Arrival, Cuernavaca and magical villages in the mountains

Hello all,

Yes I am alive. That seemed like a good place to start right?
The flights and time in Texas was totally harmless. Lots of
people watching which is always fun, and then Patrick and
Tony kept me entertained for a while before I left Houston
and got to the DF without any issues. The customs people
were concerned about the sidewalk chalk I ad in my bag to
give the children we are working with in Hidalgo, but it ended
up being fine and I made it here, sidewalk chalk and all.

I wish I could tell you about the drive from the DF to Cuernavaca,
through the mountains outside the city and into the lower valley of Cuernavaca
but I fell asleep. Really hardcore asleep. It was only luck that I woke up
5 minutes before we arrive at the tec campus here.

And we are at the orientation in Cuernavaca for a few days.
Its actually a really fun group of people. The majority
of the group comes from Harvard, but there are people from
Yale (Hector and Jamila), lots of MIT kids, some BU students,
a girl from Syracuse and some randos. They've all been pretty nice
so I'm not worried. Its also very comforting to know that many
of them are coming to Hidalgo with me.

After we arrived in Cuernavaca we came back here to my
host family's house. Its very close to campus and its super nice.
I have very little idea what time it is because i'm super tired and
the sun stays out even longer here. Last night we drove into the
Zocalo of Cuernavaca to find Jamila, who is staying with the same
family as me, a cell phone. And in the darkness under street lights
images of the city came back to me. I remembered some of those
buildings and the set up of the area. It was pretty awesome actually.
We stopped at the gas station and I gave a mental shout out to
Professor Joseph's Mexican History class since we talked about PEMEX
so much.

We came back here and crashed until 9 am this morning
when we got on a bus going to Tepoztlan, the magical village
in the mountains of Morelos. It took about an hour to get there
and once we got there we walked up some steep streets until we
got to a mural in the middle of market that was made entirely
out of seeds. Apparently they replace it every year and the public
is invited to help place all the seeds into the wall.



Then we began a hike into the mountains to see the temple
that was way up at the top. The hike was painful at best, but the
mountains were truly wondrous.




We went back into the village and bought cokes in glass bottles,
and yes this doesnt mean much to people but the coke really is better here.
I found lots of colorines, and I cant wait to wear them. I also added a rope
bracelet to my collection :D I tied it onto myself in this church yard.



Lunch was truly amazing, lots of my favorite foods were present and delicious
We drank Horchata in the BLAZING sun of the afternoon and wandered around the
markets and the village. I once again fell asleep on the ride home. Something about
moving vehicles presents a problem with me and staying awake. Oh well. Could be worse.
I'm now back here planning to go to sleep for a LONG TIME. I'm so tired.
Hopefully i'll end up doing something more interesting tomorrow evening.

Ok the internet is not allowing me to add my pictures but I'll try to remember to throw them in later.
If they are there, then I clearly had success.
ALSO ANOTHER TECH THING TO NOTE: my phone works here. I get texts and calls and stuff BUT I DONT HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO ACCESS MY VOICEMAIL BECAUSE MY PHONE BLOCKS THE NUMBER. If you need to leave me a message, dont. Text, email or skype me.

PEACE.