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.