Why do I love Mexico?

Because everyone takes naps in the middle of the day, especially after eating. Today, after lunch my mom and sister went to sleep.

This week, we successfully convinced our Political Science teacher to change our 10 page research paper and final exam into one 5-page paper. And, it wasn't even like we were trying to do that. 

We've got a 5-day weekend right now - Mary and I are having a sleepover at LeRon's tonight with pancaques in the morning. Then, tomorrow I'm going to Oaxaca - I'll be back on Saturday in the afternoon, hopefully.

P.s. - this is a terrible entry, because I'm leaving to go pick a movie for our sleepover.

Cuetzalan

For the last week, we have been in Cuetzalan in the northern state of Puebla doing a service learning project in one of the schools in the woods. The school that we have been helping out at is in part of an indigenous village. The kids all wear traditional clothing and speak Nahuatl when talking with each other. They are taught in Spanish and are also learning English, but it's fascinating to see how the culture is still retained within the town. When we first arrived, they danced for us and all were dressed in white: the girls in skirts, huipils, and white shirts with a knit belt in the middle of red and yellow colors. 

Monday:  We painted the school with the kids helping as well...and the humidity and heat was so intense here. Also, the "mosques", which are like little biting gnats, are fierce. I had 80 bites on my legs after wearing shorts that first day. Needless to say, I wore pants each day following to avoid those nasty little bugs. Later on in the day, Natasha and I taught english to the second grade. We played some jeopardy with them and soccer a little later.

But, the soccer game was at this cement platform with a cover on top....the kids later explained to Natasha and I that a man had died there the Saturday before...probably from too much alcohol. 

So, Monday at the school was from 930-5pm. We were exhausted by the end of the day and passed out in our beds later on.

Tuesday: The day was much shorter. We arrived and were supposed to finish up the painting that we still had left, but there weren't enough brushes. Natasha and I decided to teach english instead. We translated sentences with them. It is especially difficult for them to understand that Me gusta isn't me like, but instead I like or he likes. To break up the serious teaching we played heads, shoulders, knees and toes and then danced the Hokie Pokie. Natasha's crazy - we taught them butt in english and she definitely shook it in the middle of the circle. 

Those kids are adorable. We taught them all frisbee, which they were really great at (though I scored a goal).

Wednesday and Thursday to sum up: everyone planted and gardened in the nursery. We visited a holistic hospital, went to a tempaskal, were cleansed from negative energy, and visited a arteseans organization where women weave clothing, blankets, and other clothes. 

Anyways, the kids were amazing for these past four days. These kids have so little in their lives. No one had watches and cell phones were unthinkable. The respect was outstanding and two of the girls even gave me bracelets that they had made. One other gave Natasha and I fruit today - a mamay. Many of the parents came in to make us lunch today - and of course it was chicken and mole (most everyone doesn't like mole, but they ate it because it was such a gift to have dinner made for us) and rice.  Then, they gave us gifts of a piece of the roof with a picture of the town pasted on it. The kids all danced some of the traditional dances and one even recited this poem, which was about the patriotism of being a Mexican. 

They days were outstanding, though hot and humid, I'm really glad that we were able to come here.

Today a few of us hiked over to this waterfall and swam underneath and in the water. The land is so lush and beautiful - it's hard to describe, and I'm so tireeed. 

Tomorrow, we'll be going to Veracruz to the beaches (and a museum, like always - but no church) until Sunday. Mexico is such a vacation. After this week of having no classes, we have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for classes and then a 5-day weekend. Some of us are going to Puerto Escondido, one of the beaches in Mexico. It should be really great- and then back to Puebla for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. It's really awesome because Puebla is where the battle of Cinco de Mayo occured.

Okay, so to close, this post reflects how tired I am - sorry for not being more specific, but I wanted to write something before I forgot so much of it.

Unfortunately, I haven't been updating this blog too much after Spring Break. I'll try to work on that though.

I've realized that I've become a picky eater in Mexico, and I'm not sure when that happened. My parents are always giving me food that I try, and I don't like it all too much. Today, I felt terrible when I came home and my mom asked me how I liked the fried bananas for lunch, but they were incredibly greasy and I had a nibble of one before deciding to close the lid on my tupperware. Needless to say, I paused to consider what to say to her, and because I didn't want them ever again, I was like mas or menos...so more or less. She was like, Otoño, you don't like a lot of food do you? Which led me to feeling really bad.

So what I don't like: fruit flavored water with lots of sugar, triple milk cake, mangoes, fried bananas, hot sauce, iceberg lettuce, and I'm sure there's more than this list.  I've remembered: Nopal...groossss

Also, I've realized how open and inviting a family must be to host students from foreign countries. My sister and I were looking at pictures of past students yesterday, and she points out this shaggy-haired bearded guy from Canada. Apparently, Nate left the gate door open, and one of their dogs ran outside to be lost forever. So, Nate, feeling terrible, finds Blackie (remember the dog that died!) and brings him home as a present to the family (aka replacement dog). Despite all of this, my family has continued to invite host students into their home.

Very interesting.

These past few weeks in Mexico have been flying by. We went to Mexico City the weekend before last to tour the city. Last weekend was chill in Cholula. I went to another wedding with LeRon and his family. Andd then this upcoming weekend on Sunday will be the Cuetzalan/Veracruz trip for a full week.

It's been busy I'd say.

Oh, and classes started: I'm taking Span 355: a spanish literature course, Posc 441: a Latin American Politics course, and Anth: a joke. Seriously, in Anth, we listen to our teacher discuss american history (it's a latin american anthropology course), talk about the Vietnam war, and then after an hour of listening to him, we present a Mexican holiday to the class of threee.

Last week, he was running out of words so he asked: Now (scratching his chin) what do you think that the value of an ideal is?

Love Mexico

I wrote this part while in Guatemala, but never had the time to finish it up:

My time in Guatemala has been well spent. I bussed it to Guatemala in just over 20 hours, walked across the border, and was given a ride by a group of Guatemalan fire fighters who were headed to a fire. Its been amazing despite my lack of skills with a Guatemalan keyboard. I cant seem to find the apostrophe!

The border was just as shady as Mary and I had expected. Men would come up to us from the shadows to rip us off on the money conversion, guide us through the passport process (only to receive a tip at the end), or to offer us a ride with them. We came to the border not really knowing how to get to Xela (the city is also called Quetzaltenango that we were going to), but we figured that everything would work out. Needless to say, we had two men trying to bribe us with our own money to go with them. We chose to go in the coach bus, rather than in a taxi with just the two of us. But, they ended up dropping us off on the side of the road where there were army men with their machine guns and mayan women trying to sell their fruit. Strangely enough, there was also a tourist stand and this man told us to wait for a chicken bus, which zoomed by with a man yelling Xela. We hopped on- I wish the Guatemalans made mix tapes of their music on the buses and were a little safer with their driving. They dropped us off on this dark alley in Xela, but Mary and I found some fire fighters who offered to drive us right to the hostel we were supposed to be staying at. And, they were on their way to a fire!

Mary and I spent our first three nights in a hostel in the city of Quetzaltenango and met a Brazilian and Guatemalan who were hiking up Santa Maria, a dormant volcano, the following day. They asked if we were interested in coming along, and of course we said why not? I have some beautiful pictures of it and us with our Guatemalan guide Daniel. That night we met up with Quetzaltrekkers to discuss our 6-day trek the following day.

The trek was everything I love about camping and backpacking. We were a group of 12: two from Austrailia, two from Israel, one from Germany, three guides and I'm losing track of the others. We started in Nebaj, a small town in Guatemala, spent the night in a hostel, and ate an amazing meal with homemade mango pie and vegan ice cream. Unfortunately, that night it rained terribly and the day was full of uphill hiking with caked mud on our feet. Mary would tell me that just ahead there were rocks...but there would only be a foot of them. My boots were probably 10-20 pounds heavier due to the mud. That night we stayed in a village of 25 families in their community center/school. They provided these amazingly warm blankets, three hammocks, dinner, and a place to shower. The shower is called a tempascal- they have this small little hut with a fireplace in the corner. It's almost as if you're in a sauna. They provide you with endless buckets of hot and cold water.

Anyways, day three then was full of hiking. My knee had been hurting all of this time after Santa Maria...but I had the mentality that if I kept hiking on it, it would feel better. I wish life worked that way. We stopped at a Swiss family's home to buy some of their cheese for our lunch and hiked on. The views were gorgeous this day...we ate lunch in front of this tiny village and played with some of the Mayan children in the village.

But, Guatemala was absolutely stunning the whole time. The fog would roll out of one of the valleys that we were hiking and reveal a view of the mountains. That night we stayed on the side of a mountain in front of an unused school on a concrete floor. The stars and moon were so bright that we would wake up thinking it was morning. We awoke at 6am and after 15 minutes of painful hiking for my knee, one of the guides, Charlie, asked how I was doing. We decided to go off trail in order to head back to Xela because it would be mostly downhill hiking that day. We didn't realize that it was Semana Santa..the day before easter, which is one of the most important holidays for the Mayans.

So, we were hiking in the mountains of Guatemala, asking every home with a car (which was about 6 homes with cars after 3 hours of hiking) if they would drive us to some sort of civilization. No one was home...this one guy did sell us some plums and another mayan man rubbed some cream on my knee. Our first car to drive by us drove us down to a huge soccer game, filled with the indigenous people. The people in the villages don't typically see white people and therefore stared at us and were so interested in everything we were doing. Many of the men were also drunk and would come to talk to us in Spanish/their dialect of Mayan. We moved to some shade underneath this truck, and when Charlie went to go to the bathrooom, a small girl began talking with me, which caused 15 more children to encircle me and listen in to our conversation. They were so intrigued by our differences.

Finally, a family was leaving and we hopped into the back of their pickup truck with about 10 other Mayans. It probably took an hour to go down the mountain, in which we were in Huehuetenango...a town a little more populated. From there, we paid this van to take us to Xela, though they dropped us off 30 minutes outside. One of the woman with us was so pissed off at them for lying to us....So then, Charlie and I hitchhiked our way back to Xela.

All in all it was such a fascinating day, especially to talk with and see the culture of the Mayans. Many of the men would explain to us that they had worked in the US for a few years and want to go back for the money. They had worked in New York, Colorado, Virginia, and Alabama to name a few.

I hung out at the hostel for the next two nights, waiting for Mary to finish the hike; went to Fuentes Georginas, a natural hot spring about an hour away from Xela. The driver told me that he had walked in the desert for three days and nights without food in order to work in the states. However, he was caught by immigration, sent to jail for a month, and flown back to Guatemala. I asked if he planned on going back, but apparently not as the government has his fingerprints.

I've been thinking a lot about the poverty in Guatemala and life certainly is hard there. The people work on the steep slopes of the mountains, farming fruits and vegetables, which are sent around the world. They see so little money. Mary and I were reading in the central park and had to leave because literally every five minutes we would be asked for money. But, many of the families are happy with their lives and content with what little that they have. Those that flee to the US to make more money end up dissatisfied with their Guatemalan lives. Before Guatemala I figured that if you were poor, yet able to provide for your family and happy with what you have, then does that mean poverty? But, now all these Guatemalans go to the US and become as materialistic as Americans are. Also, when I asked Charlie what he thought of the poverty in Guatemala and he began explaining how the women in the states are so unhappy that they find themselves throwing up and starving to meet this impossible image. Then, there are the Guatemalans who are malnourished, impoverished and simply trying to survive. So, which is better: a psychological problem or a problem with having enough food.

I'm still sorting it out..and that may not have made any sense.

But all in all, the trip to Guatemala was inspiring: I was able to gain some insight into the Guatemalan troubles, see the beautiful countryside, and who knows what else.

I've been in Mexico for a month as of this week, and I don't have any complaints. There's always the usual fussing that goes on, but I'm trying to avoid all of that.

This past week was eventful: I lost my phone on Thursday night because there were 8 of us jammed into a taxi, and it fell out of my pocket. I only realized that it was gone once we got to Unit. But, LeRon gave me his extra phone! Saturday night I got extra sick and therefore wasn't feeling all that well on Sunday. So on Monday, I refrained from celebrating my 21st like we do back home. We had a tasty lunch at Norma's house, complete with cake annnnnd singing! On Monday night, another Japanese exchange student came over for the night, and he sang happy birthday for me. We ate inflamed rice, as he called it and tried pawning off all the green ones on my cousins. They fell for it the first time, but 7 and 10 year olds are smart enough to say no the second. 

The week was full of exams, presentations, and papers. I had 2 presentations, an exam, and a paper to turn in, all by Thursday. And finally, it's Spring Break. We got our grades in one of our classes (the one that we use wikipedia for), and I got a hundred....in a college class. It's strange, and though I'm hoping it will happen again, I'm almost sure it won't.

I've been planning for the trip to Guatemala all day, cleaning my room, washing clothes, and enjoying the first day of Spring Break.

It's glorious.

And I'm stoked about Guatemala; I just have to get over the border!

El fin de semana a Oaxaca

We went to the city of Oaxaca this weekend, and I came back to my family telling me that our dog Blackie had died. I felt really terrible, until this morning. My mom was like: Come meet the new dog - he looks like Blackie. They then told me that they got him off of the street (FYI- stray dogs roam the streets all the time). He's fat, like the other dogs, so therefore he'll be on a rice and rice diet in order to be thinner.

But, Oaxaca- It was really amazing. I'll put some of the photos up here, but they don't capture any of it, I'm sure. On Friday, we went to a chocolate store to see how the Mexicans make all natural chocolate. Saturday, we visited some of the homes of the Oaxacans. One family had a business of making rugs, another carved wooden animals and painted them with the tip of a maguey, and then the final home was of a family that made pottery from the dark clay of the area. Sunday consisted of a visit to Monte Alban, which was absolutely incredible- it was the temples of the Aztecs.

Wooden carvings:

Pottery:

Monte Alban:

Anyways, I should probably write more on how it was amazing, but I'm too tired for that (flojear). We only have about a week and a half more of classes left for this session. Tomorrow is my final for one of my classes, and today, we had our last Salsa class.

Spring break is coming faster than we even realize (a week from Thursday!), and I'm just waiting for my passport back so that I can go.

Apathetic when the time is right

I have learned from my FLLT 326 class that I am incredibly apathetic during an organized game. Our professor in this class (mind you, classes are an hour and forty minutes here) divides us up into teams, and we compete to see who remembers the most minute details about a spanish author. 

My pros/cons list on this topic:

Pro: I have actually retained information.

Con: The information is printed from Wikipedia.

Pro: It's a huge break from an hour and forty minute lecture.

Con: Our prize is a piece of candy...or a cheer, sung by the losing team.

For instance, today we went outside and were divided into two teams of three and four. We then had about 30 slips of information on Carlos Fuentes (printed from Wikipedia!!). Our professor would ask us a question, we searched for the right slip of paper, ran to a tree, touched it, ran back, and gave her the correct answer.

Somehow, I'm not too disturbed by this, but I really should be. It's pretty ridiculous to think that that is a college class.

Anyways, I'm still loving Mexico. The weather hasn't changed too much, though it did rain for the first time this week-it was only a light sprinkle for about an hour.  

My Mexican culture note: it seems as though they are very fond of triple milk cakes - we celebrated LeRon's birthday this week and on the day before at midnight, Rachel presented the first triple leche cake. Then, the following day, at his house - his family brought out the same cake. It's this very moist layered cake, which I am not a fan of.

Spring break is only two weeks away today (so excited)! I'm planning on going to Guatemala to hike in the countryside, see some volcanoes, and sleep in a tent! And, it seems like Mary will be coming along - the fourteen hour bus ride to the border will be so much better. 

Speaking of trips, we're going to Oaxaca this weekend, and speaking of Oaxaca, I need to go pack.

Viernes es el fin de la semana!

I can't figure out how to use UDLA's library system, so I just end up walking aimlessly around the library looking for books. I tried using the database search, and after finding a book, was told that it didn't exist in the library. I'm not saying that I've given up, but I have now reverted to using UD's online articles. I'll figure this out one of these days. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying UD's online article database.

So, I started this post probably an hour ago, but after answering the doorbell, became incredibly distracted by my laundry and a conversation about life and such with my Mexican father. Me gusta mi padre mucho. P.s. he's a huge Obama fan, and utterly unimpressed by the fence that the U.S. wants to build to separate Mexico from the United States. I'm pretty sure that a fence is a very poor solution to this problem as well. I do have a controversial analogy about the subject....but,

But anyways, today was no-class Friday (as every Friday is), so we went on a day-trip in an unnecessarily huge tour bus to two churches. We went to Tontantzintla: though it looks like an ordinary Mexican church on the outside, inside is extremely ornate and barroque. For the other church, we only went inside the tunnels underneath and walked around.

Well, enjoy the photos!

Leron and Christina going down the steps on their butts....cutest thing.




























P.s. I swear I'll get better with my picture placement - in the meantime, know that I'm trying.

Soy Otono!

     The honeymoon phase of Mexico continues, and I am enjoying each day more and more. It definitely has much to do with the 80 degree days and having class while lying in the grass under palm trees. And, tonight, I came home and watched the lunar eclipse with my family. My mom and I sat in the car and watched as the moon slowly faded away. I find it incredible that a family can take someone in and make them feel as I do. I was certainly worried before the trip about all of this, but it's more than I could have expected.

     After classes today, LeRon, Andrew, and I went to the market in order to photograph the food for a class project. It's more tame than the market in Peru; however, I had a much stronger reaction to this one. It may have been because as I was perusing the beans, all of a sudden I was staring right at 5 chicken heads. And at the next table over, the heads were attached to the bodies but they were hanging limply over the counter. But, I haven't been faring well with seeing larva and other insects during class...so it may have something to do with me being uneasy with the whole animal kingdom today. After being complete tourists and taking enough pictures for the project, we began our hunt for a restaurant (mostly so that the boys could have quesadillas and margaritas).

     In other news, I'm becoming a salsa aficionado - so far we've only had two classes, but I've thoroughly learned a few steps. Tomorrow's class will surely place me at the salsa expert phase, or so I've told LeRon's family.

     So, some Mexican culture/living differences that I've noticed include the constant fireworks at night - my dad told me that it's because everyone's having a fiesta all of the time. Also, none of the Mexicans sit out in the grass, like us gringos do. They walk by, stare, and we just simply bask in the sun, enjoying the beautiful days. There's also an array of feathered birds (peacocks, ducks, geese, etc) that roam around campus - LeRon and I saw one male peacock doing a dance for three females. Despite his attempts, he wasn't able to woo any of them. Needless to say, we were a little disappointed.

     And finally, my lesson of the day: Though I'm improving on my Spanish, I still slip up, and there may have been a few more mistakes today than usual. But, I've learned that as long as you can laugh at yourself and as long as I'm trying to become a better Spanish speaker, then it doesn't matter.

Speaking in spanish all day can be cumbersome, especially when you can't communicate exactly what you want to say. 

Though this is true, I'm really enjoying Mexico. It's strange- before going to Peru, I imagined this rich, wealthy land, yet it was the opposite of everything I expected- the poverty rate was well over 50% and all the people that I spoke with explained how difficult their lives were. But here in Mexico, I asked my host mom in our walk to school about poverty our town. She told me that poverty isn't too much of a problem in Puebla; however, in other areas of Mexico, it definitely is (of course we know that). The affluence is evident in most of the home: they have large gates in front and inside of mine, like most, is this magnificent garden. So, my family: I have three sisters, all in their late 20s, and their 9 and 11 year old cousins come over all the time. The two families are really close, especially because last year the girl's mom died. So, they usually come for breakfast. But, they help make a large house seem more cozy, and according to my father, Angelica and I are only allowed to speak in Spanglish- her English and me Spanish.

My host father is great. We do have a little bit of a language barrier, he's still able to make me laugh. He watched me the whole time that I drank my warm milk tonight, in anticipation that I wouldn't like it. Then, when I explained that I enjoyed it, he thought that I was too nervous to dislike something. The whole family really likes to stare me down when I'm eating a new food - like the fruit tonight. I've got to say, it's a little uncomfortable, and thankfully all of their new fruit/warm milk are delicious.

After our orientation today, I was picked up by my parents. We were talking, and of course I missed a piece of the conversation. I was explaining that driving home is much slower than walking, and they began to laugh because we were going into the city to go to the "super" aka super walmart (inside, they let me choose my own cereal - you're jealous, I know).

In other news, we rode in a double decker bus to tour the city, ate a five course meal, of which I could only eat 2 courses, and were introduced to the campus of the university that we'll be studying.