Welcome to Tenango...the land of las piñas and pyramids. This past weekend I went to my friend Lety's house for a big birthday bash in her hometown of Tenango, a small town about 25 minutes from Toluca. The town is famous for a drink called las piñas, which is made with pineapple juice, a splash of vodka, ice and a bit of condensed milk. Yumm! Tenango is also famous for having pyramids, which happen to be about 5 blocks from Lety's house. Other than that....well, that's about it for the town, except for its charm.
Having been my first official birthday party in Mexico, I decided to live it up, which wasn't too difficult with a DJ at the house. After eating la comida and enjoying a piñas, a group of us started dancing (mind you this was at about 4pm) and we basically didn't stop until 11pm. While a good amount of the music was straight from the good 'ole US of A, some was more typically Mexican, which meant a lot of spinning and twirling and steps that I could hardly keep up with. Three of Lety's cousins were self-taught dancers, (and men! not something you find very often back home) and were kind enough (and extremely patient) to teach me a few moves. We had an excellent moment of cultural exchange when Christina Aguilera's "Come on over baby" came on in Spanish and I sang the song through in English. By the end, we had some sort of Spanglish mixture going on. I'm going to have to include that in my midterm report for Fulbright. The gringa is officially sharing her culture and amazing vocal prowess (hah).
The morning after the party, we woke up to a real-life rooster (Toto, we're not in New York anymore) and headed out to climb the pyramids. In order to enter before 9 am we had to convince the guard we were all from the town, so I was registered as Renée Díaz Mendez. It's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? We also told them that we were there to run - and I was wearing a pair of silver flats and a peacoat...convincing, I'm sure. Somehow we charmed our way in and headed straight up to the pyramid, and I mean straight up. Nothing like altitude training before 9 am on a Saturday! Jokes aside, it was really beautiful and we got an incredible view from the top of the pyramids. That pretty much beats anything I could find within 5 blocks of my house on Long Island....well, besides that really great bagel shop. Did I mention I've been missing bagels?
That was pretty much the highlight of my weekend. I was adopted by Lety's family (I now have quite the extensive span of relatives here) and had such a great time living it up fiesta style.
Things at school are still going really well. I taught my students the word "brown noser" today and I happened to get a card from a student telling me that she thought I was really nice and that she wanted to be my friend and later a bag of candy as a thank you for correcting a paper. I'm thinking that was a coincidence, but I still have to wonder. There's no shortage of friendliness around here, that's for sure!
This weekend I'm off to Michoacán for Día de Muertos so I'll have plenty of pics next week!
Abrazos!
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