Mexico Revisited

Dear Friends and Family,

Living in Mexico for the time that I did really embedded my heart and soul into the country itself. Though I've been away from her for 2 years, she has never been far from my heart. That being said, I have felt a real pull on my heartstrings to return to Oaxaca is some way and to alleviate the glimpses of poverty that were evident even on our sheltered school excursion.

I have been busy with finishing school and chasing things that I thought were important in life. Now that school is behind me, and my goals have shifted, I have a heart wide open to accompanying a missions trip to Oaxaca, for however long, to be used in whatever way.

I am currently in contact with Forward Edge International, a local Vancouver based missions organization that offers regular trips to Oaxaca to not only assist in a medical clinic, but also in the lives and homes of the beautiful people of Oaxaca.

Please assist me in praying that God will open doors to Oaxaca and that I will be able to fully give all of my heart to this missions trip.

Para cerar, voy a dar este oracion:

Keep us near your heart, O Lord, keep us in your hands and in your thoughts.
Show yourself to us through your work and through each other.
Allow us to be examples of you every day.
Allow us to be a support system grounded in you.
Allow us to comfort and love in your Holy name.
Love us, teach us to love.
Feed us, teach us to feed others.
Listen to us, so that we may better hear others.

Amen.

8 days left!

No pictures, but a few updates.

This will probably be my last blog while I'm here in Mexico, so I'll try and catch you up on a few of the details of whats been going on lately.

The US election was something that was just as closely watched in Mexico as it was back home (I'm sure). The Fox group was really looking forward to watching election night via the BBC but were disappointed to find out that Cuernavaca had recently changed all its channels so that the BBC was no longer available. After a short fit about all the news channels being in Spanish (and how we wanted to watch an AMERICAN election in ENGLISH), I decided the best option was to stream CNN live from my computer.

So here's the picture: Everyone huddled around my MAC Book on a dark but warm Mexico night, watching the night unfold miles away from our own country.

After the votes were tallied and the celebration parties had started, it really sunk in for me: I'm missing the most important night of the year. I wanted so desperately to just be in America, and celebrate like an American and overflow with American pride.

Mexicans are (understandably) so proud of their country though, that you have to kinda bottle it up, or it looks like you're stepping on toes.

The spirit of happiness about Obama being president elect wasn't just contained at the US border though. Mexico was extremely relived. Because a lot of what America does directly effects Mexico, Mexicans really hold their breath every 4th November. All the teachers at our school were pulling for Obama as decreetly as they could.

My host brother greeted me the morning after the election with some rude cuss words about Bush and how he didn't care who the president was, as long as he wasn't Bush and as long as he didn't screw things up for Mexico. I think he really did care though :) hahaha. You just can't NOT care.


Other news from Mexico is that we're all counting down the days until we can get on the plane and go home! Mexico has been a WONDERFUL experience, but as James put it, "It feels like a vacation thats just gone on too long." Some of us have had a much rougher time than others: host-family issues, sickness, a death in a family back home, and now, the newest issue: LICE! Yes, we're all very much looking forward to the sweet, sweet relief of Oregon (and for some of us, Washington).

Of course we're looking forward to Christmas with our families as well! Late November, and likely December, is just not the same in Mexico. Not with 75 degree weather and blue skies.

Ashley's host family decided to buy a real Christmas tree this year and I can't tell you the fits of joy she and I were both in when we went with them to pick it out. A 6 ft REAL Christmas tree here, imported from Canada, is $700 pesos. That's roughly $70 dollers! Its pretty ridiculous. Nonetheless, Ashley and I were rubbing its needles and getting its Christmas scent all over us! We even made a Gingerbread house while listening to Christmas music before we even bought the tree. I'm telling you guys, we're desperate here!

While the pine does offer vague memories of home with its scent, it's not the same when you realize you're not around family and friends, that you're not dressed in your winter's warmest, and that you're not tasting the bittersweet winter air on your lips every time you venture outside. You're not getting whisked into the frenzy of the holidays and you're not listening to English Christmas carols (just "Feliz Navidad" over and over again).

If anything besides an extraordinary cultural experience, Mexico has given me a sense of pride in where I come from and much appreciation for what I have in the US, including family, Oregon weather, and United States security.

When I left for Mexico, I could not wait to get out of America - even bragged about it. Now I know, even if America were a dump, there's no place like home. No place anywhere in the world that can make you forget it. No experience that trumps being with loved ones in a familiar setting.

Hence, why I'm counting down the days until I can step off a plane onto that weird looking PDX airport carpet, and trudge, both exhausted and excitedly, towards my family on the other side of the terminal.

I'll see you all in 8 days.

Guanajuato y San Miguel

To catch you up on my Day of the Dead experience, my teacher, Ana Maria, decided instead to take Marcy, Aubrey and I to Jardin Borda, which is a type of community garden/historical site in downtown Cuernavaca. There was a huge festival going on there with Mariachi Bands, offerings, incense, dancing and art. As we walked through the gardens there were huge 7 ft Catrinas everywhere, all dressed differently, made by local artists. La Catrina, as I explained in an earlier blog, is the main character of Dia de los Muertos. She's a skeleton that's usually dressed very fancy and is a joke that started among the upper class and slowly moved all throughout Mexico. She's been featured in Diego Rivera's murals and many caricatures. From what I can tell, she's meant to say that no matter how much anyone has, you still die in the end.

So as we walked around the garden admiring the Catrinas, we also bought some snacks (I got a mango on a stick) and listened to the mariachi bands which played their music over the many ponds in the garden. Ana Maria told us this was to raise the spirits of the dead out of the water. Later, there was a dance of some kind where a bunch of masked people screamed and twirled and were just overall creepy. One of them pulled me out of the crowd so I did some sweet twirling moves with them and everyone clapped. I was pretty much a hero. No lie. Haha.

The next day, Universal packed its students up and drove the 5 hours North to Guanajuato. About 4 hours into the trip, we stopped at beautiful San Miguel, a small touristy town, to stretch our legs and walk about. It being Halloween, everyone was hard at work in the zocalo making offering and covering the ground in artistic patterns made from various grains and flowers. Streamers were hung everywhere, incense was burning, and, to our surprise, there were tons of American tourists walking around. We'd never heard so much english since we'd arrived in Mexico! Lots of cars with Texas license plates too....I guess San Miguel really brings in the foreigners during this time of year.

Ramiro told us to wander around on our own, and as tired as we were, we weren't too happy about not getting a tour or any information about the city of San Miguel. So alas, I have nothing interesting about its history or people to share with you. We did, however, find a Starbucks that actually served Chai (a very hard thing to find in Mexico, even in Starbucks) and had a relaxing time there before doing some window-shopping and sightseeing.

After a few hours, we got back on the bus and kept heading towards Guanajuato, which ended up being further away than we anticipated. We finally arrived at our hotel after dark which meant that Guanajuato was a good 'n low 50 degrees. We were all freezing, tired, and some of us sick, so rather than check out the city at night, we ordered in pizza and went to sleep.

The next day we were up bright and early to check out a mine that Guanjauto was famous for. The mine was pretty boring but the guide was very interesting. By the end of the tour, we were all in agreement: he was definitely a drug addict. He was jittery and nervous and kept repeating the same things 3 times in a row. Luckily, he did know a little about what he was talking about, so it was ok.

After the mine, we headed further into town to see an old torture facility that the medieval church had used to keep its congregation in line. After seeing the most grotesque contraptions ever engineered for every sin in the book (and some that I wouldn't consider sins...) we got to see some of Guanajauto's famous mummies! Of course to go and see them, we had to climb down into a catacombe in which the lights went out halfway through our tour....I think they must do that every time they have a group of girls that wants to see mummies. I found this whole experience very perfect for the Halloween spirit and I'll just consider our mummy room as a haunted house visit. However, the idea of the church using torture, against its own followers nonetheless, left a bad taste in some of our mouths and provided for some interesting conversation all the way to our next stop.

A museum was our next stop. And honestly, by this time, we're all so incredibly sick of museums. This one talked mostly about Mexico's revolution (which we already know about). So we really just mosied around and scanned stuff before asking Ramiro to take us to lunch.

Which he didn't. He left us again and told us to do our own things with the rest of the day. By this time, feeling like our last real excursion had very little planning done beforehand, we decided to see the city on our own. So after lunch, we set off in search of the famous Lover's Alley which is a street where the houses are so close together that two lovers could lean from their balconies and kiss each other. The story about this alley is somewhat similar to Romeo and Juliet, where the rich girl in one house liked the poor boy in the other. When her father caught them kissing, he told his daughter that we would kill her if he caught her doing it again. Thinking he wasn't serious (she was, after all, his only daughter), she continued to kiss the neighbor boy until her father found them again and did indeed kill his daughter. The boy was so overwhelmed with sadness, he committed suicide.

I'm not sure if that story is true, but its a large tourist site today where people like to take pictures of themselves kissing loved ones. I, having no loved one, decided to wander down the street a bit until I found the coolest, picture-perfect man ever. You're thinking handsome, right? I'm talking photo-op. Half his face was covered in Samoan tattoos and he had a cool septum piercing. I asked if I could take his picture and he said yes, on one condition: That he be allowed to stare deeply into my eyes. I was like "Sure! Good deal!" thinking he was gonna ask me to buy some of this silver rings he was selling instead. So I took his picture in exchange for one awkward minute of the blinking game. After that, he told me he saw "the light of the sun" in my eyes. I felt right at home on hippie Hawthorne, Portland. He had me write my name on a piece of paper so he could remember me and then pulled out a bottle of perfume to rub on my hand, ensuring me that with this perfume I would have a wonderful day.

The day was pretty alright, seeing as after that, I went straight into a candy store and bought some of the popular sugar calavaras to bring home to the States. I think I went a little overboard, because I bought 7 of them. I hope they make it home to the people I bought them for.

While walking around some more, we met an exchange student like ourselves named Rachel, who was living in Guanajuato. She told us she had worked at a bar there that had great food so we followed her excitedly to find that we were too early and that they weren't serving yet. Instead, she took us to a secluded cafe that had the most amazing cheap wine and fried chicken (!!!). It was also dirt cheap. We were thrilled and spent a good portion of the cold, crisp night there, laughing and talking about home. On our way back to the hotel, it being Todos Santos, we got to see all these kids wandering the streets in costumes asking for money or candy. With the chilly night, it felt very much like the USA.

The next day we were supposed to see yet another museum, but to our pleasure, it was closed on Sundays. Again, Ramiro told us to fill our own time, so we dispersed to find food and say goodbye to Guanajuato. After wandering around and seeing what we could of the preparations for Dia de Los Muertos, we got back on the bus and went back to Cuernavaca.

As much as I enjoyed Guanajuato, like I said, it felt like their was very little planning behind it and we didn't get to experience Mexico's most unique holiday like we all would have liked to. It turned out their was more going on in Cuernavaca that weekend than there was in Guanajuato and we'd missed out thoroughly. But next to Oaxaca, Guanajuato was my second favorite excursion.

Pictures of Guanajuato and San Miguel can be seen here.
Also, if you look at my previous blog, I've uploaded a link for pictures of the market place in all its Day of the Dead glory, as well as my festival experience at Jardin Borda.

The Market Place

Today we were all exempt from classes and instead, Ramiro and Ana Maria decided to take us to the market place to buy offerings for the "grave" of Emiliano Zapata, a deceased Mexican hero. So the school gave us money and sent us out with a list of things to buy, such as flowers (there is a special orange type of flower that smells beautiful and is only in bloom during the end of October), paper cut outs, and fruit to put on a table at the school near Emiliano's picture.

The whole market was stuffed full of people buying candles, sugar skulls, meats, fruit, flowers, and incense just for the shrines that they will make to their deceased loves ones. So after being bustled around the market place by Ana Maria we finally managed to find all the things we needed and ran back to the school to find a table with Emiliano's picture hanging over it. We started putting the flowers and fruit and sugar skulls (with the names of all the teachers on them) all over the table, as well as dishes of candied yams and pears. Carlos even gave up two empty packs of cigarettes and Ramiro and Claudio donated some vodka and beer.

We made the table look very nice and took some pictures with it and Ramiro explained that tomorrow we would be able to eat the food ourselves after the "spirits" get at it first. I personally think the only thing that will be enjoying that food before me are the ants, but it was very fun to take part in a truely Mexican tradition. Here's a picture of our Emiliano Zapata shrine:

Tonight I'm going with one of my teachers to visit the graveyard of her sister and see what goes on there. My host mom tells me that its common for a story teller to be at the graveyard and tell ghost stories to everyone. Of course, now whatever taxi you get into, the driver will have a story about how he was called out to a house by a person who had been dead for years. Everything is so much like Halloween...but so much less like a holiday made for the sole purpose of bringing in money. Here, things are very spiritual and deep.

Pictures of the market can be seen here.

From Mexico City to Mexico City

So Saturday, Universal took us to Mexico City to see a giant museum that houses many pieces of original art from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, as well as some other modern-day Mexican artists, one of which specialized in gigantic wax heads of women with clumped wax eyelashes and dripping wax "flesh."

This museum (The “Museo Dolores Olmedo”) was donated to the City of Mexico by a woman named Dolores Olmedo who was an avid collector of Diego Riveras paintings. She and her daughter have been featured in a few of his works, as well. But she didn’t just collect from Rivera, she had a whole room full of ancient Asian works of art, including TONS of carved ivory, some of them complete tusks that had been intimately carved, and a bunch of wood stamps (which are finely carved pieces of wood, dipped in ink, and stamped onto a paper. Its extremely tedious work to make such delicate carvings into a piece of wood that’s about the size of a postage stamp.)

The works of Frida Kahlo were, of course, my favorite part. It was very moving to be up close, RIGHT IN FRONT of a piece of art that I’d only seen in books (and seen MANY TIMES since being in Mexico). You just look at it and think, ‘Wow, this is the real deal.’…and then you think about how small it is compared to how you imagined it. Anyways, there were a few of her paintings displayed that I hadn't ever seen before and that was very exciting.

Diego’s room was cool too. I didn’t know he had experimented with so many different styles of art. He did surreal art, portraits, even some pieces that looked like Picasso works.

The whole thing was very exciting to me, especially walking from exhibit to exhibit and running into swarms of peacocks which were ALL OVER the grounds.

After the museum, we traveled to Xochimilco (ho-chee-mil-co) to ride on some Venician-like boats on a canal. We all got onto this long, thin boat that had a table down the middle of it and the “driver” pushed us along the canal with a long pole. There were tons of boats on the canal, and as we saw, many of them were rented out for weddings and anniversaries. There were people who would paddle up next to you and try to sell you flowers, hats, and other wares. Other boats were full of mariachi bands that you could hire to follow you along the water and serenade you. The Che was kind enough to rent two bands to follow us. They were full bands too: Guitars, bass, horns, drums, and one even had a hammer dulcimer. We drank drinks and enjoyed the scenery and had an overall relaxing time.

After this, we drove further into Mexico city to Coyoacán, the neighborhood where Frida Kahlo’s house was. Her house is easy to spot on the street simply because it’s the most intense, brilliant, color blue. The house has been turned into a museum with more of Frida and Diego’s original paintings as well as their furniture and displayed letters between Diego Rivera and Albert Einstein and other famous people. In the house you can see the bed where Frida died as well as an urn with her ashes in it.


Pictures of today can be seen here.

That was all Saturday. Sunday, my mom flew home and my friends and I decided to venture back into Mexico City on our own to watch the biggest fútbol game of the season: The Guadalajara Chivas vs America Aguilas. This was quite a sporting event because the Chivas are the only Mexican soccer team to have all Mexican players, while the Aguilas are Mexico City's team. Both teams are classic and have very loyal fan bases (especially the Chivas!) so the Azteca Stadium (which is 3rd largest in the WORLD) was PACKED! At first I decided to wear neutral colors to prevent myself from getting stabbed outside the stadium by an opposing team loyalist, but when James, Emilee, Erin, Ashley and I arrived early, I decided to take the opportunity to get into the team spirit and pick out some proper attire. For the Aguilas: James, Erin, and I. For the Chivas: Emilee and Ashley. Above is me, supporting my team with their mascot (plus sweet shirt).

We had pretty good seats that were up high so that we could see everything that was going on. People were already getting whipped up with team chants and such. One for the Chivas is "Olay, olay olay olay! Chivaaas! Chivas!" The other was "Vamos, Vamos America...!" and the stadium sides would bounce the chants off each other.

The Chivas section of the stadium looked like a prison had come to watch the game. It had barbed wire and armed guards around the section to keep Chivas and Aguilas from mingling. That side was the "militant loyalist" side and during the second half of the game, many people began lighting red flares and waving them around before hurling them down onto the Aguila fans below them. They also started shooting off fireworks during the game. One person was actually badly burned from a falling flare and, after the game, medics ran into his section.

The game was intense and very merciless. When the Chivas goalie knocked himself out by accident for a few seconds, the Aguilas fans started chanting a rude Spanish word at him. Whenever a Chivas player was tripped or hurt, the Aguilas would all jeer and laugh.

In the end though, the Chivas ended up beating the Aguilas on their home field 2-1. I was sad my team lost :( After the game, when people were slightly drunk and filing out, people started to notice that their were a bunch of white kids at a Mexican fútbol game. Suddenly, everyone wanted a picture with us. All the way until the bus station back to Cuernavaca, people were asking for pictures with us in our supporting team colors.

We finally got home to Cuernavaca at about 11:30, completely exhausted and full of the Mexican spirit.

Some pictures of the game can be seen here.

Lo Siento a todos!

I'm sorry everyone! I haven't been very consistent about updating this blog recently. Things have been unbelievably busy and the time flies by faster every week. To catch you up, Universal finished its first quarter so all us students were hard at work taking finals and finishing up projects for our classes. Before finals week, my computer crashed (it ALWAYS happens the week before finals - ALWAYS!!) and so I was out of a computer for a week...kinda an excuse, I suppose.

After finals, my mom arrived here in Cuernavaca to spend some of her with me during my vacation, which we spent in Acapulco, only a 4 hour bus ride from here. The hotel, Mayan Palace, was AMAZING. It was on Playa Diamonte which is a private beach about 20 minutes outside of downtown Acapulco reserved for the ritzy hotels. So the sand was white and clean and everything was beautiful. Our hotel also boasts the largest swimming pool in the world, which means it stretches a couple acres between two hotels (both branches of Mayan Resorts). The food was amazing and I REALLY enjoyed eating American for the first time in awhile. I filled up on Cesear Salad and was a very happy camper.

So now, we're onto the first week of the second quarter at Universal and my mom is still here, going to school with me and learning Spanish. She's been doing really good and has gotten to a point where she can communicate pretty well on her own with Oliva, my host mom.

This weekend, the Gettysburg and Fox groups are taking a trip into Mexico City to see the house of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. I'm really excited for this, and I've been looking forward to this since I first got here because Frida is probably my favorite artist. She had a really tragic life after a grotesque accident during her youth left her in pain the rest of her life, as well as unable to have children (something she'd always wanted). Her marriage to Diego wasn't much better. Neither were faithful to the other and eventually got a divorce, but then remarried a couple years later. They lived in separate houses that were connected by a bridge (La Casa Rosa y La Casa Azul - "The Red House and the Blue House"). Both were strong communist supporters and even welcomed philosopher Leon Trotsky into their home while he was a political refugee.

I find her life extremely interesting and more so because all of her paintings drip symbolism about the pain in her life and her outlook on other people's lives. She's considered Mexico's most famous woman and one of their most famous surrealist painters - which is saying something because there is no country whose art is more surreal than Mexico's. I can't wait to see her home!

Right now all of Mexico is getting ready for one of their largest holidays - Dia de los Muertos! Its now a three day celebration thanks to the United States' holiday Halloween, which the kids have adopted here in Mexico. So October 31st is Halloween, November 1st is Dia de Todos Santos (All Saint's Day), and November 2nd is Dia de los Muertos! This is a uniquely Mexican holiday that combines both Catholic beliefs and ancient Aztec symbolism. Already orange, white, and black streamers and cut-outs are everywhere as well as the famous Sugar Skulls which are inscribed with the names of friends and family and given as gifts. Pan de Muerto is already in all the Panaderias (a sweet bun that has a cross on the top). During this time, the people will clean the graves of their loved ones, offer food to spirits and spend the night in the grave yard with candles and (no lie) Mariachi Bands. Here in Mexico, death is treated much differently than in the States. Death is accepted as a part of life and often joked about in caricatures (made famous by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada). Because of this, Dia de los Muertos is not a couple nights of frights and scares, its actually more like a party.

During this time, my group and I will be in Guanajauto and there's sure to be parades and all sorts of fun, so I will have pictures!

Oaxaca

Pictures here. Blog later.

Teotihuacan

Please click the picture above. Its amazing!

Today the Fox and Gettysburg groups visited Teotihuacan, an ancient archaeological site that dates back to the era of the Olmecas. Its virtually an untouched city as nearly all the pyramids are completely intact as well as some of the living areas and bath houses. It was very cool!
After Carlos gave us a walk about and explained some of the structures to us, he gave us 2 1/2 hours to wonder around and look at the site ourselves. So of course, with our free time, we climbed the Piramides del Sol y de la Luna. The Pyramid of the Sun is bigger than the Pyramid of the Moon (por supuesto) and climbing both of them is like pure murder. The stairs are not only steep but very tall, so its like some kind of super stair-master. We all made it to the top though and it was so worth it because of the view and, of course, the sense of accomplishment.
While we were climbing, we got to witness a religious ritual of some kind that was happening. There was a large group all people all dressed in white who would climb the pyramid, circle it on each of its levels, and continue on up to the top. Carlos explained that this was their way of replenishing their spiritual energy. At the top of the pyramid, many people gathered about a silver tab that was pressed into the stones in the middle of the top platform. Everyone was touching it and praying over it and at one time there where tons of people gathered around, waiting for their chance to touch the silver piece, which was about the size of a coin. Apparently, this is also a way of receiving energy from the pyramid.
We finally climbed down after enjoying the views and then went on to the Pyramid of the Moon, which is smaller and not such as much as an attraction but has just as nice a view.
After we'd had our fill of ancient stones, we went to the market place to look around. Its much better to buy gifts and such in the market because the vendors inside Teotihucan will literally chase you down if you even glance at what they're selling. They will NOT leave you alone! And they know random English phrases like, "Hey girls, want to buy a gift for the mother-in-law?" Its funny.
When people were done buying gifts, we headed over to a Pulque "farm". Pulque is the juice inside the Agave cactus plant. It was the original Mexican wine back in ancient times and the Indians would use it in many of their religious ceremonies. When the cactus is about 12 years old, they cut the branches away from it to get to the bulb from which all the leave grow. This is which the cactus stores its water which is modifies to make a sort of sweet juice that ferments very quickly. The unfermented juice was used to feed babies but after about 36 hours, it becomes alcoholic. The thing about Pulque is that is ferments by the day, so if you forget about it and leave it for a week or a month or a year, it can become lethal. It's also known for creeping up on you. People will drink and drink it and not feel anything and then -BAM!- you're out!
The Agave cactus' "leaves" were also very useful in everyday life. If you peel layers of the leaf away, you're left with a type of wax paper. The tip of the leaf is very durable and sharp - the first needle - and if you skin the leaf it makes thread which can easily be dyed with flowers and berries.
When we had learned all we could about the cactus, we got to try Pulque. Its milky white with the consistency of snot and it taste like a very sweet dessert wine. Then, just for good measure, our guide gave us shot of tequila with lime and salt. I dunno why. That had no educational value whatsoever. But hey! In Mexico, everything is a good time.
While at this Pulque farm, we also made friends with Domingo, a (about) 3 or 4 week old puppy. He was cute and I wanted to buy him as a souvenir.

Pictures from today can be seen here.

So change of plans, along with an update

There's been a change of plans in the schedule for our weekend excursion due to some terrorist activities here in Mexico. Apparently, during Independence Day, there was a bomb that went off during the Mayor's grito in Michoacan, killing 7 and putting 150 in the hospital. Michoacan was where the Gettysburg group was supposed to be heading this weekend. Because we obviously can't be there, we're now rearranging things so that our 4 day excursion to Oaxaca will be rescheduled for next week instead of the end of November. So there's two updates in one.

Also, right now I'm fighting off some kind of infection that has painfully inflamed my lymph nodes. Its pretty painful and not at all convenient so a little bit of prayer would be nice.

Other than all this, things are well and we're all looking forward to the arrival of Emilee's parents on the 27th. Lots of parents and family are coming during the break. Ashley's parents, Alayna's husband and parents, and my mom. Anyone else want to come and visit me?

Puebla y Tlaxcala

Friday at 8 am, we all met up at the school for the 2 hour bus ride into Puebla. We ended up driving through some beautiful landscape where there was nothing but small huts and scattered villages pierced by giant mountains. It sounds silly but it reminded me a lot of driving through Idaho in the summer. Everything is desolate but so immensely beautiful. In fact, it inspired me to write while we drove through it. What started off as a letter to my folks ended up becoming a way to remember the emotion of it all:

The most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, I saw while driving through the desert to Idaho in the summer. Everything was a grainy type of sand made from the reddish clay of the entire horizon. Huge shelves of rock jetted into the sky, the color of dried blood and chili power - everything the brillant colors of orange and red against a pale cloudless sky. American natural beauty at its most pure, most unrefined, real form.
Mexico's landscape reminds me of the same, but everything is blanketed in green that only barely covers the ground. The same mountains stare defiantly at the sky but these ones are spotted with brush and scrawny, spiraling trees that twist in a frozen dance. There are places where, by whatever means, the ground has been carved away to reveal the same deep, dark colored ground I'd seen in Idaho. And thats when it hits you: We all stand on the exact same ground. A ground that was sacred to others before us and will continue to be even after we're gone. It doesn't matter what language is spoken above the ground. The earth murmurs to and sustains itself across all mankind's borders.
The feeling of being connected to something like landscape in such an intimate way can only come from its lack of human footprints. Only in the sprawling forever, that currently is the land somewhere between Cuernavaca and Puebla, can you really feel a connection to something beyond yourself. Beyond your country at heart or at foot, a connection with untouched creation that waits to be discovered. Its in the moment that you discover it that you come to realize that every minutue, every second you are in awe of everything around you, every second you forget everything else...every second is precious. You will never relive this single experience ever again. Its unfortunate that some people only ever realize this years after their experience.

Before we hit Puebla, we stopped in Cholula, which is known for its very large pyramid that dates back to the era of the Olmecs (who were the original civilization in Mexico, even before the Aztecs). In order to get to the pyramid, instead of taking us through the city, our guide decided to take us through another way: a labyrinth of underground tunnels that swirl underneath the pyramid itself. This started off as a great way to get out of the hot sun. It soon became a little trickier for some in the group who were a bit claustrophobic. The tunnels themselves are pretty short in some places and the walls are definitely right next to you on either side. What made it worse for some people was that the guide kept stopping to explain things in some of the tightest places. I thought it was extraordinary, but some other were pretty glad to get out of there. Another thing: My photo here makes it look as if the tunnels were well lit. You can thank the aperture on my camera for that one because they were not.

After leaving the tunnels, we emerged to see the pyramid, or what was left of it. This one, like so many others, had also been destroyed by the Spanish so that a church could be built in its place. The pyramid was a bit too big though, so only the top half of it was destroyed and a church was built on top of it. We walked through the ruins for a while and even climbed to the top of the stairs of one part of the pyramid for a better view of the town, but after awhile the heat was getting to us so we hoped on the bus to go to another sight-seeing area.

The next place to see was La Iglesia de Tonantzintla, which is known for having a specular inside which is entirely borroco (very intricate designs). Its also a bit of a joke because when the Indians were forced to build it for the Spanish, they carved themselves into the architecture as angels and carved the Spanish as demons. The chapel was very small, but SO extravagant. Its mostly just overwhelming because there is so much going on on the walls, everything is gold plated, everything is godily adorned, and everything is happening all at once and YOUR EYES HURT! Also, everything is 3D, because the walls are carved in what's almost layers. It was beautiful, but not quite my style in a church. I feel like I would have spent more time examining the walls than paying attention to a mass.

Finally, we were on our way into Puebla and ended up arriving there about 8 at night. Dinner was at the hotel, where we got our first real taste of the original recipe for mole, a sauce served over meat (usually chicken) which is made from chocolate and chili. I thought it was OK...but I probably wouldn't order it again. However, its quite the Mexican experience, so you have to at least try it.

Real quick, the hotel, by the way, was awesome! I was rooming with two other girls and our room was two stories! It was so cool. Everything smelled clean and wonderful, and it was cool and dry with a balcony. It was also nice to have a bed that was firm with a soft, puffy pillow. So yeah, so good.

That night we took a quick tour of La Capilla del Rosario, another church with tons of intricate designs that was also gold plated, and then we all just relaxed and walked around the town and took in the sights, smells, and sounds. We went through the market and bought some gifts and then met up with Ramiro and the Gettysburg teachers (who are the cutest Argentinean sisters you've ever met) for some food and drinks. Everything, per usual, was red, green and white - banners and streamers and lights everywhere - to celebrate Independence Day (which is tomorrow!).

The next day, we were up bright and early to see Los Fuertes (forts) de Loreto y Guadalupe, which are forts where the battle against the French took place on Cinco de Mayo. There's not much to tell here. We simply walked about the fort and didn't enter it at all which was disappointing and I still don't know why we couldn't go inside.

After the forts, we went to La Cocina (kitchen) de Santa Rosa. This was an old convent for nuns that was quite a bit different than other convents in that the women were severely mistreated. Our guide introduced us to the convent by taking us into a main room where there was a ton of modern...and very disturbing...art. By art, I mean mannequins which had been chopped up and had wires and tubes coming out of them. For instance, one piece was a black, curved chair (the "body") with long mannequin arms that reached painfully out of it. Its "head" was a radio-type thing that kept playing the same drum beat over and over again while gears turned inside it and made the. most. horrible. sound. ever. It was a screeching, nails against chalk, pain-induced screaming noise that almost instantly gave us all headaches. THE BEST PART was that through the hour long tour you could hear this creature screeching no matter where in the convent you went. It was the worst and it made it so hard to concentrate let alone translate the Spanish our guide was speaking in the back of our heads. To this point, I have no idea what that particular piece of art was supposed to symbolize. The whole hallway was full of these things that looked like they climbed out of Silent Hill (I kid you not). It was so scary to walk through alone, as I did later, especially with that THING screaming at me in its high pitched screech.

About the convent, women there were not allowed to have any contact with men whatsoever, which meant that they could only listen to church services through a thick screened wall. They were made to sleep on wooden boards with no blankets in order to keep them from dreaming, because their dreams could have possibly been tempting. It was pretty awful, but women in those days had a choice between marrying the man their father chose or joining a convent, which many found more appealing.

After the convent, we went to the Library Palafoxiana, which was in a community center that was putting on a show. Lots of music with little kids dancing in outfits that looked much like the traditional Mexican Doll. It was adorable. The library itself had tons of books that were all worn out and antique looking. That made sense since they were all from the 1500s and some, earlier. They were ordered by subject and all in Latin. There were some on ancient medicine, theology, science, scriptures, mythology, and more. It was very cool.

After that we had some free time to eat lunch and roam around Puebla. I don't know what I ate but I was sick the rest of the night and had to shut myself up in my massive room with a cup 'o noodles and MTV...in Spanish. So thats the end of this day. Sad times.

The next day, we ate, checked out, and bused over to Tlaxcala which is a small town whose native inhabitants are considered the "traitors" of Mexican history because they sided with Cortez when he fought the Aztecs. By the time we got to Tlaxcala, nearly ALL of us were tired and sick. Two of us had fevers and none of us wanted to do much but sleep off our weekend. Still, we enjoyed Tlaxcala as much as possible and toured their City Hall to see more murals (these ones, NOT by Diego Rivera).

Finally, after Tlaxcala, it was home to Cuernavaca and then a good night's sleep.

Pictures of ALL this stuff and MORE can be seen HERE.

TODAY is the day before Mexico's Independence Day, which means all of tonight is going to be a constant party. Mexico likes to celebrate the night before and then sleep off a hangover during the actual independence day. I already plan on getting no sleep tonight, as my neighbors love to party every night, let alone the night before their country's independence!

Today my school had a pot luck where all our host families made food and dropped it off at the school. We ate good food, listened to traditional Mexican music, and drank some traditional Mexican beer. Ok, just kidding, but it WAS included with our pot luck. On school property too! There are just some things I have to get used to....:) After the food, some of us went to lounge by the pool and others went home to sleep. I'm here writing this blog.

Hope everyone is well! !Viva Mexico!
Love,
Kels

The Musuem of Anthropology, The National Palace, and more

Yesterday our excursion was to the city of Mexico to see the National Palace (which houses a ton of murals by Diego Rivera) and the Museum of Anthropology. We met up at the school at 8 am with the groups from Gettysburg and Citdel and rode the hour's trip into downtown Mexico City.

The first place we stopped was the National Palace, which was dressed up from head to toe in green, white, and red banners and decorations because the Mexican Independence Day is only 2 weeks away (Sept. 16). It seriously looked like Christmas had changed its colors and decided to settle right down on top of the government plaza. There were huge flags made out of tinsel that stretched over the face of every building in the square. The square was interesting in itself. There is a huge, ancient cathedral on one side, The National Palace and a small archaeological site with pyramid ruins on a side, and the other two pieces of the square open into a touristy area of Mexico City.

Carlos took us to the pyramid ruins first and explained that the stones piled on top of each other were what was left of the Temple Meyor, a sacrificial temple created by the Aztecs to worship their main god, Huitzilopochtli (wit-chee-lo-pote-chli). He then pointed to the Cathedral just across from us and explained that when Cortez came across the temple it was taller than the Cathedral (which by the way, is a gigantic, spiraling, fully adorned Catholic masterpiece. In two words: Its huge). What we were seeing was the only bits that were left after Cortez had it destroyed to make room for his contribution to the Church...the Cathedral, which is still here, just across from the ruins.

The church looked a little lop-sided. Carlos explained that this was because, since Mexico City is built over what used to be a lake (and is now alot of mud), everything in the city is slowly sinking. In fact, part of the Cathedral was sinking faster than the rest of it and it was threatening to tear the building apart. Mexican architects found a way to place a panel underneath the church so that now...it will all sink at the same rate. BUT at least it saved the church from tearing in half.

Instead of touring the church, we went straight over to the National Palace. None of us really wanted to say anything to Carlos, but the Palace was very un-palace looking. In fact, it was just plain dull. Carlos answered our unspoken comments with a story. Apparently, Mexico had requested a National Palace from Spain and Lima, Peru has requested a grainery. The architect in Spain ended up placing the blueprints for each request in the wrong boat. So Peru ended up with an incredibly beautiful palace and Mexico ended up with a...well, factory. To fix this, the Mexican government has put more money into fixing up the INSIDE of the palace and hasn't really bothered about the outside. To the left is a picture of the grainery...er...palace.

The inside of the Palace really is beautiful. Its almost like a museum in itself because of all the beautiful murals that Diego Rivera painted all over the walls, all over the palace. Per usual Diego Rivera style, the murals had tons of symbolism intertwined in the paint and we never would have been able to grasp the full effect of his work without Carlos there to explain it all. When you first walk in, theres a staircase that breaks into two directions, with one heading upward to the right and the other to the left. Diego's mural covers the whole wall looking forward, left, and right. It is, again, a story in that it starts with the Aztec civilization over which is a setting sun (to symbolize the end of an era) and continues on to protray their conquer, the Spanish rule in Mexico, the Mexican independence, the reforms made involving Mexican land, the invasion of influence from American and France, and ends on the left side (the above picture which you can enlarge by clicking) with the introduction of Karl Marx's ideas of communism and what it was supposed to mean for Mexico. His left side (the ending side) has much more symbolism just because he was painting code to portray Mexico in its current state. He paints his wife, Frida Kahlo (one of Mexico's most beloved painters) in all his murals. In this one she is at the bottom behind to woman in red. The woman in red is Frida's sister, Crista, who Diego has recently had an affair with when he painted this mural. One of his symbols is the top of this side of the mural, portrayed in Karl Marx who is dividing the left and right side. The right side is houses burning, which was the trouble Mexico was in at the time. The left side of Marx is a stable economy, what Communism promised to bring to Mexico. Both Rivera and Frida Kahlo were communist sympathizers. Another symbol is in the middle with a paster kissing a prostitute as they exchange money and a rosary. Diego Rivera, who hated the Church, said that "the church was the prostitute of the rich" which as his way of saying the Church catered only to the rich and neglected the poor who it was called to.

There so much symbolism, I can't even explain it all without you being there. Mom, I hope we can go and see the National Palace when you get here so I can show you and explain it all. Its very interesting.

The rest of the Palace is more murals from Rivera that portray difference indigenous cultures and their way of life. I'm pretty upset I decided not to bring my nice camera into the city (I thought it would be too much of a lure for thieves). So I'm sorry but the pictures aren't quite as wonderful as they could have been.

After the Palace, Carlos gave us some free time to walk around the city. And in Mexico City, the one really interesting place to go is.....China Town? Yeah, my group was in the mood for some Chinese so we searched out a Chinese restaurant in China Town and had some food. Afterwards we saw some sights, so don't be too disappointed in our American-ness. While walking back to the square we got

When we met back up with Carlos, we rode over the Museum of Anthropology. The museum was basically a modern wonder in architecture. It was built in 1964 for the 1968 Olympic Games which were held in Mexico City that year, so its super nice. Artifacts from all over the country have been brought to to the museum to be put on permanent display. Carlos said that even pieces of pyramids had been moved there. As we wondered around, Carlos directed us towards the Aztec room. Inside, the first thing you see in the entire room is a gigantic slab on solid rock thats hung in the center of the back wall: The Aztec Calendar. Its huge! Much, much bigger than what I imagined it being. It truly is impressive to see what you've been reading about in text books up close and personal. You can even touch it if you like (although, the guards probably wouldn't have liked you to touch it) because there are no barriers or glass around anything large in the museum. Everything is face to face.

About this calendar...more accurately, its not a calendar at all. In fact, its the Aztec Bible. The center is their god, Huitzilopochtli, holding two hearts to symbolize that blood is the food of the gods (hence why the Aztecs were so big into human sacrifices - which were mostly voluntary, by the way). Around him are four squares each with a symbol in it to symbolize the four previous worlds the gods created, but then destroyed because the inhabitants forgot to say "thank you". The symbol show how the people were killed (one is a jaguar, one giant birds - you get the picture. One is actually a flood...yet another indigenous creation story that involves a flood....hmmm....). The creatures around Huitzilopochtli are the symbols of each day of the month and finally, towards the bottom are two heads fighting: the night and day gods, which are always at war in the sky.

The Aztec room was full of interesting things, and that was only ONE ROOM. There were a million rooms, one for the Mayas, one for the indigenous people of Oaxaca, one every tribe from different parts of Mexico. We truly did not have enough time to see them all, and I was disappointed to have missed out and been rushed through it. But what we did see what awesome.

I have pictures of the museum and more explanations of things on Flickr. Wouldn't you know it, my camera died just as we were entering the museum, so Emilee was nice enough to let me borrow hers. I'm not sure which pics are hers and which are mine, but they're all good and they're all uploaded here. No flash was allowed, so some things may be a bit blurry....:(

Overall, a really exciting day. We were exhausted when we got back. Today is our free day and so we're all hanging out here at Oliva's house and watching movies since its an uncommon rainy day here in Cuernavaca. Oliva says its because of the hurricanes. Dunno.

Next weekend, is our first 3 days excursion to Puebla. Tons of pics to come from that!

Lots of love and I still miss you all alot. I wish some of you could be here to experience this all with me...its hard to have so much fun and not be able to share it will the ones you love! But pictures are just as good right?...well, kinda. :)

Typical Friday

So since its been awhile since I've posted anything, I figure I should update you all and let you know I'm not dead.

I'd like to give you an idea of a typical Friday here in Mexico while attending Universal. Most of you may remember that we don't go to school on Friday so we ALWAYS have a 3 day weekend. So my Friday looked alot like this: Wake up at 10 am, find breakfast in the fridge, eat, scan the internet and waste time, pack up a swimming suit and change of clothes, walk to Universal while enjoying the sweet, sweet sounds of Imogen Heap. Swim. Sunbath. Sunburn. Return to my home for lunch (stopping along the way to buy a small Coke with REAL cane sugar in it for 3 pesos), shower, meet friends at OXXO and head downtown for a carnival that is happening this weekend.

Yes, life is pretty sweet.

So, a couple updates on some stuff here in Mexico: The teacher's strike is getting worse and worse everday. Kids haven't been to school in 3 weeks and while striking, the teachers are blocking roads which is causing a lot of traffic in downtown Cuernavaca. My host mom is a little upset about it all and she's been keeping me well informed. The reason they're striking is 1) Because the government is threatening to make public school here in Mexico, well, not free. And 2) many of the teaching jobs in Mexico are actually inherited. So when the government tried to test the current teachers to see if they knew the subjects they were teaching, 68% failed the tests. Now the teachers are afraid they will lose their jobs to people better suited to teach and they're protesting. Apparently, this same kind of strike happened in Oaxaca last year and ended in some violence so let's hope that won't be the case here. Right now it seems more like an annoyance than anything else.

The real problem here isn't the strike, its the fact that the education system in Mexico is very poorly planned out. Carlos, our history teacher, was telling us about the schools here and they seem pretty sketch. There are just a lot of obsticles along the education process that make it easier, if not more profitable for a student to drop out before finishing school. In fact, only 1 in 100 kids even graduates from college here. Its very unfortunate. Especially because of the state of the economy in Mexico, which is not doing so well right now. The average person who hasn't graduated college earns 50 pesos a day for their work. That's roughly $5USD a day. In Washington, minimum wage in $8USD an HOUR. It makes me feel very lucky to be living and working in America, and on top of that, going to a good college which from which I'll have a diploma in just 1 1/2 years.

Sorry for all the random facts, its just a couple things I've been picking up on.

Anyways, tomorrow my group and I will be heading to Mexico City for a tour of the National Palace as well as the Museum of Anthropology. I've heard the museum is so large that most people don't even get through the whole thing. I'm excited because there's suposed to be alot of ancient Aztec artifacts on display! So fun!

In the group, theres been a few issues with adjusting to the food (still), adjusting to the altitude (still), along with homesickness and insecurities about spanish speaking abilities. Just keep us in your prayers as many of us have been sick in the last two weeks. Everyone seems to think its just the food that we need to adjust to, but right now, when one thing goes wrong, its easy for everything to get thrown off course just with the newness of everything.

I will post some more pics tomorrow of D.F. and such. Hope you're all doing well!

Tepoztlán

Yesterday we all got up at 9 o'clock and ran over to the school for our first excursion of our semester here in Cuernavaca: Tepoztlán. Apparently there is a small pyramid in Tepoztlán that is up on a mountain and we were gonna hike up and see it.

Tepoztlán is about 45 minutes away from Cuernavaca out in a more rural area. There were lots of farming areas and horses along the road. Having not seen any horses since coming to Mexico, we were a little excited to see them all grazing alongside the road, some of them with babies. While "oo"ing and "aw"ing our mood suddenly changed when on the side of the road was another horse, this one dead and extremely bloated. I think it was more intriguing than gross, just because you could never imagine seeing something like that in America.

So we arrive in Tepoztlán, which is a quaint little town that's been built up around the tourism of the place. We parked the car and got ready for our hike.

Let me start off by saying that "hike" is not the correct verb for what we ended up doing. It was more like a mostly vertical climb at a very high altitude that none of us Portlanders were used to. This meant frequent stops, constant inability to breath and overall bodily pain. The "hike", which was supposed to take 45 minutes, took us an hour and a half to complete it (one way). The problem with the high altitude is that we would climb about ten steps and then need to rest because the air was too thin. Alot of us were feeling dizzy and one person in our group (Emily) was actually sick that day and still decided to climb. She's a trooper, for sure. We were really lucky that even though it was a sunny day, we were in shade the whole way up because we were basically climbing through a forest. So it was pretty cool and there was a slight breeze from time to time.

When we finally got to the top, the view was incredible. Its very hard to do justice with the pictures I took because the expanse of the sky and the feeling of being able to see everything without boundaries was so soothing. The pyramid itself was actually a little disappointing. Most of it had been destroyed, except for the steps and one block that had some carvings in it. Still, we climbed all over it and visited with the lemur-like monkey creatures that swarm the tourists who come to see the pyramid. Ramiro, our director, told us not to eat our lunches in front of the animals because they like to steal food from people. Sure enough, when one boy pulled out some food to eat, one of the monkeys actually climbed him to try and get the food. The boy kicked the animal. It was kinda sad.

After our sightseeing was done, we had to climb back down. Our legs were already nearly fatigued so going down was just the icing on the cake, so to speak. My legs were shaking so badly when we finally got down that James actually took a video of them. Needless to say, we're all quite sore today.

After eating at a local restraunt (because one lunch on that climb just wasn't enough), we decided to go through the town and shop a little. We'd heard there was a store that sold chocolate dipped Churros...but we never found it. So instead we bought a couple gifts for ourselves and others and toured a Convent, which was extremely antique and was all handpainted on the inside.

Finally, we met up with Ramiro and went back home to shower and clean up.

Every night for the past few nights there's been a thunder storm here in Cuernavaca. Only one has been directly over us, the rest happen off in the distance, but you can still hear the thunder and see the lightning. So last night, we all went to Ashley's house, which is on top of a hill, and sat on her roof and watched the lightning. Its not just sheet lightning here, its the huge vertical zig zag kind and James seems to think they're purple-ish colored. After it started to rain on us, we all went inside to watch a movie (in English) and then go home.

Pictures of this day can be seen here, by the way.

I'm feeling a little conflicted today because George Fox starts school tomorrow and I want more than anything to be there with all my friends, living in the apartment they've all already moved into. Not to mention Chris is flying back into Portland today and I wont be there to see him get in or spend any ounce of time with him for yet another 3 months. Its just so frustrating. I feel like I'm missing out on such an important bonding day, and week, at Fox and I don't want to be here, far away, while all my friends are getting together and having fun. Its just the worst.

So to sum it up, instead of greeting my boyfriend at the airport and seeing my bestfriends and meeting my new roommate, I'm here, in Mexico, having to write a paper in a language I don't understand for a class tomorrow that I only understand about 80% of. I'm feeling a bit down today.

2 days worth of blog

So, I've been just a little busy with the start of school being yesterday and my first field trip excursion being today. So where to begin...

My first day of school at Universal started yesterday and it was very, very pleasant. I'm taking 3 hours of Spanish and 2 hours of Mexican Civilization and Culture. Both my teachers are the best! Marta, who is my Spanish teacher, is a permanent smile. She loves to talk to us and listen to us and constantly crack jokes. She's very kind and is anyways very excited when you get an answer right. Her attitude of being interested in her class is what makes it so enjoyable and make you WANT to participate and interact with her. Some of you may know, this is NOT AT ALL what I'm used to in my language classes and its seriously a major breathe of fresh air after a horrible ordeal with one of my former Spanish teachers (which incidentally is the reason I'm in Mexico this semester). By the way, did I mention my class is a class of four (including me)? Its very personal education.

My history teacher, Carlos, is my absolute FAVORITE! He's an old man who has three very rotten teeth and he constantly smells like cigarettes. He talks very slow (which is sooo good) and he's extremely knowledgeable on tons of little facts about ancient Mexican culture. Right now we're learning about the Aztecs and the Olmecas. Its very captivating stuff!

My biggest problem here in Mexico is that I'm not eating properly. There was a little bit of a problem with the foods my host family was making for me and as a result, I ate next to nothing for three days. Keep in mind, I'm walking 10 minutes to and from class and also walking for hours downtown on sight seeing excursions. It all caught up to me yesterday while my group and I were wondering around downtown. I nearly fainted right in the middle of a Wall-Mart and Emily had to send me outside to sit down with her husband James until I was feeling better. Luckily Erin picked up my tab at the store and I brought home a bunch of Ensure to help get some calories in me.

Let me just stop and say how much I LOVE my group down here. Everyone takes care of everyone and Emily and James have dubbed us a "family". Everything is everyone's business and when Emily found out I wasn't eating right, she made it a personal goal of hers to put food in me. I'm so blessed to have these people around me. It makes all the difference in the world, as I'm sure you can imagine.

I'm sure everyone reading this knows how into photography I am. Well, I had the most amazing encounter with a photo subject today. I don't know her name, but she was this ancient looking woman who we walked by on our way back to the school. I smiled at her as we passed and she smiled this wrinkly little smile back and suddenly it hit me: I NEED a photo of this woman. I took out my camera and went back to her and asked her in Spanish if I could take a picture of her. She put one gnarled hand over my lens and leaned in and asked me to repeat myself. When I did, she started fussing about her hair and I think she was saying she looked bad. I told her she was so pretty and how I'd love to get a picture of her. By this time, she had wrapped a papery hand around mine and agreed to pose. So here's the product (unedited, for now). I think she's beautiful and for some reason I can't forget her.

Today, after classes Carlos took us on an excursion to La Palacio De Cortez which is now the Museso de Cuauhnáhuac. Cuauhnáhuac, which means "by the trees" is the original indigenes name for this city but since Cortez couldn't pronounce it, he named it Cuernavaca which means "the horn of a cow". Not a pleasant change.) Inside the museum are a ton of artifacts that were found in or around the palace, which was built on top of an Aztec pyramid/temple. It also consider a huge original mural by Diego Riveras which is simply gorgeous. Carlos explained to us all the symbolism in the painted and how it related to history and the conquer of the Aztecs.

The mural is a story that reads right to left and ends with a very interesting question for the "readers". On the right side, in the beginning, it starts with Cortez invading the Aztecs and massacring them. On top of the battle scene, Diego painted a human sacrifice taking place which the Aztecs did in order that the gods would help them win the battle. The human sacrifices they performed were sometimes voluntary. Rivera paints a story on the wall of how the Spaniards defeated the Aztecs (easily), starved them out, made them their slaves, used the land for their gain and years later, baptized many of them in the name of the church. On the last wall, there is a painted of another human sacrifice, this one is the church burned Indians alive for not accepting their Christian message. So Diego Rivera, who never liked the Church, asks: Which is better? To sacrifice others willingly? Or to murder them for not accepting Christ? Its obviously not exactly relevant to today's world but its the symbolism in the mural that I would have never understood if Carlos didn't take us so carefully through the museum with all this wisdom.

When we left the museum, Carlos left us to go home and we decided to wander around. Well, right now in Cuernavaca there is a large demonstration that has been going on for days now. The teachers are on strike because the government wants to charge students to go to public schools (a similar situation took place in Oaxaca last year that ended in violence). They are blocking all the roads and there's more and more people gathering every day. Everyone is pretty wound up about it. I think part of the demonstration included a tribal dance that people were all gathered around watching. There were drums and everything. It was very exciting and so I snapped a few photos.

So now I'm at home, procrastinating on doing my homework and writing this blog. I would really like to thank everyone whose been posting comments and sending messages of encouragement. I've REALLY needed them the past few days and its been so amazing to have all your support. Look at the prayer requests on the right that I laid out at the beginning of the trip. ALL of them have been answered and its only been 3 days! God has truly been amazing!

So thank you all again, and if you'd like to see more pictures from today, they are uploaded here.

Snail Mail

Here it is, finally! If you guys would like to send me a letter or package or post card or WHATEVER (except anthrax) you can send them to Universal, my school, and they will see to it that I get it. The address if you want to send a letter is different than if you want to send a package, so just be aware of that.

The addresses are here.

I've never sent anything to Mexico before, so I'm not sure how the address should line up...ask someone who knows better than me, I guess.

Also, George Fox kids, alot of you gave me your home addresses, but I realize you wont be at home very much longer. So please send me your school address and box number. Then I can write you lovings.

Today (and its only 12:00 pm) has been thus far a day of acceptance...which is a good thing. Good things always come after a good night's sleep, which was more or less the truth of last night. We had a thunderstorm here last night and it was a lucky thing too, or else the house next door never would have stopped blasting their very loud Mexican restaurant-like music and went to bed after it literally rained on their party.

Anyways, about my realizations. I feel like there have been certain trains of thought that I've adopted in the States and they've become a part of me over the years. I've always been so absolutely comfortable, and even prided myself in being independent and free to think whatever I wanted to and do whatever I wanted when I wanted. And as much as I would joke with you about how thats the way I thought, that was truely the way I thought.

Mexico is breaking callouses off my bones. Its chipping away ideals that I've held for 20 years and that's what hurts the most, I think. Its the uncertainty. Everything in Portland was certain. I could call on her and him and him and her in a hard time, and I could go here to get away and I could blow off so and so because they'd done me wrong in the past. Right here in Mexico, I'm so far away from everything I took for granted that I never want to take it for granted again.

I'm also learning, and here's the best part, to be dependent. Sounds opposite from everything we're taught, right? Well, let me explain. I'm learning to be dependent on God and on myself. If I put my strength in God, He will put strength in me and in that way I can be dependent on someone who will never let me down. I knew this time away from modern distractions and family and friends would be a growing time for God and I, I just didn't know how much growing I would need to do! Its scary and yet I'm so excited about it at the same time, just like Cuernavaca.

Prayers that the best thing you guys can give right now. And of course Skype conversations, because I love to see your pretty faces. So get a Skype account if you don't have one and lets chaaat.

Also, photos from downtown Cuernavaca and my school can be seen here.

Universal and Downtown Cuernavaca

I have pictures of Universal, my language school!! Its sooo beautiful. Its basically like studying in a garden. Everything in Cuernavaca is a garden. Even your house is a garden...and thats probably because nothing here has ever been weeded. But its still beautiful! My school is on a slope...a hill, really. Lessons are at the top, tennis courts and swimming pool is at the bottom and we have an amazing view. I didn't have my large camera today but I will take better pictures of the view soon - promise.

School starts are 8 in the morning every morning, 4 days a week (no school on Friday). It begins with three hours of Spanish, followed by Spanish literature for the first quarter and Spanish history for the 2nd quarter. School gets out at 1 pm. Lunch is served at our homes at 2:30 and then some nights we return to the school for an extra class at 4.

We have 3 field trips that will last an entire weekend. One is to Guadalajara, one is to Pueblo (Luis!), and the other to Oaxaca (Luis!!). Apparently the rumor in Oaxaca is that the mosquitoes that bite you in the day carry Malaria and the ones that bite you at night have Wes Nile Virus...or Dangi fever....or something obsurdly scary. I'm not sure I'm down with that.

Today we toured downtown Cuernavaca. It's very small but very busy and apparently we came just as a strike was going on with the teachers. I guess the government is wanted to charge kids to go to public school and everyone is very angry. Ramiro (our director) told us his daughter isn't in school right now because of the chaos. Other than that, we visited the Palace of Cortes and the Cathedral de Cuernavaca. There are too many pictures to post here, so I will upload them to photobucket and you can go there to see them.

Tonight I'm going to get a local cell phone so hopefully I will be able to call a few of you...but I'm not sure how expensive that will be yet...so fingers crossed.

I'm sorry this blog is so short and vague. Today was especially rough. The post you guys left were great, but I had to run to the bathroom at school to cry after reading them and when I returned everyone was staring at me because my eyes were red and puffy. I've seriously been on the verge of tears all day. And its not that things are going wrong. Everything has gone very smooth and there's nothing to complain about. But its just so overwhelming and I feel like no one else here is going through what I'm going through. I feel weak and that makes me more ashamed, so its really just a tragic cycle. And I couldn't even write that paragraph without crying. I just want to quit and go home...but I know that the thought of coming home a failure far outweighs what I need to endure here.

I'm just constantly afraid. Afraid of being mugged, afraid of getting lost, afraid of offending someone, afraid of being alone. Its so much pressure and so overwhelming, I'm at a breaking point. I can't even eat, my stomach is too upset. And I had to explain to my host mom today that her food was good but that I couldn't eat it because I can barely keep it down. And then I cried in front of her and Alfonso. It was so embarrassing. But she's kind and she understands.

Just keep me in your prayers...that this all will pass. And I'm usually online between 7-10 my time (5-8 for Portlanders) so get online and say hi. It would help alot.

Siempre, La Cuidad de Mexico

Well, here we are! We’re all well and good here in Mexico City, although we’re all quite exhausted, some of us having been awake since 1 am this morning (Portland time). But as tired as we are, we can’t close our eyes. Everything is already way too exciting.

I have never been to Mexico. Ever. Not even on vacation. So of course I’d HEARD about Mexico being a huge city and how it’s completely overwhelming. Yeah, totally underestimated how big Mexico City is. And so will you if I try and explain it as you’ve never been there. It’s expansive and never-ending. Quite a few minutes of our flight was simply flying over the metropolitan area, looking for the airport. It’s so huge! And it’s incredibly smashed together and yet still enormous. Its hills of houses and neighborhoods and cityscape as far as the eye can see – and that’s from the air! I was truly in awe.

So we landed in the Mexico City airport and had a bit of trouble finding the immigration counter. Some man kindly pointed us in the direction of a gigantic line and we were on our way into Mexico. Immigration was fine and easy. Customs was where it got a bit tricky.

At the Customs counter they request that all your luggage go through a second scan while a man who doesn’t speak English interrogates you. Its not a very fruitful process, as I’m sure you guessed, because I barely understood the man, he barely understood me, and therefore any questions of importance that he was asking went right over my head. Its ok, he didn’t seem too serious about his job anyways.

So I’m in the back of the line for Customs. Tiffany, Ashley, Erin, and Alayna have already had their stuff scans and are on the other side of security by the time I get my stuff off the scanner. Interestingly enough, the man checking the out the baggage was also checking me out and when I had loaded my stuff onto a cart to leave, he insisted he do a baggage inspection. I’m alone. Everyone in my group has already outside. What could I do? So while he opens up all my stuff and loosely inspected the contents, he also tries to make friendly conversation and really doesn’t look through my stuff at all. I’m fairly certain he just wanted to see my lingerie. So bad.

When I get outside, we’re met by Javier, who works for Universal (from what I’ve guessed). He’s a nice man who doesn’t speak English but is still very interested in all of us. We had a sweet van with AC, so we had the hookups on the way to Cuernavaca. Its about 70 degrees here and looks like it could rain at any moment. Everything is very green, but Javier says that’s only because its been raining a ton. Apparently everything is usually dead. He’s a very optimistic man.

Mexico City. Wow. Everything is pink or orange or purple or green or red and nothing (and I mean NOTHING) is NOT adorned with graffiti. Literally everywhere you look, there is graffiti covering the walls like wallpaper and some of it is really good! I wish I could have taken more pictures, but it’s hard to do that from a moving van. People and shops and markets are everywhere. Everything is bustling and alive. Its almost like Singapore in that everything is city and everyone has somewhere to go and something to do very quickly. It’s not like Singapore in that it’s Mexico, and all the plants and people and signs and architecture are very different and Latin.

So right now I’m in Cuernavaca at my host family’s home in my room (which has two beds for some reason. Apparently that isn’t uncommon, as Ashley has two as well). My host mom is very nice and she speaks slow enough that I can understand a lot of what she is saying. We had dinner together and she asked so many questions and talked so much I could barely eat. We talked about Mexican culture, George Fox, my family, my ancestry (which was weird), the sights to see in Cuernavaca, the weather, and Universal (the language school I’ll be attending here). Apparently, she’s hosted lots of students in the past, some from Germany and parts of Asia. I think she also won an award from Universal for being a good host mom. I hope I don’t accidentally offend her in some way…that would be horrible.

So I’m all unpacked, I’m safe, and severely homesick and on the verge of tears, but I’m pretty sure that just from this whole thing being a very long, very overwhelming day. Ashley and I have already agreed we’re gonna own this trip, so no more homesickness…although I miss you all way too much.

Love,
Kelsey
This is the outside of my home.
And this is looking down the street.