Random update

So I've been absent for awhile because my project work picked up--I am trying to wrap things up. I am still in Mexico, although half my group has gone home and left...I will be the next when I leave in mid-August to go to grad school. I just wanted to post this amazingly great set of signs that we saw last Sunday. The pictures say it all, even if you can't speak Spanish.

Concert and Día del Niño

The last week or so has been the Festival Palafoxiano in Puebla, where they invite a ton of international musicians to play in public. Friday night we listened to Felippa Giordano (Italian pop-opera singer)--and the Zocalo was packed! They had a fenced off area, and I almost didn't make it in even though I got there 40 minutes early!!



Saturday was April 30th, which in Mexico is Día del Niño, or Kid's Day! So of course we had to do kids stuff! First we saw some acrobats at a cultural complex. They were pretty cool and worked with a portable rig. Next up as a puzzle--in less than 24 hours, we managed to solve this 1000 piece puzzle. The most impressive thing though, was that when we were shopping for the puzzle, we saw a 32,000 piece puzzle!! Craziness...

Semana Santa

Last week was Semana Santa, a big holiday in México--in fact, my office closed the entire week! Two years ago I was in PST and spent the holiday in Querétaro. Last year I was in Monterrey and stayed in town (going to a local baseball game!). This year, I went to visit some friends in the state of Guanajuato, saw a museum exhibit in Mexico City, and stayed in town for the rest of it.

A view of the city where my friends live.


Abandoned mine shaft.


Temporary exhibit in "Carlos Slim's" museum in Mexico City. At least the entrance was free--the man is rich enough!


The streets of my town were carpeted for Semana Santa!

Touring bands

One of my Peace Corps friends hooked up with a Mexican band as his "secondary project," so he gets to tour with them. Last night they played a gig here in town, so we went to go listen--pretty good stuff! The band is called Leones Negros and/or Atletas Campesinos, and they play reggae and ska. We even got in free as band groupies!

Dance exhibition

Last fall I took a salsa class at the local casa de cultura, like a commuity center. Like every group, we were supposed to give an end-of-semester public presentation, but somehow it didn't happen. Some of our friends continued with the class this semester, and their presentation was yesterday! Of course we went to go watch, and even though we showed up late, we were lucky and caught the last song of their show.



Also, random story, but I was walking down the street yesterday and saw a couple of "wild" marijuana plants growing in an empty lot about a block from an elementary school. Yeah, that was interesting, since it wasn't like they were being cultivated for drugs or anyone was sitting next to them smoking, but also no one really cared that they were there.

Spring Equinox

This past weekend was a long-weekend (we had Monday off for President Benito Juarez's birthday!), and it happened to also be spring equinox! This is / was an important date for the Aztecs, Mayans, Mexicans, etc., so there were a lot of local events celebrating the date.

On Sunday, we went to a performance put on by students at the state university. It told the story of Quetzacóatl and the creation of man, the world, etc. It was pretty cool, though I only understood about half the Spanish (it was over a loudspeaker).



Yesterday, a lot of people went to the local pyramid and partook in traditional ceremonies. Lots of ritual cleanings, dances, and "taking energy". I really liked some of these costumes, especially the feathers!




Taking energy from the sun.

Carnaval!

Sorry, this post arrives about a week too late, but in México, Carnaval was at the beginning of March. Veracruz probably has the most famous Carnaval celebrations (within México...nothing compared to Brazil, though), though every region has different celebrations with different flavors. Here in my town, we had a parade with güe-güe's (no one seems to know the spelling), which poke fun at the Spanish conquistadores. They were all firing these really, really loud muskets, so it was quite an experience.



I also just got back from a short trip to the states (grad school open house--my post-Peace Corps plan!), and it was actually quite a shocker. Stuff is sooooooooo expensive in the US!!

Camping out in Pachuca

This last weekend I went to visit some fellow vols in Pachuca, state capital of Hidalgo, two hours north of Puebla. We had the chance to go camping out in Parque Nacional El Chico, the oldest national park in Latin America--founded over 100 years ago! It was fun times, and a beautiful park.



On the return trip, we explored downtown Pachuca for a little bit, and I got to climb their clock tower. The inner-workings of the clock were made by the same company that did Big Ben in London, and it celebrated 100 years of operation last year.

COS Conference

This last week was our COS conference in Querétaro, which meant it was probably the last time our entire group will get together. We have the conference about three months before we all leave country, and it was good to see the other vols--many of whom I haven't seen in months! Kind of a sad event...I'm sure it hasn't hit me yet, since I will be extending here until mid-August. About half our group is actually extending at least three to four months, which is a good sign, and gives us more chances to see each other. Here is my group with all of the PC staff.



March 1 was the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, and there were parties all over the globe. Our former country director hosted a fiesta at his house, and we had this great 50th Anniversary cake (photo courtesy of another vol, S.B.).

Last "Vacation"!

So according to PC policy, our last three months are aren't allowed to take "vacation"--so I took my last official day of vacation yesterday, for a long-weekend trip to the state of Veracruz. I basically went to visit a friend from Monterrey, who now lives in the capital of Jalapa / Xalapa. It is a pretty tropical town, and it was definitely hot, hot, hot! I can't imagine what it is like in the summer! Some photos:

Main church in Jalapa...not sure what happened to the tower on the left?!


Sharks in the aquarium in Veracruz.



Waterfall Texolo near Jalapa.

Ice Skating and Kites

On Saturday I had a busy day, as I had promised to cook for my girlfriend and her family...so I whipped up an easy dish of three-bean chili. It was well-received (I think), and they asked me what my next dish is going to be! So at least they think I can cook. You can see it here.



We also went ice skating on Saturday at an indoor rink. The ice wasn't too great, but it was fun skating...it's probably been three or four years since the last time I skated, so it took awhile to remember how. I had one semi-fall, but nothing too bad.



Sunday, we went to a kite event! So I've never really flown a kite before (once or twice before in my life), so it was interesting. We got some good tips from one of the organizers, and we managed to get the kite pretty high, one time each (probably 100-150 m). BUT, both times, we spent probably an hour undoing knots in the string afterwards...so more time with knots than flying kites! We even saw SpongeBob flying over the moon (no, this was not our kite).

Visitors!

So I've been away for a couple weeks because...I had visitors!! Yay! My parents came down from the US to see what a "Peace Corps México" experience is like, and we got to travel around a bit. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Sunset over Mexico City, from our hotel terrace.


Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan.


Mural on the Central Library of UNAM, the national university.


Street in downtown Puebla. My parents said it looked very Hollywood-ish.


The inside of a church near my house.


Xochimilco, kind of like the Venice of México.

Salsa and Hiking

Last Saturday was a fun salsa and cumbia dancing night with the group from my old salsa class. I haven't continued with the classes, but I have gotten more practice in just regular social situations. It was fun to see my friends again, and hopefully now that the holiday seasons are over, we will have more get-togethers.



On Sunday, some friends and I went hiking up a local hill. Apparently, just two years ago it was pretty undeveloped and much better forested. Now, however, there are fields all the way up, random burning (preparation for more fields, I assume), and expensive housing developments right at the base. Here is the view of Popo, from the top of the hill.

Double Birthday Party and Circus

One of the researchers I work with had his birthday last Tuesday, and another guy in my office has his this Tuesday, so we threw a double birthday party on Saturday--bowling first followed by dinner. It was a cheese / cold-cut / wine thing, which was pretty good.



For the cake last Tuesday, we used one candle for every year...so we basically had a bonfire going!


*Original picture courtesy of my counterpart

Sunday I went with a friend to a traveling circus, put up in front of one of the many local malls. This one, though, has a lot of history--it was the Circo Atayde Hermanos, founded in Mexico in 1888! It was pretty cool, in the style of Cirque de Soleil (clowns, acrobatics, etc.), though I don't think it was as technical or complicated. One of my favorite acts:

Christmas, and a New Year's trip

This is a bit late, but I forgot to post before I headed out of town again. And this is going to be loooonnnnggg. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year as well!

For Christmas, I was invited over to a friend's house for dinner. Christmas and New Year's are both family events here in México, and last year I was on the road so didn't get a Christmas dinner. This year, it just happened that Christmas fell between my two trips, so I got to see a "real" Christmas. It was pretty relaxed, just hanging out with family, until midnight hit. Then everyone gives a round of hugs, wishes you well, and exchanges gifts! It was pretty interesting, and it beats trying to wake up early as a kid to see what Santa brought!

Right before New Year's, I headed out east to meet up with some PC friends from my group; my last big trip as a PCV. I hadn't seen these guys since May, June, or July, and we all wanted to meet up somewhere warm--and the beaches on the east coast won out!



My favorite beaches were at Tulum and Playa del Carmen...though I think the edge goes to Tulum because there were less people. The boardwalk at Playa felt like I was in Miami or something, just tons of tourists, stores, and really elevated prices (and prices were in US dollars / Euros and US ATMs!!).



Cancun was just plain crowded (and expensive like Playa). But the water and sandy beaches were just gorgeous in all of these places.

We also saw a couple sets of ruins (Tulum, Cobá, and Chichén Itzá). Tulum had the most beautiful setting (on the beach), Cobá was in the jungle, and Chichén was bigger / in better shape.

Snorkeling in Tulum was fun, and we got this great shot of the ruins above the surf.



Viewof the main pyramid at Cobá.



One of the carvings at Chichén. I was amazed at how well preserved they were.



Artistic shot of the Templo of Kukulcán, the main site at Chichén.



We also got to swim in a couple of cenotes, which are underground lakes or springs that the Mayans treated as holy sites. The water was really clean, and you could tell the difference from the ocean--it was much harder to float! So they had ropes spanning the cenotes to rest on.



Random things from the trip:
-People in the Yucatan still speak Mayan! So that Mel Gibson movie, Apocalypto, yeah, these guys understand every word without the subtitles.
-We met a random Swiss girl in Cobá, and she travelled with us for four or five days. It was cool to hear about all her other travels and see her perspective. With all the Europeans we've met on our rural travels, I've realized that Americans really travel differently than Europeans...

I had a great time, and it shows. When I went to the corner store today to stock back up on groceries, the first comment from the owner was, you went to the beach!? You look really tan! Haha.