radio silence

ok, sportsfans, here's a little of what you have missed and where we're going from here...

*thursday, 7 june- am, we go with a medicine man friend to a remote village to talk with some folks about some kind of service learning project for my students next year
pm, we go on an excursion with the school to xochicalco and an orphanage



*friday, 8 june- 7am pile on a bus to acapulco, wave goodbye to cuernavaca for the last time



*sunday, 10 june- wave goodbye to the bus as it heads back tor cuernavaca and head out on our own

*the medicine man has given me some contact information for a place we can go and stay on the beach in a remote fishing village along the coast, just north of acapulco. "cross the footbridge, walk out onto the beach, go all the way to the end and ask for rosa. tell her i sent you". there we can camp on her land for free in exchange for buying and eating her fresh caught and exquisitely prepared fish for dinner, and swim and build a fire and generally laze about for a couple of days.



*tuesday or wednesday- we will head north along the coast a bit to another place that is a little more populated, but still not on the tourist maps. at the moment i don't remember what it's called. we will spend another day or two or three exploring and talking to people before heading north another jump, where we will do the same. the mexicans call this 'puebleando'.



*am of 16 june- from wherever we are, we will catch the citybus to puerto vallarta which will dump us in the middle of the city, i imagine.




we will be under strict radio slience from the morning of 10 june until sometime after 16 june owing to the fact that we plan to be in the middle of nowhere without electricity.

teachers protest

the mexican government has recently passed a new law, ISSSTE, that has taken away the teacher pension. not just the part that the government has contributed to or 'from now on', but the voluntary salary deductions made by the teachers for years and years. according to what i understand, when the teachers have made demands for their money, the response they got was something similar to, 'what money?, there is no money here.'
they are understandably incensed, and have taken to the streets across the country, closing off major thoroughfares and generally doing their best to be heard.
here are some shots of a small , peaceful protest i happened upon in the center of town today.

farewell melissa

here's a paste of melissa's farewell message that she requested i post:

I decided to leave Mexico early due to some further complications with my oldest, furry child, Jasmine. Another disc is bulging and putting pressure on Jasmine’s spine, so I came home to help Willy care for her. I also had some medical problems myself while I was in Mexico, mainly due to stomach problems. I went to my doctor as soon as I got home, and I found out that I’d lost 10lbs and I have some amoeba friends I brought back from Mexico in my intestines (I named the worm Herman the Wormin…hehe). I greatly enjoyed my time in Mexico and I look forward to going back for more schooling there in the future. I met some wonderful people during my trip and saw some awesome sights. The time I spent there gave me a great jumpstart to speaking more Spanish on a regular basis, and I plan to keep taking classes throughout this summer and fall. Many thanks to everyone for their love and support!!

it was like someone with a mouth full of barbeque sauce...

*warning* this may me too much information for some of you...

so, the school invited all of the directors out to breakfast the other morning at a really nice hotel/spa. they had a buffet that was especially exciting because of all of the amazing fresh fruit, which was like a breath of fresh air compared to the typical mexican fair of late.
after i had eaten my fill of pineapple, mango, guayaba, melon, honeydew and watermelon and all i could handle of the freshly prepared fruit juice cocktails, someone asked me it i had tried the 'lengua' or the 'panza'.
no, i hadn't. but i had considered it seeing as how i would not likely ever buy it for myself, making this a possible once in a lifetime thing.
i let them cajole me into trying them, and this is my reaction. perhaps i am exposing my closed mind, here, but it is what it is.

'lengua' is cow tongue. it is quite tender and served in a red sauce. that doesn't disguise the fact that it is a tongue, complete with taste buds. so when i say 'it was like someone with a mouthful of barbecue sauce stuck their tongue in my mouth', that's exactly what i mean. the trick then, was chewing it up and swallowing it. i may be affected for life.
the next thing on my plate to try was panza- cow stomach. as far as i can tell it didn't have much of a flavor, but that is quite likely due to the fact that i drown it in lemon juice. it was otherwise like trying to chew up a rubber band, to which i offered a weak effort and big swallow.

later, i went to the big market to get these pictures so you can visualize what i ate.

in terms of being open to new experiences, i can say that i am. and i can also say that i am glad that eating panza and lengua are no longer new experiences for me.

taxco

pictures from our excursion to taxco. wayne chose not to go on this one because he had heard that it was really a glorified shopping trip. (wayne, you heard right)

the town was built on steep mountain sides. that white volkswagon van on the road is a cumbi. cumbis are like a mix between taxis and city buses. they take the doors off and the seats out and in place of the seats, they install wooden benches, with the goal of cramming as many people as possible inside. to ride one, you flag it down as it is going by and ask if it is going to x . the driver invariably replies 'of course' so you pay your $.40, hop on, and hold on for your life. there are typically 10-15 people riding on these things.
during holy week, there are many processions of 'penitentes', folks who are doing penance for their sins. this is a statue to recognise them. it shows a penitente, with a bundle of thorny branches strapped to his arms. the idea is to truly suffer.
taxco also has a 'christ on the hill' similar to the one in rio, i think, but it isn't as high.
we happened to be there on a festival day, so the streets were decorated and there were all manner of street performers. unfortunately, my pictures of them didn't turn out.

tepoztlan

here are some pictures of the day that wayne and i went back up to tepoztlan to climb to the top of the mountain, where the pyramid is. unlike the pyramids of teotihuacan, this one served the purpose of being a lookout tower, of sorts, for the village below.

here are wayne and blair, who made wayne's music video...
these little animals are called something like tree bears. they're kind of a cross between raccoons and possums. these were incredibly tame. the guy in this picture had a candy wrapper that he was crinkling. the bear climbing on his legs just couldn't resist the sound and kept coming back to see what he had that he might offer as a snicky-snack.
whoever out there who reads this and knows what they're called, let the rest of us know.

*i just found out that they're called tejones.

art history

for those of you who fell asleep during your art history classes in college, here's a quick synopsis of why these murals are so cool...
so, if someone was going to be an artist for their career (we're talking back in the day, here) they needed someone who appreciated their work to foot the bill.
who could that be?
really rich people, of course.
so if your boss was a rich person, what kinds of things would she/he require you to paint?
flattering pictures of her/him with the family dog, of course.
that probably has something to do with why you fell asleep in art history...
fast forward to the early 20th century...
diego rivera and frida kahlo, among others, were part of a movement that started changing that. their art was different and new because it portrayed everyday people doing everyday things. it portrayed the dominant section of society more honestly and honored the experience of women, children, factory workers and farmers.
here are some shots of the rivera mural in the palacio cortes. this mural depicts the history of the people who were here before the arrival of europeans all the way through the conquest and and colonization...

note: the painting at the top is not part of this mural. it is called 'sueño de una tarde dominical en la alameda central'. it is in the diego rivera museum in mexico city.

paparazzi

so we were out eating the other day, and this scantily-clad woman shows up. she was wearing a bikini top and shorts, a hat and big sunglasses. there was an older couple with her- we thought maybe her parents. there was also a young man with her, carrying her purse. she was rather attention seeking in her behavior, but at the same time covered her face with her menu when marci tried to get a picture of her.


so, here is the footage we managed to get- pure 'national enquirer' material. if anyone knows who she is, let us know. also, i was trying to be nonchalant, and ended up holding my camera upside down. i thought i had fixed it before i uploaded it, but apparently not. i have been hearing rumors that folks are wondering about my state of being, so instead of wasting any more time messing around with quicktime trying to edit, i'm just going to give you what i've got...

so... who is she?

ballet folklorico

here in cuernavaca, they take it to the next level and dance with milk on their heads...

las mañanitas

the other night we went to a restaurant/hotel called las mañanitas. they had all manner of artwork all over the grounds, and a few birds of paradise, also known as peacocks. we were thoroughly entertained by a young male who was very interested in a female. he hid behind bushes and spied on her. he ran towards her, as if he might have the nerve to talk to her, but then before he got within 30 feet of her, he would turn and dart off into the underbrush. after hiding a while, he would come back out to skulk from behind the bushes some more, peeking up to look at her and then ducking his head down when she looked his way. he seemed so human, so adolescent.

before we ate, we walked the grounds and ...

who needs you, i´ve got mexico

wayne and maribeth went back to tepoztlan on saturday to climb to the top of the pyramid. it was a beautiful day, sunny, hot and there were plenty of folks coming and going all along the way. we made it to the top, where wayne played to an excited crowd. we also ran into blair g williamson, another student who was traveling alone, who made this, wayne´s first ever music video (solo or otherwise)... thanks blair!

happy birthday megan!

here´s wishing you a great day, megan, from all of us travelers.

tepoztlan y hacienda cortes

tepoztlan is a city built by the tepoztecos long before the arrival of europeans. up the mountain from this spot they built a 'pyramid' that was really a lookout tower. climbing up to this pyramid makes the pyramid of the sun in teotihuacan seem like a joke. we didn't have time this day to go up, but wayne and maribeth have plans of going back...
this mural is on a wall that marks the entrance to the cathedral in this little town. it is made completely of seeds that are glued to the wall. there are local artisans that put up a new mural every 6 months. this one depicts the brutality of the conquistadores.





here is a close-up of some of the seeds. kidney beans, navy beans, and black beans, i think.

in other parts, there were avocado seeds, lentils, and every other kind of seed you can imagine. there was no other source of color on the wall.








hacienda cortes is the equivalent of a cotton plantation in the south of the usa. hernan cortes, the famous cortes that most of us have heard of, never lived here. it belonged to his son, martin (i think that was his name). they probably grew sugar. this tree is a fig tree of a sort that only grows on walls. the interesting thing about them is that, whereas most trees break up walls, sidewalks and granite mountains with their roots, the roots of these trees wrap around the walls and hug them, holding them together and making them stronger.


we paused for some welcome refreshment at the restaurant before we headed back to school. the haciends is a hotel now, 4-5 stars.

can you say schwank?

bluegrass and bellydancers

we´ll update this with pictures as soon as we can, but here´s the story:

so, on our first day here, after arriving late/early the night before, wayne showed up for the orientation telling me that there was a mother´s day party that his ´parents´had invited him to that their family was having that night. he suggested that i bring my mandolin and he would have his and he would give me a lesson. my first consern was how late it would last. i was tired and i knew that i needed to sleep. he assured me that we would not be out late as his ´parents´ are older.
that was all I knew when i showed up at 8pm to ride with them to the restaurant. we were the first ones there, and had to wait quite a while for the rest of the ´family´, which turned out to be the rotary club.
by about 9:30 everyone had shown up and we started to order our dinner. i decided to let go of any plans of going to sleep any time soon and just enjoy myself.
food didn´t start to arrive until after 10, at which point there becan talk of flamenco dancers that were coming on soon (we were in a Spanish ´tapas´restaurant). how fun will that be?!
at 10:45 the word on the street was that the dancers would be coming out in 15 minutes.

45 minutes later, the music came on and three scantily-clad bellydancers came out. (any of you who were at the international club´s international night, think about those dancers, only these moved even more like snakes.) all of the men were enthralled, and all of the women were laughing at their husbands. they danced for 25 minutes, or so. when they left, wayne got up and put on quite a show for the restaurant with his mandolin and harmonica, singing old faves like ´la cucaracha´and ´amazing grace´. the crowd loved him and sang along.
as wayne sat down surrounded by smiles and pats on the back, the belly dancers came out for another set.
as my dad always says, you can sleep when you´re old.
i´ll get pictures up as soon as i get them. wayne wants to tell his impressions of the story too.

coming soon...

complete with conversation pit

here are some shots of maribeth's house. it is a stucco dome that's huge, with little bedrooms like spokes on a wheel. the door to the right of the tv is my bedroom.
in the middle, you can see the depressed floor that wayne informed me is called a conversation pit.








this is the view from the breakfast table. the glass doors open to the patio, with a pool and half a tennis court and backboard. the archway leads into the kitchen. all of the light you can see is from skylights. in the bottom right of the frame you can see the top of the stairs that lead down to the front door.






our indoor fountain















this is the stariway that leads down to the front door

adventures on the camino real

on the way home from teotihuacan last night, our bus brokedown on the side of the highway. it turned out that we had run out of gas. our guide was SO embarrassed, and almost couldn't talk when he told us what had happened. he and the driver got out to try and figure out what to do. we called the transportation office at the school, and were told something about it being a long time before they could get out to help us. finally, enrique got back on the bus and said that if some of the women would get out and try and flag down another bus, that would be our best shot at getting home anytime soon. no one moved at first, thinking that it must be a joke. but when he pleaded, saying that there was no way anyone would stop for a bus that apeared to be full of men, we ladies got down and started a song and dance routine on the side of the road.

many a bus full to capacity passed us forlornly. finally an empty bus on it's way to acapulco stopped and gave us a ride close enough to cuernavaca that we could take cabs home.

ok, so i made up the camino real part. it was really just some highway between mexico city and cuernavaca, but the rest is true.

teotihuacan

on our way to teotihuacan

we stopped at a market, where this nice man taught us all about this cactus, the plant responsible for most of the advancements made by the pre-columbian inhabitants of this beautiful country. it is also the source of their earliest alcoholic beverage, with which we were plied in generous quantities before being invited in to shop. i wonder if that tactic is also pre-columbian.
while we were walking around, these folks showed up to perform a ceremony.
this is the pyramid of the sun. that spiky, mohawk looking thing is a line of people climbing up to the top
here's a closer shot. we were told that the entire surface was covered with stucco, until unskilled, uneducated, inexperienced workers were told to clean off the plants and weeds and moss that were covering it. they cleaned it right down to the bare rocks.

at the very top of the pyramid, there is a little silver plate, the size of a dime, maybe. the deal is that there is a special energy that shoots up out of this spot. everyone crowded around to have a turn at touching it, and being healed. i never actually got a look at it, because there was never a moment that it wasn't hidden by at least 4 fingers and others waiting. i didn't touch it myself, but i touched somebody who was touching it and boy let me tell you,

i've been healed!

mi noche con mi familia

A posting from Melissa...

So last night we finally arrived in Mexico city and it looked as though the sky melded into the lights of the city. I saw the North Star and noticed how the city kept going off into the distance. Mexico city looked as big as two states from the sky.

When I arrived at my family´s house last night, I realized, after talking in circles in Spanish with my "mother," that I had been assigned to a new family in Cuernavaca. I am glad to know the Spanish that I do because mi madre speaks complete Spanish. So at 1am last night, we were talking about where to find the bathroom and how to use the hot water.

The funniest part last night was when Zoila asked me if I wanted regular water or yellow water. I am sure I made the funniest face at that point. I asked if the water was potable and she assured me it was. I told Zoila that I would take the regular water and she then showed me the "yellow water." It took me a bit to realize that Zoila was talking about pineapple juice (piña or jugo) and not dirty water ;)

the eagle has landed

maribeth´s late night thoughts on having arrived in mexico:

love the billboards. somehow seeing advertising in another culture is much more interesting. my favorite of the night was one depicting a fire hydrant that had sprung a small leak which was squirting a dog sitting next to it which was, in turn, looking back at the hydrant incredulously. ¨qué ironía¨. i have no idea what they were selling.

mexico city was absolutely the most amazing thing to see from a plane window at night. it goes on forever. it was like landing on another planet.

atlanta, being storm central last night, our plane was delayed and we didn´t get into close proximity of our beds until well after 1am. then we had house tours and the like. i am staying in the school´s official residence which means that there´s no family. in fact, there is no one but me here at all. it´s almost 2:30 now (3:30 my time) and i am finally lying down. i am told that someone will knock on my door in the morning and make sure i get to the school. that is a good thing.

one final thought before i close my eyes:if my towel were an advertisement, it would say ¨i´m not a towel, but i play one on TV¨. it looks so fluffy and rich, but don´t be fooled. it just smears the water around my skin, never really absorbing any.

¡viva la revolución!

Well, we're packed...

but who's going to carry it all?

t-minus 1 day, give or take

where are we going, you ask...

I don't have any pictures of Mexico yet, so i decided to include this
cute shot of my neice, sydney, sleeping with her pet snake.

the details:

May 11- provided that everything goes as planned/scheduled, we will arrive at the airport in Mexico city at 10:17 pm local time. we then have about a 2 hour drive to our homes/beds. please be on time. please be on time. please be on time.

May 12- testing at the school, first thing in the morning. will sleep deprivation have anything to do with the placement test results?

May 13- Teotihuacan- where we'll climb the sun. I've heard it's hot there


May 16- Tepoztlan- the Mexican version of Colonial Williamsburg (mom, don't worry, I'm not going into the apothecary shop)


May 23- Ballet Folklorico- a treat for the senses


May 26- Taxco- which is Aztec for 'our dirt is made of silver' or something like that


June 7- Xochicalco and Hacienda Vista Hermosa- some amazing pre-Colombian ruins followed by a tour of the ol' homeplace of Cortes. does anyone else see the irony here?


June 8-10- Acapulco- how dangerous can that cliff diving really be?


June 11- fly back to the states. after adventures like these, we'll sleep like babies all the way home.


During the weeks, everyone will be in classes all day and doing homework every night. On our free weekends, we will surely partake of the culture in other ways.

introducing the characters

erin - packed and ready. off making final checks-

do i have my tooth brush?

where's my favorite hat?

mom, remember to feed jackson while i'm gone.

melissa-still looking for the socks that the dogs have hidden in their not-so-secret protest of her imminent departure.

wayne- has told the rest of the band that he won't be back until they get the dang banjo tuned.

maribeth- is mostly thinking about all of the projects that she might be able to work in before may 11, between finals and packing...