Conciertos y Iglesia y Futbol Americano

Hey everyone,

Sorry I took so long to blog. It has been a very, extremely busy last few weeks. I went to a concert, to a Mexican Football game, to church and had to take my second partials. The pictures are from the Manu Chao concert and the clasico football game between ITESM (my school) and UANL (their rivals). The names of the mascots are interesting, my school is the borregos the salvajes, which means rams and the UANL is called los tigres autenticos, they are called the authentic tigers because there is also a soccer team called the tigers. Now on to the photos, the first three are from the clasico which the TEC won 35-13. The game was ok, the players were smaller than normal, and they could not pass that well. Let me interrupt myself here for one second, There are some interesting ways people make a living here, there are some guys who drive trucks around and scream out what they are selling with loudspeakers, it is really really annoying when i am trying to take a siesta, nap. Then there are people who dress up like clowns and juggle at intersections to get tips from people, and also we have people who watch cars, not wash. If you go to the movies or somewhere like that, they will stand outside and make sure no one breaks into your car or anything like that. It is pretty interesting to watch the underground economy here. The problem is that there are rich people in Mexico, then everyone else. It is capitalism at its most, there is a really really very extremely wealthy class, which is personified in Carlos Slim, then there is a tiny middle class, my house mom Liz is a member of that and then most of the country is poor; they live paycheck to paycheck eat tortillas and beans at every meal. Wow, i didnt mean to interrupt myself that long. My friends in the picture are from the left Dinorah, Ana Lucia and Olga. Yes, her name is Olga, her dad was born in Mexico and got his bachelors here then he studied in the Ukraine for his masters and met her mom. we are going to practice our languages together. It is frightening that i will be helping someone learn english jajaja. The concert was amazing, it was in the Huasteca park. It is up in the mountains by monterrey. We parked and were walking in, then we saw a truck and asked if we could hop in, we got in the back and rode with them. The men were upfront, and the wife and child were in back. They told us that everytimethere is a concert this happens to them, it takes forever for them to get home. Then they gave us beer, i gave them 50 pesos and the women refused to accept it, so then i gave it to the kid and refused to take it back. This story is short but it teaches you a lot about mexican culture; firstly, the women and children are subjugated to the machismo of the men, this is a male dominated culture, secondly, everyone tries to help everyone else out here usually, thirdly, the campesinos (country people) are also subjugated to a tertiary role, they recieve the worst services and help, fourthly the mexicans are proud and don't like to be looked down on even if they are really poor. The concert was awesome, Manu Chao, was born in france because his parent were political refugees during Franco's reign. He would sing/rap in Spanish, French and English. The crowd wasnt that wild, but it was a beautiful venue, the stage was framed by the mountains. I really liked my first big concert ever :). I went to Church yesterday with my friend, Kim Benjamin. It was a baptist church and really fun, the preacher got really into his sermon, he pounded on the pulpit and yelled. Religion is a huge part of the Mexican life, I want to go to a Catholic Church as well sometime. I have found that most of the people I know identify themselves as catholics but not fanatical usually they don't go to church. I got back my calculus test, and i got 103% on it, so that is pretty good. Well I think that is enough for now, I will try to post more regularly.

I have a special visitor coming to see me on the 17th of October, yes the one, the only Jody Varney!!! (Applause) We here at American Vampire in Mexico, will make her do a guest blog. about her stay.

Love you all,

Take care,

Kyle

Independencia y Graduaciones

Hola a todos,

The top picture is Nancy, my friend the accountant and me at the Mexican independence day celebration, note she has fake eyelashes with the mexican flag. Underneath that, is part of my face and my friend Erica at the mine. Then you can see my friend Beu in the purple dress and me in the suit and my other friend Cecy in the yellow, at my Beu's graduation party. I am practicing my trumpet skills during dinner at the party. Then Cecy and my other friend Dinorah, yes that is her name, and me at the dance. I am getting up close and personal with a cactus lol. Then you can see my friend Beu, washing her hands at her dad's new house. The house is not complete but it is coming along nicely and will be lovely when it is done.


Sorry it has been so long but you will see from my post I have been very busy. Continuing from the last post after the Packers game not much happened during the week. On both Thursday and Friday night we celebrated the birthday of Sary a friend of ours who is a salsa dancer. Thursday was just a party at our friend Chuy's which is pronounced like Chewey from the Star Wars movies. Then Friday we went to a Chinese restaraunt and had about 20 people with us. The food was ok and actually it was so good that my friend Erica who has a lot of food allergies ordered food that was bad for here. Then we went out dancing at La Patrona, it is intimidating to try to dance with salsa dancers, but I gave it a shot. Then Saturday morning we bordered a bus for zacatecas a historical area of mexico about 7 hours away from Monterrey. We visited many churches and museums in Zacatecas. We visited an old mine and heard a legend. A miner found a very valuable half gold and half silver rock, he hid it in the mine and returned later that night after the mine had closed to collect his prize. The patron saint of the mine, threw him in the water and killed him, because he refused to share with his coworkers. The owners of the mine which came from the criollo class, would spread stories among the indigenous workers to stop them from stealing gold and silver. It is really interesting to learn Mexican history. In colonial times, the people were divided into groups based on their ancestry, similar to the caste system in India. At the top of the group were the Peninsular's which are 100% Spanish ancestry and born in Spain. Beneath them were the Criollo's, which were of Spanish ancestry but born in Nuevo Espana (the colonies), beneath them were the Mestizo's which is a mix of indigenous people and Spanish people, almost equal to them were the Mulatto's which is a mix of African slaves and Spanish people. Then the inidgenous people; Aztecs, Mayans, Chichimecas, Zapotecas, Incas and many more other pre-colombian civilizations. And at the lowest level were the African slaves. This ranking lasted from 1492 and is still seen in today's society here. There were many rules; Bishops which are second in the catholic church only to the pope could only come from the Peninsular class. The Peninsular's also controlled the flow of goods from the local source to the rest of the world. The Criollo's owned most of the land because they were the descendants of the original conquistadors, who were given a lot of land in exchange for their help en la conquista. So, the Criollo's would use their mines and other resources to extract the raw materials. Then they would take them to the market and sell them, they couldn't get that good of a price because of the abundance of supply. So, the Peninsular's who were the only ones allowed to sell goods to the outside world, would buy the goods at a cheap price and resell them in europe at a much higher profit, which would net them exorbitant amounts of money for very little work. The basic idea for the colonies was twofold; the first to spread catholicism in the new world, and secondly it was like a pyramid scheme. The most powerful men in the colonies were the Virreys of Nuevo Espana (Mexico) and Peru (the rest of central and south america). Then the governors and other officials, basically everyone's job was to make money for the people above them. The jealousy of the Criollo's is directly responsible for almost every revolution in South America, they got tired of being subservient to the peninsulars. It was so important to be born in Spain, that parent's would get on a boat if the wife was pregnant to try and have the baby born in Spain. I digress from my Zacatecas story. We went to the church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the story of the virgin of Guadalupe is very interesting. A woman was on a hill and the virgen appeared to here. She went to get a priest to tell him about the appearance, the virgin didn't reappear. The woman came back to the hill by hereself and the virgin reappeared and told the women to go back to the priest. One more time, she went back to the priest and brought him to the hill, the virgin didn't appear. The woman came back to the hill and the virgin told her to gather flowers and take them to the priest to give them to him and to tell them they were from the virgin. The women went to the priest and let the flowers drop from where she was holding. Then an image of the virgin appeared on the womens shirt. It was an indigenous woman and it made it a lot easier to convert indigenous people to Catholicism, when they had a virgin that looked like them.

Onto indenpendence day, we went to some pyramids made by the chichimecas, the indigenous people of zacatecas. Then we went to a church in zacatecas and finally, the guides mixed fresca and meztcal (it's like tequila in giant 3 liter jugs and we joined in the celebration. There was a band of Mariachi's that we followed all around the city into the plaza. When we got to the plaza the Mexican army showed up and played some songs. Then the governor of Zacatecas showed up and did the yell, which goes like this, Viva Mexico, then we yelled Viva and we repeated this several times. Then everyone started to dance and we danced all night. The history behind mexican independence day is that a priest and several other criollos had a plan and it was discovered. The priest decided to ring the bell of his church and have his congregation raise up in arms.

The food in zacatecas was dreadful most of the time and most of our days started behind schedule which meant that we had no time to relax. This lead to me being ill most of the last week. I didn't sleep for almost three days and had almost no energy and could barely even eat. I spent most of the last week sleeping and trying to get better. Then Saturday i journeyed to Saltillo which is an hour to an hour and a half away. I went there for my friend Beu's graduation party. the graduation happened in June, but they just had the party last week. I rented a smoking jacket and shoes and everyone else was also dressed to the nines. It was a lot of fun and very formal. It was really weird to be the only American there and everyone else was Mexican.

I think this is enough history and news for now. I will post again soon.

cuidanse,

Kyle

Packer's Game in Mexico

These photos are amazing. The first photo, is my friends Isa and Beu flanking me at Bennigans where we watched the Green Bay Packer's beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-19. The second photo is during the attack of the moth, my roommate David was trying to give up the family dog Negra as a sacrifice to the moth. He was screaming, "Take the dog, take the dog!" and his voice was so high pitched it was really funny. The next photo is from Bennigan's, where Olli, my German roommate decided to support the Patriot's and I decided to support the Packer's as usual. The next photo is my friend Beu trying to wear my giant Brewer's hat, as you can see from the results it doesn't fit too well. The bottom picture is me goofing around at the museum.

I got most of my exams back; I recieved a 100% in my calculus, 83% in my History of Latinamerica class and a 75% in my Chinese class. I am waiting to hear my score for my Imports and Exports class. For my Imports and Exports class this week we had to read. The Axioms of Zurich a book by: Max Gunther. This book is one of the best books about finance I have ever read, here is a link to a free copy of it http://neif.org/Zurich_axioms.pdf .

There are several large differences in culture between the US and Mexico, but also a lot of things are the same. In Mexico, the most important thing is family; for example the birthday parties here even for 7 year olds will last for over 7 hours and feature clowns, a mechanical bull and many other extravagances. If you do not come to a birthday party it is considered very rude and you will be looked down on in the family. It is also very common for the adult children to visit the families very often. The grandparents usually serve as babysitters'parents while the parents are at work and they are very conservative. Young men and young women cannot be alone in a house together without supervision. however, when they are outside couples make out a lot. There is no concept of dating here, if you go to the movies with someone once, people think you are boyfriend and girlfriend. The students here are similar to the US; although they do study more frequently here instead of just cramming the night before. The class is a little more relaxed and there is frequently laughter in a lot of my classes. I talked to the ppl about their idea of American's and I have found that some people have incorrect stereotypes just like they do here. All of the people i met here do not like Bush at all and they don't understand a lot about our political system. The most frequently asked question is What do I think about Bush? then, How do i support in the election? and once they find out i'm from Wisconsin, What do you think about the Brett Favre situation? Hahahaha. There is a term for Mexican's who become too American, they call them malinchistas. The name comes from Dona Marina La Malinche, a mayan who helped Cortes defeat the Mayans. The most American thing here is the music, for example the grandson of my house mom loves Aerosmith and other american bands. Most of my friends here listen to the bands that are popular in the us and watch the same movies we do. I have found that a lot of American's and Mexican's share the same values and want the same things; they want their kids to get a good education, want a nice safe house, and want some nice things. I am convinced that the way to greater understanding and less conflict overall is for people to travel so they can break down stereotype's and actually know what another country is like. I love all of you very much and wish nothing but the best for you.

Cuidanse,

Kyle

Iron Museums Can be Fun, Really

Hola a todos,

Sorry I haven't written lately. I have been very busy. I have been studying like a madman all week to do good in my exams. Yesterday, I went to an old iron foundry and had a lot of fun with my roomies, The foundry was actually really really really fun and we learned a lot. The museum is located in parque de fundadores, it is a huge area in the heart of Mty. The old iron foundry, was amazing and had a lot of cool interactive exhibits, there was a lot of really cool stories. There was a lot of old pictures and it was amazing. I think I will go on a vacation next week with some friends. Im glad I finally got out of my house and the library and got to have some fun. The classes here are very difficult and there is a lot to do every week. I spend most of my week at the tec. I will watch the packers tommorow and i have been following the nfl a lot. It is difficult to get along without american television hahahaha. I will have some more soon, but there is too hot and im too tired right now.

Adios cuidanse que te vayan bien,

kyle

La noche de la lluvia

Hey Everyone,

Mexico is still fun, hahaha. The top photo is my friend Nora, she is from Luxemburg. I feel lucky to know someone from Luxemburg. The other photo is of my friends Beu, her nickname is Beulobo and of Komal my friend from England. This week has been crazy it has rained so much. Yesterday it was raining cats and dogs all day. Then I went with some friends to my friend Rachel's birthday party. It was an adventure to get there; Junco de la Vega is a street 4 blocks away from us that is a big street and there are always taxis there, except for last night. No taxis would pick us up and it was really pouring out, there were little lakes all over the streets. It was pretty bad for the girls because there makeup was running off. We decided to try to walk to the party, then eventually we got a ride from a taxi and started to head towards Colonia Roma where the party was, then we couldn't find the street the party was on. Finally we made it to the party and had a nice time. My friend Erica fed a street dog at our house here once and now the dog will not leave our house, it follows us all over the place, even to the Tec sometimes, which is pretty far away. Next week is our first partial exams and it should be pretty tough. I really like my classes here, but my chinese class is really tough, we have a quiz almost every day. I really enjoy my Importing and Exporting class, we do research on countries and present every week. That is thing I like most about Mty. there are so many people from all over the world. I am finally adding some culture. Liz, Julia (Liz's daughter) and Maury (Julia's son) are at a birthday party for Liz's niece right now and they will be hitting a pinata. After I get my partial exams done I will be doing some exploring around Mty and I will also bake some cakes with my friends this coming thursday. Hopefully I will be able to see the south of Mexico and really get a full view of Mexico.

Here are two funny links to watch:

The first is a youtube video made by my esteemed friend Mike Kruis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEkJY3mnWLg
it.
The second is also a youtube video of a crazy german kid, i put it up with Spanish subtitles to help you learn Spanish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHJdGmT8k4

I will try to start another blog in Spanish this week if i have time. Also, right now i am adding skype which is a free service you can use like a phone computer to computer. I will put my name on here when I add it. Please comment on my blog to help me improve it :)

That is all!!!

Cuidanse,

Kyle Cook

Pinatas

Hola everyone!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post again. The woman with the electric smile is my friend Erica Walker from Colorado. The next photo, is my friends cousin with a dog, the girl didn't speak much english so I was talking to her in Spanish all night and she was talking to me in english. She goes to school at the University of Texas at Brownsville. My hat is basically a house for Liz my house mother hahaha. As you can see from my picture the whole campus of Itesm is wireless and there are animals all over. The next picture is our whole family at the dinner table. My week has been totally crazy. I have basically lived at the library all week. I got up at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday to finish my calculus homework, then my professor didnt show up for my 8:00 a.m. class. Then Wednesday night i tried to stay up all night on Wednesday to try to read El Proceso a book by Franz Kafka, unfortunately i dozed off and didn't have time to finish it. I am doing good in my other classes, I talk to my calculus teacher only in Spanish. It is kind of funny because his girlfriend studied at UW-Madison; once when he was visiting her, he tried the hottest wings at buffalo wild wings, because he thought there was no way they would be too spicy for him and he was totally out of commision the next day. Everytime i tell anyone in Mty. that I am from Wisconsin they always ask me about Brett Favre or the Packers. There is a bar that shows every steelers game and there is a Steelers fan club here. I have talked to a lot of people about this and they say that since the steelers were great in the 1970's everyone since then has followed the team, the cowboys are the other team that people like here.

I haven't really had a chance to go anywhere but Colonia Florida, which is my neighborhood. In Mexico, they use colonia to refer to a neighborhood. This makes it a lot easier to get around, if you want to go to Soriana, which is a chain of grocery stores, you tell the taxi driver, "soriana en la colonia florida." I know some of you might find this hard to believe but i can actually make my way around Mty. pretty good. Speaking of Mty. it is basically an American city, you can buy almost anything you want, there is internet all over. The whole campus is wireless, there is a lovely area outside of the library that is underneath a building so it is in the shade and there is always a nice wind. however, not everything about Mexico is so nice, the lines and paperwork needed to do basic things is really tough. The city has a very cosmopolitan feel to it, there are lots of beautiful buildings and huge companies here like Pepsi, Maytag, etc. I really want to travel though to see what the rest of mexico is like. That is all for now im going to head back home.

cuidanse,

kyle

Monterrey

I am having trouble writing captions so I will describe them from here. The top photo is a photo ofmy host mom, Liz Alva de Leon and two of my three roommates. On the left is Michgael Buchmayr a 24 year old Austrian and on the right is Oliver Hoffmann a 22 year old German. Below that is a building on campus, sorry I have no idea what it is. Underneath that, is me with three amigas, from the left, Cecy Segura, Isa Segura and Beu Cardenas. We met them out at a place called Galeria. Then some photos of Monterrey, it is completely surrounded by mountains and it is really pretty. Then a movie poster for the batman movie in Spanish. Ducks are underneath that, the nice thing about this campus is the abundance of wildlife, there are deer and peacocks and ducks all over the campus. Underneath that is Ollie, me, David James Weller (my other roommate, an Englishman who goes to Aston ), Erica Walker and Kim Benjamin. Kim and Erica lives three houses away from us. Kim goes to Aston University in England, the same one as David, but they just met on this trip. Erica goes to the University of Colorado at Boulder. We have become good friends since our time began here in Mty (that is what everyone calls Monterrey). Finally, Mike, Kim, David and Erica are having fun at a bar.

Monterrey is really fun, it is a lovely city with people that are very smart and nice. It is recognized as the business and education center of Mexico. It is the third largest city in Mexico with a population of 3.8 million people. It is also the capital of the province of Nueva Leon. My host mom is named Liz Alva de Leon, she is Mexican and Guatemalan, and she keeps us in line down here. She is the prototypical grandmother, and she treats us like family. She has a grandson Mauricio who is usually over at the house, because his mom Julia (Liz's daughter) is at work for the catholic church. I have not had a lot of time to explore the city or Mexico, but I want to go up some of the mountains and see the south of Mexico. The lifestyle is different here, usually most people take a siesta at lunch for an hour or two and then go back to work. It is a slower pace as well, they take more time out to see their families. Also, the traffic is a lot different, stop signs are seen as a suggestion. To get to school i have to cross Junco de la Vega a big road in Mty and look both ways. ITESM is a really good school and really high tech, they have wireless all over the University, I am writing this outside of the library with a nice breeze coming through. Right now my schedule is Chinese 3, Importing and Exporting in Mexico, my internship (I don't know what it is yet, I will fill you in when I do), Worldwide 20th Century Literature, Calculus, and History of Latin America. I am practicing my spanish here and getting better but i need more practice. There are a lot of other foreign exchange students here apporximately 600 others, they come from all over the world, but most are Germans, French, English and American. I am learning a lot about other cultures as well. My average day begins at 7 or 7:30, i get up and go to class and then study and play basketball almost every night. I encourage all of you to go visit a foreign country and learn some things.

Lots of love,

Kyle Cook