6 hours

6 hours. That's all it took. Only 6 hours to wrap up, box up, pack up, and load up all of our stuff from our house in Mexico onto a big box truck headed to our house in Michigan.

Of course, these 6 hours were bookended by 4 long, hard, stressful days of organizing, sorting, packing, cleaning, saying good bye, and ending contracts. By the time it was over, I was mainly glad that Dave & I had done this a few times and were able to handle the stress without a divorce.

But, in the end, I'm sad to leave. We have loved our time in Mexico. We love Mexico, love the people, the food, the culture, the history, the weather, and also our laid-back way of life here. If only I could have been paid a little better and spent a little less time on Mexican roads, I probably would have signed up for another few years, if that was an option.

Maybe we'll be able to spend another few times here in the future.

Future Plans

As this post is published, big changes are happening in our house.

After nearly 2 years of living in our beautiful house in Metepec, Edo. de Mexico, Mexico, we are packing up. David's "tour of duty" in Mexico is just about over. I'll be staying with friends to finish up the school year here. (As much as I'd love to work somewhere else, God seems determined to keep me here a while longer.)

We have absolutely loved Mexico. We love the sunshine, the friendliness, the beauty, the colors, the food, the music, the language, the history, and the culture. If I could find a better paying job, I just might sign up for a longer stay. Unfortunately, we have known from the time we arrived that our time here was short.

What we have accomplished:
- we now speak Spanish well enough to socialize for up to 4 hours completely in Spanish, visit an history museum with only Spanish-language displays, watch CNN en Espanol and understand what is happening, and fully participate in a Spanish-language protestant liturgical worship service
- we have visited most of Mexico (26 out of 32 states plus the capital and nearly every major city)
- we have learned more about Mexican history and politics than most Mexicans know (I'm teaching Mexican history!)


I also learned how to write a blog. In fact, due to popular demand (since I only have like 5 readers, I figured 3 was a majority...) I've been blogging 5 days a week for the past 6 months. This has been a LOT of fun.
BUT, the time for daily blogging has come to a close. I'll be posting about once a week through April and May, but then our Mexico adventure will be over. For now.

I truly hope that we will have another adventure to share with all of you very soon.

It's all in the carriage

Mexico City has a castle. Most non-Mexicans don't know about it, but it's true. The castle was originally designed as a lavish home for the Spanish viceroy (like the king's ambassador) but wasn't finished before the Mexicans called for independence from Spain. After Mexico got a constitution, they put the castle to work as a military academy. The castle achieved infamy during the war of North American Invasion (oh, you haven't heard of that war? we call it the "Mexican-American War"...) where the cadets at this academy died, wrapped in the Mexican flag, at the hands of the U.S. generals.
I know, I had no idea we actually invaded Mexico and murdered teenagers in the name of war, either, until I moved here. That was the last battle of the war, so that's good.

Today the castle/ cadet academy is a historical museum. Most of the museum is full of really interesting Mexican history that you are probably not interested in hearing. :)

But, there was one exhibit that I thought succinctly showcased a crucial piece of Mexican history.

In 1861, the first Mexican President of Native Mexican heritage was elected: Benito Juarez. He was a very liberal president at his time, and refused to pay debts to rich countries in order to have enough money to pay for education (and other important reforms). The U.S. - likely feeling guilty after the Mexican-American war - and Britain basically ignored the fact that Mexico owed them money. But France demanded payment and when they didn't receive it they sent their own emperor to rule Mexico and oust their liberal president. From 1864-1867 Maximillian of Hapsburg was the emperor of Mexico. This is the carriage he rode into Mexico City to assume his throne:

He had this carriage sent over from France to Mexico on a boat with him, and then he rode it from Veracruz to Mexico City.

Maximillian actually supported many of the liberal reforms that Benito Juarez had promoted, but he also sent money to France for 3 years until the Mexicans revolted and executed him. They reinstated Benito Juarez, who rode to his 2nd inauguration in this carriage:

This carriage would have been made in Mexico City by local artisans.

Today, Juarez is on currency, has his own federal holiday, and is one of the few presidents most Mexicans can name when asked. Maximillian, on the other hand... is best forgotten.

Paricutin

Mexico is built on volcanoes. We're used to mountains and volcanoes now, so this pic might not be super exciting.
Except that this volcano is only about 70 years old!
In 1943, a farmer family noticed lava and ash coming through their fields. They initially tried to scoop dirt into the fissure, but quickly realized that running was the best idea. Within a week, the volcano was 5 stories tall. It kept erupting, slowly, for a year, until the eruption had caused the population to leave the town and create a new town 20 km away. After a year of eruption the volcano was over 1100ft. tall and the volcanic rock had covered the entire town.


Well, almost the entire town. The lava flow left the 2 belltowers of the old cathedral standing, as well as the altar. Town residents saw this as a sign from God. Whether it was a sign of thankfulness for their prior piety or a warning to future generations is unsure, but either way the Mexicans feel that visiting this site is really important.


Not important enough to build a road or a safe bridge, but important enough to drive for hours over ashy roads up a mountain and then climb over a pile of rocks. I didn't feel confident enough to get right up to the altar, but it was pretty amazing to climb over the volcanic rocks.

The Alley of Romance

Guanajuato has an alley of kissing (I blogged that Nov. 4, 2009) but Morelia has a whole street of romance!
A poet named "ortiz" wrote a long poem about the "Romance of my City", referring to Morelia, and when the city renovated part of the town, they redid this alley to be very tourist friendly and also having tiles with lines of his poetry mounted on the walls.
It was beautiful!

Aqueduct

Mexico has really beautiful currency. They use more coins than we do in the U.S., including a $10peso coin which is roughly equivalent to our $1 bill. Each coin and each bill is a different size, to help blind people, and each bill is a different color. The $50peso bill is roughly worth $4USD right now, and has a picture of the aqueduct in Morelia as well as the monarch butterflies from the state of Michoacan. We got our picture taken with the bill in front of the part of the aqueduct on the bill. We even managed to get a pic without any cars in the background!

Morelia = land of morelos

Morelos is famous for a few things - capital city of Michoacan, one of the prettiest states of mexico; its beautiful large cathedral; the site of the aqueduct on the $50peso bill, which I'll blog about tomorrow; and possibly most importantly, the home of Jose Morelos, national hero.
In fact, the city used to be called "valladolid" after a city in Spain, until hometown hero Jose Morelos fought for Mexico's independence. After independence was "won" with a constitution separating them from Spain, the city voted to rename itself. So, "Morelia" was born.

Jose Morelos did not start the Independence movement. But after the priest who did declare independence was executed, Morelos and a few of his friends took up the fight. Morelos was a priest and also a war genius who fought for 4 years before being executed himself. (check out a map of his battles at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Campa%C3%B1a_de_Morelos.png)
Morelos' many military victories paved the way for independence from Spain.

Modern statue of Morelos:


This may be an urban legend, but I had always been told that in a statue of a solider on horseback, if the horse is depicted with one hoof off the ground, the soldier was wounded in battle (and may have died later from the wounds); Two raised hooves indicate that the soldier died in battle. If the statue shows all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed. I guess that being executed for treason means he died after battle?

The women in this statue are meaningful, also. The woman on the right is holding broken chains in her hand, symbolizing the independence movement breaking Mexico's chains of "slavery" to Spain. The woman on the left is holding fabric that may have been meant to symbolize the flag and also a scroll that symbolizes the constitution.