Peace Corps Foro in Querétaro

Last week I returned to Querétaro for some in-service training and a two-day Foro on Innovation and Technology Transfer put on by Peace Corps. We had done a Foro last year, but this year we had a much bigger and diverse audience--over 100 people attended! It was extremely well put together by the staff and received a lot of positive feedback. We had some amazing speakers cover topics about Myths of Innovation, what CONACYT is doing at a national level, FUMEC (a national-level technical agreement between the US and México), and panels on how industry currently works with academia and research centers.



In Querétaro I had the chance to eat dinner with my host family again, which was very cool. Their dog is a bit older and slightly better behaved!

Since it is the bicentennial and centennial of Mexican independence and the Revolution, respectively, the city of Querétaro is putting on a bunch of events (the city has played a huge role in Mexican history). Friday night I went to a concert at the beautiful Teatro de la Republica and listened to the Querétaro Philharmonic.

PC Training

Well, after a quick trip out of the country, I came back on Tuesday just in time to take care of some Peace Corps business. Right after I stepped off the plane, I made my way to my future house and signed the lease--I finally have a place to stay! No pictures yet, but I promise some after I get back to site. It's a very cool place with a terrace all around the second floor and painted in a very manly red and pink color scheme. After the lease was signed, a couple of people from work helped me move all of my luggage and a bed from my host family to my new house. Some basic construction and cleanup continues while I am out of site, but hopefully everything is ready when I return.

Wednesday we left site to take yet another 10-hour bus ride down to Querétaro for some Peace Corps workshops. I think that makes the 5th long bus-ride for me, although I know some people who have taken 16 or 18 hour bus rides to go on vacation. I´m not sure how they do it... This time we took ETN, which is the luxury bus line in México. It was the same sized tour bus, but there were only 24 seats! Each seat was very spacious, like a first-class airline seat, and everyone had their own headset to listen to music or the movies. While the movies weren´t blockbusters, it was very nice to not have the music blared over the speaker system for everyone to hear.

Thursday and Friday were filled with PC workshops with representatives from our sponsoring agencies (CONACYT offices), some universities, and professional associations. The subject was technology transfer, and different experiences and perspectives were offered. I thought it was a pretty good networking event, since the various centers rarely communicate about projects or ideas, and the various counterparts talked quite a bit amongst themselves.

Semana pasada

This last week was also a blur, as I suspect most of the next three months will be. I've had many new dishes to try, including cactus (nopales). No picture--sorry! My host mom actually brought up the idea of taking a picture, but I didn't quite catch on to the Spanish, so I completely blanked on giving her my camera. Oh well, it seems like a common dish here, so more opportunities in the future.

Language training is fun, I seem to be doing OK (although, funny story, I have already been "demoted" a level). For those of you who do not know Spanish, here is a taste of what our class is like (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw). There is a Second Semester video as well, but I have not had a chance to watch it.

Last Sunday, I attended Catholic Mass (Misa) with my host mom and sister. The church they attend is the one in this picture. There are a lot of old churches in Querétaro, and they are all very beautiful. This one was no exception.



One person in our group has discovered churros here, and she actually gets a kick-back of free churros from the "churro guy" whenever we stop by as a group! We definitely get to tease her about it. They even fill them with sauces (churro rellenos). Think chocolate, strawberry, etc., inside a churro! This is a traditional churro with no filling.



On Saturday, our entire group banded together and went to the local La Lucha Libre auditorium La Lucha Libre is the Méxican version of wrestling...but not really. I have not seen the movie Nacho Libre, but I was told that this wasn´t quite the same, either. It seems like something in-between the two. It was a lot of choreographed stunts, with no real attempt made at making it ¨real¨ (think chest slapping, etc., instead of actual hits). While the place wasn't packed, some of us americanos created as much noise as the locals. The lighting in the auditorium was horrible, but these two were the Star Wars fighters.

Querétaro!

We arrived in México late last night, an hour earlier than scheduled, which was great. No problems with luggage or Customs for any of us. Our country director met us at the airport, along with a driver from the PC staff, and we took a luxury bus to Querétaro. The seats in the bus were bigger than the touring buses in the US (3 seats per row versus 4 seats per row, and only 10 or so rows). Arriving at 1:30 in the morning, we were all a bit tired! As we walked from the bus to our hotel, we got to see some of the city, and I was very impressed with what I saw. Beautiful architecture, very clean streets, and lots of tree-lined public squares. I´m sure I will have some great pictures, once we get to see the city in the daylight.