Monday, June 4, 2007

First Mexican Cuisine Class

Today I had my first Mexican Cuisine class. We made...











Pozole rojo de Jalisco (Red Jalisco pozole)














Agua Jamaica (Sweet Hibiscus Tea)












and Natilla (Cinnamon Pudding).




Hopefully I'll be able to find all the necessary chiles back home in Canada so I can work on perfecting my domestic mexican skills! hehee

Monday, May 28, 2007

Orientation Week wraps up

So I have survived the orientation week here at Tec and it was definitely a long, drawn-out one! On the bright side, however, we got to know a lot of the city (mostly at night...) and I am fairly confident in my taco ordering skills.


By the way, here are what REAL Mexican tacos look like:



Usually the table has a bowl of baby limes that are about the size of ping pong balls, diced onion mixed with cilantro, and a few different salsas (but always including the all-important salsa verde).



The server will always ask if you want to start with frijoles, which are homemade brown beans usually with big chunks of bacon or ham. mmm.

One thing they have down here that's really addictive is Agua Jamaica. It's like iced hibiscus tea but it's not sweetened as much as regular iced tea back home. delicious.




Ok, so the next thing that I have to write about is that we have a ridiculous amount of wildlife on our campus. We have ducks (ok, still quite normal), deer and PEACOCKS!! It's really hilarious to see them waltzing around. By the way, the Spanish name for them, pavoreales, means royal turkeys. heheheeee...

There are a number of duck ponds with fountains in them and you always see the duckies commuting between pools alongside the students on the walkways between the buildings.


Today we had our formal registration process. I'll be taking two international student courses: Mexican Culture and Doing Business in Mexico. That's 4 hours per day, Monday to Friday. They also have extensive extra-curricular courses and I'm thinking of taking the Mexican Cuisine one - only problem is that 1/2 hour of it conflicts with my other courses. We went to the program office today to put our names down on a list as they said they would open up a new section or move the course time around if enough people had a conflict. The international student department has a bunch of sightseeing day trips organized for us such as museums, waterfalls, bungee jumping, brewery tour, etc...

I'm going to see if I can catch the game down here tonight, otherwise I think we're going to go see Pirates of the Caribbean III.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

A first taste of nightlife


Last night I went out with a bunch of exchange students, first to a local pub and then later to el barrio antiguo (the old neighbourhood) where there are lots of places to eat or drink.

The first place we went to was called Antiguo Tec, where a bucket of any mixture of domestic beer was just over 50 peseos (~CDN$5). So you've got your Corona, Sol, Dos Equis, and then one I hadn't yet heard of: Carta Blanca. That was sweetness. Kinda reminded me of my trip to the Czech Republic where amazing domestic Pilsner was about the same price.




These photos are both characteristic of what I saw last night. Nearly every door and window is covered in a cage such as the one above and the streets are cobblestone but quite wide. This is definitely THE place to party: it's filled with all sorts of clubs and the dancing is sweet.




Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Arrival in Mexico

Hi Kids,

So I arrived safely in Monterrey. Stopped over in Dallas-Fort Worth. That was an experience all unto itself. The amount of delicious food places to eat in that airport paired with its brand new renovation and plasma screens everywhere made my eyes boggle.

I met a girl in the Dallas airport who was heading to the same program as me! That was kinda cool. She has a friend who just graduated from University here, so she invited me out to go out to the graduation party they're having Thursday. Sweet.

We got picked up by a charter bus sent by Tec, which was great. Driving along the highway from the airport you really noticed the poverty though. Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico and it's the second largest business hub (after Mexico City). Along the highway we saw tons of industrial plants.

We drove past a gas station and there was this sign on the side of the road:


It means no estacionarse (no parking). I laughed partially cuz at first I didn't realize what the heck it meant and then it suddenly came to me (oh yeah, it looks just like a no parking sign...) and partly cuz it kinda reminded me of the Engineering E at UBC... muahahaaa...

Orientation is all this week. Classes begin on Tuesday after a formal introduction and gathering on Monday. Friday night we're having a bit of a gala with the international students that should be fun.

Met a lot of people today. There's a huge group of about 15 here from Georgia Tech.

Probably going to go to the rez pool after my hour-long orientation tomorrow... :D

Sunday, May 20, 2007

New discoveries...

I feel I should inform you all of two fantastic discoveries I came upon tonight that have made me even more excited for my voyage to Mexico:

#1. There is a telenovela called "Marina." That's right, eat your heart out. http://www.telemundoeventos.com/marina/marina_eng.html



#2. One of my favourite bands, Babasonicos, is playing a show in Monterrey on the night before I leave to come home to Canada. They're an amazing band from Buenos Aires - check them out. My personal favourite song: "Los Calientes:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei1PD73HVsc


...Si no te apreciara tanto
te daría un beso que te haría temblar,
como yo te aprecio mucho
te lo voy a dar igual...

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Prep for Mexico!!

Hey All,

Welcome to my blog!! I'm going to try to keep this as updated as possible with tales of my adventures and a few photos from my exchange this summer.

May 22nd - Mexicooooo! wooo...