Queretaro Entry 5

In the D.F. trip, we visited three significant places: the pyramids at Teotihuacán, the Basilica of Guadalupe, and the Cathedral at the Center of Mexico City.

Teotihuacán is a ruin behind which reveals a rich civilization. The city expanded in an area of 14 squared miles, traced as far back as 400 years before Christ and lasted until 750 AC. There is still evidence of a progressive urban planning through the systems of drainage and of the streets and avenues covering the city. In addition to that, residents and governmental places are organized in different areas. Avenue of the Dead is the main avenue that runs north-south. Along this avenue there were great temples where the main ceremonial events of their life occurred, as well as buildings of governmental-administrative functions, and residents of priests who took care of those great temples. Still remain today are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Pyramid of the Sun is taller, while the steps of the Pyramid of the Moon are steeper, thus harder to climb up and down.


I wonder if this group of pyramids is one of the wonders of the world, but in my book it already is. Apparently, foreign tourists are not the only visitors of the city. It was a sunny day as any other day at the city but the breeze was just wonderful. However, I made a mistake not bringing a bottle of water with me. Between the different pyramids that we walked on that day, we must have covered at least 5 miles in the sheer sun. I haven’t talked about the climbing up and down the steep pyramids. It is a dessert, so the only kind of trees that survives is cactus, which gives no shade. I had to go look for water after climbing down from the 2nd pyramid.



The 2nd climb was of the Pyramid of the Sun. It had become difficult so much that we rested several times before reaching the top. But once reaching the top, there was a great feeling of accomplishment in addition to the great view of the whole ruined city.

Along the walks to the different pyramids, there were several people selling very cool souvenirs. If I had not been on a tight budget, I would have bought a lot of these stuffs to bring back to the US as gifts. They were selling a kind of whistle that could make the roaring sound of a mountain lion (or of a mountain cat, I’m not sure). It scared the heck out of me when one guy blew it very close to me, but only for the first time. It had become annoying toward the end of the visit because everybody was selling that whistle.


A little interesting coincidence was my meeting with some groups of boy/girl scouts along the way. They all wore uniform with the logo of Scout of Mexico. I approached several of them, scouts as well as scout masters, saluted them with the Scout sign while doing handshake by our left hands – a unique custom of the scout movement of the world. We all recognized each other to be members of a great international organization. We exchanged short conversations, telling each other where we were from then moved on (because I couldn’t handle longer conversation in Spanish, hehe). One thing I noticed was that there were a number of older kids or young men and women in those scout troops, whereas in the Boy Scouts / Girl Scouts of America, the scouts usually discontinue once they reach high school.

Queretaro Entry 4

Our trip to Mexico City was really an adventure. Before the trip, the teachers in school told us a lot about the city, of where to visit, what to watch out for, what you buy and eat and what to avoid, etc. They all warned us about the craziness of the subway in the city. All of those warnings actually made me nervous about the trip even though I have lived and traveled to big cities in the US.



A pleasant surprise was the bus trip. The bus ride was just wonderful. I guess “autobuses” is the main transportation means in Mexico, thus the bus industry is very developed here. In big cities, there are big bus stations with so many buses that service people to different locations in the country. All long distance buses, the equivalent of Greyhound in the US, are very well equipped and comfortable. Air-condition is a given, but there are individual headsets and controls, several TV screens that show good movies along the trip, the seats are way better than the seats in any coach bus and airplane seat in the US. With the same width of the bus as of the ones in the US, there are only 3 seats per row instead of 4 or 5 as the one in the US. For the 3 hour trip from Querétaro to Mexico City, they even serve sandwich and drink. All of us were really content with the bus ride, and no one wanted to leave the bus at the end of the trip. American!



We had to take 3 different Metro lines to get to our hotel from the bus station. It was rush hour in Mexico City so you could imagine how bad it was. I am no stranger to subway trains since I’ve lived in the New Jersey/New York before, but having luggage and taking the train in a new city where you don’t know the language is a different story. At one stop, because the volume of people getting on and off the train was too great, I was pushed off the train. I had to fight my way to get back onto the same train. What an experience.


The first night in the city, we went to Tacuba restaurant. I still haven’t found out whether the name of the restaurant had anything to do with Cuban food, but the food was great. There was a group of musicians playing guitars and mandolins and singing while we eat. They were great players and singers. People just love music here. On one of the buses in the city that we took, there were two traveling artists who played really good Spanish guitar and sang. I just enjoyed them so much.



The hotel where we stayed was nice, but like most houses in the country, there was no air condition. It was cool enough during that weekend but we had to keep the fan on when we were in our rooms. Saturday night, there was some sort of party on the floor on top of mine. I wasn’t bothered by it but some others in the group couldn’t sleep because of the noise; and apparently the hotel manager couldn’t do anything to stop the noise. So if you asked some of the guys in my group, they would recommend not to stay in this hotel even though it was only 5 minute walk from the center of the city. The food served in the restaurant of this hotel was great, though a bit pricy. In the morning, there was breakfast buffet for 90 pesos (around 7 US$). There were all sorts of food, from fruits, yogurt to tacos, bread and different kinds of meat. I only wished they had opened the buffet for dinner instead. Sunday morning, since we didn’t have Mass until 12, I was able to have a full breakfast, and stayed after to watch a soccer game on TV.



There were 3 places we visited on this trip to D.F. (aka. Mexico City): the Pyramids at Teotihuacán, the Basilica of Guadalupe where our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego, and the Cathedral at the center of the city. I will write about these places in another entry.

Queretaro Entry 3

One thing that I like about this OLE program is that it houses students with local families so that the students might get the authentic experience of the life and culture of Mexico. Living in the US, the knowledge we might have about Mexican people and Mexican culture is not usually accurate, since we only gain such knowledge through our little encounter with the Mexicans living in the US. Living with an ordinary family day in and day out really gives us a better knowledge about them.

The family with which I am staying is a typical family: there is a grandmother who stays home and takes care of everything in the house, from cooking to cleaning to making sure the little kids say their prayers before eating. The mother is a teacher, and the father is, as I gather from my limited listening skill, a specialist in nutrition. The food we eat is, therefore, very healthy. We usually have a bowl of fruits mixed with yogurt and granola, some bread and milk in the morning. The main meal of the day is at 3 PM, when everyone has already gotten home from school or work. The grandmother intentionally cuts down grease on all the different food we eat. There are always soups and vegetables in every meal, and I rarely see the kids having too much sweet in their eating or drinking. The little snack late at night, around 8 PM, is usually some bread or tortilla. The grandmother and I usually have a cup of milk or light coffee only.



Not only their diet but also their lifestyle is healthy. One thing about this family that is more valuable than anything else in the US is their time together in the family. With the grandmother staying home all the time while the parents work every day and the kids go to school from 8 -1, they spend a lot of time with each other, whether it is for eating, sitting around talking, watching TV, going to places and what not. The kids are not isolated in their own rooms or their own corners but are always around parents and grandmother and uncle, talking, joking around. There is that openness, sincerity, confidence in humility, warmth and respect in those kids that could be sometimes considered a luxury in the reality of youth in the US.

I am forced to live healthy, too. My daily routines include an hour walk to and from school and around the city. I am not eating late at night just because there is no junk food in the house. Water is the usual drink. There is no Internet in the house, which sometimes I feel inconvenient, but for the most part it only makes me go to bed earlier, or have more time to take a long nap in the afternoon. You can’t beat that.



It may be because of the heat while there is not usually air-condition in the homes here, people go downtown a lot. On any given afternoon, there are many people sitting around in the parks. There are small cafes and small restaurants along the streets to get a drink or a snack/meal, then just to sit on the sidewalk and enjoy some hired musicians playing their instruments. Two or three restaurants next to each other usually hire musicians of different instruments, and they are very good at taking turn playing their own instruments. So if the musician of the first restaurant plays his guitar, the violinist and the keyboard player of the next two restaurants rest. After the guitarist finishes, the violinist would begin while the other two listen. Afterward, the keyboard player would begin his piece. Then back to the first musician. If you happen to sit in the restaurant in the middle, you can enjoy all three instruments taking turn playing.



I am lucky enough to be in Querétaro when Mexico is preparing to celebrate their bi-centennial anniversary. There are several free entertainments in downtown at this time. I was in a garden in front of a beautiful church one Wednesday afternoon, and I heard music in the center of the garden. With much of my excitement, I found out there was a public dance. There was a man who was playing keyboard. Apparently he was very good at it. He played all sorts of (danceable) music while the people just … danced. They danced bolero, rumba, salsa, rock-and-roll, or whatever they call of their traditional dance. There were older people and younger people. They just danced and other people just sat around and enjoyed the view.



Another time, on a Sunday night. It was as late as 9 or 10 PM, but the streets in downtown were still filled with people young and old. It was the Feast of San Antonio. Some of us seminarians gathered in front of the Temple of San Antonio for the religious service. Outside the temple, there were at least 20 vendors that sold different kinds of food and drinks, deserts and snacks, as well as souvenirs. There was a brass band across the street playing very upbeat music. I just couldn’t believe it. It was 10 PM and people didn’t seem to end their celebration any time soon, although the following day would be a normal working day for adults and school day for kids. Everyone was just enjoying themselves and having a good time. I wasn’t confident enough to eat at those vendors yet, but I was enjoying myself with the whole experience, too. People really know how to enjoy life here. I wonder if they have any stress-related problems here.

Queretaro Entry 2

OLÉ, Organización Linguistica de Español, has been selected by some Seminaries in the US to send their seminarians for Spanish language training. I think one of the reasons for their selection is that OLÉ is located in Querétao, a very Catholic city. How is it so? I’ll tell you in another entry. This program arranges for students to stay with families of the local people. They would take care of food and lodging for the students while they attend class every morning. Mount Saint Mary Seminary incorporates with OLÉ to include the spiritual component, so that our daily schedule includes Mass and holy hour.



I usually wake up around 6:30 and have breakfast with my family before leaving for class at 8:00 am. The walk to school is about 20 minutes. We seminarians would have Morning Prayer together before class starts at 9:00. From the placement test, I am placed in 2nd to the lowest level. Each session is 55 minutes. For the first two sessions I have Grammar, and after the 30 minute break, we have Conversation session. There is one instructor in the Grammar, but two instructors in the Conversation class. I guess that would make the conversation practice go more smoothly.



Our school is very beautiful. Too beautiful that it looks more like a vacation home. The staff and instructors are extremely friendly and helpful. They make a commitment to talk to us in English only on the first day, after that, only in Spanish, although everybody in the faculty and staff has a working knowledge of English. The classrooms are small because the class size is small. There are only 3 students in the class of my level. Some other levels have 4 or 5, or 6 students at most. There seem to be a lot of students from the United States studying in this school. There are some young kids attending classes here too. I’m surprised that their parents allow them to be away in a foreign country for an extended time like this.



OLÉ has been around for 15 years so they know how to accommodate foreign students. For example, they know that Americans are not usually used to Mexican food on the first days, and diarrhea is a common problem for them on the first few days, so they have ready in their medicine cabinet some drugs for stomach problems. Within this week alone, there are 3-4 people who have to take advantage of that accommodation already. I do feel a little funny in my stomach sometimes, too. I still like the food though.



There is a small library with some old books that no one seems to check out. There is a computer room with three computers on which the Internet usually works. There is wireless in the patio, but during busy hours it runs really slow, or stops running altogether. I just discovered today that in El Centro (downtown), there is free wireleless Internet that is a lot stronger and faster. I just happen to see a lot of people using their laptops one day, and they told me that the Internet was free there.



As I’m writing this Entry, the schedule has been adjusted to better fit our schedule. For the first few days, we had to figure out when to do what and where. We often had to come back to school or some church near by later in the day for our daily Mass. But from now on, we’ll have Holy Hour and Mass right after the last class of the day. By the time we finish everything it is close to 2:30 pm. We’d then have the rest of the day free to do homework or whatever else we want to. And Yes, there is a lot of homework.

Queretaro Entry 1

Queretaro is a beautiful city. I haven’t had a chance to read about the history of this city, but from the little of what I know this city has a lot of history and architectural significance. I arrived at my home around 11 pm after a long day traveling. The flights themselves, from Atlanta to Houston and from Houston to Querétaro were only 4 hours in total but the waits took the whole day.



My host family is very friendly and very kind. The mother is a widow who has two grown children living with her. One of whom is married with 4 little kids, while the other goes back and forth between her home and his apartment in a city two hours away. The whole family welcomed and greeted me in the living room when I arrived. The little kids behaved so well and very friendly. The oldest girl is, I think, twelve years-old, next, a 10 year-old boy and the twin: one boy and one girl of 5 years-old. They were not shy to stranger at all. Their mother, the home owner’s daughter is a kindergarten teacher who knows some English. She is the one who helps me out whenever I am stuck with my Spanish.



I took some pictures with them and stayed up to watch some TV with the whole family. We were making our best efforts to communicate and to understand each other. For some reason, I did not feel frustrated or discouraged not being able to express what I wanted to or fully understand what they said. I felt very at home with them. They had prepared a room with two beds. From what I gathered from Maria’s explanation, she was expecting two students staying at her home but in the end there was only me.

The first day of school, I woke up around seven. Everyone was in a hurry finishing up their breakfast before school. I had some bread, milk coffee and a bowl of tropical fruits: water melon and papaya. As a tradition of Olé, the Spanish program I am attending, the host family would take their student to school on the first day to make sure they get there. My home is a little more than a mile from the school which took us 20 minutes to walk there.



My first thought while walking to school was how much Querétaro reminded me of Saigon: the streets are narrow and the houses are one next to the other; and almost every house has some business, while everyone in the family stays on the 2nd floor. You would see on these small streets convenient stores, food or drink shops, clothing stores, flower shops, shoe stores, private doctor offices, gift shops, small café, etc. The roads are all bricks, and the houses were built in, I think, the Spanish colonial architecture. Most of the streets are one-way because they are narrow; however, the cars move very fast along those small streets. There are many people walking on the side-walks on both sides. There is a school for rich kids which is called “particular escuela,” and a public school just across from that school. That is why the streets I walked were busy in the morning with students and their parents.



The mother of my home walked me to school. She is a strong woman, and I can tell that the living conditions in this town keep her and most other people very healthy. Why? Because they walk to places every day. What else? Because they know how to eat together with family and take time out to relax: after sun down, the benches along the city sidewalks and little parks and squares in the city are filled with people. They are just chilling with their family and friends, on a week day. More on the lifestyle will be talked about in another journal entry.



It is rather hot during the day and there is no air condition in this city. Heat is always my concern when I come to a place, but for some reason it has not bothered me that much here in Querétaro. It is cool at night: I’d say it’s around the low 70’s. If you walk to fast to school in the morning, you might be sweating by the time you arrive. That is why I take my time to walk to school.

Bontanical Garden June 2010