Como Navidad en Septiembre!

Hello all!

Guess what? Yesterday my host mom asked me how many books I've read while I've been here. I told her (maybe 8-10) and she was shocked! She asked me if I like to read and I was like, "YES!" However, I've been worried about running out of English books....I know I should read in Spanish. But I do! All the time. For classes. And I bought the Alchemist in Spanish....I just miss the easyness of English before I go to bed. So she says, "We have tons of English books here that we can't read that students leave behind because they don't want to weigh down their suitcases when they go back home." (That's an approximate translation). And she proceeded to open this HUGE drawer FULL of books!!!!!!! OMG!!!! Navidad!!!! Then I got really excited and they were all laughing at me. But they are books! Good books! Like The Historian and some from Oprah's Book Club (gotta be good right? haha). Yes. It was wonderful (=. I'm stocked up!

Also. Today I was talking to my aunt here about my mom and how she likes to pull teeth of her students haha. So she asked me if we put our teeth under our pillows so that in the night a "raton" can come and leave money behind. FYI....raton=mouse. I said yes but for us it's a fairy, not a mouse! How different isn't it? I think if I thought a mouse was going to come get things from under my pillow at night then I would've never earned anything off my baby teeth. I'd be too scared! Maybe that's the point....haha.

Finally. On a more serious note. Today in Anthropology, which I should probably just called Indigenous studies, we learned about a movement that took place here in the 70s to reduce population growth. Get this: in 1910 the population of Mexico was 10 million. Today the population of Mexico is 57 million. WOW. Talk about an exponential growth spurt. So this movement involved encouraging all the people in Mexico to cut back on the number of kids they have by advertising smaller families, the benefits of having smaller families, and distributing contraceptives in public places like restaurants, etc. BUT because the Indigenous people were "cut off" from these things, the government tried another method to reduce their population....the sterilization of women in clinics, etc without their permission or even their knowledge! It's horrible. Yes....one goal was to reduce deaths of children of malnutrition, etc. But I wonder...and my professor implies...that there was an alternate motive as well. I know that when they did this in the United States a lot of it had to do with "promoting a superior race." And I wonder if the same idea applies here. It's horrible. And if I can find enough information/articles about the topic, then I've definitely found the theme for my 20 page final essay. I just hope I can find articles....

Anyway. I'm sorry if that was boring. But it was shocking and really interesting to me. So I thought I'd share. Since usually I just write about what I'm thinking. (=

Love to all!

Oh...and Lee....so far I've tried Mole Negro, Mole Amarillo, Mole Rojo, and Mole Estufado. And tamales con mole. 4 out of the 7 moles that Oaxaca is famous for! My favorite is Mole Amarillo, and I've discovered that Mole Negro is only good if the right person makes it....(=. However, I've also discovered that I love Chiles Llenos. Have you tried them? UMMM!!!!!

Un Fin de Semana Perezoso

Hello all (=

So this weekend was fairly lazy. Most people in my group went to Puerto Escondido. I decided to hold out because I wanted to go to a smaller, more tranquil beach with a somewhat smaller group and the plans were so last minute. ALSO...my host mom's sister owns an apartment in Hualtulco that she offered to me. It holds up to 8 people (much better number), I could stay for free, and she would give a really cheap rate to my friends. It's en la Bahia Tangolunda (because Hualtulco is also known the 9 Bays of Hualtulco). I'm really excited!!!!! Actually...I regretted it at first, because this weekend started out rather lonely, but people returned yesterday and this morning. Apparently a group of them (8) were walking at 4 am Sunday morning and were robbed at knifepoint. Everyone is OK physically, but oh my gosh I can't imagine. Then there were one or two people that were so sick they were vomiting the whole time. So maybe there was a real reason I didn't go. It's kind of crazy and scary and I'm worried about them. But Gracias a Dios that nothing worse happened. Hualtulco is much less populated/more tranquil and more safe.

Yesterday I spent some time planning. I like planning lol....and I was surprised to see that I only have three free weekends before my classes end and I start my internship! This Saturday we are going to hot springs/a petrified waterfall. Next weekend we are going with Witness For Peace to La Mixteca. We'll see campesinos and Indigenas and some extreme poverty. The weekend after will be Hualtulco. Then I have a free weekend. Then Day of the Dead. Then a free weekend. Then our classes are over and the group leaves for our last Witness for Peace trip to Chiapas for a week. Then it will be November 23rd and my internship will start. I can't believe it. I don't have all the time in the world.

So this is the plan....one free weekend I want to go on a camping trip in the Sierra Norte. My intercambio is bringing me a book tomorrow and I've been doing some research. But the other weekend I'd really like to try to get to Cofradia. It would be a LONG bus ride. But I'm in Mexico. I'd like to make it work.

I'm excited for Hualtulco. But I can't stop thinking about what happened in Escondido. We'll be fine. We won't be out that late (another reason I wanted to go a different weekend) and it's much less developed/much safer. I just really really hope they will all be OK....in every sense of the word.

I got some pictures randomly to work! I just can't organize them....lol

Pictures from....my house, my room, some chapulines (grasshopppers), independence day, Teotihuacan...ruins, and La Basilica

Bananas, Platanos, Plantains......

Hola mis amores.

So ok...I love to eat bananas. You all know that. But this is going a little too far....

My host mom is also aware of the fact that I love bananas. Thus....every morning I eat two bananas with my yogurt. I can also take one for a snack. Or I can have platanos fritos...which I kind of like banana chips but more natural. When I go to cafe's I like to order banana smoothies. When I get ice cream I like to mix a scoop of banana with whatever other flavor I feel like trying (Pistachio, rum, Beso de Oaxaca, Mamey...). For postre/dessert my host mom gives me platanos dulces. One time I even had Platanos con tequila (a weird dessert thing) at a restaurant. Oh, and I musn't forget Agua de Platanos. Ay Dios!

BUT NOW....today my host mom informed me that for comida she is making Platanos Llenos (filled bananas). Chiles llenos here are quite common. But platanos? Filled with cheese and chicken and then cooked. Probably fried. I"ll let you know how it goes....hahaha. Either Mexico will cure my love of bananas or "feed" it into an obsession!

PS....Allie just informed me that bananas might go extinct. WHAT??????

PPS....Mom....your mission for when I return is to PLEASE buy all the bananas you can and freeze them in order to preserve them. I'm talking I'll need a lifetime supply! Oh....and like...a trunk full of banana chips! Andwhatever other form of banana you can think of!

Hehe. Love to all!

My Internship!

Ok. So I'm really really really really really really really really really excited today.

A) I went to the gym in the morning before it got hot cause I have class in the afternoon instead.

B) Yesterday I found a health food store thing that sells AWESOME granola and get this....BANANA CHIPS!

C) Tonight is the first night of Greys Anatomy and however lame, I can't wait. Especially since Erin is coming over and we are going to watch it with my host mom and her sister and her friends and have Pina Coladas. Yes!

D) I got to skype with Nate for an hour yesterday. And I'll get to skype with lots of people soon. Internet....October 5th. Different company etc. But its going to work this time. And I'm not just saying that!

E) My host mom's sister (Marta) owns cabin/house/hotel things at Hualtulco (9 bays) and she said that I could go for FREE and about 7 other friends for CHEAP!!!! SOOOOOO excited! More my kind of beach than Puerto Escondido anyway. I'm thinking mid-October. I'll keep you guys posted.

F) Best of all....this morning I met with my sociology professor (also in charge of our internships) and now I know where I'm going to work! Almost everyone is being assigned to different organizations in pairs because of how many of us there are and how many organizations are cutting back because of lack of funding. But not me. I'm on my own. Apparantly my professor was talking with Kristen Labs and Tamara Williams and the nursing people and I get to actually do "health stuff." I"m working with Manos de Vida (www.manosdevida.org You should really look it up). It's a program to promote health in Oaxaca, specifically working with children. Apparently its also a little further away/further out than the other organizations, but it sounds amazing. I have to go be trained ahead of time but I'm so glad that I get to do actual work (a lot of people end up just doing data entry and cleaning). I'm sooooooo excited. And it has a Christian basis. And I think I get to be a "Che." And And And.....haha.

Oh...PS...Internships are the last month I'm here. November 23rd until December 18th I think. 9-5 every day of the work week.

Anyway. It's a good day. I send smiles to all. Can they be contagious if they have to travel that many miles? I hope so!

Love!

A blog of Questions....

Why hello my lovely people. I have a plethora of things to talk about today. Horray!

My gecko whom I have dubbed PEDRO visited me again last night. I love him! He eats all the mosquitos and ants in my room and he makes kissing noises at me! Nate....he's your biggest threat while I'm here in Mexico. Hehe.

Needless to say, I DID finish my anthropology HW and the class was a lot of interesting today. We actually discussed and such...and I discovered that what our professor really wants from the questions that we have to answer is discussion points and thoughts. So as long as I don't obsess over the fact that there's NO way I will be able to understand the finest points of the readings for a little while, I'll be OK. Today we talked about how you define someone who is Indigenous....the methods they've used in the past are SO interesting, and if you look at the differences in the Indigenous population in the censuses for the past 50 years, you see HUGE fluctuations in the number simply because of the criteria of someone indigenous. It sounds dumb here, but it was really interesting. The one thing that I need help with is my essay. For the end of the class I have to write a 20 page essay in spanish. (scream). I've never even written that much in English! About Indigenous people in Mexico...anyone have topic ideas?

Also....fyi.....I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love. And I HIGHLY recommend it. It's so inspiring. And it mentions Oaxaca! Isn't that ironic? I really want to learn how to meditate now. But for real....I recommend it to all. Now I'm reading Jurassic Park. Hehe. And Allie...I love Molo'kai (about the leper community off Hawaii in the 1920s'ish). Also...the 19th Wife is interesting, but I would classify it as OK. Oh...and the Wally Lamb book, "The Hour I First Believed," made me cry multiple times. It's about Columbine. Can you guys tell that I've had a lot of time to read here? The things you have time to do when you can't "surf" the Internet.

Another question.....does anyone have gift requests? I was thinking about Christmas the other day....(=. No really....but seriously....(=

What else? Oh yeah! I saw "LAS VAGINAS" last night. It was good. I really want to see the Vagina Monologues in English now as well. Let's just say that I learned a lot of doble sentidos for the word in Spanish (including conejita, tarantula, palomito, and papaya among others...hehe). But it's a really good play because it combines humorous sections with sections about rape and manipulation of women....which makes it educational and like, eyeopening as well. About half way through, while laughing, I realized that I was viewing a play in Spanish. A whole play! That lasted like 2 hours! And I understood casi total! It was very exciting (=

Hasta luego amigos (=

I am spending all of my money on books. Textbooks! Copies of thousands of readings nonetheless! AND....I love sociology, but anthropology was a bad idea. You should see my notes from the first day. They have arrow all over and make no sense! I have like, 100 pages of dense, academic Spanish to read for tomorrow and questions to answer. It depresses me. A lot. Our professor assigned us the book he wrote to read (of which he couldn't remember the title lol). BUT....we have to read it all....for tomorrow. Death. Death I say!

On a lighter note....I'm going to see the Vagina monologues tonight in Spanish at a theatre. 50 pesos and we're talking a NICE theatre. I'm excited! The play is entitled...."Las Vaginas" I definitely embarrassed myself when I told my host mom where I was going to be....hahahaha.

Hasta manana!