A half-hearted update

To my loyal 20 or less readers:

So sorry for the delays, I have not been in very much of a blogging mood lately, but I know that I owe you some kind of communication.

Life is still good, although I am starting to feel a little antsy. Thank goodness for 3 wonderfully exciting things that will be happening soon and have kept me distracted/positive.

3. I will be moving apartments starting in January, in order to save a bit of money. I will stay in the same neighborhood, and am currently deciding between two rooms that are for rent in private homes (each going for about $130/month!).

2. BACKPACKING TRIP hooorayyyy! On December 12, I will leave Cuernavaca with my friend Laura to spend 3 weeks galavanting through Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala, and hopefully the Yucatan Peninsula. This will include my first Christmas away from Philly and more importantly phamily. Very exhilarating.

Aaaand drumroll please for the number 1 thing that has kept me going for the past few weeks...

1. Mom is coming to visit.
From December 2nd through the 5th, with Aunt Regina. We will spend the time in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Coyoacan is significant for the following reasons: it is where Frida and Diego lived; it is also where Leon Trotsky hid out in exile after Stalin took power in the Soviet Union; there are many varieties of delicious street churros; there are delicious corn cookies sold on the street (imagine sweet crunchy corn bread); there is an enormous artisan market... I could go on, but most of my reasons have something to do with gastronomy or radical socialist historical figures.

Another cool thing that is happening (speaking of radical political beliefs) is my recent involvement in a retreat center here in Cuernavaca, run by Catholic nuns, one of whom is American, and all of whom are heavily interested in Marxism.

The center, Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development (CCIDD) works with various organizations in Cuernavaca and surrounding pueblos, including children's homes, indigenous artisan communities, orphanages, schools with limited resources in poor areas of town, etc. They bring University groups down for immersion trip programs, to perform community service and learn about international development. Hey SJU, sound familiar? Wolfington, anyone?

Wait, it gets better. The center is approximately 4 blocks from my house, has an outdoor pool, coffee brewing at almost all hours, and a stunningly beautiful property. It's a house, converted retreat center, has about 60 beds, an extensive DVD collection (mostly documentaries), and about 3 or 4 shelves of books sorted into categories like "education," "social development," "Mexico," "politics," "theology," "international poverty," etc. Two of the authors I've spotted so far on the shelves: Paulo Freire and Cornell West. Yahtzee! Also, the center employs a number of local men and women, as groundskeepers, cooks, program coordinators, translators, etc.

Kinda cool, right?

So anyway, I am currently helping at a breakfast program for kids before school in a semi-slum, actually it began as a squatter settlement next to railroad tracks in the 1930s, about 15 minutes from My Neck of the Woods, Cuernavaca. I will be going every Tuesday morning, helping to serve food and clean up. Then I walk back to the retreat center with two sisters who are in the program, to tutor them in English (they go to school in the afternoons). Last week I sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with them for an hour straight because they had to learn it for school.

It's nice to be involved in another community. The CCIDD community is surely a gem in this city.

This Thursday, my classes will be performing Thanksgiving skits. The whole University is invited. After the skits, the English faculty and my students are going to have a Thanksgiving feast! It won't be quite the same as usual, but I think these skits will be quite hilarious. Also, the meal can not possibly be worse than my 2008 Thanksgiving, which I spent in Lima, Peru. We made fettuccini out of a bag. Or frozen fettuccini. Something totally lame like that. Here's a picture, you make your own judgments.


To be honest, it hasn't even hit me yet that Thanksgiving is in 1.5 days. The weather here remains ever-eternally-springish, and the leaves are greener and more alive than ever. No Maggie O'Neill's Wednesday night, nor Turkey Bowl at Steel Field on Thursday morning. I did paint my nails autumn colors-red, orange, yellow- in hopes of getting more into the spirit. Gobble gobble.

What a boring, unpictureful post, huh? Here's a decent photo of me jumping on a pyramid in Xochicalco, Morelos (which is my state). As my friend told me, "una bailarina prehispánica," or a prehispanic ballerina.


As Tigger would say, TTFN: Ta ta for now!

And, Happy Turkey Day!