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.