Snapshots from Tehuacan: Ashley

Ashley is BACK from a spring in Tehuacan. The proof is in the pudding (or in this case, the photos):

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Panaderia 101 (Thanks Sara!)

One of the best parts of Mexico is the Panaderias. Panaderia means bakery. 

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Primera Vacacion! (c/o Courtney)

Just a giant mural on the wall. These were everywhere.

This weekend was our first vacation! As a starter we just did a little weekend trip to Puebla (the capital city of the state of Puebla, which is the one I live in) and it was soooo fun! We left on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m., spent Saturday and Sunday in Puebla, and then came back around 8 p.m. last night. It's only two hours away from Tehuacan by bus so we had plenty of time in the city.

Upon getting there, the first thing we did was look around at some little stands and stuff. Actually, that's a lie. The first thing we did was find a bathroom in a movie theater because we didn't realize there was one on the bus until we were getting off. Anyway, so we went to this movie theater and they charged us five pesos to use the bathroom! Well they called it a donation because supposedly it went to curing cancer but it felt like a charge. At least until I had relieved my bladder, and then I felt all right about it :)

Anyway, so first we looked around!

This was just one of the streets in Puebla covered in vendors. Here in Mexico, you see about a billion of these everywhere you go.

We took a tour of the city! It was BEAUTIFUL. Plus we got to sit on the back of this tour bus thing and listen to this guy tell us all about the history of the sites in Spanish (because it cost half as much as the English tour). It was pretty fun.

One of the many, many cathedrals in Puebla.

Inside the cathedral. It was huge and GORGEOUS.

Tour bus!

Mexican flag at the site of a big battle against the French... Which is now celebrated on Cinco de Mayo!

Here died hundreds of patriots on May 5, 1862 defending the (something) of no intervention. Yup.

The next morning, we got up and went to Cholula! Which is some ruins just outside of Puebla.

These are them!

Cholula!

Apparently this particular city was abandoned at some point and the pyramids got all covered up. Later a cathedral was built on top of what seemed a nice hill but was really a pyramid! So they're excavating a lot of it, but they can't really dig under the cathedral. So just imagine a big pyramid under that giant mound of dirt. It was way cool though. I love to imagine all the people walking around just like us in their city!

The cathedral on top.

Inside. It was Sunday so they were having mass!

The view. Absolutely breathtaking. And me. Looking sunburned.

So I tried about fifteen times to get a picture that did the view justice, but I just couldn't get it! It was beautiful, though, and you could see so many cathedrals! I swear there are more cathedrals in Puebla than Mormon churches in Utah Valley :)

After seeing the ruins and the cathedral we went back down and did some shopping at all of the vendors.  They were constantly yelling, "Gueritas, gueritas, que quieren comprar?!" (White girls, white girls, what do you want to buy!) Ummmm, nada, gracias! Haha. But I did buy a popsicle and... this:

 Looks like a popsicle too, right? Wrong! It's a jicaleta, or jicama on a stick. What is jicama, you ask? Well I'm not sure, but we eat it all the time. It sort of has the texture of a potato, but it tastes like a snap pea. And I really like it! So here's a bit piece of it covered in some chamoy and chile. Yummmmmm.

Very fun. If you ever get a chance to go to Puebla, take it!

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Trapped on a Tehuacan Roof

*Sara is in Tehuacan AS WE SPEAK. She details her adventures meeting an iLP director, consuming a mountain of meat, and being rescued from a laundry-laden rooftop.*

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Quotes from the Mexican Classroom (courtesy of McKenzie)

Me: "Do you guys know what an 'experiment' is?"

Girl: "Ooh, I know! It's when you put the googles on, and then you pour stuff in bottles, and then they go 'BOOM!' and everyone goes 'ahhhh!' Right?"

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Macbook Photos with Maria

Maria, my host sister, is 5, and she is quite a goof! She loves to just come hang out with me in my room! I paint her nails probably every day. When you say you are going to take a picture of her, she just closes her eyes (as shown in the first picture). She loves to do that haha! She is loca, but I love her!

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A Tortilla Tutorial ~ Love, Emily

my first meal in mexico was easily my worst.

it was probably because i had different expectations.

and i wasn't used to any of these crazy things i was about to spend four months eating.

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Meet Paige's niños...

I bet you can't guess who my favorite student was... meet Martin. He asked me all the time to draw a mustache on his face with my permanent marker. 

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La Comida: The Meal, According to Brittan

*Brittan Plante is adventuring in Mexico and runs the most amazing blog. Here she provides a comprehensive guide to host-family eatery in Tehuacan. Thanks Brittan!*

I know you've all been dying to know what I get to eat here in Mexico on a daily basis. Let me show you.

First we have my spot at the table:

This is where I sit every single day for every single meal. It really is my designated spot. If someone is in it when it's my eating time, they must move. And it's obviously not by my orders. It's basically a law and everyone is fully aware. Please note my water bottle. I brought it all the way from Utah to have this awesome experience with me.

Next we have the cereal. Every morning for breakfast I eat a bowl of cereal. Except once I had a tamale and some sort of drink thing. But other than that I have cereal. And then every night, before I go to bed, I have another bowl. I know, Heaven, right?

Azucaradas. A.k.a. Frosted Flakes.

Nesquik. A.k.a. Cocoa Puffs.

Other cereals I have regularly include: Choco Azucaradas. A.k.a. Chocolate Frosted Flakes. And Corn Flakes. No translation necessary.

Don't forget the milk:

Now let me tell you something. This is magic milk. It does not need refrigeration. Well, I know for sure that it doesn't need it before opening. I'm not positive about the after opening part, because it's all in Spanish, but believe me, I've tried to look because I'm obsessed about that sort of thing. Either way, each container is pretty tiny, so even if it does need refrigeration after opening (which we never give it unless I am the one to place it in the fridge, which I do do on occasion), we go through it quickly enough so it probably wouldn't matter. It tastes different than American milk obviously, but it's still good. I like it. But it's always warm with it not being refrigerated and all so I kind of miss cold milk in my cereal. Other than that, super delicious. I like.

Please note the blue bowl. There are exactly five of these bowls in this house, and they are the only bowls allowed to have cereal placed in them. All the other bowls are for other things. The first time I tried to get myself some cereal, I just picked a random plastic bowl and everyone had a little freak out session. "No, no, these bowls (pointing to the above species), these bowls are for cereal. That is for soup."

Ooooh. Got it. I'll remember that next time.

After breakfast comes lunch, as we all know. I am at the school for lunch, so mi madre packs me a little lunch everyday. It's really quite cute. It has a sandwich or two, a drinkable yogurt (I love those things) and sometimes an apple or something. The sandwiches come with a variety of insides. Sometimes it's just cheese (called quesilla or quesillo or something and it's delicious). Sometimes it's cheese with onions and tomatos. Sometimes it's eggs and ham. Sometimes it's this strange crystally jam stuff that is also good. Sometimes it's ham with other items. I never know what to expect. It's like a little present at lunch time when I open my sandwich and see what's inside. I've never had one I didn't like which is fabulous, no?

And it's so cute, because it's always wrapped in a napkin. That's what everyone does here. All the other teachers that get sandwiches packed for them have a napkin around theirs too. And I've seen it on commercials, too. I don't know why, but they just do. It's not like it's just a napkin, either. They put it in a plastic bag, but first is the napkin. Adorable.

Side note: There is one teacher who always gets hotdogs on bread and she hates hotdogs. It's hilarious.

In between classes I come home for another meal. I guess we could call it dinner since it's at like 4 and it's the last big thing I eat for the day. This is where the legitimate, homemade Mexican food comes in.

You may have seen some common themes, but in case you didn't, let me point them out to you.

1. Did you notice the green, slimy looking stuff? It's called nopalis, a.k.a. cactus, and I find it to be delicious. I don't know why, because really, it's green and slimy. The other teachers hate it. But I like it. Lucky me.

2. If you see nopalis, then there will almost always be beans nearby. They basically go hand in hand into a tortilla.

3. Speaking of tortillas, they are served with every single meal. Just trust that if they were not in the picture, they were nearby and I was about to be handed a stack. They are basically used as a utensil. You have your spoon, but really, it's unnecessary because you have your tortilla to put your food into and then you eat the whole thing and it's just great. I didn't realize this in the beginning, so I would eat my food with my spoon and then eat a tortilla along side it. They thought I was weird and that I didn't really like tortillas or something. So I've slightly adapted, but I still eat like an American, and they have accepted my strange ways. They still give me tortillas even though I basically disgrace them.

4. Did you see that salad in a couple of pictures? We eat that almost everyday as well. It has basicallly everything you can possibly think of including, but most definitely not limited to: lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, meats of some sorts, sunflower seeds, cheeses, nuts of all kinds, corn, green beans, etc. It's really quite delicious.

5. And then there is the bowl of soup. With almost every meal comes a little bowl of some sort of soup. It always has a red color to it, but it doesn't always taste the same. It is always good however, so it doesn't really matter. And just a note, you must always finish all the broth. And they give you a lot of broth. I don't know why, it's just what you do. (When I say broth, I am meaning oily water that is flavored. But I'm fine with it because it's really not bad. )

6. They also squirt lime onto everything. I love the smell, but I have discovered I hate the taste. So I just don't squirt lime onto anything of mine and it's just fine. However, I do like the lime and suger in water drink we have. That's good. Plus it's cold, which I like.

My favorite thing we have eaten thus far:

Now. I have been lucky. I have liked nearly everything I have been fed. Okay, I guess it's not luck, because really, I'm not even picky, so I basically like everything. And if I don't absolutely love it/like it, then it's at least edible and I don't have a prob. However, yesterday I was fed something that I really could not handle, and I had to stop eating it:

It's sheep in some sort of broth stuff. It was just the worst-tasting thing I have ever voluntarily put into my mouth. I tried and tried to just deal with it, so you should be proud that I full on ate four whole pieces of sheep before I had to stop.

So guess what I had to do. I had to pull the "Too Spicy" move. They told us about it in training. They said, "The mothers over there are really worried about the food being too spicy for you Americans so if you don't like something, just tell them it's too spicy and they will understand."

But guess what. Nothing I have eaten here has been spicy. I'm quite surprised. I thought everything was supposed to be spicy, but it's false. Well, LUCKILY for me, this truly was spicy. It was the spiciest thing I have eaten since being here, and it was actually the first thing I noticed in that first bite. Even Elvira said it was very spicy. So I said, "I'm sorry. It's too spicy, I can't finish it." And they were like, "Oh yes, that's fine, here let me take that from you." Not in those words, but you know what I mean.

I lied. But it was 100% necessary if I did not want to vomit.

As for the drinks, there is a lot of this going on around here:

That's right. Apple soda.

Everyone drinks it. It's delicious, that's why.

Thus is my life in food.

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Cacti, Roaches, and Healing Mud

*Sorry so late this week--Blogger mysteriously crashed! Today we have an update from Brian and Kelly, the fabulous head-teaching couple in Tehuacan. Mexico, represent!*

This is about as accurately as we can pinpoint our location right now but, wherever Tehuacan actually is, we love it!

Adios Taco Bell! Honestly, I don't think we will ever be able to eat "Mexican Food" in the States anymore. The tacos here are amazing, cheap, and everywhere. Pretty much everyone experiences some "Mexican stomach" about 20 minutes after eating but we all agree that it's worth it.

Could we really claim to be on a service abroad program with ten 18 to 22 year old girls if we didn't take this picture?

If you look closely you can see the cockroaches underneath us. That explains our serious hops.

You'd think with how much cacti appear in cartoons and movies about Mexico that it would be one of those stereotypes that is completely not true. But it totally is! These things are everywhere. We even ate it for dinner a few nights ago...

We were told that women at La Bocana would spread mud on us to help clear out our pores and cleanse our skin. We decided that throwing mud at each other was probably just about as good.

This guy was amazing. He drove us everywhere throughout our entire trip, found us a way cheap place to stay, braved some insanely curvy mountain roads, and held in-depth discussions with Brian about the prevalence of public transportation in North and Central America. Can you ask for anything more?

What's the most triumphant song you've ever heard? Whatever it is, play it right now and look at this awesome picture of Brian finally conquering his fear. Roaches are pretty much an everyday occurrence here in Tehuacan and Brian has done everything within his power to stop them from coming into the school and our apartment. No matter what, they still seem to foil him every time. Today, 12 days after arrival, he finally killed his first roach! Within a matter of hours he even progressed to stepping on one with his own foot. They just grow up so fast....

We have been running around like crazy and getting settled at our apartment and the school. We are hoping to post more soon but this is the best we can do for now. Just know that we are safe, happy, healthy, and enjoying a hot Mexican summer!

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¡Viva México!

*Mexico is currently underrepresented here on the ILP blog. This, as anyone who has been there can attest, is a tragedy! So here is a bit of slideshow Mexican brightness to liven up your Tuesday. (And, if you've been to Mexico with ILP, send us some blog-fodder!)*

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