More Adventurous

Thursday was Chris' birthday, so Chris, Sean, Kayla, Mariah, Celia, Rachel, Erin and I went to Rachel and Erin's house downtown. Their house is really close to the Zocalo, and own a restaurant which is the bottom front part of their house. It's a huge house, I think about 14 people live there all together. Since it was Chris' birthday,Papa Tomas (the sister's host dad) and mama Linda made us the most incredible food. We had homemade horchata, fresh squeezed orange juice, jugo de tamarindo, homemade tortilla chips and guacamole, squash soup, salad, spanish rice, and pechuga milanesa (very very thin breaded fried chicken). We ate until we were uncomfortably full, then had a tour of the house. It just kept going and going. The dog lives on the roof (which is really common here), where one of the habitants was hanging laundry to dry (the washer and dryer was on the roof, too). The girls have their own room apart from the house, with a balcony overlooking the courtyard with a fountain, lamppost, and children's toys. The house was built around a courtyard that was completely open. There were two kitchens, one upstairs and one down, but apparently the one downstairs is only used for holidays, which is sad because it’s an authentic Mexican kitchen, with some of the biggest pots and pans I’ve ever seen, and the tile stove that you put coals, or whatever heating source in the holes in front. On our way back to the bus stop, I got a watermelon popsicle at this ice cream shop that had every fruit imaginable and every flavor of ice cream you could want.
Friday during the day was probably the most boring day I’ve had yet, here. I didn’t really do anything, just some homework and was restless all day. Friday night, Sean made us “Josh’s feast”, consisting of all of Josh’s uneaten food, (rice, beans, tortillas) since he’s back in the states now. Later that night, a few of us were going out and ran into Regina as we were leaving the gate, so we walked with her through campus to meet her friend, Joslin (Joslyn? Josslinn?) who’s from Germany. We went with them to los Sapos (the popular strip downtown) to meet their friend Emiliano. We went to this really nice place that was an old church, and had a live DJ, but it closed fairly early, so we went looking for something else to do. We couldn’t decide, so we just went back to Emiliano’s apartment which was about 4 blocks away, to hang out. Again, the complex was surrounding a courtyard, where the residents part their cars. He is a really interesting kid, a photographer for Myspace, but a political science major. We left because Chris had a field study trip bright and early in the morning.
Saturday, Dario and I were going to go to either Pachuca, or Tlaxcala, two towns about an hour away from Puebla, each, but he couldn’t go, and I still wanted to, so Sean, Mariah and I went to Tlaxcala. We weren’t really sure where to go, what time the bus would leave, or what to do when we got there, but we just went to the bus station to see what we could do. I asked the clerk what town we should go to today, and he said Pachuca, but I asked him about Tlaxcala, since it’s closer and we left later than I had originally planned. The bus fare was only 16 pesos (about $1), and there was a bus leaving every 10 min. I think we made a good choice. The town was sprawled out on hills, very quaint and European looking. We didn’t do a lot of things of substance, just walked around and saw new things. I really liked it, we went to the biggest market I’ve ever seen, that was next to a really smelly river, when we were trying get back to the bus station we walked up this huge, steep hill, and down the road quite a ways, until we looked across the town and saw a sign for the store across the street from where we got off the bus. Aka-we were really far away from where we needed to be. So we walked back down the hill in attempts to get to the other side of town, and stopped in a store to ask a little old lady for directions. We were in a rush because it looked like a nasty storm was coming really quickly. Walking BACK up the hill again, there was a sand strom-ish. We were wearing our hoods up, sunglasses, and covering our mouths because there was so much sand blowing. The lady told us to just go down the street to the statue and catch the bus from there, which was great advice because otherwise we would have been walking around in the rain. We hopped on the bus and this time it was only 14 pesos.
Sunday, Kayla, Chris, Mariah and I went to Cholula in search of the Carnaval festival that was sopposed to be there, but we didn’t find anything. I did, however, finally see the largest pyramid by volume in the world, which is in Cholula. I didn’t go in because they had all already been, but I’ll go back sometime this semester. It is still buried in dirt/grass, except for the stairs, and the church on the top. Kayla bought a hammock (which she is lying in now), and I found a great store for Talavera. I still haven’t decided what to get yet, maybe a sugar bowl? Since nothing was really going on, we came back to the dorms and met Celia there. We still wanted to do something so we went to the smallest volcano in the world, which is in a tiny town between Puebla and Cholula, called La Libertad. The cab driver said that there was in fact a festival in Cholula, but that we had gone to the wrong center, there are apparently two centers in Cholula.
I had my final exam today for 305. We are taking three Spanish classes in one this semester. So tomorrow begins 306, then in March or so we’ll begin 410. Regina and Joslyn are renting cars to go to Acapulco this weekend and they invited us, so hopefully we’ll get to go!

week 6 thusfar

Quick recap:
Monday, Sean and I went to our favorite restaurant, Antojitos Tomy where I'm pretty sure the waiters know us and what we want to eat by now, and then to our favorite panderia (bread store) and I got two huge loaves of fresh baked bread and flan for 21 pesos ($1.50). Then he left and I ventured around Puebla to the market to do some grocery shopping for the week. All of the vegetables, fruit, and grains are fresh and really really cheap. I think I spent around 60 pesos (about $4) for an entire bag of food that will probably last longer than a week. Needless to say, the bad was REALLY heavy. I was walking to the bus stop to take it back to campus, and knew the intersection was 4 and 9, but couldn't remember which direction of 4 and 9 is was. Norte, Sur, Poniente, Oriente. so I walked around. And around. And around. Until finally I just said "okay, I know how to get there from the Zocalo, so I'll just go there and take the route we always do". It was long and grueling, but I think I've finally figured out Puebla's layout and plus, I found a new artisan market along the way.
Tuesday, I had to finish grocery shopping that I couldn't do at the market, like milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. Not exciting.
Wednesday, about 15 of us went out because today is Chris' birthday. We went to a really nice restaurant in the mall and watched the Puebla soccer game. I asked the waiter how to pronounce BeerBQ Chicken pizza and he just looked at me and said "BeerBQ Chicken". "Oh" Everything was really good, but extremely expensive, especially compared to the prices of food we're used to. Chris and a few others shared a beer tower that was 3 liters, and about 3 feet tall with a tap. It was pretty interesting. Apparently they have those in the states too, but I had never seen them before.
In other news, the girls on our floor are actually starting to talk to us. It's not as akward as before. Kayla and someone else were racing them in Mario Kart the other night, and they've invited us to go out with them a few times, we've just never gotten our plans straight and missed them every time, but hey, it's a start. Stephanie moved to the second floor. Josh went back home to Las Vegas, Sean and Fionna may be moving to a homestay. There's a lot of changes going on in the USAC program!
I want to go somewhere this weekend, but a lot of people don't want to go, because we have our final exam on Monday for 305, and other people are worried about finances. But if it's just a day, I think it'll be alright.

Weekend Travels

Yesterday, Sean, Mariah and I went to D.F. (Mexico City) to go to Teotihuacan. We left the dorms a little after 7 to catch the bus to the bus station. When we got to the bus station we bought our tickets for the next bus at 8:20, which was perfect because we didn't have to wait but maybe 2 min. The ride there was so, as I've said before, so different. The scenery changes drastically. Sometimes it's the stereotypical Mexican landscape that people think of, dry grass, cacti, shrubbery. Other times it's like your driving through a midwestern American state with rolling farmland, horses, hay, etc. Then at one point, it reminded me of driving through North Carolina or something because the road was cut through a mountain, to to the left and right there was a wall of rock and dark green trees. I saw a few farms with farmers steering cattle and one man was on a roman carriage with a donkey pulling it. However, when we started apporaching the massive city of D.F. (Districto Federal), I saw what looked like Mexican suburbia. Cookie cutter houses made out of cement and painted bright colors, all attached to one another. Then we got more and more into town and then started the above ground subway trains (I don't know the name for them, not metro? not subway? not train?) and really amazing graffiti decorating the entire length of the ride. There was a park extending the entire length of the divided highway (I guess you would call it), with playgrounds and whatnot. When we got to the bus station we bought our ticket to Teotihuacan for 31 pesos ($2.25) and just like any other time we've needed a bus in Mexico, it left right away. We stepped on and it pulled away. Our timing could not have been any better the entire day. I was sitting behind some girls that had an Australian accent so I asked them if they were studying here, but they were in Mexico City "on holiday". They had met this kid from Guadalajara/Mexico City in Oaxaca a few weeks ago and then they facebooked him telling him they were going to be in town so he was there too. He was born and raised in Guadalajara, but now lives in Mexico City for school. So we all started talking a little bit on the ride there. We got in for free for being students in Mexico, which was nice, then headed through a street of vendors to a museum. When we got on the other side of the museum, there was Teotihuacan staring at us in the face. I knew it was a huge place, but I was not expecting it to be the size that it was. It was 2.some miles long. We didn't even get to see the other half of it, we started out going left, towards the pyramid of the moon. There were people selling whistles that sounded like jaguar growls (or people being murdered, according to Mariah), jewelry, blankets, and other items the entire way, kind of had to fend them off. We went through a tunnel from one plaza to the next under a set of stairs. (It's so hard to decribe this, maybe I'll just upload the pictures to photobucket :) Climbing the pyramids is so exhausting, they are massive and the staris are at about a 70 degree angle, and a foot tall each. But getting to the top makes it all worth it. From there, you can see the entire ancient city of Teotihuacan, along with the modern day surrounding of Mexico City. Climbing to the top of the pyramid of the sun (the biggest pyramid in Mexico), was even harder, but we rested in between levels. Sean, (if anyone knows my brother, Isaac, Sean is the closest person I could compare him to) got yelled at for not climbing the stairs, but for climbing the side of the pyramid, like McGuyver. We have some photographic evidence. At the top of the pyramid, I ran into the Aussies and Alejandro (I think was his name) again. It turns out that he knows someone from USC that I had a class with last year and who is best friends with Kathleen from FMLA. It really is a small world. I mean, I don't know this girl well by any means, but I at least know who she is which is crazy to not have any connections at all, just randomly meeting people that know people in other parts of the world. We were all exhausted, and thristy, and starving, so we went back to the bus station, across the street to a restaurant, ate then left. I originally wanted to stay in the city a little longer and go to the national museum of anthropology, and do some other sight seeing, but we were too tired. I'm just going to have to go back. Maybe Luis will come to visit and he can show me around his home town! Who knows? Today I'm going to get my haircut, finally and attempt to make it, yet again, to the pyramids in Cholula which I have been planning on doing for weeks now. Nos vemos.

Brief summary

Things have been pretty calm here lately. We watched the US vs. Mexico game last night and Dario left when Mexico missed a goal that probably would have given them a chance to win. Tomorrow Sean, Erin and possibly Josh and I are going to walk to Cholula, the next town over to see the ruins. Then Saturday we're planning to go to Mexico City and to Teotihuacan.
In dance class we're learning salsa, and the professor has to be the best dancer I've ever met so we all feel higly inadequate. Spanish classes are getting a lot harder, but my professor is extremely helpful. I asked him if he had a chart of all the tenses with equivalents in English, and he didn't have one but he said he'd look for one, and give us all a copy on Monday. I've been trying to speak Spanish everyday for at least 30 min. The other night I hit an hour and a half. Kayla, Josh, Dario and I finally broke down and went to Starbucks two nights ago. We just wanted a cup of coffee that's bigger than 8 ounces.

Pictures!

So I finally took the time to figure out photobucket, and I have some pictures up now! It's only about half of them, because I can't figure out how to get all of them since they've been uploaded in different files and programs and whatnot. They aren't very good especially the ones that were taken on the tour bus because it was the one day that it was cold and not sunny! and we were on top of a tour bus and were going too fast to get good pics. But there are some from Veracruz, but I can't upload the ones of my dorm or campus, or more from downtown. Also the newest ones aren't there yet, but keep checking because now that I know how to do it, I'll be uploading more often.

Here's the link: http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/vv301/soiwenthome/

Speak Spanish SLOWWWLLLLYYYY

Okay, so I'm way overdue for a post. AKA-This is going to take a while...
The week was a pretty normal school week. On Thursday, we went to the bus station to buy our tickets for Veracruz, which was much easier than I had expected it to be. It was 234 pesos, which is about $17. Next to the bus station is another huge market full of any kind of shoe you can think of, bags, jewelry, movies, everything, so I am definitely going to have to get some more shoes sometime while I'm here. On Thursday night, the International club on campus was hosting a bbq at some students from Spain's house. Regina (from Guatemala) told us about it so we went with her and got to meet a bunch of people from all over. You could totally tell the house was owned by college boys, but we mostly hung out outside by the bbq pit. The homeowners were all wearing either wigs or crazy hats, and the "chef" was wearing an indian headdress. I met some people from France, Spain, Mexico, Holland, and Germany, and ended up talking with a guy from Holland in Spanish for quite a while which was good, because it was the longest Spanish conversation I've had since I've been here. We talked about pretty classy things too, not gonna lie. Like differences between indigenous and non-indigenous Mexicans, the class differences and such, American politics, then what Holland is like. We talked to the kids from St. Louis and Seattle too. Then we stayed pretty much up until Chris dropped a glass and broke it. lol. Then Chris, Josh, Mariah and I went to the Ibero party at a club in Cholula, open to all students of Ibero. It was a really pretty club, but also really expensive. We met up with some of the Mexican students from the dorms there.

Friday, we got packed and ready to head out to Veracruz. The bus left at 3 and on the cab ride there, I was afraid we wouldn't make it. It was already 2:40 and we were still in traffic, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. The bus was a really nice charter bus, and they played Pirates of the Carribbean 3 to keep up entertained. The ride was really great because the land between here and Veracruz is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It changes so fast, one minute it was just brownish grass and shrubbery hillside, the next it was like a jungle. We got to the bus station a little before 7 I guess and took a taxi to our hotel. The hotel was in the perfect location and we had plenty of room for the 11 people that went. Each room had three double beds. We dropped off our bags and walked toward the Zocalo which was so pretty at night. There was live music and people everywhere and all the buildings were lit up. We ate at an outside restaruant with marimbas and mariachi music and tons of people coming up to us and trying to sell us random things. I had a real live Coke, not the Mexican version, a real one. It was great. After dinner we were all pretty tired, but didn't want to waste the night, so we just found a small kareoke bar to sit down and relax at. Almost everyone sang a song, and all were pretty terrible, except the boy's rendition of Bohemian Raphsody.

Saturday, we ate breakfast at the first Mexican restaurant where I didn't enjoy the food. Then we split up and some went to the Aquarium and to the beach, and my group went to the ruins at Zempoala. It was about an hour away, but it was so short, and the ticket was only 27 pesos which is about $2. On the bus to Cardel, we met this woman and started talking to her and told her we were going to the ruins, so when we got off the bus, she walked us to where the other bus picked us up at, and told us what restaurant to go to and what food to order there. She was so helpful, because i'm not sure we would have found the bus ourselves and it just so happens that it was about to leave when we got to it. Everything went so unbelievably smooth. The town of Zempoala was so calm and peaceful. It was tiny from what we could see with one street to the ruins and no cars, just a man or two on a bike and at one point, on horse. We ate at the restaurant she recommended, which was probably their house, (which is common in Mexico-the restaurant is downstairs, they live upstairs and when it's closed at night, they park their car in the restaurant). The owner had the cutest little grandson ever, and he was in a baby seat with wheels (what do you call those?) and slid out of the kitchen really fast. I couldn't stop laughing but I missed at taking the picture of it. He kept smiling and waving at us. The ruins were about 1 min. down the road max, and free to get in. We were basically the only people there, maybe one other couple. It was amazing to be there, in a place where people lived over a thousand years ago. We were walking where they did, touching and climbing what they touched and climbed. Sean and Fionna had a battle in this huge circle of stones, then later we "sacrificed" Josh. We climbed a huge branchy tree behind one of the pyramids. Later that night, we went out dancing. The first club was really crowded and really lame, so we left and went to another one that was pretty much the complete opposite, we were pretty much the only ones there, but we made friends with one of the waiters, Ricardo.

Sunday, we woke up and went to the family restaurant across the street. The owners were so nice and made my favorite thing about Mexico even better- fresh squeezed juice wherever you go. We went to the beach, which was pretty crazy because we ran into the St. Louis kids there, they were staying at the hotel across the street. The weather was perfect, but the water was cold. We layed out for a little while, then Chris and I went to ride some water slides at the water park that was right behind us. That was the most fun I had the entire trip and that water was nice and warm, and not salty. The water slides reminded me of the slides you have to race down in Mario 64, if you know what I'm talking about at all. Half of the group went home Sunday night, but Erin, Rachael, Chris, Josh, Celia and I stayed. We met back up with Ricardo and he took us to a really nice coffee shop that he used to work at. We watched the end of the superbowl there (we started watching it in the hotel room). Erin and I walked on the beach then took a cab back to the hotel because we were exhausted, but the rest of the group met up with the St. Louis kids and went out.

Monday, we went back the the family restaurant and we took a picture with them because they were so good to us that weekend, we wanted to remember them. We walked around the port, on the malecon and got ice cream. We went back to the beach, but the weather was a little windy, so playing cards was a little difficult. We sat at a table under an umbrella and Celia and I shared a pina colada. It was a really relaxing day. We had to catch our bus at 5:30, but when we got our food it was already 5:15, so we just ate really fast. The ride home was nice too, because we sat in the very front.

Veracruz is really pretty and interesting, but I just felt like I had to watch more carefully in front and behind us, there wasn't any reason to really feel that way, I guess it was just an instinct or a gut feeling, but I guess it was just weird because there was hardly anyone walking around on the streets, or even really driving, it was kind of eerie. There are a lot of details that I had to leave out for time's sake, and now Dario Kayla and I are trying to speak in Spanish to it's hard to jump back and forth!