Hotel Plaza Poblana Puebla

... and I got ready for the day. It was a beautiful day but cold. I dug through the bottom of my suitcase and got out a sweater! It felt so good to wear a sweater in Mexico!

As I had previously mentioned, our host dad had wanted to take us to the ancient ruins in Mexico. Unfortunately, he had to do some last minute work. His 17 year-old son and his son's girlfriend picked us up instead! They had a definite plan in mind :)

First we walked to a nearby market. Sunday ...

... outlined by our education coordinators, Hans and Dave, was to teach the children how to become better citizens.

20 minutes to teach young children that concept? There are some adults that don't even know that concept! :) It would be quite a challenge. We were on the bus for about an hour and had some time to determine what activity we would do. We decided to play a game called "Take a Stand". We ask questions and the children have to choose one side of ...

... br>
The final product was amazing. Omigosh, it was so delicious.


And I got the recipe so I can make it when I get home!


After lunch, we worked on some new songs that we are going to sing in Europe - songs by ABBA, Queen, and songs in Finnish, Dutch and Swedish! It's going to be great :)


Some members of our group have a great presentation today about the environment. We learned about different types of energy and which countries ...

... She studies astro physics or something like that, way out of my league, and Mariana studies bio medicine. Two smart girls, I didnt expect to meet people with degrees like that in Mexico! Doesnt everyone ride donkeys and wear somberos here??? We headed back into Puebla to get some more food around the Zocalo. The lonely planet says that Puebla is known for its food. Having someone with us that could explain all the dishes helped so much, and we ate some of the best ...

Puebla est la capitale de l'Etat du même nom, située à 110 km de Mexico, encerclée par les volcans Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl et Malinche. C'est la quatrième plus grande ville du Mexique, où se situe l'usine Volkswagen qui produisait les célèbres ...

Cholula est situe dans l'Etat de Puebla, au pied du volcan Popocatepetl, toujours en activite. Elle est connue pour sa grande pyramide, qui est la plus grande jamais construite avec 450m de cote et 65 m de haut.

Aujourd'hui la pyramide disparaît ...

... architect in 1897, 'Palicio Municipal' dominated the other. The atmosphere was buzzing, people drinking coffee watching the world go by, music in the background, a film crew filming in one corner, it was so reminiscent of our time in Rome....We joined the coffee culture at, quite appropriately, 'The Italian Coffee House,' then explored the back streets and many tiled façade buildings, colonial houses and churches. Unfortunately (or fortunately ...

... formal things but they are the ones that looked out of place not the other way around. We were interested to find a whole section of Life is Good stuff in one of the department stores, i found some cute stuff but think it was the same price or more expensive than at home...but i do think i might have to visit the store on main street. I didn't know they have so many things...i guess i have only seen stuff in smaller sections at other stores.

... there...First i picked "The persiut of happiness" with Will Smith, which they seemed mediokerly excited with and then i said maybe they can pick a few then I can choose from those. And they said or you could choose a few and we can pick...ehhh...so i kept that one and picked another, a football movie with matthew McConahay (sp?)...ummm...Marshall i think. I took it to them and held up the two, they seemed to like this one also. Paco ...

... I did without my trouble (a calm hotel with a clutch of nice rooms). After an interesting meal of Tamal de Carne (a bit like a pastilla from north africa - a corn based pastry surrounding chicken and beef with a somewhat sweet taste and cooked in a banana leaf - got that sounds gross - but it was actually quite nice) - I went back to the hostile, sorry hostel for a rather fitful sleep with all my clothes on - not wanting to make much contact with the sheets.