Puebla : Part 1

This past weekend I was invited to travel to a nearby city called Puebla, which is just about 2 hours out of Tehuacan and is the fourth largest city in Mexico! I was pretty excited to get out of Tehuacan and see some more of Mexico. I was briefly in Puebla on my first day in Mexico, but it was night time and I pretty much only saw the bus station. 

The other teachers and I met at the bus station at 7 in the morning, which is super early when you live 30 minutes away from the main part of the city. Needless to say I was super exhausted that morning, but still really pumped for the day ahead. I learned my first lesson of the day in the bus station - always go to the bathroom at your home! I had to use the restroom when we were waiting in line to I figured I would just go really quick and then it would be time to go. Well when I got to the bathroom I found out that I had to pay $4 pesos to even get it. Once I paid I found out the toilet paper wasn't even provided. Luckily another teacher had her own toilet paper and she lent me some. 

We set off on our two hour bus ride. The bus was way nice and they even played the movie The Proposal for us, which was great because it was in Spanish and it's one of my favorites!

We finally arrived to Puebla and we were all really excited to explore the city. There were 7 of us teachers total  and we met up with a guy who is from Mexico, but works at the same school as us.

Ashley and her very large crape! 

There was even a man on the bus who decided to play  us a song on his harmonica 

After we got off of our bus we went to the center of the city where tons of vendors were setting up their stands. They had lots of candy, jewelry, and other knick knacks for sale, most of which cannot be found anywhere else except the one and only Puebla, Mexico! We also did a little exploring of the downtown area and got to see some cool architecture.

After browsing through some vendor booths we then took a tour of one of the largest (possibly THE largest) Catholic cathedral in Latin America. The cathedral was huge and I was really excited to see inside it. I might have gotten us into a little bit of trouble because I kept touching things, like the confession booth, which apparently is considered disrespectful. I was a little upset that people thought we were being disrespectful, because that wasn’t our intention at all. We were all so excited about the culture that it came across as being impolite. Either way - the cathedral was gorgeous and we all really admired all the beautiful artwork and architecture.

After taking some time to look at the cathedral, we decided it would be worth it to pay for a guided tour of the city. We found a tour bus that would take us around the whole city for only about $7 pesos. The tour took about 90 minutes total. The tour was narrated, but we were sitting all the way in the back and most of the teachers didn't speak Spanish.

Along the way we crossed paths with some clowns, who were very excited to see young white girls. They pulled us out into their show and had some fun with us. One took my camera and decided to take a picture of his face. 

the group picture the clowns took of us.
 Note the large crowd watching from  the side.

After some sight-seeing we grabbed lunch at a small place on the street. I got something called a "gordita" which translates to "little fatty", so of course you know it was really healthy.

Bonnie is so funny!

My gordita with quesillo

To Be Continued...

Weekend Fun

 This weekend was full of some good adventures I wanted to share. Saturday morning I woke up and was just sitting in my bed just kind of keeping to myself. Gaby, my host sister and roommate, and already left to go work in the store. As I was lying there I suddenly heard Gaby, my host mom, call my name. I  jumped out of bed to go see what she wanted. She looked at me and just said "vamos" [which means "let's go"]. I looked at her strangely and she just told me to put on shoes and come. So, in my pajamas, undone hair, and non-made up face i put on some flip-flops and got into the car with Gaby & Martin. They finally told me that we were going to a little town outside of Tehuacán to buy some food. It was about a twenty minute drive out of the city to a tiny unknown town. We got there and I got out of the car and was able to watch some ladies hand making tortillas. Martin was there apparently to buy a dish called "mole de panza". I had heard of mole before, but this was different. It was basically like a soup. We got the mole and then started the journey back to Tehuacán. Once we got home I was finally able to put on real clothes and do my make-up. Then it was time for lunch. We ended up eating the mole de panza for lunch along with a really spicy taco and some cantaloupe. I tried to eat the mole de panza to be polite, but it tasted pretty awful to my gringo taste buds. Shortly after lunch, I was going to sit in the store with Gaby, but I started feeling very nauseated. I took some pepto bismol to try to settle my stomach and it did eventually help. I later told Gaby, the mom, that I thought the mole de panza upset my stomach, and that's when she decided to tell me that mole de panza is made from GOAT STOMACH. I was very surprised to learn that, but it finally made sense why my own stomach was so upset. Apparently my stomach and goat stomach don't get along very well.

this isn't my actual mole de panza, but this is what it looks like.

Sunday I was planning on waking up early to attend my 8 AM church, but unfortunately my alarm decided to not go off, so by the time I woke up I was already too late to go. I decided then that I would go to church with my host family. My family is Catholic and I have never been to a Catholic church before so I thought that it would be a good thing to experience. We got ready and headed to the 10 AM mass. The cathedral was beautiful and it was very large. I was really confused for most of the mass because I'm so unfamiliar with the way that it works, not to mention it was held in an entirely different language. After mass we went to brunch at a little restaurant across the street with the Grandma of the family. I don't remember the name of what I ordered, but it was basically eggs wrapped in tortillas with black beans on top. Very delicious. 

After brunch we did a little bit of touring around the centro in the city. The family is always really excited to show me things, especially if they are specific to Tehuacán. We got to see the City Hall of Tehuacán which is painted with lots of beautiful murals and we visited the outside of the Cathedral once again. 

The Cathedral that I attended mass in. Huge! Beautiful! 

me in front of the city hall's many murals

the door to city hall


After some sightseeing, my family took me to the local market to pick up some food. There was tons of fruit, fish, meat, and pretty much anything you could imagine at a market like this. It was crowded and very busy. On our way out the family jokingly asked me if I would like to try chapulines, which at the time I didn't know what it meant, but they showed me them and they were basically little brownish-red bugs. I said no at first, but then the grandmother bought some and asked me again if I would try them. I was reluctant at first, but then I decided to just go for it. I was really scared especially since I didn't even know what chapulines are. I later found out that they were grasshoppers. They weren't awful. They were salty and crunchy. Gaby & Daniel said that they hadn't even ever tried them before. I was pretty proud of myself for being open to something like that. I am trying to try as many new things as possible rand to have an open mind about all the things I'm doing here. I ended up eating a second grasshopper because I took one out of the bag to take a picture and then the Grandmother shut the bag and I didn't know what else to do with the one I had taken out...so I just ate it.

there were some men in the market playing the xylophone! 

moments before my first grasshopper.

hmmmmm.

After the market we actually visited the local mall. The outside didn't really look like a typical mall to me, but it had all of the same types of stores as an American mall. Most of the stores I hadn't heard of, but there were a few familiar places. There was even a McDonald's inside the mall! I loved that the chicken sandwich there is called a "McPollo".

All in all, I had a great weekend of trying and doing new things. I can't wait for all the adventures that are in store for the new couple of months here in Mexico!