Tabasco and Chiapas

This past weekend, my friend who invited us to her cousin's wedding invited us to her house in Tabasco (8 1/2 hours from Puebla). Her house was enormous and right in front was a huge fountain like in downtown Philadelphia. Her family completely took us in and fed us well. One day we spent the day at a Safari type place. The next day her aunt and uncle (an accounting lawyer) took us to Chiapas, the next state over for the day. We went to Palenque, which is the Mayan ruins and to Agua Azul. The water is like the Caribbean because of the minerals. It is ridiculously hot in the South where Tabasco and Chiapas is so it was nice to cool off in the water. There is a nice amount of people from her state who study in Puebla so the next day they took us to the beach about 40 minutes away. One of the kids had a house there so we hung out there all day. The ocean water was like a bathtub because of the heat but still refreshing. My friend's house thankfully had air conditioning, not too common in Mexico. In November, the state had a problem where it wouldn't stop raining and the rivers were overflowing. I saw the water marks on the houses, about 6 feet high. My friend's family is definitely very wealthy. They own all the property around her house for a couple blocks and her dad is a doctor. It was definitely nice to see a different part of Mexico. I will be home June 10 everyone!! Get ready!!!

Tabasco and Chiapas

Oaxaca

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. The end of the semester was a little crazy with finals and final projects but I ended up doing pretty well and my Spanish has improved tremendously. May 1-5 we had a little break from school for Mexico's Labor Day and Cinco de Mayo in Puebla, where the battle took place. I went to Oaxaca (4 1/2 hours from Puebla) with two other girls from Penn State. We left on Thursday and spent the entire day walking around and just exploring the city. It is one of the more tourist cities in Mexico. I went to Santo Domingo, a cathedral that took about 200 years to build. It is huge and there are little museums in each of the rooms. We went into the church, which is completely covered in gold and gold plating. We stayed at a youth hostel where people from alll over the world stay and met people from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary. On Friday we did an all day tour of famous places in Oaxaca. We started at Tula, the widest tree in the world, then went on to see how the wool rugs are made. It was amazing because it is completely from scratch and the colors are made from natural materials, not chemicals. We then went onto Mitla, ruins of the Aztecs and Hierve el Agua, petrified waterfalls. Finally we went to see how Tequila and Mezcla is made at a factory. The picture with the horse is interesting because that is how they grind the material. On Saturday, we went to the largest market in Mexico. I put up pictures of the fruits and vegetables they sell because it is all over. The people are also indigenous so they speak indigenous languages, not only Spanish that we couldn't understand. We came back on Saturday night and on Sunday, I went to the final Puebla soccer game of the season.

Oaxaca

Xochimilco

A Mexican Wedding

The weekend after my birthday, I went to a Mexico Wedding in Mexico City with one of my friends from school who lives in the dorms with Kate and Nishi. She invited us and another one of our other Mexican friends. It was her cousin's wedding and she was one of the bridemaids. Her dad got us a chofer for the weekend. The wedding was on Saturday around 5 and the reception began at 8. It wasn't too much different from any other wedding except for the music and the dancing. They also had a Mariachi band come in, which is something you don't often see at non-Mexican weddings. The food was great and there were about 150-200 people there. On Sunday, we went to Xochimilco (try pronouncing that one) which is a place with coloful boats. I will post pictures above this post. I got Ariel a minature version of the boat so she can play in the bathtub. I have a picture with it so you all can see. Well that's it for now! I'm in the homestretch in school. I just did a presentation in one of my classes on Thursday on a work of art completely in Spanish and it went well. I should be getting really good grades in all my classes, I worked hard all semester. I can't wait to share my stories with everyone. If there is anything in particular anybody wants from here, let me know!!! Tim and Mary, I got you both really great gifts so dont worry haha.

Una Boda Mexicana (A Mexican Wedding)