Time is FLYING! O__O

Hellooo my lovely, loyal blog readers!

Man! I can't believe it's already week 4!!!!!! Time is seriously FLYING by like crazy now! O_O Tomorrow night, our midterm essay prompts will be uploaded and it will be due next week! CRAZY how it's already midterms! It's so funny because in the beginning, I was SOOO SO SO extremely homesick. I was counting down the days/weeks left here. I was so depressed all the time. DEFINITELY was culture-shocked. Now that I'm used to everything here, I am no longer homesick at all. In fact, I'm really loving it here! =) I also really love the people that are in the program with me ^_____^ I've gotten to know some great people here as well as many DIFFERENT people I probably would have never gotten a chance to meet if it weren't for this program! One thing I struggled with MOST personally in the beginning of this trip was learning to be comfortable in my own skin. I was never in a group with SO many different people and so many different backgrounds. I didn't know how to handle myself and I had so much fear of rejection within me. BUT, I'm proud to say that I got over that hurdle. I won't delve into TOO much, but my bf of 3.5 years and I just broke up recently. It was a very painful time for me especially since I wasn't home. However, I think that this really forced me to grow personally. Somehow, after the breakup, I am very comfortable with myself and I have developed a sense of self-confidence that wasn't there before. Even though it still hurts, but personally, I have grown a lot, AND it's only the 4th week! Who knows what else can happen in the next 6 weeks! :D

Oh dear, I have SO much to say! I think this will be a LONG LONG post! Bear with me folks! Or ... uh...skip to pictures? Haha.

SO, I had a FABULOUS weekend as well! It was a really simple weekend, but I just enjoyed it SO much! The weather is SO beautiful now that it has stopped raining. So let me give you guys a recap of this weekend...

Saturday-Profesora Adela and some people from the program (including me!) took a trip to a small pueblo called San Agustin de Etla for this art exhibition. It was so much fun! The place we went to was located on the top of a mountain so the scenery was absolutely breathtaking (in my opinion...)! But, the walk was tiring because it was so sloped. Anyways, the art exhibit was located in this church thing. Now, USUALLY, I'm not a big fan of art galleries, but Oaxacan art galleries are so much more fun and lively. It's not as structured as places like the Getty or something. There are so many different types of art and there are SO many colors, and it's just SO gorgeous! I enjoyed myself with all the Mexican art. Then, since it was the first day of the exhibition, there was FREE FOOD! SO much food in fact! HOWEVER, I did NOT know that there was an UNLIMITED amount! I thought that if the food was gone, it's gone, so I ate SO fast in order to eat as much as I can. So dumb...I ate my ice cream in like 3 minutes and got 2 brainfreezes during the chowing down. The food was so good! Traditional Mexican food. OMG. AND, they were giving out Mezcal in this bamboo cup thing. We all got the Mezcal just for the cup. I took a sip of my mezcal and gagged for the next 5 minutes. BLECH! We only stayed for like 1.5 hours, so it wasn't too long. We got back around 3pm and then I went to this market placed named Mercado de Alabastos with 2 of my program buddies--Lilia and Adriana. It was so much fun! I got to try cactus fruit (aka TUNA)! OMG. SOOO juicy and SWEET! I love it so much!!! And, I spend the rest of my money here, which wasn't that much..but yea. Ended up getting home around 7pm ish..and I was SO exhausted. Later that night, Ivan called me to ask me if I wanted to go see waterfalls. I was so tempted to! I even told Erica, my housemate, if I could borrow money for the ride! But, I decided not to go since I'm super behind on schoolwork, AND because I was super exhausted from that day. Overall, fun day!

Sunday-DEFINITELY glad I didn't go to see waterfalls because I got to sleep in until 10am! ^__^ Just spent the day chilling and studying at Cafe Cuiles, my NEW favorite hotspot<3>

TODAY- start of week 4. We talked about the US healthcare system which is actually something that I am VERY interested in. I'm so glad we spent time talking about the system and the problems because it is something I never really understood! I understand the need for reform and change, but how can I understand the reform laws if I don't even have a basic idea of the healthcare system? Actually, that's one problem WITH the US healthcare system. It's WAY too complex and most people, especially immigrants, do not know how to even ENTER into the system. Here are some points which I thought was super interesting:

• The US views healthcare as a market, not as a human right as in countries such as Mexico or countries that have implemented universal healthcare (which I am for).
• Hospitals serve as sites of primary through tertiary care. It's actually not good for hospitals to be sites of primary care because it is a big waste of money and resources of those who actually need specialty care. A big burden of public hospitals are the uninsured immigrant population who do not know how to access the healthcare system.
• Despite the fact that our healthcare system is CRAPPY, we have an EXCELLENT health research system through the NIH (National Institute of Health) due to the fact that the federal government made a COMMITMENT to research. If only they would do the same for healthcare....

Yep. Just thought that this was very interesting...I just kept sitting there and soaking everything in like a sponge! Definitely LOVE medicine--the anatomical and physiological aspects all the way down to the political...even though I don't agree with the US healthcare system. But whatever. I don't know enough to say anything anyways..

Alritey. That concludes my post for today! As usual...PICTURES!

handmade cloth/clothes. VERY intricate and beautiful!

me with the hanging clothes/cloths

clips of some art (i have more pics on my fbk)..these are all national artists =)

Okay. so uhm, blogger isn't letting me upload for some reason...so I'll try to upload the rest of the pictures later :)

Hope you enjoyed this long post! Haha!