Fiesta!

"Where's my shirt?" I asked.

"Tied on the belt of the coach's girlfriend."

"Oh... This can't end well."

So the team had a get together this past weekend to celebrate a birthday and also our last weekend off for the next month or so. It was awesome! I only wish it wasn't so difficult to understand in a room with pounding music and lots of people talking! Here's a pic of me and my friend Moy. (Perdón amigo, no sé cómo se deletrea tu nombre!)

Vent

Ah, ok so I just finished a midterm that I thought was next week. It's my fault really, and I'm not sure how I thought it was next week, but anyways it's over now. The real tick-off is that I should have got a 100% on it even without studying. It was for my transformers and electric motors laboratory and I knew exactly what to do for the exam. Unfortunately while we were adjusting a voltage, our ammeter changed ranges and I didn't tell the guy to stop increasing the voltage quick enough and by the time the ammeter had recalibrated, we had exceded the maximum current and blew a breaker. We automatically lost 15%, which in UW may not seem like much, but here the passing mark is 70. So I'm pretty ticked off at myself right now. Bah.

Success

Sorry for not posting in a while. I just finished a brutal week of homework. I don't see it letting up too much any time soon, but it's much better than earlier this week. Anyways the cool thing that I wanted to write about is that I've been having to do all my homework in English and then translate to Spanish because when I try to write in Spanish it's like I have really, really bad writer's block. The words just don't come. Needless to say, this has been a killer time-consumer. Last night as I was working a report on six different system behaviours, typing up the last paragraph I look up at the screen and HOLY SMOKES! it's in Spanish! To clarify, it was just the last paragraph that was in Spanish. Still, I'm not sure what's cooler, that I can write in Spanish now, or that I didn't even know I was doing it. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means fluent, but I'm improving!
In running news, we don't have any more competitions until March, but in March we're going to Texas again, then there's our home meet, then a meet in Tampico, and finally nationals in Guadalajara. Brutal. I'll be running 800 and 1500 at nationals and maybe the 5000. If you are one of the people that would be interested in my training, (ie. coach, Rye, etc.) I'm keeping a training journal at http://haveyouseenthewind2.blogspot.com

Que tengas buen día

Weather

I should be doing homework right now, but I just can't resist rubbing it in that it has been +35 C here the last two days. What it's like there in Lloydminster? My friend the Weather Network says -30 C... awww. And my amigos in Waterloo, how's it there? Oh ya, UW is closed today because of freezing rain! ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha. OK, I'm going out to smell the trees in bloom, eat some fresh fruit and get a sun tan! Adiós.

El día de amor y amistad

Valentine's day in Mexico is awesome! At least it is here at Tec de Monterrey! First of all the energy on campus is really high most of the time. There are always people talking and working at picnic tables that are literally everywhere on campus, and all 17000 of us are basically within one square city block. Yup, a busy, exciting place. Today was even crazier. There were booths all over selling roses and chocolates and heart shaped candies for valentine's day. I wish I had some pictures, but my camera is out of batteries and the charger is on its way from Germany (long story). They had those services like in high school where you could purchase a flower and present and have it delivered to your special friend in class too! It seemed like every girl was carrying a bunch of heart shaped balloons, and there were flowers everywhere! It was honestly a celebration!
A few people on the track team brought suckers for everyone. One really cool thing about Mexico is that everything has chile spice on it... even the suckers. You have to try it!
Other story... I thought I lost the key to my room today and had to go ask the guard to let me in. I searched everywhere for it... all through my backpack and my clothes, in my books, everywhere! I gave up and decided to wait for my roommate to return so I could copy his. When he did, the locksmith was closed. But then later, where do I find it... in my Spanish-English dictionary... I knew I was doing this homework for a reason!
I also realized today that I know some words in Spanish that I don't know in English. For example pinzas de corriente. Of course, that will only present a problem if I come back...... lol.

U2

Hey,
I just got back from listening to U2 perform at our school's stadium! I didn't have a ticket, so I was just listening and watching the screen from outside, with about 500 other people, but it was still pretty cool. For one song Bono had a girl from the audience come up on stage... she practically mugged him, it was hilarious. I couldn't believe he could still sing with a crazed girl hanging onto him like that.
We had another track meet this weekend. It went pretty well. I set a new PB in the 1500 in 4:08, but that was actually three seconds slower than I was hoping. Later that afternoon I ran the 10k in 34:16, which is a bit slow for me, but not too bad for having done the 1500 too. This morning I ran 5k in 16:12 and now have some tired legs. I'm going to go rest up now because I have practice in eight hours...

Houston

Amigo, amigo, amigo, amigo!



Inside joke. This weekend I was in Houston with the track and field team. It's about an eight hour drive each way and I pretty much just slept through it on the way there. In fact I pretty much just slept all weekend. The team started making fun of me because all I did was sleep, but I think translating all the time plus a solid week of homework had worn me right out. The food was great though. We ate at buffets the whole time and I definitely went back for a fifth plate at one.
The meet was great. I was kind of wondering what an NCAA competition would be like, but it wasn't too different from Canada. For some reason we competed on a 200m indoor track when there was a 400 m track just outside the building. I ran the 3000m. It was my first 3000m, and I achieved my goal of a sub 9min time: 8:59:36. Yep, cutting it close. That placed me fourth in my heat, but about 25th in a field of 50 runners. The winner ran about 8:30. I've got some work to do, but I'll get there.
Perhaps the funniest story of the weekend is that they had to smuggle me back into México! Green light, green light, green light, green light ... woot woot!

Que te vaya bien.