Day of the Dead

Last weekend, November 2nd, was Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead.  I wanted to give you all a little history in case you didn't know that much about it.  Then, I will show you the pictures.....

The Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico can be traced back to its indigenous pagan cultures. Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years.  In the pre-Hispanic era, skulls were commonly kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.  In most regions of Mexico, November 1 is to honor children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) and November 2 as Día de los Muertos.

People go to cemeteries to be with the souls of the departed and build private altars containing the favorite foods and beverages, as well as photos and memorabilia, of the departed. The intent is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will hear the prayers and the comments of the living directed to them. Celebrations can take a humorous tone, as celebrants remember funny events and anecdotes about the departed.  Sometimes people drive their cars into the cemetaries and play music, drink and dance on the grave sites of loved ones in order to honor and remember them.  

Alter set up at the mall

No one at the house build any alters, but I went to the mall in the afternoon and there was a big alter set up to honor various people of Jalisco.  















You can see the candy skulls and the Mexican marigolds which in Mexican tradition has always been a flower that attracts souls of the dead. 

Then later in the night we went to a cemetery and got to heal all the legends and ghost stories of Guadalajara.  The cemetery that we went to is one of the oldest in the city.  It was a real cemetery where they buried real people, but it became full and they stopped selling plots in the 1800s.  It was really cool to see all the decorations, but unfortunately they didn't allow anyone to take pictures.  The next day, I went downtown to the Plaza de Las Armas and saw a skeleton art exhibit.  They were skeletons made my students from many of the different universities around Guadalajara.  Here are some that I thought were the best!! :)

HAHAH!  Just kidding, these are real people, not skeletons!!  Fooled you! 

Thought the painting on this head was really cool!

Its like pirate skeleton means zombie skeleton. 

I want this dress, but I don't think they make it in my size!  jajaja..

Creepy.. but cool!

PEACE

Watermelon Theme

This one has the world in one hand the a dove in the other.  (The dove is also a skeleton)

Long Time

Hey all,

Its been a long time since I've written anything new... I know I know.. I'm a slacker.  I dont know if it was delayed culture shock or just a few bad experiences in a row that threw me off.  If you ask my dad he will tell you flat out.  "Amanda, she just lost her mojo!"  hahahaha.

To make a long story short, there was a lot of stuff happening at school, a few things going on at work, some things going on at home and a bunch of stuff going on with friends.  Somewhere a long the line of all of this, I managed to lose my confidence (i.e. my mojo).  It wasn't anything bad, I didn't get hurt, school is still going well, but something changed and I just started having a really hard time with EVERYTHING.  Everything from the bus driver wasn't understanding me, I had to explain to my teach literally 15 times how to spell AMANDA and various other exceedingly small super frustrating situations.  So the month of October has been to say the least a trial in pacients and self preservation.

Then, I had a long conversation with myself (the voices inside my head participated equally) :) and came to the conclusion that I needed to do something to get my mojo back!!  So, I called up a friend and decided to take a trip to Mazatlan for the weekend.  It was the best decision I could have made.

Maybe she was hanging out with her!  :)

I found my mojo, apparently she missed the sun and the sand, because she was right there on the beaches of Mazatlan!  Confident, full of life and energy and ready to come with me back to Guadalajara for our next adventure!!  :)

I left after class on Saturday.  Went out with a friend on Saturday night, met some new friends on Sunday, spend the day on Monday on the beach and by the pool, and then came back to Guadalajara on Tuesday morning.  It was super fun and super relaxing!! 

This weekend is the day of the dead, and there should be lots to talk about, from visiting cemetaries to decorating alters and semaforo parties!  :) I will have lots more pictures and lots more adventures to tell you about on Monday!  See you then!!  

 I was having a hard time getting through the meal with the sauces I put on my tacos and here is Reyna eating a jalapeno just because..  hahahaha.

Noche Mexicana and 16 de Septiembre!!

Hello!  Its been a really exciting past week/weekend.  Lots of noches mexicanas (which means lot of parties) and also 16 de Septiembre (Mexican Independence Day) celebrations all weekend and Monday!!  First I will start by telling you about Noche Mexicana.  It is a celebration where everyone dresses in either red, white or green (the colors of the flag) and you watch traditional dances, eat a lot of traditional food and drink tequila!  It was really fun... well you can see for yourself.

When we entered, all the ladies were given a flower.













BAILES FOLKLORICOS!

The dancers are dancing with glasses of water on their heads to show how well they can balance.  I asked Martin what would happen if one of those glasses fell.. he looked at me slightly confused and replied "someone would get very wet..."  huh.. why didn't I think of that!!  hahahahah

Also, in the video you see the guys dancing with machetes..  They are smaller machetes then the ones that Martin used when he used to dance the traditional dances in school...  don't question it, believe me... I heard ALL ABOUT IT!!  hahahaha  No, but the video is really cool and very fun to watch.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=594994769087

These guys were decorating our table... now they are decorating my bedroom!  They are made completely out of crumpled up paper of different colors. 

FOOD!!

The food was sooo good!!  We had taquitos, enchilladas, sopa de pazole (its like a chicken based soup with corn, rice and other meats) salad and lots of chili sauces!! 

Then after eating and drinking everything that we could, we danced and danced until 1am before we all went home.  It was really fun!!!

 16 de Septiembre!!!

After doing awesome on my final exam on the 15th of September, I decided to celebrate by going back down to Atotonilco and "re"tasting all the tequila... you know, just to make sure it was still good!  :)  The tequila companies come and build bars in the town plaza.  I'm not talking about here is a stand at the fair that is easy to put up and take down... I'm talking about BUILDING A BAR!

Brick, mortar and MARIACHIS!!!  What more could you ask for in a party!  :)  But first, before I start to get into the party and the amazing fireworks display, I think you need to see the AMAZING tacos that we had from a taco stand on the street. 

Tacos al Pastor!  So Good!!

Churros filled with dulce de leche.  So much sugar but I couldn't stop eating it!

Later during the fireworks display, we met up with some of Derek's friends and watched some of the coolest fireworks that I've seen in a long time.  They would be against the law in the US because sparks were flying everywhere!!

The video is on my facebook page because it was too big to fit on here.  One of the coolest things that you will see on it if you watch it is that there is a part of the top of the flower that flies into the air and whoever can collect it and bring it back to the officials running the fireworks at the end of the night gets $1000 pesos!!  Its kinda scary because you have to watch the sky and your head until you know where it lands...  the second night, it landed on the other side of the block from us. 


We made a new friend.

Stayed out and celebrated Mexico with el grito.  Which is when the governor of the area shouts and gives props to all things Mexican and everyone else responds by shouting VIVA!!  :)

More food... 

Gorditas de chicherrones.. nothing like you get at taco bell! 

After we ate breakfast/lunch and took our siesta, we decided to go down to the Charriata  (rodeo).  Getting there in and of itself was quite the adventure.  We couldn't find any parking so when we were finally able to find a spot that was semi legal, (it wasn't my car so I didn't care hahaha) we had about a mile to walk to get to the entrance.  Then Derek flags down this truck and we got into the back so they could drive us to the Rodeo.  When we were paying, the truck started driving away before we got our change, so I had to jump out, grab the change and tickets and run back down the road to hop back on the truck.  Thankfully no one way driving very fast.  :)

At the Rodeo when we finally got in, we saw the rancheros dancing with their horses. Then they were trying to lasso a horse and make them fall down.  They only did it a couple times and the horses always got up and walked away, so it didn't look like they got hurt, but I still seemed kinda mean.  I have one video of it, but if  you don't like seeing animals fall down then you probably shouldn't watch it.


After they were done roping the horses, they opened it up for people in the crowd to come down and try to ride some of the horses.  Almost everyone fell down which I thought was a lot more amusing, because those people volunteered to put themselves in these situations.  This video is very fun.  I don't know how the guy survived, but he got up right away and brushed it off.  hahaha..


Then after the people got done, they let in a baby bull and everyone tried to taunt the baby bull until it ran after them.  My favorite was the guy without his shirt on.  He had been riding the horses earlier and he did really well, stayed on for almost a circle and a half, but when the horse threw him off, he ripped his shirt completely down the side. So he took it off and proceeded to do the rest of the activities without a shirt on.

It was a lot of fun and getting back to the car in the dark was just as much fun as getting to the rodeo.  We asked very nicely to a guy who had a pickup truck and he let us hop in the back and ride down the road.  It was a very bumpy ride, but it was better than walking!  We went back in town and stayed in the plaza dancing, watching fireworks and having a blast until very late.  Then I had to wake up early the next day and get on a bus to ride back into Guadalajara.  It was a blast! 

Atotonilco el Alto and more!

So I have a lot of tequila to tell you about...... oops I mean I lot of events to tell you about!!  First off I have another Rotary Presentation to a group of English speaking jr high and high school students in Atotonilco (I had to use a little bit of Spanish for the jr. high kids, but all of them spoke really well and paid a lot of attention to the stories that I was telling).  Afterwards, my friend who teaches English at those school (the reason I was invited) decided to take me out on the town in the "small" town of Atotonilco where a majority of the tequila that we know is produced.  We started with a drink called Charazo which is basically tequila with grapefruit juice, lime and salt.  I might have gotten the name wrong because it wasn't really good enough to remember. Then, we had to try a Margarita....  :)  After that, we had this drink called Vampiro (which means Vampire).  It is kinda like tequila mixed with tomato/sangria with lime, salt, lots of chili powder and squirt to top it all off.  I didn't like it.  Then we had to try a few different types of tequila. 

       

After a long night of... I mean a long day of giving presentations and talking to students, I took the two hour bus ride back to Guadalajara.  It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of fun new people who have invited me back later in September for the Sept 16th Independence Day celebrations.  Apparently all the major tequila distilleries, there are about 10 different companies that are located in Atotonilco such as Jose Cuervo, Don Julio, 7 Lagunas, and Patron just to name a few, set up bars in the main plaza and it just becomes a huge party for the month of September.

Hijos Escalados -- a tribute to the people from Jalisco who have done exceptional things. 

Last Saturday night, after class got done I went to the Rotaract meeting where I met a really nice visiting Rotaracter from Hidalgo, Mexico.  We decided to have lunch together and walk around the market on Sunday before she had to leave to Colima... this is what we saw.

The steeples of La Catedral

The Catholic Church is the middle of town.  Basically the church that the city of Guadalajara was originally build around.  

There were a bunch of kids playing in the water in the fountain.  I don't think I would be brave enough to do that, but they looked like they were having fun.

And last but now least, for some reason Spider Man was there... Maybe he arrived in Guadalajara to help fight off the narcos!  :) 

Yesterday I gave my first presentation in Spanish!!!  I was super nervous, but everyone said I did really well.  I spoke to the Club Rotario Zapopan Lomas del Valle, they are my host club and they were really excited to learn more about me and why I am down here in Mexico.  They use nicknames a lot in Mexico.  Everyone has a "mote" and when I introduced myself and said I didn't have a nickname one of the guys in the club must of thought I didn't understand what a mote was... here is how the conversation went.
Me: "My name is Amanda Hermes, and I dont have a mote." 

Him: "Yeah but what do your friends call you?"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "Ok but what does your family call you?"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "ok yeah but what did they call you in school"
Me: "Amanda"
Him: "hmm.. well thats weird!"

I am sure my the end of the month, once they get comfortable having me around either the Rotary Club or the Rotaract Club will come up with some sort of nickname for me... you know... just so I dont feel lift out!  :) 

Finally, this morning I saw what looked like a scene straight out of the movies.  We have this big train that goes by our house.  It runs from Guatemala all the way up to the boarder of the US.  The people here call this train La Bestia which means The Beast!  Well today while I was waiting for the Beast to pass I looked down the tracks and saw a couple guys running after the train..  then all of a sudden they grabbed on to the railing and jumped!  It was just like a scene in the movies.  I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a picture of them in action, but as they passed I was able to sneak a picture and just happened to catch these stowaways, once they got comfortable, sneaking a ride of the Beast back down south towards Guatemala..  Who knows where there final destination will be!