Author Archives: kkt5010

Cuetzalan School

Hello all!  I know there haven’t been very regular updates to my blog, so I’m hoping to try to catch up a little bit this last week I’m here in M�xico.  I’ve had different issues – ranging from technical difficulties uploading to simply not having a lot of free time in which to write!

Anyways, this blog is primarily about our final “fieldtrip” while here in M�xico.  Last weekend (Friday – Sunday) we visited a tiny mountain town in the state of Puebla called Cuetzalan.  The town has a school that Penn State is “partners” with, and that we had the opportunity to visit.  It was pretty amazing.  The whole village is set way up in the mountains here (it took us 4 hours to drive there in our tour bus).  The scenery is gorgeous, and because of its location, the climate is closer to tropical than anything I’ve experienced so far while I’ve been here.  But here’s the play-by-play…

Friday Morning:

Up at 7:30am to meet up as a group to get on our tourbus and head for the mountain town of Cuetzalan.  The schedule for today is to drive deep into the Sierra Madres to visit a tiny school for the people who live in this amazing location.  My understanding is that Penn State helps this school out with occasional funding, faculty exchange, and gifts and in return they allow us to visit when we do our study abroad program here in the state of Puebla.  I didn’t really know what to expect for this school, but it was something so outside of my realm of experience, I don’t know that I could have been completely prepared for it.

To see a third-world type educational institution on TV or in a magazine is a thoroughly different experience than visiting one in real life.  While at the school we saw a powerpoint presentation on their computer (their ONE computer and projector…) that was pictures of previous visits to the school.  And they fed us lunch – a hamburger, fries, and homemade coleslaw.  As we ate, our professor remarked that this was most likely more food than most of the families saw in a day, certainly much, much more than they normally received at school. 

After we walked through the cement block school, that had maybe five or ten different classrooms, we went down to their “gym” an outdoor cement basketball court/soccer field.  They did a variety of traditional dances for us, and thanked us for the gifts we had brought them (plates, bowls, soccer balls, colored paper, pens and pencils).  After that, a bunch of our group played soccer with a bunch from the school.  Despite what you’d consider our height and weight advantages (as we’re all twentysomethings and they’re malnourished kids between the ages of 10 and 16), they kicked our butts at soccer.  I think everyone had fun, though, which was more the point of the activity.  J

After that, they did this fantastic thing where they build these giant paper balloons (out of a waxy crepe paper that we bought them), insert a wire ring with a rag soaked in gas and on fire, and then send them up into the sky.  A miniaturized hot air balloon.  It was a really neat thing to watch, and the balloons floated all the way up and out of sight behind the clouds as we were getting ready to go.

All in all, it was a pretty incredible day…one that made me extraordinarily grateful for my education and the opportunities I’ve had in my life.  The kids at that school have an impossible road ahead of them, and most won’t make it out of the mountain towns in which they live.  A lot don’t even have a proper house, and are hanging on only by a thread.  I wish the best for them, and am glad that Penn State, for all its flaws, is doing some little good somewhere in the world, at least.  We need to do more.

TO BE CONTINUED…  


Location: Zaragoza No. 12 Cuetzalan, Puebla, México

Mexico City, Mexico

Our whole group (13 students, 2 profs, 1 assistant) took our tourbus to Mexico City this weekend.  The city is about a 2 hour drive from Puebla, and we left around 8:30am on Wednesday morning.  And we had a RIGOROUS schedule from there on out…

 

Wed:


Arrive in Mexico City.  We visited the pyramids at the city of Teotihuac�n, one of which is the third tallest pyramid in the world.  It was hot and sunny, but I CLIMBED THE WHOLE PYRAMID.  Photographic evidence to follow.  🙂


After that, we went to the church of “The Virgin of Guadalupe,” which our tourguide claimed was the second most important Catholic site after the Vatican.  According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to a farmer (sometime in the 1800s?) and demanded that he build a cathedral to honor her.  When the farmer went to the local bishop, the bishop didn’t believe that the farmer had actually seen the Virgin, and building cathedrals is expensive, so he asked for proof.  Frustrated, the farmer went back into the hills where he had seen the Virgin.  She reappeared to him, and he explained to her that the Bishop wanted proof that she was real.  Despite the fact that it was wintertime, she told the farmer to go over the hill and pick some roses for the bishop.  The humble farmer did as she asked, and to his amazement, a breed of rosebush very difficult to grow in the dry Mexican soil had sprung out of that hillside.  So, he picked some roses, put them in his cloak, and returned to the bishop a second time.  The Bishop was unimpressed with the petals that fell from the farmers cloak, and refused to build the church a second time.  But then, the farmer opened his cloak up wider, and on the inside of the coat was revealed a perfect portrait of the Virgin herself, in brilliant colors.  This last convinced the Bishop, as the colors that appeared on the coat were of no natural substance that could be found.  In fact, our guide claimed that to this day the substances on the cloak have not been properly identified and will never lose their color. 

The cloak itself is still able to be seen in the new cathedral (the 3rd one since the original chapel), but (in my opinion) even more impressive than the cloak itself are the numbers of people who flock to see it.  Though I am not Catholic, it was a pretty remarkable and faith inspiring experience.

That’s the last thing we did on Wednesday.  After it, we drove around the city for a bit before going to our hotel and settling in for the evening.  OH!  I almost forgot.  And we got to have dinner on the roof of a hotel overlooking the main square of the city.  It was a delicious meal, and the view was pretty amazing too.  J  Then, we went to bed.

Thursday:

Thursday we did a pretty fantastic walking tour of a lot of the downtown of M�xico City starting around 9am.  We got to see the main square (called a zocalo, I think I mentioned that somewhere before) again in the morning.  It was full of a kind of market – little tents where people set out their wares – as well as a political demonstration of some kind.  After trotting through the square, we got to visit the Palacio Nacional, which is kind of a combination of the Mexican Congress, Government Offices, and Presidential Offices.  It’s pretty much everything except a Presidential Residence (that’s someplace else.)  After the Palacio Nacional, we went to a set of ruins that’s located right in the center of the city called the Templo Mayor.  Because Mexico City was built right on top of the ancient (and HUGE) Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, pretty much anytime someone digs around, ruins or artifacts are discovered.  Apparently in the 1970s they were digging for electricity and hit upon the foundations of one of the largest ceremonial buildings from the city.

So we walked through those and through that museum for an hour or two and got in our ancient history lesson for the day before crossing the street to see the Cathedral that is also located in the center of town.  Unfortunately, we only got to see bits of it because of a celebration and service that were happening when we arrived.  Sooooo – then it was off to lunch!  J

After lunch, we hiked around to see a bunch of different Diego Rivera murals throughout the city (they’re everywhere).  We visited a huge theatre called the Bellas Artes, one museum dedicated just to Diego, and another museum with just one of his works.  It was a busy afternoon.  I don’t know how much you know about Rivera murals (admittedly, I’d only vaguely heard of him before this trip), but the man had OPINIONS.  And he put them into his art.  He also tells huge stories of social and economic and historical change in many of his murals.  I think they’re kind of incredible, and that he must’ve been a pretty fascinating person.

After all of that we headed back to the hotel.  I was filled with good intentions of starting my homework (due Monday, as I write this it’s Sunday evening and I’ve not yet begun…hurm.)  Instead, I went out with a few people to walk around our part of Mexico City, visit a bookstore (in which I bought a few things), and found a lovely bar/restaurant where we had dinner with the locals.  It was a GREAT evening in M�xico.  J 

The next day, Friday, was even busier:

We headed out at 9am again on our trusty little tourbus to travel across town to see the Castle and grounds of Chapultapec.  (For you folks interested in history, Chapultapec was the last Aztec emperor to be defeated by the Spaniards when Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire was finally defeated.  In contrast to Montezuma (called Moctezuma here), Chapultapec is considered a national hero and symbol of resistance to the Spanish Conquest.  Moctezuma is thought of as a weakling who was traitorous in submitting to the Spanish and for appeasing Hern�n Cort�s.  History lesson done.)

The castle is also the place where previous dictators and even (briefly) the king and queen sent over from France lived.  It’s a gorgeous location on top of a huge hill overlooking the city.  The interiors are amazing, the gardens are green and perfect, and the view is spectacular.  Frankly, if I were in the market for a castle, Chapultapec’s pretty much fits anything I might need.  J

After that, we spent the entire rest of the day at the National Anthropology Museum.  This is a HUGE HUGE HUGE museum dedicated to pretty much the entire history, geography, ethnography etc etc etc of M�xico.  It’s kind of like their capital city’s version of the Smithsonian, only it’s mainly focused on (you guessed it) Anthropology.  I loved it.  Our guide spent close to three hours explaining the main exhibits and the parts of history that we’ve already studied in class to us, and then we had a little bit of time to go out and wander on our own.  Out of 24 main halls, we maybe covered 10.  And then buzzed through 10 more.  But it was a wonderful glimpse into the history and people of this country.  I’d love to go back someday and wander about properly.

Saturday:

Whew!  Despite starting to be a little tired out from all of our excursions, we were downstairs and ready to switch hotels at 9:30am on Saturday morning.  We were moving across the city (a 2-hour drive from end to end, though we were more in the middle).  After leaving our luggage at our new hotel, we spent the day going through the museums of Frida Kahlo and Dolores Olmedo.  The Kahlo museum is basically the house, called Casa Azul, where she and her husband/lover/ex-husband/lover Diego Rivera lived.  The other place, the Olmedo Museum, was pretty much the home of one of the very wealthy friends of Kahlo and Rivera and housed all kinds of art, carvings, a small art museum and a weird assortment of animals from peacocks to a kind of hairless dog that is in danger of extinction.  It was an eclectic sort of day.  After that, we got to go on a boat ride in a canal similar to those that might have been used by the Aztecs.  It was a great relaxing end to the day, and I even have video (which will probably be posted to Facebook rather than my blog.) 

Saturday night was group dinner again, after which I almost fell asleep in my soup from all the exciting stuff we’ve been doing!

Today, Sunday:

Ok.  Todaaaaay!  We left our hotel at around 10am to go to a market in one of the neighborhoods nearby.  A “market” here is like a fancier, bigger, higher quality fleamarket.  There are food, clothes, crafts of every size, color, shape and description, supplies…pretty much anything you can think of is available at a market here.  Our group spent about 3 hours checking out this one.

Around 3pm, then, we headed back to our home city of Puebla, and we got here around 5:15.

All in all, I have to say that Mexico City was an amazing “fieldtrip” and is a gorgeous city filled with more activities than one can possible do in 5 short days.  It was absolutely part of this experience that I’ll never forget.


Location: Calzada de Tlalpan, 2043 | Colonia Parque de San Andrés, Mexico City 04040, Mexico

Oaxaca

Hi all!  I know it’s been awhile since you all heard from me, so this might be a longer sort of post to make up for that! J

 

Here’s what I’ve been up to –

 

Last Thursday our entire study abroad group loaded up onto our tour bus at 8am to drive four hours to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.  We were going to check out some historical sites, some native artisan crafts, and also just to explore another of Mexico’s cities.

 

The first thing we did upon our arrival in Oaxaca around 12:30pm was to tour what was one of the most ancient and largest cities in the region – Monte Alb�n.  Monte Alb�n was built by the Zapotecs and Mixtec cultures and was a thriving metropolis around 500 AD.  We got to hike around a couple of the remaining stone structures and learned a little bit about the customs, daily life, and religious ceremonies of these peoples.  It was really interesting.  Also really really warm and sunny on the mountaintop.  You can see the village for miles around in Oaxaca Valley.

 

Sadly, I left my camera on the bus for this first day of our trip, so there are no pics for you to enjoy.  There will be a few of the following days, however, so stay tuned.

 

After we toured Monte Alb�n we checked into our hotel in the actual city of Oaxaca.  It was really nice.  I didn’t take a picture, but here’s the link – that’ll show you pretty much anything you wanted to see.

 

http://www.hoteloaxacadorado.com/

 

We stayed in this hotel the entire time we were in Oaxaca, and it was great.  I even got in the pool.  (A big step for me, but it was in the 90s, and a girl’s gotta cool off.)

 

Anyways, for the rest of “Day 1” I pretty much just chilled out in my hotel room with the fan and the TV.  We supposedly have a pretty huge day tomorrow, so I didn’t want to overdo it right off the bat.

 

 

Friday was even longer and bigger than I expected. 

 

I got up bright and early and started out the morning having breakfast with my prof. and one other earlybird student at the z�calo in Oaxaca. 

A “z�calo” is a town square type idea that all Mexican cities have.  And the bigger the city, the bigger the z�calo.  To give you a better idea of sizes, the zocalo in Oaxaca was pretty “small” for a zocalo.  Puebla’s is bigger, and I’ve heard that the one in M�xico City is huge because the z�calo there is basically all of what was once Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec city.  But that’s another city and a story for next week.  (After we’ve been.)

 

After my breakfast of hotcakes and caf� Americano, we headed back to our tourbus to begin the day (about half an hour later than the rest of the group…oops.  I’ve learned to add quantities of time to everything here in Mexico.)

 

Today we were supposed to visit these ancient historical ruins called Yagul and Mitla, but we discovered about halfway into our drive that the road to Mitla was closed because of a bus strike.  So, we had to take an extra hour or so to turn around and do our itinerary for tomorrow instead.

 

Our first stop was a place where there was this family business (one of many in the Oaxaca area) of making pots and other assorted items out of this particular type of clay that turns black when cooked.  It’s called barro negro, and is really gorgeous.  I snapped a couple of pictures of our guide working on a pitcher that he made for us in a matter of minutes out of a lump of dry clay. 

 

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The Middle

 

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Finished product.

 

Impressive, no?

 

I also bought a bunch of ridiculously cheap (but artistic and pretty!) souvenirs for my family. 

 

Second stop of the day was at another artisan workshop where they make little wooden carvings called alebrijes.  They’re made from specific kinds of wood and then painted in intricate detail.

 

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If you look at the above picture closely, you can see a grey kangaroo type creature with red detailing in the background, and a kind of red dragony looking creature in the foreground.  Every single detail of paint is hand done.  Needless to say, I bought more souvenirs here too.  J  Couldn’t resist.

After the alebrijes factory, it was about 3pm, and our group was really really hoping it was time for lunch.  No dice.  Our next stop on the tour was a mezcal factory.  Mezcal is a type of homegrown Mexican tequila.  Everyone I know who’s tasted it finds the stuff pretty hard to stomach, and burning going down.  I took no pictures.

 

After the mezcal factory, we were so so so psyched for lunch, but we were told upon re-entering our tourbus that we were going to a tapete (weaving) place next.  Despite my initial grumpiness and hunger, I thought the tapete place was fascinating.  Here’re some pics.

 

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Blue rug with lizards.  Dimensions were probably around 8ftx4ft (ish).  Fully rug sized.

 

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See me be artistic with spools of thread.  Booyah.

 

 

………..

 

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A partly finished butterfly (mariposa) rug on a loom.  The view is a little skewed, so imagine that the butterfly part is flat and that the rest of the loom is perpendicular (if that makes sense).

 

I bought something here too.  I love artsy stuff.

 

After the tapete place, we went to our first Mexican “chain” restaurant – an all-you-can-eat buffet.  It was a scary version of Golden Corral.  (If you are a parental unit, stop reading now.)

 

It’s basically like an open-air buffet where you have little to no idea about the sanitary conditions of the foods you’re eating, and no assurances that it’s safe except for the other hundred Mexicans eating it with you.  Also, thousands of bees infesting all of the desserts.  (To my cousin, if you read this, it was literally your worst nightmare.  Bees in cake, and cookies.  And everywhere.)  The Mexicans eating here with us seemed totally unfazed by the bees and simply reached through the swarms to grab a fruit pie or a cookie, but the rest of us stared mostly in horror at the dessert array.  I can’t say this was my favorite meal so far.  Truth: Ignorance is bliss when it comes to food prep. and storage here.  Definitely.

 

After “lunch” it was about 5pm when we arrived back at the hotel.

 

I took a quick swim in our hotel pool (fantastically refreshing) and then some friends and I went out around 9pm for “dinner” and drinks in the zocalo (city square with cafes).

 

At our dinner we discovered one of the best parts of Mexico, though probably also one of the most tragic.  As we sat with drinks waiting for our food, dozens of Mexican street venders with jewelry, clothing, crafts, clayware, (basically any kind of homemade artisan good you can think of) came by to sell it to us.  And many of their wares were really really gorgeous and unique.  I don’t have pics of this evening (I should know by now that interesting things will happen everywhere and be photographically prepared), but it was amazing.  I bought a few things, and thought about what the lives of these street venders must be like…  It seems likely that they just go back to the barrios (Mexican projects) and try to get by on the little money they make street vending.  It’s a hard life. 

I bought a few things, but had to turn dozens more away. 

I’ll probably be writing a future post about the class system here.  It’s too big of a topic to cover here, and this is already a really long post.

 

Saturday and Sunday TO BE CONTINUED…


Location: Calzada Madero No. 224, Colonia Centro, C.P. 68000, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, México

Escuela y el centro commercial

Day Six!

 

Holy crumpets, you guys, I’ll have been here almost a full week by tomorrow!  Time is seriously flying by.

 

Had my first full day of classes today, and found it to be pretty chill.  We have art in the mornings at 9am (except on Thursdays, when I don’t have class till 11), then either a break or Culture class, and then we finish the day with Translation.  And I know it’s going to sound horribly nerdy to say, but the time even flew by in my translation class today, which was pretty amazing (it’s a 2 hour class.)

 

Things I learned today (both good and bad):

 

No one fully understands the bus system here.  Today the ENTIRE study abroad group got on the wrong bus.  Even our Mexican prof.  Oops.

 

One is required to wash one’s own undergarments, which means not putting them in one’s laundry basket.  Oops.

 

The mall is within pretty close walking distance.  Win!

 

My professor for translation used to do translations for the U.S. Department of State and the army.  (Translation: She’s secretly been even more awesome than I had assumed all along.)  Win!

 

I have a hearty digestive system, and haven’t been really “sick” at all yet.  (Though I kind of knew this going in.)  Win!

 

 

In other news, I’m still really lagging on the “taking pictures” front, but I promise to do better this weekend at Oaxaca when we’re being supertouristy and checking out all of the archaeological sites there.  We’ll be going to Monte Alb�n tomorrow, and it’s supposed to have a pyramid and be a pretty “well-preserved”(ish) Indian city, so I’m psyched for that.

 

After getting home from classes this afternoon, our TA and a couple of other students and I took a nice long hike to the mall and back today, and my se�ora and I still seem to be getting along despite the laundry debacle, so all in all, I’d say week one in M�xico is shaping up to be a success.

 

More news as it happens!  J


Location: 11 Sur 5307, Prados Agua Azul, Puebla, Mexico

Día Cuatro

Well.  Day four of Puebla, Mexico!  J

 

So far everything has been going wonderfully well.  We had our first ever tour of the Universidad Iberoamericana today, and it’s really, really beautiful.  A nice little green setting basically right on the outskirts of the city of Puebla.

 

The first adventure of the morning was figuring out a way to get to the bus.  Apparently, there used to be a bus that went directly from a street near the little part of the city where most of us live straight to the university. 


Not any more.

And unfortunately, none of our se�oras seemed totally sure about where, when, or which bus we would need to take to make up for the missing one.  However, we all managed to make it to the appropriate bus catching streetcorner (unmarked by signs or a bus “stop”) and waving when what was thought to be the correct bus rounded the corner.  I think the idea was, if we’re wrong, at least we’re all wrong together!

 

We rode this bus with our professors, one of whom is a native Mexican who currently lives in America, and she got us to the University (which basically entailed getting off the bus in the middle of the highway onto a median and walking from there to the entrance gate of the university.)

 

Once at school, we students chilled for a couple of hours at an outside caf� while our professors got everything in order for the next six weeks.  Then, around 11am, we had a presentation by the person in charge of foreign exchange programs at the school, and watched a short movie in Spanish that detailed the history of the University and the programs that it offers.  A lot of information to digest in a single sitting, and all in Spanish.

 

Finally, for the remainder of the day, we had a walking tour of all of the University.  The library, the cafeteria, the gymnasium – pretty much every building.  It’s kind of a peculiar set up.  There is one HUGE building that kind of circles the whole campus, and that’s where all the classrooms are.  Inside this structure is a kind of courtyard for studying and chilling during the day.  The library is at one end of it and the gymnasium and auditorium are at the other.

 

Around 2pm, we returned to our haphazard bus stop to try to make the voyage back to our individual homes.

 

Though I was briefly lost (due to no fault of my own), I did eventually make it back to my house.  Win!

 

The afternoon has been mostly filled with napping and catching up on the internet.  I worry that I spend too much time sitting on the computer here, looking at Facebook or e-mail or blogging, but then I decide that I need this time in English to decompress from the constant flow of Spanish that I am required to both comprehend and speak for the majority of the day. 

 

Till tomorrow – adios!


Location: 11 Sur 5307, Prados Agua Azul, Puebla, Mexico

¡Estoy aqui!

Well.  Getting internet to work in Mexico has been a more difficult task than I previously anticipated.  I’m currently sitting in my room in the house of my Se�ora Mexicana, Isabel Merino.  Her niece (pardon if I butcher the spelling, which is very likely), Maipe lives here too, along with a dog called (again, I’m still not positive), Melle.  I think he’s named after a fruit, but I’m not totally certain what the fruit is either.

 

I have to admit, I had no idea it was going to be so hard to understand and to communicate with everyone here.  I just keep nodding and agreeing with my two hostesses, even though I’m understanding maybe 1/3 to � of what they’re actually saying.  It’s incredibly frustrating, and I’m fairly certain they think I’m an idiot for not getting the most basic things until they’ve repeated themselves three or four times.  I’m sure they’re as annoyed as I am that we’re almost totally unable to communicate except in the most basic ways, and even then if I forget the vocabulary for something, I just sit quietly and smile.  At least I wrote on my “informational sheet” that they received that I’m quiet at first.  Ha.

 

This afternoon I have to finish unpacking everything, and then there may (or may not, my Spanish is poor, remember?) some kind of group dinner.  Since we didn’t finish the group lunch till about 4pm, I’m kind of terrified of group dinner, even if it’s not till 9pm.  To be fair though, everything I’ve eaten so far has been delicious, and in a mostly reasonable quantity.  I know it won’t surprise my family that I’ve found that I like most of the food here, but it’s been mostly all wins so far.

 

I have decided that I desperately need to acquire a Spanish dictionary.  The idea of continuing in my current state of imbecile muteness isn’t really appealing.  Especially since I think my se�oras are such sweet people, and I’d rather they didn’t think I had the comprehension levels of a goat.  Ah well.  At least the dog likes me.

 

One odd thing I’ve noticed here is that the TV is at least 50% American shows, which I wasn’t expecting.  Most of them are subtitled too, rather than dubbed.  This is a good thing in that I’ll have stuff to watch in my free time (once some of that crops up), but bad in that I kind of thought it would be fun to watch some different Spanish TV, and so far all I’ve found are news and telenovelas.  But then, I’m pretty sure if I look a little harder I’ll find something.

 

This morning was spent doing a 2-hour walking tour of Puebla.  I could be wrong, but I think our tour guide was also unimpressed with our group’s comprehension of Spanish.  To be fair, I did catch a good bit of what he said, and he was kind enough to speak incredibly slowly when he wasn’t making jokes about our ignorance.  Sigh.  It’s very humbling to be completely unable to communicate, that’s for sure.

 

I’m going to include some pictures here if possible:

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Well, time for my siesta before dinner!  Will update you all again as soon as new stuff happens!

 

Adios!

 

–  


Location: 11 Sur 5307, Prados Agua Azul, Puebla, Mexico

Leaving on Friday

Hi everyone!

Well, I’m finally started packing.  I fly out of Pittsburgh International Airport to Charlotte and then on to Mexico City on Friday.  I think I have to be at PGH around 5:30am for my 7:00am flight, and I live about an hour away, so it’s going to be an awfully early morning for me.
On the brighter side, though, packing has been going well so far, and I think I’m going to be able to fit everything into my two purple suitcases and my red carry-on bag.  So that’s good.
While in Mexico I’ll be doing all kinds of touring and stuff that I’ll be trying to keep you all updated on, but I think my first Mexican blog post might take awhile to get started.  I think I’ll probably need a few days to settle in with my Mexican “mother” before I’m back posting here.
I’m a little scared and overwhelmed about how fast everything is moving, but I’m also incredibly excited about this trip.  It’ll be my first solo airplane flight, and my first time “alone” in a foreign country.  
2 days to go…  😀

Location: 6068 National Pike, Grindstone, PA, 15442, United States

Finishing the Semester

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hello!

i’m finishing up the spring 2010 semester here at Penn State, University Park and getting ready to head abroad to Puebla, Mexico this summer.  i’m really excited about my trip, and about studying in such a beautiful country.  i’ve never been to mexico before either, so i’m sure i’ll be learning all kinds of new things every day.

i’m a junior film-video major here at UP, so i’m hoping to take at least a still camera to capture some of the sights in all of the various locations i’ll be visiting.  in addition to living in Puebla and attending a local university there, i’ll also be going on alot of field trips to a variety of culture sites and cities in Mexico, and i’m excited to share my experiences of those too.

for now though, i’m really focused on finishing up the spring semester here and getting packed for Mexico (especially since i’m going on a roadtrip to Providence, RI next weekend before i leave!)

can’t wait to come back here and keep you all updated about my progress!!  🙂


Location: University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802, United States