Real de Catorce

Last Monday (Nov 16), we had the day off of work for Día de la Revolución. Technically Día de la Revolución is Nov 20 (Friday), but for some reason the federal laws state that when the 20th is a Friday, the holiday is held the previous Monday...Día de la Revolución celebrates the start of the Mexican Revolution against the dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910. This means that next year, 2010, will mark the 200th anniversary of Mexican Independence and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution--it should be a very festive time to be in México!!

Taking advantage of the long weekend, a couple of coworkers and I headed down to Real de Catorce for a day-trip on Sunday. Real is a tiny pueblo in the state of San Luis Potosi, in the center of México. It used to be an old silver mining town (like many pueblitos in México), and is now mostly a ghost town / tourist destination (like many old mining towns in México). It is probably most famous for being the site of various movies, including The Mexican with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. Another notable site is the long, long, very long cobblestone road that leads to the town. It stretches on forrrrreeeeeeevvvvvvvvveeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrr...



We ate lunch at a hotel where the crew for The Mexican stayed during filming. The chef is actually an actor and appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean. Lots of pictures of both movies in the lobby.



On Friday after work, we had a carne asada at my counterpart´s apartment. It was a lot of fun, and a group of us actually wound up staying til 2:30 AM playing Risk! I haven´t played in a long time, but it was a good time.

Japanese Festival

So being in one of the largest cities in México, one of the advantages is the multiculturalism--and I´m not just talking Méxican culture. The local university actually hosted a two-day Japanese Festival this last week!

At the festival, I saw a tea ceremony, some dances, and participated in a True / False game about Japan. It turns out that Japan and México have had relations for the last 400 years!!



I also had the chance to brush up on my calligraphy skills, writing two kanji characters with a brush. Here is my turnout for the character for water. Ignore the fact that they gave us a hardcopy to trace...

10K Race in Monterrey

We two Monterrey volunteer went and ran in a 10K race this morning, in San Pedro Garza Garcia, according to local reports, the area with the highest per-capita income in México (and possibly all of Latin America). It is a very, very nice area, and all of the houses that I have seen down there would be considered luxury homes in the US. Obviously we don´t live in San Pedro.

However, all of the local races seem to take place there, as running is apparently a luxury sport. I managed a 1:01 10K, about on pace with the 8K I ran a couple of years ago (45 min). Not particularly fast, but it was a great workout, and I hope to run more in the future. The race was very well attended, well organized, and well supported. They even had bands and cheering squads set up every couple of kilometers to cheer on the racers! This group of guys on stilts wandered around afterwards with a small band, handing out balloons.



Also, since it was Halloween last weekend, it was a costume race! Most runners wore the official, red shirt seen in the pictures (one of the requirements to be in the raffle for 50 iPod Nanos), but some others got really creative. This guy ran all 10K in this bull-rider costume!

Día de Muertos in Aguascalientes

A couple of volunteers decided to meet up this last weekend in Aguascalientes to take in their Festival de Calaveras. It is a celebration of the Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, which occurs on the evening of November 1 every year (All Saints Day). November 2, the following day, is always a national holiday in México, regardless of what day of the week it falls on, so this year we were lucky and had a 3-day weekend.

A calavera is the head of a catrina, and both are skeleton images that are widely celebrated now in México. The catrina was created by Méxican artist Jorge Guadalupe Posada--born in Aguascalientes. A famous image of a catrina is here.



The festival included a ton of activities, including bands, a county-fair, theater, and a parade. Here is a picture of some people painted as calaveras and wearing traditional costumes. They were pulling people from the crowd to dance on stage.

Reconnect and All-Vol

I just got back in town from a series of meetings and a ton of travel...taking the day to recuperate! One thing that I do not miss is the mosquitoes. I am the proud owner of at least 5 new mosquito bites that I can add to my collection.

So it has been a couple of weeks since posts. I actually flew back to the states for a couple of meetings, and then swung by to see my family. The trip was really good, and I am hopeful that the partnership we pitched for my work site will prove fruitful. I also loved seeing my family, even though it was only for a couple of days.

My Peace Corps group then had our Reconnect meeting back in Querétaro! About 3-4 months after swearing in, we all get together and reflect on our progress so far, talk about strategies for the rest of service, and get a brush up on our Spanish. The Spanish was great--now I just need more practice! It was also very interesting seeing what the other volunteers are doing. We all seem to be in similar boats, trying to figure out how to make an impact at our centers and what roles we should be playing, so it is good to know that I am not alone.

And then on Friday and Saturday we had an All-Volunteer conference, where we actually got to meet all of the current 13 trainees plus the other 30-40 current volunteers from previous groups. It was really interesting, since I got to put names to faces and really see what volunteers nearing the 2-year mark had done during their service.

Last note, and I'm sorry I couldn't get any good pictures of this, but the butterfly migration from the US to México has started! When I got back to my site, as I was walking around, I saw butterflies of all different colors making their way down South. November - February is roughly the time when the butterflies arrive and mate in central / southern México, and they happen to fly through Monterrey. It was amazing to watch! I must have seen thousands of them in the air, with at least a dozen passing closely by me every couple of seconds. I hope to make it down south early next year, when you can see thousands of these butterflies all in one location.

New Trainees!

This week I had the chance to host two trainees in the current group of PCTs, PCM-08. The group arrived at the beginning of September, so they have about two more months of training left. In México, trainees get to visit a current PCV to see what their work is like and how they live. I had gone to Saltillo for my PCV visit, right smack-dab in the middle of the first swine-flu scare, so I really didn´t get to see much. Luckily no big swine-flu news this time around. The couple seem to have pretty strong backgrounds that match their future jobs, so I think they will make a good contribution to the program.

Probably the best find of the trip was the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, recommended by the other PCV in town. Unfortunately we couldn´t go on the free plant tour (closed-toed shoes only), but they did have a beer garden with free beer! This brewery is the oldest in México and makes 6 million bottles of beer every day.



Also, unknown to us, the National Baseball Hall of Fame is located at the brewery! They had the standard history of baseball in the country, famous players, plus an interactive area where you could practice batting or pitching.



The best part was finding an old jersey for a team called the Ingenieros!!

Influenza and Cirque de Soleil

In case anyone is wondering about the resurgence of swine flu, or now called A/H1N1, don't worry! Our office (like many around México) has provided us with a stash of hand gel near every door. Except in our case, the brand is actually called Influnza. Influnza to combat the spread of influenza!!



One of the advantages to being in a large site is that I get all the conveniences and activities of any large city around the world. Last Sunday a couple of friends from Saltillo came over to Monterrey to watch Cirque de Soleil. Cirque was putting on a production of Dralion, its Asian-fusion style traveling show. Prices were very reasonable (590 pesos, or about $45, compared to over $100 in Las Vegas for comparable seats). The show was very acrobatic, and I loved two of the acts a LOT! For the first one, they had two giant trampolines set up right next to a vertical metal structure. People were jumping off of the structure from different heights onto the trampolines, then ¨walking¨ up the wall and doing stunts!! It was very, very mind-blowing to watch. Also, the acrobats had the standard diving-through-the-rings tricks, but they added a second set of rings. So, there were two sets of vertical rings set about 3-4 feet apart, and each set had rings at different heights. Guys were actually jumping through one ring on the closer set, then without landing (or barely touching the ground), going through a second ring at a different height on the far set! It looked very gravity defying!