Home for the Holidays

I landed into a winter wonderland for sure. I think all those classic Christmas songs actually apply this year in my case. There's about a foot and a half of snow outside, Rugby can't decide where to do his business, and I'm about to go take some postcard perfect pictures of New England. I'm so thrilled to have a white Christmas.

But I wasnt too thrilled about it Thursday night. I landed a half hour late in Atlanta which wasn't a big deal, I made it through customs and found my gate ahead of time for my 9:30 flight to Boston. But my gate was overcrowded and I learned that because of a snowstorm that had decided to sit directly over Boston all day long, nearly all flights had been cancelled to Logan Airport that day. So there were a ton of people on stand-by trying to get on my plane that up until it's take-off time said it would leave on time. But the plane we were scheduled to go on still hadnt arrived to our gate so our boarding time got pushed back to 10:10. Then they told us to wait 20 more minutes because a plane had skidded while taxiing at Logan. Then we waited another 5 minutes to board. Finally we boarded, a full plane, and taxiied out. And waited. And then the pilot got on to say that Logan had just shut down their airport again and we would be going back to our gate. We were told we could get off the plane, but to not go far. We were delayed an hour and a half but told that these things change and when we were cleared to go, we were just going to go. So I got off and walked down the terminal looking for food. Couldn't find any, everything was just closing up, so I headed back to our gate. They were about to close the door to leave and told me to run down the ramp! Apparently our delay was only 20 minutes and they got the clear to go. We waited another 10 minutes for other people to come back, and one unfortunate family of 4 never did. And we left. We had a bumpy ride to Boston and got in after 2 am. My poor family was there to pick me up and we got home to Rochester after 4am.

Well the last few days at school were a real blur. First of all, I realized I forgot to tell you I went to Puebla about 2 weeks ago. It is a great Spanishy city and I loved the chocolate and churros, Spanish balconies, and beautiful ceramics of Puebla that reminded me so much of my Sevilla. Its a beautiful city with old churches on about every corner and a magnificent old cathedral in the middle. There was a Oaxacan festival in the main plaza too that was coming through town so that was cool to see. Great shopping in Puebla, loved it. We went up the high point above the city for a great view of one of the 2 big volcanoes in the area and to see the old famed fortress that the Mexicans defended in the storied battle on Cinco de Mayo against the French. It was a nice weekend.

So then the 12th of December happened. Dia de Guadalupe is a huge celebration in Mexico and the reason for tons of pilgrimages for the virgin of Mexico to the main basilica in Mexico City or to the main cathedrals in every city. In Pachuca, the main basilica, fondly known as La Villilta, started mass at midnight the night before and the whole stretch of road by the church was shut down for the holiday fair stands. Little kids were dressed up in traditional indigenous outfits, with braided hair for the girls and even little painted-on mustaches on the boys. So cute. There were lots of decorative backdrops set up among the fair stands with the Virgin Guadalupe in the background where parents could get in a photo op for their dressed up kids. The huge cathedral was packed. Standing room only. The holiday commemorates the day the Virgen Guadalupe appeared to the peasant Juan Diego and the main basilica in Mexico City is supposedly built upon the site where it happened. As we were coming back from Puebla we passed a ton of people walking along the side of the road with images of the virgen on their backs, making their pilgrimage to the Basilica de Guadalupe. You can read more about the story on this site: http://www.olgofm.org/story_of_guadalupe.html This day is only celebrated in Mexico as far as I know.

Experiencing the holidays in Mexico is pretty different than in the States. In December friends and families celebrates with Posadas, or holiday parties, and remember when Mary and Joseph searched for an inn in Bethlehem. The day of the Christmas party at school and at the posada I went to at my dance studio we "pedir-ed Posada". We all held candles and separated our group into 2. At the dance studio, half of the people at the party took their candles outside. Then we engaged in this old round, a song where the people outside sing to request entrance and the people inside answer back. Its kind of a long song and goes back and forth like that and finally we opened the doors and let the people outside in, remembering when Mary and Joseph were finally welcomed to stay in the inn's stable. Its a really nice tradition. Then the norm is to break a pinata which my kids were pros at. Also, Christmas day is a day to go to mass and open a few presents but on Dia de los Reyes, King's Day, kids get more presents and it's the day that kids look forward to more. Its January 6th, the day I actually return to Mexico, and they give presents to remember the gifts the Wise Men brought Jesus.

Well, the faculty dinner was really nice and Chrystian's graduation party was fun. Sunday we went to see Rodney as a Mexican shepherd in his church's funny Christmas pageant. We loved it. Monday was my class's special flag ceremony and they did a good job. I got some video of it that maybe I can share with you sometime. (When they sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas the word year always came out more like you, haha, so cute) Then we spent the rest of the day rehearsing for the big show and watching Polar Express.

Tuesday was the big Christmas Festival at the Theater Gota de Plata that is new and absolutely spectacular: a huge expanse in front of the theater hold the world's largest floor mural and it is just incredible to see. So our school booked it for the big Christmas show and it was a success. However, it was a crazy feat to include every child in the school, from preschool to middle school and it was simply too long of a day to cram little kiddos in a tiny dressing room before their dance. It was a long day for all. We relaxed and celebrated it being over later that afternoon at a restaurant with the whole preschool faculty and had a gift exchange.

Stu was super sick all week and finally decided to see another doctor. Miss Ruth was so kind to offer to take us to her family doctor, who was great, and could tell right away he had a high fever and strep throat. Fortunately he got meds and feels much better. Good thing too cuz he's traveling on his own in Cuba right now. He left Pachuca at 3:30 am to catch a bus to the airport for his early flight on Thursday. Can't wait to hear from him.

So anyhow, Wednesday was a busy day, we all went to school to hand out report cards to parents and then the school threw us a holiday toast and we said goodbye. Some of our foreign staff isn't coming back after the holidays. It was sad to say goodbye to our neighbors, they're moving on to teach in South Korea. I did last minute stuff, like exchange my money, the exchange rate shot up to 11 pesos to the dollar, pack, and go to the dance posada. Jenny and I took the 10:15 bus to the airport and now I'm here! I hope to put up some pictures over break for you to see. Ryan comes in to Boston today and leaves Christmas day. Next weekend we'll be in PA for a few days! Can't wait to see family and friends, I feel like I've got 3 homes now.....

Love to all of you, hope to see you soon!