Puebla: Days 12-14

Itzel-super cute!
Me and the kids
Jeff and the kids
Eduardo, my fav!

The last 4 days in Puebla were spent teaching, giving final presentations and saying goodbye to the kids. Our unit we taught turned out really good--we had the kids write penpal letters to students in Boulder. Jeff's daughters go to a bilingual school in boulder and he had 3rd graders write letters to our kids in Mexico. It was awesome to see how excited they were when we gave them the letters from the kids in Boulder. The classroom experience was amazing and I had a great time teaching with Jeff. He and I got along great and became very good friends. Love him! Still waiting to get pictures from him and add them to the blog.

We had a going away party at the school that Thursday before we left. All of the teachers came, and they brought out 10 bottles of tequila! Too funny--something you never would see in the States! It was a good time, with a not so good dinner, dancing, gifts and drinking! Afterwards we went to a dance club where they were having a dance-off which was lame so we left. Jose and I went and had some tacos and great conversation at midnight! Tried to have Burger King and McDonald's but they were closed! HA!

The last night in Puebla, there was a farewell celebration on the roof of the hotel. The professors gave everyone awards, had a Mariachi band, pinata, food and lots of drinking. It was a good time had by all. Still need to get pictures from Katharine so I can post them. We had to leave for Mexico City Saturday morning at 5:30 and many people stayed up all night and were hurting units. (I was not one of them! Actually got a good 3 hours of sleep!)

Overall, I learned more about myself and relationships with people than I did about education and teaching. I missed my little ones and V tremendously. I missed American food. I missed hearing English. I missed my big, soft, comfy bed. I made some great friends--Jeff, Manuel, Jose. I bonded with people who I had been in class with for a year and a half and kind of knew before we went down there--Christine, Katie, Peter. I solidified bonds with people-Katharine, Joe and Emily. It was an unforgettable experience and one I will never forget.

Puebla: Days 10-11 Teaching and trip to the Mercado

Dinner out on the town...

Pigs in the Mercado

No, it's not touching my head!
Jose and his small bag o' cheetos.

Yum, tripe and cows heads!

Melia, Cesar, me, Morena at the Mercado.

Food stocked in the Mercado; floor to ceiling.

Chickens!

My kids singing a song. Too cute!

We spent Monday and Tuesday teaching the kids, taking classes and writing papers. Tuesday we went to the Mercado after we were at the schools, and had to spend $50 on food, grocery items to give to someone that we found on the street who seemed to be "in need." It was kind of a strange assignment because we basically bought food and then had to ask random people if they could use what we bought. We asked one man who was selling matches on the street but he said to stop bothering him because he needed to work and we were interrupting his selling. We found an 82-year-old woman who was selling vegetables and gave her the food; beans, sugar, oil, toilet paper, rice, etc. She was very grateful. I was glad that I had 3 fluent Spanish speakers in my group that could translate and communicate with the people in the Mercado. Morena is from El Salvador, and Cesar and Hector are from Mexico. Then there was Melia and I--the token white girls! :) It was a very interesting experience!

Puebla days 8 & 9-weekend of freedom!

After a long, crazy, draining week, I was exhausted and my body was feeling the toll. I started to lose my voice and felt awful. I was drained emotionally--missed my babies tremendously-mentally--too much education talk crammed in my head--and physically. Most of our group left for Mexico City or the beach at Vera Cruz. Not me--I stayed and slept for 12 hours. It was AWESOME! :)



Sunday morning I felt a little better and Katie, Marcellino and I walked to the Convento de Santa Monica. It was the most interesting place that we went to the whole trip. The convent was used as a secret place for unmarried, pregnant girls who were daughters of the well to do people of Puebla, as well as a convent. There was an underground tunnel that they used to smuggle the girls in and out of the convent. The girls stayed until they had the babies; girl babies were killed (actually thrown over a wall in the underground crypt) and boy babies were sold to people in the city. We were taken down into the crypt, which was eerie but a crazy weird interesting experience. On the wall were the descriptions on how 27 women died--some starved, some died violent deaths. It was crazy but I learned SO much! Between the three of us, we were able to communicate with our guide and also undrestand what he was saying since he really didn't speak English.



The nuns of the convent believed in self-mutilation and would whip themselves for as many sins as the Mother Superior told them they had. They were all vegetarians, and ate only enough to survive; and even then, some of them died from starvation. They had very short hair and only took showers once every 4-5 months. It was a very eerie place. Quiet but I am sure we were being watched. We asked our guide if he had ever seen any ghosts and he said he hadn't but people had seen women walking around dressed as nuns! CRAZY!!!



Popo the volcano--view from the roof of our hotel.

K smokin' some Popo.

Popo and the church next door.

Outdoor alter at the convent.

Scary depection of the Last Supper. These were manequins and scared the CRAP out of me. Wasn't expecting it and turned and there they were! YIKES!

Nuns quarters: wooden bench for bed, wooden pillow, and the things laying on the bed were the tools they used to whip themselves or self-mutilate themselves.
I thought this painting was very interesting-a bleeding heart on the world...

Puebla Days 5, 6 and 7: Field trip to the Fuertes and teaching!

On day 5, we taught and then went on a field trip to the Fuertes de Loreta where the battle of Cinco de Mayo was fought. Most of the museum was all in Spanish so I had to rely on the pictures and what I could figure out (thanks to my French background, it's a lot easier to pick up Spanish!). The battle was fought against the French and it was a one-day battle. People who move to the US can't understand why we put such an effort into celebrating Cinco de Mayo because it wasn't THAT big of a deal to the Mexican people. Interesting....Days 6 and 7 were spent teaching and writing papers/presentations. Finally it was the weekend!


Me being uber cool....


Senior picture by the cannon!

Jose (our professor/doctoral student--super cool cat!) and Katharine

Stuck in jail at the Fuertes!

Be careful!

Senior picture on the wall of the Fuertes!

Again, me being super cool...

Puebla Day 3 and 4: TEACHING!!

Our school-Otilio Montano. Has grades 1-6. The school layout was VERY similar to my school in Gila Bend. Brought back some great memories of my old kiddos!


Nice security system--barbed wire and glass shards. Maybe they should try this in our prisons!

My kids!The boy in the middle is Eduardo--I fell in love with him on the first day!

More of my kids! And Eduardo up front again!

Older students dressed in traditional dress from Vera Cruz.

They played these instruments and I don't know what they were called--they were pianos that they blew air into. They played "The Rose" by Bette Middler! It was awesome!


First graders and "High School Musical"

Second graders and their reggatone dance!

On the first Monday we were in Puebla, we went to our schools for a welcoming celebration. One class from each grade level performed a dance to a song. The first graders danced to a "high School Musical" song which was super cute! The second graders danced to some reggatone and wore their hats backwards and were awesome! The other grades were dressed in traditional dress from states in Mexico and performed traditional Mexican dances. My kids wore the dress from the state of Puebla. They were ADORABLE! Jeff has more pictures from the celebration and once I get together with him I will post more.

Tuesday was spent in the classrooms teaching our lessons, 5 hours of classes where were worked on presentations and papers. We put in LONG days when were there!

Puebla, Day 2: Field Trips!

We went to this really scary church the second day we were in Puebla. The ceiling was covered with very ornate sculptures of angels playing instruments, and when we walked to the front of the church, there was a super creepy dead Jesus in a glass coffin. Had to get out of there because I was getting creeped out! Definitely nothing like the churches in Europe I have been to! The afternoon trip was to the pyramids in Cholula. They were built by the native Cholulans and covered by Montezuma who built a huge church at the top. They were VERY interesting and we had a great guide who taught us a lot! We ate some crickets and drank some beer and then headed home. The crickets were not so tasty and I was not a big fan of the crunching little skeletons! YUCK!

Scary church--doesn't look so scary on the outside but just wait!

Weird scary, very ornate angels playing instruments. Almost too much for this gringa to handle!

Random footprint outside the church-thought it was cool!

See what I mean?! Too much-Couldn't take a scary Jesus picture...would have freaked me out too much!

Scultpture of a famous priest-Juan Palafox y Mendoza. He had 19 kids..remember he was a PRIEST!

Pyramids at Cholula.

Sacrificial alter-15 year-old daughters of rich/important members of society were sacrificed in order to help the crops grow.

Another sacrificial alter-this is where kids who cried too much or had Down's Syndrome were killed.

Katharine BEFORE the cricket....

Katharine AFTER the cricket!

Steps of the pyramids...

Teresa and I on the steps--what a hike!

Journey to Puebla, Mexico: Day 1

And so it began...we left Denver on June 7 and landed in Mexico City that night. After 3 hours of waiting for luggage, buses and going through customs, we finally headed out towards Puebla, which was about a 2 hour bus ride. We arrived at the hotel at 11:30 to find club sandwiches, chips and nasty tasting sangria and soda. We were all famished and then most of us headed to bed after we ate!
Most of my cohort--we have all been in this master's program together for the past year and a half. We're like a little family! 12 of us went to Puebla, and pictured are Joe, Katie, Emily, Christine, and Katharine.
K-dog and I. We taught at Kearney for the past 2 years together and she was my roomie for the 2 week stay. We had a great time together! Love that girl!