lets try these photos one more time...

Let´s see, from top to bottom, we have the bumper boats of Xochimilco, the pyramide of the sun, me on the pyramide of the moon with the pyramid of the sun to the left, and just a few of Robert Brady´s masks (that pic is for dad). Enjoy!

La vida libre

Ready...go! I had to wait a week to accumulate enough to form a full entry here. Things have picked up, going well. I´ve met some cool people to hold cool conversations with, ranging in age from 19 to 42. The sorority girls who were on the same trips with me this past weekend were ridiculously annoying. I´m sure I was somewhat annoying as a 20 year old, but I highly doubt I was capable of that level of annoyance. I´m really enjoying the Spanish and my classes, and I´m growing increasingly anxious/excited about my language skills for Peru. I have my flights to Peru booked, so I´m way excited about that...I leave Mexico on Feb 12 at 6 am and get into Iquitos at 7 pm, with a stopover in Panama city as well as Lima. I can get halfway around the world in 12 hours...it seems strange that it will take me that long just to hop over the equator. But regardless, my return flight, open to change if anyone wants to come and travel with me at the end of May/beginning of June (shameless plea for travel companion) is June 10. But I hope I have reason to delay that date. Ok, in flipped and reversed order of events (ie going backwards): Yesterday I went to Mexico City with a group from the school, and went to the Frida Kahlo museum, and the Dolores Olmedo Patiño museum and to Xochimilco, an area with waterways and canals that hark back to the days when Mexico City was an island. The two museums were amazing, mostly artwork of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and the Frida Kahlo museum is in the house she grew up in and lived in most of her life (la casa azul). Mom and Dad - definitely something you should do on your next trip here. The Dolores Olmedo museum was in this woman´s , Dolores Olmedo, house, which was a veritable mansion, and she had collected tons of art, a lot of Diego Rivera´s and Frida Kahlo´s work, and was a very wealthy socialite, so her house/museum was very cool as well. At Xochimilco, we took a boat ride (see pics tomorrow...), were serendaded by floating mariachi bands and played bumper boats with the many other boats in the canals. On Saturday, I went to the pyramides of Teotihuacán. (check out that typing skill with the accents, btw). Had it been about 10 degrees warmer, and had there been no rain, and had there been no annoying sorority girls, it would have been a better day, but seeing the ruins was very cool, and climbing the two biggest pyramids (el sol y la luna) was fun, and provided a beautiful view from the top, complete with Mexico City smog. But for some reason, from Curenavaca to Teotihuacán, the temperature dropped and the rain came, and being in Mexico, I did not really expect it, so I was a little bit cold until I climbed the pyramides. Moving on. Saturday night I met up with some of the folks from the trip who attend another language school, for dinner, and I was by far the youngest person there, by at least 10-15 years. It´s sorta funny how I have more to talk about with these folks than with the other 20 somethings on the trip. Anyway, we went for dinner and saw some dancing in the town center (el zocalo, one in every town) before dinner. There were these older couples dancing, and the best way I can describe it is it was something from PBS. If the dancers from the Lawrence Welk Show had aged naturally and moved to Mexico, this is what they would be doing with their Saturday nights. It was kinda adorable. One couple was pretty cut-throat, though, you could tell they took this very seriously. Friday night I went out for very rich Italian food with a guy from my classes and enjoyed some good banter about the problems of the globe. He has traveled very extensively, so I enjoyed the conversation. Last week, a few "notable" events: I went with my host mom and we had massages for 60 pesos. With the current exchange rate, that´s roughly $6. Not $60, $6. The massages were by massage students, so they offer these really cheap massages in order to get their hours of practice in, so I´ve had better massages, but still, it was delightful. I went to an arte museum here in Cuernavaca. The museum is of Robert Brady´s art collection, and is in his beautiful old house here. Robert Brady was an independently wealthy art collector who was American but lived in Cuernavaca and traveled the world collecting art, everything from african tribal masks to frida kahlo paintings, and stuff from all over Africa, South America, Mexico, some European stuff, Indonesia, etc. It was awesome, especially since its rumored that Mr. Brady was a very "flamboyant" man, so the way he displayed his art reflected that. No wall had barely an inch of open, unoccupied space, and the whole house was painted in very bright and vibrant colors. His global mask collection was awesome, something that Dad would definitely appreciate (see pics)! The weekend before that was Acapulco. Acapulco was hot and sunny and empirically beautiful, but as I recall, very very touristy, so touristy that apparently the local economy requires two Wal-Marts, a Costco, and a Sam´s club to sustain it. It was a beach weekend, so I enjoyed being lazy and laying in the shade on the beach, as I don´t need to be any darker at the moment. I´m not the discoteque-going, tequilla-drinking gringa that usually enjoys the sort of places that Acapulco offers, so I had a relatively quiet weekend. The beaches were beautiful and the water warm, tho, so it was nice. And I think that catches everyone up. PICTURES: Jill on her balcony in Acapulco All sorts of strangely awesome art at the Robert Brady Museum I´m having trouble adding other pictures, and I´m not sure if those above will come out very well...I will try and add pics from this past weekend tomorrow or later today...enjoy

Donde esta el Wal-Mart?

It´s only been a few days, but before I head off for a weekend in Acapulco (barf), here are a few points on life thus far: Wal-Mart: Yep, it´s here. Saw one in Mexico City, and there´s one here in Cuernavaca too. Along with Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King (the one in Mexico City was 2 stories!), etc. The American boys staying at my house have frequented these establishments many times...they don´t travel much I think. Seeing as I don´t remember the last time I was in a McDonald´s in the States, I think I´ll stay away from the one here. Food: well, it is mexican food, lots of chiles, which are pretty hot, turns out, and lots of quesadillas, tortillas, rice, beans, etc. Molletes are pretty good, it´s bread, with beans, cheese, and salsa on it. Of the stuff I haven´t partaken in yet, it´s mostly market stuff, like parts of pigs and cows, cactus leaves, bugs (Zam style, nice and crispy), fried fish, and lots of other things fried in oil. Meals are a bit different, with breakfast in the morning, then the biggest meal, la comida, at like 2:30, then sometimes a small snack-ish meal at like 8:30 or so. Sometimes there is no late meal though. The afternoon meal, among other things, has a soup course, which I noticed, contains a chicken leg or wing only for Victor, the patriarch of the family. It is a very patriarchical society...more on that later. Driving: I was thinking to myself that it seems every time I get into a car in a new country I find myself thinking that they are crazier drivers than the last country I was in. But now it´s just that I think the rest of the world is a little crazy and American´s are really defensive and obediant. Either way, you have to be crazy to drive a car here. The streets are tiny, the city is very hilly, and there are minimal traffic signs and reglations. Two lane roads turn into 1 or 3 lane roads quickly... what center line?? The streets wind in and out, between buildings, up and down hills. Driving with my host dad, Victor, makes me feel like I´m going to throw up, driving with my host mom, Avi, makes me feel like I´m going to die. It´s a toss up, so I just sit in the back seat and wait til it´s over. All in all, it´s more entertaining than frightening, although I can´t believe I haven´t seen an accident yet. Which takes me to... Host family: The mom is Avi (pronounced Abi), the dad is Victor, they have three kids in their late 20s, but only two of them live at home, Victor (Jr.) and Veronica, both are very nice but work a lot. They are a very nice, accommodating family, with a lovely home. They have a cat named Picho, and the only reason I mention Picho is because he´s crazy...they call him Picho loco because he has a very strange habit of sucking on his rear foot. Very strange. But as I found out last night Picho is a Mayan word for "baby," so it is fitting. Cross-cultural learnings: The other night at the later meal, we had a conversation about the acceptance of homosexuality in Mexico, and my very offensive and ignorant fellow Americans were obviously not representative of my opinions...As Mexican culture is very concentrated around "machismo" and is a very patriarchical society, homosexuality is not really accepted, but it is present, but mostly hidden. Obviously, in the bigger cities like Mexico City there is a bigger homosexual presence in public. But still, it is less accepted and respected than in the big cities in the States. Noises in the night: Actually, there are noises all the time (obviously), but the night seems to bring more and louder noises...particularly fireworks-like explosions in the the churches. As each day honors a different saint, each church has a different party for each saint, so it appears that the churches are partying all the time, and by partying I mean lighting loud but apparently harmless explosions in honor of the saints. Hmm...these explosions combined with sirens set the many, MANY dogs to barking. Although I´m 98% certain I did hear actual gunshots, within a very close proximity to the house, the other night...fantastic. Tomorrow I´m off to Acapulco for the weekend...yeah, life´s pretty tough.

Fotos!

In order, hopefully: Palacio del Cortez in the center of town, a view of the mountains from the main road in Tepotzlan, a Cuernavaca street scene with the standard chaos, and an old church (sorry, I´m crappy with stories about churches, there are a lot of old churches).

La primera dia

Day 1, so far so good. I have like two minutes to update as they shuffle you around from classes from 8 am to 2 pm with only a few 10 minute breaks. Anyway, things are going well, I´m remembering more and more Spanish, so that´s good. There are a lot of obnoxious 20 year old college students, but eh. In fact, there are three guys who are staying with the same host family, they were in Acapulco this weekend and returned last night. The are 20, have only had 2 weeks of Spanish so they only speak English to me, and have one more week. I think they enjoy being able to drink in public more than anything else, as almost all of their stories have started out with "well, we were going to do this, but we were too shitfaced to wake up." Fantastic boys. I did go out for a beer with them last night, and it was nice to get out and see some of El Centro. The best way I can describe these guys is, if you´ve seen the movie Borat, they are only slightly less offensive and just as ignorant as the southern frat boys in the Winnibego that Borat hitched a ride with...so yeah. They are from Pennsylvania, but sound like the just walked out of the backwoods of Mississippi. They have tried to warn me of things like people starring and whistling and other such encounters of traveling, and I thought "uh, yeah, I´ve been there...no worries." In fact, it´s refreshing to feel like I actually fit in, thanks to the tan I got in Hawaii. Anyway, yesterday, I went to Teopatzlan (I know I butchered the spelling of that) with the host family, a small town about 45 minutes away, with a huge market. We walked around el mercado, toured la iglesia, (in three days I have already seen many churches...) and bought some food at the market. Among many food, there were pig skins for sale, along with most other body parts, whole or partial chickens (any part you want), cactus leaves (are they called leaves??), chiles, grasshoppers...your standard market fare, I think. The bell just rang (can we say structured???) so I have to go to my last class - health care vocabulario. I´ll post pictures when I can!

No hablo espanol

So it´s a darn good thing I´m here I guess. My spanish es horrible. I am here, arrived without problem. It´s so weird to be in a time zone only 2 hours different. It´s warm and sunny and beautiful, and if I said I missed the snow at home no one would believe me, but I do, a little bit. I just finished up with orientation at the school, and now I´m waiting for my ride back to the house. My host family is very nice, the house is beautiful, accomodations wonderful. They don´t speak english at all so yesterday I was forced to remember bits and pieces of high school spanish, which was humorous at times and usually grammatically incorrect. But that´s why I´m here. I´m still a bit tired and out of it, although I got nearly 10 hours of sleep last night. The next post will be newsier, more upbeat, and hopefully dotted with pictures. But that´s all for now.

New Year, New Continent

However, I'm afraid this is the last year that that mantra, "new year, new continent," will be applicable. Counting down the last 28 or so hours before departing. Big red (my backpack) is just about all packed up. And then I realized that many of you may not know exactly where I'm going (assuming many of you are reading this)! Blasphemy! On friday I'm heading out of Spokane on a one way ticket to Mexico City. From there I'll go to Cuernavaca, Mexico, to attend an International Linguistics Universidad for about a month...meaning I'll be learning Spanish, hopefully. I'm actually taking "Spanish for Medical Professional Dummies" so that should be kinda cool, if I'm not in over my head. All in all, my goal is to become quasi-proficient in Spanish, for the next stage of the trip. Which is Peru. Iquitos, Peru, where I will be volunteering and doing whatever in hospital with a Peruvian physician. Hopefully I'll learn enough Spanish to be able to pretend to know what's going on. And the greater goal is to learn enough Spanish to survive New York next year. If it still seems kinda vague to you, it is. I only checked two days ago what the visa requirements were for Peru. All I need is a plane ticket out of Peru. So really, the only requirement in life for me right now is to book a round trip ticket into and out of Peru at some point in the next month or so. I feel like that is do-able. Much easier than next year. Iquitos is only about 4 degrees south of the equator, on the Amazon River. So it's a darn good thing I had that pheo (sweat-inducing tumor) removed last year, cause it's gonna be hot! And with a fresh layer of snow here in Spokane and only 4 days on the mountain this year, it's a bitter sweet departure, but ultimately more sweet than bitter. Next time I hope to post en Espanol!