Thanksgiving (a little late, woops)

I just reallized that I failed to post about Thanksgiving. Just so that you don't think that I've forgotten the holiday, I will share our Mexican Thanksgiving with you all. :) We had fun shopping in the Mega superstore which is kind of like a Fred Meyers. I got my Mom's apple pie recipe from my sister Elaine and I was prepared to make that, only one problem. I didn't have a pie crust recipe and they don't sell premade shells here. So, I decided to make an apple crisp instead, didn't have a recipe so I just winged it, but it worked out just fine. Turkeys aren't really sold in stores here until closer to Christmas so we bought a couple of pre-roasted chickens, yummy! We made greenbean casserole from scratch since they don't sell the green beans in the can, nor do they have the crunchy onions for the topping. We bought fresh green beans and boiled them, poured in some mushroom soup and some onions and crumbled some cornflakes on top. It worked out just fine. We made mashed potatoes and a few other things and had a feast. I ate soooooo much! We made everything in the school's kitchen, it was fun. We stayed at school the whole day. We didn't get out of having classes which is why we opted for the pre-roasted chickens instead of roasting them ourselves. I'm the only one that has any experience with that anyway, and that is fairly limited and with a gas oven, who knows what would have happened! We had a lot of fun. I've been really blessed with the group I've been here with. We invited other students to join us but they all had other plans. The only school employee that joined us was of course Javier.

My family always celebrates holidays off-holiday so that we can spend time with our other families on the holiday. So, I did call and talk to most of my family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I talked to Terry on the internet on Thanksgiving and then live on Sunday for his Birthday. I called Mom and Dad Wilson on Thanksgiving and talked with them for a short while. I really am blessed with a wonderful family on all sides!

A belated Thanksgiving and I'll see many of you in two weeks when I come home! Please let me know if you have enjoyed my blog so that I know that it has been read by more than four or five people, OK? I love you all and I'll see you soon!

Music and Passion were always the fashion!

Oh, yeah, we stayed at the Copacabana in Acapulco! It was a really nice weekend. Usually when we go away we have a bunch of places to see which is a lot of fun, but this time, they called it our reward for almost completing a full semester here and we had no real homework and only a few optional places to go. We were going to see some cliff divers but unfortunately there was some sort of rally going on in the center of the city and all the roads were closed. Weird. But there was live music at the hotel so we had a great time anyway. We got bracelets to wear and at the all inclusive snack bar and bar, we could have as much to drink or eat as we wanted to without worrying about the tip or anything. Being Americans we tipped anyway but that's ok.We made some friends at the pool, they didn't speak more than a few words of English so we really got to practice our Spanish, it was great.

Stephanie and I had no desires to do anything but tan and so we stayed near the pool because after one time swimming in the ocean I decided it was too dirty to enjoy. But the pool was fun, we played water vollyball and got pretty tan. Steph was in charge of my back so that I wouldn't burn it again but she missed a spot and so i have a small burn, not bad though. Saturday night we went on a cruise around the bay, there was music and dancing. There was a pirate that you could get your picture taken with. I've taken a picture of the picture to show you. It's a bit strange this way, but it works. lol. All in all, it was a weekend without doing much. It's been a long time since I've had one of those, so I really enjoyed it! Hope you enjoy the few pictures I took.

Las Grutas, no bull!

Well, the bullfight was a wash, seriously. We cancelled because of the rain, again. I guess a hurricane came inland. It brought with it cold air and nice gentle rain that reminded me of Oregon. I was so homesick! Still we had a great weekend. On Saturday we were invited to the birthday party of the grandmother of Javier. It was very traditional and had mariachis and everything, what a blast. Later at night there were just a few of us left and the cousins of Javier taught us some new dance moves. I enjoyed it so much Javier gave me a copy of the CD we were listening to. lol.

Monday was a holiday here and we didn't have classes. We went to this cave called Las Grutas which really just means "The Caverns". Well, and I guess they really are more caverns than caves. I went expecting the Ape Caves, but instead it was these huge caverns full of lights and sidewalks and we had a guide. It took about 2 hours to go through. There were a couple of women there that were wearing high heals if you can believe it! Very diferent.

We are preparing to make a Thanksgiving dinner here at school, after classes because we have classes on Thursday, boo hoo. ;) Anyway, I've got homework! So this one is short. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

El Rollo y Mexico

Sorry I've been so lax at getting messages up. I didn't change grammar teachers after all and on top of that I've been sick with a minor infection, but have had very strong medicine to kill it that has been wiping me out. But life goes on. :)

Last weekend was an incredible weekend. Stephanie Kendall and I went to El Rollo which is an aquatic park about an hour outside of Cuernavaca. We started our adventure by meeting at Puente 2000 where we usually meet. We walked to the Lasser bus station and caught a bus for a town we've never been too. When we got there, we had no idea where we were going, we asked the bus driver and another passenger was getting off at the same stop and took us to a ruta (in town bus) that was supposed to take us to the park. Well.....it took us to the street the park is on, but we had no idea where the entrance was. We asked directions at a small tienda and started walking down the road. I kid you not, about a kilometer later we found the entrance. One of the pictures I am posting is on the road when we stopped and really wondered if we were heading in the right direction. We got there and since this is the off season half of the stuff was closed, oh but we managed to spend 6 hours there anyway!

We are convinced that a few of the "rides" we went on would not be legal in the U.S. But I've never been to a water park in the States so I don't know for sure. Probably the scariest was the pendelum, I took a few pictures and videos of it, because it's simple but amazing. It's roughly in the shape of a U and you start on one end in a raft, you go up the otherside, back up the first side a little and back and forth until you stop. I probably screamed a scream that I've never heard pass my lips before, I was almost hyperventilating at the end, it was so bad I struggle to tell the girls where I kept my inhaler in case I really needed it. I didn't, but wow!

The next one we did, is the green and blue one (if I can get the pictures posted), you shoot down the slide and go around and around the big open part. When I went I started to come out the opening in the bottom head first. I struggled to get myself turned around and was only partially successful and came out sideways, yep, that hurt! A sideways bellyflop! The pink one next to the green and blue one, it's called the back lash, you get in a raft, only two at a time, you head down this ramp and then there is a turn around point, only when Steph and I did it, we didn't turn around and went down the next half backwards! What fun. Hopefully the series of pictures help you imagine this.

There was another one that was a completely dark tube that seemed to take forever to get through and you emerged through the mouth of a snake at the end. Fun!

The one we probably spent the most time on was called the wave river. This is the one we think probably wouldn't be legal in the U.S. I took videos of it and series of pictures to try to give you an idea. It was a blast. There is a part that is for surfing, the current is so strong people can surf on it. The next part over there is a ramp to enter the river. If you're brave, which we were, you wait for the big wave and you get washed down the ramp into the river. Before you enter the river you get sucked under the water for several feet, it's an amazing experience. To those of you who wonder, yes, I did lose my top of few times on this one, but was able to recover before coming back out of the water! As you go around circular river every couple of minutes another series of waves come up behind you and wash you down a little further. There are a couple of entrances where you don't get washed down the ramp, but why bother with those? Yes, I got scraped up a little, but not too bad, Stephanie got a few bruises too. Kendall is just fine.

There was also the normal wave pool and a fun tube slide that we went on too. We were able to sun bath, it was so cold we were the only ones doing it! After it started to get dark we decided to take our pictures and then make our way back to Cuernavaca. Did I mention that on the bus we took, the hour outside Ceurnavaca took 2 hours? Oh well, it was really cheap so we didn't mind! We were so tired Stephanie and Kendall slept most of the way home.

The next day we went to Mexico City, my third time as a tourist, my sixth time in total. we went back to the casa Azul of Frida Kahlo and walked through the zocolo there Carlos told us that even though this is in the center of the bustling metropolis of Mexico City it is still very much like the old Mexico pueblos and still has a small town charm. It was in fact very much like some of the smaller towns we've been to. It was nice.

Afterwards we were on our way to see a bullfight when it started raining. It's a little spendy to go and Carlos explained that the bulls don't do well in the rain and it's really not much to see so since we had just parted ways with Javier (see picture) so he could go to a futbol game we decided to call him and ask him if he could buy our tickets and we would join him. He happily agreed to do so and so we saw the last futbol game before the finals, it was a lot of fun, but we were so high up that I was almost more interested in watching the people than the game! It really is an experience to go to a futbol game here in Mexico! Of interest, the venders here sell cup of soup, dominos pizza and fried chicken meals, not to mention beer, oh yeah, and beer and some soda pop too. lol. There is a picture here too of a bunch of fans on their way to the game, I have a short video clip too that captures a bit of their singing and excitement.

This Sunday after we teach English we are heading back to Mexico for the bullfights, we are hoping for good weather!

Oh, did I mention, the turkeys are because I heard there may be a shortage in the US, there are plenty here so I thought I would share!

Michoacan and more Day of the Dead

We celebrated more of the Day of the Dead Thursday night. We went to the Garden Borda and there was a free celebration. Completely wild. There were people in costumes and on stilts, live music and more. I got charged by one of the guys on stilts, I'm hopefully posting that picture. I got some good and some bad video. For the first time on my trip I ran out of memory on my camera, all in one night. Wild, no? The next day we left for the state of Michoacan, to the west of Morelos where Cuernavaca is located. We stayed in the City of Morelia and visited other pueblos as well. We visited a city on an island in the middle of the state and I climbed up the arm of a ginormous statue of Morelos. Kind of fun. I got a picture of our director, Ramiro, sticking his head out of the sleeve. I might post that, but I'm not sure how well it will show up. On the top of the island there were these dancers, they are youth dressed up as old people. They are called Vejitos. They do this incredible dance that I never got to see the end of. I got some video, but for the second time in mexico, I ran out of memory on the camera, bummer! It was only the first part of the second day!!!!!! WaaaaH. :) It was a lot of fun. Then we went to this one town whose name I have no idea what it was. We ate lunch and shopped and saw two more groups of Vejitos. What fun! After that we went to Santa Clara de Cobre and all there was to do was shop and I found a wonderful bracelet of lady bugs that made me think of my friend Elizabeth who died last year. I couldn't help but buy it in memory of her. We got back to the hotel and couldn't find a place to park the van so Ramiro parked it a few blocks away. He and Stephanie and I ate dinner while the others went for this fruit dish. There was live music in the Zocolo, Jazz, lots of fun. We went to this Churro and Chocolate place, but the crowd was imense so we decided to visit it the next day. It had been a long day and oh, yeah, I got a sunburn on the island, or in the launch (probably the launch). Luckily this was on my chest and not on my back again so my old sunburn still has time to recover.
The next day we visited some museums, finally ate our churros and came home to Cuernavaca.

OK I've been so busy this week that it has taken me days just to post this, now I don't remember a whole lot! lol. I hope you enjoyed it!

The day of the dead

October 31, November 1 and 2 are very special days in Mexico. I had no idea how special. I live near a cemetary and have seen the preparations going on for weeks now. yesterday we only had an hour of class and we went to the Market and we each had $100 pesos to buy something as an offering. Here you can see the offering we put together to honor the life of Emiliano Zapata a revolutionary hero in Mexico. The idea is that you set up a special "altar in your home in honor of the dead. You place their favorite things on the altar. You also put up photographs and whatever. For Emiliano Zapata we had traditional sweets and fruits as well as coca cola, beer and tequila. Candals are important as well because these are a part of the way light a path for the dead person to help you eat their favorite things, kind of gross I know. In place of doing this in your home you can also do it in the semetary. Tonight people will light candles and stay awake all night at the cemetaries to eat and commune with their dead loved ones. Death is not gruesome here at all, it is celebrated with joy and respect. In a way it is quite wonderful. We bought candles yesterday and gave them as a gift to a family who had opened their door in the historical district of Cuernavaca called Ocotepec. They celebrate this day very traditionally. This family had just lost their mother this past June so their celebration was very special. In return for the candles we received special tamales of chicken and corn and a special fruit drink called puncha (not sure of the spelling). At another home we received bread and the offer (which we declined) of cigarettes and tequila. We went to the cemetary and the church in this part of town. It was really wonderful to experience.
At the school we made papel picada, you can see it in one of the photos, I made the purple one. We also made skeleton faces which we decorated and put our names on. I'm not sure if you can see which one is mine.
We are going on another three day trip to Michoacan, a nearby state. I'll try to tell you all about after I return.