Food - Day 3 Cuernavaca

I started the day with huevos a la mexicana.  These are scrambled eggs with tomato (jitomate in Mexican Spanish), onion and chopped chiles.  We also had fruit again, toast and coffee.  I just can't get enough of the papaya and mango. It is out of this world!

For lunch, I had a packed lunch of a banana, an apple and a ham and cheese sandwich.  Nothing to write home about there!

The best part of the day was an unplanned stop at Restaurante Fonda Güera where I finally got to have my mole poblano again!  It was in Cuernavaca in 1991 when I first tasted mole poblano and I have been on a mission to get back here again to the same spot (different restaurant) to experience it once again.  It DID NOT DISAPPOINT!  The closest thing to mole that I can think of is Skyline chili without the meat and with a bit of added sweetness.  It contains chocolate, peanuts, raisins, sesame seeds, chiles and cinnamon.  It is smooth gravy-like texture and is served with a protein like chicken.  Usually it is served with fresh tortillas and rice.  It was worth the wait!  There is nothing like it in Cincinnati.  Cazadores does serve mole poblano and it is good, but this was outstanding today.  A full plate of mole with a beer was about $13.00 USD (tip included).  Not too bad.

I stopped at the grocery on my walk home and picked up a bottle of water, a bottle of soda and a pastry.  The total cost was MXN $18 or a little more than $1.00.  That might not mean much to anyone, but since my husband regularly purchases 20 oz bottles of soda for at least $1.59 per bottle, the fact that I could get two bottles and a pastry for about a buck was pretty cool!

Personal Safety - Day 3 in Cuernavaca

In April, the US Department of State issued a travel warning for the State of Morelos, Mexico.  That is where Cuernavaca is located.  Cuernavaca is the largest city in the state.  In its travel advisory, the US does not tell US citizens NOT to go to Morelos, but to exercise particular caution as there has been an increase in the number of kidnappings and murders in this area, mostly drug and gang-related.  When I first read about the travel advisory, I was very concerned.  Then, I took time to consult other resources such as local newspapers in Cuernavaca, travel blogs by writers who have lived and traveled extensively in this city as well as the owners of Cemanahuac, the school I attend while living here.  All of these resources helped me to develop a better understanding of the security issues here and the precautions I would need to take in order to be safe while visiting the city.  These precautions are things that any person traveling in a large city in a foreign country should take.  They are things like always being alert, not wearing a lot of jewelry, not being out late at night alone, etc.  These are not things that I do anyway so I left my worries about safety at home and reassured my family that I would be fine here.

Then I got here.

Let me begin by saying that I do feel safe in general. I feel that my family has a secure home.  My school has the resources to help me with most any situation that might occur.  I'm not in danger.  What I'm finding, though, is that the reality of life in Cuernavaca is that no one feels safe.  Homes are locked. Our school has a guard and even the grocery store has an armed guard at all entrances.  Today, our tour guide, a Cuernavaca resident for more than 40 years, would not give us his opinion about the recent disappearance and murder of 7 Cuernavacan men and women.  As it turns out, we were standing in front of a government building and he was not comfortable talking about it in public.  There are public displays of photos and mementos on the city square dedicated to the victims.  It's a fresh reminder that there are still places in the world where people go missing or are killed because of their political views or their ties to a particular group or family.  

What I think really strikes me the most about Cuernavaca is that this is supposed to be a retreat area.  This is where people from Mexico City come for their weekend vacations.  This is the City of Eternal Spring!  It has year round temperatures in the 70s and the foliage is beautiful with moutain vistas.  It used to be a place where people from the US would travel to study language or visit for the cultural aspects.  Not anymore.  With the exception of the handful of people studying at my school (most on scholarship like me), I have not seen another person from the US since I got to Cuernavaca.  We stand out like sore thumbs here.  There are no tourists.  Anywhere.   So while I don't feel unsafe, I do feel like i have to be on alert at all times.  It's very sad to me that Cuernavaca doesn't hold the same appeal that it did many years ago.  It is still a beautiful place, but unless the violence in Morelos declines and people once again are encouraged by the US to travel to Morelos and the rest of Mexico, cities like Cuernavaca will struggle to advance and prosper.  

I'm ending this post with some pictures today of the beauty in Cuernavaca.  We did a walking tour of the Cathedral of Cuernavaca and Cortez's Palace where a superb mural by famed Mexican artist Diego Rivera was created showing the history of the conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico by Cortez in the 16th Century.  It was truly amazing to be in the presence of Rivera's art.  I will be on an art tour in Mexico City on Saturday where I will get to experience more of Rivera's art and the art of his wife Frida Kahlo.  I've been waiting for that day for a very long time!  I will post food from today in another post. For now, some pictures of Cuernavaca, the City of Eternal Spring!

First day of school 2015 - Day 2 in Cuernavaca

My day began with early morning yoga on my private balcony.  I was able to get up before sunrise to practice for a few minutes.  It was incredibly peaceful to work through my poses while listening to new birds, watching the sunrise and swatting away mosquitos.  I hope to do this every morning as my exercise routine will be disrupted severely by my change in location!

Breakfast was at 8am. Again, a nice bowl of ripe fruit with toast and scrambled eggs. This morning, however, there was a sliced hot dog in the eggs.  It was tasty!  

I walked to school with my housemate. It's about a mile.  We arrived in plenty of time.  When we got there, we grabbed a complimentary cup of coffee, picked up our textbooks and headed to our class.  For two hours, we studied advanced Spanish grammar.  For the second two hours, we studied teaching ideas and materials.

After school ended for the day, we walked home to have lunch or "comida" as it's called.  The afternoon meal is the big meal of the day in most Spanish-speaking countries.  Today, we started with salad and carrot soup. It was delicious.  For our main dish, we had ham, rice, potato salad and beans. Served on the side were corn tortillas and salsa verde.  It was filling!

After a short rest to regain our energy, my housemate and I walked to the town center, known as the zócalo. It's about a 2.2 mile walk on cobbled streets.  We met the rest of the teachers who are here for two weeks at a happy hour.  The restaurant we visited is called Casa Hidalgo.  For drinks, we had clericot which is the Mexican word for sangria that has pieces of fruit in it. We also shared some botanas (appetizers).  Lots of guacamole, empanadas, queso and chips.  We sat outside overlooking the main plaza of Cuernavaca.

After dinner, my housemate and I walked around the plaza. We saw many vendors selling crafts and street food.  Most of the products appeared to be mass produced items like bracelets, painted skulls and jewelry.  Most of the vendors had the same items as the ones just before them.  I do want to bring back things for my family, my classroom and myself, but I also want to bring back things that are meaningful to me.  I don't usually buy my things until the last couple of days of a trip.

Tomorrow, I will be in class all morning again. Then, we are going on an tour of the Cuernavaca cathedral and Hernando Cortez's palace in Cuernavaca.  Following that, we are doing some tutoring with underprivileged school age kids.  I plan to walk a lot tomorrow so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no rain!

Buenas noches!

Pyramids, McDonalds and way too much water

One would think that after a long day of travel a good night's rest was what I got last night.  Not exactly, I slept until about 3am and then awoke to the sound of the power shutting off in my host home.  There was a storm in process.  Keep in mind that there are no seasons in Cuernavaca other than rainy season and dry season. This is the City of Eternal spring so the temperatures are steady year-round. What changes is the amount of rain.  Let me tell you...it can rain, and rain and rain!  I stayed in bed listening to the rain for about 3 hours.  My home doesn't have air conditioning (few homes here do because it's not necessary) so my window was open.  Over my window is a large awning.  The rain pelted the awning all night.  At first it was very soothing to hear the raindrops.  I drifted in and out of sleep.  However, by 4:30am, I was done with the rain and just wanted to get some rest.  That's when the power clicked off again and this time the computer outside my bedroom started making a beeping noise every ten seconds.  FOR OVER AN HOUR!

Needless to say that I was not full rested today, but the adrenaline was still there so I knew I could make it through a long day of bus riding and pyramid climbing.  Unfortunately, it became a long day of the former rather than the latter.  I started the day with a delicious fruit salad of mango, cantelope and papaya.  There's really nothing like ripe fruit in Mexico!  We had eggs and toast before we made our way to the school. My host mama sent me off with a ham sandwich which I didn't think was an issue until I realized that we would be gone for almost 14 hours.  At least I had a granola bar with me!

Fruit salad for breakfast!

At the school, I had to take a brief oral proficiency test so that they knew where to place me for classes that start on Monday morning.  I was placed in the most advanced class (yeah me!) with several of the other teachers.  I'm excited to be with them for two weeks.  They are all very, very interesting people!

Once the oral interviews were over, we loaded the bus and hit the road for our long day!  Things started smoothly with a quick stop at coffee shop.  I was tempted to buy a piece of carrot cake while I was there, but I passed.  Then, an hour later, we stopped at a McDonalds in Mexico City to pick up coffee or another snack.  I enjoyed looking at the menu items and comparing the prices and items to the US menu.  I ended up purchasing a hibiscus bottled water (agua de jamaica).  It is a Coke product sold only here. 

The condiment bar at McDonalds

Coke products at McDonalds

My hibiscus drink

After that, we went to the Cuicuilco archeological site just outside Mexico City.  The views from this site are beautiful.  I enjoyed hearing about the history of the site and the current issues being faced as new age religious groups such as La Mexicanidad try to use them for spiritural and ritualistic worship.  

A group panoramic shot that doesn't give justice to the view

Next, we drove through Mexico City.  We drove along the Avenida Insurgentes which is one of the longest and largest streets in the city.   On Sundays, part of the street is closed so that people can walk, bike, skate or scoot through the city.  There are many Ecobici bike rental stations.  Of course, this didn't help traffic much as two lanes were eliminated from motorized vehicles, but it was interesting to see all the families biking together.  Here are some pictures of the UNAM (University of Mexico)

Once we left the city, we drove about 30 minutes until we entered the World Heritage site known as Teotihuacan.  We got about 30 minutes of walking and listening to Charlie (our school's archeological tour guide) before the sky opened up and it began to pour.  Being in a wide open area during a major thunderstorm with absolutely no shelter anywhere, no way to call the tour guide's cell phone, no idea where the bus was and 2 hours until our meeting time was not exactly what I had envisioned for today.  There was no way to avoid becoming completely soaked.  Even those with ponchos and umbrellas were soaked.  We did eventually find our guide who led us to the bus, but it took over an hour to find everyone from our tour. We ended up leaving because the sky made it obvious that the rain wasn't going to stop.  A quick stop at another McDonalds in Mexico City and we began our journey, in the rain, back to Cuernavaca.  

This is a little bitty one.

When we arrived in Cuernavaca, it was pouring still.  We (my new roommate and I) had planned on walking home from our school.  However, it was dark and raining and Charlie told us he would call a taxi.  No taxi company answered the call, so Charlie drove us all home.  At 9:50pm, we finally arrived back home.  

We weren't sure what to expect in terms of lunch or dinner from our host.  We were hoping there might be something to eat when we got home, but our hosts were sleeping.  We are not permitted to go into the kitchen and look for food for ourselves. That is considered very rude here in Mexico when you are a guest.  As I write this blog, I eat my last granola bar.  I'm anxious for sleep and am anticipating a much drier, less complicated day tomorrow!

All in all, it was a good experience.  It just wasn't the one I had planned.  I am getting to know all of the people who will be here for the next two weeks.  I hope to write about them in a future post.  For tonight, I am signing off and heading to bed where I'm hoping the drops of falling rain ease me into a better night's sleep.  

Cuernavaca - Meeting my host family

I finally met my gracious host family tonight.  They are Marisa and Alfonso Ortiz.  He is a semi-retired insurance broker and she is his office manager.  They work from their beautiful home in Cuernavaca.  Their spacious guest room will be my home for the next two weeks.  It is lovely!  When I arrived, there were lots of people in the house.  It turns out that Marisa and Alfonso's son Mauricio was visiting with his wife and five sons for the day.  It was so fun to get to chat with the oldest son, Mauricio, about school, food and his passion, soccer!  We actually spent time watching two soccer tournaments while waiting to eat dinner.

Since I arrived late afternoon, I missed the traditional Mexican meal time which is usually around 2:00 or 2:30pm.  Marisa kindly waited for me to arrive to serve her meal. We had homemade salsa verde (very hot, but fabulous!), homemade corn tortillas (no substitute can ever be found in the store for these), guacamole (from Costco suprisingly) served with chorizo, steak, a vegetable medley of broccoli, eggplant and red peppers and noodle soup with cubed cheese.  It was delicious after a long day of pretzels, bottled water and granola bars.  

I am sharing the guest suite in this home with another teacher.  She is from Massachusetts and arrived about an hour after me.  We are already hitting it off really well.  We have so much in common and seem to really be at the same place in our personal lives and careers.  They did a good job of matching us. I can usually tell quickly if a rooming situation isn't going to work.  Since we have our own rooms, it would take a lot for me to feel uncomfortable. Speaking of comfortable, did I mention the private balcony that overlooks the backyard?  It's a rough life!

Tomorrow will be another marathon type of day.  Marisa told me that she will drive us to the school at 8:00am for a speaking exam followed by a twelve hour (yes, 12 hour) trip to the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon in Teotihuacan.  I have climbed these pyramids before and my memory is of them being super cool, but super hot!  I am going to put on lots of sunscreen, my best hiking shoes and tank top.  A solid breakfast will be very important.

All in all, this day was exhausting, but I am settled.  I think I will do just fine here in my new home!

My new backyard.  

My private bedroom

 My shared bathroom

My new dog Kiki

Travel day - Part 2 in Mexico

Technically, this post begins in the air over the Gulf of Mexico, I presume.  I am in an aisle seat so I truly have no concept of where we are geographically.  However, I wanted to share that my first "survival conversation" just took place.  The flight attendant hands out two forms to all passengers who are not traveling on a Mexican passport.  These forms are a Mexican immigration form and a customs form.  These must be completely and accurately filled in before I get in line for Mexican immigration at the DF airport.  Being the consummate planner that I am, I failed to pack a pen for this.  Go figure!  Everyone on the plane sitting around me is Mexican (we will assume Mexican because this is a flight to the capital of Mexico, not because they are all speaking Spanish.  I know better than that!).  The gentleman next to me has a pen.  I wait quietly for him to finish his forms and then I ask, "Disculpa, ¿puedo user tu pluma?"  He hands me the pen.  Phew!  Mission accomplished.  See, now that wasn't so scary, was it? 😀

These two forms are my immigration and customs declarations.  The immigration line was very long. I think I waited almost an hour.  When I got to customs, I pressed a buttom that randomly decides who to search. Fortunately, I got a green light so I was able to move straight to the bus terminal.

I stopped to pick up more pesos at one of the airport cambios and then I walked to the bus terminal to purchase my ticket for Cuernavaca.

This is when my travel plans got a little bit interrupted.  The bus ride from DF to Cuernavaca should take about 90 minutes.  Today, because of traffic, it was a 3 1/2 hour ride.  Now, I was riding in style with sporadic wifi, A/C, a movie and on-board bathrooms.  However, it was a longgggggg ride.  

Finally, I arrived at the Cuernavaca bus station where I promptly retrieved my bags and got into what I thought might be an illegal tax.  It turns out that it was actually a licensed taxi, but I didn't know that at the time.  My driver was polite and friendly.  We arrived at my host family's house at around 5:45 (CST).  

So, for those keeping track, my time from door to door today was 13 hours and 45 minutes and included a car, a train, a bus, 2 planes, a taxi and lots of walking.

 Mexican customs form

Mexican immigration form

The immigration line

The immigration station

Casa de cambios (foreign money exchange)

Travel day - Part 1 in the U.S.

I am in Atlanta sitting on the plane bound for Mexico City.  My flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta was delayed 23 minutes which had me a bit worried as my layover was already a very short 59 minutes.  Fortunately, we made up the time in the air and I got to my gate right as they called my seating zone to board. I even had time for a restroom stop.  Thank goodness! 

The flight to Mexico City from Atlanta is only 2 hours and 54 minutes.   Many people thing that Mexico City is really far from where we live, but it actually takes less time to get to the DF (Distrito Federal as it is called in Mexico) than it does to get to the west coast of the U.S.  In fact, I might actually arrive in the DF before my kids back in Mason, Ohio change out of their pjs.  

I ate a little breakfast at the Cincinnati airport Starbucks (yummy feta spinach wrap with cherries and black coffee) before I got on my first flight this morning, but I'm starting to get hungry again so I unpacked some cheesesticks, more cherries and water. I will also have this little Delta sandwich on the flight since I really have no idea when I will eat again. I don't want to eat anything big at this point because I want my next culinary experiences to be in Mexico. 

Now for my pre-departure reflections...

While sitting on the runway, I am hearing so much Spanish around me.  Some are speaking so quickly I can barely understand what they are saying.  I used to understand everything.  Now, I don't have the chance to speak with native Spanish speakers regularly so my speaking and listening skills are rusty.  That is what prompted me to apply for the scholarship to take this trip.  This is a work trip for me.  I'm doing this to make me a better Spanish teacher.  I think it will take me a few days to be comfortable in the immersive environment, but I know from past experience that it will happen.  My Spanish skills are rusty, but not gone.  They have been dormant. It might sound strange to some people that a Spanish teacher in a really good, progressive school district admits that her Spanish skills are not perfect. Like any skill, profession or subject area of teaching, regular study and professional development are needed to stay current in the field.  It is my hope that this experience reignites my love of Spanish, my enchantment with the people and culture of Mexico and my passion for sharing these things with my students.  Oh yeah, I also hope it shows my biological kids that adults are always learning and growing just like they are.  To be the best mom I can be, I need time to change and develop as a teacher and as a mom.  Time away from each other will be challenging, but my kids and husband know how important it was for me to grab this once in a lifetime opportunity. They know that being a mom will always be first for me.  Now they are getting a chance to see their mom differently. This is a new mom with personal and professional goals and lots of wanderlust in her blood.  Their support of this adventure means literally means the world to me!

Packing 95% of the way done

It's less than 12 hours until I have to leave my house for the airport. I am almost done packing.  There are a few things that will have to be placed in my checked suitcase in the morning.  Thankfully, everything fits.  Unfortunately, I'm not a light packer.  I'm sure that I'm taking way too many things and 99% of them are black, grey or white.  I don't dress up much and comfort is the name of the game for me so most of what I have packed are basic items like tanks, t-shirts, shorts, skirts and my favorite black Lucy dresses.  I have also included some flip flops, a pair of nice black sandals and my new Keen Rose Sandals which I plan to wear daily.  Here are some snapshots of the things I'm taking that might not be part of your typical trip.

Taking Skyline to share with my host family

Resistance bands and a travel yoga mat for the trip

A laminated conversion cheatsheet will come in handy!

 

Vitamins to donate to the school in Cuernavaca.

Can't be too safe.  Lots of meds for  things like headaches, cold/allergies, digestive issues, etc.

A couple of extra travel bags stuffed into my checked bag for the trip home.

My new backpack within a backpack from IKEA. I just love this carry-on!