Jessica Goes Home

Places I Visited in Mexico

2009-12-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

Guanajuato, Guanajuato: it's not, like, ALL of Guanajuato, and it's definitely not as if I actually lived on a callejon, but a girl can dream.
Mexico City, Distrito Federal: CIEE group trip to D.F. We went to so many places.
San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato: I actually went three times, but only the first and third were productive.
Zacatecas, Zacatecas: The other CIEE group trip. I liked Zacatecas, which is a mining city like GTO.
San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi: This is when Becky and I noticed our habit of going to capital cities.
Michocan: For Dia de los Muertos, we went to the state of Michocan--Patzcuaro, Janitzio, Tzintzuntzan.
Zihuantenejo/Ixtapa, Guerrero: At the end of the semester, it was time to chill in the Pacific Ocean.

I loved Mexico, and, while I'm glad to be back with my family, part of me will always be in Mexico.

exploration Tuesday

2009-11-24T16:25:00.001-08:00

because Facebook is not being my friend, I can’t upload all of my pictures from exploration Tuesday. Becky and I went and explored a callejón that seemed interesting. I really like the following. Hover over the pictures for a description of the picture. :)

Celebrating life and death

2009-11-09T16:20:00.001-08:00

Recently I was witness a critical piece of life, namely death. My host mom’s mother passed away two weeks ago, and it was quite impresionante for me to not only watch my extended host family deal with this important event, but also be asked to participate. Here I’ve included something based on something I wrote the day after she passed away (original in Spanish).

It seems odd to me that today is the first cold day since I’ve been here. Yesterday la señora passed away, and today the family hasn’t really seen the sun. It’s like something from a story, all symbolic and literary, with a gray day to match the sad day. --Except that it’s not totally sad. Dulce spent the night with her siblings but came over in the morning to tell me she would be over at her mother’s house all day for the vigil and that I could go over whenever I was ready. I met all of the siblings and close family friends. I usually met them while they were in tears, but after they’d spend their time in the vigil room, they’d come and join us at the kitchen table and laugh and joke and tell stories. Sometimes they’d laugh until they started crying again. Other times they’d go silent for minutes and stare at nothing, but they always came back to the conversation and the memories.

I didn’t hear much about Josefina and her more recent months, but I heard so much about earlier years. She was a terrific person, by all accounts. She would feed, clothe, and shelter whoever needed it; many of the men and women who stopped by to pay their respects truly loved this women. Flowers were delivered pretty much all day, and phone never stopped ringing. Announcements were made on the radio stations, announcing her funeral Mass at San Francisco Church at 4 P.M.

It should be noted that the details of a funeral are still business details – scheduling the Masses, organizing meals, cleaning the house, carpooling, greeting visitors, post-Mass arrangements. Dulce and her siblings shared the responsibilities, and believe me, I’ve never seen a funeral put together so quickly in all my life. Señora Josefina died on Sunday afternoon, and by Monday afternoon, she was set for her funeral. All of the Masses intended for her were planned along with her funeral Mass, and so many people attended each Mass. Having lived in Guanajuato all her life, she knew many people and as one of the sister-in-laws put it, she was an abuela muy querida; everyone wanted to say their final goodbyes.

As far as the “abuela muy querida” I can’t argue. She always asked Dulce if she was taking good care of me, a throwback to earlier years. Everytime we talked, Señora Josefina made sure Dulce was feeding me and that both me and my family were okay. Even though I didn’t know her that well, it was clear to me why her children are so close-knit, and why her Masses were packed with people.

She is missed. One of her great-grandchildren, a little boy two years old, came over to the house after one of the Masses. He went straight to her room, peaked in, and said hola abuelita, not understanding that she wasn’t there. All of Dulce’s hermanos, gathered in one of the living rooms, were moved by the little boy’s actions, reminding them of their loss.

But they will be fine. They were able to say their goodbyes while their mother was alive, and as one of Dulce’s sisters told me, “We’re 11 brothers and sisters and we take care of each other. We love our mother, and we know we can get through this.”

A few lessons

2009-11-09T14:03:00.001-08:00

During my time here in Mexico, I have uncovered some truths.

Any food can be prepared with tomatoes and onions.
Lime, avocado and/or jamaica water can improve any meal. In fact, a meal with just those three ingredients is legit.
Tortilla chips do not exist, but bread does. Oh boy does it.
Mexicans are hilarious, but don’t trust any of them to dress you.
When something is “a little bit spicy” you might feel like the Spice Girls just jumped you.
I have la cara de una mexicana aka I pass for a Mexican.
Corn tortillas are the bomb and go with any meal.
Chips of the Frito-Lay company are spicier then you expect.
You can fit more people in there than you think is logically possible.
Any flavor can be a drink, given a blender and plenty of sugar.
Mexicans are super polite.
When studying another language, sometimes you forget how to speak the first. (or both)
I can’t guess ages for the life of me.
Action and drama movies are always better when dubbed in Spanish.
Any problem is resolved with alcohol, preferably tequila.
Haggling is an accepted form of capitalism.
Don’t rely on maps or directions that are based on street names.
Fruit, corn, chips, and other street food are always served with hot sauce and lime. No exceptions.
Horses and mules are common transportation modes.
Don’t drink the tap water.

Mi pata hueca (aka Me, the bottomless pit)

2009-11-09T11:53:00.001-08:00

I haven’t updated in a long while, and tomorrow is my four month anniversary in Mexico (OH-EM-GEE). *cue quite the number of blog posts in the next week or so*

To start my updating frenzy, I would like to take a moment (aka less than a minute) and remind everyone that I love food. To this end, I have created the following slideshow: yes, it is cheaply made and no, I don’t care. I just want you to see the beautifully made food I’ve been eating.

Note: this slideshow does not include any food from Dulce or any great majority of the food I’ve eaten out of the house, just the few plates I remembered to take a picture of.

Note.2: Pata hueca means “hollow leg” in Spanish, as in: La verdad es que come mucho, como si tuviera una pata hueca. (He eats so much, it’s like he has a hollow leg.)

And now I’m hungry. *cue Dulce calling*

*****

Sopa de cebolla

ingredients

large white onion
chicken powder
egg
cheese (a white one)

Slice onion and lightly fry (with a dash of chicken powder) until rings are transparent. If not already in a soup pot, dump into soup pot and add water. Add a dash more of chicken powder and salt, pepper, seasoning you want, etc, and heat for ~30 minutes (will be boiling). Add grated cheese on top and watch it melt. Beat up the egg and add to boiling water as well (it looks like egg drop soup). Allow cheese to melt and egg boil, but not so much that they completely disintegrate. Serve hot with crackers. Is delicious.

2009-09-17T22:12:00.001-07:00

Sin luz or How to deal without power for two days, part I

2009-09-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

On Monday, the wall plugs in my house started exploding. Sounds kinda cool, you know, except the part where the power strip your laptop is plugged into starts to BANG! POP! WHIZZZZZZ!, sparking and sending up plumes of electronic circuitry, which you then proceed to breathe in and cough up later, pretending to be a dragon, but I digress.

No sooner than I’d been able to unplug my laptop charger from the now-defunct power strip, I heard a BANG! POP! WHIZZZZ! from upstairs. I freaked out. No joke. I was home alone, and things were beginning to EXPLODE. It was frightening.

De todos modos, I ran upstairs to check out what was exploding in the kitchen. It took me a while to determine the source of the smell, así que the same burnt electric smell that was concentrated in my room was fairly well dispersed throughout the upper floor. Of course, by the time I realized that the microwave and the radio were the sources of the smell, they were goners. I said a small prayer for them as I unplugged them, then continued my search for popped plugs.

This part of my search was complicated by the fact that while I kept hearing BANG! POP! WHIZZZZ!, I didn’t see any sparks or pulverized circuitry. I eventually decided to see if the other power strips had been demolished. I couldn’t think of any reason they could be – they were all turned off (mine was on, and I figured that was why it exploded). I switched on the power strip for the TV and DVD player; both se aprendieron, so I figured they were okay and switched them off. I returned to the kitchen to switch on the power strip for the toaster, blender, and small TV/radio and nearly electrocuted myself, srsly. I flipped the switch and lightning jumped at me from one of the open plugs. SO SCARY, pero everything worked, so I found a rubber pot-holder and switched it back off.

I went back and unplugged EVERYTHING. When Dulce came back after the torrential rains, we went through and checked everything again, with no change. We called up the electric company (right down the street), and we were told someone was already checking it out. I, of course, had a presentation/paper in Spanish the next day, so I ran out to the printer’s.

Cuando volví, Dulce was outside, on the side of the house closer to la panoramica, talking with a couple of chavos. The three of them were standing at the far end of the driveway, next to what turned out to be a downed power cable. A large vehicle of some sort had knocked it down and the combination of almost-connected-but-not wires and the mixing of the 220 and 110 cable made the plugs in the house start exploding.

And, somehow, aunque everything (except the microondas y radio, of course) checked out before, the TV was somehow burned up as well.

We didn’t get power that night, so we spent the night at Dulce’s mother’s house. So ended day one without power.

Food from Mexico

2009-09-15T10:52:00.001-07:00

The other day for lunch Dulce made the most amazing food ever: potato-cakes. They’re like pancakes, sort of, except made with mashed potatoes and fried, so maybe nothing like pancakes (excluding the DELICIOUS part, of course).

Well, this has inspired me to begin a series of entries about food. More specifically, I will post a recipe that I’ve gotten Dulce to tell me.

...

This week in FOOD FROM MEXICO:

Cream of Bean Soup!

cooked beans
condensed milk
salt
pepper
chicken broth
onions
non-crumbly cheese
corn tortillas

Put some beans and approximately half a can of condensed milk into a blender. Add salt, pepper, and a small amount of chicken broth, and blend until there are no more bean skins floating around. Chop up a bit of onion and cook it in some oil in a pot until it becomes clear. Add the creamy bean goop, and heat until it boils. Cut up the corn tortillas and lightly fry them in a separate saucepan (I suppose you could just use corn chips), then put some in the bowl you are going to eat from. Cube, slice or grate your cheese and put some on top of the fried tortillas, then pour some of the piping hot soup into the bowl, and enjoy. It’ll probably taste better if you dance the macarena while cooking, but results haven’t been confirmed.

Celebrating Two Months in Mexico

2009-09-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

I have been here for two months. In some ways this feels like forever; in others, I cannot hardly believe it.

I have a weekly routine now, with people I see on a regular basis. There's the baker at the panadería that I visit on a nearly-daily basis. His bread is always so fresh - "recién salido del horno," as Dulce likes to say. The lady who works in the tortillería is extremely friendly, even when she's sold so many tortillas she has to wait for them to leave the tortilla machine to be able to serve her customers. The police officer who guards my street at night always offers a hello, followed quickly, of course, with a "where are you going?"

In the morning, if I leave the house before 9, there is a man who acts as parking attendant/car-washer in the side street that leads up to my house. The tamale lady at the entrance of the callejón near the parque and the tamale man near Santo Café are regulars along my journey to and from el Centro each day. The little old flower ladies in the Plaza Baratillo always seem to be having the most exciting conversations, and there always seems to be a church bell chiming somewhere in the city. In la calle Sangre de Cristo, there is always this police officer chatting up one of the many ladies who work in one of the street's many zapaterías, tiendas, cafés, and restaurantes.

After class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Becky and I hit up one of cafés that are sprinkled heavily throughout the city (although, truth be told, it's safe to say we know which are our favorites). Lunch is at 2, although when I'm late, it's closer to 2:30, but no matter the time, it's always the sopa followed by the main dish. We usually drink agua de jamaica, but refresco is sometimes our guilty pleasure. Then I'm off to my descanso while Dulce relaxes with her newspaper or las noticias on the tele.

Weekends are a special little time. Although filled with homework this time 'round, weekends are designated "Explore Mexico." Last week it was lucha libre, which was even better than it sounds. In a month, it will be Cervantino, which is three weeks of a veritable cultural vomit. Three weeks of música, teatro, baile, and arte inspired Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quijote.

... Which reminds me of why I can't believe it's already been two months. Everyday I go out, every day has its own routine, same as before, and everyday I discover something else, everyday I put something on my To-Do-Before-I-Leave list. "Oh, I've never noticed that callejón before!" "They opened a new panadería on this street yesterday." "I walk past this restaurant everyday, I should go in one day." For everything I can cross off my list, I add one or two more. "There is a church at the top of that hill, how do I get there?" "Those taquitos smell delicious..." "The colors of that cluster of houses are pretty cool."

And, sometimes, it's painfully obvious I've only been here two months. Like when everyone gets off of the bus on some indiscernible signal that this particular stop is the bus' last stop, and I sit there, wondering "what's going on here that everyone wanted to get off here?," looking the fool. Or when someone asks me a question and I have no idea what is being talked at me. Or when the waitress says their special today is lasaña, and I ask, "what is lasaña?," only to realize I know exactly what lasagna is. (Side note: her response was priceless: ¡cómo que no sabes qué es lasaña?, how do you not know what lasagna is!?)

I guess it's all part of the study-abroad, cultural immersion experience. I'm just here, trying to act and talk like a born-and-bred Mexican. I have my good days, to boost my autoestima, and my lasagna days, in case I get too content. It's like one of my professors once told me: "If ignorance is bliss, then knowledge certainly can't be." Here's to three more months of experience to help my knowledge.

Attentamente,
Jessi

Things I Miss

2009-08-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

non-Mexican food. Don't miss understand- I LOVE Mexican food. But... it's all I eat. I've had cravings for some Chinese like you wouldn't understand.
Hot weather. Just one day, it'd be enough, I swear.
Understanding Mass. I understand enough to get by...
Nerdy friends. That's it.
Cooking. This one is odd because I didn't cook at home, but I did during the school year, and I miss it.
Not having to sleep as much as I do here. It really cuts into my productivity.

That's all I miss.

just kidding. ;)

Mexico City (day 1)

2009-07-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

We were in Mexico three days, so I've split this one post into threes. Not even equal threes, just the three I liked the most (aka easiest).

First, a really long bus ride, but then MEXICO CITY (with highways that don't have painted lanes- scary).

We got a tour of the downtown area, which included Templo Mayor:

Templo Mayor is exactly like one might assume; that is to say, the ancient primary temple of the Aztecs. Now, of course, it is in ruins but still has some pretty cool sights:

Of course, everything is kinda gray and dreary. Back in the day, it was very colorful, with paint and flowers and gold decor and the blood from the human sacrifice.

Next, we went to Palacio Nacional, which is also as one might assume. It was the president's house for the longest time and has the most ridiculous amount of security imaginable.

Here's a picture of the front-ish part. The bell there at the top is the Mexican equivalent of the American Liberty Bell. Their independence bell has the advantage of not being cracked. :P

The inside is really quite large, several stories, with soldiers hanging out everywhere, gardens, fountains, beautiful staircases, statues in honor of Benito Juarez, the whole nine yards. However, the most interesting part, for me, was Diego Rivera's murals, which were, somewhat unfortunately, being renovated.

We left fairly quickly for the Cathedral, as the building was closing and soldiers were marching in formation around the fountain in the center of the main patio area. The Cathedral, like most of Mexico City, is sinking because Mexico City was built on a lake. (I know, it was great civil engineering. It was actually kinda fun to notice all the lopsided, tilting, leaning-tower-ish buildings.)

Then it was free time! (which means dinner and sleep!)

:)

All these photos and more!

City tour?

2009-07-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

So, for the city tour we went a todos partes, without really seeing the city. Fun, right? :)
First, a former hacienda with plenty of themed gardens:

En el recorrido de Guanajuato, fuimos a todos partes, sin tener un recorrido de la cuidad. Qué raro, ¿verdad? :)
Primero, una ex-hacienda con una multitud de jardines:

Afterwards, we went to the Panoramica to see the city from above.

Después fuimos al Panoramica, para ver la ciudad de arriba.

(Click it for a slightly better picture. --Haga un clic para verla mejor.)

Then we went down into una mina. I, personally, had issues with the mines. They aren't exactly "breathable"... And, honestly, I can't imagine ever being a miner (although enchiladas mineras are de-lish): the amount of labor, the incredibly dangerous walkways, and the constant danger of collapse, lack of oxygen AND death? No thanks.

A cerca del Panoramica, hay una mina, el Mina de San Ramon (en Valenciana). Para mi, los minas me presentó con muchos problemas. No es facíl respirar, y creo que no puedo ser una minera (aunque las enchiladas mineras son riquisísimos): el trabajo muy pesado, los caminos peligrosos, y el riesgo en cada monento del caer del mina, estar sin aliento O morir? Graciás, pero no.

Anyway, next we went to the Templo en Valenciana, then up the mountain to see a giant statue of Jesus.

Pues, luego fuimos al Templo de Valenciana, y, después, subimos la montaña para ver Cristo Rey. ¡Qué suerte que teníamos un camión!

Definitely tired at this point, but we have two more stops before going home (to bed). A quick stop at a ceramics shop (way cool!), then Pípila, this giant monument that oversees el Centro (where all touristic pictures are taken of the city). We got to ride down to el Centro in a sweet lift thing.

Ya estabamos cansados, pero teníamos dos puntos más que ver antes de salir para nuestros casas (y a dorimir). Una parada breve a una tienda de cerámica (¡padrísimo!), luego a Pípila, un monumento gigantico donde se puede ver el centro de la cuidad (y, también, donde todos las fotos turisticas estan tomadas).

All pictures seen here (plus MORE!)

¡Nos vemos! :)

before the official tour

2009-07-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

So after orientation, and before the crazily psyched up Spanish placement exam (quiz perhaps more appropriate?), I went to el centro with three of the other ciee girls.

Walking down the streets of el centro is really interesting. There are so many colors and people and stores and food and just everything.

We did go through el jardín, which is a really cool plaza area right across from teatro juarez, but, of course, I didn't take any pictures. Who am I? I don't make a good tourist, that's for sure.

De todos modos, we walked past el jardín and into la plaza de la paz, aptly named, I think, because of the gigantic basilica that's there.

While the basilica is a beautiful church and very much a place tourists visit, I didn't take pictures inside because I couldn't. Not like, POR FAVOR, NO TOME FOTOS, but I couldn't make myself do it.

We then found the university, aka UG, and it's famous steps.

*Did she climb all those stairs?*
Oh, yes I did, and it was TOTALLY worth it. (click on the picture to make it look better. I can't make things look good from where I'm at.)

On our way back to the hotel, we ran into a face in the wall. It's massive and it protrudes from the wall like no one's business.

If you ever want to know something about anything I post (and what I don't, ooh), feel free to ask! :)

orientation

2009-07-21T21:02:00.001-07:00

okay, so there's not much I can do to make any orientation more than very boring. :) that's, of course, not to say I don't like orientations and/or think they are a necessary evil.

subimos a mountain, to a camp called las palomas. the view was quite nice:

we did orientation stuff which included making amigos:

(half of the group, más o menos)

and also breaks, during which we discovered cacti turn into árboles eventually:

I also had a delicious drink, which I, with dismay, call coffee, because coffee never tasted all that rico to me.

that was it for orientation, really. I mean, the food era muy rica, but, you know, that's, like, why I came. :P

My flight over

2009-07-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Can I say that I've never traveled by air before? I mean, really, who counts flying from San Antonio to Houston for Owl Weekend as actual flight? It's all of 15 minutes in the air, honestly.

However, after that somewhat interesting experience of going through security where I was stopped for some rocks that were in my carry-on, flight went pretty well.

My second flight was slightly mas intereste because I had a window seat (not that dificil on that plane: 2/3 of the seats were window seats, go figure). Some of it looked fake, de verdad:

and some of it was gorgeous:

De repente, we were on the ground, I was officially a Mexican tourist-student, and I got to ride a small caravan to GUANAJUATO!

I would show pictures now of my hotel and the first sight I had of the city, but I didn't take any. I'll take some later (I have a million months here anyway), and edit this post later. :)

NOTE:

2009-07-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

I will put pictures/videos/music into my blog posts because I'm a multimedia kinda girl.

HOWEVER, I will not post all of whatever media I happen to have on hand. If truly interested, take a look at more complete albums at photobucket/youtube/[some music engine] (sometimes the Book).

Facebook: well, chances are you know me on the Book.

photobucket:
I'm sort of crazy about organizing, so you'll have to click on the latest pictures to see new stuff...

youtube

[some music engine]: give me a few days/hours, I'll tell you.

hasta luego,
Jessi