XochimilcoDid you know that there are over 60 indigenous languages spoken in Mexico? Náhuatl is the language of the Aztecs, the founders of Tenochtitlan, what is today Mexico City. In Náhuatl, Xochimilco means "the place of flowers". When the Spanish originally arrived to Tenochtitlan they were blown away, floating gardens, or chinampas, as far as the eye could see. Today, the waterways that weave through the chinampas are home to trajineras, the colorful boats pushed along with large poles, just like a Venetian gondola. Today we took a ride on one of these must-see trajineras and enjoyed being surrounded by water and trees while learning about Aztec history. Coyoacán In Náhuatl, Coyoacán means "the place of coyotes". This is the home of la famosa Casa Azul de Frida Kahlo y Diego Rivera. Our first stop was a churrería, where one could choose from seemingly hundreds of rellenos! ¡Qué rico! We next hopped in line for our 1:00 walk-through of La casa azul. Once inside, we saw Frida's artwork, her separate bedrooms (one for day and one for night), the bedroom that was used first by Leon Trotsky, then by Diego Rivera himself in his later years. We loved the kitchen decor that spells out Frida and Diego with teeny tiny ceramic water pitchers! After the main house, we crossed the garden to the display of Frida's back-braces, special shoes for her leg that was stunted by polio, her traditional dresses skirts and blouses, and her jewelry. We enjoyed dressing up ourselves as Frida and Diego, too! We ended our visit with almuerzo in a local restaurant. The kids learned to say provecho as they exited the restaurant, wishing fellow diners an enjoyable meal! Ciudad de MéxicoIn Mexico City, we began our tour at el Palacio Nacional. We saw the huge courtyard with its European architecture, and read the history of Mexico via los murales de Diego Rivera. After, we walked through the main walking street of the city, with vendors trying to convince us to buy glasses and characters charging money to take pictures with them. We saw la Casa de los Azulejos and entered to see Sanborns restaurant. We then made our way to the Palacio Postal--a giant, shining old post office to mail the postcards we bought in Teotihuacán. Parents, be on the lookout for your mail in a couple months! Afterwards, we stopped to gawk at el Palacio de Bellas Artes before buying traditional candies and snacks from a vendor and hopping into the van for our long journey back to Cuernavaca.
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¡Hola desde Teotihuacán! We spent today tromping around this enormous (in area and in importance!) archaeological site. Don't worry parents--we put on plenty of sunscreen! We learned that the pyramids are temples to the gods and are not tombs. They are solid adobe, rather than hollow, inside. When a new ruler came to power, he would build another pyramid over the pyramid of his predecessor to demonstrate his power. In their time of use, the gray stones that we see today were covered over with stucco and painted brightly. We learned about and watched a demonstration of using natural dyes from nature, like the acid from bugs, the oil from nopales, the orange from cempasúchil petals, etc. We also learned about the many uses of cacti, including el nopal, el maguey y la sábila. Finally, we climbed la pirámide del sol and got an amazing view from above (and an amazing workout!). On our way back to Cuernavaca, we stopped on Avenida la Reforma to see the brightly painted alebrijes--a Día de los muertos tradition. We voted for favorites and tried to find alebrijes that looked most like us! After a quick survey in the bus, these are a few of our favorite things from the trip thus far: Zoe: Explorar el mercado y el centro. También me gusta la sopa de fideos :) Aidan: Escalar la pirámide del sol en Teotihuacán. Alex: Ver la película Coco en español. Erich: Toda la comida de la casa de Evelia! Trey: Escalar el templo y comprar un clavecín. Colin: Escalar el templo del sol. Jason: Los desayunos: huevos, pan, fruta fresca y los hotcakes! Señor Inge: El templo del sol y comer los tamales que preparamos! Profe Gillard: Ver los alebrijes y los dulces de pepita en el mercado. ¡Hasta mañana!This morning we learned to make tamales! We made tamales de pollo y salsa verde and tamales de queso. To make sure the dough was ready, we plopped a dollop into a glass of water. If it floats, it's ready! We also learned to make agua de naranja with fresh mandarins from the garden next door. Our final product was BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS! We went to El mercado la Carolina to buy more hojas for our tamales and chocolate for our calveras that we will make on Wednesday. Día de los muertos candies were everywhere! We bought sugar skulls, little animalitos made from pepita de calbaza and azúcar. Stopping to buy pan dulce was a must! We saw cecina, pigs' feet, liver, and chicken feet in the butcher stalls, too! Rubén was our guide for our Cuernavaca city tour. We saw the pyramid of Teopanzoco, went through Porfirio Diaz's park, walked through the Morelos state traditional food fair, and went into La casa de Spencer to see the Día de muertos altars. Schools from around the area compete to show the best altar! We ended the day walking around the zócalo and trying new foods--more pan dulce and esquites.
¡Hola, amigos! Nos juntamos muy temprano en el aeropuerto- ¡a las 5 de la mañana! Bright and early! We learned how to fill out luggage tags and immigration forms; entertained ourselves with reading, candy, and cards on the flight; found Colin's store and Zoe's water; and met up with Selene after changing our money from dólares to pesos mexicanos. There are ofrendas everywhere, from the duty-free store to the courtyard! Bright, colorful, and full of history! After making our way to la escuela, we met up with host families: la casa de Evelia, la casa de Tere y la casa de Fabiola. Almorzamos antes de ir al cine para ver "Coco", la película de Disney-Pixar, en español. What a beautiful and well-done movie! The students were excited when the movie was over--something clicked halfway through and they began to understand the Spanish! Señor Inge was excited because he saw people topping their palomitas with chile. Profe Gillard was apparently the only one who cried in the movie... After arriving back to the school, we walked back to our families' homes for la cena a las 8:30 pm. We learned a dicho: "Desayuna como rey. Almuerza como príncipe. Cena como mendigo." ¡Hasta mañana!
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