This blog entry consists of a few short summaries of some
more of my adventures in Mexico.
Pyramids:
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| Temple of the Plumed Serpent |
For one of our weekend excursions,
we went to Teotihuacan to see the pyramids. We first visited the Temple of the Plumed
Serpent, which was built between 150 and 200 AD. This temple was also known as the Temple of
Quetzalcoatl and was thought to be dedicated to the concept of time, as
Quetzalcoatl was considered the originator of human activities on Earth,
creating the land and calendar divisions.
Between 150 and 250 AD, human burials were found below the temple. It is
believed that they were sacrificed as an offering to their God. We know they were buried alive because they
were found in a kneeling position with their hands tied behind their back (as
pictured). During this time, death was
not considered an end to one’s life, but rather a door to another life.
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| Human sacrifices (pictured as originally found) |
After visiting the museum that
contained artifacts found in the area, we went to a buffet lunch. It was of course after our huge lunch that we
climbed the largest pyramid in Teotihuacan and the third largest in the world:
the Pyramid of the Sun. The name of this
pyramid was given by the Aztecs centuries after the city was abandoned. The original name that was giving by the Teotihuacanos is unknown.
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| Pyramid of the Sun |
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| View from the top |
After, we visited the Pyramid of the Moon, which is the second largest pyramid in Teotihuacan and
was completed between 200 and 450 AD.
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| Pyramid of the Moon |
French in Mexico:
One
Friday, the Language Coordinator at my Practicum University invited us and our
mentoring teachers to go out for a night of Karaoke. Being French, she invited a few of her French
friends, along with another mentoring teacher who was also French. It was a fun experience, doing karaoke in
Mexico with French, Mexican, and American friends. Four other friends and I ended up singing
Britney Spears' song “Oops… I did it again” before the end of the night. This same French woman that invited us to karaoke also gave a French class twice a week in a French cafĂ©. It was a basic beginner French class, but of course I couldn’t ignore an opportunity to speak French. It was a cool experience because I got to meet four other Mexicans around my age and got to feel what it was like to constantly switch between hearing/speaking French, Spanish, and English. I was paired with one of the Mexican students during activities, not to complete the worksheet with him, but to help him when needed. Each time he had a question, he would ask me in Spanish and I would try to respond in Spanish, yet we were talking about the French language. Bizarre. Someday I hope to be able to switch between all three languages naturally.
Orphanage Visit:
One day
we brought food to an orphanage and stayed there for a few hours in the evening
to play with the children. This was probably one of my favorite experiences in
Mexico. There were about 8 girls between
the ages of 9 and 12. We first kicked a
soccer ball around in their courtyard for a while. I had noticed one of the girls left the group
playing soccer and went to shoot hoops by herself in the corner, so I decided
to go join her. After playing basketball for a while and cheering every time
one of us made a basket, she ran inside and brought out hula hoops. Her and her friend showed me all of their hula
hooping tricks, and I can honestly say I have never seen two 9 year olds hula
hoop that well. When they handed me one
to see if I could do the same, they were surprised to see that I could keep it
around me for some time. They even had
to get the attention of some of the others to say, “Look! She can do it too!” It was like I was now part of their hula
hooping club or something.
Afterwards
we went inside to draw, but after one of the girls got bored of coloring, she
dragged me outside to teach me how to play a handheld game that involved numbers
and colors. (Luckily I knew my numbers
and colors in Spanish). After that, she
took me to go jump on the trampoline, and before I knew it, I was jumping with three
other 9 year olds. At one point, one of
them looked at me and said, “You have beautiful eyes. They’re blue!” She was adorable. When it came time for us to leave, my heart
melted as they looked at me and said, “No, don’t leave! Are you coming back? When
are you coming back?” It was hard to
answer, not knowing if or when I’d be able to go back.
As I kissed them all goodbye, one of them said to me, “I love you.” It might not have been a normal Friday night,
but it was definitely one on the best spent nights and one I won’t forget.
San Miguel De Allende:
During
my last five days in Mexico, I didn’t have any more class or homework, so I was
able to enjoy each day without worrying about school. On top of that, my friend from Slovakia, who
I hadn’t seen in over a year, came to visit me. It was a perfect way to spend
my last days in Mexico. On Saturday,
three of my friends and I took a bus to another city 2 hours away, called San
Miguel de Allende. When we arrived at
the bus station in San Miguel, we waited for a taxi to drive by so we could
take it to the center of town. I saw a
green taxi truck drive into the lot, and since it was so different than the
other taxis, we all decided that that was the one we wanted to ride in. But on top of that, we didn’t just want to
ride in the truck, we wanted to ride in the back of it. Because, why not? We asked the driver if that was okay, and he
just gave us a weird look and responded, “yeah, if you want. But it’s more
comfortable up here.” So he rode into
town with four Americans in his truck bed and no one in his front or back
seats.
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| Taxi ride |
During our day in San Miguel we....
...walked around town...
...visited the churches...
...shopped at the markets...
...saw donkeys
walk through the street...
...ate pizza on a rooftop...
...got lost trying to find a park...
...found the park, got cat-called by a clown, and ended our day eating churros.
Independence Day Celebrations:
On the night
of the 15th, they celebrate their Independence Day. We all went to the center of town to be part
of the celebrations. There was music, firework shows, and ‘el grito’ in the
main plaza. El grito is the cry of
Independence which the President delivers in Mexico City, but is displayed on
screens everywhere. The crowd joins in
the shouting of the names of their Independence heroes, and ends with shouts
of “Viva Mexico!” Following el grito was
a huge fireworks show.
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