Escuela, y ¡Día de San Valentín!

¡Buenos días!

For the past two days, I have been going to escuela (school) in Mexico. So far, I have taken la clase de matemáticas (math class), la clase de historía (history class),  la clase de español (Spanish class; the equivalent of an English class here but in Spanish),  la clase de inglés (English class; the equivalent of a world language), and la clase de físicas (physics class). I am hoping to take biology in the future, but I am not sure how often.

Taking classes in Spanish is easier than one might think. That being said, it does require patience. In la clase de físicas (physics), we were learning about boyante (buoyancy), a concept I did not know beforehand. With a lot of help from my host brother, I eventually understood how to calculate boyante of an object. But when the professor started to explain things, I was extremely confused. One of the things that I really struggled with was peso, which is the currency of Mexico, but in physics, it means weight. Once my host brother explained that to me, everything made sense in the notes. It was quite satisfying, actually, to unlock a whole new concept in a new language just by understanding one more word.

I also attended many English classes, and will be attending more in the future because the teachers want us to be there. In the classes today (February 14th), they were celebrating by singing English Valentine's Day songs such as "Locked Away" by Adam Levine, and "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. I also learned a new type of Spanish music called reggaeton (no, it is not the same thing as reggae), and a few dances for it. After my classes on La Día de San Valentín (Valentine's Day), I went to a cafe where I ate some sopa azteca, an unexpectingly and very spicy soup that tastes amazing. Though my mouth was on fire, I just had to eat it all. Next, I went to the Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, a museum dedicated to Guanajuato's hero, Don Quijote (you can read about Don Quijote here; it is literally a long story).

I ended the day hiking up La Pipila again and taking in the whole city. You could literally spend hours doing it. (More information is below, in the pictures).

Each day it seems, Guanajuato is becoming more and more astounding.

Hasta luego,
Benjamín

A sculpture of Don Quijote

A wood carving of Don Quijote

A painting of Don Quijote

A sci-fi themed comic of Don Quijote. The first panel says "2041. In a place in the [badlands]", the second panel says "Alert! Impact in 3...2...1... BOOM!", the fourth panel says "Sancho!" (Sancho is the companion of Don Quijote), the next panel says "That does not look good, Don Quijote, we should go back.", and then Quijote answers "You stay here", and then he says "I will face them fiercly and with a powerful battle."

This is the heading under La Pipila. It says "Still there are
other cities to burn." This quote references the war in Mexico

View from the top of La Pipila

Another view from the top of La Pipila