¿que onda, cholula?

i just woke up - extremely disoriented - from a really bizarre dream. here´s the set-up: instead of coming home from mexico and staying in the states, i moved immediately on to valpo´s cambridge, england program. i mean immediately. i went to cincinnati, unpacked my bags, repacked my bags (with gloves and a scarf!) and hopped on a plane to london, where i met my new british roommates, decided to go to ireland for st. patrick´s day, and fell asleep in my bed in england. and then i woke up in my real bed in mexico.

i think this is a sign that i´m worried about culture shock and the fact that i don´t know what´s going on with my life after i leave mexico. both of which are true. oy vey.

so, i leave mexico next monday. how did that happen??

this past week was our last full week of classes. i turned in a couple of final papers, did a few final presentations (2 of them on fair trade coffee!), and have a couple more papers to turn in. we have classes on monday and wednesday of this coming week, but tuesday is el primer día de mayo, which apparently means we don´t have classes. april 30th is mexican childrens day and may 5th is obviously cinco de mayo (which, btw, commemorates a battle fought right here in puebla! more on that later.), but may 1st we get off school. no entiendo. i have 2 finals on thursday, 1 on friday, and then i´m done.

next sunday (the day before we leave), 4 of the valpo girls and the 3 minnesota guys are making a return trip to taxco... just for a last hoorah in mexico. we´re spending less than 24 hours there, and taking a bus to the mex city airport early the next morning so we can make our flights. i love taxco, so i´m pretty sure it´s a good place to spend my last night in mexico!

this weekend is my last in the greater cholula / puebla area. most everyone else went off to tlaxcala for the weekend, but i stuck behind to get things done. leah and mel and i are making some good old american food (bbq chicken, apple pie, & pralines), but first today, our friend vero is making us mole oaxaqueño. she has as much pride in her traditional oaxacan food as i have in ¨traditional¨(?) cincinnati food! then we´re headed into cholula to do some market hopping and buying of last-minute presents. tonight, it´s out to bambuko´s for our friend jen´s birthday and the fin de año.

last weekend was our last VU trip, to the aztec town of cuetzalan in the northernmost part of puebla (it´s at the end of the paved highway). the trip takes about 3 -4 hours and we were in a huge tour bus with its own bathroom - thank goodness, because i had food poisoning or some weird stomach bug & spent the majority of the trip in the bathroom, giving myself the title of queen of the vom bomb squad. i couldn´t even keep down a couple of sips of liquids, which was pretty awful. i missed most of the destinations on the trip, just because i was sleeping on the bus, but i did get to go to our last archeological site! everyone else went to the market in town, where everyone does their daily shopping. apparently it was even more intense than the one in cholula and they definitaly stuck out more with their blatant gringo-ness there. we also stopped at a chicken and black bean restaurant on the way home (helloooo, heaven!), but i could only eat a tortilla or two.

i´ve been feeling rather ill & aztec two-stepping on and off all week since then, but i think my stomach´s getting back to normal finally. go figure i wouldn´t get sick like that at the beginning of the trip like a normal person, but in my last 2 weeks, when i thought i was in the clear. boo.

we´ve been listening to pat xm satellite radio alot lately to get re-caught-up on what music´s on the radio in the states these days. i´m pretty sure they´re not going to be playing ¨no me digo que no¨ back at home, eh? anyway, most of the current music in the states sounds kind of boring to me. even the song shakira and beyoncé do together! also, a few weeks ago, my roommate was listening to music on her computer and beyoncé´s song ¨irreplaceable,¨ that was pretty new when i came down here, came on and i got really homesick. maybe just because i hadn´t heard it in awhile or because i realized you can miss alot in 4 months, but i´m not sure. i hadn´t really gotten homesick before that! random.

yesterday was rachel´s 20th birthday and i discovered how to call the states from a pay phone - using a phone card with only TWO minutes on it. so i got to talk to anne martina for a couple of seconds and then leave rachel a voicemail on her cell phone. and today is deanna´s 21st birthday as well! i hate missing these things!

el tigre is still a haven for creepsters. my latest encounter was with an argentinian guy who told me all about his girlfriend back in argentina while dancing in an inappropriate manner with me. not cool.

and an update on my summer plans, if that´s at all possible: i´m in the market for some cheap housing in seattle (ha! that´s an oxymoron if i ever heard it!) and am hoping to take an internship with the washington fair trade coalition (www.washingtonfairtrade.com) / the community alliance for global justice (www.seattleglobaljustice.org). with some paid work on the side, probably with the seattle aquarium or the pacific science center gift shops. (10 points for event network hookups!) i recently received an email, though, about possible internships in columbus (ohio) and san francisco, so let´s be honest... i still have no idea where i´ll be or what i´ll be doing. cincinnati is still an option, too.

there´s a hummingbird right outside the window!

i´ll be back in valpo late on the night of may 7th, by the way, in case you want to plan accordingly...

and, now i´m off to the store with leah - to buy ingredients for the food we´re making this weekend and also probably some cranberry juice, too. we want vero to try root beer, as well, so i hope they have that!

xoxoxo.