Last "Vacation"!

So according to PC policy, our last three months are aren't allowed to take "vacation"--so I took my last official day of vacation yesterday, for a long-weekend trip to the state of Veracruz. I basically went to visit a friend from Monterrey, who now lives in the capital of Jalapa / Xalapa. It is a pretty tropical town, and it was definitely hot, hot, hot! I can't imagine what it is like in the summer! Some photos:

Main church in Jalapa...not sure what happened to the tower on the left?!


Sharks in the aquarium in Veracruz.



Waterfall Texolo near Jalapa.

Ice Skating and Kites

On Saturday I had a busy day, as I had promised to cook for my girlfriend and her family...so I whipped up an easy dish of three-bean chili. It was well-received (I think), and they asked me what my next dish is going to be! So at least they think I can cook. You can see it here.



We also went ice skating on Saturday at an indoor rink. The ice wasn't too great, but it was fun skating...it's probably been three or four years since the last time I skated, so it took awhile to remember how. I had one semi-fall, but nothing too bad.



Sunday, we went to a kite event! So I've never really flown a kite before (once or twice before in my life), so it was interesting. We got some good tips from one of the organizers, and we managed to get the kite pretty high, one time each (probably 100-150 m). BUT, both times, we spent probably an hour undoing knots in the string afterwards...so more time with knots than flying kites! We even saw SpongeBob flying over the moon (no, this was not our kite).

Visitors!

So I've been away for a couple weeks because...I had visitors!! Yay! My parents came down from the US to see what a "Peace Corps México" experience is like, and we got to travel around a bit. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Sunset over Mexico City, from our hotel terrace.


Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan.


Mural on the Central Library of UNAM, the national university.


Street in downtown Puebla. My parents said it looked very Hollywood-ish.


The inside of a church near my house.


Xochimilco, kind of like the Venice of México.