November

Since I'm so far behind, I'll try to sum up all of November in one post. Contrary to the comments I've heard from many of you, I do actually go to class! I usually just write about the interesting stuff, which isn't usually classes. But November was a busy month for classes, because my two sociology classes ended in November, so there was a lot of work to finish up for them. Also, I had a big trip planned to Chiapas for December, so I was trying to finish up my work for my other two classes as well.

But of course, there was still time for many other exciting activities! Mid-November, our program had an Alice in Wonderland Un-Birthday Party. We all had so much fun dressing up on Halloween, so we asked Patricia if we could have another program sponsored costume party. This costume party was a little trickier though, since there was a limited number of costume ideas, but everyone looked fabulous! We had fun a lot of fun dancing, watching the movie and eating the un-birthday cake. Below are some pictures:

Me (the queen of hearts), Rouwenna (cheshire cat), Sarah (the rabbit), Cassie (mad hatter) and Naihomy (wearing a home made crown and belt of cards!)


Jenna and I had a lot of fun turning Patricia's stairway into a "rabbit hole" that everyone had to pass through to get to the party.

During the party, Max got it in his head that he want to go to Mexico City the next day for the "inauguration" of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. If you haven't been following the Mexican political scene for the past few months, back in July, the results of the presidential elections were very close, and Calderon, the candidate for the conservative PAN party, was declared the winner. However, Lopez-Obrador, the leftist PRD candidate, and many of his followers believe there was fraud and that Obrador is the rightful winner. There were protests all summer, but Calderon was still declared the winner. Obrador maintains that he is the rightful president, and to demonstrate this, he decided to hold his own inauguration ceremony on Monday November, 20, the Day of the Revolution, which celebrates the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

So at the Alice in Wonderland party, which was Sunday night, Max comes up to me and tells me he wants to go to the inauguration the next day in Mexico city, and he doesn't want to go alone, and would I go with him? My first thought was yes, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I want to go. But my next thought was no, I have way too much homework. I was looking forward to a Monday off from school to catch up on a lot of work I was behind on, and going away for the day seemed like a bad idea. But the once in a lifetime opportunity line of thought won out and I agreed to go to Mexico City the next day with Max.

We caught a 7am bus to be in the city by 9am, since we didn't know when Obrador was going to speak. By 9:30 we were standing in the zocalo, the central square in the city. I was pretty amazed at how easy the whole process was- I always assumed it would be really difficult and confusing to go to Mexico city on my own, but Max and I just showed up at the bus station that morning, got tickets five minutes before our bus left, and then took a cheap taxi from the bus station to the zocalo- it was stunningly simple to get from our houses in Puebla to the center of Mexico city.

Our first stop in the Zocalo was McDonalds for coffee and warmth. There was a cold streak that week, and max and I had not dressed appropriately to be outside in it all day. After breakfast, we saw that the parade we had heard about was passing through the zocalo so we went out to watch. It was pretty similar to any American parade- marching bands, dignitaries in old fashion cars, masses of kids in karate suits- and it made us both a little nostalgic for home. But there were of course Mexican twists, my favorite being the trucks of the luchador union, complete with wrestlers in masks and costumes. I also got really excited because there were two different rowing clubs that passed by, so now I know that they do row in Mexico! I was so happy to see boats, Max took my picture.


After some parade watching, we got cold again, so we headed back into McDonalds to warm up and get a snack. When we ventured back outside, we asked a woman when Obrador was supposed to speak, and she told us 4pm, and we later saw a sign that said the inauguration was to begin at 3pm, so we had a lot of time to kill before then. We decided to walk down to the "monument of the revolution". We did this for two reasons: one, because it was the "day of the revolution" so we figured there would be some activity at the "monument of the revolution," and two, because when we were in Mexico City for our orientation our hotel was next to the monument, so we were familiar with that part of the city. It was a nice walk and we managed to kill most of the early afternoon that way. At the monument, we had a great "only in Mexico" moment. There was some kind of military academy putting on a display, which included lots of pyramid forming and back flips over students holding machetes. Also, on the walk back, we got stopped by a group of Mexican high school students with a video camera who had to do interviews for their English class. It took a lot longer than we thought it would, but it was pretty entertaining!

By the time we finished our interviews, people were streaming down every side street that led to the zocalo. However, when we got to the zocalo we were still able to get a spot relatively close to the stage. If Max had his way, we would have pushed our way all the way to the front, but I have developed a fear of "multitudes" since the independence day celebration in Veracruz, so I was weary of getting ourselves too enveloped in the crowd. I was also a little nervous because this was a pretty big political demonstration. Everything was supposed to be really peaceful, but I couldn't help but entertain thoughts like, "If something violent happens, how easy will it be to escape this crowd?" There were helicopters circling above, which didn't help my nerves, but the whole thing turned out to be really peaceful. I was pleasantly surprised by the mood of the gathering. As far as I could see in all directions, the zocalo was filled with people, yet no one was pushing and shoving. Instead of anger that their candidate hadn't been declared the official winner, there was a spirit of hope and warm hearted support for Obrador. Such a pleasant atmosphere was even more surprising considering the conditions: it was absolutely freezing out (though considerably warmer in the middle of the crowd) and everyone was standing shoulder to shoulder for about two hours before Obrador came out to speak. Max and I got to the zocalo at 2:45 and Obrador didn't speak until 5pm. We were only entertained by the sights and sounds of the crowd for so long, so we tried to amuse ourselves by playing 20 questions, but we were both so awful it at that we only played for 20 minutes or so.

But all the waiting was well worth it. Before I even arrived in Mexico, I was following the elections in the newspaper, and it all became real when we arrived in Mexico city for orientation and saw the city covered in protest camps. In Puebla, the Obrador protests have dominated the news, class discussions, and our family dinner tables, so to hear the man behind all of this speak live and in person, amongst hundreds of thousands of his supporters, was a pretty incredible experience. The ceremony was conducted just as if it were an actual presidential inauguration- we sang the national anthem, Obrador presented his cabinet, and then he outlined his plan for the presidency, which focused mainly on alleviating poverty and eliminating fraud. Since he isn't actually president, what he and his cabinet are really going to do is act as a watchdog group for the Calderon administration.
In the center of the photo is the Mexican flag, and to the right is a PRD (Obrador's party) flag, and in the bottom half of the picture is the zocalo filled with people.




This is the view of the stage from where we were standing.

I made Max take a picture of me to show that I was actually there.

This is about the best shot I got of Obrador- it's a little fuzzy because of the zoom, but he's the guy at the pedestal directly under the big yellow flag.

The only point when things got a little hairy was as we were trying to leave the zocalo. Since everyone was leaving at the same time, I had some flashbacks to the crowd in Veracruz. There we so many people trying to leave the zocalo at the same time, Max and I had to pretty much surrender our free will and just be moved by the mob. By the time we shouldered out way to the edge of the zocalo, we realized that all the streets leading away were just as jam packed, so we decided to take a break and get some dinner. It was an excellent decision, because after dinner we felt well-fed, well-rested, and ready to take on the last leg of our journey.

In Mexico City, it is strongly advised that you don't hail a cab off the street because they are notorious for kidnappings and robberies. What you have to do is call a company you know is legit to ask for a cab, or go to a restaurant or hotel and they can arrange for a secure taxi for you. Max and I decided to walk to the hotel we stayed at for orientation to ask them to call a cab for us, but we hit another hotel along the way, and were at the bus station in no time, and back in Puebla by 10pm. I felt very proud of us for executing a trip to Mexico City and back for a massive political gathering without a hitch!

The Monday in Mexico City was the start of a big week. On Tuesday morning, I frantically wrote a paper (the one I was planning on writing on Monday before I decided to blow it off for Obrador!) for my 1pm class. That afternoon, I went over to Patricia's to help make pies for thanksgiving, but really all I did was cut apples and chat! Then Thursday was thanksgiving so we all went over to Patricia's for dinner. It of course wasn't anything like home, but I have come to think of my friends in the program as my family in Mexico, so it was really nice to sit down to dinner with them. And the pies were absolutely delicious!

On Friday, we decided we should all go out together, so we went out for dinner and dancing. We went to a salsa club and had a great time. I went with Israel, who, like me, really doesn't know how to salsa, but we had a lot of fun watching that fabulous salsa dancers and just goofing around on the dance floor.

Don't remember what I did Saturday, but whatever it was, it was low key, because on Sunday Rouwenna and I ran a 12k! The whole event was a giant road race and you could choose to run a 6k, 12k, half marathon or a marathon. Our track coaches told us about it, and since I hadn't yet done any kind of running competition, I thought I would give it a try and Rouwenna agreed to do it with me. We knew we could run 6k, because we'd done about that much in practice, but we weren't sure about 12k, which is 7.46 miles. We decided we'd at least run 6k, and if we felt good after that, we'd run to our neighborhood (which was along the course and about 9k from the start) and if we still felt good, we'd go for the 12k. We ended up feeling good enough to keep going at each of our checkpoints, so we finished the whole 12k, and we did it in under an hour. We were inedibly proud of ourselves for finishing so fast- it was way better than we ever thought we could. Our bubble was sightly burst the next day at track practice when a lot of the guys were saying it was closer to a 10k, but even if it was, we still made good time, and we finished. Also, it was a lot of fun to take part in a community activity- it wasn't something facilitated by the program, it was just us completely integrated with the larger athletic community of Puebla. I'm horrible at judging numbers, but I'd say there were thousands of people of all ages and abilities participating. It was also fun to see the city from a different perspective. A lot of the route was one I take almost everyday on the bus, so it was neat to see that I could walk it (or run it!) if I wanted to. Rouwenna and I joked that we should start running around the city because it would go faster than taking the bus!

So that was November. Actually, on the last day of November, I left for a trip to Chiapas, but more on that in the next post...

Morelia (October 31- November 3)

First of all, I would like to apologize to those of you who check my blog regularly for not writing in over a month! But now the semester is over so I have lots of time to catch you all up on what I've been up to. I'll start with our excursion right after the last update- our trip to morelia for the day of the dead.

Originally, we were supposed to go to Oaxaca for the day of the dead, but there has been a lot of social unrest and some violence in the city. Back in may, there was a teacher's strike and the government responded with force instead of negotiation, and so then the strike escalated into something bigger, and the strikers called for the resignation of the Governor. The strike was still going on in October, and there was talk that the Federal government was going intervene forcefully (which they did) so we decided to cancel the trip to Oaxaca and go to Morelia instead.

Morelia is about eight hours away from puebla, to the northwest. The trip wasn't too bad though since we just watched movies the whole way, including edward scissor hands and some terrible vampire movie in keeping with the halloween spirit. We didn't get to the hotel until very late, so we just crashed that night and slept in the next day. Wednesday was a low key day because the day of the dead celebrations take place throughout the night between november first and second, so we wanted to be well rested. We spent the morning and afternoon shopping at the market and walking around the city a bit.

Since the program had never been on a trip to Morelia before and Patricia didn't know a lot about it, she thought it would be best it we latched on with a tour. So we still used our own bus, but we had guides that were also working with another group of tourists. This meant that they decided our itinerary, which was great because we got to visit a lot of cool sites, and we had guaranteed entry and tickets to things (namely the boat ride to an island on a lake in patzcuaro where the celebrations are said to be amazing), but also, at times, gave the night a surreal and ridiculous quality, because we never knew where we were headed next and really had no control over it. The surreality could also have just been the nature of the tradition we were observing, but before I get ahead of myself, let me just describe the events of the night.

The first stop was a very small village where they had some altars set up in the town square. The tradition for the day of the dead is to create altars to welcome back the souls of your loved ones. The altars have the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased as well as photos, candles, fruits, among other things. This first stop was a little random, but it was interesting to see some altars, and there were also women selling atole, which is a kind of rice porridge type drink. I thought it was pretty tasty and it was a nice warm, heavy drink for chilly night.



The next stop was another small town. Here, we saw more altars in the town center, but then we also went further into the village to visit to houses where there were altars set up. This was one of the more surreal experiences of the night. The houses seemed like normal houses filled with family and neighbors, yet they still welcomed in this giant group of tourists, as if we were old friends. The tourism company must have had some connection with the families, but I also later that it is tradition to welcome whoever comes to your house on the day of the dead, so welcome us they did! They offered us warm moonshine and tamales and allowed us to view their family altars. The experience was so surreal because it felt like we had stepped into another world- at one house there were all these women in the back with giant bubbling pots making tamales and other food and drink for the guests. It felt like a giant party, but there was also a serious undertone.

Above is a picture of one of the altars. Below is a picture of me, Cassie, Max and Asha with our moonshine and tamales.






To the right is the women making food and drink for all the guests.




The next stop was a giant market in Patzcuaro. It was similar to other craft type markets we'd been to and we thought that this was also the point where we were stopping for dinner, but it turns out we were only stopping for the market. So after that, it was back on the bus yet again. We spent a ridiculous amount of time shuttling around on the bus that night, but we easily kept ourselves amused.

The next stop was probably one of the lower points of the tour, but we were all so tired at that point, things just got a little goofy. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant that was between a pemex and an oxxo- a gas station and a convenience store- and it tasted like it. The food was pretty awful and flavorless, but Rouwenna came up with a hilarious explanation why. The people believe that when the spirits visit the altars on the day of the dead, they don't eat and drink the food in the traditional sense, but instead just absorb the essence of the food, taking with them only the flavor. Rouwenna's idea was that all the souls that didn't have families to make altars for them came to out restaurant and took the flavor from our food before we got to eat it! It was around 1am at this point, so we were all starting to get a little ridiculous, so dinner also included a lengthy discussion of the word "shank" (apparently a makeshift knife often used in prisons and the act of using such an object) among other things, The topic of "shanking" was brought up again and again throughout the semester and never failed to bring a laugh, so there was some good that came from this awful restaurant.


On the next stop, we finally made it to a cemetery. This sight was like nothing I've ever seen before. Every grave was absolutely covered in flowers and candles. It was very powerful to see so many candles on such a dark, cold night. The only thing that was a little strange was the fact that there didn't seem to be many family members around; most of the people in the cemetery seemed to be tourists.

As we sleepily climbed back onto the bus after the cemetery, Patricia told us that she knew that we were all tired and that she would understand if we didn't want to finish the tour, we could just head back to the hotel at this point. We all surprised her by waking right up and adamantly arguing that if we had made it this far we were going to get on those boats- it was what we has been looking forward to all night. So around 3am, we all piled into a boat headed for an island on the lake of patzcuaro. The best way I can describe the boat is to say that it was kind of like a jungle cruise ride boat at disneyland. It was covered by a tarp, but otherwise open and absolutely freezing. It felt very mysterious since in was so dark and there was a thin layer of fog covering the lake, plus there was a nearly full moon, and the lights outlining of the main island looked like something straight out of a movie. To the left is the view from the boat.


After a 40 minute boat ride, we got to the island. We stopped quickly at a church and then went on to the main event- the cemetery. This experience was very different from the last. This cemetery was filled with people, praying around the graves, sleeping on them, telling stories, having picnics. I felt really funny here, because I felt a little like I was intruding on something very personal, but it was still an amazing experience. There is really nothing I can compare it to that I am familiar with. The island was also really amazing because I saw more stars there then I have ever seen before! Rouwenna is an astronomy major so it was a lot of fun having her point out all the constellations I had never been able to see before. I wanted to just lay down on my back and take them all in.



A woman at the second cemetery

After the cemetery, it was back on the boats and then on to the bus. By the time we pulled into the hotel, the sun was rising and it was just about 7am. A very long night, but very much worth it.

The next day all everyone wanted to do was sleep, but we couldn't stay in bed when there were ruins to be visited! Patricia wanted to give us a break, but we had brought a professor along on the trip to be our guide at the ruins, so we couldn't just skip them. Though we were all a little groggy, the ruins of Tzintzantzun were really beautiful. The backdrop for the rounded pyramids was composed of mountains and lakes, and it was cool, breezy day so the visit was very peaceful. After the ruins, we went to a small town that specializes in wood crafts to do some shopping and exploring.

All in all, it was an excellent trip. We got experience a tradition that is very unique and really highlights the nature of mexican culture- a true mixture of indigenous and catholic traditions.

Halloween and other adventures

I would like to start this post by saying that I just realized we got an extra hour last night and that makes me so happy! I have so much reading to do and the extra hour will help immensely! Or at least it gives me the chance to take a moment to tell you about the crazy weekend I've...

Actually, before I start on this weekend, I wanted to mention just a little about last weekend. A few weeks ago, some of us met with the people organizing the gay pride week here in puebla, and we agreed to be volunteers. They had lots of cool events like movie viewings, and panel discussions, but the week got really busy and we didn’t end up volunteering for anything. But in the end, we made up for it by volunteering at the most important event- the march. As volunteers, we were supposed to keep people moving along and try to make sure things stayed peaceful. As it turned out, these two things pretty much took care of themselves, so we didn't end up volunteering as much as participating, but I think participating was just as important. I haven't been to any pride events in the states, but apparently this one was pretty small in comparison. We were a decent crowd, but it wasn't huge, so it felt like our presence was really important. Homophobia is pretty bad here, so it was really nice to take a public stand against it. And we even got our picture in the paper! It was a big shot of the crowd, but Jenna, Rouwenna and I are clearly visible right in front. I don't have a scanner, so I can't post it, but here are some pictures Rouwenna and Jenna took.

Friday was our program halloween party and it was amazing! Thursday night I went over to Patricia's house to carve pumpkins for the party which was really fun. I was a little surprised to see that they were green instead of orange, but they still had the same smell when you opened them up and pulled out all the gross pulpy seeds. It made me feel very nostalgic in a happy way.

I didn't end up going to help decorate more on friday afternoon, but those who did did a spectacular job. Patricia's house was totally transformed. And almost everyone was in costume- and there were some pretty amazing ones, including max wearing courtney's dress, which was one of my favorties. I'm not going to lie- my costume was pretty terrific. Rouwenna and I had decided to use the masks that we got at the lucha libre and go as luchadoras (I went a second time with Rouwenna, Sarah, and Sarah's parents who were visiting from the states a few weeks ago, but this time we sat with "los rudos" who are a giant fan club, who blocks off an area of the cheap seats and sits together exclusively- we were allowed to sit with them because the president recognized rouwenna from a conversation they had on the bus- they told us which luchadores to cheer for and taught us lots of groserias (swear words/vulgar sayings) to shout at the enemy luchadores and rival fan club and afterwards they took us out back behind the arena to take pictures with the luchadores as they left in their street clothes and masks so as to preserve their luchador identity- not really relevant, but a good story). We both went really over the top in creating our costumes. Getting ready reminded me of getting ready for a crazy themed smith party. Since the party was a halloween/rocky horror party, those us who arrived in non-rocky horror costumes (a lot of people just went all out rock horror style from the beginning) changed into our costumes at midnight for a traditional rocky horror showing. It was so much fun and made me appreciate my study abroad program so so much!!! How many other programs have a rocky horror picture show viewing with everyone dancing around in their underwear as a program activity, and how many resident directors would dress up in a red corset, a garter belt, big red boots and carry a whip for such a viewing? It was a pretty amazing night!

But the excitement didn't end there. Moises, rouwenna's host brother, offered to drive us home since we all live in the same area, but just after we left Patricia's house, we got pulled over for a "random" check by the police. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, except that Moises forgot his license and we're in Mexico. When they found out Moises didn't have his license on him, they made us all get out of the car. Lord knows why, but they asked for our ids and checked our bags as well. After talking with the police for a few minutes, Moises motioned to us to get back into the car. Apparently, they told him that because he didn't have his license they were going to take his car. But, if we paid them some money, they would just forget that this ever happened. We were all out-raged that the police could be so blatantly corrupt, but Moises assured us that this was the easier way to take care of things. Some people wanted to call Patricia, and in hindsight we probably should have. I was talking to my host mom about it the next morning, and she said that if we had told them we were calling our program director the police probably would have gotten scared, and just let things go, but I don't know if they would have let things go completely because Moises didn't have his license, so it's not that we were completely innocent. But at the same time, the punishment they were threatening was ridiculous for the "crime." So I feel kind of bad, because I was one of the ones who said we should just listen to Moises and not make it something bigger by calling patricia. But hindsight is 20/20 and at the time, just listening to Moises seemed like the best plan, so we all chipped in some money and gave the police the equivalent of about 60 american dollars, and then they returned our id's and just let us go.

The whole experience was really bizarre and unsettling. It is really awful to know that the people you would want to be able to turn to if something bad happened are they themselves doing something pretty terrible. After talking to my host mom and thinking about the experience more, I wish I hadn't encouraged listening to Moises and just paying off the police, because it just feels so wrong to have played into their system. My host mom was telling me how if it had been her driving, things wouldn't have happen the same way- if anything, they would have just given her a ticket for not having her license, but because we were young and clearly vulnerable, they threatened us with ridiculous punishments and scared us into paying them. Maybe we should have just said no, and let Moises deal with the consequences, but we felt bad, especially since having a car full of young americans was probably one of the reasons the police decided to "randomly" pull him over, so we just went along with his plan. But again, hindsight is 20/20 and it is much easier to say what could have been a better plan of action now that it's not three thirty in the morning with the Mexican police surrounding us.

While I would have liked to sleep all day on Saturday, instead we went on another adventure. About a week ago, when Jenna and I were at CU (one of the university campuses) waiting for an immigration conference to start (which was also amazing and has inspired us to go to another huge immigration conference in Chiapas and the end of the semester!) and we were speaking english, so this woman sitting on a bench says, "What are you ladies doing in Puebla?" We started talking to her, and apparently she is an anthropologist named Eileen Mulhare from Colgate University who does her research in a small town just outside Puebla. She was giving a guest lecture, so she gave us her card as she left and told us to get in touch with her. So the next day I emailed her and invited us over to her house to visit her house and see the town where she does her work. She was more than happy to have us so yesterday morning we went for a visit.




Jenna, Katy, and Eileen on our tour





We took the same bus that we take to go to CU and it was only about a 15 minute bus ride, but even though it was so close to the city, it had a very different feel. It was more rural- there were donkeys and chickens in backyards and the streets weren't very good and there was just a general small town feel to it. The small town feel was evident when we were trying to find Eileen's house and we asked a family what street we were on, and they said, "are you looking for a gringa like you guys?" and then brought us to her house. Eileen was so nice to us. She told us all about how she got started out as an anthropologist and how she ended up in Mexico. Then she took us on a little walking tour of the pueblo and introduced us to all these people. She told us a lot about the cargo system, which is a system of communal work for things like public repairs and hosting religious events. I read books about it last year in two different anthro
classes so it was so interesting for her to be telling us how it works in this town. It made the concept very real. She also shared a lot about her personal life and what it's like to be an anthropologist living in two places- she lives in mexico a few months out of the year and spends the rest of her time in NY with her husband. It was so much fun to get out of the city and really get the feel for a small town.

These are some really beautiful remains of an old mission in the town.

After that, I was pretty much exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, so when I got home, I ate and took a nap so I could be well rested for my, drum roll please... date! I had invited a guy from my sociology class to the party the night before and we had a really good time, so he asked me to go to the movies with him saturday night. We got some ice cream, saw "Open Season," and got some coffee. I have no idea where this will go, if it indeed does go anywhere, and I'm really not looking to seriously date anyone here, but they say dating someone is the best way to learn the language, and we had a lot of fun together, so I guess we'll see!

So now it is Sunday, and I have SO much reading to do for my anthro class tomorrow, but I am still in very good spirits. On tuesday we are leaving for our trip to Morelia to see the day of the dead celebrations, so I am very excited about that. Things aren't always a bed of roses here- sometimes I feel really homesick, or I get stressed out about classes or the fact that my spanish still isn't spectacular, but overall, I am very, very happy here and I hope I am able to convey some of that to you all!

Hiking and life in Puebla

So I'm feeling like a bit of an ass right now. Today was supposed to be my first day at "la casa de niñez poblana" which is a state funded home for orphans, street kids, kids with family problems, etc, but I got on the wrong bus and didn't realize it until I was a good half hour in the opposite direction. I didn't actually take the wrong bus, I just caught it going in the wrong direction. About five minutes after I got on the bus, it occurred to me that I might have gotten on going in the wrong direction and that I probably should have asked the driver as I was getting on, but I somehow convinced myself that no, it was fine, I was going the right way. Half an hour later I thought, this is getting a little ridiculous, maybe I should ask someone, so I asked the guy sitting next to me and he told me that the place I wanted to go was about five minutes from where I got on the bus, in the other direction. In the end, I would have been a little over an hour late, so I decided to just not go. A bus mistake is pretty easy to make here since there are no absolutely no bus route maps or schedules, but this one was all on me, because the cardinal rule of going some place new on the bus is to ask the driver if he goes there. Oh well, now I'm sure I will always do that in the future.

To make matters worse, after abandoning the orphans, I stole a candy bar. Not really, but I went to the convenience store on may way home to buy a snickers to make myself feel a little better, and I didn't want to pay with my change since I always need it for the bus, so I handed the guy my 100 peso bill even though the chocolate was only 8 pesos. He asked if I had change, and I said no, even though I did I just didn't want to use it. Change is one of my chronic problems here in Mexico. People are always saying they don't have change. Sometimes they're trying to rip you off- taxi drivers and vendors will say they don't have change so they can just keep your change. Sometimes they really do have change, but they just don't want to give it to you (this is the situation I assumed I was in). Sometimes they really don't have change. This was the situation I was actually in. You would think if I paid for an $.80 item with a ten in a convenience store, I could get change, but no. But instead of just turning me away, the a guy behind the counter offered to pay for me. This is the point where I should have said, no, I do actually have change, but I didn't want to look like an idiot, so I just kept my mouth shut and took my free candy bar. I don't feel too guilty, because I didn't know he was going to pay when I lied, and I am in that store all the time so I can pay the guy back, but the chocolate didn't end up easing my guilt for ditching my community service as much as I would have liked.

On a more uplifting note, yesterday Rouwenna and I went hiking with the track team to celebrate Hugo's birthday. Hugo is a guy on the track team. We were supposed to go camping saturday night and spend the day on sunday, but it ended up being rainy and cold, so we decided to just go up for the day on sunday. We went to a town called tlaxco about an hour and a half by bus, because that's where Hugo's family lives. We started at his grandparents/uncle's house and they fed us delicious tamales and coffee for breakfast. It was a really old, traditional mexican house, very different from the ones my friends and I are living in puebla. There was a huge table in the kitchen and the room was just packed from floor to ceiling with spices and cooking utensils and all kinds of things. I really wanted to take a picture, but I thought it might be rude so I restrained myself.

After breakfast we headed into the mountains with Hugo's uncle as our guide. His uncle told us all kinds of things as we walked, a little bit of ecology when he told us about how the mountains were being deforested, and a little bit of gossip as he told us about how the owners of the land we were walking on were sad and lonely since no woman would ever marry them since their home was so isolated. On our hike, we stopped at their farm, and they didn't seem quite so sad and lonely to me- I think it may be a bit of small town exaggeration. Overall, the hike was really beautiful and we got the chance to make friends with the people on the track team. I was a little apprehensive about going at first, just because I have such a hard time being social in spanish, but I actually had a really good time. I think these may be my first actual Mexican friends who are related to the program in any way.

Things got a little less fun for just a little bit while were eating after our hike. It was a huge meal with lots of Hugo's extended family, and Rouwenna and I were sitting kind of far from the rest of the team, so I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and clueless. When a woman asked me if I wanted "mole de some word I didn't recognize" I said yes, because I like mole (pronounced mo-lay, it's a sauce famous in puebla) and I pride myself in trying new things. Almost every other time I have had something unfamiliar has resulted in eating a great new dish, but this time my luck ran out. Turns out the word I didn't know means cow stomach. I didn't want to be rude, and I also didn't want to look like the american who's afraid of things like cow stomach (even though I am), so I ate it. I don't know how, because even now, 24 hours later, thinking about it makes me gag. The taste was fine, it was the texture that killed me. There were these huge chunks of this slimy chewy white stuff coved in cilia. That's what really got me. I kept thinking of those pictures in bio books of the insides of intestines, because that's exactly what it looked and felt like. I put tons of onions and cilantro to try and mask the texture, but it didn't help much and I ended up swallowing most of the chunks whole. When the desert came out, I took that as my opportunity to stop eating, although at that point I had finished most of the bowl. I kept telling myself I should be proud of what I had accomplished, but nauseating thought of stomach in my stomach pretty much overruled ever other thought.

One of the desserts was the chocolate chip cookies Rouwenna and I had made, which didn't turn out exactly how we wanted, but were still pretty good. At first people seemed a little apprehensive, but our friends loved them. They have chocolate chip cookies here, but only store bought ones- no one makes them from scratch, so they were quite a novelty.

By the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted, and was getting a little frustrated with myself when everyone was telling jokes and I couldn't understand a single one. I would follow so closely, but without fail, when the punch line came, I wouldn't understand. Even when people said them slowly and tried to explain them to me, I couldn't get them. I think this will be the true demonstration of my knowledge of spanish- when I can finally understand jokes.

Cueztzalan

I promise that I really do have a normal daily life here that I will write about at some point in the near future, but today I want to tell you all about the trip we went on last weekend to Cueztzalan. Cueztzalan is a small town in the mountains in the state of Puebla- the Sierra Norte. It was about a four hour bus ride, with lots of curves as we went up the mountains. We left friday morning at and got to Cuetzalan around one.

Our first activity, after we ate lunch, was a visit to some ruins. You would think that as an anthropology major, I would be thrilled every time we got to go visit some pyramids, but honestly, I have seen more pyramids in the past two months than any person ever should in such a time span. So the ruins weren't exactly thrilling, though I'm sure they should have been.

But after the ruins, we visited an indigenous women's coop, which was much more interesting to me. Here is a good place for me to stop and justify my lack of interest in the ruins although I am an anthropology major: When I say I am interested in anthropology, people assume that means I am interested in ancient civilizations and digging them up. While I do find them probably just about as interesting as the next person, what I am really interested in is living people, hence my lack of enthusiasm for the ruins and excitement for the coop. It was especially interesting after having taken "the anthropology of development" last semester and learning about alternative development strategies and then seeing them in action this weekend. The coop is this group of women, living very much in the traditional way, but also adjusting to modern times. They make a lot of traditional textiles like blouses and scarves, but they are also branching out and making things like embroidered towels and bed sheets in order to appeal to the tastes of western culture. They also have a restaurant where they make indigenous meals. We ate some delicious tortilla with salsa. It was very interesting and very inspiring. In the upper left is a picture of it that Max took which I stole off facebook.

That night we went to a nearby small town because they were having a festival. It had the atmosphere of a town fair, except that everyone was dressed in indigenous clothing. We saw some dances inside the church and then we waiting for a long time for "the burning castle." We didn't know exactly what to expect, but as we waited, they started to construct this giant wire type structure which they then hoisted upright so it was about as high as the church. I don't think everyone would agree, but in my opinion, it was well worth the hour and a half or so we waited, mostly because of how ridiculously unsafe it was. This giant wire tower had all these wheel type things on it, and when the flame reached them, they would start to burn like a firework and spin. There were two factors that made this much more dangerous than it needed to be. Number one, sometimes the wheels would fall of the tower, burning and spinning into the crowd. At one point, one didn't just fall, it launched and flew right between two spectators heads. Number two, this wasn't behind a fenced off area or anything, it was just in this plaza in front of the church, so people were free to get as close as they wanted, and one drunk guy did. He walked right up to the structure and started bathing himself in the sparks. He kept crossing himself and then making motions as if he was in a shower, but instead of water, it was fire. Luckily, there was another drunk guy, who must have been just a hair less drunk than the guy in the fire because he shoved him out of the way and made him sit down in the crowd, right next to our group pretty much on top of Max. All in all, a dangerously comical experience and a good example of the total lack of regulations on anything here.

The next morning, was the hike to the waterfall. Patricia had stressed how miserable this hike was going to be- mud everywhere, bugs, steep inclines, hiking for hours at fast paces- so it was a very nice surprise when it wasn't that bad at all! The trail we took is one that is used by the local people to come to and from Cuetzalan from even smaller towns. The first part of the hike was through rolling hills of farm land, and then as we got closer to the waterfalls, it was more jungle like. I'll include some pictures below instead of trying to describe how beautiful it was myself:

Another thing that was really fun about this trip was the transportation we used throughout cueztzalan. It was like a cross between a mini bus and a truck. It was really great for seeing views as we wound along the side of the mountain.

That afternoon we spent in the center of town doing lots of shopping (too much shopping!). I love the blouses that all the women in cuetzalan wear- they're white with colorfully embroidered collars so I got myself one of those. I was also very proud of myself because I was actually able to do some bargaining there. I was buying something and the women said it was 100 pesos, so I asked if I could get it for 80, and she said she would give it to me for 90. Only a dollar, I know, but still an accomplishment. This worked a few more times, and sometimes they wouldn't budge on the price, but it is a skill I am still looking to fine tune.

After some shopping, we got to see the "voladores" (translated as "flyers" more or less). It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It's a religious ceremony where, first, five men climb to the top of this ridiculoulsy high pole. I have a picture of it next to a church to show just how tall. At the top of the pole, four ropes are attached to something that spins. After some prayers and music, four of the men ( who are attached to the rope at the waist) jump off the top of the pole and slowly spin around it until the reach the ground. The guy at the top (not attached to any rope!) stays at the top until about halfway through when he slides down on someone's rope. One guys was even drumming and playing the flute the whole way down. The whole thing was really very awe-inspiring.

That night, we went to a local restaurant for dinner. Cassie's birthday was the next day so we had a cake at the restaurant, which was really fun. Patricia is great about celebrating birthdays here- there is always a cake and a gift and general warm feelings all around.

Sunday was a free day, and possibly my favorite. Patricia said she would be hiking to the other close by waterfalls with a guide at 8am and that we were welcome to join her. Although it was very early, I decided to go, and am so happy I did. It was a smaller group of us, only five of us and the guide and patricia, which was nice for talking with people. The morning light was absolutely gorgeous and the falls even more beautiful the the ones from the day before. These falls had a big pool at the bottom where we were able to swim around. The water was freezing, but I still felt like I was in a jungle paradise. The whole thing was very peaceful and made me very grateful that we had this chance to get away from the city for a little bit.

Afterwards, another small group of us went horseback riding. The ride was about an hour in total and we had guides walking with us to show us where to go. At first I was a little skeptical because the first part of the trip was through a dump, complete with stray dogs and what looked like vultures. But once we got past the dump, we got to see the most beautiful views. I didn't have my camera, but here some pictures that christina took.

Overall a fabulous weekend in mexico!

Veracruz

This past weekend, I went with my friends to Veracruz and I had the most amazing time! So amazing that this is an incredibly long post, so be prepared...

Veracruz is a port city on the eastern coast of Mexico, about four and a half hours from Puebla by bus. Well, three and a half if you take the more expensive bus with bathrooms, but we are all about economizing, so we went with the cheap bus. It was the Mexican Independence Day weekend and we didn't have class on friday, so we left on friday morning. The bus ride was fine, and I even saw some really beautiful scenery. The picture to the right was taken from the bus.

However, when we got to the hotel, things stopped going so smoothly. Apparently, the rooms we had booked were still occupied, so the best they could do was offer us different rooms without air-conditioning. After being in the hot, humid, tropical weather for only a half hour or so, this was not an option, so we went to look for another spot. One of the hotels we looked into was El Colonial (below left), which my host mother had actually recommend. We originally didn't take her up on the recommendation, because we were going for something a little cheaper, but as it turned out, it wasn't that expensive- it worked out to be about $20 per person per night. And it had a pool and a terrace where we could watch the independence day celebration from, so this turned out to be the winner. I'm so glad it worked out that way, because the hotel was pretty much perfect for us.

After we had the hotel figured out, we went to get something to eat and explore the city a bit. It felt so good to just eat and drink and relax. Studying abroad is kind of like one big vacation, but it was a wonderful feeling to be on a real vacation.

Sarah and I on the terrace of our hotel

Six of us had come early, and later that evening, the other four in our group arrived. At that point, all we could think of was jumping in the pool. Puebla gets hot in the middle of the day, but even then, it's usually a dry heat. Veracruz was pure, hot humidity, so the luxury of a pool was really nice.

By the time the we got out of the pool, the zocalo (town center) was starting to fill up with people, so we decided to get some food and drinks and have our own party up on the terrace in our hotel. The view from the terrace was absolutely beautiful. There are some pictures below and above. The combination of the colonial architecture, the music, all the people and the warm night air was wonderful. It was perfect to be able to enjoy the independence day fiesta without being in the mob of people below. There was a stage set up with singers and dancers all night, and around 10:30, there is the independence day grito, where the mayor or someone of importance, gives a little speech and shouts things like "viva mexico" and the whole crowd responds "viva." Then there are fireworks and the national anthem. This happens in cities all over mexico on the eve of the independence day.

I was really excited to witness all this from our terrace, but as it turned out, when we were returning from buying our food and drinks, we got caught in the crowd. I have never seen so many people in one place. The zocalo was packed so tight, that it eventually became impossible to move. Impossible. It was actually a pretty terrifying feeling- to be helplessly stuck in the middle of so many people. At one point, some people started shoving, and I kept thinking "this is how people get trampled and die in mobs." A little dramatic, I know, but I was mildly panicked at the time. So for me, the grito wasn't quite as magical as I had imagined, but I'm still glad I got to experience it in one way or another.

Saturday morning, we were off to the beach. We started the day of with breakfast at a cafe called "el cafe de la parrochia" which is pretty famous in veracruz. It was packed, but we were able to get a table for all 10 of us. I had "huevos veracruzana" which was fried eggs, rice, beans, and fried platanos. Delicious. We had a really nice time eating off each others plates and just enjoying each others company over good food and coffee.

The beach was amazing. Everyone had told us that the beaches in Veracruz aren't that pretty, and it was no white sand beach, but it was by far good enough for me. We spent a lot of the day in the water because it was so warm! This was the first time I ever was in ocean water that was warm and it was pretty strange at first, but really wonderful once I got used to it. Our big adventure on the beach was going on the banana boats. They are these giant inflated banana looking things that you straddle, that are pulled around by a boat. Kind of like water skiing, but on a giant banana. I put a picture to the left- I'm the one in the foreground who's waving so big it looks like my arm might come out of its socket. You can't see the motor boat in the picture, but it was ahead of us towing us around. It was sooo much fun. We all got salt water sprayed in our eyes and had to hold on for our lives, but being whipped around the Caribbean on a giant banana with a bunch of great friends, laughing and screaming like little girls was well worth a little salt in the eye.

Our time at the beach passed so quickly. I felt like we had just arrived and the sun was already setting. I don't even know what we did to make the time pass so quickly. I guess that's what happens when you’re truly having a good time. There are some more pictures from the beach bellow.

After the beach, we took the bus a little further south to a town called Boca del Rio which has amazing (and cheap) sea food. The only problem was that was really all there was- seafood. This is a problem when three of your friends are vegetarians. When we asked a waitress at one of the restaurants if there were any vegetarian options there, she said no, and not at any restaurant in Boca del Rio. On that note, the vegetarians got back on the bus, but the rest of us stayed and found the restaurant definitely lived up to its reputation for great seafood.

After our meal, we went to investigate a fountain we could see from the restaurant. It turned out to be this really cool water show complete with lights and music. It was dark by this point, so it was a really beautiful sight. Like so many things on the trip, it was something we just happened upon. This was one of the many moments where I felt like the travel gods were just smiling down on us. The picture to the upper right is the water show, and below is Rouwenna, Sarah and I in front of it.

Once we got back to Veracruz, we all met up again for ice cream. We went to a busy place called "guerro" which had something like sorbet, but not quite. I don't know quite how to describe it, but it was delicious. I got "tropicolda" which was banana, pineapple, and coconut, but the peanut flavor was also a favorite of mine. You wouldn't think peanut flavored ice would be that great, but it was.

At that point we were all pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel. However, it wasn't time for bed yet. Charlotte has a cousin who apparently played in an orchestra of the americas with people from all over north and south america or something, and she made a good friend from Veracruz. When she heard Charlotte was going to be in veracruz, she put the two in contact. So just as we're ready to crash, the friend of Charlotte's cousin calls charlotte to see if we want to do something. While we were tired, this was one of those "wow this is a small world and we won't get a chance to meet again" type moments, so we agreed to meet up. The friend of the cousin brought two friends, and we all went down to the restaurant below the hotel for drinks. I think we were pretty awful company because we were also so tired, but the guys were fun and the night life in Veracruz is full of music and color, so it was nice to spend a little more time in it.

The next morning half of us got up to go visit the aquarium. I had been considering sleeping through it, but Sarah pointed out the night before, "We can sleep at home, we're only here once." It was a good point so I was up early to make it to the aquarium and back before we had to check out. Ever since our orchestra trip to the Boston Aquarium back in February, I have been a huge aquarium fan, so this was a real treat. I loved the sea turtles, the really huge fish, the manatees and the sharks, although I was glad we saw the sharks the day after the beach...

After we got everyone mobilized and out of the hotel, we made a stop at burger king and looked like we were planning on camping out there with all our stuff. While half the group was at burger king, some of us ran back to guerro to get one more cup of delicious ice cream. By the time we finally got to the bus station, we were able to get four tickets for 4:15 and the other six for 5:45. Those of us without pressing homework needs stuck it out to wait for the later bus. Since we had all our crap with us and were so tired and hot, we ended up just sitting in the bus station watching each other sweat to pass the time. But I slept pretty much the whole way home, which was very, very nice. Once we got back to the bus station, Rouwenna's host brother was nice enough to come pick all six of us up (fitting too many people in one car has become our specialty here) and drive us all home.

So now that I have detailed the entire three days, I have some reflections on the trip as a whole. Saturday night I was talking with someone about how comfortable we felt on this trip, and part of that, we decided, was the fact that we were filling a role that was familiar to us. In Puebla, we are trying to fill the role of Mexican students, but this can be pretty difficult sometimes since we don't look like, sound like, or act like mexican students. But in veracruz, we were filling the role of tourists, a role that comes much more easily. This isn't to say that I would want to always fill the role that comes easiest- where we are learning and growing is in the role that comes more difficultly- but it was very nice to take a break from that and just relax.

But it wasn't just being on vacation that made the weekend so wonderful, it was being on vacation with nine great friends. There was no petty drama or fighting, just a bunch of friends relaxing and enjoying each others company. I don't know how I got so lucky as to be able to spend a weekend at the beach with such fun, interesting, good-natured people. There were so many moments this weekend where I just paused and thought, how is it possible that life is so good to me?

The whole group at the beach: Me, Christina, Rouwenna, Max, Sarah, Courtney, Cassie, Naihomy, Jenna, and Charlotte

What a week it's been! It's only wednesday, but I feel like it should be the weekend already. This week has been kind of crazy with classes and such. My main issue has been with my anthropology class. The system my professor uses to distrubute the readings is that she leaves one copy of the readings with the secretary in the anthro building and we have to go pick them up, bring them to a copy shop, make a copy for ourselves, then return the original. This would be fine, except that the anthro building is really far from any other building, and also from any copy shop. So, in short, it's a real pain to get the readings for each class. (It makes me miss blackboard more than I ever thought I would!) Because of this process, I didn't get the readings for today very early, and the reading turned out to be 70 pages (in spanish of course) so wasn't able to finish them in time for class. So I was really nervous going to class, because I'm always afraid the professor will call on me, and I won't be able to make something up in spanish. But it turned out that pratically no one had done the reading so my little bit of reading was a lot more than they had done. Therefore, I actually raised my hand and participated in class! True, all I did was read a line from the reading, but it was me speaking in spanish in front of thirty native speakers, and it was correct. I was so proud of myself.

Of course, this pride didn't last too long becuase after class, I went to the copy shop where I thought I might have left my nalgene yesterday to ask if they had seen it. After inarticulately explaining my situation, they told me I could buy a bottle of water around the corner. Sometimes my spanish works, sometimes it doesn't.

Monday was the real adventure of the week though because we went to the lucha libre! It was just like in Nacho Libre, but even better if you can imagine it! The costumes were so ridiculous, especially becuase almost all the luchadores are masked. My favorite match was between batman and a masked New York Yankee. It's all choreographed, and many times obviously so, but that just makes it that much more fun. We were sitting up in the cheap seats, but we want to sit up front at some point beacuse the luchadores literally fall on top of the people in the front row. Or, they just lay on the floor in the fetal position while their teammates enter the ring. And half the fun was the people watching. There were lots of families with masked little kids, even though it was late at night. Then there was the group of young guys with noise makers who chanted obscene things at the luchadores every few minutes. It was so bizzare, but so much fun!

Max, Me, and Raul with our luchador masks

The view from where we sat

The delicious snack in Naimoy's hand is a bag of chips with hot sause and lime juice- our new favorite snack. We also had to have a beer to complete the lucha libre experience.

Christina said it best when she asked, "Where else can you see batman fight a Yankee?"