the streets of Puebla

photos of the center of Puebla

Cathedral of Puebla
El zocalo (central plaza) of the city- there are many restaurants surrounding the park.

Life in Puebla thus far

I haven't written in awhile because I have been very busy visiting many, many classes and getting to know the city I'm living in for the next 4 months, but everything is going well and I am starting to feel a little more settled in! First of all, I now know how to ride the public city bus from my neighborhood to the center of puebla where my classes are and back..which is an accomplishment for me because I am not used to navigating public transportation on a daily basis, and here in puebla there is no schedule or map of the bus routes..,you just know what bus # you have to take and they come about every 5 minutes. It costs only 6 pesos (.50cents) to ride the bus, but apparently they just raised the price from 5 pesos. Therefore, my first week of classes at the BUAP (puebla's public university where I take classes) was interrupted by some of the university students protesting the bus fare increase which closed down the history department. Although it was a bit frustrating for me because I was trying to figure out what classes to take, it was also interesting to see how politically involved students are here and how they make sure their voice is heard..,something that doesn't often happen in the US. Anyways, I visited many classes here at the university to try to feel out who were the best professors and what were most interesting classes. Like many of the world's universities, students at the BUAP study only one subject (the liberal arts concept is very surprising for them). Although visiting lots of classes was stressful, I got to meet a lot of different students and experience different learning dynamics...including the fact that some professors don't even show up to class on the first day!
As of now, I am more or less sure of the classes I am taking- a Mexican 20th century poetry class, history of the mexican revolution class, a psychology and creativity class and a psychology of pedagogy (education) class. Hopefully they will work out well!
Other than that, I have been making mexican friends, exploring puebla, shopping, eating! and sleeping (to recharge my brain after speaking/ listening to spanish all day). Puebla is a very charming, old city with many churches, balconies and restaurants. The university buildings are very old and euroepean..they have patios with balconies and huge wooden doors. I haven't gotten a chance to take many pictures of the center of puebla, but I will soon and post them.
that's all for now...i promise to post more updates soon.

Cholula Cathedral at Night

My host family took me to see this beautiful cathedral in Cholula, the neighboring city of Puebla. The cathedral was built on top of one of the largest pyramids in mesoamerica!

Fiesta de Cumpleaños!

Malo Poblano- the famous dish from Puebla made of many spices including chile and chocolate
My mexican sister and her baby valentina with my birthday Piñata!

My host family!

I have been super busy getting to know my host family here in Puebla and trying to figure out what classes to take which is a interesting adventure, and frustrating, so I haven't had any time to write another blog post. However, I am putting aside some time to write about my wonderful host family, now that I have been here for about a week. I live with my two host parents, Rosi and Adolfo who are an adorable couple who call each other "corazon" which means "heart"...they are so sweet! They have been hosting students from my program for something like 6 years so they have a lot of experience with taking care of american girls! Their daughter Mine and her husband Anor and their baby of 16 month live in the house right now too! I love having the baby in the house and I like to play peek-a-boo with her and other games. They are all very, very nice and have made me feel very welcome! I have my own room and bathroom! The first night that I arrived, my family immediately called me "Sarita" and held a "fiestita" - little party- to welcome me including a cake. Little did I know that the family tradition is for the celebrated person to have their face pushed into the cake! Much to my surprise and laughter...I ended up with cake on my nose!
On our "free day" with our families last weekend, I went with my host parents to the huge and gorgeous cathedral in the center of Puebla for the sunday mass and I really enjoyed the experience in such an incredible temple. After the mass, we gathered with other Poblanos (people from puebla) around the various performers in the zocolo (central plaza of the city)- clowns, aztec dancers, etc. It was so fun to see all the families and kids spending time in the center, buying balloons, eating, etc. They then took me to a "must see" in Puebla...el volcan mas pequeno del mundo (the smallest volcano in the world!) There is also I large volcano on the horizon of Puebla, but this one is only 2-3 stories tall...a baby volcano! They also took me to see Cholula..the next city over where the colonists built a cathedral right on top of the largest pyramid in mexico...very symbolic, eh? I got to see it at night, all light up which was beautiful!
Other general things about my host family- my host mother loves to feed me!! Here in Mexico the main meal of the day is in the afternoon at 3ish and my host mother prepares fruit, tamales, soup, lots of things. They also introduced me to Cemitas, which are the "mexican hamburger" and HUGE! My host mother has taught me how to navigate around puebla on the crazy busses which have no defined schedule which i am eternally grateful to her for! well, I could talk about them for quite a long time, but I must go and have dinner with them now! I promise to post again soon about puebla and my adventures with trying to pick classes soon!

Link to more photos of Mexico City:

Mexico City

3rd Day: Teotihuacán

When I first found out that we were going to visit the ruins of Teotihuacán and climb to the top of the Pyramid of the sun, I was a bit nervous because I do not like heights as I already mentioned. However, this ancient city was so fascinating and the pyramid is so solid that I was fine and the hardest thing for me was the energy it took to climb up all those stairs!!! Teotihuacán was founded around 200BC and was abandoned around 650AD and the city was home to around 125,000 people! When the aztecs found the city hundreds of years later, they believed believed it was built by giants because the buildings are so colossal. They named the two main pyramids after the sun and the moon, but anthropologists today believe that they were actually temples to the god and goddess of water- a precious resource in the area then and still today! Today the land is very arid and covered in cactus; a possible explanation for the collapse of this civilization was the loss of natural resources. We not only climbed to the top of the pyramid and saw the incredible view of the ruins and took lots of pictures of course, but also saw the rooms of one of the palaces and the frescos of jaguars, flowers, etc. After we rested for a bit after the long hike up and down the pyramid, we went to a workshop where artisans still carve statues and jewelry out of obsidian (a smooth, very black stone) like the Teotihuacans did. We also learned about the many uses of the agave plant then and today which is somewhat like a large aloe vera plant. It was used as paper, soap, to make pulque (the first alcoholic drink of mexico) and as fiber. We eat our lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day in Mexico and usually around 2-3pm) at a restaurant with a mexican buffet and were serenaded by two guitarists playing traditional music which is quite common! we also learned that in mexico, people but chile, lime and salt on their fruit such as watermelon! On the bus ride back to mexico city (which is about an hour away) I think we all fell asleep- we were exhausted from climbing so many steps. It was so incredible to be in the same place that people were around 2,000 years ago and for it to be the top of a pyramid!

Mi Familia Mexicana

With my host parents Adolfo and Rosi and the adorable welcome sign and balloons! My host family is so sweet!

2nd Day in Mexico City

Unfortunately I haven't had time to write more blog entries because I have been so busy seeing and doing so many amazing things! However, here is a summary of my second day in Mexico City:
The morning was devoted to the national museum of anthropology which is world famous and HUGE...you could spend days there because there are so many incredible things to see and learn. The museum is devoted to the history, art and culture of the many mesoamerican civilizations that existed in Mexico- of course the Aztecs and Mayans, but also lesser known groups and artifacts as well. The sculptures, architecture, pottery, murals etc of these civilizations are beautiful and fascinating and our lovely tour guide Ivan explained a lot of it to us (in spanish!) The museum really inspired me to want to learn more about mexico's history and I also realized how history classes are in the US hardly mention these great civilizations which is really too bad. When when left the museum, we saw a spectacular performance of a traditional Totonac ritual of the "voladores" in which 4 men climb to the top of a 100 ft pole and attach themselves to 4 ropes and then fly upside down (!!!!) from the top of the pole to the ground and each volador rotates around the pole 13 times which in total equals 52 turns which represents the 52 year cycle of mesoamerican calender. I hate heights so I cannot imagine how they do this, but it was amazing to see and must be like flying. I took a video of a part of it that I can show people when I return!
In the afternoon, we went to the top of the hill in Chapultapec Park- which is a huge park somewhat similar to central park only with palm trees and many more vendors selling much more stuff- to visit the historic castle there which was built in the 18th century and became the palace of the french emperor of mexico Maximilian in the 1860s. The castle is now a historic museum, but the restored rooms and gardens of the castile are like rooms of a european castile and the view of the city is incredible!!! In the museum part, there were more murals about the history of mexico by famous artists- its amazing how important murals are in Mexico! We returned to the castle at night to see the performance of the Ballet Folklórico of mexico which was outside and used the castle as the backdrop. The dance performance was incredible- there were about 40 dancers and many, many different dances from all parts of mexico and live traditional music as well. one of the most energizing, fun and beautiful dance performances i have ever seen and the costumes were soooo gorgeous too!

La Casa de Frida Kahlo

Teotihuacán

Ballet Folklórico

Photos of the second day in Mexico City

Photos from the first day!

First day in Mexico City!

Hello everyone! Wow, I have only been in Mexico for a day and a half and it already feels like I've been here for a while! So far I am having a great time and I am very happy with my program! Yesterday I arrived without problems at the airport after a long day of flying and was welcomed by our program director Bernadette. We are currently staying in a super nice hotel in Mexico City and being tourists for the week which is lots of fun, but quite tiring. As soon as we arrived, we started speaking spanish and its a requirement of the program that we only speak in spanish so I feel like I'm improving already. I have met almost all of the other 9 student in the program and they are all super nice and I am looking forward to getting to know them this semester!
After a very sound sleep last night, we set off this morning to see the sights in the centro historico of the city. We took the metro, which is crowed like NYC but actually quite clean and has a lot of artwork in the stations; there are even special cases to display rotating art shows. However, there is also dominos pizza. (I have quickly discovered that everything from Sears to McDonalds in here.) We arrived in the Zocalo- the main Plaza and there were tons of people, especially tons of people selling all kinds of things right on the street- jewelry, textiles, food. First we visited the palacio nacional where there are incredible murals painted by Diego Rivera of the history of Mexico and of the mesoamerica cultures of Mexico. It was so interesting and amazing to see these murals and have our tour guide explain to us the history that they represent (in spanish of course!)

Next stop was the national cathedral, which is very large and has a very richly decorated interior with lots of gold and statues and flowers. There was even a service going on while we were there! It was interesting for me to see how similar the architecture of both of these buildings were to the Spanish architecture that I saw in Spain. We also visited a very old and important monastery which is now the head quarters for the department of education. Diego Rivera also painted many murals here, many of which have very communist messages. It is amazing to see this kind of art in a government building!
We then ate our first mexican meal (which they eat in the late afternoon around 2ish) and I have a delicious dish Chile Negado that is a chile pepper stuffed with meat with a sweet sauce with pomegranate!
As we walked to our next destination, we walked through an entire street dedicated to huge puffy wedding and party dresses...I have never seen so many princess like dresses in the same place!
We then went to an art museum to see more amazing murals and then we went to the top of the tallest skyscraper in mexico city at sunset and saw the entire city....It is huge, but very pretty with lots of different colored buildings and parks. Its amazing to think that so many people live in one city!
Well, now I'm pretty tired out but very excited about the rest of our stay here- we have lots of other cool things to do!