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Published: December 26th 2009
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Video Playlist: 1:
Pinata 21 secs
Shakked and Amit summarized in their journals so well these past five days in Tepoztlan that citing them will be the best way to go:
Shakked: "This is an amazing town! Brightly painted houses and stores are built on either side of a cobbled street and breathtaking mountains loom all around. Vendors wait at every corner, selling their goods.But, in my opinion, the most amazing part of the city is the market. Booths and shops are built in a huge plaza, unlike anything back in Hawaii. People roam around, chomping on delicacies while chatting with friends or bargaining about prices. And the things for sale! Brightly colored wooden drums, flutes, masks and bowls. Beautifully carved and painted pottery, toys and musical instruments. Most of the time we (Amit and I) learned Spanish in an amazing little school on the outskirts of town. Completely outdoors, it resembled a farm, except that it had no crops. Animals it did not lack - there were three dogs and a cat. Amit fell in love with one of the dogs, a huge black one named Oso , which means bear in Spanish. For two and a half hours we got a private lesson from the
teacher. After that we got to interact and play with three Mexican kids. They were learning English so we could help each other out. I enjoyed playing soccer with these kids. We also went to a mouth watering ice cream shop called Tepoznieves. I had mint and chocolate ice cream. And guess what are considered three delicacies here? Grasshoppers, dried pig skin and chicken feet. My parents actually ate a grasshopper each. I waited with bated breath as they chewed and swallowed. They said it tasted quite salty. On the last night of the Spanish classes we broke a pinata that we made out of a clay pot, paper mache, wrapping paper and cones. Pinata's breaking here are a very crazy event; when the pinata breaks all the children let out a howl and dived head first into the candy, trying to get what is more than their fare share."
Amit:"After a week at Tepoztlan, I am going to tell you about this town. When we got to Posada Cuali Cochi we were very excited to find out that our room had 2 rooms, 4 beds, a bathroom and a living room. We left our backpacks in the hotel
and went exploring Tepoztlan. We went looking at the market that existed on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday. When we finished exploring we went to eat at the plaza. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Now I am going to tell you about how Tepoztlan looks: it is a small city with a lot of people. You could say it looks pretty old. It is way up in the mountains. There aren't many cars, but a lot of people walking on the streets. Now when we reached Tepztlan we started Spanish classes. Now I am going to tell you about them. They were in a place out of the city, and were taught by someone called Senora Silvia. It started at 9am and ended at 2pm, for a break, and then went back from 4pm to 6:30pm. First we learned verbs like 'beber' (drink), and nouns like 'periodico' (newspaper). From 10:30am till 2pm Mexican kids came. There was a dog named 'oso' which means bear, which at first I was scared of, but I soon loved him. Now we had a friend who said that Tepoznieves, an ice-cream shop, was a good place to eat ice-cream.
We tried it and she was right, this is especially for Nesya! On the second day we learned nouns. On the third day we learned more nouns, on the fourth day we learned more verbs. When we said goodbye I was terribly sad to leave Oso, but it was time to leave. We took a taxi to the main plaza, and ate something really yummy. My dad and mom tasted grasshoppers! When we came back to the hotel for the final night, we found out there is going to be a fiesta (festival) for Navidad (Christmas). In Mexico everybody is invited to fiestas so we joined in. We were given candles and sparklers, and one big huge sparkler each - about as big as a sword and a dagger put together. People lit candles and we walked in a group with our candles singing songs. In the front of the group there were two people holding a doll which they represented as baby Jesus. By the way, I want to tell you that when all this was going on, there were fireworks everywhere. It sounded like a battlefield with bombs dropping on it. They sang to baby Jesus a lullaby,
and walked back to the hotel. They put Jesus down and went to celebrate with another Pinata. While we were waiting people were giving out things to everyone like mostly food but also a ceramic bowl, a cup or juice."
All in all, we had a very good time in Tepoztlan. After the craziness of Mexico City it was nice to be in a small town which felt very safe. People were very very friendly, inviting us to their parties and meals, of course all of them loving the kids and Maytal. As to Maytal...she is quite a challenge - she wants to be part of every game and touch every thing around, and when it is not possible she screams with all her might, shrill screams that pierce our ears. We all hope that this will end as she begins to talk and verbalize her wishes in more pleasant ways.
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Nesya, Amiel, Selilah
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GRASSHOPPERS!?! EWWWW!
We liked the video of the pinata. Shakked had a good swing. Were you guys down on the ground scrambling for candy, too? What kind of candy was inside? Everybody says, "EEEWWWW!!!" about the grasshoppers. We'll just take your parents word for it that they're salty. The ice cream, on the other hand, sounded veerrryy good. Can you add a picture of Oso? With a name like that, he must be really big. We thought the mountains around the village looked a bit like the Koolaus. Did the mountains remind you of Hawaii? Nesya is glad her school doesn't last as long as yours, but I bet it flies by because what you are learning is so interesting and useful. We see from the pictures, that it is not just your parents who are trying new culinary delights. Tell Maytal to stop eating the camera!!!