First Visit to Colegio Cuernavaca!

Today we visited the school where we will be student teaching! It was a very exciting day. We met with the director, Leti. Leti is hilarious and wonderful. I can't even begin to explain her energy. She is extremely enthusiastic and has a super positive attitude (so basically she is my kind of person!) We also met Leti's mom, also Leti, who is the founder of the school. She has the same infectious energy that Leti the daughter had. I can't wait to work with them both! We had a mini orientation and we found out our placements! 

I will be teaching in 4th and 6th grade! In the mornings from 7:15-11:00am, I will be teaching either of the two sections of 6th grade (so the same class every other day.) In the afternoons from 11:00am-2:30pm I will be teaching the one section of 4th grade! I am beyond excited. I think it is so amazing that in my one semester of student teaching I will be teaching three different grade levels. Such a unique experience. 

I haven't met my cooperating teachers yet but usually they have no idea we're coming until the day we start...they don't really have student teachers here in Mexico. Both of my cooperating teachers are new teachers at the school. This could mean two things. One, they're just new to the school and have taught before. Two, they are brand new teachers and are usually between 18-20 years old. Here in Mexico it is much easier to get a teacher's license! They take a course for a few months and they have a job, versus us spending four plus years and praying we get hired! And to be an English teacher here is just as easy- you don't really need to know English. I've already learned so much about the educational system here so I am excited to see it in action. 

In addition to teaching from 7:15am-2:30pm, we will be helping with after school tutoring from 2:30-3:30. Leti also likes to give student teachers from Edgewood additional "projects." Sometimes it's creating a whole new curriculum or rewriting a school-wide English test and testing the whole school...so BIG jobs that they use for years to come. We learned that one of our projects will be to set up, organize and implement a new reading program through Scholastic in order to improve reading comprehension scores. I am very excited for this because I focused a lot on literacy this past year in class as well as my work study at the campus school. 

One more week of classes and I will be student teaching! Yay! 

¡Hasta la próxima!

Estefani


P.S.

I just found a video of Colegio Cuernavaca on YouTube! Check it out! (It's in Spanish but you can at least see parts of the school!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf7PvMotkXg&feature=youtu.be

Excursion to Xochicalco and Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos Orphanage!

After classes on Thursday we headed off to Xochicalco! It only took about 40 minutes to get there but it seemed like we were transported to a different world!

The name Xochicalco may be translated from Nahuatl to "in the house of Flowers". On the way to the ruins, there are thousands of roses growing next to the road and therefore there are flower stands every 100 feet! I've never seen so many roses in my life!

Xochicalco was founded by the early Mayan and Aztec cultures around 200 AD and becoming a thriving city between 700 and 900 A.D. The ancient city wasn't discovered until the early 1800's. 

There is a museum on the grounds so we first toured that to see some of the ancient artifacts up close. 

A model of the grounds to give you an idea of how huge it is! 

El Señor de las Serpientes

Our amazing guide Bernardo! :)

El Señor Rojo
I loved this piece because the curved ribbon structure
on the bottom means beginning and end.
Everything has a reason or an interesting story behind it!

Zodiac Calendar 

View of the ruins from the museum 

After a short hike up the side of the mountain, we made it! 

Agave plants around the ruins (same plant that tequila comes from!)

Amazing scenic views everywhere you look! The manicured area is a ball court!

One of the most popular structures is the Temple of Queztzacoatl (Feathered Serpent) due to its intricate carvings. Each carving represents a date in history. The side below represents the fourth of July (a much different meaning than the one we celebrate!)

Below are more pictures from around the ruins. It was a bustling city, with over 20,000 people at its prime. It was also really hot here! The sun was beating down on us and climbing up and down ruins made for some great exercise! 

View of the city below

This was a swimming pool, even back then the women wore bikinis! 

This was part of the school or "tlamachtilcalco" in Nahuatl.

Another view of the school- can't imagine teaching here! ;) 

One of the many ball courts. They loved sports!

This is a "palo mulato" tree. Bernardo called it the foreigner tree because it's red on the outside and the
skin peels off and it's white- just like when foreigners like me get sunburnt! Hah!

After climbing the ruins at Xochicalco, we went to visit an orphanage in town. I have never seen a real orphanage so I was really interested in visiting one! We visited Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH). We visited the first NPH, started by an American priest, Father William Wasson. It all started after a fifteen-year-old boy was arrested for stealing from the poor box of a small church in Cuernavaca. Father Wasson didn’t press any charges, instead asking for the boy’s custody. By the end of the year he had 32 children living at a small rented house, which became known as Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos. 

Now there are nine different NPH branches throughout Latin America. The branch we visited has around 450 kids ranging from infants to teenagers. Once they finish high school, they can choose to continue and go to a university and stay at a branch in Monterrey, Mexico. 

The orphanage is housed in an old hacienda (sugar cane factory) and is like a little city. They are extremely self sufficient. The kids all have different roles or chores. They have their own fields, farm, and pond where they get their food. They harvest their own grains (they make something like 1,000 tortillas a day or something crazy.) They slaughter seven pigs a week to feed this compound and the one in the city by the high school. They have a pond full of tilapia and have fish once a week. It is a huge operation. They have different dorms depending on gender and age. They have a swimming pool, church, dining hall and sport courts. They even have a primary school on the grounds. 

We got to play with some of the toddler and younger kids for a short while before dinner. They were so adorable and fun to play with! It reminded us of why we are here and got us really excited to start teaching.

Library

Disney characters were painted all over the toddler area

Where the toddlers and young kids sleep. 

Dining Hall (reminded us of a Mexican Hogwarts!)

The Primary School

After a long and exciting day, we got dropped off downtown again. We treated ourselves to some refreshing beverages before heading home for cena. 

A "Michelada" is a cerveza clara (light beer, usually Corona) with lime juice and salt.
Extremely delicious after a day of climbing ruins! :) The word chela is a popular term for a beer in Mexico. When you ask for a chela, you are asking for a cold beer; therefore the phrase mi chela helada means "my cold beer." 

Another busy night en el zocalo! 

Ancient ruins and micheladas....just a typical Thursday here in Mexico! ;)

-Estefani

Excursion to Tepotzlán and Hacienda de Cortés!

While we are here studying and teaching, we are given credit to take different excursions around the state of Morelos. Our first excursion was to the beautiful town of Tepotzlán! 

Tepotzlán is only about 30 minutes away from Cuernavaca. Our excursion director, Juan, and our guide, Bernardo, drove the three of us after classes. Juan is awesome and plans all of our excursions at UNINTER. We met Bernardo for the first time today and he is an amazing man. He is 83 and doesn't act a day over 30. Each hour we were with him we learned something else about his amazing life. He is originally from Holland, lived all over the world and now lives in Cuernavaca. When he was 13 and living in Holland during the Holocaust, he was put into a concentration camp and still has the tattoo from the camp. It's amazing to just sit back and listen to all the things he has seen and done. He has been a tour guide at different sites all over the world and is like a walking encyclopedia- truly awesome man! I am looking forward to other excursions with him.

We had two options when we got to Tepotzlán- one was to hike up the side of the hill to reach the top and see the pyramid of Tepozteco, but we didn't have enough time so our other option was to visit the Parish of the Nativity and former Convent of the Nativity and the local artesian market. We hope to return to hike up to the pyramid but I was extremely glad to see the church and market. 

The Parish of the Nativity was originally founded by Dominican monks (Edgewood/Dominican connection!) in the mid 1500's. The church was beautiful as well as the adjoining convent and museum. It was full of amazing murals and illustrations of the Dominican influence. 

Open Chapel 

Symbol of the Dominican Order present all over the church

Murals inside the ex-convent

Courtyard of the Convent

Right now, the community is preparing for one of their biggest festivals, a religious feast dedicated the Nativity of the Virgin, of which is held on September 8th each year. They create these elaborate murals made of thousands of different kinds of nuts, seeds, and corn. They are truly amazing works of art. While we were there, there were people of all ages volunteering to create the mural. They place each seed so delicately in glue and then once dry, they cover it with a clear lacquer. 

The sketches of the mural

The artesian market was huge and located below the beautiful mountains. There are so many different vendors selling handmade pottery, clothing, and jewelry. The food market was also so interesting to walk through- so much exotic fruit and food!

Helado de fresa- strawberry ice cream!

After Tepotzlán, we headed back to Cuernavaca to visit Hacienda de Cortés. It is an old sugar cane factory that was built in 1542 and is now a high end hotel. It is GORGEOUS. I felt transported to fairytale in another time. We walked through the gardens and sat on the terrace and enjoyed some margaritas! It was perfect.

After our excursion, we got dropped in el zocalo/el centro in Downtown Cuernavaca. There was so much going on for a Wednesday night! First, we stopped to watch a group of indigenous dancers. Watching them gave me goosebumps! They were dancing in traditional clothing, performing different rituals among strong rhythmic chanting and beating of drums. 

Then, on the other side of the zocalo in front of Palacio de Cortes there was an orchestra performance! The energy of the entire downtown was totally infectious- and it was only a Wednesday night! 

After going to school and then going on the excursion- I was exhausted! I had to get mentally prepared for another long day because Thursday we are off to see the Ruins at Xochicalco! 

XOXO,

Estefani