Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Swine flu

Hi everyone, just a quick update on the swine flu situation since it's in all of the headlines.

First, thanks for all of the e-mails! I am doing fine, and I just returned from a trip to Saltillo (not the best timing, but we left before it turned into a big deal). A lot of things are closed around México, including schools and museums. The other Peace Corps trainees actually had a weeklong trip to Oaxaca canceled, too, and all non-essential PC travel within México has been restricted. The Méxican government and PC have both been handing out surgical masks, and I wore mine on the entire 8 hour bus ride last night.

We are taking the standard precautions of washing our hands a lot, avoiding kissing / handshaking, and avoiding crowds. Future activities around the country are in limbo right now until PC Washington gets a better feel for how the swine flu will turn out.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Site Visit

Last Saturday I had a 10-hour bus ride up to the state of Nuevo Leon with some other volunteers to see our future site and get to know the town--this is where we will be spending the next two years! The bus ride took all day, but the people from the office were very nice and picked us up at the bus station in Monterrey.

On Sunday we had the chance to tour downtown Monterrey. It is really nice, and I hope I can get out there in the future for social activities. They have a man-made riverwalk, similar to San Antonio. However, the one in Monterrey seemed longer and had a lot of artistic fountains to add a little flavor. We happened to catch some floating displays of children's stories, since April is Children's Month. Sounds like lots of activities for the kids plus a big fiesta on April 30th.



The Cerro de la Silla in Monterrey is the famous mountain in the city. It looks like a saddle, hence the name.



Tuesday night we left Monterrey on a nightbus and returned to Querétaro around 3:30 AM on Wednesday. The driver blasted movies until midnight, then finally turned them off. Nightbuses are the norm for traveling from Monterrey, so it is something I need to get used to since I want to travel a lot within México.

On Friday night a couple of us listened to a guitar concert at the Teatro de la Republica. I forgot my camera, but here is a picture of the Teatro from the outside. I always see it in the university graduation pictures here, so I think it is a pretty historic landmark in Querétaro. The inside is amazingly beautiful, and we listened to two guitarists. One was Eduardo Pascual Díez from Spain, and the other was Fabián Sánchez Morales from Querétaro, México. Both were good, but Fabián was the one who got the standing ovation. I can´t believe how fast they could play!



After class on Saturday, a couple of us went to watch another volunteer play rugby. Rugby isn´t a big sport in México, but there are a couple of traveling leagues in the area. Today the team from Guadalajara came to play, and the hometown Bulldogs eeked out a victory. It was my first rugby game, so it was pretty interesting. Bulldogs are in the white and dark blue jerseys, and actually our volunteer friend is the one that is being lifted up on the left (for the line-out).



Mañana, again I get to hop onto an autobus for another long ride up to Saltillo (about 9 hours), for a PC Volunteer visit. I get to see how real PC Volunteers work!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Music and art

This week continues the celebrations in Querétaro. It is actually the Festival Santiago de Querétaro. Santiago is one of the saints of the city, and so the entire week has been filled with free events around town--think bands, theater, book fairs, etc. The entire schedule is here, just to give you an idea of what has been going on in town.



On Sunday I stopped by the Museo de Arte, which was highly recommended by my host mother. They had a lot of religious paintings and some more modern stuff, but no photo's allowed inside. The architecture was amazing, though, like many of the older buildings in town.



Every night during the week I have also been making an effort to catch some live bands in the plazas. Some of the music is pretty good, and I am amazed that I can understand some of the Spanish lyrics.



Mañana I get on an autobús with a couple of other volunteers for a long, long 10 hour ride up to Nuevo Leon. I get to meet people in the office where I will be working and tour around the city. I am pretty excited, as this is where I will be living and working for the next two years!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Semana Santa

On Sunday, I stopped by the Museo Regional in Querétaro to take a look around. Parts of it were closed, so I only got to see some of the history of religion in Querétaro (specifically the Franciscan church next door). This picture is one of the artifacts in the museum.



This week started a week of holy celebrations in México. I actually missed the first part by not going to church on Palm Sunday. There were lots of people in the churches, though, and a lot of people selling various religious icons made of palm.

Friday was Good Friday, and a lot of people had Thursday and Friday off of work (including us!). There were a lot of tourists from D.F. in town for the long weekend, many coming to watch the Procesión del Silencio on Friday night. The streets around the Central district were closed to traffic, and people were lined up along the roads to watch. This is a tradition that started in Querétaro about 34 years ago. All of the churches create an image of Christ or the Virgen and march down the streets carrying these heavy icons, with some male church members carrying crosses on their backs, walking barefoot, and with a chain around one of their ankles. And they had to carry these things for a couple of miles! Each color of clothling represents a different church. I am not sure why they wear these specific types of outfits, but the KKK copied the church costumes and not the other way around.





On Saturday, a group of us went on a tour of several places outside of Querétaro. First on the list was Bernal, a rock spire similar to Devil´s Tower in the US. We climbed about halfway up the rockface--much further and we would have needed rock-climbing gear.



Next was a famous Spanish winery called Cavas Freixenet. The wine is actually made and stored underground in two levels of caves. They had a live band playing and food vendors, which both paired nicely with the wine tasting. A lot of people were actually just buying whole bottles of wine and drinking them on the spot.



Last on our list was a little artisanal town called Tequisquipan. We walked around the central plaza and a couple of markets, but it was pretty touristy. I stopped into a bookstore to take a look around, and a kid actually walked up to me and asked in Spanish if the store carried Harry Potter books! I guess I just look like the stereotypical bookworm...

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Last day in D.F. and back to the grind

Last Sunday was our final day in D.F., and a group of us went to Teotihuacan to check out the pyramids. These are the famous pyramids about 50 km northeast of the city. This picture is of the Pyramid of the Sun, which is over 70m tall (much taller than El Cerrito!). A couple of us climbed up in the searing heat, and I was very gald we went relatively early in the day. We wound up meeting up with our other three amigo's and heading back to Querétaro together on the autobus.



Today, a group of us took a tranvia, which is basically a touring trolley that took us around part of Querétaro. The guide was talking pretty fast over the loudspeaker, so I missed a lot of the historical facts about the city, but it was interesting playing tourist. Who am I kidding, I'm still a tourist here...

Time in México City, México: