La Muerte

As October approaches, I am sure that every Wal-Mart, Target and Hallmark store is setting out their cheesy Halloween decorations. Accordingly, Mexican stores are preparing for the upcoming semi-morbid holiday. A common misconception is that El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is simply the Mexican equivalent of Halloween. False.
While Halloween decorations and costumes are also available here, the more important holiday is November 2nd. The most well-known image of this holiday is La Catarina.

Celebration of this holiday involves decorating the graves of family members with food, gifts, and marigolds and combines pre-Hispanic traditions with Catholic holy days. Although the imagery seems a little gruesome and morbid by American standards, the Mexican perspective on death is quite different and skeletons are not so much creepy as a reminder of where we all start and end.
Ok, the culture lesson is over. The conference on Death and Dying in Mexico that all the Notre Dame students attended this weekend was dually relevant because of the upcoming holiday and the fact the all but one of us is a pre-med major. To be honest, we were less than enthusiastic to spend our Friday and Saturday listening to lectures about death and the coffee break was definitely the highlight for some attendees. 
Then we went to the morgue.
I was a tad bit concerned that I would faint (as I am known to do) or be so bothered by the Cadaver Workshop that I would have to give up on the whole medical career thing and become an Arts & Letters major. Luckily, that was not the case and I had a fantastic time! The supervising professor and his assistants eased us into the whole experience with some basic anatomy, passing around of some human femurs, suture practice on Styrofoam cups, and dissection time with pig hearts. It turns out that all of my years of passing the time by making friendship bracelets set me up to be a quick learning for tying stitches. All of this in and of itself was quite the hands-on adventure for all of us pre-med majors who have never done more than dissect fetal pigs in Biology lab. But this was just the introduction. We were then directed to the other side of the room, where a partially dissected cadaver was waiting on a table. It was a little disconcerting at first to be so close to a dead body, especially because I was standing right next to the face. The student assistant was very encouraging in a get-your-hands-dirty sort of way and we were all soon poking around, identifying organs and following the maze of the circulatory system. More than anything else, I was amazed by the way that everything fits together perfectly. A close second on the ¨Most Important Realization¨ list was how little I know and how much there is to learn. When we had finished, we got to flex our newly-found surgeon muscles and stitch the cadaver closed. I was definitely ready to leave by the end of the workshop (partially because it was 2PM and way past lunchtime) but I am THRILLED that we were able to experience something that is usually only available to students in medical school. 
P.S. I was going to entitle this blog with some morbid pun, but decided that was probably in bad taste. Chao!

A Bit of This, a Bit of That

NEWS FLASH!!!!

I had a dream in Spanish. It was neither profound nor worthy of analysis (and what dreams are, honestly?) but it was in Spanish. And that is all that matters. Fluency, here comes Olivia. Watch out.
In other news, upon special request, a brief commentary on Mexican views of Americans.
Disclaimer: according to me. And keeping in mind that it is probably very different here, close to the capital, than in the states bordering the US. Not every Mexican is trying to sneak over the border fence. Sorry FOX News.

The mood seems to be generally more positive than I expected towards the US. I have heard more than a few snippy comments about how Mexico is poor because they are selling all their crude products to the US and importing finished goods (think: petroleum). There are also the expected vendors who inflate prices as soon as they see my blond self or waiters who don't even give us the chance to attempt an order in Spanish and simply hand us an English menu. But they're just trying to do their jobs. American culture is embraced here more strongly than I expected as well. You have a better chance of hearing Britney Spears on the bus than of hearing Enrique or Shakira. Mexican name brands include English phrases such as "Big Cola" and "the Italian Coffee Company" is the Mexican version of Starbucks.

I have not, however, encountered much "America: The Promised Land" enthusiasm. I have met several people who have worked in the US or currently have family working there, but they present the situation with a very matter-of-fact & get'er done sort of attitude. I'm sure they're glad that their relatives have jobs, but they're definitely not in a hurry to follow. It might be partially because of all the Independencia excitement, but I have noticed that Mexicans have a very strong, healthy sense of patriotism. The thing that has always bothered me about American patriotism is that it often takes on a "Gooooo America, Suck It insert whichever country we happen to be taking advantage of at the time" sort of tone. Not cool. On the other hand, Mexicans are just soooo proud of being Mexican and love their country, despite all it's problems. There's definitely some smacktalk directed towards Spain, but they might deserve that.

Alternatively, Mexicans are known throughout Latin America for their sophisticated sense of humor. As in, you have to grow up with it to master it. So for all I know, there are criticisms flying right over my head. Whoooooooosh.

¡Viva México!

Myth: Cinco de Mayo is the anniversary of Mexican Independence.
Fact: No one actually celebrates Cinco de Mayo except ignorant Americans looking for an excuse to drink tequila.

I guess there IS a commemorative parade in Puebla because this is where the Battle of Cinco de Mayo occur ed, but having Cinco de Mayo as an important national holiday is the equivalent of Alamo Day being a national holiday. Sure, it was a good effort, but secretly we lost that one. Cinco de Mayo is the same idea; technically there was an unexpected Mexican victory over the French military, but then the French destroyed the Mexican army a few days later. Definitely a ¨we won the battle but they won the war¨ sort of situation.

So now that all of that confusion is cleared up, let´s get down to business (to.defeat.the.Spaniards.) The ACTUAL Mexican Independence Day is September 16, although the fiesta begins on the 15th. I won´t go into all the history because a) That´s Sam´s job, b) I´m not super solid on the details, and c)THERE´S NOT MUCH TIME.

Classes were cancelled at UDLAP on Wednesday (15th) and Thursday (16th) originally and we were going to have to go to class on Friday until the President issued a national mandate that all academic activities be cancelled on Friday. Ten points for Pres. Calderón! Our study abroad program coordinator, Lisette, arranged for us to stay with our host families for the holiday. This was partially to give us more exposure to the whole culture bit, and partially to keep us supervised during the fiestas. Did I mention that it was the bicentennial?
On Wednesday afternoon, a few of us went to the Puebla zócalo with the original intention of just looking around, maybe buying some cheesily patriotic Mexican trinkets, eating a few chalupas, and going back to our host families before it got too crazy. After a lot of wandering and waiting and huddling under umbrellas and waiting and walking and more waiting, I was getting a little grumpy and hungry. Luckily, there is never a shortage of food venues at these sorts of events in Mexico and I ate the best. cemita. ever. There was quite a crowd in the food section of the festival but it was totally vale la pena (worth it).

We ended up staying in the zócalo for el grito, which is where a government official yells/grita ¨!Viva México!¨ and the whole crowd responds, ¨¡Viva!¨ After the grito there was a fireworks show. One of the other ND girls was surprised by how close the launch site was to the 400-year-old cathedral and the crowd and said something along the lines of, ¨that would never be allowed in the US.¨ I replied, ¨Obviously you´ve never been to a 4th of July celebration in small town Idaho. Believe me, it´s allowed, just insert a high school instead of a cathedral.¨ :) We nearly died in the crush of humanity that was rushing towards the middle of the zócalo after the fireworks, but again, definitely vale la pena. We´ll just say that there was no lack of intimate touches this week either. After a bit of a desmadre finding all of our crew and getting everyone in a taxi, we finally returned to our host families, wet and tired and covered with glitter and confetti, but happy. After all, the 200th anniversary of a country´s independence only happens once and WE WERE HERE.

But this was only the beginning. Thursday marked the actual Independence holiday and Lisette and our host moms were nice enough to arrange a Mexican luncheon for us. I.ate.so.much. After we all stuffed our faces and laid around for a while trying to digest, the host moms broke out the karaoke machine. We didn´t actually know any of the mariachi songs but that didn´t stop us (mostly by us I mean Erica and I. We couldn´t convince any of the other ND kids to sing. Partypoopers.) from stumbling along with the mamas. The karaokefest eventually devolved into a dance party featuring a salsa skills test, some line dances, the Macarena, and plenty shaking of the hips. I had a blast! The highlight of the evening, however, was probably after everyone had helped to clean up and left. My host parents, Gerardo and Olivia, sang karaoke duets together in the backyard for at least an hour. Preciosos.

A bunch of my extended host family is visiting for the holiday weekend and my host abuelo grandpa would give Grandpa Lawrence a run for his money in a Most Precious Grandpa Ever contest. He actually reminds me a lot of my own Grandpa in his soft-spoken-ness, hard-of-hearing nature, affinity for unique hats and multiple naps, and love of storytelling and jokes. He informed me today that he sometimes ¨makes up his own jokes.¨ A 4-year-old host nephew/cousin told me all about Olivia the Pig, a book and cartoon character, after learning that my name was also Olivia. If it is not already clear, I love my host family.

After all the patriotic-ness calmed down a bit, we walked to a nearby movie theater and saw ¨Loco por ella¨ (The Switch, with Jennifer Aniston). Fun Fact: Mexican movie theaters have not only the usual popcorn/soda/candy counter, but also a bar and you can hypothetically order a drink to take into your movie of choice. Just sayin´.
So now I'm just spending the rest of the weekend with my host family, practicing my Spanish, eating a lot of pan dulce (sweet bread; Mexican pastries for the win), and celebrating my complete lack of homework obligations.

I don´t have my camera cable presently to upload photos, but I´ll try to get on that soon. To hold y'all over, here's a picture that I stole from someone else of the decorations in the zócalo.

¡Nos vemos!

BROTAR

Brotar v: (planta) to sprout; (enfermedad eruptiva) to break out; (líquido) to gush, to flow, to issue.

You might not like the fact that this verb best describes my day. Context: In my Spanish class senior year, we had to read and summarize an article about adolescent acne that used this verb more than was ever necessary. Then we had to read it again the next week because the teacher forgot about the previous week´s assignment. You´ve gotta love the Charter Academy. This verb is used surprisingly often in Spanish literature and poetry to describe natural springs or budding plants, but the only mental image I ever have is of pimply-faced Hispanic preteens.

Seeing as it´s a Tuesday, I had my early morning hospital internship today, my last rotation at El hospital salubridad, a small public hospital in Cholula. Although it´s not very far away from UDLAP, we have to take 2 different buses there and 2 back. My internship buddy and I have had our fair share of missteps (literally and figuratively) on the public bus system, but today´s adventure takes the cake. Our 2nd bus showed up and was more full of people than I had previously imagined was possible. When the accordion doors opened, several passengers and various limbs brotaron onto the street. Unfortunately, we then had to employ all our balance and coordination skills to get ourselves on the bus and remain upright. Apparently very few tax dollars go into road maintenance here, except to install speed bumps. Oof.

We finally arrived at the hospital, barely escaping with our lives from that deathtrap bus. This week I was assigned to shadowing a general surgeon and the first surgery on the list was a cyst removal (not 100% sure on that diagnosis or the spelling). Context: a cyst is more or less an oil duct in the skin that gets plugged but keeps producing oil, creating an isolated sac under the skin. I.E. a hugeass zit... Apparently this cyst had been chillin´ in the patient´s thigh for FIFTEEN YEARS and it had worn out it´s welcome. I will spare you the gruesome details but, as you can imagine, a golfball-sized mass that is squished between a thigh muscle and elasticy skin is under quite a lot of pressure and if a hypothetical surgeon were to accidentally puncture the sac during removal, it´s not ideal. Yup, you guessed it. BROTARRRRRRR.
So after they got that under control and stitched up the lady´s thigh, I was informed that the next surgery was a toe amputation on a patient with diabetes. Context: Patients who don´t monitor their blood sugar well tend to have decreased circulation in their extremities, leading to ¨dead¨ fingers and toes. Anyways, this patient´s foot was pretty nasty and apparently infected. The surgeon starting draining the excess fluids (think brotando), then decided that I should leave before I became ¨contaminated¨ to the extent that they wouldn´t let me leave. Apparently this toe was allowing bacteria to BROTAR into the air.

To make up for kicking me out of that surgery, the surgeon sent me next door to watch a C-section. Although I had observed an emergency C-section last week, I was still not prepared for how quickly the baby just appears, all of a sudden. You could even use the verb brotar to describe the mode of this child´s entry into the world, perhaps.

Thennnn, as a change of pace, I ate lunch in the cafeteria today because I am out of fresh produce, peanut butter, and bread in my room. I thought I´d spice up my green salad a little with a pepper and onion mixture which turned out to be MUCH hotter than I expected. This plus the fact that my lips are terribly chapped and sunburned from the weekend´s beach adventure resulted in my sitting in the dining hall, alone, with tears running down my face. I used at least 5 napkins in my attempts to stop the tears and snot that were flowing (BROTAR) eeeeverywhere. Huge. mess.

That is all.

Vamos a la playa! A mí me gusta bailar...y nadar... y comer

This weekend's itinerary featured the port city of Veracruz (not to be confused with the general state of Veracruz. Just like the city México is not to be confused with the state. Or the country. And you probably should try to keep Puebla and Puebla straight too.) 
I had a bit of an internal struggle over this trip because it was going to cost about 1/4 of this month's stipend and it´s apparently hurricane season on the Gulf Coast. I finally managed to repress my thriftythrifty self and decided to go. I cannot express how glad I am that I went. And in reality, we all stayed in a nice hotel right on the beach with a pool, private beach and free breakfast for the equivalent of about $25/night. Have I mentioned that I love Mexico?

We didn't arrive until after dark on Friday night but that definitely didn´t stop us from searching out the grocery store for some necessary beach items, stealing/borrowing a shopping cart (don't worry Mom, we returned it) and hitting up the ocean. Keep in mind that Veracruz has been consistently in the upper 90s or low 100s for weeks, that the humidity is approximately 200% and the wind is non-existent. As you might be able to guess, the ocean temperature resembled that of a bathtub and while Veracruz isn´t exactly known for its beautiful beaches, a Gulf Coast beach is a beach.

We spent the larger part of Saturday lounging around in the sunshine, splashing in the slightly murky waves, exploring some tide pools, and paying $50MX (less than $5) for a ride on a 10-passenger banana float boat thing. Totally worth it. Later in the evening we cleaned up and headed towards the Veracruz zócalo, which is the town square area that every city and village has, featuring restaurants, live music and vendor booths. I decided to branch out and defy our Shark Week-inspired fears by ordering baby shark enchiladas. I don't know that they were ACTUALLY made out of baby shark, but they were damn good.

We also discovered the most magical dessert there will ever be: peanut nieve. Nieve is an ice cream & snow cone hybrid (the name literally means snow) that comes in all sorts of exotic fruit flavors in addition to the typical chocolate, vanilla and strawberry lineup. Everything is made with the real deal ingredients and the fruit flavors usually will still have the seeds included. One word: NOMZ.

Today we had a lazy morning, mostly inside due to a baby tormenta storm, packed up (it´s amazing how much mess 8 people can make in 48 hours) and headed to the Veracruz aquarium. Supposedly, it´s the largest in Latin America but only costs $90MX.
**Note: the current exchange rate is $1US=$12.40MX**
It definitely wasn't as good as the Chicago or Portland aquariums but we had a good time and indulged our inner children for a few hours with plenty of ooohs and aaahs and failed attempts at no-flash photography in dark rooms.
One thing that I didn't like about Veracruz was how forward everyone was about trying to get our business. In the other cities we've visited, vendors will pester you a little if you show interest in their goods or make eye contact but will generally let up if you stop showing signs of interest. Not in Veracruz. We we accosted (this may not be a real word) constantly by people chasing us down the street trying to get us into their restaurant or to sell us sunglasses or to talk up their touristy t-shirts. I don't know if it's just because Veracruz is so tourist oriented or what the deal was, but i did not like it. But I guess that's just part of the whole experience and what I get for being a blonde gringa wandering wide-eyed around Mexico.

We had a bit of an interesting viaje back to UDLAP because we had decided at some point that we should save a few pesos by taking a 14-passenger vehicle for 16 people. FAIL. My sunburned self ended up smooshed against window and semi-spooning three other people on a bench seat for 4 hours. The trip was slightly improved by the fact that we had a pirated copy of the 6th Harry Potter movie to watch. And you know what, a little discomfort never hurt anyone. And if we weren't all comfortable with each other before, we are now. Plus, I definitely got all 7 intimate touches for the day. And I didn't get carsick. And it was a beautiful drive. And did I mention that I love Mexico?

The whole country is gearing up to celebrate the Bicentennial anniversary of the country's independence from the dirty Spaniards (kidding. kinda.) on Wednesday/Thursday. We don't have classes and we're going to spend some quality time with our hostish families with the highlight definitely being a Mexican Dinner. Yeah, sometimes food is important to me.

I say PYRAMID, you say CLIMB IT



So today we got up at literally the crack of dawn (fun fact: it is still dark in Puebla, Mexico at 6:45AM) to get on a bus to visit Teotihuacán. From the beginning, I guess I should have known that this trip was destined to be a desmadre.
First, there was a slight fiasco concerning the true number of passengers in order to reserve the van-bus-camioneta.

Secondly, after we reserved the bus and driver, David, a family emergency caused a last-minute change in drivers. José Antonio just wasn't as quality as David, although he was very nice and well-intentioned. 

Thirdly, it rained. All day. Literally. We have all accepted the fact that it rains here every afternoon and plan accordingly but today it was raining before we woke up and never ever stopped. It turns out that in it's pre-Aztec glory days, this site was home to regular human and animal sacrifices, mainly to the rain and sun gods. Apparently SOMEONE pleased the rain god today.

Anyways, we arrived at Teotihuacán, still praying for sunshine and after another slight fiasco involving half-asleep peso counting and parking fees, we bravely set out armed with PB&J sandwiches and rain jackets.
Background info: According to my Frommer´s Mexico 2010 guidebook (shoutout to Heidi Groover), the ruins of Teotihuacán are

¨among the most remarkable in Mexico-indeed, they are among the most important ruins in the world...Teotihuacán (teh-oh-tee-wa-khan) means ¨place where the gods were born.¨

So yeah, it´s a pretty big deal. The archaeological site features The Temple of Quetzalcoatl (you´re on your own pronouncing that one), The Pyramid of the Moon, the Avenue of the Dead, and the Pyramid of the Sun, which is the world´s 3rd largest pyramid. The whole complex was planned based on the position of the sun at the equinoxes. We could not verify this, however, because the sun did not make an appearance. Nevertheless, we climbed up the both pyramids and defiantly ate our picnic lunches on top of the Pyramid of the Sun, as advised, and ignored the rain, más o menos.


Overall, I´m glad we went because this was definitely a must-see sight in Mexico. Next on my must-see list is the Diego Rivera mural at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. I refuse to leave the country without seeing it. I´m also having an internal struggle over where to travel at the end of the semester. Most of the ND crew is thinking Cancún/Yucatán, but I realllllllly want to go to Chiapas, which is the most southeastern state in Mexico. The whole state is practically on the Natural Wonders of the World list and it´s really difficult to get there from outside Mexico, whereas it´s actually cheaper to travel to Cancún from Chicago than from Mexico City.
In other news, I just successfully made my first batch of rice and beans. It was a bit of a mess but worked out well and should last at least a week. I officially feel like I´m living in Mexico.

Success.

So today was overall great for various reasons:
1. I did not faint at the hospital.
2. First real exciting hospital internship experience (not, fainting does not, in fact, count): In following the obstetrician/gynecologist today, I got to see a baby be born. Witness a birth? Watch a birth? I'm just now realizing that it is impossible to phrase this event gracefully in English. It's much more natural sounding in Spanish. To give birth=dar la luz, literally, to give the light.
3. I ate the leftovers from the best fajitas the world has ever seen. NDH ain't got nothing on homemade, fresh ingredient fajitas. Shabam.


4. I helped assembly a pirate-themed presentation for my physics lab and finished my homework in record time. Everything is improved times ten with a piratey undertone.
5. Tomorrow is Friday (this is both true and I felt the need to have a number 5).