Pictures: Bull Fight and Thanksgiving

Click here to see pictures from both of my Thanksgivings

Click here to see pictures from a Mexican bull fight
(**Please note that this does have some pictures that might be considered disturbing, but it is worth looking at because it was an interesting cultural experience)

Thanksgiving in Mexico

The week before Thanksgiving, while those of you in the States were happily surrounded by Thanksgiving food, decorations, sales, and overall ambience, we Americans here in Mexico were scouring the stores for items that would be staples in the United States at this time of year. Although Monterrey is close to the U.S., not very many people celebrate Thanksgiving here. There are those few Mexican-American families who celebrate it with turkey tacos (literally, I’m sure), but for the most part, it is a holiday that goes unnoticed (for obvious reasons, since it’s American!). However, for this very reason, my American friends and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to share one of our culture’s most important traditions with both the Mexicans and the internationals here in Monterrey. In fact, I celebrated Thanksgiving twice!:

Thanksgiving #1: For the Rotaract Club
Kristen, the other Rotary Scholar here, and I realized that we wouldn’t have a more perfect opportunity than Thanksgiving to do exactly what Rotary has given us scholarships for: to further cross-cultural understanding and friendships. Thanksgiving is an all-American holiday that in and of itself celebrates friendship between cultures – the Native Americans and the pilgrims – and so we decided to share every aspect of it with the Monterrey Rotaract club: the food, the giving thanks, and the cross-cultural friendships.

We had this Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Kristen and I went shopping a couple of days before, crossing our fingers that we could actually find a turkey in Mexico at this time of year. We lucked out and found one at Costco! But you would never think that shopping for a holiday that for us is such a given would be so difficult. Certain things that would be at every grocery store in the U.S. we had to search high and low for in various stores here. And other things we didn’t think we would find we actually had no problem finding! For example, we had no problem finding a turkey or an already-made pumpkin pie, but we couldn’t find pumpkin-pie filling or packaged stuffing (we eventually found the stuffing at Wal-Mart after we had already started making our own). And don’t even try to get fresh cranberries here. Canned cranberries, yes, but you have to dig! But, after going back and forth to Wal-Mart, Soriana, and Costco, we eventually got everything together for the Thanksgiving dinner.

We spent all day cooking on Sunday and the Rotaractors arrived around 7 p.m. Neither Kristen nor I had ever made a turkey before, but it turned out GREAT! Since none of our guests had ever experienced Thanksgiving before, we first told them the story of Thanksgiving, and then each of us went around and said what we were thankful for.

We also had a surprise visit from a man from England – a co-worker of one of the Rotaractors. He too was very excited to experience his first Thanksgiving. It’s good to know that after a few hundred years, there can be perfectly friendly relations between Americans and British, especially at a holiday like Thanksgiving! :) Really though, it was such a great experience to have Mexicans, Americans, and British gathered together, all politics aside, to celebrate one of our greatest holidays, which has become simply a recognition of the wonderful family and friends – of every culture and ethnicity – in one’s life.

Thanksgiving #2: For My International and Mexican Friends
On actual Thanksgiving Day, my friend Linda (from California) and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for our international and Mexican friends here. This time I knew exactly which stores sold which products, and I knew all about preparing the turkey (turkey guts don’t phase me anymore). I have to say, I was pretty proud of the cooking skills I developed, considering that I did not even used to be able to make pasta! (Yes, even after college).

Anyway, everything turned out great for this Thanksgiving too. No one here had ever experienced the holiday either, so again, we loved being able to bring this American tradition to Mexico! Also present were people from Germany, France, Australia, and Canada.

Stay tuned for pictures – will post them soon. Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone – hope it was wonderful!

PICTURES from the Weekend of El Día de los Muertos

See them here:

Noche de Temazcalli and el Dia de Los Muertos

Weekend of El Día de los Muertos

The last weekend of October was Halloween for some, but for Mexico, it was the weekend of El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), one of the main celebrations that Mexico is known for, in which the deceased are remembered and believed to come back for one day. Although officially I believe el Día de los Muertos is November 2, it is really celebrated the whole weekend before. Unfortunately for me, northern Mexico celebrates Halloween more than el Día de los Muertos (it is more celebrated in the South), but there were still some celebrations here in Monterrey.

On Friday night, October 30, I went with a few friends to an indigenous spiritual cleansing ritual in the Huasteca, which are the mountains right outside of Monterrey. We had no idea what to expect from this Noche de Temazcalli (“Night of Temazcalli”), except that we would sweat a lot, so we should bring a change of clothes and some towels.

We took a bus to a cabin in the mountains – there were about 20-30 people who came. When we arrived, we all gathered around a fire as a woman – our guide - briefly explained what we would be doing. A girl came around and performed a blessing on each of us with some kind of incense. After we were blessed, we took some twigs from a bag, threw them in the fire, and got down on hands and knees to enter a tent that was there.



The tent was made of branches and covered in blankets, and looked like an igloo. As we entered on hands and knees, we bowed our heads to the ground and then crawled in and sat down. We waited as each person individually crawled into the tent, and then the guide began to explain more about what we would be doing. She told us that the door to the tent would be closed four times, and during each time we would experience the temazcalli, which is a bath of vapor made from herb-scented water being poured onto hot, volcanic rocks. It originates from the pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico and Central America, and the purpose is to cleanse the body and soul in conjunction with the essential elements (earth, water, fire, and air).

So they closed the door four times, and each time they poured the scented water on the hot rocks in the center of the tent. The room filled up with the HOT smell of herbs – it felt like a sauna. Everyone was dripping in sweat, and occasionally I had to lean down to the floor to get some cooler air. Each time, after about 15-20 minutes, they opened the tent door up so that we would have some fresh air. During this time, they would bring in new hot rocks, and then close the door again. Four times they did that, and we were in the tent a total of about two hours.

After sweating like crazy for two hours straight, it was intense to walk outside to the crispy mountain air, because we were soaked (it was then that we understood why we were supposed to bring a change of clothes and towels!). For the next hour, we gathered around the fire, getting to know each other. Several people had brought snacks of fruit and nuts and chocolate, and while some ate theirs, others threw theirs into the fire as an offering.

Other than the Noche de Temazcalli that weekend, several student organizations at Monterrey Tech set up altars on campus in honor of El Día de los Muertos. This is a popular tradition, which honors those who have passed away. For example, there was an altar set up by the Society of Hispanic Language and Literature Students in memory of two deceased Hispanic authors. :



There was also an altar in memory of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett:



And that evening in class, my teacher brought in Day of the Dead Cake, a delicious pastry/cake that is eaten on El Día de los Muertos.

Pictures from Real de Catorce Trip...

...are posted! You can see more of the beauty that is Mexico here:

Weekend Trip to Real de Catorce

Saludos!

-Emily

Pictures from Rotary and Rotaract Events in Monterrey

I finally put up some pictures from various Rotary meetings and events with Rotaract here in Monterrey! Check them out here:

Rotary and Rotaract in Monterrey

Enjoy!

A Long Over-due Update Including Trip to Real de Catorce

Hi everyone! Yep, I’m still here. Mexico hasn’t got the best of me yet. Where have I been for the last month? Well, first of all I apologize that it has been a month since the last time I wrote. Here’s a summary of the last month, which has been jam-packed with service, studying, new friends, and adventures:

ROTARACT
Rotaract is essentially a Rotary Club for people of 18-30 years of age, and there is a great Rotaract Club here in Monterrey. I’ve been participating as much as possible; they meet every Wednesday night and discuss various service projects, and I had the opportunity to participate in their “Noche de Lonche” one Sunday evening, where we made sandwiches for patients at a local hospital who are not from the area.




Read more about the Rotaract Club on their blog (in Spanish):

http://rotaractmty.blogspot.com/

ASOCIACIÓN ESTUDIANTIL POR LOS PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS (AEPI)
I’m still regularly attending meetings with this student organization at Tec that encourages awareness of indigenous people’s rights and situations. It’s really an amazing way to be exposed to more of Mexican society, which was essentially founded upon the indigenous culture, and to see how proud Mexicans are of their history and culture.

AEPI continues to be a part of the program Creando Espacios de Inclusión, in which we get together with indigenous youth in Monterrey on Saturdays and discuss a different topic every week, to make friends and to learn more about each other’s culture. My favorite session was one in which each person talked about the community he or she came from – so not only did I get to learn about various indigenous villages in Mexico, but there was one AEPI member from Uruguay! And I got to share about my home state of South Carolina, and everyone loved hearing about that.

BEING A GRAD STUDENT AT MONTERREY TEC…
…is a lot of work! I have a new respect for everyone with a Master’s degree, as well as all Mexican students:). I have a semester project for each of my four classes, and since we only have a month left of the semester (so hard to believe), it will be down to the wire soon! It’s good though – I’m learning the way the educational system works in Mexico (at least at Tec, it’s very research-oriented and group-project-focused, which is a great way to get to know the students in my class and practice my Spanish).

WEEKEND TRIP TO REAL DE CATORCE
Although I’m being kept pretty busy, I’ve made sure to give myself time to see more of this beautiful country. My boyfriend Zack came from South Carolina to visit me for a couple of weeks, and although I spent a lot of time showing him around Monterrey (places such as the Cola de Caballo waterfall and the Grutas de Garcia caves, which I described in previous posts), we also went away the first weekend in October with some of my friends here to Real de Catorce, a little colonial town in the mountain about 5 hours from Monterrey in the state of San Luis Potosi.

Have you ever seen the movie “The Mexican”? It was filmed in Real de Catorce. If you haven’t, Real can be described as Mexican western cowboy meets Mexican indigenous hippy. We decided to drive my car there, and it was a smooth, peaceful ride on a Friday afternoon with incredible views:



…until my car got stuck halfway up the mountain, at the top of which is Real de Catorce.

We were incredibly lucky though, because right then some natives were driving by. They stopped and came over to help us try and figure out what was wrong. We realized it was a problem with the transmission, because it wasn’t changing gears, so they put in some transmission fluid that they had handy. I also happened to need oil, so they took us to a little convenience store a little bit further up the mountain, and that was enough to get me to the top.

In order to get to Real de Catorce, you have to park your car in a dirt parking lot and walk through a tunnel about 2 km long. Since it was dark at this point, the tunnel was particularly spooky. In fact, Real is known for being a ghost town, although at the particular time that we were there, there was a festival going on called Fiesta de San Francisco, during which time 150,000 pilgrims come to see the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi in the church there. But even though there were people around, it was still very eerie walking through that tunnel:



It was also a very long tunnel, so about halfway through we hitched a ride with a horse and cart.

At the end of the tunnel was Real de Catorce. We came out and immediately it felt as if we had jumped back about 100 years. There were cobblestone paths and vendors on the streets, selling delicious-smelling tacos, religious souvenirs and little knick-knacks. The air was fresh and crisp and literally everything about that town was in stark contrast to the big, loud city of Monterrey. I love Monterrey, but it was a welcome change.

We wandered through the crowds of pilgrims and vendors, up and down cobblestone hills, until we came to our hotel at the other end of the village (that description makes it sound far away, but the whole town was actually pretty small. In fact, there was essentially just one main market place, with a few side streets). After we got settled into our hotel, we went in search of food, of which the options were: tacos, burritos, and other versions of tacos and burritos with different names – all from street vendors. So, we ordered delicious pork burritos and wondered why they don’t make ‘em like that in the States!

Real already seemed like a great town, but with not much to offer for nightlife. So, we opted to go relax at the bar atop our hotel, where we found a great drum band playing an indigenous-style beat. All of a sudden a indigenous man (probably a Huichol, the primary indigenous group from Real de Catorce) walked out into the middle of the room, with his hair pulled in front of his face so we couldn’t see his face at all, body painted, and wearing a striped skirt. He carried a decorated cane with a painted animal skull at the top. He began dancing to the drum beat in a rhythmic yet flowing fashion, as all eyes were on him. And then, slowly, everyone else in the room began to dance to the drums–and we joined in too!

One of the things that Real de Catorce is known for is a plant called peyote. It is a Huichol ritual to walk to where the peyote plants are, cut them, take them back, and eat them for a spiritual “experience.” For this reason, Real is known for being a spiritual town, but it was also incredibly interesting to see the contrast between 1) Mexico’s Catholic religion, manifested in the many pilgrims there to pay homage to St. Francis of Assisi, and 2) the spirituality of the indigenous earth-focused religion of the people who are native to Real. From my participation in AEPI and seeing how the students in that group are trying so hard to make the Mexican people more aware of their indigenous roots, it was really refreshing to see these two contrasting cultures exist harmoniously that weekend in a little mountain town.

The next morning we relaxed at our hotel, which had breathtaking views of the valley below:



Then we spent some time wandering through the crowded streets of Real, looking at the items for sale and taking in the fresh air and incredible sites. Vendor stands lined the streets and they had everything from little St. Francis figurines, to random plastic toys for kids, to ponchos, to carved imitation peyote plants. They also of course had food, drinks, and offered a variety of services like designs painted on baseball caps (my friend Claire got “MEXICO” painted on a white hat in the colors of the Mexican flag).

There were also cowboy-looking men coming up to us asking us if we wanted to ride their horses, so we opted for that the next day.

Sunday was another beautiful sunny day in the mountains, and after breakfast we headed out to the center of town to find the man with the horses.

He said we would be riding the horses to the Pueblo Fantasmo (Ghost Town). It was a little scary at first, going up and down the little cobblestone hills in the town, but I was just crossing my fingers that the horses were used to it and knew what they were doing. As we got further out of town, though, I realized it was only going to get worse. It was then that it occurred to me that the Pueblo Fantasmo was at the top of another mountain, so we couldn’t avoid going up at a very steep incline. I’ve always had a little fear of heights, and it only added to the scariness factor that we were riding horses about two feet from the edge on rocky, unpaved pathways, where they could easily have slipped. The whole time up we were all thinking, “This is going to be sooo much worse going down…”

BUT we made it and it was definitely worth it. The town was abandoned ruins at the top of a mountain,



with views stretching for miles, including a bird’s-eye view of the little town of Real de Catorce.

The way back down was scarier and what we were all dreading. We had to ride the horses going down a steep incline about two feet from the edge on rocky, unpaved pathways. On the way up, we ended up drifting apart into two separate groups, but on the way down we were all clumping up into one group. To make matters worse, our guide was in the back and would whip whichever horse was in the back to get him to go faster! So it ended up being a traffic jam for much of the way down, as each horse scrambled not to be last, to our detriment. At one point I thought I was going to fall off because there was a horse so close to me that he pushed up against me and my horse and knocked my leg out of the stirrup!

But really, there was not much to worry about; the horses had probably walked that trek every day and it was a little bit of a thrilling adventure.

When we got back to Real, we grabbed our things and trekked back to our car, up and down the little hills in the town, and through the 2 km tunnel. Since it was Sunday, everyone who was there for the weekend was leaving, so walking through the tunnel felt like some massive evacuation due to some pandemic or impending natural disaster.

On the other side of the tunnel, though, it was still sunny and my car was still there, so we thought that was the end to our weekend adventure.

Wrong. Not even halfway back, we pulled over to a Pemex gas station (the only gas station in Mexico – it’s essentially a monopoly) to fill up, and they told me they didn’t have regular gas so we left to go to the next one down the highway. That didn’t happen, though, because as soon as we left the gas station my car wouldn’t shift gears or go past 40mph, so we turned back around and went back to the Pemex we were just at.

I feel like my Spanish has improved a lot since I’ve been here, but I probably wouldn’t even know some car vocabulary in English, so I thought this was a hopeless situation. Fortunately, there was a man stopped to get gas who spoke both English and Spanish completely fluently, and he helped us translate the problem to the attendants. They couldn’t do much, but they said there was a mechanic in a town called Matehuala about 45 minutes away. Since it was already almost 7 p.m., we decided that the best option would be to just get the mechanic to come with a tow truck and take us back to Monterrey (about a 2.5 hr drive).

…He finally came three hours later. At least we had five of us to keep us entertained, access to the Oxxo in Pemex (Oxxo is the main Mexican convenience store – like a 7-11, which is also here), and the Pemex workers to keep checking in to make sure the mechanic came. When he finally showed up at 10 p.m., we discovered that he wasn’t going to be able to take us all the way to my apartment in Monterrey; he would have to leave us at a Soriana (the Mexican version of Walmart) right outside the city, because there were certain restrictions that prohibited him from entering the city limit. So when we finally got to the Soriana at 1 a.m., we prayed and prayed that my car would work to drive the next 30 minutes to my apartment, and thank god it did.

I think a true test of the mastery of another language, culture, and country is how one handles situations of adversity. Granted, at the time I was pretty upset and worried – anyone I was with can attest to that :P – but all you can really do is look at what you learned from the situation:

• I didn’t come here to be a tourist – I came here to live as much like Mexicans do as I could, to really get a grasp of their language and culture. Obviously, from time to time Mexicans have to deal with car breakdowns, so it was interesting to see how that works here.
• I learned a lot more about how cars work. When I was 16, my dad wouldn’t even let me get my license until I explained to him how a transmission works. Well, I’d since forgotten all of that, but it turned out that my transmission gears were just worn down from years of use, so I had to re-learn all about transmissions to understand what had happened to my car.
• I learned some new vocabulary that I probably wouldn’t have learned otherwise. For example, “cambios” refers to “gears”, and “camión remolcador” is “tow truck” (fortunately I always carry my dictionary with me so I could explain to them that I wanted a tow truck).
• I developed a new belief that there are genuinely good mechanics in the world. When we got back to Monterrey, we took my car to a transmission shop, and the mechanic there was so helpful and nice. For example, it was going to be 4 or 5 days for my car to be fixed, and although I asked him if it could be ready any sooner, he said he didn’t think so. However, he knew how badly I wanted it and so he got to it first and it was ready in 3 days! Also, when we went to bring it in, he saw us standing around afterwards looking confused (we were actually deciding if we wanted to go to the restaurant across the street), and he came up and asked if we needed a ride somewhere, since he was going home for lunch anyway!
• I realized how glad I am I did bring my car here. A lot of people thought that I was crazy, but like I said, I didn’t come here to be a tourist. Monterrey is not a very walkable city, so it’s so nice to be able to drive to places like Rotary meetings. Sure, I’ve gotten lost about as much as I’ve found my way, but that’s the way to really learn the ins-and-outs of the city.
• And last but not least, this story now serves as an excellent icebreaker when there’s an awkward language-barrier-invoked silence!

Mexico City Pictures...Finally!!

Hello everyone! Wow, has it really been a month since I posted last?? I plan on posting an update within the next few days, but in the meantime I wanted to finally show you my pictures from my Mexico City trip in September(see my previous post for a description of my whole trip). Click on this link to see them:

Mexico City Trip, Sept 15-20

Enjoy, and you will be hearing from me soon!

Saludos,

Emily

Trip to Mexico City

I just got back on Sunday from an amazing five days in Mexico City. I went with my roommate Claire and we stayed with the family of her friend Paco, whom she met when he studied in Australia a year ago.

Part of the reason we went to Mexico City the dates we did was to be there for Mexican Independence Day on September 16 (we had September 16 off from school). It was such a great experience to be in the capital of Mexico (full title is La Ciudad de México, D.F.; the D.F. stands for “Distrito Federal”, or Federal District, since Mexico’s federal government resides there).

I’ll do my best to recall everything I did and saw:

Tuesday, September 15:
We arrived the day before Mexican Independence Day, in the afternoon. After about an hour in a taxi, we finally made it to Paco’s house. It mainly took so long because of the traffic (on the way back to the airport it only took us 25 minutes, because there was not nearly as much traffic on a Sunday). Mexico City is the second largest city in the world with a population of about 25 million. Because of this, even at off-hours you’re bound to hit slow-moving traffic, simply because the population is so dense.

Anyway, as soon as we arrived to Paco’s house, we were met with the warm hospitality that Mexicans are known for. Paco’s mom even let us know that “Mi casa es su casa.” Relaxing over a Corona, we visited with Paco and his mom as we discussed our plans for that night, to celebrate Mexican Independence Day.

In Mexico, on the eve of Independence Day at 11 p.m., the president of Mexico (currently Felipe Calderón) walks out onto the balcony of the Palacio Nacional, the government’s main building, in front of el Zócalo, Mexico City’s main plaza. A HUGE crowd of people waits for him in el Zócalo, where he proceeds to issue the “Grito de Dolores” (Cry of Dolores), Miguel Hidalgo’s call to rebellion against the Spanish in 1810. This includes a shout of “¡Viva México!”, followed by a cry from the people of “¡Viva!”.

We didn’t actually watch “El Grito” from the Zócalo, because we heard there would be way too many people there. Instead, we watched it on TV at Paco’s house while his extended family all gathered to have a nice Independence Day dinner. We then dressed up in traditional Mexican attire (Paco wore a poncho and sombrero, and although Claire and I didn’t have much, we wore Mexican flag headbands and painted Mexican flags on our faces!



Then we headed to Paco’s friend’s house for an Independence Day fiesta!

I have never seen so much passion for one’s country as I did at this party. Everyone was wearing either red, green and white (the colors of the Mexican flag), or ponchos, sombreros, or even fake mustaches. One of the attendees kept shouting passionately, “¡Viva México!” and everyone would respond “¡Viva!” They served traditional Mexican food and played traditional music, and everyone danced. A perfect way to celebrate one of the most important cultural holidays here!

Wednesday, September 16:
As it was a holiday, Paco’s parents had a day off from work so they took us out to a late lunch/early dinner at a delicious seafood restaurant.Seafood is very popular in Mexico, especially in the form of cocktails. This one had every kind of seafood you could imagine in it. Soooo good!

Afterwards, Paco and his friend Mario drove us to the Centro Histórico (historic center) of the city, which included the Zócalo. As it was Independence Day itself, there were several people walking around the Zócalo, as well as vendors selling food and various Independence Day gadgets.
There we saw the Palacio Nacional, where the president had shouted “El Grito” the night before, and walked along the streets around the Zócalo to see the other historic sights (I’ll post all my pictures soon and explain everything in the captions).


Thursday, September 17:
Paco’s mom was so sweet and took the day off from work to show Claire and me around some more of the city. We first went to el Museo de Antropología (Anthropology Museum), one of Mexico City’s best museums, which had a variety of rooms dedicated to everything from the evolution of man to the Aztec ruins. It even had the original Aztec calendar!:



After the museum we walked across the street to Chapultepec (which means “Hill of Grasshoppers” in the Náhuatl language), Mexico City’s largest park (seriously, it was huge). It includes several attractions like lakes and a zoo, and even “Los Pinos”, the residence of Mexico’s president! However, we went specifically to see the Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle), which sits at the top of a hill in the park. This castle served as the residence of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota in 1864, and continued to house Mexican presidents until 1939, when it was converted into a museum. We were able to walk around the grounds and see the rooms of Maximilian and Carlotta, and the castle had a breathtaking view of the city!





From there I could really tell that there are 25 million people living in Mexico City; it was all buildings, so close together!!

After that Paco came and met up with us, and we all drove to Coyoacán (“Place of Coyotes” in the Náhuatl language), a cute little town outside of downtown Mexico City. Our first stop was none other than the “Blue House,” more commonly know as the Frida Kahlo museum! Yes, this was the house in which Frida, the renowned Mexican artist married to Diego Rivera, grew up. It is so named because of the bright blue color it is painted, and it has beautiful gardens. Although most of the rooms were closed due to renovation, we were able to see one room full of Frida paintings.

The rest of Coyoacán was very cute with a small Mexican pueblo feel, so we walked around for a little while. Apparently it’s famous for its tequila-flavored ice cream, so of course we had to try some of that! (Delicious). Then Paco took us to a street taco stand. It seemed like one of those really popular places that only locals know about. You can pick the type of meat you want on your taco (we got the ones with a little bit of each type of meat), and the rest is an assembly line: there are bowls full of potatoes, onions, salsa, and even nopales, which is an edible cactus that is very popular here in Mexico and DELICIOUS (it looks and tastes somewhat like green beans). Once we added what we wanted to our tacos, we just stood on the street next to everyone else who had ordered and ate standing up!

Then, to settle all the rich food we just ate, we went to a typical Mexican cantina for after-dinner drinks.A cantina, at least in the sense that we experienced, is a relaxed salon that often offers live music. We stayed there for awhile, playing dominoes and enjoying each other's company. Then, a mariachi band came up to our table and offered to play some music for us, so we bought four or five songs!


Friday, September 18:
On Friday all of Paco’s family had to work, so Claire and I took advantage of our time on our own to experience Mexico City’s public transportation; never were we more grateful to have a family there, willing and able to kindly drive us all over the city. Not that public transportation in Mexico City was anything inefficient; it just took us over two hours to get to our destination, because we had to catch a bus that ended up being about an hour ride because of the traffic, and then two different metro trains, both of which we rode to the end of their line. It really made us pay attention to how HUGE Mexico City is!

Our destination was Xochimilco (Náhuatl for “Place where Flowers Grow”), another little pueblo town on the outskirts of the city known for its canals. Mexico City was actually built and expanded on a lake, and Xochimilco is a reminder of that. Actually, like Venice, Mexico City is known as a sinking city. It’s been said that some of the buildings have sunk about 10 meters in the last 100 years, and when we were walking around the Centro Histórico a few days before, we could tell. For example, we saw a church that now has to be entered by walking down several steps.

Anyway, Xochimilco was similar to Venice in more ways than one. Not only did it have canals, but we were able to rent a gondola-style boat (trajinera) and ride along the water!



I went to Venice a few years ago but didn’t actually ride a gondola, so this was a real treat for me. The trajineras in Xochimilco are a lot bigger than Venice’s gondolas, and all are painted in very bright colors. As the “gondolier” slowly pushed us along the canals, we had time to relax and take the sites in. There were smaller boats of locals riding by us, wanting to sell us souvenirs or corn-on-the-cob cooked right on their boat! There were also boats full of mariachi bands wanting to play for us, and although we didn’t actually get any songs, we were still able to enjoy the music since other people did:). Our gondolier let us stop off at two different places; once to peruse an artisan market on the water, and another to stop into a flower shop full of gorgeous flowers! (There were several flower shops along the way). We had a little bit of time to walk around town before we caught the metro for a long ride back, during which we got caught in a heavy downpour (for the months of September and October, Mexico is in its rainy season unfortunately. Speaking of weather, I also noticed that Mexico City was a lot cooler than Monterrey. In Monterrey I’m usually hot, but I was so cold the whole time I was in Mexico City!).

Friday night Paco and his friends took us to a Mexican rodeo. We were hoping to see a bull riding, but there weren’t any that night, because instead there was a dance competition! We watched couples in beautiful costumes from all over Mexico dance a variety of Mexican dance. They were SO good, spinning and jumping around really fast and doing all sorts of flips and twirls!

After we watched the competition we had the opportunity to do a little bit of our own dancing (although not nearly as good). We danced to banda music the whole night, which is a brass-based traditional Mexican style music. It originated in northern Mexico, but has a very Western/cowboy feel because it became popular in the Western U.S. states. Banda is a partner dance in which you hop from side to side, left to right, to the rhythm of the music. It’s best if the female holds onto her partner very tight, so that she can follow his lead. Although hopping side-to-side is pretty simple, every once in awhile the male can change it up and hop in a different direction or rhythm, so the female has to be ready. There are a lot of other moves that can be done with banda, but I decided to keep those to the experts!

Saturday, September 21:
Well you certainly can’t go to Mexico City without seeing the pyramids, so that was our plan for Saturday. First for lunch we went to a market that had several food vendors, all selling typical Mexican food. There were mainly tacos there, but as I had been eating tacos all week (literally – breakfast, lunch and dinner!), I wanted to try something different, so I ordered what I think was called a bambosa. Whatever its name, it was delicious. It was a sliced sandwich roll, cooked in garlic-flavored oil and filled with potatoes and chorizo. YUM!

Afterwards, it took about an hour and a half to get to the pyramids, because we actually did drive outside of the city, to a place called Teotihuacán. Teotihuacán has two main pyramids: Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun) and Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon). It was Mexico’s largest ancient city, housing the Aztecs, and was developed around AD 400.



We climbed the Pirámide del Sol, by far the bigger of the two and the world’s third-largest pyramid (about 70m high). Although it didn’t take too long to get to the top, it was intense because the steps were very steep and small. It was SO worth the view though!!:



Afterwards, we walked through some more of Teotihuacán, along the Calzada de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead), which is lined by stone structures assumed to be tombs. At the end of the Avenue, we saw the Pirámide de la Luna and were able to walk into some of the ruins.



Our country’s history in the United States dates back just a little over 200 years; imagine being able to tour your country’s history from almost 2000 years ago! If you ever visit Mexico, I hope visiting the Aztec ruins at Teotihuacán is at the top of your list, because how often do you get to see something so ancient and so different from everything you’re used to seeing??


P.S. My sources for the historical and cultural information in this post were The Lonely Planet for Mexico, and wikipedia.com.

The Swine Flu, McDonald’s, and Kangaroos

To say that Mexico is full of the swine flu (or for that matter, drug traffickers or people wanting to immigrate to the United States) is like saying that all Americans eat McDonald’s or that Australians all have kangaroos living as pets in their backyards: it’s just not true. (Just a funny anecdote regarding stereotypes: the other day I met someone from Costa Rica who, upon hearing that I was from South Carolina in the U.S., asked excitedly, “Oh is that anywhere close to where Britney Spears was born??”).

I’m working on a project in my communications class on quantitative research, in which my group is analyzing the stereotypes that the cinema gives to Mexico. Although we have barely begun, I can already tell that the results will be amazing but not surprising. Think about the following movies: ‘Babel’. ‘The Mexican’. ‘Nacho Libre’. Even the ‘Sex and the City’ movie. Can you honestly say that these movies don’t reinforce the stereotypes that you already had about Mexico? ‘Babel’ deals with immigration and portrays a Mexican woman crossing the border through the desert. ‘The Mexican’ deals with drug trafficking and portrays the Mexicans in it as mob members. ‘Nacho Libre’ makes a fool out of Mexico (from what I’ve gathered at least; I have no real desire to see it). And even the ‘Sex and the City’ movie portrays the water in Mexico as undrinkable (I realize in some areas it’s not a good idea for a foreigner to drink the water, but I have been drinking tap water here in Monterrey and have had no problems).

Community service is an essential part of my time here as a Rotary scholar, and I have been searching all over for ways to volunteer my time. To be honest, it’s been difficult. Having worked for the last year for an organization that helps immigrants, I have unfortunately not been completely devoid of stereotypes either. I half assumed that I would be coming to a Mexico that I could help “save” from all of the “terrible things” it was experiencing that I heard about on a daily basis in the newspapers, on TV, and in the movies. Don’t get me wrong; I have a great deal of respect for those who have come to Mexico, have volunteered and worked in rural communities, and have helped an incredible amount. Because yes, there is a lot of need in certain areas. However, since I am here in Monterrey, I’d like to offer a different perspective on Mexico – one that you may never hear about otherwise: Mexico has great, well-developed and modern cities that offer everything that you could need or want. There are – believe it or not – areas where the tap water is drinkable. I have not yet encountered any drug traffickers nor have I seen any drug-related violence (or any violence at all for that matter). (By the way, I should note that almost all of the violence involving drugs that does occur is against people who are in some way already involved in the drug trade). I have not caught the swine flu or met anyone who has. And lastly, of the Mexicans whom I have met who have traveled to the U.S., all have gone with proper documents, to visit and to see the many great things that our country has to offer as well.

On that note, I was able to find a way I can do some community service here while also learning more about the culture of Mexico! I joined a student organization called Asociación Estudiantil por los Pueblos Indígenas(Student Organization for Indigenous People). (Click here for more information). Their mission is to promote interest and understanding of the culture and current situation of Mexico’s indigenous people. Through this organization, I will be doing some volunteer work with a related program called Creando Espacios de Inclusión (Creating Spaces of Inclusion). This program meets several Saturday afternoons throughout the semester, and it is intended to help indigenous students from small villages adjust to life in the big city of Monterrey. The students range from high school- to college-age, and are given scholarships to study in Monterrey.

My first time volunteering there was last Saturday, September 12 (we actually met in one of the classrooms at Monterrey Tec). After a fun icebreaker activity, we watched two videos about life in the indigenous villages, learning a lot about the struggles the people go through, including lack of access to health care and education, militarization (i.e. intimidating military there) and poor infrastructure. Afterwards, we broke up into groups to discuss the film. The indigenous students in my group described to us life in their villages, and how they experienced situations like the ones in the videos. They then talked about the difficulty in moving to Monterrey, a huge, sometimes intimidating city.

My first Saturday with Creando Espacios de Inclusión was of particular interest to me since I have worked with immigrants in South Carolina, helping them to adjust to a completely different environment than what they are used to. I thought it was a great strategy to bring together indigenous students and Tec students, and allow the indigenous students to share their stories and the Tec students to open their eyes to another culture – its beauty and its struggles.

As these Saturday meetings continue, hopefully friendships between the indigenous students and the Tec students will develop. I came to Mexico as a Rotary scholar hoping to foster mutual understanding between the Mexican and the U.S. cultures, but I have found that there is so much more here. Not only is there the cultural interaction of the people of Mexico and of the U.S., but in this city of four million, there are also students and professionals from almost every country in the world, as well as indigenous people who are native to Mexico but have a culture of their own. And I am eager to learn about them all.

More Pictures Posted

Hello all,

I apologize for being M.I.A. recently. I'm in the process of writing another blog entry about the last few weeks, which I'll post soon. In the meantime, though, I've put up more pictures of my time so far in Mexico, so please check them out and write comments! Enjoy the beauty of Mexico:

Exploring Monterrey the First Week, Album #2

Weekend Beach Trip to Tampico

Monterrey - Various Sites Around the City

What do Monterrey, Mexico, and Rotary’s PolioPlus program have in common?

A man named Dr. Carlos Canseco González, past president of Rotary International and founder of the program that Rotary is best known for: PolioPlus, whose goal is to immunize all children of the world against polio and thus eradicate the world of that terrible disease. He was also from Mexico and once the president of one of the Rotary clubs in Monterrey, whose meeting I attended on Wednesday.

I walked into the Hotel Quinta Real on Wednesday morning at 7:55 a.m. not knowing what to expect of my first Rotary meeting in Mexico. I tried to be professional and early, but not too early, as “Mexican time” tends to run on a later clock than the United States (it is a stereotype of the Latino culture that they take their time coming to meetings and events). Fortunately, I saw other Rotarians walking in at the same time, so it looked like I estimated about right.

At the meetings for my sponsor Rotary club in South Carolina, the Lake Murray-Irmo Club, we meet in a room at a somewhat casual community center at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. Breakfast is informally served – we go up and help ourselves to the typical southern meal of eggs and biscuits. About ten minutes is allowed for mingling and eating, and then the meeting usually begins around 7:40.

Here in Monterrey, the meeting time was at 8:00 a.m. but the meeting didn’t begin till about 8:30, after a delicious and much more formal breakfast. Because we were in a hotel, the breakfast was all catered to us at the table. The first course was tropical fruit served in a cocktail glass, and afterwards we had some kind of fancy egg-white dish, decorated with asparagus and a tomato and a few different Mexican sauces; it was delicious!

The meeting began around 8:30 with the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance:

¡Bandera de México!
Legado de nuestros héroes,
Símbolo de la unidad
de nuestros padres
y de nuestros hermanos,
te prometemos ser siempre fieles
a los principios de libertad y justicia
que hacen de nuestra Patria,
la nación independiente,
humana y generosa,
a la que entregamos
nuestra existencia.

**Disclaimer: I found this on Wikipedia as the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance, so I assume that is what they were saying. This is the translation Wikipedia gives:

Flag of México!
Legacy of our heroes,
Symbol of the unity
of our parents
and of our siblings,
we promise you to be always faithful
to the principles of liberty and justice
that make of our Homeland,
the independent,
humane and generous nation,
to which we dedicate
our existence.

Whereas in the U.S. we place our hands on our hearts for our Pledge, in Mexico they put their hand in a salute form over their hearts.

The rest of the Rotary meeting ran very similar to the Lake Murray-Irmo meetings. First there were some announcements, and then they had a guest speaker, who spoke about a program he runs to improve the world’s perceptions of Mexico. He gave several examples of how far along Mexico is in regards to things such as education, compared to various other countries. Very impressive.

One thing that was very different from the Lake Murray-Irmo club (and I assume most clubs in the U.S.) is that the attendance was all male. I learned afterwards that the Rotarians’ wives meet separately once a month to do their own activities.

I also learned that the main service activities that the club does are 1) raising money for the university hospital here, since most patients at that hospital are low-income, and 2) bringing purified water to some rural areas that don’t have access to it. Wow!

The Rotarians were all very kind and hospitable, and I hope to attend more of their meetings. I also plan on attending the meetings of other Rotary clubs in the area. I’ll keep you updated!

Here are some photos from the meeting, taken by photographer Salome Martinez (note: the only woman there, other than me, was an invited guest for the day):







Here is an abridged biography of Dr. Carlos Canseco González. The full one can be found at http://www.rotaryfirst100.org/presidents/1984canseco/bio.htm:

Dr. Carlos Canseco González was born on March 17, 1921, in México City, México. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the National University of México. He then went on to complete a specialty in Allergology at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, and a second specialty in Clinical Immunology at the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania...

...From 1950 to 1952, he served as Chair of the Allergogology Services at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. He then co-founded the Monterrey Football Club, joined Rotary International, and became President of the Rotary Club of Monterrey. He also raised funds for the purpose of building the first Children’s Hospital in Monterrey....

...In 1984, Dr. Canseco González became President of Rotary International. During his tenure, he proposed a program to eradicate polio. Rotary International and the World Health Organization began planning for the most ambitious program in its history – to immunize all of the world’s children against polio. The plan required collaboration with international, national, and local health agencies and took shape early in Dr. Canseco González’s year as RI President when he appointed the Polio 2005 Committee. He invited Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, to serve as a special consultant to the committee. The program for eradication of polio continues to this day. During his term as President of Rotary International, Dr. Canseco González worked diligently to form new Rotary Clubs. Rotary International experienced an increase of 978 new clubs and 45,000 new members.

Rotary’s pledge of US $120,000,000 to fund its PolioPlus program was announced in October 1985 at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations. This ambitious commitment was well received by the global public health community. Within three years, Rotarians had more than doubled their fundraising goal, donating US 247 million.

Dr. Carlos Canseco González will go down in history as the Rotary International President who launched, in 1985, the PolioPlus Program with the goal of raising $120,000,000 to provide enough vaccine to rid the world of polio by the Centenary of Rotary in 2005...

The Beginning of Pictures!

Finally. After losing many battles with the internet here, I have some pictures posted! Click on the links below to see them, and keep updated because I have many, many more. Feel free to write comments, because I love reading them!

Road Trip to Mexico

Exploring Monterrey the First Week, Album #1

It’s one thing to learn another language. It’s a whole other world to be intelligent in that language.

I have “successfully” completed my first two weeks of school. I put that in quotes because there were some mishaps along the way, but I have so far worked to the best of my abilities, and I suppose that is all you can hope for when you’re taking graduate-level classes in a foreign language in a class of students who are native speakers of the language. I am taking the following classes:

“Comunicación de Masas” (Mass Communication). This is an introductory class that teaches about the theories and history of mass communication. Throughout the semester we will be applying the various theories we learn through analysis projects of various mass media (newspaper articles, media company structures, television shows, etc.) and the tools they use.

“Investigación Cuantitativa” (Quantitative Research). This is a research class that discusses and applies quantitative mass media research methods, like surveys and laboratory experiments.

“Seminario de Comunicación Organizacional” (Organizational Communication Seminar). This class is of particular interest to me, since I worked for a nonprofit for the last year. We will learn and discuss the most effective communication strategies for an organization (both internal and external), while studying various cases. I also like this class because naturally we will discuss barriers in intercultural communication, and therefore the best ways to accommodate other cultures from a communications perspective.

“Nuevas Tecnologías: Implicaciónes e Impacto” (New Technologies: Implications and Impact). The title is pretty self-explanatory. I think I would like this class a little bit more if the book we were reading wasn’t essentially a science book (well, the history and development of science). Imagine having to read a science book in Spanish, when you’re studying communication...

Salsa Dance: Of course! You can’t be in Mexico without taking salsa, right? :)

Truth be told, I love my classes. The teachers are wonderful, great teachers, and very helpful and willing to accommodate my less-than-perfect Spanish. I’m really glad I chose to study communication, also. The material being taught is so interesting, and although they didn’t offer any intercultural/international communications classes this semester, because we are in Mexico (so close to the U.S. and also housing thousands and thousands of internationals) and also because of the topics of the classes, we can’t help but discuss communication and use examples from an international perspective.

Although I am able to follow a good bit of what is being taught in class, and can pick up enough to definitely get the jist and most important parts of everything, it is still going to take some adjusting getting used to classes being taught in Spanish. As I entitled this blog post, it really is a whole other ballgame to be expected to think critically in a language that is not your first. Up till now, I’ve only really had classes on the Spanish language itself (grammar and conversation), which drilled me to perfect my Spanish – to be able to speak and write well. Now, I’m forced to put behind me the focus on the language that my teachers here are speaking, and move past that – move into actual comprehension of the ideas, theories, and analysis being discussed. I bring my Spanish-English dictionary to class with me everyday to look up various vocabulary words that come up during class, and I try to take advantage of the fact that the classes are being taught in Spanish to perfect my Spanish listening skills, but in order to fully absorb the material being taught, I need to move past that. I know it will come with time, so I’m not going to be too hard on myself, but I thought I’d give you all some insight into the world of the sincere mastery of another language. And hey, I am proud to say that I have read – and understood the general jist of - the first three chapters of a Spanish science book! Now if only I can master the vocab of the region, next time I will do my homework correctly instead of assuming that “dos cuartillos” means “two paragraphs” (turns out it means “two pages”...whoops!).

First Week, First Impressions

Note: Since I wrote my last blog post, I have added a few pictures to compliment the narrative – so scroll down to my previous post and check them out! Also, as soon as I’m able to secure a strong internet connection (the one in my apartment building is pretty weak), I will post lots of photos online).

First impression #1: Monterrey Tec is an excellent, beautiful, and very wealthy university. Our first full day in Monterrey, my dad and I decided to walk to the Tec (no “h” in the Spanish spelling, so the abbreviation here is just “Tec”) campus and check it out. First of all, I am very lucky because I live an easy 5-10 minutes walking from campus. Once we arrived, I discovered that I would be pretty safe on campus; I had to explain to a security guard that I was an international student at Tec (with no ID yet) in order to be able to enter the campus. The campus itself is beautifully landscaped, with modern architecture and lots of trees. We also stumbled across a peacock hanging out there! (And I’ve been told that there are deer, or “Bambi” as they are called by several Europeans here learning English who don’t know the word “deer” yet). It was clear that the campus offers a lot of services and facilities for students, and that I will be well taken care of.

I hate to admit this, but I was actually pretty surprised at how excellent of a school Tec clearly is. I had heard reports of its quality from various sources, but still I couldn’t get out of my head all of the negative news stories about Mexico that had been pounded into my head by the media for the last several years. It is one of my goals through my year in Mexico as a Rotary Scholar to shed light on the true nature of Mexico, as I will experience it. For starters, I hope my readers will realize once and for all that Mexico is producing incredibly intelligent, educated, capable, and well-rounded young men and women ready to go out into the world and contribute something beautiful.

First impression #2: Despite its industrial character, Monterrey still has a lot of culture. The evening of our first full day in Monterrey, my dad and I decided to visit Barrio Antiguo, the old, historic part of the city. There we met up with a girl from Memphis named Sara, who has been a godsend in helping me get adjusted to and figure out things in Monterrey. She moved to Monterrey a few weeks before I did, so she had just “been there, done that.” Anyway, Sara, my dad and I went to Paseo Santa Lucia, a river/canal that runs through Barrio Antiguo. They have tourist boats there that take you down the river and back, and although we waited for almost two hours in line (!!), it was worth it. By the time we got on the boats, it was dark outside, and the lights of the Paseo (“passageway” is the loose translation) were beautiful. We passed a few Mexican cultural bands that were playing beautiful music, as well as a few restaurants on the water’s edge. Kind of reminded me of Venice. After the boat ride was done, we stopped and had tacos at a little taco shop, which is the typical food/restaurant here. The tacos, although small, are nothing like what you would eat in the U.S. – sooo much better!

My dad and I went back to Barrio Antiguo the next day to walk around some more. One of the best things we stumbled across was a band playing salsa, merengue, cumbia, and other cultural music in a big patio area, where there were a lot of random couples dancing! There was a whole crowd of people surrounding the people dancing, watching and listening to the music. It made me so happy to be in Mexico. We then walked across the street to a cathedral, which happened to be in the middle of a Sunday evening service! We were there for the last ten minutes of it, and both the singing and the church itself were absolutely beautiful.

After the service we wandered along the Paseo, and stumbled across a flea market where they were selling a lot of cultural items, like woven cloth dresses and handmade jewelry. There were also a few stands with Mexican food, and we both sampled mole, a spicy Mexican chocolate spread which is more spicy than chocolaty! I think you might have to be Mexican to really enjoy it...


Our last stop was at a restaurant on the river/canal, where we ate outside and enjoyed old U.S. love songs (haha) sung by Mexicans attempting an American accent.

First impression #3: The natural wonders surrounding Monterrey are incredible and breathtaking. The following day my dad and went to La Cascada Cola de Caballo, or Horsetail Waterfall. It’s in a town called Santiago, about 30 minutes from Monterrey. We had to drive a little ways up a mountain, and then park our car and walk to the national park, where the waterfall was. There’s not much more I can say in words to describe its beauty, so here are some pictures, even though they don’t do the waterfall justice:




Afterwards we ate at a little restaurant overlooking the valley:


We shared slices of steak (carne asada), tortillas, guacamole and salsa – a typical Mexican meal. And of course, cerveza (I would have preferred Corona to Tecate, but that was all he had. Tecate is like the Budweiser of Mexico). The steak was cooked on the grill right there as we waited, and all the food was fresh and delicious.



I experienced the natural wonders of Monterrey yet again just a few days ago. My friends and I went to Las Grutas de Garcia, a set of caves about an hour outside of Monterrey. The grutas doesn’t really mean “caves” though. It’s more used to describe stalactite and stalagmite, which is a much more accurate description than just a “cave.” The caves were at the top of an incredibly steep mountain, up which we had to take a cable car, and they were the most incredible things I had ever seen. They were filled with white-crystal stalactites and stalagmites. The air was cool and crisp, a welcome change from the 110-degree heat we’ve been having. The caves would have been creepy, but for flood lighting in various nooks and crannies, accentuating the designs of the grutas (actually, the lighting may have made it more creepy). We walked around for an hour or so, up and around the various passageways and staircases. After the tour, we dined in the little town of Garcia, which felt like a ghost town as there was barely anyone around and there was ominous music playing in the town square. The food was delicious though!

First impression #4: Monterrey is a safe city. You can take a deep breath; Monterrey is one of the safest cities in Mexico. Since it is a big city, I do have to be careful about walking alone at night, petty theft, etc., but really I feel safer here than in Memphis, my home town. Ironically, I am more worried about the cops here; they are notorious for being corrupt, and I’ve been told to keep a few hundred pesos on me as a bribe (anywhere from $30-$50 USD) in case I’m stopped for something they say I did. But don’t worry, I feel safe here, and am not experiencing any of the violence you may here about in the media.

First impression #5: Monterrey is a very international city. I spent the last week in orientation for international students at Monterrey Tec. There are about a thousand extranjeros, as they’re called here, from all over the world. Tec prides itself on its international flare, and it seems to me that other universities here do as well. The locals are accustomed to accommodating the extranjeros, and it seems that every semester the Mexican students seek out international students as friends. I have a Mexican friend assigned to me as a “buddy,” who has been very helpful in showing me around the city and getting acclimated. I have made friends with French, Germans, Canadians and Australians primarily, and have also met people from Sweden, Finland, Italy, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and many other countries. I came to Mexico hoping and expecting to have my eyes open to Mexican culture, and in the process am having my eyes opened to a wealth of other cultures and languages (I even feel like my Australian roommate and I don’t always speak the same language!).

I like to think that I’ve always had an open mind to other ways of thinking and to other cultures, but I realize now that I could only absorb so much living in one country for my entire life. Of course, my semester in Costa Rica helped a lot, but there was still so much U.S. influence it was sometimes hard to differentiate between cultures. It is suddenly hitting home that there is a whole world out there, much larger than the one that my life has been more or less centered around. Those of you who know me know that I consider myself pretty culturally aware, but now I see how vital it is for me to interact and make friends with people from other cultures for it to really sink in. There is only so much that textbooks can teach you.

Road Trip of a Lifetime

I am in Monterrey!! I apologize for the delay in posting – it’s taken awhile to get settled in! I’m going to break up the last week into two blog posts: this one is for my road trip to Mexico, and the following one will detail my first few days in this beautiful city.

Day 1: Wednesday, July 29: Memphis to Dallas

View Larger Map

After a delayed departure time due to a decaying car muffler and a slow-moving Shelby County Clerk’s Office, my dad and I were finally on our way to Dallas (had to get my car muffler fixed in order for it to pass Tennessee inspection, which had to be done in order for it to be re-registered in TN). It was about an eight-hour trip, during which time we passed through Little Rock, AR, and Texarkana (I’m not sure which state that city belongs to, since it’s a mix of each!). At about 10:30 p.m. we finally arrived in Dallas, where we stayed overnight with one of my friends from college, Stefana. It was great seeing her and catching up – thanks for putting us up, Stef!

Day 2: Thursday, July 30: Dallas to Laredo

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We got an early start since Stef had to leave to go to work, so of course the first thing we did was to stop at Starbucks, where we reviewed our trip itinerary for that day. However, despite our morning “map prep”, it wasn’t until right outside of Dallas that I realized that we would be passing directly through Waco, where one of my childhood friends, Marianna, goes to college. Luckily she answered her phone and we were able to have a spontaneous – and delicious – lunch with her!

It was as we were leaving Waco that it finally hit me that our next stop (other than a brief stay in Laredo overnight) would be Mexico. We were on Highway 30, heading straight to Mexico and continuing through, where it would change to Highway 85. You cannot imagine my excitement when I saw a sign that read “Nuevo Laredo: 56 miles” (the Mexican border town)!!

Laredo (the U.S. border town) was not what we were expecting. We had heard it was a little bit dangerous, so I think I was already on edge. However, I think my dad was expecting an old Western cowboy town where you can walk cobblestone pathways and hear old Western cowboy music and, if you're lucky, see John Wayne (I forgot to mention that right before Waco we stopped to use the restrooms at “Willie’s Place”, a country store playing tribute to Willie Nelson, where my dad had a field day).

Laredo, though, was a mix of nice-looking strip malls and sketchier areas, depending on what street we were on. I saw some billboards and stores for U.S. naturalization services and Mexican and U.S. car insurance. Other than that, there really didn’t seem to be that much interesting or memorable about the town, other than the fact that we were sleeping four miles from the border of Mexico!

Day 3: Friday, July 31: Laredo to Monterrey

(Google maps won't let me get directions in Mexico, but you can see from the other maps if you zoom out where Monterrey is)

Having worked in an immigrant rights organization for the last year, I had been hearing and reading almost every day about issues down at the border, and until Friday, July 31, the U.S.-Mexico border had remained in my mind a nebulous concept rather than anything concrete. So needless to say, I was more than a little bit thrilled to be crossing, with also more than a little bit of trepidation.

Like I said, we were only four miles from the border so it took us next to no time to get there. However, at the border in Laredo there are two international bridges that you could cross, so it took us a little while to figure out which one to take. From the Laredo Visitor Center, we found out we take Bridge #1 to get into the tourist part of Nuevo Laredo, and Bridge #2 to pass through Nuevo Laredo on the outskirts of town, so we took Bridge #2.



Crossing the Rio Grande was a letdown – it took less than a minute. At least at the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo border, it should be called the Rio Pequeño. But, we did cross into Mexico without any problems, as we got a green light which meant that we could pass without an inspection. However, once we passed through the border we were completely lost – it was like they didn’t care where we went once we were in Mexico, and we could have easily entered the country without a passport or visa (when I drive back to the U.S., I’m sure it will be a different story). But since I didn’t want to be deported from Mexico for being there illegally, we figured it would be a good idea to find the place to get visas and a car permit. I had been told by a few people that to get to that location, after leaving the international bridge we would drive back around to a building that was under the bridge. Oh my god. Streets in Mexico are so confusing. In trying to figure out how to get under the bridge, we almost went back to the U.S. Twice. (Really – once we found ourselves back on the bridge about to drive back over, so a guard had to help us turn around and get out of there!). We finally figured it out, though, and got our visas and car permit without much problem or too long of a wait.

So.We had visas and a car permit – we were legal. We each took a huge sigh of relief (I may have needed it a little more than my dad) as we saw signs pointing toward Monterrey, and we were on our way.

Really, as soon as we entered Mexico I could see the difference. Houses seemed to be a lot older than in the U.S., but with more character. All signs were in Spanish, and it brought back memories of my time spent in Costa Rica and elsewhere in Central America. The highway to Monterrey was pretty straightforward and easy. Brown desert stretched for miles on either side of us, sprinkled with greenish-brownish shrub. Occasionally we would pass the stereotypical tiny little Mexican pickup truck, but that was about it. The ride gave us some time to relax and tune into some radio stations playing old Mexican cultural music that my dad would consider polka (proud of his Polish background, he made sure to let me know that there were many Polish that settled in the Texas-Mexico area).

All of a sudden, after about an hour and a half of driving in the flat desert, we saw mountains. HUGE mountains that were made to look like a fake backdrop from the haze. And we got to drive right through them. I’ve only been to Colorado a few times, but as much as I love the Rockies, they don’t compare to the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico.

We were amidst beautiful mountains (montañas in Spanish) for another couple of hours, and then we hit Monterrey. Or rather, Monterrey hit us....like a storm. Yes, we did come in right as rush hour was beginning, and yes, we did find a taxi to follow who could take us to my apartment building, but that was certainly a roller coaster ride through the city. Although my dad was driving, once we got to my apartment, I vowed never to take my car out in the city again, but since then I’ve driven it a couple of times and it’s been great! I am definitely glad I brought it to have a little more freedom with getting around the city, and I think I will ease into driving in Monterrey quickly.

The apartment I am living in is great. The building is about 5-10 minutes walking distance from Monterrey Tec. It has 24-hour security and a secure parking garage, and of course my favorite part: a Starbucks in the same parking lot. I live in an apartment with three other Tec students: a French guy, an Australian girl, and a Mexican guy. We each have our own room and bathroom, and we share a kitchen. The apartment is basic like a dorm room, but it comes furnished and it really has everything I need. I’ve already become friends with several of the great people who live here.

With that said, I will close my posting of my incredible and memorable road trip to Mexico. I would like to quickly thank my dad for everything he did to get me to Monterrey: helping me put together all the arrangements, and driving with me for three days straight (and that says a lot that he was willing to be in a car with me for three whole days!). He also helped me get settled into my apartment in Monterrey during the first few days of my stay here, which I will write about in my next post!

Till then, ¡hasta luego!

The Eve of Departure

After a year of expectation and planning, it is now the eve of my departure. SO hard to believe. I think I’m more tired than anything right now that it hasn’t completely sunk in that I am leaving to move to Mexico tomorrow. Wow.

For the last month or so especially, I have been intensely preparing for my move. I have had to research housing, insurance, travel arrangements, cell phones, classes, vaccinations, and other items. In the midst of doing all of those arrangements I had to pack up my entire life in South Carolina and move my things (difficult to say the least...those of you who know me know that pack-rat-itis runs in my family) to Memphis, TN, where I will be leaving them in my dad’s attic.

I have decided to drive my car to Mexico. Several people with whom I have been in contact who have lived in Monterrey have told me that Monterrey is not a very walkable city, and since I will be there for a year I would like more independence. Of course, preparing to take my car has involved purchasing Mexican car insurance (only $270 for a year!), figuring out how to get a temporary permit (thanks to my dad for help with that), renewing my Tennessee car registration, and making sure it’s safe to drive.

Tomorrow – Wednesday, July 29 – my dad and I will leave from Memphis, TN, and drive to Dallas, TX (my dad is coming with me and flying back from Monterrey to Memphis). On Thursday we will drive to right around Laredo, TX, which borders with Mexico. We will stay the night somewhere around Laredo in order to wake up early on Friday and cross the border. From there, it is roughly a 3 hour drive to Monterrey! I am looking forward to seeing a lot of the Mexican countryside. Monterrey has a lot of mountains around it – similar to Colorado...the pictures are beautiful! I will take lots of pictures and start posting as soon as I get settled in. Stay tuned for my first post from Mexico!

Emily

P.S. I've had some requests to post a map of Mexico so you all can see where I will be living. As soon as I have a chance to figure out how to do that, I definitely will!