Pyramids. Enough Said.

Disclaimer:

There are many many pictures of pyramids in this post. I love pyramids and may have gone overboard. 

Fuimos a Teotihuacan 

When I was a little girl and well into my teens I wanted to be an archeologist. My room was packed with books on Egypt and India and I watched everything possible about excavation. When I was 17 my father said, “Heidi, you know there are a lot of large spiders in Egypt?” It freaked me out so much, I thought maybe I would settle for something less dangerous.

My love of history has continued to adulthood, so as you can imagine going to see the great pyramids of Teotihuacan excited me beyond belief.

We left at 7 am. Bleh. The way there it was a bit cloudy. But after the couple hour drive the sun appeared. 

When we pulled up we learned all about the production of “pulque” and “mescal” two of the oldest fermented beverages in mexico from a type of Agave plant. We learned about the first paper of this area, also from the plant, not to mention the first needle and thread, that comes from the plant as well.  Its difficult to explain but its pretty cool how it was all done.  There was a plethora of Obsidian, the black rock with a gold tint and they also had looms to hand make paunchos and blankets and such, naturally died from flowers.

Side Note: There was some strange dog with no hair in a cage in front of the tienda and also there was a donkey running thru the parking lot.

We took a small tour of the area then hopped back in the van and headed to los piramides.

First we went into the museum in front of one of the pyramids. There was a lot of information about the pyramids and ancient civilizations. We had a tour guide fill us in on the rest.

I was taken back by the size of the pyramids and I was so excited to be standing in front of the pyramid of the sun where human sacrifices were made to the Gods.  There were so many people there and we could hardly wait for our turn to climb the mountain.

The steps were narrow and tall and it was a small feat to make it to the top, but we made it.  Looking down I thought of the history surrounding me, every stone, the mountains in the background. It was breath taking, probably more so if I wasn’t totally scared of Noah jumping off the edge.

Going down was worse than going up, it was sooo steep.

We made it down and the avenue of the dead between the two biggest pyramids was lined with vendors. I purchased a hand made flute in the shape of an ancient mayan and also a type of harpsichord. Im pretty excited to make some music.

We stayed thru lunch and until the rains came. They were muy fuerte and the streets flooded from the water on our way home.

We made one last stop at the Iglesia of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It was pretty surreal and very beautiful. Catholicism is very important in Mexico and the church was lined with people waiting for confession and hundreds of people attending service. The streets were lined with portraits of Guadalupe, crosses, and other religious memorabilia for at least a mile surrounding the church. One side of the church is a pedestrian street, where people would walk on their knees to to the alter in the church to beg for forgiveness of their sins. No cars are aloud here.

Then we headed home. The drive was long. The rain was hard. Cars were floating in the streets and in Cuernavaca, the water was rushing thru the avenues. I don’t think I have ever seen so much water in the street, there was at least 2 feet. But because Cuernavaca is similar to say San Francisco in hill-ratio, all the water flowed like a river down the streets, and the cars floated along.

This morning the sun came out. I got up early to go walking at a sports arena really close to my house. Here, everyone exercises outside. There is a huge place where people can go and walk the track, also there are workout machines outdoors and also fruit stands. Walking outside is wonderful, especially because its one place I feel at home. At a place with other people walking the track. Exercise is my therapy, and I plan on going every morning, if possible.

Di Me

Di me 

Questions and Answers

This is an email I received from Justin, so I thought I’d just post it as my daily blog, just to answer anyone elses questions J

I am really curious about some things:
1. What are the beds like there?

My bed sucks. The sheets never stay on and the mattress is just a small pad on a wood frame. I’m not complaining though, I could sleep on anything.

2. What is your school really like? I.e. how big are your classes? Do u just cover Spanish or do u learn about the history and politics and the like?

My school is good. My classes for most of the day are only four people and we talk about everything from guys to drugs to pet management.  I think the classes are good but I feel like I’m not learning as much as I should be. I’m not blaming the school, but the curriculum is different than I was expecting. The last part of my day is the most fun, we cook or dance or go on an excursion.

3. What are the restaurants like?

The restaurants are like home, some are terrible and some are really nice. We went to a restaurant yesterday that was really nice, they gave us a three course meal (of stuff I had no idea what it was) and gave souvenirs when we left. But I think they are used to having gringos there. Everyone speaks spanish, however.

4. What is a dance club like there and how are the people?

Dance clubs are different. People dance like crazy, and to a live band.  A guy will ask you to dance, you will go out and dance for a song or two, then go back to your table, there is no pressure to give numbers or even talk after dancing. Dancing is just dancing.

5. How impoverish is it there; you said the area you are in is somewhat well off, but how close are the slummy parts or is it everywhere?

Its pretty bad. Right now there is a terrible rain storm out side, 2 feet of water in the streets, flooding staircases. I cant help but think of the people who have no roofs or just plastic coverings on their shacks.  When its hot there is no protection from the sun. There are lost dogs everywhere, everywhere.  People eat food covered in flies and bees, and food that sits in the streets for a long while. There are beggars, and there are children selling things in the markets. 50% of the country is in poverty.

6. Do you use more proper spanish or more slang when speaking to locals and the family? I only use proper spanish cause im not cool enough to use slang

7.  Do the drivers speak english?

NO. Always I have to speak spanish. Almost no one speaks English.

8. How does grocery shopping go? Do they shop everyday or is it like here where they go like once a week?

Im not really sure because I go grocery shopping on my own. But the grocery stores are different here, its very difficult to find healthy food.

9. Have you been painting at all?

No. The rain has stopped me from doing many many things. I cant go out when there is a lightning storm, because all the shops are outside. L

10. How different was the orphanage from the U.S.? They must learn and adjust and grow up faster like any child in foster care? Do the children ever get adopted there? Do they have foster homes like they do here?

I was wondering all of these things also. The orphanage was clean for the most part, and the kids seemed as happy as possible. But I don’t know if  many people adopt because everyone here is already very poor.

11. Have you been making friends outside of school and the family?

I haven’t really had a chance, once again, the rain has stopped me from being able to go out a lot. But I would really like to, my spanish would improve greatly.

12. I will answer this one privately! J

13. Does everyone there have amazing traditions that they live by within society or within individual families?
There are many cool traditions. Drinking tequila, shooting fireworks, eating tacos with strangers. There are many different things here.      

14. Could a person get by only speaking english if they had to?

No. And yes. It would be really difficult but if you had all your addresses written down you could figure it out.. but you would get taken advantage of. Ive had to talk people down a few times because they try to take advantage of us.

15. Are you getting pretty fluent with your spanish?
I  speak pretty well, but I have a lot to learn. I can get by, I can understand everything, but I get nervous when I try to put a sentence together.

16. Do you really miss me?

Of course J

17. How are the boys coming along with their spanish?

Boys are doing pretty well, they understand better than they speak it. But that’s to be expected.

18. Have you been able to play any music there?

I bought a guitar, its crappy but it’s a guitar. I played for the family and im going to take it to school tomorrow to play for the them. Other than that I bought a harpsichord type thing and a Mexican flute made out of clay, like an ocarina :P

Im going to try and scrape up a few words to say about my adventure today and I will post it asap.

Mexico, Markets, Jardins, and a Video from Parker

June 23.

The last few days have gone by so fast. We have been so busy here, trying to see and do everything. Today we had scheduled a trip to Puebla, but it was cancelled so Im taking this opportunity to write a bit about the last few days.

School has been good, but dragging. I just want to go explore so much that I count the minutes of grammar study until I can get out.

Kendra, the boys and I took a little trip to el Zocalo and bought some gifts for people. The boys got bracelets with their names on them, and I bought myself a Mexican blanket, because if you know me, you know Im always cold. Always. Shopping was fun, but the difficult part was seeing a lot of children begging or working on the streets as venders.

The streets here are lined with carts of juices and fruits and corn, tempting, but everything is surrounded by bees and insects, and it is never refrigerated. I can just see the stomach pains when I look at the carts. No thank you.

Im surprised that Im not eating more here in Mexico. We really don’t eat that much, and it is all really pretty healthy, which is nice.

Parker stayed home from school one day sick from food. But I think part of it was just some nerves from school. That day at school we made Tostados. They were quite good,  even as a vegetarian dish, and pretty simple to make. I like the use of different types of vegetables and fruits here, and how they are incorporated in the food. I think ive eaten more fruit here than Ive eaten in a long time, but also, less raw veggies.

 Yesterday we went to Jardin Borda where the conquistador Maximiliano lived. The garden was great with a small lake and many small ponds with a preliminary water fountain that runs on gravity. It was easy to imagine myself living there 200 years ago hosting parties in the gardens with the many exotic species of flowers and trees. There were mango trees everywhere, which means there were mangos all over the ground. The interesting thing that I learned was that this was the first place in all of the Americas to have papaya trees. 

Last night we all went dancing at Los Arcos. It was pretty fun. I danced like a crazy woman, who just don’t care. Everyone can really dance here, and I love to dance, but I don’t know how to do the different types. When asked to dance, I declined saying I really have no idea what im doing. He said, ‘you can dance, I’ll show you.’

 So we danced and danced, he showed me different dances and I showed him how to do the fish hook among other simply silly dances. But we all laughed and had a great time, and he put up with my inability to be a sexy latina.  I pretty much didn’t leave the dance area all night. Dancing is different here. Everyone dances, and everyone knows how to dance. Everyone looks sexy doing it. And once you are done dancing with one person, you dance with another. It was pretty fun, considering how much I love to dance.

We stayed until about 11:30 then headed to another place called “Mambo Café.” This place was crazy too, but in a different way, It was much more like a club you see in the states, with high ceilings, door men, and multicolored lighting, but with a huge dance floor and a mexican band.

The night was a success for the most part. The smoking indoors was a little much for us, but everything else was really fun.  We regrasamos a casa and the boys were sleeping sound in their beds.

Today we are gonna venture out to some sort of zoo here. 

Here is a lovely video from Parker. haha

Tomorrow we head out to the pyramids in Teotihuacan. Im pretty ecstatic about this guys. Seriously pretty cool, lets hope for sun.