23 de junio

Whelp, week 6 is upon us down here in Cuernavaca, and the fact that I am leaving in 3 1/2 days is a frightening reality that my 6-week adventure down here is coming to a close. Writing "23 de junio" doesn't help any, it only emphasizes that time has flown. I was looking at my flight itinerary back to the United States today, which I purchased in the beginning of April. Way back then, I never imagined that June 27th would ever actually come, yet here it almost is. There are still plenty of things I want to do here, too much homework to try and get done and not enough time to experience it all. But it's my last 3 1/2 days, and sleep is going to take a back seat! I won't be writing much, as you have seen that I haven't written much in the past week, maybe at the D.F. airport when I have plenty of time to spare and plenty of tears to shed!!! I will send you my tears via blog-post :)

Besos

¡Besitos!

Yesterday I was facebook-chatting with my little brother Eric, and he informed me that our mom talks about mexi-Maggie all the time, always asks him if there are new photos up on the fb, etc. I was not surprised as my mama has always had that similar obsessive-curiosity that just makes me laugh. Then Eric told me that mom had been fervently scanning my blog posts to try and figure out what besitos means. Mexicans are all about the diminutives of words, and in my love-craze of the language and culture, I have come to adopt the diminutive form (it's actually not even a form, I just think it is) of words as if they were my native tongue. Using diminutives is the verb of empequeñeciemiento, or more nicely known in the english language as "the act of making things small." Which does not mean making things insignificant, but rather the diminutive adds a sense of endearment. So, entonces, he diminutive form of besos, kisses, besitos... little kisses! There's your spanish lesson for the day, folks.

...besitos!!!!

;)

we're always open down here in México

Today during our short 20-minute lunch break during the day, Maggie Uno and I went with one of our Mexican friends to this delicious restaurant. But it was really just someone's house that they had opened up to sell people the bomb.com food that they make. They make tortillas a mano, by hand, and create the most mouth-watering concoctions. This comida is as simple as quesadillas with cheese and champiñónes, mushrooms, but it is a burst of flavor in the boca. The morning we leave I am seriously considering going there and ordering a good suitcase full of quesadillas to take back with me to the United States. I plan on having extras for the customs agents both in the D.F. airport and in the Phoenix airport where I will be flying to first so that they don't confiscate my goods.

What was the most appealing thing about this place what that is was literally someone's home that they had opened up so the outside world can discover the deliciousness of their cooking. Everything is open, out in the streets, asking for company and waiting for the human spirit to invigorate life into the air. Things are open, people are open, life is so much more joyful with a constant human presence, even if it's just a passing smile and greeting of two strangers who both have the same open mind and open heart. I love my weather seasons in the states, but I am coming to realize how much more I love the constant presence of another human spirit.

Besitos!

todo de México está paralizado ahorita

The past four days here have been a whirlwind of I-don't-even-know-what. It was the end of week 4 and now it's the beginning of week 5, and while I have had some of my most exciting and invigorating moments in these past few days, I have also felt the greatest sadness and homesickness that I have felt since being in México. Not a homesickness for the United States, but rather the homesickness that I will feel for Cuernavaca when I leave in (what is now) less than two weeks. In addition to that sadness, the amount of homework that we have been given for this week made me feel super-stressed out and I had a good cry on the phone with my mama back in the 'states. I felt eons better after that, thanks ma!!

But let's break these past few days down in terms of the fantastic times that have been had!

Friday: todo de México está paralizado ahorita

At 9am, México took on South Africa in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup. I walked to school that day with two of my housemates, and we all had the identical green México jersey on: we looked definitely like wanna-be-Méxican-gringas, no questions asked. When we got to school we took our weekly grammar exam and rushed from building 12 over to the main campus to take part in the mass-watching of the partido. The amount of national pride I felt during this 2-ish hour period was absolutely astonishing. Every television at the university was turned on to whatever channel was broadcasting the game, everyone was wearing something green, and everyone took that 2-ish hour period off to watch their home-team tear the field apart. I was chatting with one of the advisors that works at the university, and I was telling him how super-hyper-mega excited I was for this game. In concordance, he told me that todo de México está paralizado ahorita, that all of México is paralyzed right now. And it was true, you could feel every television set in the country was in, in offices and in houses, in churches and in schools. When México scored their first goal, I swear it was as if you could hear and feel the entire country erupting in complete and utter pride and bliss for the mother-team. Even though the first goal was renounced due to an off-sides call, the emotion at the time of ball-to-net was absolutely incredible, unlike anything I have ever experienced. During that game, I really started to wish I had been hecho en México...!!

Maggie Uno's brother came into México D.F. on Thursday to visit with a friend who lives in D.F. Friday morning they drove down to Cuernavaca and after the game on Friday Uno and I went and visited her brother and his friends at their house. We got to see another part of town, another walk of life, eat more delicious tacos and quesadillas... it was a good adventure on Friday. Those random experiences have been some of my favorite ones, just being able to go out and explore and experience cultural differences that you can't teach in the classroom or learn from reading a book.

As uña y carne, two peas in a pod, more or less, Maggie Uno and I have spent a large majority of our class and free time together, and have had some really great conversations. On Friday we were talking about the relationships we have built with other Gonzaga people while we are all here. When traveling, a curious mind paired with an open heart prompts you to think about where you are, who you are, who you are with, what you are doing, where you are going, what you are experiencing - thought provoking questions go on and on. You are in a different state of being, in which you share yourself with the world differently than you would if you were at home. The relationship that you build with yourself grows and changes to these traveling experiences, and the relationship that you build with others is different than the ones you would have built with them at home. Not better or worse, just, different. I realize that the word "different" isn't the most descriptive, pardon me for my lack of vocabulary. They say that the first step to truly learning another language occurs when you start to forget your own native tongue... I don't know who "they" is, but I sure hope they are right!

Saturday: the final excursion

Woke up Saturday morning with my stomach in complete rage, but eh ni modo, on with la vida!

We went on an excursion to México City, where we saw Frida Kahlo's house la Casa Azul, el Museo Dolores Olmedo, and we got to visit Xochimilco (which is similar to what México City was like 500 years ago). Frida's house is painted the most beautiful cobalt blue, and save for the missing peacocks (there were peacocks in the movie Frida and we were disappointed to find that none actually resided there) it was a work of art in and of itself. El Museo Dolores Olmedo was a huge compound on which resided a rather extremely large house, plenty of peacocks (and some babies!) and the Xoloitzcuintli, the Mexican hairless dogs that were considered sacred dogs by the Aztecs. If you have a chance to go on facebook, check out the picture of the statue and the black dogs, and good luck telling the difference between the statue and the real dogs! So weird. Xochimilco is a district in D.F. with a series of canals from Lake Xochimilco, and you can take these boats called trajineras on the canal for an hour-long boat ride. These colorful boats are painted with vibrant colors and named after, well, I am not sure what they are all named after. But while you're floating along the river smaller boats come by you selling drinks, food, micheladas (SO GOOD), jewelry etc. And mariachi bands float by on their boats. Our excursion group was too big for just one boat, so we took two different boats instead, but our boatmen attached the two together. The people on the boat behind us paid for the mariachi to play some songs, so we cheated and got to listen to them for free! There were also plenty of boats that passed us by that were having some major fiestas goin' down. Definitely heard Lady Gaga blasting from some speakers.

PRE TEXT: When I take taxis, I really enjoy looking out the windows and seeing what I see, hoping that I will discover something exciting or that I will finally obtain some general sense of direction in this city of CRAZY drivers.

Saturday night after we got back, I was took a taxi to go hang out with some friends. It had jsut started to rain (and by rain I mean torrential downpour of the sky opening up), and not more than 3 blocks from my house something shiny caught the corner of my eye. I glanced really quickly to see what it was, and it was literally a hole-in-the-wall shrine to the Virgen Guadalupe, surrounded inside and out with red and gold foil-tinsel. All this time I should have been counting how many hole-in-the-wall Virgen Guadalupe shrines I see. The Virgen Guadalupe is a huge part of Mexican life, she is often called the matron saint of Mexicans. If you haven't learned about her, here is the Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgen_de_Guadalupe

Later that night, we went to a fiesta that a local salsa/dance studio was having. Our friend is the owner of the studio, so when we got the invite of course we were going to go to check it out! When we got there it was a little awkward at first, as hardly anyone was really dancing and most people were just kickin it on the sides of the big dance floor. But as the night progressed a bit, more people started to dance-and dance well-and we realized that there were dancing 'competitions' going on. Oh man, their feet were so light and their hips so smooth, I didn't know the human body could move that way! At one point there were 5 or 6 guys on the dance floor, competing to be the best male salsa-er of the night. And there was a period for a minute or two when they were breaking their groove down, and we were laughing because we felt like female peacocks being summoned by the male peacocks who were shaking their tail-feathers.

Sunday: tarea tarea tarea

Sunday was no day of much excitement, yet rather a day of much homework and trying to get ahead of the game for this week of homework hell. I am afraid that it is also very late, and that I don't have much energy left to say much else.

So now, as Lord Byron said, "On with the dance, let joy be unconfined!" I have less than two weeks left, and of course I am going to get my dance on, you know me!

Besos besos besos!

my "name this title with cleverness" bank is currently out of service

Tomorrow marks a month that I have been I México! Actually, tomorrow marks the day that I was almost in México. I was actually in Texas waiting for a flight, praying for my luggage, and sipping on a gin & tonic over dinner. So, as of the 15th it will have been one month for me that I will have been here. Def does not feel like a month. Strange strange strange.

I can't keep my eyes open, expect a longer post tomorrow because that is what you will find (probably around the end-ish of the day)...

Besititos!

VIVA MÉXiCO!

Today we went to the fayuca, the black market, after comida. You think that it would be way underground and hush-hush, but it's pretty normal. And HUGE! It has everything you would want from shoes to clothes to DVDs and CDs to car stereo speakers to food... you name it, you'll find it at the fayuca. We went down there looking for México fútbol jerseys for the World Cup tomorrow... México and South Africa are butting heads in the kick-off game of what is sure to be a take-down of the host country by a swarm of green guapos. I bought a playera verde, green jersey, and I am pumped to don that baby for the 9am game tomorrow. Oh man, I cannot wait for soccer here. It is safe to say that I haven't ever been so excited to partake in any sporting event, maybe save for our high-school lacrosse championship game, but that's a different story entirely. It's like a green fever is about to overtake this country... get ready for the greatness. Get ready for...

VIVA MÉXiCO!!!!!!!!

(besos!)

come on, estomago, man up

So I have been rattling off how much I absolutely love México, which is so true. That fact of that infinite México-love has not changed since my last blog post, rest assured friends and family. But there are two things that I really do not dig about México, let me elaborate briefly before my three-hour-long Gonzaga class.

1. If I haven´t already said this, I despise the machismo society here. Definitely not a fan. If you are not familiar with what I speak here, I will elaborate in a later blog post.
2. Off of that, I really don´t enjoy the fact that it´s not culturally acceptable for women to walk around or go places by themselves, other than the grocery store or to the pharmacy that is nearby. Especially for gringas. Makes me feel as though a sliver of independence has shrivelled up from my free-spirited ways.
[okay, so there are actually three things that I really do not dig about México, here is the third...]
3. Really not a big fan of how much my stomach really does not bode well with any of the spicyness that I eat. For the first week or so, my stomach was fine, absolutely normal and lovin what I was throwin it´s way. But after the first week and a half, my stomach was hooting and hollering and not likin whatever I was ingesting. So I did some self-diagnosis and realized that it is salsa and anything really spicy that makes my stomach go haywire. So much for salsa at every meal... psh, thanks estomago. I make sure that I don´t eat too spicy stuff on a regular basis so I can save my stomach annoyances for the times when I want that reallyyyyy good-lookin taco or just can´t help but down that mole that sitting on the enchiladas in front of me. And you better believe that these stomach things won´t stop me from bringing back my mamás bomb-ass salsa recipe.

Besos!

CCM: un sándwich de crema de cacahuate y mermelada

Right now I am in the midst of one of my homework assignments, for which we have to use the imperative verb form and write some instructions on how to do something or suggestions on what to do when you go someplace. When our prof said that we could do a receta (recipe), I knew my topic was decided: I was do write a recipe for el perfecto sándwich de CCM - the perfect PB & J. It's looking to be a good recipe, once I finish it I will post it up on the blog so you too back in the 'states can learn a thing or two about the perfection of the great worldly-famous meal.

Boy, has it been a good long while since I last wrote! Last week was an insanely busy week school-wise. We had a slew of final essays and tests that were due last week, which made it difficult to spend time away from eating, sleeping, school, and going out for our friend Maite's birthday! But I got over the hill that was that week, and here we are with week 4 having just begun! Four of our group-mates left yesterday, and I miss them quite a fair amount. The group dynamic rapidly and obviously changed, it's strange going from 13 to 9. Here are some other tidbits about today that were noticeably different:

- There are a couple of new groups of students on "campus," and it's strange to see new gringo faces around. By overhearing some of them talk today, it was more than obvious that they are from Texas, and we all know how I feel about Texas...!

- Our class schedule changed today, so now instead of taking a composition class in the afternoon, it has switched to a literature class. Which will be a challenge, but a good challenge I think, and the teacher has a peaceful, harmonious presence about here that will make class enjoyable.

- The grammar class that we were in moved from building 3 to building 12 - let me elaborate. The campus consists of 14 different buildings, each with a different purpose. Buildings 1-9 are on the same "campus," which makes it easy to get something to eat or kick it with friends during the 10-minute breaks we have during class. But buildings 10-14 are all separate from the main campus, so now we won't return to main campus until lunchtime. The buildings aren't far away, only a minute or two walk from main campus, it's not bad at all. And the change of scenery is nice, one can only spend so many hours a day in the same place, you know?

Day 1 of Week 4 wasn't a bad day by any means, I am very much looking forward to these next three weeks here. After three weeks, I really feel like I am in the swing of things, like I have a groove and feel comfortable differentiating from the gringo norm. I am so excited for what will come this next three weeks, I know I will have much to recount!

Catch-up time from the past week-ish!

As I said, last week was incredibly busy with homework and such, but that didn't stop Cuernavaca from getting further under my skin!

On Wednesdays, we have a class with our group of students from Gonzaga and the director of our program, our beloved Luis García-Torvisco! Each student is required to do a presentation of 5-ish minutes during the class on a given topic, and my presentation was last Wednesday on the Mexican Americans... I think it went well! My spoken-spanish is definitely better than my written spanish, that is for sure. We also watch a movie every class period, and this past class we watched Como Agua para Chocolate, such a cool movie! If you have not yet had the grace of seeing the movie, I would highly recommend it. It is set during the Mexican Revolution and focuses on the emotion and love one woman pours into her cooking, and presents the story in magic realism... it is an incredible movie! And if you want anyone to watch it with when you come back to the 'states, hit me up :) Oh and Wednesday was also the first time that I went to this restaurant/taco-joint called La Gringa (III)! I had heard such incredible things about it from my classmates, and I had wanted to go for the longest time. It's only a block away from my house here, so I was kind of surprised that it took me almost three weeks to get my butt over there. On Wednesday I went with a few friends and had tacos al pastor, and holy smokes they are incredible!!! Def one of my favorites, bar none.

Oh man I forgot about this story that happened maybe the 4th or 5th day that I was here! So I was up late doing homework (as I tend to be up late doing homework most nights) and when I was walking to my bedroom, I noticed a bug on the floor crawling toward my room, what appeared to be a small scorpion. Of course, everyone else was asleep, and I had NO idea what in the heck I was going to do, I just knew that it was not about to go into my room. So I took one of my handy-dandy Chaco sandals and flung the little pest across the living room, which was probably a smart idea since it decided to start sprinting away from me as fast as it could. But I was not about to take any chances with this little guy, so I ran after it and just smushed the crap out of it with my Chaco. It took me about 5 minutes to build up the courage to look and see if I had actually killed the fella, and thank goodness I did. The next day when I recounted the story to my classes, I felt like such a hero. My grammar teacher preceded to inform me that "wherever there is one alacran (as they are called), there are five more to be found close by." Thank you Daniél, I really appreciate that spout of sarcasm.

Anyway back to last week...the end of school on Friday came with a huge shout of happiness, a big fatty nap, and a night of salsa-dancing at Los Arcos as per-norm on Fridays. Saturday we went to Rios las Estacas, a sort of resort-ish place with this crystal-clear rivers that are so ideal to swim in. It is the perfect place to just lay around for a day, drink some beers, take some naps, jump in the river a few times... it was a much needed and well-appreciated break. Sunburn? Yep. Well, Maggie2 was smart and decided that because (the majority of) her legs are tan, she didn't need to put on any sunblock at all. But she forgot that there is a part of her thighs that her shorts cover, and that part never gets any sunshine. So by not putting sunblock on those whiter-than-white areas while wearing a bathing suit, she got a gnarly sunburn. It could've been way worse, but I haven't had one this bad since, well, I honestly don't remember. Eh, ni modo, no big thing. When we returned from las Estacas, we went out that night to a Cuban bar and restaurant, literally a hole in the wall place. So legit. We were the only gringos there, there was art and writing all over the walls, for anyone from Portland who has been to Montage, the menus reminded me of the Montage menus, but wayyyy cooler and Cuban!, and there was live music too! Starting at 1am was the live music and we left at 1230, but I mean, it was still there! Definitely going back there. And hopefully eventually going to go visit the real Cuba!!!

One of the things I love the most about where we live is that I can go with my roomdogs to the bakery at the Superama here and just get a churro or two to chow on. People here know how to cook and bake, I really think it is something in the blood. Watch out though, when I come back I bet I will be able to make a mean churro...!

Holy wow the storms here are incredible!!! There was just a huge burst of thunder, and it appears as if it opened up the sky, because an incredible downpour of rain is coming down outside. Yeah, this feels like home.

If there is one thing about México that I have come to love and appreciate so much, it is the food. And not because the food is incredible, but what food, comida, means. Comida is never just a grab-n-go affair as it most of the times is in the 'states. We eat desayuno in the mornings, then have our biggest meal called comida in the afternoons around 3, and then a small light dinner called cena in the evenings, usually around 8 or 830. The times to eat aren't merely suggested times, but stores close down and people stop working so that they can return home for their comida with their family or their friends. Food brings people together in a way that nothing else has the power to. It is a literally physical source of life and sustenance, but even moreso for the spirit. In these past three weeks, I have come to appreciate so much in my life just from sitting down and really enjoying and knowing the people I am eating with. People have always come first in my life, and the comida here has only reiterated and emphasized that ten-fold. Just you wait for some great comida upon my state-side return, just you wait!

Well, I better return back to my sándwich de crema de cachuate y mermelada, can't leave a serious business like that hanging.

Besitossss!!