Reorientation is Better with Karaoke and Donkeys

All of my fellow Fulbrighters and I gathered this week for a re-orientation. The English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) met in Mexico City Tuesday morning before heading over to San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanaguato in the afternoon. We took part in round table discussions and listened to presentations about English teaching resources provided by the United States and Mexican governments. There was also a great presentation on translanguaging (using a student’s native language to support the development of a second language). The presenter was preaching bilingual education and I was loving it. We had the fanciest comida corrida I have eaten in Mexico thus fart. It included soup with anise, chicken with a corn sauce and pureed sweet potatoes. Delicious. Then we hopped on the bus to meet the research Fulbrighters in San Miguel. It only took 5 hours and one police stop. The program fed us very well the whole week. There was a plated dinner waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel. We didn’t arrive until about 10PM so we just relaxed after dinner.

Wednesday was filled with lots of learning! All of the ETAs and researchers prepared a 7-minute presentation on the work they’ve done in the past 4.5 months. We were divided into groups to hear the presentations. What the researchers are doing is especially interesting to me because of the variety of topics from fishing laws to cultural inclusion to custody of people with special needs. After lunch, a group of us went to a mask museum. It was a personal collection of a man from the United States who had an interest in masks and the rituals associated with them so he made a museum behind the bed and breakfast he owns. There were hundreds of masks. Before that, I hadn’t realized how prominent they are in the Mexican culture. When we returned to the hotel, everyone took part in another round table discussion about culture shock and life after the grant. I like the round table discussion. Then the ETAs had their own special session about English grammar. Many people think that we are English experts but a lot of us have never studied English. Granted, it’s our native language but it’s nice to have a refresher course on it even though it was a little dry. At night, we got dinner on our own so Jordan, Meg, Britney, Charllotte, Preston and I went to a little restaurant on the way downtown. It was filled with elderly English-speaking white people. They make up the majority of the population in San Miguel.

On Thursday morning we heard more grantee presentations and had a classroom management workshop with little to do with classroom management. It was more like a vent session. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. After lunch we had a goal setting session and Q&A. At night, the Binational Business (BBs) grantees arrived to do the cultural activities with us. We went on a walking tour of San Miguel to learn about legends and historical buildings and facts. The weather is beautiful in San Miguel so it was a nice walk. After the tour some of us found a bar with a 2 for 1 margarita special so we obviously took part in that “cultural event”. However, the waitress saw a bunch of Americans and tried to charge us for 13 more drinks than we actually had. When we finished explaining that we aren’t tourists, we went to a karaoke bar across the street. It was the highlight of orientation. All the Fulbrighters took command of the microphone. We were singing in English, Spanish and Spanglish until the bar closed at 4. Successful night of bonding.

Friday was the last day. After checking out of our rooms and having some breakfast we went to a ranch for some good ‘ol Mexican fun. What does that include? Chicken chasing, tug-of-war, potato sack races, and bare-back donkey riding/racing. We divided up into teams of 4 and each sent teach members for each task. My team was beast at tug of war. Thanks to my mad strength. Totally kidding. After the games, the people on the ranch made us a typical Mexican meal. This included tacos of various kinds of meat, beans, rice, salsas, chips, fresh fruit and naturally flavored water. It was a great way to end orientation. From there we took buses to our various destinations. It was sad leaving everyone because that’s the last time we will all be together. Guess that means I will just have to plan more trips to visit everyone!

Hightlights: Hamburgers, Break Up Letters, and Pyramids

Another weekend, another trip! I spent this weekend in Mexico City. It was a long weekend for me because I didn’t have to teach Monday due to orientation being this week. I got to Mexico City Saturday night just in time to go out for burgers: real, delicious hamburgers. It was at a place called Butchers & Sons. I also indulged in a spiked mint chocolate milkshake, which was a first for me. Heaven on earth. Paulina was a doll and let Britney, Preston, Jemina, and I crash at her place. Some of us ran a 12K in the morning. I was sleeping. When Jemina and I woke up we attempted to find a Catholic church for mass. We walked around for an hour but didn’t find one with a mass starting when we arrived. We decided to eat instead. We went to brunch with everyone and went to mass after brunch.

After mass, we met up with Preston, Britney and her roommate in Bosque de Chapultepec. They went to the castle while Jemina and I munched on some fresh fruit with granola and icing and went to Tamayo. It’s a modern art museum. It was one of the coolest museums I had ever been to. My favorite exhibit was about a break up letter. The artist received an email from her lover saying that they couldn’t see each other anymore. She translated the letter and gave it to more than 100 women to read from different professions and cultures to interpret. Some wrote songs, others danced and acted, while others wrote a written response. It was so interesting to see how these women described the man who wrote the letter. Most were negative comments but interesting, none the less. We met up with Preston and Britney after to get some food. Then we collected our things and headed to the next apartment. We played musical apartments for sleeping arrangements. Somehow, we were hungry again so we went out for tacos across the street. When we got to Juan’s place, we started to watch The Great Gatsby but we fell asleep.

Monday was Teotihuacan day! Round 2 to Teotihuacan for me. We got up bright and early and found a deliciously affordable breakfast spot a few blocks from the apartment, bought some snacks and were on our way to the pyramids. We took the metro and a bus to get there. It was a perfect day to be outside but I underestimated the sun. So did Jordan, poor thing. I had been to the pyramids before but this time we made friends with the vendors. I asked how much a necklace was and the man told me $700 pesos. I politely declined and he lowered the price to $100 pesos. What is that?! Another man taught us how to use the whistles that sound like animal calls. When we finally got to the top of the pyramid of the sun, we wanted to touch the center part to get some energy from the universe but there were people meditating around it. We patiently waited our turn.

Once we hiked all the important pyramids, we got back on the bus to head back to the city. Lots of traffic. I separated from the group to go to a game night so that Mexico City residents can practice their English. It was a lot of fun! We played Apples to Apples for a couple hours. They all spoke really well! It was enjoyable teaching them phrases and events. There were about 18 adults in my group. After game night I met up with everyone in the hotel that we were staying at for orientation. Some of us for P.F. Changs for dinner. It’s so good no matter what country you’re in. Catie, Jordan, Preston and I watched some Arrested Development then hit the hay to rest up for orientation that started on Tuesday.

Volcanoes and Butterflies

Another adventure-filled weekend! Jemina, Bruno and I woke up bright and early on Saturday to go to Nevado de Toluca. It’s a dormant volcano about an hour away from Toluca and the area is considered a national park. The last time it erupted the lava formed a “bellybutton” over the opening so it looks like a mountain with a lagoon on each side all inside of a giant crater. It’s SUPER busy on the weekends and even more so in the winter when it’s covered in snow. The wait to get to the entrance by car was more than an hour. We drove up as far as we could then started our 5-hour walking journey. It took about an hour to get from the car to the edge of the crater. It’s especially difficult to breathe because the altitude is so high that there’s a lack of oxygen. It’s 4,300 meters above sea level. And cold. I wore two long sleeve shirts, a jacket, two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, a hat and gloves. And that’s when the sun is out.

Once we got to the edge, we decided that we were going to descend to check out the lagoons. The trek down the edge of the crater was so steep. Definitely not handicapped friendly. We took some pictures at the Moon Lagoon (it’s the smaller one of the two), ate lunch and hiked through the snow around the bellybutton to the other one. There was only snow on one side of the inside of the crater because the sun had melted it on the other side. The Sun Lagoon is bigger but simpler. We decided to climb up another way that is easier and next to the Sun Lagoon. I was relieved when we got back up to the edge of the crater because that meant no more uphill climbing! We made the hour-long descend to the car, taking bets on how long it would take. Jemina won. We drove half way down and stopped for food since we were craving elote (corn on the cob with mayo, cheese and chili powder). We also had soup and tacos. Then we drove back to Toluca.

On Sunday Bruno and I went to a butterfly reserve to see monarch butterflies about an hour and a half away from Toluca on the way to Valle de Bravo. More climbing up mountains. Yay. It was a walk in the park compared to Saturday though. The reserve was cool. There were vendors, restaurants, a zip line, and the option of riding horses up the mountain. We opted to walk because we hadn’t walked all weekend. When we got up as far as we could we were able to see millions of butterflies all huddled together on tree branches. They were in the shape of beehives. It was relatively cold so they were trying to stay warm, huddles together. When the sun was out, they would fly. You can only see this in certain places at certain times of the year and pictures don’t do it justice. There were a lot of dead butterflies on the ground that people would pick up to take pictures with. But no one was allowed to take them with because every year the monarchs come back to look for them. We learned how to identify male and female butterflies. The black veins on a male butter are thinner and there are two dark circles, one on each wing. The females have thicker veins and no circles. We took lots of pictures then headed back down the mountain to good ‘ol Toluca.

Los pirámides de Malinalco

I’m back on my weekend trip grind! This past weekend Bruno and I went to the “pueblo mágico” of Malinalco. It’s in the state of Mexico about an hour from Toluca. We arrived early Saturday afternoon and headed straight for the pyramids….after stopping for beer and ice cream to enjoy on the climb up. It was about 400 stairs to get to the pyramids. In the 1470s, the Aztecs conquered the area and established a sanctuary for their military called House of Eagles. It was built on the side of the mountain next to the pyramids. It’s a semi-circular room that was used to see if warriors-in-training were worthy enough to become the real deal. I’m amazed by the quantity of the pyramids in Mexico.

After we made the climb down (which was much easier than the climb up) we went to a university-sponsored museum about the Malinalco and its beginnings. What I loved most about it is that in every room there was a person to explain the highlights of the exhibit. One of the exhibits was under the glass floor. It was an exhibit of some of the minerals and rocks of the area. It was very cleverly done. The semi-circular room on the mountain is no longer open to the public to walk through it so the museum had a replica that could be entered. It’s shaped as a snake and you walk in through its mouth.

We were starving after all the climbing and looking so we went to a well-known trout restaurant. I’m not big on fish but I thought it was necessary so I womaned-up and ordered a Hawaiian style trout. I at least thought they would take off the head, tail, and skin! It was like they plucked the poor thing right out of the water and gave it to me wrapped in foil. It was difficult to look at it and to avoid all of the tiny ribs but I did it! Not sure if I would voluntarily do it again but it was a good one-time experience. For dessert we went to an ice cream shop because Malinalco is known for their ice cream. Yes, we had ice cream twice in one day.

On Sunday we went out to breakfast at a cute little outdoor cafe then we headed to mass in a church attached to a convent with Franciscan monks still living there. The Divino Salvador Convent had beautifully painted walls with all sorts of embedded meaning. We took a tour to understand all of the black-and-white paintings. When we left, we headed to the market for a snack. We had a huge helping of fresh fruit with granola and icing. We were going to get ice cream …again but decided fruit might be a better choice. They sold everything in the market from traditional clothes and hand-made jewelry to fresh sweet bread and native fruits.  After exploring the market we packed up and headed back.

We stopped in Metepec on the way back to Toluca. It’s another pueblo mágico right outside of Toluca. We walked around and looked at the shops. They have many art shops and traditional clothing from other parts of Mexico. Then we climbed up el Calvario to see the church. It’s a massive hill with a church on top. The view was great and the church was adorned in gold accents over white paint. For Christmas, the steps leading up to the church had a life-size nativity scene complete with wise men and animals. Then we went to a clay museum. The best exhibit was of the trees of life. They even had miniature ones! “Arboles de la vida” are typical of Mexico and very expensive because they are so detailed. We ended the adventure with pizza at an Italian restaurant which was pretty tasty for being located in Mexico!

La Vida en la Playa

Just got back from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco! Well technically we stayed in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit which is next door. Bruno and I made the 10-hour drive on Tuesday. We arrived around 11PM. In total there were 11 of us who rented a house near the beach. We had a last-minute house switch and the one we stayed in was in a gated condominium community. It had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, fully furnished with pots and pans and all!

I was really good about exercising on the trip and ran about 5K every day but one. After my run on Wednesday morning, we all hit the beach! It was only a 15-minute walk from the house. We stayed there most of the day. It’s was in the 80s and sunny the whole week. The beach was pretty crowded. We got hungry so we all went out for comida. When we left, we headed to Walmart to do some grocery shopping for the week then went back to the house to get ready for NYE dinner in downtown Puerto Vallarta! We were all pretty full from comida so we had appetizers and drinks at the restaurant. Then we walked down the boardwalk. We made it back to the house just in time for midnight! We all ate 12 grapes (one for each month of the upcoming year) and chilled at the house for the night because it would have cost an arm and a leg to go out in Vallarta NYE.

On Thursday we hit up the pool in the complex. Unfortunately, it was the only place with wifi. The water was unbelievably cold but it was totally worth it to cool off. We headed to the beach to watch the sunset. So beautiful. At night, some of us went to Puerto Vallarta to watch the Ohio vs. Alabama football game. Ohio won and I can’t forget the OH-IO chant even if I wanted to. We walked on the boardwalk to a bar for a little bit then headed back to the house.

Friday night we had a good ‘ol American cookout with burgers and dogs on the grill! Burgers and dogs on the grill isn’t a thing in Mexico like it is in the US. Mexicans grill but it’s usually a slab of meat. The irony was that the only two Mexicans in the house did the grilling. And they did a great job at that! After dinner we played some games and went to a club in Puerto Vallarta. I was passed out by the time we got home. I slept on Jordan’s back in the car. So I took a little nap in the car while everyone continued the party.

Saturday we explored a new beach in the afternoon after going to the pool in the morning. It was Punta de Mita. It was a cute, smaller beach town. The beach was pretty but the rocks were so painful for my feet! It was crazy how far out you could walk and still have your head above water. I paddle boarded for the first time! I knew you had to have good balance but you also have to pay attention at all times! I fell off twice. The second time I walked right off the back of the board as I was trying to tell Bruno how to paddle. I guess that’s what I get for telling him how to paddle board because he didn’t fall at all! We stayed until the sun set. We made a delicious spaghetti dinner with garlic bread and my bean dip as we watched Frozen to end the trip. We packed up camp Sunday morning and headed back to Toluca. I already miss the warm weather!