families & familias (and food)

this weeked was filled to the brim with families! i hadn´t realized how much i´ve missed families since i´ve been here. i suppose the valpo group is like a family (with 10 sisters and 1 brother? ay yi yi.), since enrique always herds us together by yelling ¨¡vamonoooos, familia!¨ but that doesn´t change the fact that i´ve missed families who have long histories together.

the family-ness started on friday night when we went out for pizza on the zócalo with dan´s family, who was visiting from minnesota. let me just tell you that he has the cutest family ever. if you put his mom in a line of my mom´s cousins mary, pinky, and chris, and you wouldn´t even be able to tell that she wasn´t one of their sisters. she´s adorable. she used to teach in puebla, so she´s semi-familiar with the area and speaks impeccable spanish, definitely putting me to shame. his stepdad gave mallory tons of advice for going into peace work in the future, which was really interesting to hear about. and he has 3 younger brothers, all of whom are hilarious. i taught them all about how to put spicy sauce on their pizza and they made me miss pete a ton. it was a good time!

saturday was st. patrick´s day... another reason to miss my family! this place is seriously lacking in all things irish. krista and i woke up and danced around the room to the boondock saints music for awhile (and we tried to watch the movie, but it was from the fayuca and didn´t work out so well), then went to breakfast, where we wanted potatoes, but ended up with quesadillas and chilaquiles instead. flavorful, spicy food on ireland-day? oh no no no. they didn´t even have irish cream for my coffee! we were pretty depressed.

then we went into mexico city to stay with our suitemate andrea´s family. (on the busride there, we watched ¨walk the line¨ dubbed in spanish. it was a little bit awkward - lacking southern accents! - but still good as ever. love johnny cash!) we had chinese food for dinner (the lights went out so we ate it partly by candlelight) and listened to bagpipe music in the car on the way there. we were pretty amazed at the globalization: irish music, chinese food, & gringas in mexico city...

then andrea took us to an irish pub to celebrate st. patty´s day!!! it was basically the best ever. krista and i split 2 pints of guiness (beer? yes, sometimes that happens on special occasions.) and some bailey´s and we watched live music. the waiters were all wearing green hats with shamrocks and i talked one of them into letting me wear his for awhile. then i got one to take home at the end of the night. it was a good, good time.

i should mention that now that i´ve seen mexico city from the perspective of someone who lives there, instead of only speeding through tourist sites, i don´t dislike the city as much.

sunday was the puma´s (soccer) game. we bought shirts and learned lots of the cheers and i finally saw someone get red carded! very exciting. the game ended in a tie, but it was really exciting toward the end, because the pumas had been losing 3-1 at the half and came back to tie it in the last 10 or so minutes. after the game, we stood around in a mob of screaming, cheering, singing fans for about a half hour and i learned more of the songs / cheers. it was a glorious time. i miss having a team i care about within an hour of me.

immediately after the game, we (sweat and beer stained clothes and all) went to andrea´s grandparents´ house for sunday lunch / dinner with the family. basically, her family is a smaller (with 5 less uncles and 16 less cousins) version of the metzes who speak spanish. they were so amusing! everyone was talking a mile a minute and we were attempting to stutter out answers to all of their questions (and not really succeeding) and i´m pretty sure they were all making fun of our horrible spanish the entire time. for lunch they served carnitas (pork) and barbacoa (lamb). i swallowed my pride and tried the lamb (blech?), but mainly stuck to bean quesadillas and guacamole in fresh tortillas. dessert consisted of strawberries with vanilla ice cream (!!!!!!!!), some tequila, and a huge mug of coffee. i love the way mexicans eat.

sunday night, the clásico (yes, another soccer game) was in mexico city, so we watched that on tv. it was between the chivas (a chiva is a goat, btw. talk about a good mascot!) and club america, two huge teams here. CA´s goalie was beyond phenomenal, so it was a really fun game to watch. chiva´s lost by 1.

i forgot to mention that for breakfast on sunday, andrea´s mom took us to a huge market in the middle of the city and we ate at a ¨quesadilla bar,¨where you pick your fillings and they whip you up a quesadilla (make with fresh tortillas!) really fast. mine were filled with cheese and potatoes. heaven!


wednesday is market day in cholula, so krista and i got up early this morning to go buy food. we had quesadillas again (this time only with cheese) and bought beans, rice, lentils, and garbanzo beans to make hummus. we´re going to start cooking more, it seems.

i love the market. seeing all those people, buying fresh produce, fresh meat (ew), fresh veggies, and flowers to fill their vases just makes me very happy about life. everyone is doing their own thing, the same way they´ve done it every week for years, and i wish i had routines like that. i can´t wait to come back to the states and shop at farmer´s markets, where i won´t have to soak the produce in water and a cleaning solution for 10 minutes before i can eat it! i wish i could describe the market better, but i can´t. just picture stand after stand after stand piled high with colorful fruit, or vegetables, or baskets full of chili peppers and spices, or dead de-feathered chickens piled high on countertops (not my favorite part at all). my favorite section is the flower stands, where you can buy so many different kinds of colorful flowers! tomorrow i´m going to pick up some daisies on my way back from the orphanage. i´ll go back to the market with my camera some day and try to capture it in pictures.

last night, krista, sam, dan, and i sat outside until 2 am on the terrace outside the centro social, watching indiana jones on sam´s laptop. it was cold, but very very fun.

homework abounds this week, but i´m slowly working my way through it. we were off monday for benito juarez´s birthday (look him up, he´s a pretty cool guy) and on friday morning at 6am, we leave for veracruz, so this is only a 3 day week for me.

veracruz is on the gulf coast (body of water #1 i´ve never seen, except from above). it´s filled with freshwater and saltwater seafood and is the first place hernán cortes (the conquistador) stepped foot on mexican soil. i am super-emocionada about going there!

next friday begins spring break, a week of sun and fun in puerto escondido (on the pacific coast - body of water #2 i´ve not yet seen). i can´t wait for a week of 100% relaxation! on the ¨best of puerto escondido¨ website, it says there are amazing restaurants with curries and cajun chicken! excited!!

yesterday evening, i got to talk to my sister on the phone for a half hour. this was basically the highlight of my life, since we hadn´t talked since i´ve been here. i missed you, elizabugs!

aaaand i´ve run out of news to report. however, i really want graeters. please go eat some for me. that´s all.