If you don’t feel like
reading all of this
I’ll quickly give you the condensed version:
I had a really. Cool.
Weekend.
(You can stop reading
now if you want-this is where it gets long…) ;)
The Tec offers these trips for “los estudiantes
extranjeros” (the foreign kids) at super reasonable prices while we’re here and
this past weekend, the trip was to Teotihuacan (tae-yo-tee-wa-khan)-which means
“place where gods were born” (or “place of the reeds” if you ask the Mayans,
but we’re going to stick with the first name because it sounds slightly cooler).
It all started at 5:30 Saturday
morning, when Shanequa and I were supposed to be at the school to meet the
buses, or at least be walking around in the dark trying to chase down a taxi,
but we weren’t, we were eating breakfast. So really it all started at 5:40 on
Saturday morning, when Shanequa and I were walking around in the dark and found
a taxi to take us to the Tec. We got there, found our bus, they gave us a
sandwich and we loaded into this super huge fancy bus (one of 4) with 200 of us
in all and started down the road towards the state of Mexico.
Quick geography
lesson: Teotihuacan is located
about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. And in case you didn’t know (I
didn’t), Mexico is made up of states (just like the US) and they have an actual
state of Mexico, and that is where these people decided to build a few of their
pyramids (Teotihuacan). Side note: I live in the state of Querétaro, and also
in the city of Querétaro. It’s great.
So. Fast forward 3 ½ hours. Shanequa
and I slept a little. As we’re approaching the city, I begin to see that I
really haven’t had too much exposure to real Mexico, or what Mexico is really
like. My teacher in my Mexican culture class keeps telling all of us, you’re
not in real Mexico. Querétaro is not real Mexico. I live in a really good
city. A really good state. There is less crime, less poverty, more economic
prosperity, one of the best schools in the country, and people in general are
just better off….at the orientation on the day after our arrival, one of the
leaders of the Tec told us that Querétaro is leading Mexico in more than a few
ways and is quickly becoming the model of what the rest of Mexico is hoping to
look like. But now, I had the opportunity to see outside of Querétaro. As we
approached the city, I thought, this
is real Mexico. First thing I noticed was that there were dogs everywhere. All kinds. And there were
even more people trying to sell you all kinds of things-mostly fruit, or
tamales (the food of the gods) with Atole (the drink of the gods) and both dogs
and vendors just increased the closer we got to the entrance of Teotihuacan.
We were first welcomed
by THIS:
(PS-you can see any of these pictures in a larger size if you click on them)
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| Watch closely. |
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| They danced. |
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| Then, they climbed...one by one. |
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| There they sat, plotting their next move. My stomach was turning. |
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| Yeah. Then they all totally did THIS. OH MY GOSH |
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Ahhhhh....! Is what I was saying inside (not the man, he was perfectly calm when I took this picture of his head)
Thankfully, they all spun safely to the ground. I think they do this a lot. |
Then we divided up
into groups (those that could understand Spanish, those that couldn’t, guess
which group I went with…) and started our tour!
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| Our group from the Tec is the crowd of cool kids with the red bands tied around our heads so people could easily recognize us and be like, o los extranjeros! |
We first went to the
temple of Quetzalcoatl. This was far and away my favorite place. Our
English-speaking tour was a little muffled because of the size of our group, so
I didn’t get to hear a lot of what our guide was saying, but here’s what I
learned:
This is the temple
dedicated to the god, Quetzalcoatl, who was mythically identified as the
feathered serpent and was worshipped here by the natives. Our tour guide said
that Quetzalcoatl was called many things, including Jesus Christ, which I have
heard for years from my mom (here’s a couple pieces of information regarding
that):
It was the only temple we couldn’t climb, but
it was beautiful and decorated with many different carvings. Although no one is
completely positive, to think that this could have been a place where Christ
had been was amazing to me, and I felt privileged to be there.
Our guide also told us
that every 52 years, the natives would tear down everything (EVERYTHING) that
they had built and re-build everything (EVERYTHING) from the ground up, because
they felt that every 52 years something would happen and destroy their holy places. In
total, we were told that Teotihuacan was built and rebuilt a total of 7 times
and what we see today is the final completion of the city. From what I gathered
and researched, there were several indigenous people who occupied, claimed and
built/re-built Teotihuacan so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact beliefs and
practices identified with each group of people. But still. The place was
incredible.
We also had a chance
to visit what was left of the indigenous homesteads. Our guide told us that
they could sleep 20 people within one little room, lined up right against each
other on the floor. Later all of us gathered and got to be apart of a little traditional ceremony, where we all became "brothers and sisters". Our hosts kept telling us how grateful they were to have all of us there and that the spirit that we brought with us united us together.
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| Homestead |
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They drew a V on my forehead.
After our little ceremony, they released us and let us go shop around and go look at the two largest pyramids, the temple of the sun and the temple of the moon. We had two hours before we had to be back on the bus. Shanequa and Asami and I took advantage of the beautiful handmade gifts being sold by extremely persistent men and women all around the park. My heart went out to each of them. I knew that they weren't making nearly what they should be for the quality of items that they were selling. I wished that I could have gotten something from all of them. The first man that I bought something from had most of his teeth missing. His collection of souvenirs were humble and few. He was sweet, and spoke some English, but we tried to communicate in Spanish with him the best that we could. When he learned that I was going to buy a few things, his face almost split open with joy. "My first sale of the day!" he exclaimed. I thought he was going to kiss me. He was so grateful. The competition between vendors is stiff; a lot of them are selling the same things, and many of them are selling things in fairly close proximity to each other. I wanted to buy everything from him. We later went over to where his wife was selling and I bought a few things from her, too. We saw them around later, and they waved happily to us. I was grateful when I finally ran out of money because then I could honestly tell the vendors that came up to us later that I only had enough money to take a taxi home later. My best strategy was, if they were trying to get me to buy something that I didn't have any use for was if they got their price low enough, I would just tell them, "what you're selling is beautiful. you deserve far more money than that and I just don't have enough to pay you for it." Walking away, though, was difficult.
Asami took this picture and I just love it.
After buying things, we went out and explored the temple of the sun, which was amazing. It was crazy high. Standing on the top of that pyramid was pretty exhilarating (by exhilarating, I mean scary...I was only up there for a few minutes, haha.)
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| This thing was huge. I can't imagine rebuilding this every 52 years!! The specks on the very top are people! |
Part way up-Temple of the Sun
Trying to take a picture with the stairs behind me, but, alas, Kaitlin selfies aren't the same without people's legs in the background...
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| View from the very top. Temple of the moon in left corner. Super cool. |
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| Awkwardly trying to hug all of Teotihuacan-look how high I am!!! |
Crazy steep stairs.
Going down behind a three year old made it seem a little more manageable, though.
We then got to venture over to the Temple of the Moon (about a mile away from the Temple of the Sun). We didn't have time to go through it (and our legs felt like jello) but we did get some pictures.
Temple of the Moon
We then were able to travel over to the hotel on site and have this amazing, buffet style lunch. It was really, really nice. I felt like a super spoiled rich kid, coming to Mexico and living a life that very few got to experience. A few of us swam in their pool, but they also set up their courtyard in the back where we got to play volleyball, and soccer and dress up and take pictures with a donkey......
This is for my mom ;)
When we weren't playing with the donkey, this is how we spent our time....
We later got to watch a super cool performance with some of our hosts who dressed up like natives and performed some ceremonial dances for us. It was really super impressive. They let us join in and dance with them a little bit later. We had a blast.
Overall, we had an amazing day. It caused me to reflect a lot on my blessings, and actually to feel a little guilty. On the way home, it was difficult for me to hold back tears thinking about the vendors that I saw and the people who were working so hard in the city outside Teotihuacan to make ends meet. My heart broke for them, and I wished that there was something I could have done to help them more. I am learning so much from being here. There are people every day that I wish I could wisk away from their circumstances and show them how they can live differently, especially through the gospel. The longer I am here, the more clear it becomes that there is an incredible need for us to constantly be aware of each other and to be serving one another. There is a greater determination in my mind to make a career out of taking care of people that I have the ability to help-not just in my career, but every day of my life. A scripture from the Book of Mormon came to my mind, in Mosiah 4:19, 21 that is one of my favorites. "For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend on the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? ...."And now, if God, who created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of your substance that ye have one to another."
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