Cómelo!

The title of this blog means, Eat it! This was a theme of the week I am about to outline, but don't worry, I won't focus too much on food.

We just got back from the most fantastic week yet. Well, I guess it was a week ago, but I am just now getting to write about it. This was a week-long, ND-sponsored trip, which means everything was paid for, but I would have gladly paid, at least a little, for the experiences we had. And no, it wasn't fall break so it was furthermore ND-sponsored hookie. Baller.  I shall start at the beginning...

Day 1:
Monday afternoon we set out toward Cuetzalan en route to a little town called Zacapoaxtla. We got there just in time to make it to the nursing school, take some classes, have some dinner (pan dulce and coffee would end up being a large part of two of the three meals every day on this trip. No complaints here) and sleep in our hotel. Libby and I got to share what looked like an adorable honeymoon cabin room.  There was so much plaid.
Zacapoaxtla is a small little town nestled in a beautiful and green mountain range. I immediately had a town-crush on this place. It is quaint, friendly, and clean. For the next two days we were to work in clinics in pueblitos located on the hills surrounding Zacapoaxtla and take some classes with students at the local nursing school. My classes this first night were on diseases and pharmacology. The pharmacology class was all about organic chemistry! We were all so excited. Seriously. That night we played Bananagrams, which, if you have not played, I highly recommend. It was quite fun and hilarious and all the laughter felt great.
Oh and did I mention Zacapoaxtla is super cold? So, snuggled under three or four plaid blankets, I enjoyed some much needed rest.

Day 2:

Outside of the clinic. These mountains go on forever. 

This morning we woke up super early to eat and go to the clinics. It turns out we were there for National Week of Vaccinations, so Malia and I got to go to a couple preschools in the area of our clinic and hand out yogurt-like stomach vaccines to all the kids. We were supposed to be helping out with weights and heights, which I did a little, but all I wanted to do was play. And we learned a song!
Alla en el Jardin!
Hay un pato blanco
Que se mueve así (moving hips)
Así así así!

And then the duck did some other motions that I don't really remember. But you get the idea.

Dr. Benjamin and I

Day 3:
Today we went back to the same clinics in Zacapoaxtla. Instead of going to the preschools, I stayed in consults with Dr. Benjamin. He was very nice, talked to me a lot, explained everything and let me help. I took the blood pressure of every patient and at the end got to help remove a mole on a lady's breast. I held back skin with the clamp and cut stitches etc. We talked a lot about medicine and the situation in Mexico. He is big on preventative medicine and general practice. He also likes teaching (he is one of the teachers at the nursing school). He said teachers are much more respected in Mexico.

Observations: One thing that struck me both of these days was the approach to family planning. Given the 95%+ Catholic population, the doctors are not offering information on natural family planning at all. I asked about it, and they just proudly showed me their pamphlets with at least 10 different times of contraceptive methods, but no NFP. It seemed as though the only natural method they mentioned to me was the rhythm method, which really does not work for many people. I got the impression that a lot of woman didn't seem to think they had a choice, even though, as Catholics, they did not want to use artificial birth control. No one is teaching them the other option. I watched the doctor take out of a woman one little birth control contraption that was essentially blocking her fallopian tubes because she wanted to switch methods to injections. Her beautiful little 2 year old daughter scribbled on a paper on the procedure room floor right under her mother. It was an eery contrast. I am in no place to judge the woman, and it really is a difficult issue, especially in towns such as this. Some of the students went to clinics that were handing out condoms to 13 year old girls because the kids just have sex when there is nothing else to do. I started imagining myself living in the community, offering extracurricular stuff, talking about such issues and teaching women NFP. So there's my personal exploration for the week.

Us with most of the nursing school. This lasted about 20
minutes with each group of students and staff wanting their
own picture. And we were standing in wet concrete. 

This night was a blast. First, before we left the nursing school, we had a hug desmadre of a picture taking session with the students. Our trip then continued on to Cuetzalan. This hour-long bus ride was fantastic. We were packed like sardines into a little combi bus that took us on windy roads through the dark mountains. We played some great car games and again, I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. Our new hotel was yet again precious. We ate some food (yup, pan dulce and coffee) and went exploring.

The bus ride. Who would have thought that transportation
such as this might end up being the most dangerous thing
in Mexico.

Cuetzalan is a little bit bigger than Zacapoaxtla, and a tad more touristy, but still a very small rural town. The cobblestone streets were steep and slippery when wet, but quite beautiful.   It also has its own famous regional wine, which we

were able to discover this night. Who knew you could basically just ferment anything and call it wine? There was even peanut butter flavor. We tried two that night. One was sweet and pretty delicious but the other was like drinking fermented and chunky prune juice. Blech. Later on we went to the most beautiful cemetery I've ever seen. It was late at night, so that in itself was a little surreal. There was no order to the grave layout and each one was unique. Crosses were everywhere and at the end was a church with huge letters saying "Puerta del Cielo" (door of heaven). Many of the graves were super old, but almost all had some type of flowers on them. The dead seemed very well loved.

Graveyard at night.

Days 4 and 5:
In Cuetzalan we were to learn about traditional medicine and observe in the hospital. The hospital we were at was called an Integral Hospital, in which traditional medicine is offered, but doctors are also present to step in or give opinions if wanted or needed. We got to meet and talk to some curanderas (healers) and parteras (midwives) who were all little old ladies in very traditional dress. One activity basically consisted of getting massages by these women. I didn't think they were really all that different, but they were noticeably special because of the woman's hands which were so warm, soft, used, wise, and loving.

Sign out front of the hospital

The partera on the right is one of the best in the area, if not the
country. She was so willing to talk to us and share her
work and stories. One incredible thing is that she birthed
her own six children. Alone. What a tough cookie.

And then we all teamed up on the curandera to give her
a massage. I wonder how often she's had that experience.
I hope she liked it.

We also had our own Zumba class taught by an instructor that came to the hotel. Zumba was a lot more fun with the entire group, and by golly did we leave it all on the floor.

The next day, we switch hotels, and my mom and brother came to visit! Oh man it was so great having them here. Just an hour or so after their arrival, we had a two-hour Temezcal experience together. A Temezcal is a vapor bath used in traditional medicine. After receiving an incensing by Margarita, the lady who led us through the experience, we entered the Temezcal. First we had to kneel, forehead to ground, and say Ometeotl, a word that acknowledges the duality of God, female/male, sun/moon, earth/heaven etc. We entered left to right and sat around the hot

The Temezcal by daylight. We fit roughtly ten sweaty
people in there.

 stone pit. First we began by saying what we were offering to the Temezcal. The point was to leave our toxins, impuritites, worries, hate, anger etc. behind in the bath. Next, the hot rocks were brought in. There needs to, at the end, be 52 rocks, for 52 weeks of the year and some other symbolic things. It turns out 52 is a pretty special number and we saw it several other places that weekend.  One of the girls welcomed some of the rocks by marking them with a medicine rock. Margarita would then throw herbed water on the, filling the closed hut with steam. I've never dripped so much in m life. We chanted a song and I got to play some maracas. In between sets of 13 we drank some cool and delicious tea. Margarita guided our experience with some words and teachings. Here are some:
-we must live in the present
-the temezcal bath is the womb of the earth
-our bodies are the manner by which we are here
-do everything thing with love
-only construct with your hands, never destroy

My mom and brother loved it. It was a great welcome to Mexico.
Later that night Lisette planned a surprise birthday party for Andy and myself. It was so sweet. She put together party bags and we had pie and played pictionary-telephone. Another great game with lots of laughter.








Day 6:

First we went to see some ruins. There was something about the number 52 here too.

We went to a reserve that went on as far as we could see. This was some of the most green I have ever seen anywhere. Every view was breathtaking. 

We went on a plant tour. Our guide showed us the traditional uses of many of the plants and trees. We ate several of them. Cómelo! 

So it was either these little buggers or something else, but we all got eaten alive on this tour. I thought the bites might go away, but now, a week later, they are the worst them have been. It looks as though my legs are suffering from the boils plague. Each boil looks as though it is about to give birth. 

We learned how to make cups out of the massive leaves in the forest in order to drink fresh spring water. It was delicious!  And to think that the main advice people told me when I said I was going to Mexico is to not drink the water... 

Oh look! We found a waterfall! This was the moment many of us had been waiting for since August. 

The water was icy cold, but there was nothing to stand in our way. The current was pretty strong too but it was fun trying to swim upstream...and then give up and swim around to the back of the waterfall.

Everyone was so happy.

Mom and Robert and Waterfall. I was pretty pumped with this entire situation, to say the least

That night we went to a restaurant bar, had some dinner, and listened to some live music by a psychologist playing guitar and singing. To my surprise, he called me up to sing for my birthday. Hey Jude. I didn't realize how bad of a singer I was, but I had the help of the audience, so it worked out okay. I hope.
I finished the night at another bar with my mom and brother listening to some great Mexican trio. It was fantastic.

All in all, Cuetzalan was fantastic. I was so glad to be able to spend some time with the fam and I'm glad they got to see a very different part of Mexico from Puebla. I miss them already!

I'm sparing you on a Mexpandable Waistlines for now because this has already been a beast of a blog and I can't think of one in particular. Oh wait, I just did. Well, maybe soon. Just know that our waistlines were Mexpanded on ND's dime all week. And, even in Mexico, I was able to have my traditional carrot cake for my birthday.

I see dead people...

Ok, ok before you freak out about what in the world Mexico has done to me, even amongst all of the things I have learned so far, I have not developed a sixth sense. This just happened to be the first, and possibly insensitive, title I came up with. Because it's true! Well, it was last weekend. Let us start at the beginning...

Friday and Saturday of last week we were to take part in a conference about death in Mexico put on for us by our friendly folks at UPAEP. The conference was to all Friday and Saturday and therefore, we would be missing classes. Needless to say, there were some hitches and complaints because, of course, Notre Dame students never want to miss classes. Ok, they legitimately some people couldn't, but I DID!!! Anyways, the objective of this conference was to learn about death in Mexico; the sociology, the traditions, and the perspectives of a doctor. First we went to a museum that used to be the first hospital in Puebla. It was pretty crazy just imagining the pretty much open area filled with beds and sick Spanish and indigenous (of course confined to a separate room) back in the 1500's. Next we listed to a lecture about el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is celebrated on November 2nd. Yes, it is celebrated. One of the phrases is "La vida del muerte"-death is active, with music and dancing and of course, eating.

At the left here is  a traditional bread made for this day. The center represents the head and the pieces coming off of it, the rest of the body. Since the bread represents the body of the deceased loved one being remembered, it is a privilege to be invited to eat it with the family. They also make ofrendas or altares devoted to their dead and which consist of offerings of anything formerly enjoyed by the person, including food. It is said that when the smell of the fruit offered is gone, that means the dead has come and taken the offering. I could go on, but it's still a month away and I don't want to ruin the surprise of that blog entry.
So anyways, we had a brief coffee break and then went to make traditional plaster skulls. We each only did a step of the process, so right now I have an unpainted paper mache-ish skull sitting on my desk. I forgot how much I liked soothing and repetitive crafts. And skulls.
We went to lunch, had another lecture about the psychology of pain and called it a day. The last lecture
was given by this captivating woman, who was trying so hard to keep us awake, but our full stomachs and end of the week fatigue led her to have to make us stand up and do exercises in the middle of her presentation.

That night, I actually ended up sleeping at UPAEP with Regan, another ND girl. We are both in the Theology class with Padre de Simone and he told us about "Adoración Nocturna" that happens monthly, and this week was for the women! So we showed up at the chapel with sleeping bags and backpacks around 10pm for what was to be a beautiful night. There were about 20 women and a nun there (who was a woman too...but I thought I should specify). Basically, we started with an hour all together with the Blessed Sacrament and then took turns the rest of the night to keep watch for an hour, until a closing Mass at 6am. Okay, so when I said I slept at UPAEP, I sort of lied; it was really only about 3 to 4 total hours of sleeping bag on a classroom floor. It was harder than I thought it was going to be to stay awake. I was already going on 4ish hours of sleep from the night before and was participating in a conference all day. I kept thinking of the Agony in the Garden and how when Jesus returned to his apostles he asked Peter "Could you not stay awake with me for one hour?" All in all though, it was so wonderful to have the opportunity to do be in Adoration for the first time since coming here, and it was great meeting some pretty awesome women.

Fueled by an omelet and extra-large coffee, we awaited the rest of our crew to show up for the second day of the conference. This started with a lecture on the sociology of death:

And finally, the main event and purpose of this blog title. The Morgue. We first got set up with some gear. I felt pretty legit, except that every time I breathed my glasses would fog up. I knew there must have been some veteran trick for avoiding this, but I, a novice, was in the dark.

Malia, Libby, and I ready to rock and roll.

They eased us into the whole thing. First we looked at some of the models they had lying around the room, then passed around some human femurs. I tried to sword-fight someone with them, but it was deemed a bad idea. The first shock of the day came when our med-school student helper brought over a glass jar with a floating baby in it. It was less than 20 weeks and was so small. I didn't really like that part all that much, but it was cool to see how developed a baby is, even at such a young gestational age.  Next we learned how to do sutures! It ended up being pretty fun. We learned two methods of tying, one with the clamp and another with our fingers. I think the hemp bracelet making over the years helped me to catch on quickly and I was soon picturing myself as a surgeon. Though, don't get me wrong, it's a lot harder than the pro's make it look and I was pretty much just as fumbly with the needle as a crab with mittens would be. We cut open and explored some pig hearts and probed our fingers through the valves to follow the path of circulation. And practiced sewing parts up! Grandpa Joe, I was thinking of your own pig valve! I'm glad I wasn't the one who sewed you up though.
And Then, the Body. They had taken two bodies out at the beginning of the session to let them dry off so the whole time they were just chilling in the corner of the room. I tried not to make eye contact. But then there I was, standing by the head of this previously cut open woman who's face was turned toward me. I felt accused. We cut open some of the stitches, probed around a bit, took out one of the lungs, put it back in, followed the connections of some of the organs and pretty much just played Eye Spy until we used our newfound skills to sew her back up. Layer by layer. The med school girl that was helping us was obviously very smart and very accomplished. I think it was mentioned that she had one some awards or something. Anyways, when I asked her how old she was, she said she was 19. That blew my mind. She was probably only a couple of years away from graduating from medical school. It got me thinking, that if our system was the same and we just went directly to med school, I might have just stuck out the whole doctor thing. We would have immediately jumped into learning about medicine and the human body and other such things infinitely more interesting than the crystal structures of transition metals. And it would be almost over by now and I would be doing rotations in a hospital. Four years really does make a big difference. Really though, I'm grateful for where I am right now, having had the opportunity to discover some of my passions, and being in utter uncertainty of where my life is headed (live the question, right?). It was just a thought...

Back to the point, all in all, it was pretty cool, but between the smell and, well, the fact that this woman dead, I was ready to be done. No one fainted, no one barfed, so overall win.

We proceeded directly to the casino we watch ND football games at and I fell asleep by the time we were...by the time the game started getting a little less exciting. I won't comment too much on football in this blog. In truth, I don't have too much to say. Except, it was a rejuvenating nap and good end to the day.

Between the learning about death, the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the morgue, this post really could be titled something like, In the Flesh, o algo asi. It was quite the experience of the human body and overall a great weekend.


Mexpandible Waistlines-
Well this edition just fits mighty fine with the overall theme of the post.
First, I don't think I've described cemitas yet. They are a poblano (the adjective of things/people associated with Puebla) sandwich with bread that looks like a burger bun, but sooo much better. They usually have meat, avocado, chilis, maybe beans, maybe cheese, and maybe lots of other things, it just depends. They are wonderful.
Well, except this one. I mean, it wasn't terrible, and I'm never one to waste food so I did eat it all. But I maybe only enjoyed it when I wasn't directly thinking about what it was.

In the theme of the weekend, I had a cemita de lengua. Tongue. To be honest, I don't even know what kind of tongue it was. Probably a cow. Maybe a sheep. Quien sabe...Libby and I were in Puebla walking around on Sunday and we decided to track down a cemita to stave off the hunger-grumps. "Ohhh let's go somewhere with lengua!" she raved. She had tried it with her host family and said it was just like really lean meat. I can see where she would be right, but we went to a hole-in-the-wall cemita counter and ended up getting a sort of soggy cemita with tongue on it for 17 pesos. This maybe wasn't the best thing to do after spending a day playing with animal organs and human bodies but yea...I think you get the idea.  You know, I'm kind of getting nauseous writing about this, there's not really much more to say about this one, so I'm going to call it a blog.

¡Viva México!

Last weekend, Mexico celebrated it 200th birthday! Apparently they had been planning it for a long time (as in years) and it was, needless to say, a pretty big deal. The logo on the right here can be seen all over the place. It is pretty insane how it worked out, really, with the 2 and the 1 in 2010 and the Bicenternario Independencia and the Centenario Revolución. How did they plan that so well? Hidalgo must have timed his bell ringing specifically for this...and my parents for having me when they did and knowing of all the years to be in Mexico, this would be the one. They even set up a "Ruta 2010" that takes people to historic sites of the Independence and the Revolution all over Mexico.
Speaking of Hidalgo, a brief note of history. The Independence is celebrated on the 16th of September. On the eve of the Independence is what is called  "el Grito de Dolores." "El Grito" was the the battle cry for Independence made by Hildalgo back in 1890. He shouted in front of his congregation a series of battle cries to begin the Independence. Now, every year the municipal governor or other such head of government stands in front of the people of the town doing "el Grito" and receiving responses of "¡Viva!" from their citizens. It ends with three shouts of ¡Viva México! and then they ring the bell, just like Hidalgo did to rally the people. In Mexico City, the President  is the one who does it, and I heard it was really cool to watch on TV, but I would not have given up our experience of "el Grito."

Mama Mary, me, and Aimee in the Zócalo

The holiday break was spent with our host families and the day of the 15th we kept hearing that no one was going to the zócalo, or town square, for the Grito that night. It was too crowded and potentially dangerous. I went earlier with my family and with some other students and the atmosphere was incredible. There was a massive market set up in the streets and thousands of people were walking around in the national colors or even in traditional dress. People were selling "bigotes" (mustaches) everywhere in the spirit of Hidalgo. All of this awesome made it impossible for us to leave. We shyly told our mothers we would like to stay and they said they would wait with us until some male escorts arrived.
Once they did, the mothers left and we walked around the market. I bought a bigote to add to my collection at home, one of the best cemitas I have had (explanation to follow in a future MW...for now, it's a sandwhich...even though it's so much more), and a large piece of flan. Viva México. Every minute, more and more people arrived at the zócalo and it was nearing impossible to make significant advancements in location. We finally made it back to the zócalo and waited in the crowd for about 20 minutes until it all began. I caught it on film to give you, dear readers, a small taste of what it was like. The video does not give you even close to an idea the amount of people there, but the whole center and the streets adjacent were packed shoulder to shoulder.

After "el Grito" there were lots of fireworks being shot off from the Cathedral and often at the Cathedral. Hopefully there was not too much damage done to it. Getting back was a bit of a doozy. The amount of people and the lack of designated directional lanes on the paths through the zócalo caused a roughly ten minute standstill. I could not move and inch and all I could do was smile at the man I was smashed against. I literally could have lifted my feet up and would have been suspended by the pressure coming on all sides. In the spirit of my dad, I made some sheep sounds and eventually was able to move. After some fence climbing and sweat wiping, we made it out of the zócalo, into a cab, and safely back to our beds. It was, overall, an incredible experience being in the center of the town surrounded by extremely proud and spirited Mexican people. As I watched the fireworks, I was thinking about how honored I felt to be there with them and how much I admired them for their loyalty to their country.

Just eatin' up the Karaoke. Mama Mary sure can sing!

For the Independence the next day, the host families put on a huge party in order to celebrate with us! There was tons of food, desserts, dancing, and especially karaoke. Apparently karaoke is pretty big around here, and the host mothers sure did enjoy it. It was a blast being with them and they were so happy to share their culture with us. We got to share a little of ours too when the macarena came on. Otherwise, they were some of the most fun dance party people I've been with. We did all of these group dances that they lead and it was fantastic!

The host mothers and Lisette 

 When I finally left with my family, I went almost immediately to the hospital shelter with Mama Mary, where she is a pretty much full-time volunteer. There is a shelter next to the hospital where families of patients can stay and eat. One of the families who had stayed in the shelter had a son who had died of cancer three days before. They called Mary to help hand out a massive amount of pan dulces to patients, nurses, doctors, and other families in the hospital. The father of the boy owns a panaderia and they wanted to show their gratitude for the support the people of the hospital showed them during their son's battle. Three days after their son died! I was very moved by them and how in the wake of tradgedy they stepped outside of their grief and wanted to give back to the community that had shown them so much love. So I got to help hand out some bread but mostly followed Mary around, watching her be awesome. She is so giving and has a huge capacity to love. I was really glad that I got to spend some time doing this with her, especially on this holiday.

Lisette gave us goodie bags with puppets in them!

The rest of the weekend was relaxing. I got to sleep a lot in a bed oh so much more comfortable than my spring board at UDLA. I also got to have some great conversations with my host dad about religion, leadership,  life, and love. He likes to draw diagrams, so I got sent home with some of those.


"200 años de ser orgullosamente mexicanos" is on billboards all over the place. It means "200 years of proudly being Mexican." I was so glad we got to experience so much of that pride this weekend. ¡Viva México!





Mexpandable Waistlines

Well, this edition of M.W. has a little bit less to do with...well...Mexpandable Waistlines. What I am getting at is that I doubt my consumption of this particular culinary treat contributed much to the belt area, but I hope it does not disappoint.
During our first trip into Cholula back in the beginning of August we saw several street vendors with buckets or bags of this clearly popular snack food. When we asked one of our amigos what they were, they responded "chapulines" and proceeded to inform us that in fact, they were grasshoppers. Yup. The term "chapulines" is specific to Mexico, where they are commonly eaten, and stems from the Nahuatal language of the Aztecs. Clearly, at this time, the vow to try one before leaving Mexico was made...
Some brief notes on preparation: The grasshoppers are collected from May until autumn, thoroughly washed, and toasted on a comal (clay cooking surface) with garlic, lemon juice and salt containing extract of agave worms. Tasty. They must be thoroughly cooked because if they are not, little nematode worms can infect a human host. So, keep that in mind next time you shop for grasshopper treats. I actually did not know this before I just popped one in my mouth this past weekend...for the sake of the blog, maybe that was for the best.

So, the experience. I was walking through the Independence Day market with my host mother, Mama Mary, my host sister, and Libby. Spirits were high, we had just bought some sweet masks, and by golly it was the Bicentennial of Mexican Independence!... conditions were prime. Libby and I saw a man sitting with his bucket of chapulines and knew it was the moment. The man gladly gave us a sample.


Trying not to think too much about it, I popped it in my mouth. CRUNCH. Oh yep, that was the head...oh man got a leg stuck in my teeth...alright let's try to get this all down and done with. And swallow. All in all, it didn't taste terrible. It was really salty and limey but the aftertaste was not the greatest. I'm sure it was high in protein though! I just hope I didn't offend the man with  the slightly disturbed face I had while I declined his offer to buy a whole bag.

 Do I recommend it? Well, no not really. It's kind of cool to have eaten a grasshopper, but other than that, I would stick to pretzels or crackers for your salty snack.
Thankfully, Mama Mary treated us to some nieve after that got the taste out of my mouth. Mango with chili chamoy. ¡Viva México!

Down to Sea Level

A view from the lobby overlooking the separate bungalows
and villas of our hotel complex.
Yes, and that is the ocean directly behind.

Last weekend, we took our first beach vacation! The whole crew jumped in the party van and headed off to Veracruz, a pretty touristy area on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. It was roughly a 7,000 ft. change in elevation down to sea level, which my lungs enjoyed, but my yet-to-be-healed sinuses did not. Our hotel was in Boca del Rio, just down the road from the center of the port of Veracruz and right on the beach. Between the fourteen of us, we got two hotel rooms, so as you can imagine, it was a bit squishy. My room, Villa 53, had seven girls, one boy, and one bathroom. Within minutes the place was a complete desmadre but it served its beach and cheap purpose.

Trusty shopping cart and excited crew

The first thing we did when we arrived was head out for food. The closest thing we could find without taking a taxi was a mall with a food court which featured a restaurant with comida tipica de Puebla. How exciting and new! After we had our fill from various places, including McDonalds, we decided to stock up at the grocery store for the rest of the weekend. This adventure concluded with the entire Villa 53 crew pushing the shopping cart across a 6ish lane (there aren’t really “lanes” per se in Mexico) highway bridge and all the way up to the door of our humble abode. We got some looks and some laughs, but hey, it beat carrying all of our supermarket bags.

That night was almost entirely spent swimming in the sea. It was wonderful. We ran along the sand and sprinted into the waves to see how far we could get. Well, when I say waves I mean two-foot baby surges in water. Both the air and the water was warm  and we just floated, talked, and played Duck Duck Goose. Duck Duck Ninja is actually what it is technically called. The main difference is that you can pick anything you want to act as while you chase your prey around the circle. The game didn’t last too long, but I’d like to give it another shot sometime. I digress….

Front to back: Alexxis, Malia, and I
rocking our books and our shades

Saturday we made love to the sun. Maybe that’s a bit strong, but really, the day was spent laying on a beach chair, taking occasional dips in the ocean or the pool, and reading some JPII goodness.  All of this, along with the overload of vitamin D, was good for the soul. Also, I drank a Piña Colada and got caught in the rain. Don't worry, the rain came later. 

That night we went to the Zócalo of Veracruz, ate, shopped around, and ate. The area was decorated with beautiful lights and there was a group of dancers and a band displaying their skills.  I was amazed by the dancers. They were all older couples dressed in traditional Mexican clothing. When I watched their faces and their eyes, it seemed as though the dance had just been engrained into their being from when they were young and first fell in love with each other. Pardon my cheesiness, but I really just thought they were all beautiful. 

Sunday we went to an aquarium!!! Really though, I don't think it deserved three exclamation points. It was cool, but let's keep in mind that I grew up relatively close to Monterey Bay Aquarium that has over 200 award-winning exhibits so it was a bit difficult for Aquario de Veracruz to compare. Still though, a good time was had by all, until a manatee ate the kid with the beard (who is now beardless by the way). 

Actually the manatees seemed very nice.  This picture was just before the manatee on the right planted a huge kiss on the other one. Manatee love. And of course I started singing Veggietale's Barbara Manatee. 

For any of you Amazon Trail players out there, I got super excited to capture a shot of the rare macaw. Major points for that one! Ok, it wasn't that hard, and in reality, the bird in the game is the Scarlet Macaw, but I pretended anyway. 

The ride back was a bit of a doozy. We had a fourteen passenger van for sixteen of us. I either served as a pillow for three people or part of a spooning train the entire way back. I always heard you get close to the people you study abroad with, and this was a very literal experience of that. We also watched Harry Potter 6 which is just chock full of awkward and sexually tense pre-teen moments. So, besides my dear sinuses adjusting back to the mountainous elevation, it was a good ride. All and all, another Mexico trip for the win. 

Mexpandable Waistlines

The night we spent in the Zócalo we went out to dinner at a restaurant that was clearly used to tourists. First, we were approached by roughly 37 street vendors trying to sell their goods. Dinner consisted of the routine:

1. Put a bite in mouth

2. Say, "no, gracias"

3. And, repeat

Second, they handed us english versions of the menu. We didn't really want to use them, but it turns out, without the crosslisting ability of both menus, I would not have been able to order baby shark empanadas! Hmmm now that I think about it, that's kind of sad that I ate a baby shark. Or at least part of it. However, it was pretty tasty, and I did it for the sake of the blog, of course. For the most part, it tasted like a cross between fish and chicken. Empanadas are basically stuffed and fried pouches of goodness, so mine was stuffed with the shark. 

Libby ordered shark too so we attempted a shark face.
Who says your ever too old to play with, or in our case act like, your food?

You would never know they were stuffed with baby shark...

Stay tuned for the Independence Day post! I was going to do that first, but it just really would have bothered me to go out of order. 

Gracias a ti, Señor

One of the girls here often asks "how is your heart?" We often laugh together at it, but it's a "how are you... but how are you really" question, and quite good. So briefly, here is my response:

I woke up today, walked outside, and just stood for a moment relishing the cool, sunny, and quiet morning. I was unexplainably filled with a sense of freshness and joy. Finally, I said my first prayer for time not to speed up and thanked God that I am here. I'm ready for the experiences, challenges, discomfort, joys, and relationships that He has in store for me here this semester. One might say I'm a little late or "geeeez it's about time" but I guess better late than never!

Dear reader, I hope you have a very wonderful day.

Stay tuned for news on pretty great Veracruz adventure, maybe a backtrack entry to a trip a few weeks ago, and a description of a celebration like never seen before that is happening this week!

Who let the gods out...

This past weekend, my childhood dreams came true. Well, that is, I assume that in 7th grade when learning about ancient civilizations in Mr. Robertson's class I spent some time daydreaming about our oh so fascinating class material. In all seriousness, I really enjoyed that class. We learned about the ancient Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs and their customs, gods, and cities. I distinctly remember learning about Teotihuacan, the Aztec city of the gods, and looking at pictures of their pyramids in my geography book. However, this weekend, I got to climb those pyramids, walk along their Avenue of the Dead, and touch the ancient stones that once were covered with the blood of their human sacrifices. Yea.

We woke up bright and early to embark on yet another day adventure for the entire crew. Besides the rain which slightly dampened our mood (haha dampened...) everyone was excited for the day and therefore promptly fell asleep on the bus. Actually, there may have even been some disappointment that what we thought would be a three-hour drive was actually only an hour and half and we were woken up before we were able to get a solid nap in.

To our dismay, the rain did not let up, but we proceeded with a "ain't nobody gunna break my stride" attitude into this fascinating city. First we walked through a small museum that showed some ancient writing and artifacts. The picture at the right shows somewhat of what an Aztec home layout would be like. Upon seeing this display, I pose a question to the girls I'm with: "Don't you ever wish you could live back in this time, live off the earth, and go back to a bit more simplicity?!" Prompt response: "Nope." I guess they have a good point about human sacrifices and that it probably wasn't really that easy to live, especially as a woman...but still.

View from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun looking out on
Teotihuacan, the Avenue of the Dead, and The Pyramid of the
Moon on the right.

Anyways, a little background. Teotihuacan is an enormous ancient city probably built around 200 BC and lasted until its fall in the 7th or 8th century AD. The site layout is so aligned that the angle of the sun on a certain day during each summer helped them calibrate their senses of time, mark their crop planting, or perform certain rituals. The two main pyramids along the Avenue of the Dead are the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun, the latter of which is the second largest pyramid (or third, I have mixed sources) in the world, of which the first is the pyramid in Cholula that we went to Mass on the first week! Who knew!?

I would say the most epic moment of the day was climbing to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun and eating sandwiches. We'd just grab a sandwich and put it in our mouths. Oh, that's the only way to have sandwiches. While we were at the top the day's five minutes of torrential downpour decided to occur. So there we were, trapped on top of the second tallest pyramid in the world, just soaking it all it (haha soaking...). It was epic.

Us eating sandwiches. Mine was Nutella and strawberry jam, or jelly. Or preserves. Whatever it is, it tasted like chocolate covered strawberries and I got into it in a big way.

After this beautiful moment, we climbed down to walk along the Avenue of the Dead. Praise God for sparing us from falling down the treacherous and wet pyramid steps or we would have become our own human sacrifices. Speaking of sacrifices...Of course we couldn't leave this wonderful city without doing one of our own.

The one being sacrificed is the one and only non-med student. The one with the beard. The Pyramid of the Moon watches pleased, in the background. So did a lot of tourists.

There was an attempt at building a human pyramid that actually proved to be a huge fail and thankfully I don't have the pictures of that one. You can imagine that the random bystander we grabbed to capture that moment was amused at our attempt. We also decided to play a little bit of King of the Pyramid before moving on. Regan won.

  

View from the Pyramid of the Moon looking out down the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun on the left.

Libby, me and Malia on the Pyramid of the Moon!

Overall, very successful trip. On the way out, I even bartered with some market vendors and refused to pay their prices for a set of earrings with the Aztec calendar on them. Trifty-ness to the rescue. 

Everyone took off their soaked shoes when we got back in the bus. While waiting for the rest of the crew, we were jamming to some music while our driver was talking to someone outside. A girl, who shall remain nameless, stood on her seat and was shaking her groove thang in the window until I called to her attention that she was giving our driver and his friend quite the show. And they were enjoying it a little too much. We arrived back at UDLA half a Footloose movie later. I was still wet, tired, and hungry, but pumped that I had visited a place I had only ever hoped of seeing pictures of in the confines of a classroom. 

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All I heard coming down here was "oooo you better not drink the water..." But here, the word "water" doesn't even necessarily mean water. At restaurants, "water" usually means Horchata or Jamaica juices. Horchata is made by soaking rice in water, straining it with something like cheese cloth, and adding cinnamon. Absolutely delicious. Jamaica drink is made out of flowers! It has a different taste to it, but I like it too. If water is available at restaurants, it is in a bottle and often sparkling. 

In addition to these two delicious "waters" there are wonderful and sweet juices that are very often fresh squeezed. Mango is one of my favorites, but I've had papaya, orange, and carrot. Yes, carrot. Ah, and here, just plain coconut. From a coconut. Not as delicious as I might have thought. What we all know as coconut flavor is quite different and must just include a ton of sugar. 

Well, that's it for this edition which has been more of just a fun fact than a "this is what I'm stuffing my face with" entry. But, as we all know, the drink accompaniment to each meal is crucial to the experience as a whole. So there you go. 

First Day on the Job

Well, I suppose it's not technically a job. With my eating habits though, I could use one down here (Just kidding Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine on money), but it's just an internship. A huge draw to this program is this medical internship. Out of the 17 people we have here, 16 are pre-med, and 1 is...well...he has a beard. We have rotations at four different hospitals during the semester, with three weeks at each. So two mornings a week, I will make some sort of trek with my good friend, neighbor and hospital partner, Kelsey to a local public hospital in Puebla or Cholula.
Our first three weeks will be spent at Hospital Salubridad  in Cholula. It is a two bus journey there and two bus journey back and surprisingly, I think we may already have it down. Actually, that's a lie. The first day, on the way back, we took the first bus, got off a little early, continued to walk along the route, missed three passing buses, ended up deciding to walk the rest of the way, tried to cross some three lane highways, got some coffee, and finally made it back (this adventure being during physics). The second day, we took a taxi back to get in some last minute studying for a physics test. So...2-2 going there, 0-2 going back. We'll get the hang of it.
Anyways, the hospital. It is a public hospital that is connected to a clinic and it is always crowded. There are lines of people out on the street waiting to get into the clinic, but we have just been in the hospital so far. It is only one story and relatively small, but when we arrived, I felt like I had entered a maze and I was just plain nervous enough already. Immediately, I was paired with an intern in obstetrics  because I had expressed interest in that specialty. Kelsey was brought to Urgencias. My intern, Oscar, immediately starts showing me how to fill out patient forms and charts. I panicked a little, knowing that I would not be able to do that in English, let alone Spanish, but that's not really my role anyway, so I'm safe. I think. I followed him around a bit and then joined the other interns for breakfast. This was not necessarily how I wanted to spend my time, but they were very nice and the cafeteria had fruit and pan dulce, so there you go. Finally though, someone came in a notified us that a surgery was starting. C-section! Kelsey and I had a bit of a hard time finding where we could borrow surgical scrubs and let me tell you, the whole cap, booties, and mask thing was a little harder than I expected. We definitely had some nurses laughing at us, but they were very helpful.
The surgery was pretty incredible. We just stood near the feet of the woman and watched. It was so incredible watching the beginning of life. I don't know if I would ever get tired of that. The first breaths of the baby, all the beautifully nasty substances all over the place, and even the crying, are all just fantastic. Kelsey said the baby looked like Voldemort, and I suppose she had a point, but beautiful nonetheless, especially when it got cleaned up and dried off. The second best part about the moment was the fact that the operating room was filled with sounds of Bohemian Rapsody, Ke$ha's Your Love is my Drug, and many other classics. In fact, now that I think about it, there is just music in the background all over the hospital. By the sound of it, I think it is 91.3 which plays some great music from back home.
The doctors at the hospital are all very sweet and hilarious. They love talking to us and mostly joking with each other. It's pretty humorous to watch. One doctor was talking to us and pointed behind us saying, Dr. House es allí. Kelsey got halfway down the hall before we could call her back. They are all just very jolly, but actually are quite perplexed by our schooling system. Medical students down here enter Med school right after high school. Part of our explanation for why we do four years "in university" first is that we are exploring what we want to do. At this remark, one doctor pointed to a group of interns who were twenty years old and in their third year of medical school and was appalled that we were twenty and didn't know what we wanted to do. Ohhh man. If he only knew....
The second day was very similar. EXCEPT. Instead of watching a c-section of one baby, we watched one of twins! ¡Cesárea de gemelos! One boy and one girl. That was very cool. Two main differences: 1. The incision was horizontal instead of vertical which I thought was interesting. 2. Dido's White Flag was playing at the moment of birth. I suppose it was appropriate since this woman, once she woke up, was about to completely surrender her life to two little ones. Also, I was thinking to myself, I hope someone tells her what song was playing while her kids were born. I would definitely want to know.  I'm not too hopeful for that for her though.
So where do these experiences leave me? Well, marveling at life and God's creation.
Any new inspiration to be a doctor though? Give me a break, it's only been a week and...I'm only 20.

The first ND football game is today! We are all gearing up to watch it at a local casino, but it's definitely times like these I wish I could be a Notre Dame. Nevertheless, I plan to cheer my hardest, though, I have somehow lost my voice already and I don't know where it is. So we'll see how that pans out. Go Irish!


Mexpandable Waistlines

Fun fact for ya': The word "salsa" really just means sauce.  When we say "salsa" in the United States, we have something very specific in mind, but here, every sauce is salsa. In the grocery store, the sauce section is populated with bottles that say such things as "Salsa de Soy", "Salsa de Barbacoa", "Salsa Worchestershire." One of the fun things about going to restaurants around here is the medley of salsas they bring out to the table. For example, at  Tacos Israel:

So many choices! The one in the top right corner is what seems to me closest to Pico de Gallo.  The first time we went to Tacos Israel, I loaded my taco with that hoping to get my daily serving of vegetables. Moving on clockwise, some delicious creamy green salsa that I believe is based on avocados. This one was actually pretty spicy, but generally it's been seeming like one of the milder ones as well as one of my favorites. The other salsa verde is pretty delicious and very mild. To the left of it is the interesting onion and mushroom mixture that is also very spicy. Of course, limes are included with everything, but not technically a salsa. And the red one at the top could be titled Diablo as far as I'm concerned. 

I can't leave this edition of MW without mentioning Salsa Crema. Oh my it's delicious. It's basically just cream that is almost always available to throw on top of everything. Que rico. Overall, the salsas always make for some interesting and colorful additions to food plates.

I'll say, it's a good thing I'm getting so many bug bites. One might have said there won't be any of me to come back home after all these little critters have their say, but I think this section demonstrates how I'm hopefully finding a nice balance and making up for the lost chunks of flesh and blood.