Pictures of me

This is for all of you who have complained that there aren't enough pictures of me, I have been taking them, I just don't want to post them, I don't think I photograph well, but here you go, I composite of me throughout the trip. My friends and I are going to share pictures at the end of the trip because we all have more of the others than ourselves. We are a tight group so I have faith this will happen.

So, in reverse order, because this is how they load. Me on the first day, already have a sunburn, documented just for fun. This is me in my room, I looked at myself instead of the camera entonces it looks really weird, but you asked for it! Me on the gondola up to the top of the cliff in Guanajato, took it myself, pretty strange. Two I stole from a friends blog, The group at the Palace of Cortez. Me on the streets of Cuernavaca with my buddy Bart Simpson, Woot. OK, hope that makes you all happy. Me, I'll have to post a bunch to make this fall onto another page, Yikes!

love you all!

Xochicacle

OK, what a fun experience it was to go to Xochicacle (pronounced sochi kackle, more or less). These pyramids are ginormous! There are more to be unearthed but there isn't money to do it. There is a great observatory where they measured the seasons by the appearance of sunlight. When it was a certain size they planted or harvested or whatever. It was lots of fun to be there. We are having a corn festival today at school so I need to be short, but I'll get more stuff posted later. Blessings!

Thursday Night Fun and More

Thursday night Fun! I’m writing this on Thursday but I’m not sure when I’ll have access to the internet to post this. I’ve decided this might be a good way to do things since my internet access is spotty at times.

So, hopefully along with this post I will have a picture of my Thursday night visitor. He wanted to be my roommate but I just had to put an end to that. I chased him around my room and opened my window with the hope of his departure. Alas I couldn’t seem to do it. After taking pictures and a video, I went downstairs to look for help. The TV was on, but I could find no one! I went back up, speaking to the lizard in Spanish pleading with him to leave, he just darted from one side of my curtains to the other. In another desperate attempt I went downstairs again. My Mexican Mother (Carmen) was just coming out of the bathroom. I told her there was a lagatiga en mi cuarto and she understood immediately and got Eric, my savior what twice before (the cockroach and what else, I can’t remember). They both came up to my room and Eric took off his sandals much to the horror of both Carmen and myself. Fortunately his plan, which worked, was to use them to shepherd the lizard to the open window. As soon as it ran out I closed the vantana y all was well. I’m still a little wound up, but it’s ok. I realize that it was more afraid of me than I was of it, I was still uncomfortable with it in my room. I considered at one point just going to sleep, but knew that was impossible. Carmen told me the name of the lizard, I can only remember the beginning of it, Beso or kiss in Spanish. Evidently these lizards open and close their mouths as if in a kiss. I sure didn’t notice! They are harmless but she told me that they make her uncomfortable as well. She wished me a tranquil sleep when they left me. I think that is possible.

In other news, evidently I misunderstood part of the story of the house in the garden we went to on Tuesday because today we went to la casa de la India Bonita. In other words the house of la amante de Maximilian. This house is also a museum and was one a restaurant. It’s garden is a wonderful herbal and medicinal garden. Every plant in the garden has a use of some sort, some as herbs, some as food, some as medicine. Of distinction were the Mala Mujer (the bad woman). This plant is strong medicine. It can burn off a wart or just cause you pain. There was sugar cane, coffee tree, a cacao tree, agave and cinnamon. It was a great experience to see plants from all over the world here in Cuernavaca where the climate is just perfect for everything! After all, it is the city of eternal spring. I wonder why the orchids weren’t in bloom then. Hmmm. I left my camera at home so disafortadamente there won’t be any pictures from me. Waaa.

Tomorrow we go shopping American style in Mexico. It should be fun. Saturday we are off to Xochicalcle y los pirámides. Oh yeah, I’ll take tons of pictures there (unless I forget the camera again)!

I love Salsa!

Not the food silly(though I like that too), but the dance! Last night we had our first Salsa lesson, oh it was fun. I learned the basic steps at a party a couple of years ago, but this was so much more advanced it was hard and fun!


OK, so the pictures are, taxi drive through Guanajato, I'm in the front, the rest of the gang is in back. I got lucky cause I'm grande! yep chi, chi, chi, chia. Sold at the market at the feria. Yep, lucha libre masks sold at a local tienda. The gang in Hildalgo. The strongman pose has been one we've been doing since the first day, there is a story, but it might be forgotten. Carlos demonstrating a method of torture for us!

Sorry I haven't kept things up to date this week. It's been hectic here for some reason. Lots of homework and stuff. But, I made it through OK, not great, but OK.

We went to a botanical garden earlier this week. Originally, it was a home built for Maximilian to live with his amante (lover). He lived there for a while but was exiled pretty soon after he came into power. It's a strange and interesting story. Eventually it was taken over by the son of his opponent who was also a preist. It was supposed to have plants from all over the world, but for some reason that hasn't happened. It's late in the year for many of the plants so I didn't take a bunch of pictures. I'll load them later.

I am the proud owner of a mexican sim card for my phone. What does that mean? Well, it means my phone is on seasonal hold, I'll have it back on December 9th. If you call my phone, I have no idea what message you will hear. But, I don't think it will be my message. Now, I have mexican phone rates, kind of a pay as you go. It's about 1 cent a minute for local calls and 8 cents per minute for long distancia.

This weekend, Saturday to be specific, we are going to Xochicalco. It is a place with a lot of pyramids that are still intact. We saw a movie in our civilization class a couple of weeks ago that was filmed in part here. The movie was called "la otra conquista" or The Other Conquest. About the religious conquest in Mexico. It will be fun to seem them and to climb them! Going up them is always better than going down. Stephanie is terrified of hights, so I don't know if she will go up, but you know I will !!!!!

Ex-Hacienda De Cortes

Yesterday we went to the ex-hacienda De Cortes. You may or may not know that Cortes was the lead man in the conquista de Mexico. His palicio es en Cuernavaca and so is his old home. A hacienda is kind of like a plantation. Here Cortes grew and processed Sugar Cane, had many affairs and many slaves. There is a neighborhood built up around it now and it's hard to picture the sugar cane, but the hacienda is pretty much in original form though restored and with a few added touches. I really enjoyed being there and hoped that possibly Terry and I could stay there when he comes, just for a night or two, but when I checked the price it was close to outrageous. We had coffee in the restaurant. It was very nice.

We are really enjoying our Maestro that takes us on most of our trips, his name is Carlos. He's super smart and very fun to be around. We have him for half of the Semester and we are all glad. He teaches us so much about the culture, not just the history, but things that apply to today. It's really a good experience. I'll post pictures soon. I don't have them on my computer yet though.

Love you all and miss you terribly, especially my wonderful husband!

Guanajuato

We got home late last night from Guanajuato. It's an incredible city in the middle of the sierras. Many of the roads in the city are underground. It is a city rich with mining history and the revolution for independence.

We left early on Friday morning and travelled first to the state of Hildalgo, the state named after the leader in the fight for independence. We went to San Miguel where there is the only Gothic Cathedral in the Country. It is very beautiful but since we are only a week out from the independece celebration everything historic is undergoing cleaning and repairs. After San Miguel we went to Deloros Hildago. This is the city that the original bell was rung for the independece, I mentioned it in an earlier post. We ate lunch here and then headed for Guanajauto. We immediately hired a guide to get us to our hotel. I quickly understood why with the maze of underground craziness. On Saturday we went to a mine and got caught in the dark for a moment, that was scary. We went to a museum for the independence that was built in an old granery. It was very neat. We ate lunch and then went to the house in which Diego Rivera was born. Really incredible. In the evening we went up the hill to the monument of the fight for independence. There is a great view of the city from there. In the morning we went to the museum of Don Quijote. It has many different types of works of art related to Don Quijote. Amazing. After that, we went to the mummy museum. These are mummies created without preparation of any kind. The soil near the city has nutrients that create mummies, they had dig up bodies and found the mummies. They have a huge number of mummies in the museum. Some grotesque, some sad and many interesting. I bought a bunch of local candies to share at home, I can't wait to do so.

Before we left, on Thursday night we went to a local festival, it was a lot of fun. A lot of things and a lot of people. Evidently there were rides there but we didn't see them. :( There seems to be a problem uploading more pictures but I'll get them up as soon as I can.

It only rains in Cuernavaca at night (Except when it rains during the day)

When we got here we were told that it only rains in Cuernavaca at night. And it rains almost every night. A couple of times it has rained during the day. This picture is from last Friday when my friends and I ate Comida (lunch and the biggest meal of the day here) at Marco Polo, a wonderful Italian Restaraunt. I have some great videos from this that I can't wait to share with people when I come home.

Last night it rained hard all night long. I've been trying to video the wonderful lightning storms but for some reason my camera doesn't pick it up. I'll keep working at it. They are absolutely spectacular.

The other picture is of the girls that are in my program. Farthest away is Hannah, she is from George Fox too. In the middle is Stephanie, she is from Rhode Island College. Closest is Kendall, another from George Fox. This group is absolutely wonderful. We have a great time together and laugh quite a bit.

We leave early in the morning for Guanajaunto, I really am excited!!!

Mexico City and more

This is the bell that is rung three times on September 15, the day of Independence. It is now located in the center of Mexico City, but was originally in a small pueblo outside the city. The name escapes me, I'm afraid.

We went to Mexico city on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We saw the Templo Mayor where sacrifices took place in it's hay day. When the Spaniards took over the Indigenous city they distroyed the Templo Mayor and other pyramids near by, the who city really. They built other cities on top of these pyramids. Since the area of Mexico city was originally an Island, the ground is very soft. When they built, parts of the buildings were shoved underground. The Templo Mayor is visable today because they tore down a building and the pyramid popped up. They reconstructed part of it, but many parts are original. I like this image because it shows part of the Templo Mayor and the cathedral they built in it's place. I'm really loving the history of this place. We went into the cathedral where there is an amazing organ and actually got to hear it being played.

Later, we went to the Anthropology Museum. It was very interesting and well organized.

This weekend we are going to the City of Guanajuanto. It should be a lot of fun!

Primero semana en Mexico

I´ve survived my first week in Mexico. There are 14 more to go! It is beautiful here in Cuernavaca. My host family is absolutely wonderful and the house is beautiful. My host mother is a very good cook and I´ve enjoyed most everything I´ve eaten. Only one time I have been served something that I absolutely couldn´t eat.

Universal, the school I´m attending is wonderful. We have two classes every day in four 50 minute segments. We change grammer teachers every week and the teacher this week made grammer fun. Imagine that. My confidence is building and I am speaking more and more which of course means I´m corrected more and more. But that´s a good thing. The other class we are taking is a civilization class. It´s very interesting and we´ve already gone on two field trips. It´s nice to be studying history where it happened. One problem is that the class is taught in Spanish, not too much of a problem, but we are also learning Aztec, Olmeca, Mayan, Nauan, etc. words too. That confuses things occasionally, but somehow it´s working.

Cuernavaca is not the city I imagined. I imagined a pueblo, very small, only a few hundred people. I was completely wrong. It is a huge city of about 500,000 people. Not as big as Mexico City, but it´s huge! The streets are busy most of the day. The people drive like maniacs. Mostly we don´t talk to people on the streets. It´s not done unless you know the people. I see some people every day and so I´m beginning to greet them. Yes there is a certain amount of sexual harassment on the streets but it´s only verbal and ignoring it seems to work. On the bus and in crowded places there is always a possibility of inappropriate touching but I know what to say to let the person know it´s not OK. It hasn´t happened yet, but there is always a possibilty.

There is an amount of political activity here. There is no danger for foreigners. The anger is between the political parties. We´ve seen demonstrations and they´ve been pretty mild.

The stores and markets are fun. There are several places were masks can be purchased for children like in Lucha libre (Free Fight), as made popular in America by the movie Nacho Libre. It´s fun to see the masks.

The flora here is amazing. I´m taking pictures and will post them at some time.

I guess that is enough for now. If you would like further updates, please let me know and I´ll put you on a mailing list. I may start a blog space somewhere and send the adress so that you can read things at your convenience.

I love you all very much!