Dance Party

My salsa class had a get together last night at one of the student's house--her sister takes another class (general "ballroom dance"), and so she invited her classmates too. It was pretty fun, but what really got me was that the first couple of songs were Texas line dance songs!! I think this picture was to the Spanish version of "Achy Breaky Heart."



This entire weekend is also the Mexican version of Halloween (part of the Day of the Dead celebrations); it is nowhere near as organized as in the US, where kids in each neighborhood only come out on a certain day at a certain hour. Here, kids are in the streets, dressed up and asking for candy or money wherever and whenever. These two kids--my salsa teacher's kids--came to class on Thursday.

Day of the Dead 2010

Next week is Day of the Dead in Mexico (Dia de Muertos), which falls on the night of Nov 1 / day of Nov 2. Last year I went to Aguascalientes with some friends for a festival, but this year I will probably try to check out some small pueblitos around here--the region where I live is very traditional, so people say the altars and festivities are very authentic.

On a side note, my Salsa class takes place in the Casa de la Cultura, kind of like a community center. Every class is putting up an altar this week for a competition, and they will be judged on Friday. So, my class put up our altar yesterday! Because of my unique, non-Mexican height, I got to tape up our flower outline, although by today it had mostly fallen down. I get to try and put the flowers back up on Thursday, so we can be judged at our best.



One of the women also made these little muffin people, one for each person in the class. How cool was that!!

Future volunteers

I haven't done much of note this week...yesterday a couple that will be moving here after training came on their site visit. I met up with them downtown, and we walked around a bit and ate. They seem like a really nice couple, very outdoorsy and laid back.

On my way back, I heard a very random thing on the bus...an older woman actually yelled at the driver to drive more carefully!! Bus and car drivers are all pretty reckless by American standards, and I'm glad that Peace Corps does not let us drive. Rules of the road are not followed--a one lane road can easily turn into a two lane road with passing on the left-hand side. Turn signals are rarely used. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. So it was kind of funny to actually hear a Mexican complain about the style of driving...

Mexico City and Kites!

I went to Mexico City on Saturday to try and meet up with a friend, and to check out a photo exhibition of a mutual acquaintance in the Bosque of Chapultepec. Well, due to cell phone troubles and various other reasons, I struck out on both goals!! However, while looking for several asian restaurants in the Zona Rosa (where the US Embassy is), I stumbled across a Korean bakery--it made the whole trip worthwhile! I bought five different types of bread (four of them came in two-packs). The mochi was awesome, as well as two of the other sweet breads. Two of them, however, were just so-so...but mmMMmmmm, I haven't had that kind of bread in a long, long time. I also stopped by a highly-rated Chinese restaurant (some bloggers claim it is the most authentic Chinese restaurant in Mexico City). While it was run by a Chinese person, and it had CCTV (Chinese satellite television), I would only rate it so-so. When you can't get most of the ingredients fresh, it doesn't really matter how good of a cook you are...

While exploring the Bosque of Chapultepec, I snapped this picture of double-Mexican flags.



Sunday, in the morning was the 10th Annual National Kite Contest in Atlixco, where they had the world's largest chile en nogada. National is probably up for debate, but it was a fun event. Atlixco has a big hill in the middle of town with a church on top and an amphitheater on the hillside, and the hilltop gets lots of wind. As a result, only a couple got their kites up high and for longer then a couple of minutes. I snapped this shot of a kite in front of Popo.



Also, there were a lot of Charlie Brown trees getting their full of kites today...