Final Post in Mexico

Hello to all,

This will be my last entry from Mexico, I have only a few days left and I will be arriving back to the states on Tuesday the 30th of June. Just to give you a short update...I had a great birthday here in Mexico, it was nice to be able to get lots of my friends together to celebrate my birthday which also served as a going away party. We had a potluck style dinner complete with piñatas. I made pizzas and everyone brought something to share. It was great to get most of my good friends together in the same place, as I have met people through school, soccer, weaving workshop, friends of friends, etc. We had a really good time together, for me it was a really special time to realize how many great people I have met here who have offered me and taught me so much.

In thinking about leaving, it`s been difficult to see everything that I have done here in the last 6 months come to an end little by little. I am now done with my classes and have said goodbye to my professors and many of my fellow students. But in the midst of saying goodbye which is difficult, I am really grateful to have had this experience and to have spent the last 6 months of my life here, I wouldnt trade the difficulty of leaving for the satisfaction that I have gained and the amount that I have learned here.

I am however, looking forward to seeing people that I havent seen for a good while back home. It will be great to see family and friends back in the states and be able to catch up after 6 months apart. Well, I will make this entry short and leave it at that. I hope everyone is well back home, see you in a few short days!

Time winding down, but in the meantime...

Hello everyone!

Well, its starting to become more of a reality for me that in about 2 weeks I will be back in the US, making a big shift from what I have lived the last 6 months. Becoming the majority after getting used to being the minority, speaking english, etc. It´s difficult to invision all the changes that will take place, and its probably best that I just let myself experience them, although I have been thinking some recently about what it will feel like to go back to harrisonburg, a city so familiar to me, yet so different than xalapa that it might feel foreign for a while. Anyhow, returning is definitely on my mind, but not so much so that I´ve forgotten to enjoy my last 2 weeks here to the fullest.

First and foremost, I forgot that I havent written on this blog since the most recent big change in my life and in our family...the birth of my new niece Lydia who was born a week ago! Ive very excited to be an uncle and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to get to meet her over skype last monday. She didnt have too much to say but by the look on her face, she is overjoyed to have joined the family and I think we are just as happy to have welcomed her as the newest member of the clan. Of course I´m looking forward to getting to meet her in real life here in a few weeks to test out my uncle skills.

Life here in Xalapa has continued to cruise along, this past weekend has been especially full of activities. Yesterday, Saturday, I got to experience a graduation banquet here with a bunch of friends, which was a formal night full of food and dancing. We got done with the celebration at around 4:30 in the morning and I caught a few hours of sleep before getting up this morning to head to a city in Puebla to celebrate another friends birthday. We arrived there this afternoon and hung out and enjoyed pozole, a traditional mexican soup, and birthday cake. We also stopped off at a natural swimming hole to take a dip in the crystal clear water. This evening, we headed back to Xalapa and I actually just got in a few minutes ago. I´m pretty exhausted from the weekend so I´ll probably be heading to bed before too long.

School continues to go well, the main thing I´m working on at the moment is a final project in my chicana literature class. I read a book by a chicana author and I´m now in the process of writing a research paper about several themes in the book. I spent most of last friday working on the paper and its getting close to being finished. My classes will be wrapping up here soon, I was expecting to have more work at the end of the semester, so it really shouldnt be too stressful.

I´ve continued to play and watch soccer here, more now than I had in the last few months which has been really fun. Mexico has had several national team games, which are always fun to watch as well as the final in the mexican national league. I also found some guys who play every saturday in the afternoon, so I´ve played with them the last 2 weekends. I also semi joined a team who plays a few times a week at night on a cool artificial turf field. They invited to play with them because they are coworkers of alejandro and found out that I enjoy playing.

Well, I´ll leave it at that for now, I´ve left out a ridiculous amount of my daily life and rountine here, but as I´ll be coming back so soon, I will hopefully have a chance to share way more details with you soon. I hope everyone is doing super well back in the states. This may be my last blog entry, we´ll see how things go. If I do something super exciting and I have time to write about it, I´ll put it up. If not, I´ll see everyone in about 2 weeks or soon after! Take care,

Tio David

Enjoyment with Tlen Huicani and Temascal

The last week or so has continued to go super well here in Xalapa, with lots of fun with friends and my host family, as well as new and really unique experiences. The 2 highlights of the new experiences being a Temascal and a private concert with Tlen Huicani. Bueno, a temascal is basically a prehispanic sauna, although the experience is much different than a sauna. I wasnt sure if I would like it because I´m not too fond of saunas, but I loved the Temascal. There is picture below of what it looks like, but it´s basically a cave constructed out of sticks, clay and concrete. The temascal that we went to was homemade by two really interesting brothers. They are about my age and live in a tree house that they built as well (picture below). Their family owns a plant business and their father, although he cant read or write, knows an incredible amount about plants.

Anyway to do the temascal, you make a bonfire to heat up volcanic rocks and boil water to make an herbal tea. Then you climb into the temascal and pour the boiling tea over the hot rocks to make a vapor. Its a really intense experience because the waves of vapor give you the impression that you cant breath, but you have to relax and breath calmy the steamy hot vapor. The idea is that the experience cleans your body of impurities. The whole experiences lasts about 30 minutes inside the temascal and when you get out, you pour cold water over yourself to close the pores in your skin. We did the temascal at night and whole experience was incredible, you leave feeling really relaxed by at the same time energized.

The other really neat experience that I had this last week was the opportunity to listen in on a group called Tlen Huicani while they practiced. Tlen Huicani is a world renowed group from Xalapa that plays Son Jarocho (the traditional music of Veracruz) and other styles of music from Mexico. If you search on youtube there are lots of videos of the group playing in various different countries and wikipedia also has a page about them. They have earned numerous awards and were/are considered the best folkoric band in all of Mexico. The director of the group is the uncle of Alejandro, my good friend from Xalapa, who has traveled to 70 different countries during his tours with group! So his uncle invited us to their practice in his house so we got to listen to them play for about 3 hours. At the end of the session, Alejandros uncle gave me two autographed discs of the group which I wasnt expecting at all, it was enough just to get to hear them play in a free concert in their living room.

Other fun things that have happened recently: I got to go see my mexican nephew play in an american football game. He plays for a local team here in Xalapa, and they are actually playing in the semifinal of a regional tournament today in the capital. Last night, I went to really cool reggae concert of another local band called the Aguas Aguas. The concert took place outside in the patio of a really old community in the city in which they have a communal patio and the apartments of families surrounding the patio. I also had the opportunity to go to a really interesting conference about Political Torture here in Mexico. Two fairly young ladies shared their experiences about being abused and raped by police for having participated in a protest. They were really powerful testimonies of sometimes the level of corruption and abuse of power that happens here in Mexico (and in many other parts of the world). I´ve also celebrated various birthdays of friends I have made here in Xalapa, in which we have sang Karaoke or danced salsa. We also had a farewell dinner for the people in my group who are now back in the States. The majority left, there are now just 5 of us still here in Mexico.

My classes continue to go well, its nice to just have 3 classes, I´ve found lots of other things to do to fill up my time. I´m also really enjoying my new host family, I really enjoy our conversations and joking around with them. My host dad is quite a character, he is a really humorous person, so there is never lack of conversation or fun. They have a tradition of getting all the family together (aunts, uncles, grandsons, etc) every saturday which I really like. We spend the day eating and talking. Anyway, Ill leave it there for now. See everyone in a month! (as I looked at the date, I realize I will be back in the states a month from today)

Pictures:

1-Game of Futbol Americano

2-Me with some friends, celebrating a birthday

3-concert with Tlen Huicani

4-concert with Tlen Huicani

5-companeros from my anthropology class, with my professor in the front

6-the temascal

7-the tree house where the brothers who built the temascal live

End of Classes at EEE, new host family

Hola a todos y todas,
The last few weeks have been great, but very busy here in Xalapa. My classes at the school for foreign students ended today as I took my last final exam. Ive had more homework these days because of the crunch from days lost due to the influenza and the fact that we had such little time left at the school for foreign students. So from here until the end of June, Ill only have 3 classes which will be nice, but I should be stay pretty busy with final projects in those 3 classes.

Recently Ive been just enjoying how Ive gotten to know the city and the people here. Its amazing that in a city of almost a million people, I run into people in various parts of the city that I know from school or other places. It makes Xalapa feel more like home and a lot smaller than it actually is. Whereas before it was sometimes intimidating to go to the university for classes because I didnt know many people very well, now I love going to university and just hanging out and talking to different people. I continue to enjoy my classes and I feel like I am learning a lot about the politics, culture and history of Mexico. Its often fun to have discussions with different people about the politics and government, its something that people are more than willing to talk about and its fascinating.

Another big switch in the dynamic of things here is that I decided to switch host families. It was a decision that I came to after talking to my director about the dynamics in the host family that were sometimes uncomfortable and made for a tense and heavy environment. I still pass by my old house to say hi, because we had a fairly good relationship and they are good people, it was just difficult to live with them sometimes for various problems and tensions within the family. So I now live about 2 blocks from the university which is nice and Im enjoying the company of my new family. There is more conversation and its a much lighter and inviting environment. So, for the next month or so until I leave Mexico, Ill be living with them.

I also have been playing soccer with an intramural team. Its a tournament with the entire university and each area of study has its own team. Yesterday we won our first game, which was enough to advance to the next round. Its been great to get out and play more soccer and its a fun way to get to know another group of people, because Im actually playing with the students who study languages, they invited me to play with them.

Well, those are the major things that are happening for me in Xalapa. Im trying to appreciate each day I have here as my time in Mexico is winding down and I know it will be difficult to leave what I have come to love about Xalapa. Sorry for no pictures this time, the computer wasnt wanting to upload them. Maybe Ill add some if it starts working again. Best wishes to all back home,
David

Life after the Influenza

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the long gap between entries. I had wanted to right a post last week during our "vacation" due to the influenza and ended up filling my days up with other things and never got around to it. The last few weeks have been pretty interesting. Last monday, upon finishing my class here at the school for foreign students, the director of the school announced that classes in the entire country would be cancelled until the 6th of may, meaning another week and a half of vacation, after just having had 2 weeks off of school for Semana Santa. I headed home and was informed of the situation more on the news and from my host parents. Cubrebocas, or the medical facemasks began to appear more and more in the streets as people were advised to either stay in their houses or wear masks. In the matter of about 2 days, masks were no longer available in any part of town, as they had all soldout. Needless to say, that didnt stop my host mom from making about 50 homemade masks out of cloth and string. The schools then announced that classes for the elementary and middle school would be shown over the TV during the break in order to not lose so much classroom time. I spent various morning watching the classes with my host sister, who wanted to do everything but spend her time away from school in front of the TV watching her "class".

Like I mentioned before, I managed to find lots of other things to keep me busy during the break. I learned how to make pozole, a traditional mexican soup, tamales and the black beans that my host mom makes. I also taught Omar and his family how to play poker and we spent one afternoon playing, gambling dried black beans instead of pesos. One day I spent at the house of Alejandro´s aunt just outside of Xalapa swimming and relaxing. I also spend the better part of another day teaching my host mom to make pizza, which we sold for their food business instead of the usual rice, beans and meat.

Getting back to classes has been nice as well. We started back up yesterday, although the elementary and middle schools are still on break until the 11th. I came to class today at the school for foreign students to find that about half of the students had gone back home because of the influenza, so the school is fairly empty. Actually one girl from my group returned home as well.

It´s been really fascinating to see the change in mindset that has occured here in Xalapa over the past week regarding the influenza. At first, like I said before, lots of people wore masks in the streets, but after a few days that faded off drastically and things resumed as normal in Xalapa, although the TV news channels indicated otherwise. The widely taken stance on the influenza now is that its been a government conspiracy more than anything else. Most people that I´ve talked to here believe that the influenza exists, but that it was started by the mexican government as a way to distract the mexican people and cause panic. This stance goes along with many other things I´ve observed about peoples thoughts regarding the government that all culminate in a lack of trust and faith in any kind of politics. This stems from a long history of government corruption and deception that continues today and has a major affect on the mindset and feelings towards politicians, police and other officials.

Well, I need to be going now, the school is about to close for lunch. Hope everyone has been well! Until next time!

Trip to Yucatan and Chiapas!

Hello! I´m back in Xalapa now after a week of vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas. The trip was incredible, it was nice to get to see various other parts of México and get away from studies for a week. As a group, we left Xalapa last sunday in two vans to head to Celestún, a city on the west coast of the yucatan peninsula. It was about a 20 hour drive which each of the 2 drivers of our vans did without changing drivers through the night. Both surprizing and a little scary. The drivers were a lot of fun all week, we got to know them well and joked around all the time. We arrived in Celestún the next day and spent the day relaxing on the beach. The next day we took a boat ride into the natural reserve in Celestun and we able to see lots of flamengos along with various other kinds of wildlife. We also stopped in a swampy/jungly area to take a dip in a nice natural pool. That evening, we headed to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We took a tour of the center of the city which has a really interesting history. Before it was settle by the Spanish, there were 5 pyramids in the city. The Spanish took the stones from the pyramids and used them to build many of the churches and buildings that are seen today. The tour we got of the center was given by two mayan historians who speak both maya and spanish, so their perspective on the history was very fascinating. The mayan culture and language is still very alive in the yucatan, which gives it a much different feel than central Mexico, which was territory of the Aztecs. It´s interesting how the 2 parts of the country have very different backgrounds and histories.

From Merida, we took a trip to Chichén Itzá, which is one of the most impressive archaological site of the mayas. The science, history and mathematics behind the site were the most fascinating for me. There were unbelievable calculations made by the mayans when they built their pyramids and buildings, many based around their calendar and knowledge of the universe. From Chichén Itzá, we made our way to el Cenote Dtiznup, an incredible cave structure filled with crystal clear water that you can swim in (The yucatan is covered in limestone, so rivers dont exist, all flowing water is subterranean which forms the ¨cenotes¨). The formation was impressive and a very fun place to take a swim.

We spent the next day back in Mérida, I spent a good bit of the day visiting Jon Jenners uncle Jerry who lives in Mérida. It was fun to get to meet him after hearing many stories of him. From there, we took an overnight trip to arrive in Palenque, a city in the state of Chiapas in the morning. The entire day was spent at a place called Agua Azul, an extremely beautiful series of waterfalls and pools of water. Also a really fun and natural place to swim as you can make your way down the waterfalls, jumping into the pools below. That night, we spent in some cabins in the middle of the jungle. I had bought a hammock the day before in Merida, so I set that up outside to spend the night in, instead of sleeping in the cabins. When I woke up in the morning, two monkeys were playing in trees not too far off.

After getting our stuff packed up, we headed to the archaeological site in Palenque, another famous site of the mayas. For me, the buildings and surrounding area were more impressive and beautiful than Chichén Itzá. The site was built in the middle of jungle, with mountains and trees surrounding it. We went into the jungle, outside of the main site, and you can still find old buildings and walls which used to be part of the ancient city but now are covered in vines, plants and trees and havent been cleaned up or explored by archaeologists yet. After seeing the site, we climbed back in the vans to make our way back to xalapa. It was about a 12 hour drive and we arrived at about 4 am yesterday morning after being stopped once by a military checkpoint and having a vans searched by dogs and soldiers who are looking for illegal immigrants/drugs, etc..

Anyhow, thats the overview of our trip, hope it gives you a small idea of the incredible things I experienced in the last week. This next week will be much different, I have a lot of school work waiting for me. Hope all is well back in the states and wherever you might be reading this from. Take care!

Photos: they go in reverse order of our trip...

1-me in the palenque archaeological site

2-jumping off a small waterfall in agua azul

3-el cenote dzitnup

4-our group in front of the pyramid in chichén itzá

5-a view of the sunset on the beach in celestún

2 more pictures from parents visit

1-Farewell in the bus station in Xalapa

2-Waterfall in Xico

Parents Visit to Mexico!

Hello a todos!

The first week of vacation has past and it´s been a week well-spent with my parents! We managed to do a lot in the week they were here, it was great to get to introduce them to my family and friends here, as well as the food, places, smells and sounds that I´ve been experiencing the last 3 months. We started off the week in Cuernavaca where I was for a month. We were openly welcomed into the house where I stayed with a host family, it was really good to see them again, as well as the neighborhood kids who I used to play soccer with, the owner of my favorite panaderia in Cuernavaca and various other people who I got to know in Cuernavaca. We also took a tour of the sprawling market and bought fresh mangos before heading to park with a much more tranquilo atmosphere. Since it is Semana Santa, there were also various cultural events in the center center with lots of people out and about.

After being in Cuernavaca for a day and a half, we headed to Xalapa where we were greeted by some fairly nasty weather, but the next day things cleared up and turned out to be super nice for the rest of their stay. While in Xalapa, we went to various nice parks around the city, my parents tried lots of the local food, among the favorites: orange juice on the street, bread from the panaderia, chicharrones (typically fried pig skin with mayo, chicken, lettuce, pico de gallo, etc), esquite (corn, mayo, grated cheese), my host mothers smashed black beans, and the list could go on... We also managed to go to Xico, a small town near Xalapa, and visit the waterfall there and we went to the ex-Hacienda of Santa Anna (a prominent figure in Mexican history who was from Xalapa). One night was also spent dancing salsa with a few of my friends and their families at a bar/restaurant with a live band from Cuba.

But above any of the things we did or places we visited, it´s hard to describe the hospitality and connections that my parents experienced in both places. For me, it was really incredible to see the people who have reached out to me with such open arms for the last 3 months do the same for my parents. I think they were able to meet just about everyone who I spend a lot of time with, and in every connection, there were lots of laughs, smiles and invitations to return to Mexico. One thing I really appreciate about people here is the tradition of telling a visitor, ¨Esto es tu casa cuando quieras venir, aqui te esperamos¨, or basically that now you have a house to stay in whenever you come back to visit. And it´s said with a certain sincerity that you know that one day if showed up at their door without notice, they would take you in and be overjoyed that you had come back to visit.

It was also felt to me like a reunion between latin culture and my parents, after the many years that they hadnt been in a latin country. I enjoyed hearing they speak Spanish with people here and we actually communicated amongst ourselves the majority of the time in Spanish as well. Well, I could continue to write much more about the past week, but I´ll leave it there. I put various pictures because I know I enjoy looking at pictures more than reading sometimes.

1-Us with Omar and his family

2-Me in front of the university where I take classes

3-Mom and Dad enjoying fresh orange juice in a bag
4-Mom and Dad in a park in Xalapa

5-Mom buying platanos in the market in Cuernavaca

¡Que estén muy bien! ¡Hasta la próxima!

Scarf Complete, Vacation!

Hola a todos!

Time keeps flying here in Xalapa and we have now reached the midterm break point in the university. We have 2 weeks of vacation, the first week I will be spending with my parents in and around Xalapa for the most part and the 2nd week, the BCA group will be going to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit Merida, some surrounding sities, and passing through a bit of the north part of Chiapas!

The weather continues to get hotter here and the pase of the life never ceases to slow down. My host parents are also quite busy with their food business, these next 2 weeks they have to prepare food everyday for about 150 people using the kitchen in our house. This evening, I just got done helping them make 200 quesadillas, we had quite the assembly line going with the whole family, reminded me of my days working in the Marshalls factory, only with better hours and no restrictions on bathroom breaks.

I´ve also continued going to the weaving workshop, this past thursday we worked extra fast and got the scarf done! It turned out really great, I´m really excited about it. Hopefully I can continue to go to the workshop and buy a set of the sticks to bring back to the states. Recently I´ve been spending a lot of time with a few Mexican friends doing a variety of things, watching soccer games, going salsa dancing, going to concerts, watching movies here and there and generally hanging out and having a good time. My classes have been going well, occasionally it´s frustrating the lack of organization that a few of my classes have. The dynamic is very different than my classes in Goshen. Students are constantly in and out of the classroom, we still haven´t gotten a syllabus (by this time I think it´s too late), professors regularly show up 30 minutes late, etc. It´s difficult to describe exactly how the classroom atmosphere is and I don´t want to sound overly critical, although coming from a really well organized university system where everything generally runs smoothly, it feels like a lot of time is wasted here.

Anyhow, I´ll leave this entry a bit shorter, I should get going here. In the next entry I should have pictures of my parents arrival and time here! I hope everyone is well!

Pictures:

1-The completed scarf

2-A picture with a band from xalapa who we saw in concert

3-playing a little guitar at the weaving workshop

Oaxaca, Tajin, Telar de Cinturon!

Hello again from Xalapa!

Things here continue to go very well for me and in the past 2 weeks since I wrote last, I´ve done more things than usually fit into a 2 week span. The past two weekends, I´ve travelled away from Xalapa, the first weekend our group went to Oaxaca which is a state that borders the pacific ocean about 8 hours from Xalapa by bus. This past weekend, I went with a friend, who is from Xalapa, to a festival in Tajin, an archaeological site where they hold a cultural festival once a year. Both weekends were incredible experiences. In addition to the trips on the weekends, the weeks have been packed with school, friends, my weaving workshop, carnaval in Xalapa, playing and watching soccer and frisbee, trying new foods (it seems like there is always something new to try) and speaking as much Spanish as possible.

I´ll first give you a bit of an overview of our trip to Oaxaca. We took an overnight bus ride last friday night to arrive in Oaxaca at around 8 am. From there, we took a tour of the city to see some of the main sights, like the cathedrals, markets, etc. In the afternoon, we went to an archaeological site which is called Monte Alban. The amazing part about Monte Alban is that it was built on top of mountain (not quite like Machu Picchu) but nonetheless impressive. In the evening, I went out with a few friends to try the famous ¨tlayudas¨which is a typical food in Oaxaca. Its basically a giant toasted tortilla with beans, meat, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, aguacate, etc. and they are´delicious. The next day, we were free to do tour the city for ourselves and see the things that interested us. I spent the day in some of the giant markets in downtown Oaxaca as well as going to see the supposed biggest living organism on earth, which is a giant tree close to Oaxaca. It´s over 2000 years old and pretty massive, although I´m not totally convinced that its bigger than the seqollas. To return back to Xalapa, we took another overnight bus and got back late to Xalapa on Monday morning but luckily we didnt have class on Monday because of carnaval in Xalapa.

The past weekend, I went with a friend, Alejandro to Poza Rica for the cultural festival there. We took a bus on friday night and arrived in Poza Rica around 12:30 am, at which time we went out for ¨supper¨on the street and ate some tacos with Alejandro´s cousin who lives in Poza Rica. His cousin and aunt were nice enough to take us in for weekend as they live close to where they festival took place. On Saturday, we spent the day at the festival, first visiting the famous ruins of Tajin and then entering the cultural festival nearby. The festival basically consists of lots of workshops and entertainment, all revolving around the culture of the area. I think around 20,000 people come to festival each year and its a really impressive event. The workshops vary from local dances to weaving to indigenous languages to juggling to painting and so on. Once you pay the entry fee, which was about 10 dollars, you can visit any workshop and they give you the materials and let you keep whatever it is that you made. There are also people constantly demonstrating various talents, like dances, tight rope walking, gymnastics or a famous ritual that is done from a really tall pole and consists of one person at the top of the pole playing the flute while 4 other people are suspended with rope by their feet and spin around the pole and are slowly lowered until they reach the ground. After spending a while at the festival, we went back to the ruins after dark where they had a light and sound show at the ruins. They projected different colored lights and images onto the pyramids while there were sounds projected from speakers or people performing. The idea is that its a passage through time to learn about the civilization who built the pyramids, but its done in a really creative and entertaining way. On Sunday, we spent the day at the beach near the festival before taking a bus back to Xalapa at 1:30 am. We arrived back to Xalapa at 6:30 am at which time I went to my house for breakfast and headed off to my 8 am class at the university. It was just about as long of a weekend as you can have :)

Hopefully those summaries of my past two weekends didnt drag on too long. As I said before, I´ve been doing lots of things during the week as well, I feel like I hardly have time to stop in a my house for more than a meal on most days. Every thursday after class, I go to my weaving workshop (telar de cinturón) for a few hours which I continue to enjoy. I´m getting into more of a rythme here with my classes and extracurriculars and I continue to get to know people, my surroundings and the language better, which is a big plus. Its hard to believe that my time here is Mexico is now just about half way done, I am really looking forward to the second half and already know that it will be difficult to leave, but knowing that makes me enjoy every moment that I have here. I hope everyone is well, until next time!

The photos are of the following:

1-the pyramids of tajin during the light and sound show

2-me in front of the giant tree in Oaxaca

3-the weaving workshop and the scarf that we are making

Volcancillo, Workshop, Pizza!

Hello everyone! Once again, another week here in Xalapa has passed by and its been nothing short of another adventure. Early on in the week, a student from my anthropolgy class at the university invited me to a workshop with a few other students to learn how to sew/braid scarves and blankets using a prehispanic technique which is basically a simple machine put together with a series of wooden sticks. I bought some thread before going and the workshop lasted about 3 hours and we made a lot of progress. Its a really fun technique and the atmosphere was relaxing. It was held at one of the students houses outside in their patio and several people brought musical instruments and played while we made our scarves. I didnt take my camera to that event but Im planning to go this week again so hopefully I can get some pictures of what Im doing.

This week I also went to a small village with a mexican friend who invited me to go with him to experience a festival in the pueblo. It was a really neat experience, the village, although really small, was full of people and cars. They told me that on any other given day of the year, the village is really calm with very few people, but on this day people come from all around to celebrate the festival. Basically what happens in the festival is that the people who live in the village cook lots of food and open their doors to anyone who is visiting and feed and entertain them. I ate with my friend and his coworkers in a house full of tables and people. They also bring in differents rides and games that are set up in the village center almost like a fair. So we walked through that section as well and played a few of the games they had set up like ring toss, etc.

The other highlight of the past week was on Saturday when our director and a few students went to Volcancillo, which is an extinct volcano not far from Xalapa. First, we explored a bunch of the caves that our director knows about, although very few people go in and explore the caves. They are fairly hidden in a rural, rocky, forested area and you have to watch where you step because all of sudden an entrance to a cave will appear in the ground. The caves are basically the old tunnels of lava from the volcano, so its difficult to get lost in them, but they are quite impressive. Some are huge rooms with different levels of tunnels and others are really small, just big enough to squeeze your body through. We used candles for the most part to explore the caves, which was fun as well. We also hiked to the crater of the volcano, which is basically a huge circular canyon of rock walls. Unfortunately, I didnt take my camera to this place either, some others did, so hopefully I can get their pictures later because there are some great photos.

Anyhow, those are the highlights of the things Ive done this past week. This week I expect that many more things will come my way as well, although I have very few plans at the moment. Here things tend to unfold daily and each day is always filled with the unexpected, an aspect of life that I really enjoy here. Well, time to walk home and each some supper with my host family. I wish all of you the best, hasta pronto!

Photos: I forgot to mention, even though I put it in the title, that I made pizza for the family of my cultural assistant Omar, which is where the first 2 photos came from. The third photo is playing ring toss at the village festival.

Visitors! Carnaval and Classes

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in writing since the last entry. This last week especially has been extra busy, but full of fun things. Last Sunday, 5 friends from Goshen arrived, Jacob Brenneman, Brian Wyse, CJ Hague, Chris Neumann and Cody Felton. It was a lot of fun having visitors here and showing them around the places that I'm familiar with already as well as exploring some new places with them. Among the highlights of the week with them were a day at the beach, a day at some waterfalls in a nearby city, a day of whitewater rafting in a nearby river, having them over to my house for a meal, a soccer game with some local mexicans in the soccer field in the volcano in xalapa, salsa dancing, singing karaoke, touring xalapa, and the famous hotdogs and tacos al pastor of xalapa. We kept ourselves very busy and on top of classes during the second half of the week, it was an extra busy week for me. Luckily, they picked a great week to come as I didn't have classes on Monday or Tuesday due to holidays for Carnaval. This week, the homework is definitely piling up faster and I'll have to buckle down a bit on school work after a week of what felt like pure vacation. For me, exploring a few of the small towns around Xalapa where we went to the waterfalls and the white water rafting was especially fun because it was my first time exploring the more rural parts of the region. We took a number of buses to arrive at the various places which is always a fun experience as well. Usually the bus rides are accompanied by some form of live music, whether it be accordian, guitar, singing, etc. It's also a great way to see some of the beautiful coutryside. We seemed to have incredible luck with just about everything that we did as well, as it was our first time getting to know the bus system and not really knowing where we were going or where we would end up, but we never got lost and never waited for a bus for more than 5 minutes. I think thats more of a tribute to the quality of the bus system and the generosity of the Mexican people to answer our questions and help us out than a tribute to our ability of navigate. That's definitely a valuable lesson to be learned here, if you are unsure of something, there is most likely someone waiting to help you out. When we arrived in Xico, we swam in a cool pool of water underneath a nice waterfall and made a bonfire to cook some hotdogs. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and reminded me a lot of some of the places around Virginia with forests and rivers. The following day, we went to Jalcolmulco for a day of white water rafting. This experience also turned out to be quite different than I expected. Upon arrival, we were treated to juice and snacks and hospitality as if we were part of their family, when in fact we were just a bunch of guys who showed up to raft a bit on the river. The rafting trip lasted about 2 and a half hours taking us about 18 kilometers through some pretty decent rapids at times. We also got to swim in the calmer parts and jump off a nice rock cliff at one point as well. The guides added to fun, challenging us to stand up in the raft through some of the rapids, which turned out better sometimes than others. Needless to say, I had a great week here with my friends and I think they would say the same about their week of spring of break. After eating one, or two, last deluxe xalapan hotdogs at 2:30 am on saturday evening, they took a taxi to the bus station to grab a bus to Mexico City. I spent the majority of Sunday doing some catch up on my homework and today classes started up again. I continue to really enjoy my classes, especially at the University. I'm continuing to get to know more university students which is a lot of fun and an important part of my experience for me. Today, my final class about Literatura Chicana began. I'm looking forward to that class as well because I think we will study a lot about the relationship between the US and Mexico and get a glimpse into life on the border. Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. The pictures this time are off the parade at Carnaval, a photo from Xico of the Pico de Orizaba which is the 3rd highest peak in North America, and a photo of the group who went to the waterfall in Xico. Hope everyone had a great month of February and started March on a good foot. I appreciate the emails, letters and thoughts. Until next time!

Classes Begin

Saludos a todos! Well, I´ve now been here in Xalapa for over a week and it seems like everyday I enjoy the city more and more as I meet more people and become more familiar with some of the great places Xalapa has to offer. In the last week I´ve gotten to go to a Ballet Folklorico in the State Theater which is just down the road from my house, met my Mexican cultural assistant and hung out with him various times, started my classes at the school for foreign students, hiked around and inside the volcano in the center of the city, watched the US/Mexico soccer game (hooray victory!) with a fun mixture of mexicans and foreigners, and met lots of really great people. So, there has certainly not been a shortage of fun things happening. Getting classes going has been somewhat caotic as the system here requires a lot of patience and flexibility. My class schedule has changed at least 5 times this week for a variety of unforseen reasons. It´s definitely been a good exercise of patience and makes me appreciate how smoothly signing up for classes goes at Goshen. This week at the EEE (school for foreigners) I´ve been going to a variety of classes to get a feel for which ones I like better and then in the coming week and I can decide which ones I want to drop. In general the professores seem very good and the classes sizes are really reasonable. On monday our classes at the university will start up, so things will pick up as far as school work goes. I´ve also made friends with a few of the guys who work at the EEE in the office and it´s been really fun hanging out with them in the evenings. Omar, my cultural assistant has also been a big help and a lot of fun. He is a university student as well and he was matched up with me basically to show me around the city and to be someone to do activities with. He also enjoys playing soccer so I think on Sunday we may play in a pick up game or something. Tomorrow, a few people from our group and a few Mexican students are planning to head to the beach, I´m pretty excited about that. I´m hoping that during the weekends, I´ll have a good bit of free time because there are endless amounts of daytrips around Xalapa that look really interesting. I figured I would at least take advantage of this weekend while I still have few obligations and homework. Alright, well I think that´ll be all for now, the pictures I attached are of the soccer field in the crater of the volcano in Xalapa, I thought that was pretty cool and the Ballet Folklorico. I had a bit of a shortage of photos this time since I havent been carrying my camera everywhere like before. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Journey From Cuernavaca to Xalapa

Hello! I´m now writing from Xalapa which will be my home for the next 5 months. We arrived here on Tuesday evening on a very wet and cold evening which was quite the switch from the always sunny and hot Cuernavacan weather. Before arriving in Xalapa however, we spent the weekend making a few stops along the way. We spent a few days in Puebla which has a very European feel to it, the architecture is very fancy and the city is well known for its building made with a combination of ladrillos y talavera, or bricks and painted ceramics. I really enjoyed the city center of Puebla, there was always something happening whether it be music or a clown performing with lots of spectators. The clown tradition here in Mexico is pretty strong, it´s not too uncommon to see a clown walking down the street in full clown attire.

We also spent one day in Tlaxcala, a city considerably smaller than the cities we had visited up to that point (still 100,000 people). I really enjoyed this city, it was really relaxed and very quiet compared to Puebla or Cuernavaca. In the city center in Tlaxcala, they were having a demonstration trying to encourage people to think locally about the products they consume and remind people that Mexico is a country founded on corn, tortillas, tamales, etc and not the fast food restaurants and large corporations that are slowly infiltrating Mexican society. So, they had a tent up selling delicious tamales and 6 of us from our group ate there to support their cause. We all ate until we were stuffed and paid an unbelievable 86 pesos for everything, about 6 dollars.

Sooo, on to Xalapa! I now have about 3 days here and I´m beginning to get to know the city by exploring and walking lots of places. There are lots of really cool things to do here in town and many more attractions close by. I am living with my new host family, its been a bit of an adjustment from my last host family, but I´m slowly getting to know them. The family dynamics are very different here than in Cuernavaca, my family is much more timid and less talkative here. They run a restaurant business out of their home and deliver the food to people. My host dad also works as a chofer on hollywood movies that are filmed here in Mexico. The way he described it to me, it sounds really spuratic, he basically gets a telephone call one day and needs to be on the set the next day and might be gone for months at a time working as a chofer getting the actors from one place to another. As I mentioned earlier, the weather is also quite a shift, today its finally sunny and dry, but still a bit chilly. The day we arrived the weather really reminded me of Scotland which I wasnt expecting at all. My classes will start up in a few days which I am excited about. I live about a 20 minute walk from the School for Foreign Students and about 5 minutes from the Humanities campus of the Universidad Veracruzana. I plan to take 3 classes at the UV and 2 at the School for Foreigners. I really looking forward to getting plugged in with the university atmosphere here and begin to meet some peers and take classes. Well, I think I will leave it at that for now, we have our cultural history class with Rob here in a few minutes. Ok, until next time!

Pictures: the center of town in Xalapa, a view of the cloud covered mountains from the

city square in Xalapa, and climbing through tunnels in a pyramid in Cholula which I realize I didnt mention in blog post (Cholula is a city outside of Puebla which actually has the biggest pyramid by volume in the world and archaelogists made tunnels to study to the construction of the pyramid). Looking back over my pictures, I left out so many details of our trip. I would love to show my photos to people when I get back and explain all the fun things that I´m leaving out in the blog posts :)

Teotihuacan, Tepotzlan and Much More

Once again, time has slipped away from me and I´ve done too much to fit into one small blog post. But here´s my best at giving you the highlights. We visited Teotihuacan last weekend which was incredible. Teotihuacan is prehispanic city whose history spanned from several hundred years B.C. to about the 7th or 8th century and in its time, is believed to have been the largest city in the world. It´s very well preserved and the scale and construction of the buildings is amazing. There are two main pyramids, the biggest of which is quite a hike to the top. A few of us also went off the beaten path with our director which isn´t allowed, but we kind of slipped away without anyone seeing. Since our director has a doctorate in Anthropology with a speciality in Mexican archaeology, I think he feels right at home in the ruins and doesnt care too much about the rules. Anyhow, we were able to find some pieces of painted ceramics and obsidian blades. The other highlight of the last few days was yesterday when we went to Tepotzlan, which was an Aztec city and is currently a town surrounded by jagged mountains. The 1st attraction in Tepotzlan is a pyramid that the Aztecs build atop one of the mountains which requires a pretty rigorous hike to get to. The second attraction are the chapulines, or Nahuatl word for grasshoppers, which you see on the plates of food more than hopping around on the ground. So being our only time in Tepotzlan we made the most of it and experienced both attractions. The hike was really amazing, super steep with makeshift rock stairs the whole way up. From the top, you can see the entire city and surrounding mountains, its a pretty incredible view. The hike down is especially fun, another student and I practically ran down the mountain on the rocks and our legs were shaking pretty bad by the time we got down. After the hike, we were all a bit hungry so went to get some quesadillas with cheese and chapulines. I ended up eating quite a few chapulines, as they pile them in the quesadillas... and the two people sitting next to me only took a bite of their quesadillas and I didnt want the rest to go to waste.

I realize I have been talking mostly about our field trips and things on these blog posts, so I´ll quickly update you on everyday life as well. I´ve continued to play soccer with the neighborhood kids here which is really fun and a good way to get to know them. I also have made friends with a street vendor here who has a fruit stand near my house. I chat with him on my way home from school and he invited me out to a restaurant the other day which was fun as well. I enjoy making informal friendships with people I see everyday along my walking route to school. It´s hard to believe that in 2 days I´ll be leaving Cuernavaca for Xalapa. Saturday morning we will be traveling to Puebla, where we will be for a few days, and then we will arrive in Xalapa on tuesday. So I´m sure there will lots to say again for the next blog post. Well, once again hope things are great with everyone at home, until next time!
PS: the photos. 1st photo= eating the chapulines 2nd photo= the chapulines 3rd= the view from on top of the pyramid on the mountain in Tepotzlan 4th= me standing in front of the pyramid in Teotihuacan