¡Quédate!

During the month of January, I made a promise to stay in Puebla and not make any big trips. Mainly so that I could go to church consistently on Sundays if we’re being honest, but also because December was literally non-stop traveling. This way I could save money for some of the other exciting big trips that I have planned for this semester (stay tuned).

Because I more or less stayed in the city of Puebla, where I live, I don’t have a lot to report. Something to do with that whole phenomenon of people having a tendency to not explore the places that they live in. I realized that I don’t actually know Puebla that well… I mean I have my places that I like to go to, but I don’t explore it like I do when I go to other cities. So I got to do a *little* of that this month, however a lot of January was spent trying to get back into a rhythm and recuperating.

So what’s gone down in the past few weeks? (warning: this post will be very sporadic)

Surprisingly, the food that I missed the most while I was away from Puebla was mole poblano (this isn’t surprising because it’s not good, its amazing, I just don’t eat it that often). So, one of the first things that I did when I got back was go get myself some mole 🙂

I’ve done a lot of eating and trying new places since I got back, y’all know I love food. So please enjoy this montage of some of the delicious foods I got to eat last month (yes KFC counts as delicious food):

I learned that I don’t like Pozole as much as I thought I did 😦 We also went to a place called The Beer Box where they have artisanal beers from all over the world, although the one I got was from Mexico. Still very good.

WE STARTED DANCE CLASSES!! Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of us in class, BUT I promise that this is real. So Naysha, Jude, and I decided to take a Salsa/Bachata/Cumbia dance class together. After a week we got Daniel into it and now the whole house heads out to class twice a week. It’s amazing. I’ve been dancing for basically my entire life, but latin dance has always been difficult for me since I’ve never had to dance with a partner. For that very reason, I’m extremely grateful and excited to be learning how to do this. Every now and then we’ll go out to a salsa bar or something to practice which is always such a good time. It just seems like everyone here knows how to either salsa or cumbia, so now that I know the basics, it’s nice to be able to actually dance with someone when they ask lol.

I finally made it to Cholula! If you recall, Cholula is the closest Pueblo Mágico to Puebla and the first one that I ever went to (read here). HOWEVER, I’ve only been to Cholula a handful of times. The first time we went, was my second day in Puebla, so we walked up to see the big church and ate dinner. The second time was to check out the night life (Basically Cholula has two sides: There’s the historical side with all the churches and then there’s the nightlife/club scene due to the big university that’s there). But, según yo, one of the coolest things about Cholula is the pyramid. The pyramid, called Tlachihualtepetl, is the biggest pyramid in Mexico. However, because of the church built on top of it, the pyramid can’t be excavated any more or else the church will collapse, which is why the pyramid doesn’t look that big. Crazy.

BUT you can still walk inside some of the underground tunnels within the pyramid, so that’s what we did!

The whole time I was thinking about what would happen if there was an earthquake and we were stuck down there… in the pyramid…

Afterwards we walked around to see some of the visible outer parts of the pyramid/walk around Cholula a bit.

I haven’t spent much time in Cholula but there’s a lot of really cool stuff out there! And now that I know that there’s a bus that will take you there for 6 pesos, I’m definitely going to be checking it out more!

And that’s about it! I mean January was a good month but I’m excited to travel again. A couple of weeks into January marked the halfway mark of our estancia here in Mexico (Audience: awwwww), so I’ve made a quick list of a few things that I’ve learned here in this exciting country:

• I HATE mosquitoes. I thought that I didn’t like them before, but now I realize that I was simply indifferent. I loathe these insects… with a passion. More passion than the word “loathe” implies. The mosquitoes in Puebla are huge, just unreasonably big. And they bite like nobody’s business. I’m over it. If anyone can provide me with anything that these demonic beasts contribute to the world, I will hear you out. Until then, I will be perfectly content seeing them eradicated from our planet.

 

• Whatsapp is the superior communication app. Change my mind. Whatsapp is popular all over the world, and people here in Mexico use it for almost everything (I had to text a restaurant through whatsapp the other day because they didn’t take calls). Voice messages, group video chats, the ability to delete texts, and call people for free. Don’t be surprised if I keep using it when I get back to the States.

 

• U.S. Mexican food is an injustice to la gastronomía mexicana. If you knew me before this trip, you probably know that I didn’t like Mexican food. Of course this was because I had only been exposed to Mexican food in the U.S., even more so, on the east coast (my understanding is that SoCal and certain states close to the border have v. good Mexican food, for obvious reasons). But the food here is SO. GOOD. If I didn’t eat “TexMex” before, there’s no way I’m going back to it now.

 

• Living in another country is difficult. This one is a bit more serious. This is the longest amount of time that I’ve lived in another country by myself, and it is extremely difficult. In my blog posts and on social media I know it looks like I’m having a lot of fun, and I am, but those are just highlights. There have been a lot of struggles associated with being a recent college graduate learning how to adult in an environment that is tremendously different from everything you know. I’ve been experiencing constant, heightened levels of anxiety, stress, and extreme mood swings. However, when I talked to other people who were in similar situations (other countries included, not just Mexico) I realized that a lot of them had very similar experiences and felt almost exactly the same way. I only mention this to anyone reading who’s in a similar situation. If you feel like you’ve not been yourself lately, you’re not alone and I would be more than happy to listen to you talk through it. Talking helps me a lot.

 

• Thinking in pesos. If you don’t know, the currency here in Mexico is pesos, which have less value than the U.S. Dollar (USD). When I first got here, everything seemed so cheap because I was always thinking in USD. “A whole meal for $100 pesos? That’s less than $5 USD! Incredible.” Problem is, we get paid in pesos. So I had to learn real fast how to think in pesos or else I’d end up spending all my money. I’m a cheap person by nature, so I think my habits now in Mexico are even funnier than they would be otherwise. Now, spending $100 pesos on a meal is considered treating myself, you will almost never catch me spending more than $15 pesos for a taco, and I am still visibly shocked when I go to the produce market every week at the amount of vegetables I can get for <$80 pesos. Living my best life.

 

• Finally, Mexican memes are next level. I love a good meme but the memes here in Mexico are so funny, I don’t even know why. I’m having the time of my life getting on facebook and seeing such fresh content every day. Learn another language, if anything for the second world of memes it opens up to you.