This past week was a relatively uneventful week at school. No big assignments, nothing really notable (which is definitely nice). On Thursday nights, Emily, Mary, Michael, and I have started the tradition of cooking/baking together to celebrate finishing our classes. Over the past weeks, we’ve made puppy chow and brownies. This time, decided to make chocolate peanut butter truffles! We had to get a little creative and decided to use ice trays as our moulds. When we were done, they weren’t the most beautiful, but they were rich and chocolaty and peanut buttery and exactly what we needed at the end of the school week.
Friday morning, I headed to Chiki Cole for volunteering. It’s the preschool and primary school I mentioned in a previous post. I was a little surprised when I was put in a 4-year-old English classroom, as I had never worked with children so small. When I first arrived, the kids were finishing up lunchtime and chaos was ensuing. We then went to recess to let out some of that energy. It was so funny watching the kids interact with each other, especially the boy-girl dynamic. The little girls set up these little “meals” for each other, and the boys would run through and knock it all over. It was also funny who they interacted with me. Most of the girls wanted to be held and hugged and wanted to ask me questions. Most of the boys just said “eres altísima” (you’re very tall) and then moved on.
After recess, we were learning about the US, so that involved listening to American songs and coloring a US map. The song they chose was “New York, New York,” to which the kids immediately formed little boy-girl couples and started dancing – so precious! During classtime, their favorite questions to ask me were ¿Por qué no tienes hijos? (Why don’t you have kids?) and ¿Tienes esposo? (Do you have a husband?) which made me feel a little terrified that I look old enough to not only have a husband, but kids as well. Ahh! Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to take pictures there, but overall, it was a really fun and hilarious time.
Next, Emily, Katie, and I headed to the Courtyard Marriott for a fun little pool day. We ate a nice soup and salad lunch and then lounged by the pool for the majority of the afternoon. It was very relaxing and nice to get a little base tan before our upcoming beach trip!
The next day was an early, early morning, as we had our second UPAEP sponsored trip to Teotihuacan, an ancient Mesoamerican archaeological site about two hours from Puebla. The city was built around 100 BC, and unfortunately it is unknown who built the city. However, it was abandoned sometime before the year 1000 for unknown reasons, and the Aztecs inhabited the city around year 1400. The city covers approximately 30 square kilometers, yet most of that is uncovered by archaeologists.
While there is an incredible amount of structures built in Teotihuacan, the main attractions are the two big pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, which sit along the Avenue of the Dead. It’s unknown what their original purposes were, but it’s known that the Aztecs used the two main pyramids, as well as other pyramids in the city, for human sacrifice to Quezalcoatl. The Avenue of the Dead refers to the road leading to the pyramids, on which the people to be sacrificed walked. It was very strange walking that same road, thinking about the amount of fear that must have been induced by that place.
Luckily, visitors are able to climb to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, which was quite a physical feat. To add to the emotion of the experience, right as we reached the top, we saw a man get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend. So sweet! Then we were able to sit down at the top and chat and enjoy the scenery and each other’s company.
The rest of Saturday consisted of a buffet lunch and Georgia game watch, which unfortunately did not end up exactly as we’d hoped :(. Other than going to mass, Sunday was pretty much a homework day, so nothing too too exciting there.
And whoops! I got a little behind again on blogs. While this past week was a pretty uneventful week at school, we left early Saturday morning (Sept 28) for our week long trip to Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido! We’re two days in and have already had so much fun and seen so much. I will try to update soon. More to come 🙂
En Puebla Bailan Así 