Cooking Lesson and PUEBLA

On Friday we went to La Fonda del Recuerdo, a fabulous restaurant quite a ways away from the school. This was by far the largest restaurant I have ever seen, with approximately 5 stories in total. We had our cooking lesson on the 5th floor which has a giant commercial kitchen. The chef of the restaurant, Leobardo, split us up into 5 groups to make each of the components of our very Mexican meal. The lunch we made consisted of chicken enchiladas, cactus salad (much better than it sounds when translated into English), ceviche, mushroom and squash soup, and a guava dessert to top it all off. The directions were in Spanish, so we all paid close attention to the details for fear of ruining the recipes. I was on the dessert team (with Roxanne - and we all know how great of a cook she is), and I must say the guava with whipped cream and homemade syrup was pretty awesome. ;) In a nutshell, we all stuffed ourselves to the point of extreme discomfort. But it was definitely worth it, jaja.


The next day we left for Puebla, a gorgeous state about 3 hours away from D.F. The town is pretty touristy and offers more shopping than my wallet can handle, but I allowed myself to spend quite a bit of money nonetheless. (I might not be able to come back to Mexico for a while, so I decided it was well worth it.) My mom encouraged me to buy a set of talavera plates, a style of pottery that Puebla is famous for. I'm not sure I've ever been so happy with any other purchase as I was after buying these plates. They are all a little different because they're hand painted, and absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to use them in my own house one day and tell stories about Mexico. :) I bought a few souvenir gifts as well for my family and friends, which again was very fun because it was so easy! With the amount of jewelry and antiques, I had no trouble finding reasons to keep buying more. We all had a blast searching through the markets, relaxing in the zócalo (where there was a car show!), and touring the rest of this very quaint city. I couldn't help but think my parents would love it there!

Pit stop on the way. Typical, right?

TALAVERA :)

Today we went to Amextra, a non-profit organization that focuses on providing job training, education, and nutrition to marginalized families within Mexico. I really loved the NGO's principles and would love to work for an organization like it one day. Spanish, teaching, service... that pretty much sums up what I want in a job. I guess we'll see!


"When times are good, be happy; 
but when times are bad, consider this:

God has made the one
   as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
   anything about their future."

             - Ecclesiastes 7:14