordian, guitar, singing, etc. It's also a great way to see some of the beautiful coutryside. We seemed to have incredible luck with just about everything that we did as well, as it was our first time getting to know the bus system and not really knowing where we were going or where we would end up, but we never got lost and never waited for a bus for more than 5 minutes. I think thats more of a tribute to the quality of the bus system and the generosity of the Mexican people to answer our questions and help us out than a tribute to our ability of navigate. That's definitely a valuable lesson to be learned here, if you are unsure of something, there is most likely someone waiting to help you out. When we arrived in Xico, we swam in a cool pool of water underneath a nice waterfall and made a bonfire to cook some hotdogs. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and reminded me a lot of some of the places around Virginia with forests and rivers. The following day, we went to Jalcolmulco for a day of white water rafting. This experience also turned out to be quite different than I expected. Upon arrival, we were treated to juice and snacks and hospitality as if we were part of their family, when in fact we were just a bunch of guys who showed up to raft a bit on the river. The rafting trip lasted about 2 and a half hours taking us about 18 kilometers through some pretty decent rapids at times. We also got to swim in the calmer parts and jump off a nice rock cliff at one point as well. The guides added to fun, challenging us to stand up in the raft through some of the rapids, which turned out better sometimes than others. Needless to say, I had a great week here with my friends and I think they would say the same about their week of spring of break. After eating one, or two, last deluxe xalapan hotdogs at 2:30 am on saturday evening, they took a taxi to the bus station to grab a bus to Mexico City. I spent the majority of Sunday doing some catch up on my homework and today classes started up again. I continue to really enjoy my classes, especially at the University. I'm continuing to get to know more university students which is a lot of fun and an important part of my experience for me. Today, my final class about Literatura Chicana began. I'm looking forward to that class as well because I think we will study a lot about the relationship between the US and Mexico and get a glimpse into life on the border. Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. The pictures this time are off the parade at Carnaval, a photo from Xico of the Pico de Orizaba which is the 3rd highest peak in North America, and a photo of the group who went to the waterfall in Xico. Hope everyone had a great month of February and started March on a good foot. I appreciate the emails, letters and thoughts. Until next time!
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