May 03
I had such a good trip to Mexico, a vacation this
time, that I couldn't even remember the name of the radio station I normally
listen to! It was a much-needed break. You'll see that I've already got my
photos uploaded. I think most of them don't need much explanation beyond what
I've stated in the captions. The catamaran trip was great. I could really just
be boating all day long. I really love it. There were some huts along the way
where people actually live, right along the coast. I saw a lady come out of one
of them and come down the rocks to the shore, but it was too far away. If I had
a telescopic lens on my camera, I would have taken a photo, but it was
otherwise too far away for her to be seen with my camera. In any case, I was so
relaxed, and the guys that operate the boat had an excellent mix of tunes that
made the trip even more perfect.
I also enjoyed the trip to Xcaret. I thought it might be a cheesy theme park, but it was actually pretty cool. I went to the aquarium, which is where a lot of my fish pictures were taken. I learned that jellyfish are not as dangerous as we thought. One of the guys that worked there let me touch one--it's his hand you see in that one photo. You can touch them from the bottom, but you can also touch them on their tentacles with the palm of your hand. Apparently the type of pores matter, so if I touched it with the back of my hand, I could get stung but not with my palm. So I felt the jellyfish, and it felt fairly slimy, but not unlike anything else you might touch that lives in water. It wasn't gross at all. They also had a mushroom farm, which is where my fungus pics came from. I think fungus is cool.
The wedding went quite well, not surprising considering it was mostly Colombians and Newfies. It was a really fun wedding. The only damper on the whole trip was the H1N1 flu problem. We went to Xcaret because it was actually open, but we had originally planned to go see some ruins that day, and as fun as Xcaret was, I would have rather seen ruins, but all of these places got closed due to the flu. The federal government closed down many sites. But really, there wasn't much going on. I mean, there were no cases of the flu in Playa del Carmen or Cancun. Only people in the food industry were wearing masks, but few other people, at least until you got to the airport. I would encourage people to continue going to Mexico except that few airlines will take you there. Well, you can still go with Mexicana and Air Canada, just not on vacation packages. So if you get a chance, travel! It's no less safe than staying here! :o)
I also enjoyed the trip to Xcaret. I thought it might be a cheesy theme park, but it was actually pretty cool. I went to the aquarium, which is where a lot of my fish pictures were taken. I learned that jellyfish are not as dangerous as we thought. One of the guys that worked there let me touch one--it's his hand you see in that one photo. You can touch them from the bottom, but you can also touch them on their tentacles with the palm of your hand. Apparently the type of pores matter, so if I touched it with the back of my hand, I could get stung but not with my palm. So I felt the jellyfish, and it felt fairly slimy, but not unlike anything else you might touch that lives in water. It wasn't gross at all. They also had a mushroom farm, which is where my fungus pics came from. I think fungus is cool.
The wedding went quite well, not surprising considering it was mostly Colombians and Newfies. It was a really fun wedding. The only damper on the whole trip was the H1N1 flu problem. We went to Xcaret because it was actually open, but we had originally planned to go see some ruins that day, and as fun as Xcaret was, I would have rather seen ruins, but all of these places got closed due to the flu. The federal government closed down many sites. But really, there wasn't much going on. I mean, there were no cases of the flu in Playa del Carmen or Cancun. Only people in the food industry were wearing masks, but few other people, at least until you got to the airport. I would encourage people to continue going to Mexico except that few airlines will take you there. Well, you can still go with Mexicana and Air Canada, just not on vacation packages. So if you get a chance, travel! It's no less safe than staying here! :o)
April 10
I
didn't really get a chance to do a whole lot the rest of my trip in Texas. I
had been hoping to go out and see a museum or something like that while in
Houston, but it didn't work out. I imagine I'll be in Houston again sometime,
so hopefully I'll get to go another time. When I returned to Austin, I went out
to see some bats fly out of their daytime resting place. My brother had told me
that there's this bridge where you can go watch tons of bats fly out at sunset.
When I got there, there were panels of info and a sign that said this colony
was the largest urban bat colony in the world at 1.5 million bats. There
is a great little hill you can watch them from, and apparently they would fly
out over top of us (spectators), so I was really excited about that. Well, a
crowd had already begun to gather by the time I got there. While we waited, a
man that appeared to be homeless decided to pose for us. He posed because he
was wearing a beret with horns, a short, black leather jacket, a short
cheerleading skirt, a fanny pack underneath the skirt that he actually wore on
his fanny. We know this because he mooned the crowd so they could snap
pictures. I have to admit I caught a snap of him myself, but not while he was
mooning and not that he saw because I didn't want to encourage him! Anyway, his
outfit also included a purse, white tube socks, and ladies black slippers, kind
of that Chinese style of black shoe but without the strap. It was very strange!
Outside of that, we waited and waited, got colder and colder and eventually realised the bats weren't going to come out! We saw a hundred or maybe two hundred bats at the most; we found out from some of the locals there that it was likely too cold for them to come out, so we wouldn't get to see them. Sadly, I didn't get another chance to see them because the next night, I had the college fair to attend in the evening, so I would miss the sunset. Well, it wasn't really an exciting climax to the trip, but I think I was starting to run out of steam anyway. The good part about Houston and Austin was meeting up with old students. That was really the highlight, especially now that two of them are working and have business cards and everything. It's great to see them doing so well!
Outside of that, we waited and waited, got colder and colder and eventually realised the bats weren't going to come out! We saw a hundred or maybe two hundred bats at the most; we found out from some of the locals there that it was likely too cold for them to come out, so we wouldn't get to see them. Sadly, I didn't get another chance to see them because the next night, I had the college fair to attend in the evening, so I would miss the sunset. Well, it wasn't really an exciting climax to the trip, but I think I was starting to run out of steam anyway. The good part about Houston and Austin was meeting up with old students. That was really the highlight, especially now that two of them are working and have business cards and everything. It's great to see them doing so well!
April 04
I've been so busy since being in Texas that I
haven't had much time for updating my blog--but I am here to work, so that has
to come first! I've been in Texas for a week now, and it's a pretty cool place.
People here are really friendly, and aside from climatic differences, there are
a lot of similarities between Texas and Alberta. There are a lot of country
folk here, they have hockey teams, there are lots of ranches, and people like
country music. Oh, and of course there's the connection with oil. As I've been
driving across the state, there have been beautiful wildflowers in full bloom
in the ditches and fields along the highway. I was able to get a close enough look
at the main one I kept seeing, and I guessed it was a wild lupine of some kind.
Turns out I was right, and it's known here as the Texas
Bluebonnet, and it's their state
flower. It's so beautiful in groves! And splashed in and amongst them here and
there are some kind of baby pink flower that resembles a poppy and a coral
coloured flower that appears to be like the Indian Paintbrushes we have at
home. OK, so I decided to Google more native wildflowers for Texas and found
out it's the pink evening primrose. It's quite lovely! Well, I guess I should stop
with the flower talk, no?I've so far been in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. I have time today to explore Houston and more time in Austin on Monday, so will do a bit of sightseeing then. But it turns out the Alamo is in San Antonio, and I went to see that before driving out to Dallas. I, too, wanted to remember the Alamo. I didn't know a thing about it prior to going there, in all honesty. It was a battle between US, Texan, and Mexican people, and eventually, as we know, Texas gained independence from Mexico and then eventually was acquired by the US. I was surprised to learn that Napoleon and his brother on the throne in Spain actually had an influence during this war, meaning that France played more of a role in the construction of US history than just LaFayette's influence during the American Revolution. I was also surprised to learn that pretty much all the US guys in this battle, including the well-known Davy Crockett, were all Freemasons. I saw a documentary on the role of the Masons in the construction of the US as well, and I think we cannot underestimate their true influence in the country, then and even now.
I had some free time on one afternoon in Dallas and went to the JFK Memorial as well as the 6th Floor Museum, which is in the building where Lee Harvey Oswald actually shot JFK. I didn't realise that Oswald himself was killed by a strip-club owner while being transported to jail. What drama! Of course, that means no one was ever able to find out why Oswald actually killed JFK, and theories abound, of course. The museum is quite well done, and it actually put me into a somewhat thoughtful and even teary mood. Obviously I wasn't around during the assassination, but this exhibit caused me to see what hope JFK provided to the majority of American people for a change in the country, and even the rest of the world seemed to have that same hope in him, too. It appeared that JFK could and would do a lot of good for the country. No wonder people compare Obama to him. I can definitely feel that sense of hope that we all have with Obama, and I just hope that no one assassinates him!
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