Hello stateside folks,
So on Saturday, we all met at school to go on a tour of the city with one of the student at HELP!, Dylan and an administrator of the school, Margo. They are both super sweet women and it was really nice to meet and get to know them a little better. We didn't really know what was going on for the tour, but we all boarded a bus and took it to the Mercado Purisimo which is the huge market here in Tehuacan. It was insane....I was not expecting such a massive market in this sleepy little town. We tried lots of fun things, such as tuna, which is the flower of a cactus and tastes kind of like a weird sherbert-like strawberry. We also saw something that looked like brains which we found out was congealed blood! Ew, right? We ate some honey and fresh vanilla bread which was delicious. After the market, we went to the natural spring here and took a tour of the factory which is a bottling company. It used to be only mineral water, but it has grown to bottle juice and flavored waters and sodas and a lot of different stuff. It was pretty cool.
After touring a little bit, we went back to the school and got straight to work! Our first day of class is on Monday, so we had a ton of lesson-planning to do. It was a rough few hours, but it ended with a delicious meal of tacos con Dylan so it was nice. We all got to practice our Spanish with her as well, and she got to practice her English, so it was a win-win situation. We also got some insight into how life is in Mexico; pretty strict and conservative. People live with their parents for a really long time and have to abide by their rules, which can be taxing, it seems. We also learned that Mexican people say that they take, "Vitamin T" because of all of the tacos and tortillas and tortas that they eat!! Hilarity.
Today we were able to sleep in a little bit for the first time, and now, my temporary bunk-mate, Brandon, calls me a "sleep machine" which I think is completely unfair because I only slept until 10! Anyway, Brandon and I went for a nice (looooong) walk around the city today and we frequented this other market that is right by our house. It was way more manageable than the big one and I actually bought so food items (bananas, cheese, bread and a papaya...the essentials, duh!) Everyone is always really friendly and nice to us even though we are Americans. One guy was asking us what each fruit was called in English which was cute, but then he told us that he had been in L.A. for a while...until he got deported. Awkward...
After the mercado, we went to the parque ecologica, which is basically like a little park with fountains and classical music playing and we had a coffee and hung out in the sun, so that was relaxing. Then we decided to check out the biggest supermarket ever (it was more like a Wal-mart because they had clothing and shoes and stuff) and had a fun time looking around and trying samples.
Unfortunately, I had to go back to school for a few hours in the afternoon to continue lesson planning but it was OK and I think we are ready as we will ever be for tomorrow! But get this--when we were at school, my friend Justine and I were exploring and she was climbing into the corner of this one room and all of a sudden freaked out and ran toward me screaming because she saw a bat!! A bat, I say! I hope to the Lord that it gets out of there before tomorrow's classes.
OK, it's dinner time, so Brandon and I are going out for....tacos?? Can we do 4 nights in a row?? I'll let you know!!
Nicole
