Veracruz

Ahh! I have failed horribly this semester at updating my blog. I will start to redeem myself by posting an entry I wrote in early march but never published because I wanted to add more pictures but never got around to it... So here it is:

The last weekend in February, we went on a program excursion to Veracruz. If you have a good memory, you'll note that one of the first independent trips I took was to the Veracruz. However, the trip we just took was really different from the first one, so it was well worth it. Last time, we spent the entire independence day weekend in the city of Veracruz, but this time around, we used the weekend to explore the entire state of Veracruz.

We started the trip off by heading to the anthropology museum in Xalapa, where nearly all the famous olmec heads are located. It was pretty cool to see the heads- the really are enormous, and we don't know a whole lot about them. There were a lot of other cool sculptures in the museum, but we ended up spend almost three hours on a guided tour, which was just too much even for an anthropology major, especially since every minute spent indoors was one minute less on the roof-top hotel pool Patricia promised us!

By the time we ate lunch and completed the two hour bus ride from Xalapa to the port city of veracruz where we were staying, the sun was starting to set. My friend Abby and I were determined to swim in the roof top pool though, so when we got to the hotel, we ran to change and met up at the pool. I had to laugh when I got to the pool deck and poor abby was sitting in the last tiny triangle of sun that the shade had not yet gobbled up. Since the sun was setting and was kind of chilly, so we opted to head to the zocalo with the rest of the group instead of taking a dip.

In the zocalo we were greeted with a giant communal wedding, where young couple after young couple went up on a stage to be married. It was pretty weird, but I think after 6 months in mexico I have become slightly jaded to the bizarre, because it didn't seem out of place at all. In the zocalo, we relaxed in the warm night air with drinks and the marimba music Veracruz is famous for. We stopped at a slightly sketchy, but more importantly cheap, place for dinner and finished the night up with delicious nieve. Nieve is kind of like italian ice, or sorbet, and the best I'd ever had was when we went to Veracruz last time at a place called "Guero," so it was a real treat to be able to go back this time.

The next morning we woke up early so that we could walk along the pier by our hotel. Although it meant a few hours less sleep, it was a great idea because the sunrise over the port was gorgeous. Here are some of the pictures I took that morning:Hayley and Meara with the sunrise

After our brief stay in the port, we got back on the bus and headed further south in the state of Veracruz. Our destination was the Nanciyaga Ecological Reserve on Laguna Catemaco. I think we were all pretty stunned by the natural beauty surrounding us when we piled out of the bus and onto the boats that would take us to the reserve. As we skidded along the lagoon, we all basked is the warm sun and took in our surroundings: tranquil water spotted with tiny island and surrounded by lush green hills. To the left is a picture of Rouwenna and I on the boat. When we got to the reserve, we had lunch in the restaurant over looking the lagoon and just took in the view. Below are some of the views from the restaurant.

After lunch we hopped into canoes to go exploring. After missing the sun the day before, Abby and I paddle into the middle of the lagoon and just sat around for a good long time, soaking up the sunshine and gossiping, occasionally chatting with more ambitious members of our group that passed us by. I could have sat out there doing nothing for days, but we finally decided to row around one of the nearby islands with all kinds of different species of birds and head back. When we got back to the dock, we jumped in the swimming section of the lagoon to cool off. After swimming for a bit, Patricia told me there was an opening for an aromatic massage, so I jumped at that opportunity. They used scented oils for the massage and pressed an egg all over my body. I smelled so good and felt a jello-y afterwards. I had a moment where I realized that I was indeed on the best study abroad program ever- where else are aromatic massages included? I rounded out the day by sitting on the dock and watching the sun go down.

That night we took part in a Temescal, a ritual steam bath. It's an indigenous cleansing ritual where you sit in a tiny adobe hut with stone that have been cooking in an oven all day, and then water is thrown on the stones to make hot steam. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it because my only other similar experience was with Bikram Yoga- yoga that you do in a 90 degree, closed up, steamy room, and I most definitely did not enjoy that experience. But I knew I'd regret it if I didn't do it, so I decided to give it a try. As it turns out, my gut feelings were right on. During the experience, I really didn't enjoy it at all, but I'm still glad I did it. When I first entered the hut, the heat was overwhelming and I could imagine staying in for a half hour. But after a few minutes, I started to relax and adjusted to the heat. We did some singing and chanted as more water was thrown on the stones creating more steam. But then after 10 or fifteen minutes, I started to feel really uncomfortable again. I think the most difficult part was that the air was so hot and thick, so you could never get a breath of fresh air. By the end I was so focused on getting out of there, I didn't really enjoy any of the cleansing powers. But the very last part was covering ourselves in mud and jumping into the freezing lagoon, which in retrospect was pretty cool, but in the moment I was a little too grumpy to appreciate it. I'm glad I did it, but it's not something I will be trying again any time soon.

The next morning, we were all running around trying to take advantage of our last few hours in paradise. The highlight of breakfast was the crocodile siting! Meara and Hayley said they had seen one on their canoe trip, and I was super jealous, so I was I really excited when we got to see one too. Although it did make me wonder if dangling my feet in the water the day before was such a good idea... After breakfast, I took a mud bath, which consisted in being covered in mud and sitting in the sun until it dried and then hopping back into the lagoon and washing it all off. Afterwards, Abby and I went for one last canoe trip. Next thing you know we were on the bus, heading back to Puebla. I was very sad to leave and felt like I could have stayed a week!

Mud bath!

Carnival and Ash Wednesday

I can't believe we are already in March! Time is flying by here. Last weekend we went on an amazing trip to Veracruz, but first I wanted to write about some of what was going on in my life in Puebla before that.

Two weeks ago, on Saturday the 17th, we had a party to celebrate carnival. There were no parties on the schedule for this semester, but after the success of the halloween and Alica in Wonderland parties, we all wanted to have more this semester. Patricia actually came up with the idea for a Carnival party. It was perfect because we got another opportunity to wear costumes. Carnival is a big deal here is some of the coastal cities like Veracruz; there are parades and concerts and lots of drinking. Drunken crowds aren't really my thing, so I was very happy to celebrate at Patricia's house.

I was in charge of decorations, so I got to have a lot of fun picking out pretty paper and sparkly things, creating giant masks and stringing up lights. I also had a blast making my costume. I was inspired by the green sequins I still have left over from my luchador costume, and decided to go as a garden. I went shopping with my friends Abby and Arianna, and they helped me pick out some sparkly green fabric. I also got some giant pink flowers for inspiration. I went over to Abby's house friday night, and she worked some real magic with safety pins and designed the cutest shirt for me. The next day before the party, my host mom got really into it and helped my sew parts of my costume together. As you can see, the end result was pretty fabulous!

The party went extremely well in my opinion. Everyone did a really good job of inviting their mexican friends so there were tons of people there! The music was going all night and everyone was dancing. The only not so hot part was the fact that the beer ran out around midnight, and Patricia refused to buy more since we had already consumed a whole lot, so people started trickling off after that. But while it lasted, it was excellent.

So of course, after carnival comes ash wednesday. I went to a service at the local church and it was quite an experience. I first realized it would be a little different as I approached the church and there were vendors with cotton candy and tacos and bubbles all waiting outside. One set of doors had a giant sign that said SALIDA (exit) and the other ENTRADA (entrance). I went over to the entrance side, and waited with the crowd. It felt kind of like I was waiting for the haunted mansion at Disneyland. After five minutes or so, they opened the doors and we filtered in while the other group exited out the other doors. The priest then said a quick, five minute service, and the people started getting up and moving to the front of the church. I was a little confused because there was no one to distribute ashes. Then I realized people were putting the ashes on themselves with a stamp! There was a cross shaped stamp that you dipped in the ashes and then stamped on your forehead. The whole thing was pretty devoid of any spirituality. I felt a little like I was in Brave New World, or some other futuristic scene where religion had become totally institutionalized. It made me very nostalgic for the meaningful noon-time ash wednesday services at smith!

Michoacan

I am really excited to write today because last weekend I had my first travel adventure of the semester! We had a three day weekend, and I have no classes on Friday, so we took the opportunity to explore the state of Michoacan, which is about 8 hours to the northwest of Puebla. We went to Michoacan last semester for the Day of the Dead, but we wanted to return to see the monarch butterfly sanctuaries and to see more of the truly beautiful state.

The journey began on Thursday evening. I left Puebla for Mexico City at 8pm with Meara, Hayley and Merilie, three friends from Smith. We arrived in Mexico City in record time- about an hour and a half- meaning we had a lot of time to hang out in the bus terminal before our 12:30am overnight bus to Patzcuaro. While waiting, we learned a very interesting bit of information- you can take a bus from Mexico City to New York for only $180! It just so happens that after buying my one way plane ticket to come to Mexico this semester, that is exactly the amount of money I have left of my $500 program travel budget. Hmm...

The bus ride to Patzcuaro took about six hours so we arrived in the tiny Patzcuaro bus station before the sun even came up. Luckily, my friends are excellent travel companions so everyone was is good spirits even after a shaky nights sleep. We waited around about 20 minutes for some morning light, and then decided to walk to the center of town instead of taking public transportation. The morning light was really beautiful, and the walk was an excellent way to start to get our bearings, so it was well worth it. By 9am, we had covered most of the center of town, seen a beautiful view from the top of a hill, visited some Churches and taken a bunch of photos. Here are some pictures of what we saw that morning:

An old church that is now a hospital

A view of Patzcuaro and the surrounding mountains

In our wanderings, we found our hotel. Thankfully, even though it was really early, we were able to check in. It was a really cute hotel with lots of old tile, and a tiny balcony with a view. We rested for a bit in the hotel, and then were back out to continue our explorations. After some bad coffee, and a stop at an internet cafe for those who forgot to fill out their room draw forms, we were off the el lago de patzcuaro- the lake of patzcuaro. We again decided to forgo the bus and find our way walking. We knew the general direction of the lake, and could see it from a few points, so we found our way by asking directions of locals an using our general sense of direction. Even though the walk took a little longer than we thought, it was well worth it. First we passed through a bustling market selling every kind of vegetable I've ever seen, baskets, pirated DVDs, cheese, scarves, knives- you name it, they were selling it. Then we passed through a residential area. It was really nice to get to see the real patzcuaro, not just the touristy parts. After wandering the winding neighborhood roads a bit, we some how found ourselves on a main road again. When we got a little closer to to the lake, we passed by some incredible wood working shops. The first one was the most impressionable- it was a like giant warehouse with woodcarvings in various states stacked from floor to ceiling. Everything from masks to giant jesus statues carved out of tree trunks to tables and chairs. After the woodshops, it was a short walk to the dock.

Once we got to the lake, we took a boat to the main island, Janitzio. On the island we got some lunch, and hiked to the top where the is a statue of Morelos, one of the heroes of the mexican independence. We climbed up a giant spiral staircase inside the monument until we reached his wrist. It was a perilous climb, but the view from the top was gorgeous. Here are some photos from the island trip:

Merilie, me, Meara and Hayley on the boat

View of the island from the boat- that's the monument of Morelos at the top

Me with the view from the wrist of Morelos

Looking down on the staircase we climbed

After the island trip, we passed through through the market to buy food for dinner- two avocados cost us 60 cents! And after so much activity on so little sleep, it was nap time. After a siesta, we ate our dinner from the market and went out for some ice cream and watch a little TV before falling asleep once again.

The next morning we grabbed some coffee before taking a bus to Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. We only had a few hours, but it was just enough time to walk around the zocalo and get a delicious meal. Our Lonely Planet guide told us the restaurant was like "your moms home cooking if she was from mexico" and the review was right on. We all ordered different plates and shared and each one was excellent.

After our few short hours in Morelia, we took a bus to a small town called Zitacuaro where we met up with Rouwenna and Abby, two other smithies, who drove up with Gerardo (Rouwenna's boyfriend) and Julio (Gerarrdo's cousin) in Julio's van. We all drove to Angangueo, another very small town where I had made hotel reservations. The problem was, when we showed up, they had given our rooms to someone else! We proceeded to visit every hotel in the town, and every single one was booked solid. It was the perfect season to visit the butterfly sanctuaries, plus a three day weekend, so things were looking pretty grim. We came real close to having to sleep in the van! Luckily, there was one hotel where the people never showed up, so at 11pm, the owner finally told us we could take their room. We had spent the previous half our sitting in the lobby with Julio making obnoxious jokes, so I think she was just sick of listening to us and gave us the room!

The next morning we were up early to go visit the the monarch butterfly sanctuaries. From our hotel, the sky was blue and the air was cool. But as we drove up in the mountains, it got colder and cloudier. So much so that the butterflies didn't want to fly around. So we didn't get the full effect of orange fluttering around us, but we still saw all the butterflies resting in the trees, and a few flying around us. Plus we saw some spectacular mountain views!

View from our hotel

A butterfly!

Me with the mountain view

Those brown clumps in the trees are butterflies that were too cold to fly

After our hike, we found the only restaurant with a TV in the town so that Abby could watch the superbowl. I myself played set while others watched. It started to pour while we were at the restaurant and the power even went out during half time for about ten minutes. After the superbowl we went back to the hotel to just chill out, and the power went out again, this time for a good half hour!

The next morning we started our drive back home. The highlight of the trip came not a half hour after we started out. As we passed through the mountains, it was snowed. Even the transit police were playing in it! We stopped to play until we couldn't handle the cold anymore.

Trying to stay dry under a sheet!

Islands, snow, avocados, roadtrip, butterflies, long walks, mountain hikes and great friends- overall an excellent trip!

A week in January

Not a lot has happened since I last wrote, but this semester I'm going to try to write with a little more regularity, so I'll just fill you in on the normal events of the week.

Even though it was a pretty average week, it started off with a bit of excitement Monday morning. Sunday we went on a day-trip to see some ruins and visit a local colonial town, so when I got home, I was exhausted and still had a ton of work to do for my monday morning class, so I ended up staying up late to finish it. And since my class is at 8am, that meant I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. (Actually, I got 7 hours, which should be more than enough- I remember back when I'd average 6 1/2 plus 5am crew practice, a weights session and hours and hours of homework and an orchestra rehearsal and just keep plugging along like it was nothing. Mexico has made me weak!). So anyways, I was in my class monday morning, which is the history of the Mayans and super interesting, but as we were going into the last 20 minutes of the two hour class I was feeling sleep deprived and starting to fade. The all of the sudden I gasp and jump out of my skin because the kid sitting in front of me has an iguana on his head!! It's a good foot long head to tail and it's just sitting there on the top of his head. It had a rope clumsily tied around its body, and the rope was connected to the kid's sweatshirt string, acting as a leash. I assume the iguana was inside his sweatshirt for the previous hour and a half of classes, but I really couldn't tell you. Needless to say, I was alert for the rest of the class!

Speaking of pets in class, this would probably be a good time to talk about the difference in classroom culture here. Although iguanas aren't an everyday experience, many other distractions are. At smith, if you cell phone goes off, you have to deal with the wrath of the professor and evil glares from your classmates. At the BUAP, professors don't bat an eye if cell phones go off, and students often answer them and have a conversation while the professor is talking. Many professors will even answer the phones mid-lecture. Students are constantly coming in late (sometimes up to an hour!) and also leaving early, or just walking out for five minutes and returning with a cup of coffee or a candy bar. Side conversations are not uncommon. Some professors are known to smoke in class. People will do their make-up and check text messages. There are so many times when I'm in class and I think, thank god I don't have attention deficit because it would be impossible to learn in this environment. But it isn't like this in every class. Some professors won't allow student to walk in late and demand the full attention of their students. And usually this type of distracting behavior dies down once the professor really gets into their lecture and the students have to pay attention, but even it's existence on a lessor scale has been a big adjustment for me.

After the iguana incident, nothing in my week seems very exciting! I spent most of my time reading for classes, going to classes and running track. Friday was a bit more exciting. One of my friends from the program, Keith, had really bad stomach problems and ended up having to go to the hospital and stay for two nights! Poor kid. I am so thankful nothing like that has happened to me yet! So Friday we took the bus to a part of puebla I haven't seen before to visit him. The hospital was really nice and he was in good spirits, but I still felt bad for the guy. Apparently he has some kind of amoeba infection that's was eradicated in the states in the 1940's!?!? The scary thing is he doesn't know how he got it...

Friday was also our welcome comida (lunch/dinner), although this semester it was considerably scaled down- no host families, mariachi bands or traditional Mexican costumes! After the meal, a bunch of people came over to my house to plan our trip for next weekend. We have monday off and no classes on friday, so we're going to the state of Michoacan (where we went for the day of the dead) to spend time in the lakeside town of patzcuaro and at the monarch butterfly sanctuary. So my next post should be full of beautiful pictures and interesting stories!

Back in Puebla!

So now that I am all caught up on last semester, I can finally start to write about this semester!

So far, being back in Puebla has been really great. I got into Mexico on January 3, and spent a week going through the orientation with the new group. There are three people, including myself, who stayed from last semester, and 12 new people. Even though we did almost exactly the same thing on this orientation as we did on my orientation in August, it was really nice to get to know the new group a little bit before we got to Puebla. I also had a good time revisiting the anthropology museum, climbing the pyramids again, and going back to the basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe. Also, not everything was exactly the same. For example, this was the first time I saw the zocalo of Mexico City on an average day- all the other times I've been to the zocalo it has been jam packed with protesters and Obredor supporters! Also, Rouwenna and I took sunday off from the orientation and did some of our own exploring. We went to the museum of modern art with a friend of Rouwenna's friends who lives in Mexico City, and then he took us to a part of Mexico City called Coyocan. They had their own small zocalo, full of people out enjoying their sunday evening. There were these amazing drummers and lots of people dancing to their beat. We got some tortas (which is what they call sandwiches on the certain circular rolls here) and some hot chocolate and just had a great time people watching and taking in the sights.

The next day, we came back to Puebla. The first few days were a little weird for me, as I was trying to readjust to life in Mexico and also to the fact that a lot of the people I used to spend my time with weren't here anymore. But now that I've been back for two weeks, I feel like I am at home again. The new people in the group are all really cool, and I've had a lot of funhanging out with them. We went dancing last saturday night and last night we went out to a bar with live music. Thursday night we went to a party at a fellow exchange student's house. He's from Germany and on a different program, so he rents a room at a house with six other Mexican students. They were all really nice and it was fun to meet some more mexican students outside the classroom. I've also been spending a decent amount of time just chilling out with Israel.

And of course, I am getting back into the swing of going to classes, doing reading and writing papers. I am pretty happy with my classes though. In CU, the more campus-like campus, I am taking Latin America: Politics, Economy, and Society and International Organizations in the International relations department, and "Neoevolucionism and Marxism" in anthropology. I am also taking a history class about the Mayans in the centro, the campus in the center of town. I am really excited because the only class I have with people from the program is the Latin America class. I'm the only american in all my other classes so I will be forced to really pay attention and interact with the other students. I am also really excited because, although my mondays, tuesdays and wednesday are really busy, I only have one class on thursday and no classes on fridays! My schedule, combined with the fact that we have a lot of days off this semester, means there should be lots of traveling going on!

Chiapas

My trip to Chiapas deserves so much more than the short entry I am going to devote to it, but the truth is, tomorrow I am going to start accumulating more experiences to write about, so last semester needs to be finished before then!

Chiapas is the southernmost mexican state, bordering Guatemala. It is legendary for its beautiful natural scenery and for its indigenous population, including the Zapatistas- the indigenous resistance group that on January 1, 1994 (coinciding with the day Mexico signed NAFTA) staged a small rebellion in San Cristobal de las Casas to fight for their rights. The Zapatistas still exist, living in self-sustained, autonomous communities throughout the mountains of Chiapas. It has been a dream of mine to visit Chiapas while in Mexico, so when the opportunity to go presented itself, I jumped at it. The opportunity came back in October when Jenna and I went to a meeting of immigrants’ rights organizations that her professor invited her to. At the meeting, we learned there was going to be a huge conference on immigration in Chiapas in the beginning of December. I emailed the guy who was in charge of the conference and he told us it was free and that we were more than welcome. And since it was an educational experience, we got the program to pay for our bus tickets, which was a huge help, since they came to around $120.

It was kind of tricky figuring how long we wanted to stay in Chiapas and what we wanted to do and who wanted to go, but in the end, it was Katy, Cassie and I who went. It's about a 12 hour bus ride to San Cristobal de las Casas, which is the city where the conference was, and the buses only run over-night, so we left wednesday evening in order to get to the conference on thursday morning. As we were taking the bus to the bus station, I could help but wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. We'd traveled on our own before when we went to Veracruz, but that was only for the weekend, it was four hours from puebla, we were a group of 10, not three, and I hadn't really had a direct hand in the planning. For this trip, it was up to the three of us to figure out how to get where we needed to go, judge safety, book hotels etc. But everything pretty much went smoothly, and anything that didn't we were able to take in stride.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the bus ride to San Cristobal. The seats were huge and reclined almost all the way back, so I slept pretty much the whole twelve hours. We got to San Cristobal around 7am, so we took our taxi to the hostel we wanted to stay in. We couldn't check in yet, but we dropped off our stuff and headed out to check in at the conference. Although we were tired and gross from the bus ride, the morning in San Cristobal was enchanting. There were women in different types of indigenous dress with baskets on their backs, setting up their crafts at the market, people eating steaming tamales and backpackers everywhere. The city itself reminded me of a combination of Puebla and Cuetzalan. The streets were cobble stone and the side walks were so narrow we could hardly walk two abreast, never mind all three of us in a row. The buildings were no more than two stories high, and each one was a different bright color. And as we walked to the site of the check in, the early morning light was glistening off everything.

I was honestly pretty amazed when we showed up at our destination and there was actually a conference going on. All we had been going on was the one vague email I received back in October, and in the back of my mind, I wondered if there might have been a miscommunication, but now, the conference actually did exist. We registered and sat through the fist session before we sleepily headed back to the hostel to relax and recuperate a bit. That afternoon we attended some more discussions, had some tasty vegetarian food (both Katy and Cassie are vegetarians, but that worked out well because san cristobal caters to the crunchy, backpacking, vegetarian type). That night was a lot of fun because the hostel we were staying in was full of young people from all over the world, and there was a bonfire in the courtyard of the hostel where everyone gathered around. We talked to people from Spain, Canada, Holland, Australia, Norway, and England. It was really neat to hear the stories of the backpackers who have either taken a semester off or are just not going the traditional path and instead are wandering the world. There was something very attractive about the idea of having nowhere you needed to be for a few months and just exploring at your own pace.

The second day the conference was held at site just outside of san cristobal. To get there, we had to take a taxi, and at first, our taxi driver didn't even know where we going, but after driving along a dirt road through a neighborhood of tiny concrete block houses with chickens in the front yards, we arrived at a tiny agricultural college.

***

Ok, all the above was written the day before I left, but I am now back in Puebla and ready to start updating you all on a new semester. So the short version is Chiapas was amazing. In San Cristobal, we divided our time between the conference and exploring San Cristobal. We went horse back riding to a small town where all the women and girls wear wool skirts that look like black-faux fur tied with wide embroidered belts. We went to a church that was nothing like I've seen- a true mix of Catholicism and indigenous religion. The ground was covered in pine needles, there were no seats, just people kneeling before rows of thin candles melted to the ground, air filled with incense and chanting, and the music of 6 or 7 harpists. We rode through the mountains with crazy guides who liked to make our horses go fast and saw women washing their clothes in streams. We ate lots of long meals (actually not lots- we did lots of snacking and strategically planned our meals to save money) and did lots of shopping to spend the money we saved on meals. We met a cool anthropologist at the conference who is just a few years older than me, and is doing her research on the mexican- Guatemalan border and invited us to stay sometime if we don't mind cots.

We took a five hour bus ride to palenque after the conference which was the worst bus ride I've ever taken. It was pure mountain curves for five hours straight- even after dramamine I felt sicker than I ever had in my life. In palenque we stayed in cabanas in the jungle and ate pizza in the humid night air, surrounded by huge brilliant green leaves. We spent hours at the ruins of palenque, exploring at our own pace, refusing to pay a guide and using our lonely planet photocopies instead. They were the most beautiful ruins I've seen yet, and one of the most beautiful places I've seen period. We remarked that we could understand how the rulers of palenque believed themselves to be gods as we stood on top of the pyramids over looking miles and miles of lush jungle. We also visited two stunning waterfalls, Misol Ha and Agua Azul. At Agua azul, we bought tiny bananas from a little girl and shared them for a snack. The bus ride back home wasn't quite as pleasant since we stopped at nearly every town between palenque and puebla, and also had to stop for migration officers looking for illegal guatemalan imigrants. But over all, it was an amazing trip. I was very proud of the three of us for sucessfully pulling off such a big trip by ourselves.

After we got back from Chiapas, we only had a week left of the semester, so time flew by. My birthday was that Tuesday that we got back. I slept all morning and then at lunch, my family acted like it was just a regular day, and then surprised me with a cake for dessert. After dance class, we went out to a bar to celebrate my new legality which wasn't quite so new, and afterwards, everyone came back to my house for hot chocolate and the rest of my birthday cake. In the next few days, I took an anthro exam, wrote a research paper for my dance class, and practiced like mad for our dance performance at the goodbye party on friday. We were all really nervous about the performance since we never practiced with all the elements- the high heeled shoes, the skirts, the music, the rocky patio, our partners- and we were still learning choreography up to two days before the performance. But miraculously, we somehow pulled it off and actually had a good time doing it!

Horseback riding up the side of a mountain

Katy and Cassie outside the conference site on the second day

The colorful cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas

Eating pizza in the jungle

Me at the ruins of Palenque

More beautiful ruins

Dancing at the goodbye fiesta

Israel and I the goodbye fiesta

Me and my host family

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!