Dedicated to John Darnell III

Whats up Everybody,

So i am now starting my second 6 week session here in Queretaro. I am excited for my new classes and all the time I still get to have here. However, with the end of the first 6 week session, many of my good friends left to go back to "Grindolandia" (they seriously call the USA that here sometimes) In particular, the one I will miss the most is John Darnell III. So i am goin to dedicate this blog to "Mississippi John" in remembrance of our most comrads. He was the only student not from Oregon, but instead from Mississippi. And by Mississippi i mean REAL mississippi. Small town boy, hardcore southern accent, and a student at Ole Miss university. He was prolly one of the smartest guys I´ve ever met and also by far the best story teller. He is a ultra ultra conservative southern baptist. His humor clean (most of the time) and just really funny. He got bit by a scorpion, lost his luggage when coming here, got his sandel stuck in a drain and twisted his ankle and many other hilarious things. I told him that I would have to come down to ol´miss for a football game and he said he would come out and watch the ducks. He was the type that loved to be in the spotlight. Comfortable as I´ll get out in front of a crowd while speaking great spanish. He could get the entire group to laugh until their mouths hurt after doing president bush impersonations. I envy his confidence.

Here is me, ole miss john, and jenna doin the tourist thing in Queretaro

Classy Genuine Guy,

I hope I see him again someday.

Fun in the Sun!

Whats up Yáll,
So I{m now half way thru week 5 out of 12. Lots of the students here are only 6 weeks and will be leavin soon. I am really glad that I am stayin for the whole 12. I feel like I still have so much to learn before leaving. If I was leavin next week like alot of the others, i just don{t think i would feel satisfied.


We all went on this walking tour about the history and legends of Queretaro. It was awesome. He I am with all the ladies..... :)



This last weekend was a free weekend so me and a few friends took a taxi to a place called Oasis which was about an hour ride. And what do u think an hour long taxi ride would cost in the states?? Well ours (split between 4 people) was 300 pesos or a little less than 30 bucks. Super cheap!

Heres another photo of the waterpark. I was funny cuz its just like out in the middle of nowhere. And...ha....i bet u can guess who the gay guy is in this picture!

This is a photo of a soccer (fútbol) game that we went to watch. The mexican on the left is the host brother of Devin (the kid in the white tshirt) and he was playin in the game so we just were there to cheer him on. I have actually gone to 4 of his games...its cool, its just in this mini stadium. Something crazy always happens. At this game, the ref got attcked by an angry player who got a red card. It was hilarious.

However, with all the great and awesome things that have happened here in Mexico, there is also a downside. This pic is of me and Devin. He was prolly my closest friend while we were here. Hes only 18 but he was hilarious and we always had a good time. Unfortunately. he went out one night with some of the "heavier drinkers" and Devin had hardly drank alcohol before queretaro, but so ya, he went out and drank way too much. Nobody was there to slow him down or warn him about how much he was drinkin. If i was there, i know this wouldn{t have happened. But so anywayz....he ended up gettin alcohol poisoning, went to the hospital and was in a coma for like half the day and consquently...he was booted from the program and in now back in the states. It sucks cuz we hung out like all day everyday. He was the type who didn´t care what anyone thought about him. He would listen to his ipod and sing really loud in front of everyone. Ha, super funny. But ya...that was a really long explanation. Soooo.....anywayz....hope all is well with everyone. See you all in September. Love You. Chase

PS: Everyone who reads this needs to write comments (mom...just left click the button that says comment end the end of the blog :) its very easy)

La ciudad de Mexico!

So...these pictures are not going to give justice to our weekend trip to D. F. These arent even my pics, they are ones that people put up on facebook. I have a lot of good pics on my camera that you will have to wait to see when I get back.

This pic is of a place called Teotihuacan that is about 45 minutes outside of mexico city. Its a huge tourist trap but its still really impresive. My butt is still sore from the climb to the top. And oh ya....i bought Alex something really cool from a mexican at the bottom of this pyramid. My bartering skills are definately improving!







Heres the Director of our program for the first 6 weeks. His name is Pedro and everybody loves him. Hes from spain but sounds like he has an english accent since he lived there for eight years. He always wears his safari hat and is always taking amazing picture. (almost as many as the infamous Billographer....the only difference is the amazing part.)

This was super fun. We took these little boats around this island that was surrounded by kind of a river which was supposed to show us how life would have been before Mexico City. By that i mean. when is was just an island where the Aztecs lived.

This is a pic of downtown Mexico City. This open square is called the Zocalo and our hostel was like a 2 minute walk from here. The square is the second largest in the world behind Red Square in Moscow. Mexico City was crazy. It definately had a different feel. Its the only place that I have been where I felt people were out to "get me." But it was still awesome.

Alright well thats all. I will try to get the pics that I take up here for the next blog. Alrighty.....hope all it well. Adios

More in Queretaro!

Whats up Everyone! So heres the next line of photos about life if Mexico. This is a pic of Bernal, that place I mentioned last time. These are all the people who made it to the top. It was alot of fun. I´m the buff one in the back. jk



Heres the city right next to Bernal. We just kind of hung out and ate lunch after the hike. It was an awesome little town.

So....this is what I accidently ordered. I definately still have a lot of work to do on my spanish. Yes., those are little fish with the heads still on them.

Heres another cool place we went to. Thats me, Alicia, and Brandon (my next door neighbor in Queretaro). This is on an island that we had to take a boat to get to. Its in the state of Michoacan which is SW of Queretaro. It was funny. There were these little kids everywhere asking us for money because they supposedly needed it for pencils at school. They would follow you around with their hands in your pockets.

Heres just another pic of everyone from the group.

Sorry this isn´t very long. Theres a milion things i could tell you about and a million little stories I could tell. This weekend we are goin to Mexico City for two nights, stayin in a hostel, its prolly gonna be kind of crazy. Someone from the group might not make it back to Queretaro! JK. My spanish is improving but its still nowhere near good. I use english still way too much. Its hard with the big group but I´m gettin better and better by the day. The weather is nice and sunny during the day but its rained everynight since we´ve here. There have been some crazy thunder and lightning storms. Anywayz..........talk to u all soon. Love you all!

Chase