I´m Safe

Ok, I just wanted to write a quick post and say that i´m safe! UDLA is canceling classes until May 6th because of the virus, and I´m wearing a face mask. So, please don´t worry about me. I will be home soon and see you all! Love you!

Spring Break

So, last week was pretty full. Mom, Caitlin, and I went to Mexico City, where I showed them around the places I saw last time, we went to the Museum of Anthropology, and I was quite proud of them for taking the metro with me. We went to see how talavera was made in Puebla, did a LOT of talavera shopping, went to Oaxaca, went to Monte Alban where there are some AMAZING ruins, they tried a lot of different Mexican food, did some more shopping, saw beautiful churches, came back to Puebla, went to Africam (this really unique zoo that´s supposed to be like a safari. you drive through and the animals are just walking around in relative freedom. it was extra cool because a friend, Erin, drove us.. and it´s better in a car than a bus since you are down at the animals´ level.) where we fed kangaroos, walked through some tunnels under a pyramid, and I showed them campus and downtown Cholula.... It was not exactly a week of relaxation, but I had a lot of fun and was so glad that they could visit and experience a tiny piece of Mexico. Mom really liked Oaxaca, because of all the different musicians that are constantly playing in the zocalo (which is the center of town.. like a town square).
After they left, I had a good few days of relaxing and playing games with some gringo friends who were also around. We had a fabulous Easter. It was a Southern potluck type deal.. there was sweet tea, fried chicken, gravy, biscuits, macaroni, and candy for dessert. They helped me work on my Georgian accent.. no joke, I hang out with people from Georgia quite a bit since most of the gringos at Casa are from there, and every now and then someone points out to me that I´m talking like them. It makes me laugh.. I feel like I´m learning to be Mexican and Southern here. Which could be helpgul, because I am seriously considering living in the South, possibly Georgia, in the future. Reasons being: their food is amazing, and now that I´ve gotten used to living someplace where the winter is relatively warm, I don´t know that I can do one or two more winters in Michigan. It´s just wonderful not to deal with snow and coats and scraping my car off in the morning.. not to mention negative digits.
Anyway, Now I am in the process of slightly freaking out as I´m realizing how many final projects I have to work on and how much time they´re going to require. It´s really sad, because I want to just be able to hang out with people and speak in Spanish and absorb as much as I possibly can of Mexico in these last few days... (I´m coming home May 12th for anyone who doesn´t know.) Honestly, I think I´m just going to get the work done and not stress about doing a great job.. I mean, in the long run I´d rather have good memories of my time here than perfect grades. With that said, I have homework to be done. So, have a good week, and I will try to post pictures of Spring Break when I can!

Freedom!

Yay! Spring break is finally here : ) The past couple of weeks have been good... nothing overly exciting has happened. This past week was the last week of school before spring break. It was slightly crazy, especially because I took an unexpected trip to Mexico City in the middle of the week in order to get something notarized at the embassy. However, my friend Dana went with me, and we did a little bit of exploring and a bit of the touristy thing. We went to a really cool castle in Chapultepec park, and I decided that I like that park so much, I might take mom and Caitlin there tomorrow. And that brings me to the exciting part of this update. Since it's spring break, mom and Caitlin are coming to visit. They should be here in a couple of hours.. there were a few complications (Caitlin's plane got detoured), but they held the connecting flight at Houston. So, they're making it safe and sound, thank God. Anyway, they're going to be here until next Saturday. Like I said, we'll probably go to Mexico City for a little while tomorrow, and then from Tuesday until Thursday we're going to Oaxaca. It's going to be soo nice to have a break from classes for a week. Even though one of my professors decided to give us a ton of hwk at the last minute (three movies to watch, two articles to read.. and Freud at that, and papers responding to each). I'm convinced the woman is crazy.. I'm pretty sure she believes Freud's theories. Anyway, I'm just going to enjoy the break, and if I have time, I'll get the hwk done. The only sad thing about Spring Break being here is that means I only have 4 weeks of school left. It's going to be hard to leave everything and everyone here, but I'm not going to dwell on that. So, I hope that you have a good week and a good Easter! I know I will : )

Sun and Sand

This past weekend, I went to Acapulco on a retreat with Casa Verde, the Christian group that I have been going to down here. Before I tell you about my weekend, I suppose I out to tell a bit about Casa Verde (since it's a pretty big part of my life here). Basically, it's run by a bunch of gringos, which is hilarious, because when students first come, they're usually a bit hesitant (one woman who is now a full time worker at Casa Verde, when she first came as an UDLA student, flat out told the leaders that she hated gringos!) As you can imagine, we gringos don't always have the best reputation, since a lot of people's stereotypes of "Americans" come from what they see and hear on TV about spring break. Anyway, I found out about Casa Verde from Kati Richards before I even came, so I was planning on checking it out. The funny thing is, I went the first week of school, before they actually had a meeting. And that actually turned out to be a good thing, because when I showed up, some people were there just playing Wii and invited my friend Abbie and I to join them. So we did, and I started making friends with some of the people there right away.
Anyway, I just kept going back every week.. and it's been a huge blessing in my life. I feel like I've actually grown a lot more spiritually here than I have in awhile; I've met a few people at Casa Verde who have really challenged me and are helping to rekindle a passion in my heart for my relationship with Jesus. It's also been awesome because it's a place where I can always go if I need help with something or have a question (which tends to happen quite often being away from home), or if I'm just bored. There are always people hanging out there, and if I'm looking for someone to go to lunch with or do whatever, I can usually find someone there. The third reason why it has been awesome is because I have made more Mexican friends there than anywhere else. It's kind of hard to make friends in class since we're pretty much lectured to the whole time... but between the meals that Casa Verde serves on Tuesday nights and Thursday afternoons, going out with the people after the Tuesday night "pozo" (which is a bit like a church service), playing board games with people Thursday afternoons, and (more recently) being a part of a Bible study, I've had a ton of opportunities not only to get to know some Mexican people and practice my Spanish, but to develop a couple of good friendships with Mexican students. So, I am very thankful for Casa Verde, and I'm going to miss it a lot when I leave.
Anyway, now that you're up to date on that part of my life, this past weekend... we took a tour bus on Friday night and got there pretty late. Saturday we spent all day being lazy, laying in the sun, jumping in the waves, washing the sand out of our bathing suits, going in the pool, eating, watching (or playing! but of course I didn't play) soccer, building sand castles, worshipping God, having bonfires, eating s'mores, telling stupid jokes, etc. One of the couples that works at Casa Verde brought their kids along, who are adorable, so I got to play with them a bit, which was also fun. We didn't actually do anything in the city; we were staying at a hostel on the beach just outside of the city, and it was nice not to do the tourist thing for once but just relax and enjoy a day off. Then, on Sunday some of our friends were baptized in the pool before we left. The only sad part of the weekend was that I started getting a cold : ( But other than that, it was great. It was my first, and possibly last beach experience in Mexico, and it was well spent.

Chocolate and Cheese

This weekend was quite an adventure. It started out with none other than THE BACKSTREET BOYS. That's right, I am just that cool. I went to a BSB concert on Friday night. In my defense, I would never have gone to see them if they'd come to Michigan in concert. However, for some reason the fact that they were coming to Puebla, Mexico was just to hilarious to pass up. I mean, to go to their concert 10 years after they're actually big, and in Mexico of all places.. it's just such a unique experience! Anyway the concert was hilarious from the first moment they stepped on stage dressed as boxers. The first number involved them dancing/"fighting" inside a boxing ring they set up in the middle of the stage. It was probably one of the cheesiest things I've ever experienced. And it was also fun just singing and dancing to the old songs and reliving a bit of my junior high years.
ANYWAY, the really exceptionally fun part of my weekend was a trip to Oaxaca with some friends. We waited until the last minute to decide where to go (but were set on going somewhere since we had today off.. woohoo!! Today is Benito Juarez's birthday. He is the most famous and beloved president of Mexico. Basically, he's their Abe Lincoln. But there I go on a tangent trying to educate everyone about Mexico! Sorry.) So, Friday morning my friend Abbie said they'd decided on Oaxaca, and even though mom and Caitlin and I are going there for a few days during Spring Break, I decided to go with them rather than stay here. And I don't regret going at all. Actually, I can't wait to go back; there are still several cool things there I didn't get to do, and I just loved the ambiente.. I can't think of how to say it in english.. I guess I'll just say the feel of the place. It's very pretty and relaxed.. and its famous for its chocolate and cheese.. need I say more? Yesterday we went on a tour which included seeing the world's widest tree!!! (actually, that part was the most boring), going to a place where we watched and learned how people make Oaxacan rugs (which was really cool. they use plants and such to dye the wool!), checking out some ruins (where people dressed up as Aztecs were performing dances in honor of the equinox), hiking to a petrified waterfall where I got to swim in a pool formed by a natural spring (the deal here is that the water from the spring has a lot of calcium and salt in it, so through the years the calcium deposits from the water built up as the water tricked down the mountainside.. even though there is extremely little water flowing down the "waterfall" at any given time, the build-up looks like a ginormous waterfall), and finally going to a Mezcal factory to take some free samples (Mezcal is an ancient drink here.. you may be familiar with the most popular variety, Tequila.) Anyway, the stuff we tried was disgusting.. apparently they add stuff to tequila which makes it taste better. So, imagine stuff that tastes a lot worse than tequila, and you've got mezcal! Anyway, we'd learned about it in my Mexican Culture class, so even though it was awful, it was cool to actually try it. I love having so many opportunities here to actually experience and see the things that I learn about in class! It makes me really happy. I feel like I'm going to be an expert in Mexican culture by the time I leave. : ) But anyway, the tour was really cool. My favorite part was the waterfall. It was just really unique, and the view of the mountains was gorgeous. Other fun parts of the weekend were going to the markets here, and on Saturday night, going to the restaurant in a nice hotel that overlooks the city. The view was gorgeous, and the strawberry daquiri I had was made with fresh strawberries. That's something you don't get in the states! Another great thing about the weekend was how sweet the owners of the hostel we stayed in were. The husband made a very sincere effort to learn all of our names, asked us what kind of music we like (when I said old stuff like Frank Sinatra, he proceeded to bring down a DVD of "Frankie boy" (his words) for us to watch), and when we asked for the number of a pizza place, he let us use their phone to call, even helping me give them the address of the hostel. They couldn't have been nicer. So yea, that was quite a detailed description of my weekend. It was just really great and definitely one of the best experiences I've had so far!

Fondue

I don't have it in me to write much of a post; I've had a really hard week between homesickness finally catching up to me, being physically sick, exams, and just frustrating things that are out of my control. However, I know I haven't written a fun or entertaining post in awhile, so I'm at least going to put some pictures up. I went out to dinner last night with a big group for my friend
Brianna's birthday, and we went to a really nice fondue place (which was still cheaper than the Melting Pot - where I've wanted to go for forever). So, here are some pictures of that:

Apathy and Poverty

First of all, I have to say, Slumdog is an amazing movie. You should go see it, right now. I saw it tonight with some friends and plan on seeing it again. I'm not going to lie, it's difficult to watch... my friend Kate described it like this "...it's like the movie carved up my heart.. and then gave it a hug" No, but honestly and in all seriousness, I feel like this movie is the kind of thing that breaks your heart and makes you feel uncomfortable, because we want to believe that we live in a good, somewhat fair, and happy world; however sometimes we need (or at least I need) to be slapped in the face with the reality of what the world is like... especially in developing countries. It's just too easy to be apathetic about and, as a result, forget. And I'm really ashamed to admit it, but I've been doing a lot of that lately. Here I am, spending 4 months in a "third world" country, and I'm largely oblivious and indifferent to the poverty and corruption around me.
So, that's what I want to write about tonight... Because I want you guys to understand what my experience has been of Mexico, in terms of social class and such, but also because I need to sort of confess my growing apathy. So, basically... the school I'm going to while I'm here (UDLAP) is supposedly one of the best in Mexico, which means that the kids I go to school with are some of the most privileged. That means that I am surrounded by designer labels, nice cars, and well-traveled (something that I particularly envy) people every day. On the other hand, I see the evidences of poverty around me every day, too... when I go to the school I teach at and see how few resources they have, when I see people begging or doing humiliating things like dressing up as clowns and juggling in the middle of stopped traffic for the few pesos that people pass them out of their car windows... etc.
So, basically it's like I'm in two worlds at once... only I spend most of my time on campus or with students, so that's the part that affects me most. And because most of the Mexican people I've met are significantly well off, it's easy to forget that the majority of people here do live in poverty. So, even though I'm in an environment where there's a lot of poverty, I've actually been getting more caught up in materialistic things since I've been here.
Which brings me to tonight.. and Slumdog. I won't give away details for anyone reading who hasn't seen it, but basically the main character is a poor kid in India who experiences a lot of injustice and trauma. While I was watching the movie, I noticed a few things that made me uncomfortable. And not just because bad things were happening, but because they made me realize how much I've changed and how apathetic I've become to poverty. For example, in one part, there were kids begging for money because they were forced to.. and while I was watching, I suddenly had the thought, "Wait, I see kids begging (or selling whatever they can just to make a few pesos) pretty regularly. When was the last time I payed all that much attention?" Seeing those types of things used to make me want to go out and change the world. But as I've gotten older and begun to realize just how complicated problems like poverty are, entrenched in history and corruption, at some point I became disillusioned, which led to increasing apathy. But since when has it been ok to sit back and accept things like poverty, exploitation, and corruption? To act like it's only an option, rather than a responsibility, to do something about it?
This movie made me wake up. I need to stop being passive and consumeristic, because I'm already getting sick of it. Instead, I intend to find out how God wants to use me here. I don't know what that will mean, and don't worry, Mom, I'm not delusional; I'm not taking it upon myself to single handedly eradicate Mexican poverty or anything like that. But I'm here, and I don't have a good reason why I shouldn't be doing something constructive. Maybe that means investing more time into my teaching or doing something special for the kids at the school.. maybe it means something else. But I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes more open, because when it comes down to it, having a new Coach purse or taking a trip to Cancun is not going to make me feel any more fulfilled than I am right now.
Sorry if this came across as being really cliche... but I am willing to run that risk ; )