Rompí la Piñata

North America » Mexico » Puebla » Cholula
March 11th 2009

Published: March 11th 2009

Hola again, I am still here, alive and well. Speaking of alive and well I spoke to my friend Ben a couple days ago, who is in Prague, and I was very happy to hear that he is alive and well. Anyways not to much has been going on here in Mexico, getting into a fairly normal schedule here. I do know, however, that it will be ruined starting this weekend, but I am happy about that. Last Friday we went to Puebla to see the Museo Amparo and the Talavera (pottery Puebla is famous for) factory and I do not have any pictures to share with you or really anything to tell you about it. It really wasn't too exciting. On Saturday, here at UDLA (Universidad de Las Americas) there was a big event for students looking at the school and there were thousands of high school students running around. We had plans to go to Walmart, but we ended up spending a few hours at the school looking at the different international tents and taking part in the festivities. The canadian tent had these delicious bars called Nanaimo bars and I suggest that all of you google that recipe because they were amazing. Later, we decided to go to Walmart so we walked down the street to catch a bus and met two guys from the United States who are just traveling around and a student from UDLA. These guys were going to this bootleg market down by the bus station (CAPU) and invited us to join, so we went. Here they had food (which I do not suggest eating), DVDs, CDs, video games, electronics, some shoes and clothes (nothing too great unless you want soccer clothes). Pope, if you want me to bring you back some video games for about 2 dollars a piece just let me know which ones to get, also I could get you a Mexican jersey if you want. After we wandered around this market for a while, we took a bus over to the Walmart. Here I was a little disappointed because they were out of ChapStick and really that was number one on my list because it is so dry here. But, the donuts and cookies we got there made up for it. There bakeries here are so funny; you take a tray and a set of tongs and walk around and pick what you want and put it on the tray. Then, you take the tray to a girl who weighs and counts what you have and packages it all up for you. However, if you are getting 100 rolls (people were), they just give you a clear garbage bag to fill up. Guess they do not want to have to deal with individually wrapping 100 rolls. Saturday afternoon we had a bar-ba-que for all of the February birthdays (I think it was really just supposed to be for Mark's birthday, but it ended up being for Alyssa, Julia, Tony, and my birthday as well). All the families came and it was a big extravaganza. Each family brought something to eat, so there was a lot of food, and Paola (our group director) brought pinatas, which if you understand spanish you could guess that rompí una de las piñatas (I broke one of the pinatas). I felt like I was five years old again and after everyone really killed the lucha libre man, we would run in and collect all the candy! This was a really comical experience because Tony's host dad and Tony were controlling the pinata and they would move it all around and try to hit the person with the pinata. This was really the highlight of my weekend. On Sunday, we just went to the pool here at the university and hung out.

Last week I finished one of my classes, so thus far I have an A in a class here, ha, it was really a challenge to get. Monday we started a new class and it actually is quite a bit more difficult. The problem for me is that the 300- and the 400-level students are together in this literature course and what happens is that we go at the speed of the 400-level students and all of us 300-levelers are left in the dust. There are two students on this trip that are clearly at a different level and it actually takes away from those of us who have a lot to learn because when the professor asks if we understand, they immediately answer yes and we move on. Luckily, this teacher is extra nice (same teacher from the class I already finished with my A) and she can tell that most of us are completely lost and will try to slow down and go back. I think the other problem is that most of us are 1) intimidated by them and 2) they sort of make us feel inferior because they laugh at us or shake their heads at us while we are trying to speak. All this is doing is making us not want to talk in class. However, on the other end, I am getting some good conversation opportunities with my host family. On Saturday night I didn't go out (I hardly ever go out just because I don't want my clothes to reek of smoke and have to wash them, because the wash is ruining my clothes) so I spent two hours having tea and cookies with my host mom and dad, talking about stuff. I think this is going to be how I learn the most Spanish. I also had a good dinner with them on Sunday and we had a few other family dinners this week. I am definitely feeling more comfortable speaking with them, which is the most important part. And I finally feel like they like me, not that they probably didn't like me, but they probably thought I was really quiet at first.

I have spent most of my time this week debating travel plans, making travel plans, and creating itineraries. It was funny because yesterday Donald Johanson was here giving a presentation. He is an American paleoanthropologist that is known for the discovery of the skeleton "Lucy" in Ethiopia. And first of all I am a little upset I did not go to the presentation, I didn't realize that it was in English and I did not know what it was about, and second we were talking to him during lunch (he sat right next to us) and he asked us what we were doing here and we all answered that most of the work we do here is planning our vacations and going on vacations, and it is completely true. Yesterday we made plans to go away this weekend; we are going to see the Monarch butterflies, Morelia, and Valle de Bravo. We were originally going somewhere with the school on Friday, but Paola changed that for us so we could have four days to see all of these places. So we are going away Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (we don't have class), then we have class on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we leave again on Thursday to go to Mexico City until Sunday night. So if you cannot tell I am really doing a lot and working very hard preparing for all my vacations. I love my life. I also spent like 4 hours last night typing up an itinerary for our spring break in Chiapas and send it out to my group. As soon as we go through and finalize some things I will post the itinerary here so you can all follow me even though I will not be able to communicate with you for 10 days. (I can randomly send an I am alive text to the family) Also I have learned that if you are going to travel anywhere do not buy any guide book other than Lonely Planet, it is absolutely the best guide book out there. I was able to plan every single detail, how we are going to get from place-to-place in Chiapas, how much everything is going to cost, different options for going places that we will be close to without doing any work whatsoever. It was all in the book. I regret that I did not buy it because the Mexico 2009 version had a creepy skeleton picture on the cover, but I can tell you now that I would put up with that creepy picture for the information that is in that book. Anyways just thought I would give you an update. Also I thought it was pretty cool that Irma Griza's (artist whose work I saw in Oaxaca) daughter came across my blog where I wrote about seeing the her exhibition and she left me a message saying that she appreciated what I wrote and sent me her website so that I could see more of her art. I know that the internet can be a scary, but it really is a great thing too. Anyways hasta luego (until later, it is a way of saying see you later) and I hope all is good and well in the United States.

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved