Let the fun begin!

Hola chicos. This starts my blog posts that will be about what I am doing and as I promised Sam cultural stuff. I am also taking on a project this semester. There is a local bakery down the block from me. They sell cookies, donuts, bread, and everything in between. I have decided that I am going to try everything that they sell besides the donuts (because I do not like donuts) and then rate each thing. It is a very small bakery but it is going to take all semester because they bring new things out all the time and at different parts of the day they have different stuff. I am also not trying to eat something everyday. This project isn’t going to cost much as I got 2 pastries today for less then 70 cents. But it might turn me into a bowling ball, which I am willing to risk for FANTASTIC tasting baked goods. I will also include a picture with my rating so that everyone knows what I tried. I am naming this endeavor “project deliousioso”. (Project Delicious).

Project delicious:
Tuesday 26- Today was the first day of my project, and I started with a cookie with coconut on top. I believe it was a vanilla cookie with shredded coconut. It was fantastic. The cookie tasted very coconutty. I really enjoyed the flavor combinations that were in this cookie. I give this cookie 5 chef hats out of 5.

Wednesday 27- For today’s baked good, I tried my favorite cookie, that I love in Mexico. Even though I have had this cookie many times, I still wanted to try it as part of my project. It has a vinilla taste and is quite good. I really liked the flavor . I give this 5 chef hats out of 5.

Saturday 30- My third day of the project was a pastry with goo inside. It was very soft and fluffy. The goo seemed to be apple flavored. The pastry was a little too sweet. Paired with the apple-flavored goo, it was too sweet. I give this pastry 4 chef hats out of 5.

Sunday 31- Today I tried the muffin, which I thought was a nut muffin but it was a pumpkin muffin with nuts on top. It was very rich and moist. The muffin also had a great taste and great combination of pumpkin and nuts. I give this muffin 5 chef hats out of 5.

Classes: I had my first History class. Classes are taught much different here then at Drake. We aren’t getting a syllabus until next week and they still do not know assignment deadlines. Both the social work students and the Migration and Globalization students are in the class together. I am in the Migration and Globalization program. There is a social work program going on at the same time as mine. We are going to have some papers, discussion groups , and then we will have to sign up to write an entry in a blog about our experiences and connect it to the reading we are doing . We will also be writing on a blog for students that are studying abroad in Thailand. I personally believe that is it super cool that we get all these opportunities. Next week I start my Spanish courses along with my History class that has already started. I will also be sitting in on the internship classes because I dropped that class even though I will be volunteering at the Middle School teaching kids English, and then working in the Elementary school in a classroom. I am super excited for all the things coming up.


Field Trips: On Thursday morning, we left to see the nearby Pyramids that are close to Cuernavaca and then go on a mini retreat to the Ex- Hacienda Santa Cruz for a short one night get away. The pyramids were amazing and it was SUPER hot up on top of them. They are not as large as some of the others in Mexico that I have visited but they are still super neat. The pyramids were spread out and it was a large compound. After we finished at the pyramids we left for the Hacienda, which was more then 100 years ago a sugar and rice plantation. We stayed at the bed and breakfast part of the complex. We were able to hang out by the pool, or in the hammocks or walk around the complex. I mostly walked around the complex and then sat by the pool and talked to the other people in my program. It was very weird to me to be at “school” but be at a retreat type thing where we were swimming and then every now and then discussing articles that we had to read. We even had a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows. It was a lot of fun. I got totally eaten alive by a trillion nats/ tiny bugs I learned a lot more about the people I am going to be spending the next 4 months.


Cultural: Why are Mexican graves above ground instead of below ground? This question came up today, when a couple girls and I were walking around where we live looking for the local soccer field that people go to run. We were told it was past the graveyard. Now this graveyard is not the average graveyard. It is filled from the moment you walk into it with graves. I do not think there are any plots left. Just like in Mexican culture. They fit a coffin wherever it will fit. I found it very interesting that the graves are above ground. Some of them were really elaborate, while others were very plain. I have only been in a graveyard a handful of times, but this one was interesting, and I really enjoyed walking around. Most graveyards in the states are very plain and grassy. That is not the case with this gigantic graveyard. There was no grass and the graves were really pretty. This graveyard probably glows and has even more life during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in October.

Weather: I have now been in Mexico for 11 days (at the time of this writing) and the weather has been amazing. The first week it was warm, but the last couple of days , it has been really hot here. The forecast is that in less then a month it will be in the upper 80’s everyday. Luckily the houses retain coolness to help during the day. So the weather will stay hot here, and will stay cold up north.

The other week I came up with an analogy of sorts. When asked about Mexico and the United States I decided that I am living in a different reality. Home and Des Moines are in a whole different world then Mexico. It amazes me that two totally different places can be located within the same continental land that makes up North America but be total opposites. Time seems to go much faster here. It is really strange. I am in a totally different universe, and even though my house, family and Roger are still at home, and my friends are still at school, I am living a different reality this semester then everyone else . It is one that you can not fully understand without being here and feeling and knowing the differences between the two realities. So to end this post today, I hope everyone is having a great day in their reality and their universe, because it certainly is great down here in my Universe.

I will post pictures from this weekend and the bakery pictures tomorrow!
Meira