Here is a quick summary of what I’ve been up to the past several days. Last Thursday June 26 was my last day in the Spanish immersion program. I passed my classes, hooray! The university had a “graduation ceremony” for us, which I thought was a little silly but I guess it was good practice for the REAL graduation I will be having in December (Hallelujah!!) Afterwards they had a “brindis” or a toast for us outside in the gardens. It was nice and a good opportunity to say goodbye to all the friends that I made. A few of us went out for a late lunch together at a restaurant called Ice and Grill. At this restaurant you pick out your food from a buffet type line, its all raw vegetables and raw meats. You put as much as you want into one big bowl, then you pick the sauce you want your food cooked in and then they cook it for you. They have a soup and salad bar and you eat that while you’re waiting on your main course to be cooked. The food was delicious and only cost 85 pesos (about $8). We also got to watch Spain whoop up on Russia in the Euro Cup while we ate. I said my final goodbyes to everyone and walked home.
Friday was a great day. I did absolutely nothing. My host fam was at work all day, so I just hung out around the house. I read a good chunk of my García Márquez book and just took it easy.
Saturday I cooked shrimp n’ grits for my host family. They don’t have the exact equivalent of grits but the flavor was very similar, regardless they both loved it, and the next day I caught Gaby eating all the leftovers, haha. Maybe Mar (the name of their soon to be daughter) will develop a taste for Southern food.
Sunday was the final game in the Euro Cup Championship. Alfredo, Gaby, Miguel (Gaby’s cousin), and I went to Parque de Espana, which is sort of like a massive indoor/outdoor YMCA to exercise and later watch the game between Spain and Germany. Spain won, which made Alfredo very happy. It was fun watching the game with a ton of people and seeing how excited everyone gets about fútbol. Afterwards we went to a taco joint to celebrate. I ate Tacos de Moronja which was suggested to me by Miguel and Alfredo(cow intestines filled with blood), I didn’t know what it was until after I ate it but it was pretty good; tacos de pig skin, which I wasn’t too crazy about; and tacos de normal beef. Eating here is never boring that’s for sure.
Monday, I started my new classes for the teaching program. My classes are ok, one is more interesting than the other but I am definitely itching to be done with the student end of school. I am in classes for 5 hours a day and then afterwards we have different workshops, or local school visits. I’m staying very busy with this program and the time is flying by. Tonight I am going to see a Brazilian music program on campus which should be great, especially since I love Brazilian music. Everyone should check out Tribalistas, an awesome British group.
That’s all I have to report for now. This weekend is my last in Cholula and I’m going to spend it hanging out with my family. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July (I’m going to celebrate it by going to class), drink a cerveza and eat a hot dog for me!

The end of the road (well part of it.)

I spent this past weekend in the beautiful city of Oaxaca. We visited a museum of that contained artifacts from the oldest civilization in Mexico, the Zapotecas. We also got to spend alot of time in the markets, where I bought alot of stuff, for excellent prices. I love bargaining with the vendors, and in the end they will pretty much sell you what you want for the price you want to pay. I ate in a restaurant that my family had recommended to me - there is a picture of my meal on the other website. I had chiles rellenos which were of course different than those that they serve at Dos Amigos and much more delicious. Our second day in Oacaxa we went to Monte Alban, the ruins of the Zapotec civilization. It was amazing to see how advanced this civilization was and how the structures they built have lasted for thousands of years. There were also beautiful views of the valleys beacuse all of the ancient civilization built there towns on top of mountains. On a side note when we got to Monte Alban one of my teachers who came along on the trip and is getting her PhD in something to do with ancient Mexican civilizations told us that we could walk around with here if we wanted and she would tell us the history of what we were looking at. The majority of the group decided to do this. Well as we were walking towards a shady spot so she could talk to us a group of Monte Alban "tour guides" came to our teacher and told her that we all needed to pay money to have a Monte Alban tour guide and that she wasn't aloud to be our guide. Basically what they were saying is they just wanted our money. Thankfully my teacher "got real" with them and told them that we were not going to pay anything and there is no rule or law saying that we needed to do so. It was kind of entertaining to watch her fighting with the people but at the same time it was eye opening to the corruption that exists in Mexico. When we left Monte Alban we went to a hosue where they make black pottery. The technique for black pottery originated in Oaxaca and you can buy the pieces for, yes you guessed it cheap. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the center of Oaxaca shopping, exploring, and eating exotic ice creams like mexcal and tequila flavored, mmmmm.
This week I am finishing up classes. I just have one test tomorrow and I am finished. Saturday is the orientation for the teaching program that I am doing. Most of my friends are leaving on Friday and it will be sad to see them all go, but we have had alot of fun together and I'm looking forward to meeting new people on Saturday. Missing NC, especially Boone and everyone back home, see you all soon!

Un Titulo

So I have had a very good week despite the recurrence of my stomach issues. I saw another on Tuesday night so said that I have an amoeba, yummy. I am taking an antibiotic to kill the pet in my bowels and hopefully this time it will work. I am definitely looking forward to being able to eat without having fear when I get home. Tuesday after my Dr. visit I went to see a presentation on campus of a Mexican folkloric dance group. It was very good. The majority of the group was young. They played their own traditional (mostly Mariachi) music and danced to it. I took some videos that I can share when I get home. Wednesday after class I found the music department at the Uni and hit the jackpot. There are about 8 practice rooms and they all have pianos in them. I was the only one in the whole building so I picked a room, closed the door and played for about 2 hours (I almost missed my bus). It was very nice to play and a nice release for me. Thursday after class I went walking to downtown Cholula with some friends from Texas. As we were walking the daily downpour started so we ran into a little restaurant where we enjoyed some nieve (lit. snow/ the best ice cream ever) and sat out the storm. Afterwards I just decided to walk home because I had to meet Gaby and Alfredo for dinner. I definitely got my exercise. When I got home around 3:45 there was a note on the table that said “Comemos a partir de 16:30” (We will eat around 4:30). I sat down to watch some tv and relax for a little while. There wasn’t much on tv and I could heard some kids playing outside so I decided to go outside to see if I could play too. ‘Davidcito’ the couple across the street was outside with his grandma playing ball. This is the couple who are the missionaries, Kelly is from TX and her husband is from Mexico. Kelly’s mom is here visiting for a couple of weeks so I started talking to her. She just retired from the school system in Houston where she taught Spanish for 30 years. She is a Christian as well with a lot of insight into the wonderful world of education. She was very sweet and we spent over an hour talking. What about eating at 4:30, you ask? 4:30 in Mexican time could mean 4:30 or 7pm, this day it meant 6pm. That is when Gaby and Alfredo finally got home and we ate. I love the Spanish concept of time – it was the same in Spain.
Today (Friday) was an awesome day. I slept in, watched a little tv, then headed out to meet my friend from MI in the zócalo (center) of Cholula. We had planned to walk around the market, get some lunch and do a little shopping. We decided to eat lunch in the same place where Gaby and Alfredo took me in the market the other weekend. It is the place where the ladies pat out the blue corn tortillas and you can pick what you want in your quesadilla and they make them for you. The food was just as delicious as last time but the company was a bit more exciting. As we sat down a young Mexican guy asked us where we were from in broken English, so we told him in Spanish where we were from. He told us that he had lived (worked) in Georgia for a while and how much he loved the US. That was the end of the conversation, I thought. Well the lady served us our quesadillas which were piping hot and hard to eat b/c they are so huge. The Mexican guy kept staring at us and eventually started laughing as we ate, so I decided to ask him what he was laughing at in a friendly tone, Nada he said. This started a longer conversation between the two ladies working the quesadilla stands, me, him and my friend. I still can’t get over how nice Mexicans are. We spent about an hour talking with these Mexican whom we didn’t know at all and it was awesome. As we were about to leave to do some shopping, our new Mexican friend, named Vicente, asked if he could walk with us and we said sure. So the three of us spent the afternoon shopping for pirated CD’s and DVD’s which was quite fun. We walked all around Cholula and later shared a couple beers and watched some fútbol. Now tell me where in America this would ever happen with a complete stranger. I learned a lot about Mexico and the immigration issues from Vicente that I will be happy to talk about when I get home…way too much to write on here. Needless to say I had a great day. I love meeting and talking to total strangers and that is very easy to do here in Mexico. Tomorrow, I plan to explore downtown Puebla so maybe I will meet some more cool people. I miss everyone, and I’m sure I’ll write more after the weekend. P.S. I’m half way through my time here, I can’t believe how quickly it has passed but I’m excited to return home in a month!

Una semana de mi vida en Mexico

Interesting things that have been going on in the past week:
Last Tuesday I visited a Talavera factory to see how it is made. Talavera is just a type of pottery that is made here in Puebla pretty much exactly like how you would imagine pottery being made. Everything is painted in really bright colors and has very intricate patterns. I will definitely be buying some so you all can see it. Wednesday, I had a lot of work today so I spent the afternoon writing a paper and studying for a test. I´m sure I have said it before, but I don’t think the directors of the program understand what a study abroad is…you’re not supposed to do that much studying, haha. After I had all of my work finished on Thursday I went off campus with some friends to eat lunch and do some shopping in Cholula. I didn’t buy anything but it was fun looking around. Thursday night the university hosted a Mexican Fiesta. Everyone came including the professors and it was a lot of fun. They had all of the typical Mexican foods like tacos, tamales, elote (a special type of corn), churros, and of course it wouldn’t be a Mexican fiesta without cervezas. They also had a live band that played a lot of covers of popular latin music. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. That night I took a taxi home and the driver turned out to be very sketchy. I was thankful that I knew how to get to my house and how to speak Spanish so that this guy couldn’t rip me off or anything else. A very important thing to know in Mexico is how to get where you are going and to be able to speak and understand the español because a lot of the taxi drivers try to rip you off. Friday I went with Gaby to school – the kids didn’t have class in the morning they were just supposed to come in the afternoon to put on a program for their parents. The program was going to be outside because the schools here don’t have indoor auditoriums, they are all outside. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs and they had to call the program off. Gaby’s parents live close to the school so her dad came and picked us up and we ate and hung out there for the rest of the evening. That night Gaby, Alfredo, and I went to see a movie that was in Spanish. It was pretty good but it was late and as you that know me well can probably guess…I fell asleep. It was fun none the less and very cheap so I will be going to the movies more often.
I spent the weekend on a trip with the University. Saturday we drove about 4 hours to a town called Taxco (pr. Tasco) that is famous for their silver mines. There are thousands of shops and markets to buy silver in Taxco for extremely cheap. Needless to say I bought quite a lot. I made some good friends on the trip and we had fun eating dinner together and hanging out. The next morning after we checked out of our hotel (which was surprisingly nice), we drove 2 hours to Xochicalco (pr. Sochicalco). Here there are ruins (pyramids) from an ancient civilization. We hiked all around the area with a guide who told us about all the history of the peoples from this area. It was very interesting and I will post pictures on the website soon. Next we drove to Cuernavaca, a larger city to eat lunch. My friends and I chose to eat at Burger King which was a very nice change to my regular diet here in Mexico. We had some free time after we ate to look at the palace of Hernán Cortés and walk through the market. I bought an awesome brightly colored 2 person hammock (for extremely cheap) which I can’t wait to hang up on my balcony at home! After Cuernavaca we headed back to Puebla. It was a fun weekend and I was happy with all of my purchases.
I am very thankful for this experience and I am learning a lot about Mexico, Spanish, and the world in general. I wish you could all be here to share this with me. Miss everyone and I’m looking forward to being in my country soon!

So here is what has been going on since my last entry; Thursday night was the first night that I “went out” with my amigos since being here. I finally felt healthy enough to be out late. I met up with a group of friends from all over (Michigan, Kansas, even SC), we all had dinner together and watched a Mexican fútbol (soccer) game. They are in the middle of their championship right now. We went to a couple different little bars, all of which were playing awesome music to dance to, even though I can’t dance. Mexicans definitely know the meaning of a fiesta and you are in for a good time no matter where you go.
Friday, I went to school with Gaby again. I spent the first half of the day in a 1st grade classroom. If you look at my pics you can see the kids celebrating one of the boy’s birthdays with a piñata. The second half of the day I was in a 2nd grade class. It was fun getting to interact with the kids and see how different teachers run their classrooms.
Friday was also Gaby’s Saint’s Day, so we went to her parents’ house to celebrate with her dad. They are also hosting a girl named Lynn who is from Kansas. We get along great so it was fun to have someone my age there to hang out with. We ate dinner there and just sat around sipping wine and chatting. I love how relaxed the atmosphere and the people are here. We as Americans could definitely learn a lot from the Hispanic cultures.
Saturday I slept really late. When I got up we had breakfast I went to buy a cell phone. It was very cheap and will be great to have to get in touch with my host family if my plans change and to make plans with my friends here. Later on, Gaby, Alfredo and I went to the market in downtown Cholula. We visited one of the ex-convents and then went into the market to buy produce, delicious cheese that is from Oaxaca, and even more delicious cream. We also ate in the market – delicious quesadillas that consisted of blue corn tortillas made from hand, pumpkin flour, mushrooms, some grass looking thing, and the cheese from Oaxaca (look at the pic of the “restaurant”. When we finished up at the market we went to have some coffee in the ‘Zocalo’ which is the main plaza. They were having a concert there so we enjoyed our coffee and the music. Again, the pace was very relaxed and enjoyable…no one here is ever in a hurry to do anything.
Today, the three of us went to a place called Africam Safari in Puebla. It is like a zoo but the animals are not in cages, they are free to roam about and you just ride through on a dirt path looking at the animals. They would often come right up to your car; many of my pictures are the actual distance that the animals were from the car (no zoom). There are also a couple of areas where you park and can get out to walk around. It was really cool to see these animals in a natural environment rather in cages. When we finished our safari we were really hungry so we drove to a town called Tecali, that is close by, to eat. We had a very good meal of a vegetable soup, spaghetti, and chicken in a green mole sauce. We also drank a pitcher of cantaloupe juice, and a pitcher of lime juice. They were ohhh so good and refreshing. After lunch we went to another ex-convent (see pics) and to an onyx store. Tecali is famous for their onyx, and it is very cheap.
Later on, we went to Alfredo’s frinds house for dinner. He is from Belgium and just married a Mexican girl 2 weeks ago. We looked at the pictures from the wedding and enjoyed a nice dinner of salmon and rice. Hopefully this fish will settle better with me. That’s all I have to report right now. Hope you all are well, Peace.

Week in Review

Nothing too much to report from Mexico. Sunday, I went with Alfredo and Gaby to a town about an hour away called Huaquechula. We visited an old convent/cathedral here. The church was closed for renovations but the convent was open and had been turned into a museum. This convent was more interesting than others because of how old it was and how old it really looked. The convent hasn’t been renovated or maintained that well so everything looked very authentic. It’s amazing how sturdy these buildings are that were built without any modern machines or technology. I am enjoying being in a country with such an old and rich history. Every small town or pueblo in Spanish has an interesting historical background. After visiting the convent we went to the local market to buy produce. Each town has it own market and on Sundays everyone comes to buy their food for the week. The produce is extremely fresh since it goes from the fields directly to the market. There are fruits and vegetables that I have never seen or even heard and the majority of them are very delicious. My favorite fruit right now is ______, it’s kind of like a mix between a strawberry and a kiwi. The mangoes are also delicious.
Monday night, I ate fish for dinner with my host fam. It was prepared with tomatoes, onions, and peppers (like most food here) and it tasted very good going down…a few hours later I learned that this was the cause of my sickness. I let Alfredo know that I wouldn’t be eating anymore fish because I like keeping my food in my stomach, haha. Besides this last incident my stomach has been handling the food much better. Obviously Dos Amigos, Los Arcoiris, or whatever your favorite Mexican restaurant is, and authentic Mexican food are two very different things.
I bought a headset for practically nothing at an electronics store so that I can use Skype to talk to friends and family at home. Whoever created Skype is a genius and I’m very happy to have this technology. For those of you that don’t know about it; you can call computer to computer for free or you can call from your computer to a phone (land or cell) for only $.021. This is such a great deal and a must have for anyone traveling abroad. Needless to say I’ve been catching up with Tyler, Mom and Dad, and my friends for the past couple of days. The only tough thing is switching back to Spanish after speaking English on the phone for a couple of hours.
This afternoon I returned to the boarding school. Francisco was napping on the playground so I played with a group of girls who enjoyed calling me “Kiwi” it’s the same word in English and Spanish, lucky me. We ran all over the playground playing “eres” or tag. I also learned some Spanish hand-cheers which was very fun.
I’ve spent the rest of my evening studying for a grammar test tomorrow. This class is very challenging for me. It’s more of a linguistics class where we study why words are the way they are and why sentences are arranged in a particular way. I never learned any of this in English so I’m having to study a bit more to understand it in Spanish. Thankfully I have a good teacher who goes at a slow pace to make sure that we (all 6 of us in the class) understand everything.
Hope everyone is well, and thanks to you all for reading. I wasn’t sure I was going to have any audience when I started writing but it’s much more fun to write when I know someone is going to read! I will write more this weekend. Ok, Peace :)

Climbing Mt. Everst, (minus the snow)

Today I spent the Day in a colonial town called Tepototzlán. The indigenous people that lived in this area settled on top of a mountain. They built their pyramid and temple up there to be closer to the gods. After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived in the town. We had 2 guides with us, one from the university and the other that was from Tepototzlán. The guides told us about some of the history of the town and told us to prepare for our trek up the mountain. I was super excited to go ‘hiking’ and just assumed that it was going to be the type of hiking that I’m accustomed to in Boone. I quickly realized that I was wrong. The guide said that the whole trip up and down the mountain would take about three hours, so off we went; Straight up the mountain. We continued to go straight up for the next hour and a half. The path was very rocky, treacherous, and steep. There were no cut backs like we are used to in the states just a straightaway up the mountain. There were a few times I didn’t think I was going to make but I kept pushing on. Finally we made it to the top where we were rewarded with an incredible view of the town below. I felt like I had just climbed Mt. Everest, and was quite proud of myself along with everyone else in the group. We enjoyed the views and a little rest on top of the mountain for a while before we began the descent back down. This was physically easier but you had to concentrate and be very careful not to slip on the rocks. If you look at my pictures of the trail you will see what I mean. I’m sure that if we had paths like this, especially in a tourist area, it would result in a law suit. Overall, I enjoyed the adventure. You appreciate the views and the nature a lot more when you have to work so hard to see it.
After we got down the mountain we had lunch in a typical restaurant in the town. I had quesadillas with mushrooms and cheese that were quite tasty. We visited an old convent in the town and then spent the rest of the time walking around in the outdoor market. I bought a couple of things there for very cheap. I’m continuing to love the exchange rate between pesos and dollars (about 10 pesos - $1). Oh and the best part of the trip I need to mention is the ‘nieve’. This means snow in Spanish and is a type of ice cream that Tepototzlán is famous for. It is made with water instead of milk, kind of like Italian gelato. It is all made from fresh fruits and ingredients. I bought a cup of Lime nieve and it was by far the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my life. I had to by a second cup a little later because I liked it so much. It’s much more refreshing than ice cream, and the lime flavor tasted like a virgin margarita, ummm ummm! I had a fun day and would definitely recommend Tepotoztlán as a day trip to anyone in the Mexico City area.