Wendy In Mexico: Conferencia Distrital en Queretaro

After Sayulita, I didn't have long to readjust, as a short three days later I was off again on a Rotary trip!

The first week of May, my district had a conference in Queretaro, which is a lovely colonial town in the centre of Mexico. All the exchange students travelled there on a bus, which started in Culiacan and drove all the way down to pick up the students in Guadalajara before continuing on to Queretaro. From Tepic, Queretaro is about a ten-hour drive, so we certainly had some time to socialize and reacquaint ourselves. Also, to catch up on some Zzz. I had had a Rotary meeting the night before which went until 1, then I returned home and packed my bag until 2, and woke up at 4 to catch the bus at 5. I wasn't the only one, some people hadn't even gone to bed at all the night before! Although some of us hadn't seen each other since the orientation in September (our last full-district reunion), we pretty quickly got comfortable with each other once more. It was pretty great to see how everyone was now talking fluently in Spanish, and cool to hear about everyone's year up to this point. Even in the same district, heck, the same city, each exchange student's year varies so greatly. Some people had been fortunate to travel quite a lot- a few had been to the States multiple times, others had gone to Cancun, Baja California and some had already been to Mexico City (like yours truly). There's always a varying focus of the year depending on the kid, as well. Some people are raging party animals, some have great family relationships, and the majority of us fall somewhere in between. While there were definitely formed cliques of exchange students to start, almost everyone interacted with everyone, and by the end you couldn't even tell who was from what city. In the orientation it was hard to talk with everyone especially if they didn't speak English or Spanish very well, but this trip I got to know basically everyone at least superficially, and really connect with a few of them!

The first night after a nasty, tiring bus ride we had time to check into our hotel rooms and shower before heading over to the adjacent hotel for the dinner meeting. (We had the baby hotel all to ourselves, while the Rotarians were staying in the larger hotel next door, where the conferences were also hosted.) Each of the five cities presented a type of traditional danc or song from their region to the Rotarians. Tepic did the same cumbia and traditional Machete Dance routine that we did in December for the Spanish class graduation. Especially considering how out of practice we were (and sleep deprived) I'd say we did pretty well!

Cumbia!

Group photo (check out Mazatlan's awesome dresses!)

The other days we had a multitude of activities. The first we briefly visited one of the Rotary conferences before carrying on to a water park where we hung out the rest of the day.

The next, we visited a beautiful pueblo magic called la Peña de Bernal. After exploring and buying a few souvenirs, we piled back onto the bus and drove to a winery. By this time all the exchange students were beginning to feel a bit grumpy from hunger, but we went through a tour of the wine cellars before finally settling into an adorable restaurant where lunch would be served. As there were about 400 Rotarians, the food took a while but in the meantime my table polished off four plates of classy bread and cheese like savages. We were also allowed to try out the wines provided, a lovely white and then red (no idea the names, I'm no wine connoisseur). Despite being ravenous, my table had a good laugh and some excellent conversations, and then the food finally arrived and all talking stopped for a while. After this, we drove on to yet another pueblo magico called Tequisquipan. It was also quite beautiful, and in the centre there was a quaint market with locals selling their cheese, bread, wine and various handmade crafts. Unfortunately it began pouring almost immediately after we got there, and so most of the time was spent huddled together for warmth. There was a ceremony celebrating Rotary where a tree was put in the ground to commemorate the conference, then it was time for cena! (Literally less than four hours after an enormous lunch.) There was quite the array of food, with tortas, posole, tostadas, and enchiladas de pollo. After everyone was done eating, we were happy to head back to the hotel.

La Pena de Bernal

With my brazilian loves

Doing a little shopping for sexy sunglasses

Half the crew showing off the fancy giant wine bottle made of wine bottles

Touring through the distillery part

Descending into the cellars

Quite the steep set of stairs...

Salud!

Thomas the Frenchie

Mariana enjoying her lovely torta

Yet another beautiful pueblo magic

The Italians may have set up hammocks in the bus...

The next day we were attending sessions with the Rotarians all morning. At the beginning, we all stood up front and introduced ourselves (the usual: Hola me llamo _____ soy de ______ y tengo ___ ans). Then Thomas, an exchange student from France gave a speech on exchange which was absolutely beautiful. I definitely got a lump in my throat and I wasn't the only one! This Rotarian in the front row was absolutely bawling her eyes out, as we noted. Following this, we had a very strange team building session where tribal drums were handed out to everyone in the crowd, and then the leading drum artists (do they have a special name?) had us do various rhythms, chant things about Rotary, even shout at certain points! It was kind of cool but mostly very, very strange. A bit like a cult the way everyone was chanting Viva Rotario! Juntos lo hacemos! (Live Rotary, together we can do it!) to the beat of tribal drums.

Thankfully, in the afternoon we had free time and so the majority of us spent it lounging on the lawn of the hotel, sleeping or talking. Super relaxing, and we got to recharge a bit from the late nights. Then, in the evening we had the super fancy Governor's Ball. Everyone got all spiffed up, and all looked quite dashing. While we had to wait a while for the food as the governor was quite late arriving to his own ball (we ended up eating at 12 instead of 9), we had a great time in spite of it!

That concluded the conference, and the next day after breakfast back on the bus we went, to return home. It was a rowdy bus, and when we reached Tepic everyone was feeling quite glum to leave each other's company. However, it was a comforting thought that in two weeks we'd be together again for the Ruta Maya! I love my fellow exchangers dearly, and absolutely cannot wait to see them! It was a fantastic time in Queretaro, and I can only imagine what the Ruta Maya is going to be like.