Mexico City!

Last Tuesday morning we got up early and took a bus to Mexico City. The bus was nice, and it wasn’t a bad ride. We arrived around 11:30 am and met up with Katie and Diana. Their apartment is a tiny one room place that basically serves all purposes. The entire thing is about the same size as Kizzy’s bedroom. We dropped of our things, ate some lunch, and then headed out for some adventures. Our first stop was Chapultepec park, where we rented a pedal boat and pedaled around the lake for an hour. It was beautiful, and we had a lot of fun. We even got into a boat ramming war with a group of four guys, who later asked if they could take our picture. People are so funny here. From there, we walked through the park to Chapultepec castle where Maximillian and Carlotta (Austrians who briefly ruled Mexico in the 1800’s). It was beautiful, and we saw some really interesting things. One that impacted me the most was a huge painting of the conquering of Mexico by Hernan Cortes and his army. It was really sad, and depicted the Spaniards fighting the Indians. We also saw some amazing dresses that the wealthy nobles in Mexico wore.
After the castle, we set off on an adventure to find the house where my mom lived when her parents were mission presidents in Mexico City. She had given us the address, and the approximate location, and we hopped on a bus and asked the driver to let us off when we got close. He indicated where, and we got off and asked around for the location of the street. We were told it was a little further down, so we kept walking. We continued, and when we asked again, were told the same thing. We ended up walking for probably over an hour, and were exhausted by the time we arrived. It looked like a church owned building (I don’t know why exactly…I guess it just had that feeling about it) so we rang the doorbell, and eventually a woman named Sister Meeks (the mission president’s wife) welcomed us in. It turns out that the home is used in exactly the same way as it always has been…the family of the mission president lives in the main part, the mission office is connected, and there are apartments above the office where the office elders and assistants to the president live. Very interesting. We walked into the office, and there was a frame with pictures of all the previous mission presidents. There was a picture of my mom and her family. It was almost surreal to see that…a picture of my grandparents, mom, aunts and uncles, hanging on a wall in a foreign country. Sister Meeks then walked us through the house, and we looked at all the different rooms. The carpet and furniture is different, but I’m sure that most of it is much the same as when my mom lived there. I took some pictures, and a short video of the house, and we talked with Sister Meeks about her family and the mission. She told us that it is likely that the Church will sell that house when they leave, because it is getting old, and there are some plumbing problems, etc, and also, the house is located far away from their actual mission boundaries. (When my mom lived there, it was the “Mexico City Mission”. Now there are four missions in Mexico City, and the house and office pertain to the “Mexico City South Mission”). It was a really neat experience to be there, and see that house, and I’m grateful that I got to do it now, since in a year or so it might not even belong to the Church anymore.
That evening, we went to the employment office in Mexico City (in the section of Polanco), which was nice, and looked a lot like our office (but I think ours is a bit nicer). Then we went out for some great tacos, and headed to the box office to see a movie. We had some time to kill before it started, so we wandered around the city a bit. The city is beautiful…there are high rises everywhere, but there are also lots of trees and beautiful gardens and statues (it doesn’t come close to Puebla though, when it comes to fountains). We ended up seeing the movie “Goal!” staring Kuno Becker (one of our new favorites). It’s about a Mexican who lives in Los Angeles, and goes to England to play soccer professionally (deals with three of my favorite countries). It was really good, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We then walked home (about a 15 minute walk) around midnight. For all the horror stories of Mexico City, I didn’t once feel unsafe. We mostly walked past lots of policemen.
The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed (or in my case, off the floor), and got ready to go to the great ancient city of Teotihuacan (also known as Tenochtitlan), with the pyramid of the Sun (reputably the tallest p yramid in the world) and the pyramid of the Moon. We took a long metro ride, and then a long bus ride, and finally arrived at some incredible ruins. The pyramids were extremely impressive. We climbed to the top of the pyramid of the Sun and sat down to eat, and to read the Book of Mormon together. From the top, you can see what looks like an entire city of ruins, and temples and pyramids. It was pretty incredible. As we read from the Book of Mormon, we tried to imagine ancient Americans walking about and doing their business, worshipping, teaching, etc. After taking lots of pictures, we finally headed down to the bottom of they pyramid, and then continued to explore. We walked to the pyramid of the moon, and also hiked to the top of that one. On the very top, there is basically just a big pile of rocks (cemented together, but in the form of a pile). It was beautiful to look at the rocks and the sky and just feel the beauty of where we were, and the grandeur of the ancient society that built that place that has lasted for so long. We finished the day exhausted, and ready to rest. Somehow, the bus ride home seemed shorter, and we arrived back in Mexico City in no time. We ate dinner, and then went back to Katie and Diana’s apartment for the night.
Thursday morning we got up and headed back to Puebla (as much as I loved our Mexico City trip, I really felt at home as I stepped off the bus and set foot on Puebla soil). We got home, changed into skirts and headed out for the office. We were there for a short time, and then left for Atlixco, where we were scheduled to teach the workshop, and eat dinner with Maria Jose and her family. They were very hospitable, and we had a good time eating with them. The workshop went well, but we were fairly exhausted by the end. The couple assigned to drive us home (Mario and Columba) were very kind, and took us out to dinner on the way home. We had some more excellent tacos (I actually ordered something called Alambre con queso that turned out to be so big that I took the vast majority of it home with me). After that, we finally got home and were ready to fall into bed when the doorbell rang. I dutifully answered, and found Juan Carlos and Abinadi had come to welcome us back to Puebla. We chatted for a bit, and then they left and I gratefully went to bed (even my super hard mattress felt like heaven after two nights of sleeping on the floor).
I spent Friday morning doing homework, and then we went to the office, then to Atlixco to finish the workshop, and finally, to a stake dance. We were invited to go out dancing to a club afterwards, but we were so tired that we opted out of it, and came home. On the way home, we squeezed nine of us into a little two door sedan. There were six girls in the back, stacked two high. It was quite the ride. I sat on Kizzy the whole way home, and hopefully she had regained feeling in her legs.

Sunday was my birthday, and Saturday night we had a party which included dancing, crazy party games, and roasting marshmallows for s'mores over candles. It was a good time. We have some great friends here, and life is good.

¡Toros!

We had an awesome adventure Friday night. For awhile we have been looking out for signs announcing a local bull fight (corrida)- we thought it would be a great cultural experience. We were excited when we saw some announcing one that was taking place practically next door at the Plaza del Toros- el Relicario. We got there and were enjoying the atmosphere, and people watching before it began. I think my favorite thing about it was that women and children enter free of charge! We waited for it to begin anxiously. I had read up on bull fights before hand, and also knew what to expect because of my experience in Spain (though I never actually attended one live), but Kizzy really had no idea. In my reading, I learned that while considered a sport, it is not a sport in the sense that the best team wins. It is more of a blood sacrifice. The tradition came over from Spain in the 1500’s, and arrived in Spain in the 1300’s with the conquering Moors. It is actually an ancient custom originating on the island of Crete. Anyway, we enjoyed the spectacle of all the fighters parading around the ring, with a few coming out on armored horses. The costumes were elaborate, and the colors were bright. Once the first bull came into the ring, and the torreadores waved their capes around, narrowly missing getting jabbed by the bull, the stakes were higher, but we were still enjoying ourselves. But when the matador on horseback started stabbing the bull to death, we were no longer so enchanted. Kizzy covered her eyes, and said she had had enough while I snapped a few photos before we headed out. We were probably there for about 20 minutes of the actual show (good thing it was free!) but I think it was enough to get the cultural experience, which is what we were really after in the first place.
We came home on time to get ready for the dance we had planned to go to, and a short time later, our friends came and picked us up. We headed to a stake dance, which turned out to be a lot more fun than the first one we went to (maybe because now we actually know how to dance…) and then after that, a big group of us went to a club called la Rumba, which turned out to be a really cool place. There was a huge waterfall behind the stage, and live music. The dance floor was crowded, but it was really fun. At one point they threw sombreros out onto the floor, and Kizzy and I each got one. During another song, tons of confetti rained from the ceiling. It was super fun, and I felt really comfortable there. The down side of the night was when a girls in spiky heels totally stepped on my foot. It still hurts (and has turned into a beautiful bruise), but I think I’m actually really lucky that it’s not broken. It was a lot of adventure for one night. We’re putting down roots here in Puebla, and I think I’m really going to miss it when we go.

Harboring Hurricane Victims

I have decided on a new exercise regimen: latin dancing and hiking pyramids. I don't know if it'll be one of those that I can keep up when I get home, but we'll see how it goes. Life has been crazy. Aside from the private dance lessons we receive from the nice Puebla boys (they know we can't date- no worries there), we have had one exciting week. Tuesday we finished up teaching the workshop in Cholula, and it was a great experience. Upon our arrival at home, we began our ritual of Tuesday night Smallville (they're showing the fourth season, which we still need to catch up on), when we received a phone call from our manager saying that there was a hurrican in Vera Cruz, they had picked the girls there up (Crystal and Lindsay), and could they stay with us for awhile. Of course we agreed, and about five minutes later, found ourselves with a couple house guests. We had a great time with them- they have had their share of adventures, so we stayed up for awhile swapping stories, and catching up. We finally started getting ready for bed when Kizzy came running down the stairs yelling "We have serenaders!" We all followed her up the stairs and looked out the upstairs window and saw two young Mexican men standing outside the gate with a guitar, singing beautifully. Turned out to be Abinadi and Eduardo, two friends we met at the institute (Abinadi is also our unofficial dance instructor). We felt like we were in a movie, and the Vera Cruz girls were very impressed. After a few songs, we let them in, and they played a couple more for us. It was fabulous. The excitement continued nightly, as we had more visitors, and more dance lessons. (We found that if we move all the furniture out of our living room, it makes a great dance floor.) Friday night, we taught the workshop again, and then went out with some friends afterwards. We ended up dancing well into the night, and I think the lessons paid off. We had a great time. This is one tradition I think I will continue.
Saturday morning, the Vera Cruz girls left- just in time for the Mexico City girls (Katie and Diana) to show up (no hurricane there- this was merely a pleasure trip). We went to Cholula with them, and hiked to the church and the top of the pyramid again. I am feeling slightly sore, but definitely in a good way. I'll take this over Tae Bo any day! We had a fabulous day together, and spent the evening in the centro where we had some great enchiladas and tortilla soup. We had several invitations to go out dancing, but had to decline because we were just sooo tired. We chilled out and watched a movie, and then crashed. Church today was great. I'm here at the office, and the one frusterating thing is that for some reason, this site is not letting me post pictures, so you'll just have to be patient until I figure it out I guess. The Mexico City girls are here probably until Tuesday, and we are having way too much fun.
Hope all is well there, and maybe if you're lucky, you too with get the chance to have a great workout, and harbor hurricane victims.

Whirlwind week

This last week has been super great. My sister Maria came to visit before she enters the MTC on October 12th to go to Hawaii as a missionary, and we had a blast together. We took the weekend off from work and homework, and played as much as we possible could. We started off Thursday night after she arrived going out for some authentic tacos, and then heading downtown to check out the lights and the fountains, and the atmosphere. This is a generally safe city, and it was nice to feel comfortable walking around the streets in the evening without having to worry. Friday we made our way to a market and bought a few exciting Mexican items, but mostly just took in the Mexican-ness of it all. We were getting pretty hungry when our lunch decision was made for us by a waiter who wouldn't take no for an answer. He persuaded us into his restaurant where he proceeded to bring us more food than we could possibly eat, and sang and danced to go along with it all. We discovered a couple of great artsy streets where we took in the sight, and then headed home, dragging our newly purchased hammock with us on the bus. We rested up and then got ready for a dance at the institute building. True to Mexican policy, our ride arrived about an hour late, but we didn't mind too much, because we used the time to have our own gringo-style dance along with VH1. Upon arrival at the dance, we experienced a bout of culture shock. It was completely different than any church dance we had ever been to. Everyone danced in pairs for slow and fast songs, and more surprising than that, every actually knew how to dance (I mean, I guess I expected it, but what do they do, start teaching them as little children?). We were absolutely the only blond haired, blue eyed, white girls in the entire place, and as if we weren't conspicuous enough, the lights were left completely on. I felt like everyone was watching every mistake I made as I tried my best to salsa. I got used to it though, and we had a good time.
Saturday morning, our friend Fernando came by to take us downtown again where we got an insiders perspective of the area. We went to this gorgeous park, crossed above the city on a bridge, saw all the good artisan market areas, and just tried to soak in Mexico. It was really beautiful. After lunch of cemitas (typical to Puebla) we hopped a bus to Cholula, a small town outside of Puebla that is home to an ancient pyramid with a Catholic church built on top. Interestingly symbolic of Mexico's history. It was gorgeous! Probably my favorite of all the places I've been so far. We hiked up a hill to the church, and then went back down to duck our way through the ancient tunnels that wind around under the pyramid, and then emerged to hike the pyramid itself. We also saw an alter where small children were sacrificed, and climbed up to try it out. It was a glorious, and tiring day. We ended with a bit of a sunburn, but a lot more memories for it. Sunday was relaxing, and Monday was sad to see Maria go.
We haven't had too much time to mope around missing her though, because this week has been crazy! We have been travelling around to different stakes to teach the workshop, and have put in well over 20 hours. That on top of homework, and trying to squeeze in the season premiere or Smallville, our new favorite show (having appendicitis and being stuck at home for weeks can cure even the most avid TV avoider) has made this a week to remember. Last night after teaching the workshop at a stake center, we were whisked away to a single adult activity where we played games, ate corn on the cob, and got almost the entire group dancing like gringos. It was quite a sight...we were pretty proud of ourselves. :) Today we are enjoying General Conference, and getting geared up for another busy week.

*Going to catch conference...post pictures later*