We left Saturday morning and got into the city around 1. The start of the trip, we ate at the same little restaurant we did last time. I remember looking at the menu and not recognizing anything except for tongue and tortilla soup. This time around, I knew what everything on the menu was and had eaten it at some point. I was so excited.
After lunch, we walked around downtown. Our tour guide for the day this time around was so much better. He was interesting and showed us lots of interesting places, not just the usual two or three tourists stops. He pointed out this place that sold tacos, and two other girls and I went and got dinner there that night. SO GOOD. Best salsa I have ever had.
After tacos, we went up to the rooftop bar in the hostel for a beer. It turns out that the university had organized a trip for all exchange students to Mexico City (we went with our exchange program, not the university), so the hostel was full of UG exchange students. We had some beers with a few French and Swedish exchange students (a conversation in which everyone was speaking their second language...way cool). All of them have only been in Mexico since January, and it blew my mind when my friends were having difficulties saying something and turned to me to rescue them. Or when someone asked a question and they looked to me for the answer. I was the one avoiding talking last time around, so I had another moment where I clearly saw how much I have learned since getting here in July.
Sunday morning the rest of the group went to Frida Kahlo's house and Xochimilco, and another kid who had already been to those places and I split off from the group. Instead, we went to the National Anthropology Museum with a friend of our program director who offered to take us. It was a super long drive because the city had shut down their main street, Avenida de la Reforma, to celebrate Bicycle Day. There were thousands of bicyclists, which was neat to see, but it made car traffic a complete mess.
The museum was well worth the crazy traffic. It was pretty incredible. We really only looked at the section with all the pre-hispanic art, but we were there for about two or three hours. I was so amazed by it all that I completely lost track of time.
Afterwards we went to an enormous park in the middle of the city, Bosque de Chapultapec, and a real castle at the top, Castillo de Chapultapec. It was pretty, but we walked so much I felt like my legs were going to fall off. Also, almost all of the kids there were on leashes, which reminded me of a dog park. It was kind of hilarious.
We had lots of time to burn after the park so we had some lunch and then some coffee. It was really fun to have Lalo's friend with us because he was really knowledgeable about the city and had a lot to say. We ended up talking a lot about the swine flu scare and narcotrafficking and how hard Mexico was hit by it all.
After our tour I was supposed to go out exploring with the girls, but my legs felt like they were going to fall off. The boys were headed to a bar to watch the Superbowl, so I decided to go with them instead because I could just sit down. The first Superbowl I ever watched was in Mexico.
That night I went up to the rooftop bar to write in my journal and have some alone time, but I ended up meeting some travelers from Argentina and one from Canada that I got along really well with. We hung out for awhile and I finally made it back to my room, completely exhausted, around 1 AM.
Monday was an alright day. We went to see the Lady of Guadalupe and Teotihuacan, both of which I had already been to. When we got to Teotihuacan there was an enormous line because it had been closed most of the day (Why? The president of Mexico was there for some ceremony!). There were a TON of police.
Now I'm back in Guanajuato. This week will be great because both of my literature classes were cancelled, so all I have is Spanish on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then Migration and Politics on Friday.
Now for the good news! I got a job volunteering at a preschool/kindergarten! I'm really excited. We are still working out the details, but it looks like I will be working Monday and Tuesday from 10-1, possibly more. I will be teaching an English class, observing other classes, and helping out the teachers. Today we went to the school for the first time for a little tour. I'm really excited to get started.
One of my favorite things I saw at the Anthropology Museum.
Visit #2 to the pyramids. This time it was sunny!
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