church and school

As I told my mom yesterday, this summer's program seems less "bloggable" than Perú, in the sense that I am not climbing into funeral towers all the time. This year is more an adventure of the mind. As I wrote before, I have three classes as opposed to last year's two - but what I love about this year is that the content is all Mexico. So we can talk about the Virgin of Guadalupe and then walk down the street to a church with murals that serve as texts for our discussion. This photo shows a church with high adornment - the style is churrigueresco, which is basically baroque adornment to the maximum. Typically I don't go for lots of fancy bells and whistles, but this one sort of blew my socks off.

I took a big exam this morning, the "G" exam - all grad students in this program have to take it - it's is composed of 8 sections, including verb conjugation, grammar theory, vocabulary, reading comprehension, essay writing... I'm just glad it's over! We should get our results next week.

In the meantime, I'll be working this weekend on my essay about the Mexican revolution, the movie Macario, and a few stories we've read in my class. The subject matter is pretty interesting to me (the theme of "El Campo y la Revolución" which focuses on the rural), though now we have moved onto "La Ciudad" (the city). And I wish wish wish I could share with you all a story we read for Friday: "El Viento Distante" by José Emilio Pacheco. But... as far as I can tell, there's no English translation of this one-page story about a man and his turtle/daughter who work for the circus.

Tonight, a few of us might go see a rock show - Criss's son Manolo sings in a cover band at a place near my school. Whether I go depends on how accomplished I feel with schoolwork. I know, that sounds sort of lame and nerdy - but tomorrow Criss has invited her sister and family over for lunch. That should take a number of hours. But be assured... I'll report back on the food!