Hot Air Balloon Festival

A couple weeks ago, the annual International Hot Air Balloon Festival came to town! The festival is held in a park, and the balloons go up over a lake. It is really cool - some of the balloons are characters, like Spongebob, Darth Vader, a panda, and Coca-Cola bottle! Check out the photo of me in front of the stinger of my high school mascot: the hornet (the butt was all that was left of the balloon by the time I walked over to its landing spot. lol)

Earlier this week, one of my fellow teachers and friends here, Corie, left to go back to the USA. She only planned to stay for about a year, and her year is up, so she's returning to her job as a manager at a Target branch in Reno, Nevada. It was sad to see her go: she was one of my roomates and since we arrived on the same day to Mexico this year (Jan. 4), it was easy to bond over our experiences here.

In 2 weeks I'll be back in Michigan to visit family and friends for the Holidays! I can't wait to see everyone and I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

The Cervantino Festival and My Birthday

A couple weekends ago I went with a friend to the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato city (40 minutes outside of Leon). The Festival is named after the famous Spanish author: Miguel de Cervantes. There are plays and music shows in theaters, as well as art galleries and random street acts (like mimes and guitar-playing hippies). It was jam-packed when we went, and honestly, I wasn't that impressed. Basically, it seemed like a glorified hippy hangout - I've never seen so many dreadlocks and piercings in my life! The best part of the Cervantino was visiting famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera's house (now a converted museum) in the city.

For my birthday I went out to lunch with some fellow teachers at Chili's Restaurant (the American chain). The food was pretty good but my friends and I were unpleasantly surprised later when we all became sick at the same time in the middle of the night! All 3 of us vomited (I didn't even make it out of my bed in time!) and realized that the salsa we shared must've had some dirty tomatoes in it. Can you believe that all this time I've been eating street food and haven't gotten sick, then I go to an American restaurant and end up vomiting afterward for the first time in 10 years?! How ironic. Other than that, it was a nice birthday :)

I've tried one new food item since my last blog: carrot juice! To me it has a very bittersweet taste, but overall I like it. It's very healthy of course, and you can find it at any smoothie shop.

Winter is upon us in Mexico - which means chilly nights and mornings (45-50 degrees), but still hot afternoons. I can't wait to be back in Michigan for the holidays in less than a month!