new photo

Still working on photos and such, both from Mexico and the start of the school year, but for now here is a photo that I took while walking up to El Pípila in Guanajuato (and edited in Photoshop). Click on it for a larger view.

still alive.. x2

I've been egregiously absent from the blog lately, I know. I got back from Mexico about a week and a half ago and since then have been a. exhausted; b. working; c. sick; or d. some combination of the above. It looks like this cold is both a. going away and b. not the swine flu, though, so that's good.

I'll do my best to keep posting about Mexico. I have a ton of pictures still! In the meantime, I'll be working and packing before my move back to Marquette next Sunday.

todavía estoy viva

My apologies for having been MIA. It's been a busy week.. and I don't think this week (our last.. qué triste) will be any better. I'll try to get some posts up soon, I'm super behind on pictures and everything. We went to San Miguel de Allende yesterday and Querétaro today, so the backlog is growing. The majority will probably have to wait until after I get home.

In other news, Amber and I had a conversation in our sleep the other night. In Spanish. I guess at least we are practicing.

lo peor que me pasó en el DF

I fought the locker...

...and the locker won.

This is the worst thing that happened to me while I was in Mexico City. I have really poor depth perception when I'm not wearing my glasses, and I'm super smart so I don't wear them all the time. So, Saturday night I bent down to pick up my water bottle, which had fallen between my bed and the locker, and smashed my face into the corner of the locker. This picture actually doesn't do the injury justice. The wound was quite deep and bled a fair amount; I was actually worried that I might have to get stitches. Luckily, it stopped bleeding, and my tetanus shots are up to date so I wasn't too terribly concerned by the next day. It hurt like hell though.. and I got a nice bruise, which then proceeded to turn yellow. Super attractive. Just thought I'd share that with you folks.

popurrí

There is a really, really whiny little girl next door who has approximately 84 nuclear-grade meltdowns every day. She seems to have a sixth sense for when she is going to irritate the most people possible in a ten block radius.. especially if those people (*cough* me *cough*) are trying to nap. The whining and the crying and the shrieking is really just a bit much. I will definitely not miss her when I leave.. which, incidentally, is less than two weeks from now. Hard to believe we've been here this long.

This weekend we just bummed around and went to some museums. Friday night we went out with some friends from school, as it was Andrew's last night here. We went on a tour of the city with the callejoneadas; click the link to see who they are/what they do. It was an interesting experience for me in particular. I'll post some pictures & an explanation eventually.. ¡ojalá! After that we went to Zilch for a couple of hours. Jaime, Amber and I were pretty tired so we left "early" (probably around 2am).

Saturday, we got up, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed. Well, Amber and Jaime napped, but I messed around with blogger until I finally got up my Mexico City post. We eventually went to the Museo Casa Diego Rivera after we had lunch, which is a museum dedicated to Diego Rivera located in his childhood home. There were a couple of contemporary exhibits too, but nothing by which I was particularly impressed. Afterwards, we came back here and I napped.. not sure about the others. About 8:30 we went downtown and got pizza at a place called Peter's Pizza. It was super good but we had way too much food. After that, we walked around for a while and then went to El Bar. Apparently Saturday is the big night for salsa there so we wanted to check it out. At first it was okay, but after a while this guy started bothering us. He sat at our table, insisted we move to his table, we said no, so then he brought the case of beer that he had purchased to our table for us to drink. Well, we're not stupid, so none of us touched it. We didn't want to be rude so we each "danced" with him a little bit, but I swear he was on drugs. None of his sentences made sense, except when he was trying to get one of us to go home with him. At first it was just annoying, but eventually he started to creep us out. José, one of the dance instructors, and his friend (girlfriend?) came to sit with us after a while because he could see that the guy was bothering us. Eventually he picked Amber up (as in lifted her in the air) on the dance floor so we left immediately after that. I think we were too worried about being rude, because none of the Mexican women there paid him the slightest bit of attention, unless it was to tell him that NO they did not want to dance with him and NO they did not want any of his beer and NO they were not going to go home with him. We really probably should have been more firm. For my part, I didn't interact with him as much as the other girls because I ended up dancing with a different weirdo-- long hair, tight pants and ugly boots. It was an excellent combination. Really the icing on the cake was that every ten second he would say "Eso, eso es (For the intonation, it was more like "Esssoohh, essooohhh es"; translates as "That's it, there you go," because I actually kind of have an idea of what I'm doing.) It was kind of creepy but he really seemed pretty harmless so I think it was more funny.. or, at the very least, it's more funny now. At any rate, he was better than the creeper who wouldn't leave us alone. After that, we were pretty disillusioned with the whole going-out scene (not to mention pissed off), so we just went home. It didn't help that earlier in the evening, a man had run by on the sidewalk and slapped Amber's butt (and kept running). We were not exactly pleased. (Sidebar-- the same thing happened to me in Almuñecar, Spain, two years ago... except that the perpetrator in this case was a 12-year-old boy. I'm really not sure which is worse.)

Sunday, we went to the Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, which is a museum entirely full of artists' representations of Don Quijote. Pretty cool. As I mentioned, Rosario essentially started the museum and I believe was in charge of it until she retired. We saw her friend Paco while we were there. I think he runs it now but I could be wrong; at the very least he works there. Part of the reason that we went Sunday is that admission is free.. can't beat free! After that, we shopped a bit and then came home and ate. After lunch, we discovered that we had an avian visitor and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to chase it out of our house. The bird must have flown in through the door/window upstairs that we leave open because of the heat. When I came upstairs he was in the bathroom, and when he heard us he got really agitated, flew around the room, into the wall and then fell down the staircase opening. He seemed okay though because after a while we got him to fly out the door downstairs. After that we napped (or tried to, given that the brat next door had like seven gran mal fits over god knows what). We stayed in the rest of the evening and just kind of hung out. Fortunately the internet was working again because earlier in the day it wasn't. I think we all needed the time to relax.

We started new classes again today. This week, we have a grammar class, two conversation classes, the latin dance class, a class on the history of Mexico and a class on Mexican culture, specifically art. It should be interesting. Hopefully not too much homework this week!

Well, I'm off to relax for an hour before I have to get ready and go to salsa classes. The girls tell me I didn't look half bad Saturday night so hopefully I'm getting something out of it! Now if we could only find some place to take salsa lessons in Marquette...

el DF: parte uno

Last weekend I went to what Mexicans refer to as el DF (“day eff-ay”; Distrito Federal), or Mexico City. Some people from my school were going and after giving it a lot of thought I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I promise, we were extremely careful and very aware of our surroundings at all times. We didn’t have any trouble while we were there at all, and we had a lot of fun. The city is HUGE though (something like 25-30 million inhabitants), and was definitely kind of overwhelming at times.

Kyle, Kelly and I left Thursday afternoon after I got out of classes (they finished earlier in the day). We took a taxi to the bus station to get our tickets for Mexico City. The trip takes about five hours from Guanajuato. Kyle and Kelly had gone the day before to check out the different bus lines and compare prices, and in the end we went with ETN, which was superb. Seriously, it was great. There were only three seats per aisle rather than four, and they were huge, with tons of leg room. You could even recline without feeling like you were squashing the person behind you. They gave us sandwiches and drinks before we got on the bus, and they even had played movies on flip-down TVs. The best part was that it only cost us $190 pesos each, after our student discount (50%), which is roughly $14USD. (One way, but still not bad compared to Greyhound!)

Here's Kelly and I relaxing on the bus!

We arrived about 9pm to the city’s north bus terminal (there are four total). For a bus station, it was huge. I’ve been in smaller airports.. including the one in León that I’ll be flying out of when I come home. From there, we took a secure taxi from the bus station to our hostel. Our taxi driver was super nice. He chatted with us the whole way there about the US and Mexico (he lived in LA for a few years) and was just generally really friendly. He told us he worked in John Travolta’s house for a while.. whether or not this is true is anyone’s guess, but it’s an interesting story nonetheless!

We stayed at the highly recommended Moneda Hostel. Earlier in the day we had booked a three-person room at about $17/night per person. It is only a block away from the city’s historic center, which is called the Zócalo. We didn’t do anything the first night except go to sleep pretty early.

This is a view of our room, with my bed. The window looks into a ventilation shaft.. lovely.

This is the view down our street, Calle Moneda, looking towards the Zócalo. 

This is the view from the fifth floor terrace, looking towards the Zócalo (the big building is the Cathedral).

Friday morning we got up about 9, and my roommates informed me that I’d been talking in my sleep in Spanish.. at least I’m practicing the language, I guess! We ate (free) breakfast at the hostel, and then we went on a walking tour of the city. The hostel contracts a tour company, so we just did their tours all weekend and we were really pleased with them. The walking tour was free for hostel guests, which is cool.

We started at the Templo Mayor. Mexico City was built over top of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which covered an island of about five square miles, surrounded by a lake. So, basically anywhere you dig in the city you’ll find Aztec ruins. The ruins of the Aztec temple/pyramid were discovered in 1978 by workers laying electricity cables. It’s been restored a bit by the archaeologists to provide a better idea of what it looked like. It’s definitely strange to see an archaeological excavation in the middle of an urban area.

View of the Templo Mayor

The Templo Mayor is kitty-corner from the city’s Cathedral (la Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María). The Spaniards had a penchant for razing buildings in the cities they conquered and building over them, which is exactly what happened with the construction of the Catedral Metropolitana. The Cathedral took almost 250 years to build and it is the biggest and the oldest cathedral in the Americas.

Here's me, in front of the east entrance of the tabernacle attached to the Cathedral.

If the building looks crooked, it’s because it is. Mexico City is sinking by something like 10cm/year. Parts of the city have sunk around 30ft in the last century alone, and because the weight is not evenly distributed, very old very heavy buildings are at high risk for damage/collapse. Many, including the Cathedral, actually have hydraulic systems installed underneath in order to mitigate the effects of the sinkage. Isn’t that crazy? I suppose I ought to mention why this is occuring. As I said, the Spaniards built over Tenochtitlan, and eventually expanded the city outward and outward by draining the lake (Lake Texcoco) that surrounded the island city. The soil (which is mostly clay, I believe) is very soft and unstable. Probably not the best idea Hernán Cortés ever had.

After the Cathedral, we went to the Palacio Nacional, which is the government palace. We got checked again for swine flu when we entered. They seem to be taking it really seriously, which is probably good. Hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed everywhere. The biggest reason to visit the Palacio is to see the Diego Rivera murals on its walls. It was so cool!

Here I am in front of the main Diego mural inside the palace.  ¡Qué impresionante!

After the Palacio Nacional, we stopped at the biggest bakery in Mexico City. They had giant wedding and quinceañera (15^th birthday; it’s a huge deal here) cakes everywhere, which was neat to see. After that, we went inside the post office for a few minutes; it’s gorgeous.

The staircase inside the post office

We then walked across the street to the Palacio de Bellas Artes, or Palace (Museum) of Fine Arts. The tour ended there (outside), and the three of us really wanted to go in but we decided to have lunch first. We ate at a little restaurant, tacos and such, and then went back. I loved the museum.. I am an art nerd though. It doesn’t have a ton of paintings, but it does have some really famous murals by the “Big Three”: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco. There was also a Tamara de Lempicka exhibit, which I really liked. Unfortunately, we weren't there early enough in the day to see the Tiffany stained glass "curtain" in the theatre part of the Palacio, but we still enjoyed the museum.

Palacio de Bellas Artes

Here's me with the famous Siqueiros mural "Nueva Democracia" ("New Democracy"). It's one of my favorites.

After the museum, we went back to the hostel. Then we took a taxi to the Museo Nacional de Antropología and just barely made it there before the 5pm cut-off time. The museum closes it’s doors at 5pm, but it is open until 7pm for those who are already inside. The Anthropology Museum is often compared to our Smithsonian, and we were really looking forward to going. It was cool but I prefer art to artifacts.. it was a lot of bowls and rocks and stuff. There was definitely some interesting Aztec stuff, but overall there was just too much to see. It was really overwhelming. I’m glad we went though.

Here's me in front of "El Paraguas" ("The Umbrella"). It's a large carved pillar with a water fountain around the top.

After that, we went back to the hostel again, ate dinner there and hung out in the room for a while. They were having a party on the top (5^th) floor of the hostel (right above us; it’s like a bar/place for meals) and the music was super loud in our room, so I talked to the girl at the desk and she moved us from the fourth floor to the first, which helped a bit.. not much though because all the rooms are connected by ventilation shafts so everything echoes. But, we were all so tired that night that we pretty much passed out regardless of the music.

Here's our second room. Note the lovely colors on the walls.

Well, that was our first day in Mexico City! I’ll post about the rest as soon as I’m able.

amigos, betabeles y joyas

Well, we decided to stick around here this weekend and try to do some museums and stuff. Tonight is the last night here for our friend Andrew so everyone is going out.. hopefully no salsa tonight though! I went to the class at El Bar last night and I was the only one who showed up for some reason so I basically got a private lesson. Afterwards I met up with some friends from school for someone's birthday and we went back to El Bar and danced more. My feet/legs hurt so bad today! After that Kyle, Andrew, Rebeca (an American friend of Andrew's who works at the CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) and I went to a bar called Los Lobos and the boys played pool and Rebeca and I chatted a bit. It was weird, they played all American music.. things like Pink Floyd and Metallica, not exactly what you'd expect in Mexico! After that, we went to Zilch (which is kind of a bar but  more a venue for live music) and met Andrew's friend Marcos and his girlfriend. From there, we went to a little place called Why Not and sat for a while. We hadn't been out too much so Andrew was showing us around different places. All of them are so different.. and they have such funny names! It's really strange too that all of them play American music, especially "classic" stuff. They even played David Bowie at Why Not. One thing that is definitely different about being here compared to Granada is that I've met so many people from all over the place. I feel like I'm networking quite a bit. I'm really interested in what Rebeca does with the CIEE. It's funny, too, our undergrad majors/minors are really similar-- she was a sociology major with a Latin American studies minor, with Spanish mixed in there somewhere too. If you don't already know, I have a double major in Spanish and Sociology in Liberal Arts, with a double minor in Art History and Latin American Studies. I'm planning on pursuing a Master's degree in Social Work once I graduate next May.

In other news, I've discovered that I actually really, really like beets (or at least, really fresh Mexican beets). Rosario gave them to us at dinner a few days ago and I was skeptical but I've made sure to eat or at least try everything she's given us and as it turns out, I like beets and I can tolerate bananas. My mother is probably proud. I love Rosario. She is hilarious. Yesterday she was telling us all about the difficulties of finding bras in the appropriate size here, as well as about her love for high heels. Today she gave us each a present! She bought each of us a necklace. We've talked quite a bit about jewelry (since she loves that too.. she loved my rings), so she bought each of us a different necklace. They are all stones hung on leather cord. Mine is three jade stones, since that's my middle name; Amber's has two amber stones (for obvious reasons!) and a silver charm; and Jaime's is three pieces of red coral. They're perfect for each of us!

OH and this is really exciting too. In probably April, I realized that I'd lost the white gold & tanzanite earrings that Charlie had bought for me. I was pretty upset about it, since they were pretty expensive and I have a matching necklace. Well, last night I found them. Here. In Mexico. I was so shocked. They were in a little ziploc bag with a bunch of my cheap earrings which had made its way from Marquette to Clarkston to Guanajuato. It's absolutely ridiculous, but I am so excited!

Anyway, Jaime and Amber and I are going to go walk around and get ice cream before we meet up with everyone. One of these days I'll manage to get pictures on here!