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?"

Today I'm writing from an internet cafe called the "All Day Cafe." It's a cafe in the center of the city, with comfortable chairs, good music, and best of all, wireless internet.

While it says my last post was made on Saturday, it was actually written on Thursday, but my internet connection at my house isn't that good, so saturday was the first time I was able to connect to blogger.com.

It my last post, I wrote that I was a little skeptical about my outfit for the fiesta, but it turned out to be really great. We had our "monitores" there helping us get ready, and they just turned my top sideways and it made all the differene in the world. The dresses are used in the ballet folklorico and are from different parts of Mexico- my dress was from Oaxaca. It was so much fun to play dress up. It was like getting ready for a themed party at smith, but even more fun!

The fiesta turned out to be really great. At first I felt a little silly in my dress, especially when Patricia called us all up to stand on display in front of everyone. After introductions, the BUAP Ballet Folklorico performed, then we ate, and then came the dancing. My host parents were so cute dancing together. It seems like everyone here is born an excellent dancer. All the salsa skill I thought I had before I came, apparently, isn't quite so hot. But I am learning.

Yesterday was another fiesta, but of a different sort. Saturday morning my mom told me that we were going to eat at the house of Santiago's other grandmother. Santiago, to reacap, is my host nephew, so his other grandmother is his father's mother. I'm pretty sure his father and mother (my sister) are divorced, but I'm not quite sure. Anyways, it's kind of sad becuase the granmother has cancer, so this may be one of her last birthdays, so it turns out it wasn't a small family meal like I was expecting, but instead a huge catered event in her backyard. Not long after we got there, my host parents went about socializing, and I was left standing awkwardly in the midst of people I didn't know. Luckily, my host grandmother on my moms side was also there, and she came and sat with me and when I asked her if she knew anyone, she said no and that I shouldn't worry- we were equal in that respect. I felt much better after that. But I did actually meet a lot of nice people at my table. There was one women who spoke english very well, and was very interested and getting to know me. It was funny becuase she kept translating for me, but it was always the things that were pretty easy to understand. She kept trying to get her 13 year old son to practice english with me. So in the end, it was a really nice afternoon.

Hello friends and family! Welcome to my new blog! Rouwenna (a felow smithie here in Mexico) showed my how easy it is to have a blog last weekend, but I am just now getting started. Part of the problem is that I have already been in Mexico for a month so I hardly know where to begin. But instead of trying to recount everything that has happened in the past four weeks, I think I'll just start with today and go from there!

My first class this morning was at 10am, which is very nice, especially considering I have class at 8am on Mondays and Wednesdays. The university I am attending, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla (BUAP), has two campuses- CU (Ciudad Universitaria) and el centro. El centro is in the center of the city and the campus buildings are mixed in with other non university buildings. CU is a more traditional campus, and it is huge. It's a good 25 minute brisk walk from one end to the other, and that's just academic buildings, no dorms or anything. Very different from the 10 or so academic buildings I'm used to at Smith!

So my first class of the day, the History of Mexico, was at 10am in CU. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to the class- a 15 minute walk to the bus stop, a 5 minute bus ride, and 15-20 minute walk from the bus stop to my class, depending on the location of the class.

After class, I went to track practice. That's right, in my effort to stay in shape, I have gone off the deep end and joined the track team! It's actually not the bad, because the team is very flexible. They have two or three traininers there all day, and you just show up when you have a chance. Not exactly the time demands of smith crew, but then it also lacks the team dynamic. But today was only my second day, and I've already met a lot of nice people. Hopefully we'll keep showing up at the same times and I will get to know them better. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to stick with it, it depends on how much time it ends up taking, but for now it is an excellent way to stay in shape!

After practice I went back home to eat. The biggest meal of the day here is around 3pm, and I almost always come back home to eat with my family. Today we had tostadas and they were delicious! Beans, beef, lettuce, cheese, avacados, salsa and cream. I love that we have avocados and cheese with almost everything.

After "la comida" (we don't really call it lunch even though that's basically what it is, just bigger and later), I had my dance class. It's in el centro, which is much easier to get to than CU. It's less than a five minute walk to the bus stop, 15 minutes on the bus, and then a 5 minute walk to class. It may seem like I'm spending an awful lot of time describing my means of transportation, but really, it's a big part of my life here. In another post I will have to go into more detail about the crazy bus drivers here...

My dance class went really well today. It's Mexican folkloric dance, and it's really beautiful when done right, but I am still in the very begining stages. The class is always really intense because we are jumping around for a solid two hours, and the first few classes we just learned all these basic steps and did them over and over again, but today we put all those steps into these really fun coreographed dance.

After class, I went with some of my friends from the program, Charlotte and Jenna, to Patricia's house. Patricia is our wonderful program director, and she lives in the most beautiful house in the middle of the city provided by the program. Tomorrow the university is throwing this huge welcome party/Mexican Independence Day party for our program, and we are all going to be wearing traditional Mexican costumes, so today we went to patricia's to pick out our costumes. There weren't very many options left when we got there, and I am a bit skeptical about mine to be honest, but I'm hoping it will grow on me tomorrow.

After Patricia's, I went out for tacos and a churro with Max and Asha, two other friends from the program. I know, it sounds so cliche, eating tacos and a churro in Mexico, but that's my life.

When I got back to my house, I finished a paper that's due tomorrow and set out to finally start my blog. And here I am!