15 de Septiembre ¡¡¡El Día de la Independencia!!!

These are some other decorations. They appear to be a Mexican flag and a person.

They also had lots of figures and shapes of Mexican symbols around the town, such as this shape of Mexico adorned with lights of the Mexican colors and the words "Viva Mexico".

This is more celebrating at the Alondiga, there were tons of Mexican flags and people in sombreros decorated with the Mexican colors.

To celebrate the Mexican independence I went to Maetzin's house and ate, and then after that we went to the Alondiga (this building) along with apparently the rest of the town, and heard "El Grito" The Shout at exactly 11pm. They shouted "¡Que viva Guanajuato!" and "¡Que viva Mexico!" and "¡Que viva Pipila!" and things like that and every one shouted back "¡¡¡Viva!!!" each time, which is kind of like Long Live (Guanajuato)!.

These are my friends Maetzin and Suzy after we got foamed.

I got foamed... And it was fun!

A wild foam party? or Mexican independence day?

Why not both?!?!

Fútbol en León

This is a guy selling a variety of Mexican candy (and some American).

There was also a guy selling tortas which are a kind of sandwich.

Here are some other fans all dressed in green and white.

They seemed pretty excited.

Here's a typical fútbol fan with his jersey and his beer. No worries this was during the break, he was intently watching the game while they were playing.

These kids had some cool kind of gun type thing that spit out a spiral cloth...
The sign at the top says Los Lokos De Arriba, which roughly translated means The Crazy People At The Top. They were all dressed in green and white and had green and white umbrellas and would jump around and twirl their umbrellas.
This is at the fútbol game. Our team was león, I'm not sure who they were playing. León is green and white.

This is me and a girl Jessica that lives in my house, riding in the back of our "dad's" bread van to go to take the bus to León to see a fútbol game!

La Presa

While me and my friend Maetzin were sitting up by the presa talking, we heard a noise and when we looked behind us we saw this donkey, along with his friend, having a snack.

Near the presa is this gigantic stone alligator along with a giant stone snake.


Nature here looks like this. This is up past the presa. The cactus is a nopál, people eat the leaves, they're supposed to be good for you. I've had them fried with lime and salt, although they taste fine, they are really slimy inside. I don't particularly care for them.

This is the pond/lake at the top of the presa (damn). When I get to the bottom of my hill, I can either turn right and head into town, or go left and walk through a park and around the presa. Up by the presa it's pretty quiet, and the air is a lot fresher.

Mi casa y la panorámica

This is the kitchen. My senora, Emma, is the one in the red apron. Mindy (one of the students) and Katia (one of the daughters) are sitting at the table. Every day we have comida at 3pm, which is the biggest meal. We always have some kind of soup, rice, beans, some kind of meat (for me usually quesadillas, something with egg, or enchiladas or tacos with cheese or potatoes) and almost every day they make some kind of agua de something (Literally- water of something aka fresh juice) such as watermelon, mango, melon, hibiscus juice or lemonade.

Right out side of my room is the door to the party hall. My senora is a chef and she holds big parties in this room every once in a while.

This is the view out my window. The cliff farthest to the right is La Buffa (the bluff), I've hiked up there before, the view of the city and the valley is amazing, I haven't made it up there yet during this trip, so I don't have pictures... yet.

On the left is the bathroom door, and then I have a closet and some drawers and the door to the hall. I live on the 3rd story of the house.

This is my bathroom. On the left is a shower, as far as I know they don't have bath tubs in Mexico.

This is my bed room, there are two beds, a bathroom, a desk with drawers and cabinets and some shelves. The door on the right is to my bathroom.

This is the panorámica in front of my house coming from the other direction. That first white structure in the gate is the main gate door to go down the stairs to the front door of the house.

This is the street in front of my house. I live on the panorámica which is a road that goes all the way around the outside of the city. I have to walk up a really big hill to get up here. If I decide to take the bus it costs a little less than 20 cents (for students) and they drop me off right in front of the house. The black gate on the right side with the white structures in it, that's my gate, the house is really big.