The University at Night

Supposedly for this program, t's a tradition to have an early departure party for the first person who has to leave, so we had one last night for Nicole. She's leaving early because she has to start some classes at her university. We really just sat around and talked for a little while.

The bar we went to is directly across the street from the University of Guanajuato, and when we walked out to go home, we couldn't help but stop to take pictures. It was beautiful at night, since it's all lit up. It was raining...but that didn't stop us!

El Cristo Rey

Today we visited El Cristo Rey, which is basically one huge statue of Jesus Christ. It is, however, one of the more important ones for 2 reasons:

1. It is located in the geographic center of Mexico
2. It is the second tallest statue of Jesus Christ after the one in Brazil

To get to El Cristo Rey, you have to drive all the way up the mountain on the winding roads. The roads aren't paved though; it's really an uneven stone road. Some people got motion sickness as we drove up the mountain, but I just got annoyed with the constant bumping up and down due to the unevenness of the road! Finally, we arrived.

Luck was on our side--it had been raining all day and all afternoon, but as soon as we got to El Cristo Rey, it stopped! The pictures aren't as pretty as they could have been, considering that the sky was just full of shades of grey. Even so, it was amazing to see the statue, and the pictures turned out great!

Guanajuato Grill

Foreign nightlife, in my opinion from what I've experienced so far, is much better than nightlife at home! Of course, my opinion will probably change once I turn 21 and go to the better clubs in St. Louis, but for now, this is just how it is!

We went to Guanajuato Grill last night to go out, which is a club that is more like American clubs than Mexican clubs. Here in Guanajuato, there are plenty of clubs, but many of them are based on traditional Mexican dances like salsa, merengue, bachata, and more. At Grill, they play techno/electronic music for a long time, then they mix in some American songs, and finally, they play popular Latin music.



It was a really modern place! It was set up really nicely inside, the lighting (strobe lights and everything) was coordinated with every song the DJ played, there was a fog machine, and there were plenty of places to sit. The picture doesn't show it well, but it was pretty big inside. What's shown in the picture is the main room and VIP section.

My final thoughts about Grill: perfect!

Dolores Hidalgo

This weekend, we visited Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende. In Dolores Hidalgo, we didn't do all that much. Here's a picture of the statue dedicated to Miguel Hidalgo:



On September 16, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo assembled all of the people in town at the church to prepare to fight for the independence of Mexico. It was pretty interesting to see where the fight for independence began! Here's a picture of the church:

From this place harangued the father of the the country to the people who met in the atrium the morning of September 16, 1810

The inside of the church was just beautiful. The decorations and paintings were breath-taking, and the walls behind the altar and pulpit were intricately detailed. All of the churches here in Mexico are like that; I've never seen anything like it!

To continue, we visited the home of Miguel Hidalgo. It had more of a museum-like atmosphere rather than that of someone's preserved home, but it was still pretty nice.



Before leaving, we stopped to buy some "typical" ice cream that you would find in Dolores Hidalgo. Here's a picture of one of the ice cream stands:



The flavors are ...interesting to say the least. Some of the odd flavors include: shrimp, beer, tequila, cucumber, lime, angel's kiss, rose petal, rice with milk, mole (a mexican sauce), and more. I tried some of the odd flavors but ended up buying macademia ice cream. It was probably some of the best ice cream I have ever had! It was so rich.



I would definitely go back for some more!

Callejoneada

We went on a callejoneada as a group tonight! It was not what I had expected though. The groups that conduct the callejoneadas are the estudiantinas (if you don't remember what an estudiantina is, check this entry. Anyways, I'm used to seeing the estudiantinas that pass by our house and sing right outside of Callejon del Beso. The estudiantina that conducted our callejoneada was completely different! They didn't go the route that I had expected them to, and they didn't even sing or tell the legend of Callejon del Beso at the Callejon del Beso. That was disappointing!

Well, even though I was somewhat disappointed, I still had a great time. We walked through the callejones of Guanajuato and stopped to listen to songs in the different callejones and plazas. They sang the whole time, told jokes, and more! The estudiantina definitely wasn't one of my favorite groups, but they did sing one of my favorite songs: "Besame Mucho." They actually serenaded the women with this song, so I loved it!

Here is a picture of the...well, I'm not sure what to call them, but the containers with special drinks inside. We were supposed to wait until the end of the callejoneada to drink the entire thing during the toast and then after that keep it as a souvenir:



Here are some pictures of the estudiantina:





This is the boy who told the legend of the Callejon del Beso:



After the callejoneada was over, we decided to go to a restaurant in the Plaza de San Fernando to get dessert. I bought strawberry cheesecake and thoroughly enjoyed it!!! Cheesecake is my favorite dessert, so it's definitely a weakness of mine, and I have to admit that this was some of the best cheesecake I've had. It's up there with the cheesecake factory. Ha.

Routine

I haven't had much to write about...everything has become a routine for me. It's the same thing pretty much everyday:
wake up
shower
desayuna
classes
comida
homework
salsa
cena
homework/sleep

Nothing really has been happening. This week, the only thing we did was that we went to the Don Quixote museum. Basically, it was full of paintings and artwork of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and their adventures. Starting with tonight, I will have plenty more pictures!

Tonight: callejoneada (I will explain in the next entry)
Tomorrow: San Miguel de Allende y Dolores Hidalgo (2 beautiful cities)
Sunday: La Bufa (basically, we're climbing a huge mountain)

My Spanish has improved alot (I think), and I'm still in love with this city (even though it gets smaller and smaller everyday...)! I'll be sure to update sometime this weekend...you can expect a lot of entries!

Opening Act

Well, we have some musicians in our group, and some were lucky enough to be the opening act at Zilch tonight! One of the guys in our program, Jesse, played for about an hour, and his good friend Jessica (she's in our program too) sang with him on a couple of songs. It was exciting to see one of our friends (an American at that) perform at a Mexican bar! They were both amazing, and not only did we enjoy it, but also the Mexicans enjoyed it! At one point, they were even singing along to the songs. Here are some pictures: