American Stories

It has almost been a month since I last wrote in my blog and this was not due to lack of will to do so, but mostly, lack of opportunity. I have now arrived in Bishop’s University, which I have been waiting to study at for a long time, but I still wish to catch up on the past month as a whole, and tell about the rest of my vacation. Last time I wrote, I had hardly just arrived in the US and it has been, imaginably, quite an adventure since.

American West

After my trip in Barcelona, I spent a week touring the western United States with my girlfriend and her family. It was a unique opportunity for me to revisit sites I had only seen when I was very young and could not entirely remember, such as the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. It was a parade of all the different landscapes you can imagine from cowboy movies.

I think I may have preferred San Francisco though, which was the final destination of our trip. It immediately felt like home in a blend of different impressions. Caught in between European culture and Californian West Coast, in between stoic rich and hippie chic and in between the cool of the harbor and the heat of Chinatown, SF was another vibrant city that seemed to have something going on. I was only there for some 24 hours before having to catch a flight out though, so I suppose I only really saw the tip of the iceberg. Though I probably will not be able to go back too soon, I have noted it down on my list of places to return to.

Mexico

After the US, down I went to sunny Mexico. Or rather, rainy Mexico! It is only upon arrival that I found out I had planned my trip to Mexico in the rainy season. So each day did not fail to bring us its rainstorm and downpour. But I actually managed my schedule around it and stayed mostly dry. There were three types of experiences in Mexico:

Firstly were the people I met. I had the very fortunate luck of meeting a friend, Ricky, through a website on which we both posted some writing. That was four years ago and all this time I have lived in France and him, in Mexico. This summer proved to be the first occasion we had to actually meet and with great generosity he and his family housed and fed me for two weeks. They were exceptional people, very warm and welcoming, who were always ready to help me plan my visits around the country. I am very thankful to them for the time they allowed me to spend with them, in Latino charm. Of course, Ricky has a bunch of friends in his home country, so I also got to meet many same-age Mexicans and have a good time with them. What they say about Latin hospitality is not just a myth and I met a variety of great people, even if it was sometimes just for one evening.

The second type of experience in Mexico was the FOOD! Mexicans are very proud of their cuisine, and understandably so. Of course, you need to like spicy food to get around the gastronomic experience in Mesoamerica, but fortunately that is my case and I had a heated blast, tasting all the tacos, quesadillas, sopes, chiles en nogada, tamales… not to mention tasty Margarita! If you go to Mexico, be sure to love the food!

The third type of experience I had in Mexico was the cultural visiting. I saw many pretty post-colonial towns around the south of Mexico city, such as Cuernavaca (where I stayed for my two weeks), Puebla, Taxco and spent a whole weekend in Mexico city itself, exploring this exciting and thrilling capital. My favorite visits ended up being those of temples though. I saw the temples of Xochicalco, near Cuernavaca, which are very impressive and have the great advantage of being relatively unknown to many tourists, making it a very peaceful visit. My host and I were alone, apart from a group of students. However, the most beautiful ancient site I saw was that of Teotihuacan, and this was the last place I visited during my stay in Mexico. It is the largest pre-Columbian site in Mexico and hold the Piramid del Sol, the third tallest Pyramid in the world. Sitting on the latter, while contemplating the smaller and more ornate Piramid de la Luna, while listening to Ennio Morricone’s music from the Mission (it seemed fitting, and there were too many people at the top of the Pyramid to enjoy the silence) I was very moved, as I knew my trip to Mexico was coming to an end and that I felt I had seen what I had come for. I knew that a few days later I would be starting a new life in Canada and moving into Bishop’s University.

That moment has now come and gone and I have effectively arrived at BU and I am having the time of my life. Frosh week (orientation) has been full of parties and events helping us to get to know the students in both our years and the years above. But it’s not all parties and I have also been starting my classes since yesterday, which are good so far. It’s a pleasure to be studying here after waiting for it so long. I’ll be here for a while, so don’t worry if I’m not saying too much about it yet – you’ll probably eventually get sick of hearing me claim that I’ll bleed purple ‘till I die (a BU reference). I’ll be sure to dedicate some future entries to my life at BU. The summer has come to an end and it’s time to head on into another school year, only this time, it promises to be different!