Puebla and la UDLA

Well here I am at la Universidad de las Americas (la ood-la) where I will be spending the next 3.5 weeks completely consumed with the summer program and the biotechnology course I´m teaching. Before I describe the place though, let me backtrack...

After Guanajuato, I made the bus trip to Mexico City (5 hrs) and then made a transfer to a bus to Puebla (2 hrs). The exciting part came when I tried to get from the Puebla bus station to the center of town. I managed to figure out which combi to take but--despite my vigilance--failed to get off anywhere near the centro. When I realized that we were WAY past the centro, I explained my predicament to the bus driver, who dropped me off at the next stop and told me to get the next combi coming the other direction. Well, by this point I had been travelling for about 11 hours and not only had to pee but was also getting hungry (I´d eaten a serving of yogurt and several handfuls of trail mix during the day). So I stopped in to the nearest retail establishment I could find. It was a Wal*mart Supercenter. THAT´s how far out of town I was.

So I checked my pack in at the bag drop (and got some strange looks) and then made a beeline for the restroom. At this point it started raining outside so I decided to pass a few minutes exploring the Puebla Wal*mart and picking up a few things (cheese, bread, yogurt, pear) to eat. The Wal*mart is, predicatably, like almost every other Wal*mart in the world--enormous, bright, and advertising "precios bajos--siempre." But small differences stuck out... At the bakery, you pick up a pizza tray and tongs and pluck out your breads and pastries from big bins and put them on your tray. A lady then bags and prices them for you to take to check out. And instead of 4 or 5 "express--20 items or less" lines, there is just one express line that feeds into 4 or 5 registers. So much more efficient! And the food court had, of course, all manner of mexican fare. The place was huge and I got a good chuckle out of the fact that being lost in Mexico put me straight back into the most American of chain stores.

I eventually made it to the centro (thanks to a variety of friendly combi-riders) and checked into a pleasant hostel where I passed the evening with some very relaxed Danish guys, a rather serious French fellow, and an American living in Oaxaca who I couldn´t really figure out.

The next day was relatively low-key: some sight-seeing and walking around punctuated by midday naps. Puebla is a city of nearly 2 million people, but remains relatively sedate due to the lack of towering buildings (several stories at the most) and strong remnants of Spanish influence in the plaza, pedestrian streets, and tile-facade buildings. It has over 70 churches and the main cathedral is stunning inside (which is saying something in a Catholic country with lots of impressive cathedrals). Most interesting to me, though, was the market. Vendors selling all manner of fruits, vegetables, seasonings, or seeds displayed and orally advertised their products in an extensive maze of stalls in the semi-indoor market. The variety of produce was overwhelming--so many colors and shapes and flavors. I definitely could not name everything I saw there in either English or Spanish! The most fascinating parts of the market, though, were the carnicerías (butcher stands). On giant slabs of marble you could get up close and personal with nearly any part of any animal. Whole chickens, some still getting plucked, were piled high like so many rubber prank toys. Giant bins of chicken feet or livers or breasts could be found. Need a hairy goat head? A dozen of them await you in aisle 6 on a shelf of ice. Blue light special. Have a gander at the woman carving into pig hooves with a cleaver or look over your shoulder to the racks of cow halves dangling from hooks. Pig heads, sheep entrails, things I could not even identify! Fresh for the buying! I was spun around with a mix of awe and fascination as well as disgust while trying to keep my breakfast down. Not exactly the shrink-wrapped Tyson packages you find at your local Stop & Shop. I ended up buying some grapes and the cutest avocado ever.

That evening I spent with two Americans each on very extensive travel trips (think on the order of 9 months to more) and a rather overwhelming Australian woman who wore thin on me pretty fast.

Here at UDLA I´ve meet some of the staff (all are very nice) and settled into my room. I will be staying in a 4-room suite but the others haven´t arrived yet. The lodging is nicer than any suite I had in college, and the campus (what I´ve seen so far) is quite pleasant. There is a rose garden (some bushes 300 years old!) and peacocks and ducks roam the grounds rather contentedly. Check out some pictures of UDLA here. I´m having a fair bit of mixed emotions about the program, but most of the unsettled feelings are due to the fact that I find myself once again in the waiting-for-things-to-happen-so-I-know-what-to-expect mode. Orientation starts tomorrow night and I am going to try and do some course work tomorrow. The big coup for today is doing laundry. What a treat!

I have a phone in my suite that can receive calls, so if you are dying to say hello, let me know and I´ll give you the number. You can call Mexico (and a lot of other countries) for 2 cents a minute using PennyTalk. I´ll put up some more pictures soon, but for now I hope everyone is well. Thanks again to those of you that read and post comments. Even when I can´t respond individually, I am thinking about you!