Puebla, Mexico City

Wow, it’s hard to wrap up the last 2 weeks; I feel like so much happened. Sorry if this is super long. Well, after Veracruz we went to Puebla. We arrived in the early afternoon, and had a welcoming at the municipal palace. We got a tour of the building (very pretty), and had a little reception. We got picked up by our host families that evening. I mentioned it before, but we get “host codes”, for being able to decipher who is our host family. The host family is given the host code, and they have to dress or bring a sign accordingly. I had the best one yet! My host code was limon (lime in Spanish), so my host family literally made little men out of the limes. They cut them so they had arms, leg, and a head, and each of 6 limes were holding a letter of the word “limon”. It was so cute! My family is adorable! They have an awesome house too. They have this amazing marble spiral stair case with a big stained glass window on the ceiling. I am sharing a room with my host sister, Karen who is 18. She loves elephants too! I also have a host brother, Axel, who is 21. We had a nice dinner of quesadillas with quesillo! That’s the Oaxacan cheese that I loved so much last summer.
Tuesday was a regional learning day. We took a tour of the chicklets factory. You know the little Mexican gum? It was pretty cool to see how gum is made and packaged! Then we went on a double decker bus tour of the city. Did you know there are enough churches in this state to go to a different church every day of the year?! Crazy. It’s a very pretty city-it reminds me a lot of Oaxaca. That afternoon we did an activity called Johari’s Window. Put simply, the principle of the activity is to learn how to give and receive constructive feedback, because that is the key to growing as a person. So we got into groups and gave each other positive and constructive notes. That night for dinner I had a sandwich popular in Puebla called a Cemita. It’s this huuuuge torta, stuffed with a layer of avocado, chicken, more avocado, quesillo, ham, grilled onions, oil and vinegar, and salt. Mmmm!!Right up your alley, Sean! That night the TV program we were on was aired! It was really such a cool thing to see myself on TV; even if I was just step-clapping .
Wednesday, a small group of us went to a “day care” for senior citizens. It was SO FUN! They were adorable and so happy that we were there. They expressed that most of them were never able to leave Puebla to visit other countries, so it meant a lot to them that we were there. We got to do exercises, play games, and sing songs with them. We sang “Viva La Gente” for them, then they sang “Cielito Lindo” for us. It ended with us all dancing together. So fun! It was an awesome day. That afternoon a small group of my cast mates did a presentation about the environment. I learned many new things about the current (and terrible) state of the world/environment, and I realized I have totally lost touch with my “earthological” side (That’s a word I made up when I was little, which means environmentally friendly ). We talked about things we can do as a cast to help; we are 90 people in each place we go, and we leave a huge trace by all the things we consume. So, we all made a pact to buy a plastic plate or Tupperware to bring for our meals. Usually when they serve us lunch or breakfast, we get either paper or Styrofoam plates and cups. What a waste!-especially with 90 people. So it’s things like that that I want to be more conscious of again. I encourage whoever reads this reduce, reuse, and recycle!!! Buy a reusable water bottle and reusable grocery bags, reuse clothing, have a compost pile, unplug things that are not in use, and recycle whatever you can!! There are so many simple things we can do!
On Thursday we had a BTS at a local school for 1,500 kids. It was awesome. It was out on their football field, and after we were done they all stormed the field! It was so crazy! It was mostly the crazy girls who were in LOVE with all our boys. Friday was our show day! That morning a few of us went to a TV station, Televisa, to do one of our pieces, “Keep the Beat” for the news. It was a tiny little stage and very slippery, but it was so fun! They interviewed us a little bit after we danced and I had to speak in Spanish! Eek! It went OK though. Remember the internship project I mentioned previously? Well, the group we taught, “Cell Block Tango” to got to perform it for the cast that afternoon. They did so so good! On Saturday we had a pretty easy-going day. We call time with just the cast, “internal time”. Marek from the Czech Republic presented on his country, we worked on the European medley, and we put fun little skits together about our experiences in Mexico. That night my host family took me to the mall to get a nice dress and walk around the town. I just LOVE them! That family has definitely been my favorite and most loving family so far. They took me to get my hair cut and paid for it without me knowing! (The guy cut it too short though and I’m so bummed because it was getting long ). They are just so sweet, and I got along really well with Kareen, my host sister. For dinner we had tacos arabes, which are a common type of taco in Puebla. Yummmy! The night ended on the couch like a big happy family watching Pirates of the Caribbean in Spanish!
Sunday morning we had a big breakfast with my host moms parents. So cute! We had yummy tamales and juevos al la Mexicana (Mexican eggs: scrambled with green peppers, onion and tomato. Red, white, and green for the Mexican flag). I had a chocolate tamale which was SO good! Nothing like Larua’s though . Later we went to where Kareen works, which is called Africam. It is a huge African safari/zoo. We didn’t have time for the whole safari (sad I didn’t get to see the elephants), but we got to do the zip line! It was awesome! I had to leave early that day because we got another opportunity to be on TV in Mexico City. So a small group of us left on Sunday instead of Monday. I was genuinely sad to leave the family. It’s so crazy how close you can get to a family in just a short week. I will miss them.
We had to get up at 4 the next morning for the TV taping. We were supposed to do 3 numbers, but some miscommunication happened and we only ended up doing “Viva La Gente”. And we got a little interview too which was fun. We met up with the rest of the cast after that for a tour of the Presidents house! It’s called “Los Pinos”. We all dressed in our nicest outfits and took a tour of the beautiful lands. We felt so special and it was such a privilege to be able to do that! That night we had a quick meeting then met our host families. My host mom in Mexico City’s name was Guillerma, and she was such a sweet lady. She is divorced and lives alone with her Chihuahua Luka. She is a professor of architecture. Her godmother, Graciela, and he family live next door, so we did everything with them. My roommate was Nao from Japan (same roommate I had in Aspen), and Kyle from South Dakota was staying at Graciela’s house. We got settled into their house and had yummy quesadillas for dinner that night.
The whole week in Mexico City was so awesome but especially exhausting. We got up before 6 everyday, and wouldn’t get home until about 9. Then we’d have dinner with our families until about 10:30 because Mexican’s eat so late! It was a great week though. Everyday we were at Xochitla, an ecological park who was our sponsor. It is a GORGEOUS place. Huge grass areas, gardens, greenhouses, ponds…amazingness! It was beautiful weather all week too. Tuesday we had a BTS at an inner city school. It was really fun and they loved us. Wednesday we had a culture fair for 1,500 students from all over the city. We had booths set up from each country we represented, which gave information about each culture, and we also had fun games for them. It was a huge success, not only because the kids enjoyed it, but it promoted our show and becoming a student in Up With People. Thursday was a regional learning day. We took a walking tour of downtown Mexico City. I wish we had more time because there is so much to see and learn! The city has so much history, and it is very beautiful. In the afternoon we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan. They are the 3rd largest pyramids in the world! UNBELIEVABLE! We hiked to the top of the pyramid of the sun and took some amazing photos.
Friday I got to practice some nursing skills! Vattenfall (our sponsor in Europe), required us all to get a health screening before coming to Europe (they were scared of the swine flu). One of our PR staff, Antonio, is a MD and he asked me to help him run the health checks. So allll morning we took blood pressures and temperatures of all 90 cast members. I loved being useful and it was great to practice some skills. Hopefully I won’t forget everything I learned in nursing school over these 6 months! That night we had another, and probably our final BTS. . We probably won’t have any in Europe.
Saturday was show day. We rehearsed all morning on our awesome outdoor stage. We were all soaking up the last bit of sun we could get before coooollllld Scandinavia. We sold around 2,500 for this show! It was our biggest yet and such an amazing way to end our Mexican tour. Even though the fans in Mexico were quite overwhelming with the photos and the autographs, I will miss the enthusiasm. It’s going to be verrrry different in Europe. I had my last Mexican quesadilla that night, packed, and headed off to Sweden the next morning!
Now, we just arrived to Stockholm!!

SWEDEN!

Well the past two weeks have been so awesome!! I am in Europe now whoohooo!! We are in a city called Lulea, Sweden. We are something like 100 kilometers from the Arctic Circle! It’s unbelievably beautiful! I live on a street with 2 other houses, surrounded by trees and water. It’s pretty pretty pretty chilly here though. It was about 35 degrees when we got here. It’s a shock to all us Arizonans. It’s so different, and so wonderful. Our trip here was, well, pretty long and terrible. Four hour flight from Mexico City to Newark, 2 hour layover, 7 hour flight to Stockholm, Sweden, then 12 HOUR BUS RIDE to Lulea. Crazy. But we are all so happy we are finally here!! I can’t believe it! We met our host families that night. I am staying with a young couple named Andres and Mia. They are darling and they have an adorable little house that looks like it’s straight from the Ikea catalogue. They have 2 little schnauzers, Pepsi and Pious. So cute. On Tuesday we had a pretty relaxing day because half of the group was still travelling to Sweden because they left a day later. So, I feel pretty rested and not too jet lagged. I’m so excited to start this new leg of the trip!
I’ll write later about the past 2 weeks in Puebla and Mexico City, but for now enjoy my pictures! I’ll try to write soon!