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.