i´ve noticed a trend in my life toward rarely blogging and even more rarely journaling on paper (sorry mom, it´s been like a month), but i also think it´s because this is becoming less and less like a vacation and more like real life. which is a good thing! it´s not so much that new and amazing things aren´t happening, but more that i´m just becoming really very comfortable here.

on friday night, we watched the movie ¨babel¨ (it´s by a mexican director and received a large amount of the 16 oscar nominations for mexican movies this year - more on that later). in case you haven´t seen this movie, i should explain that it takes place in morocco, southern california, japan, and in a border town in mexico. the movie starts in morocco and we had to read subtitles since the dialogue was in arabic. the second part is about a mexican woman in california, and the second she came on speaking spanish, we all breathed a sigh of relief because it was finally a language we understood. also, at one point in the movie, she crosses the border to mexico and it shows her driving through tijuana with some americans and pat leans over to me and says, ¨you know, they´re trying to make mexico look so foreign to americans, but i see that and i think that it´s home!¨ so true.

our last weekend in mexico city was a good time, as always. i have to admit that i´m not really a fan of that city. it´s very crowded, polluted, and lacks any water (like a coast or a lake or a river), so i´m not the biggest fan. however, it´s impossible to come to mexico without experiencing all that mexico city has to offer, so i enjoy my visits there. i just don´t think i´d like prolonged stays - like 3 weeks or 3 months or 3 years.

the last time, we visited the basilica of the lady of guadalupe (on tepeyac hill - hellooo flashbacks to comfy hammocks and loud roosters and playwrighting in albuquerque!). the original basilica is still standing, but has shifted greatly and is kind of like the leaning tower of piza only not so extreme. now the actual image of the virgin mary is housed in a very 1960´s-style modern church and you can ride on moving sidewalks behind the alter while church is moving (without disturbing the mass) to see her up close and personal. another highlight was visiting the remains of tenochtitlan, the aztec city that was located in mexico city´s current location before the conquest. i´m a huge nerd and i´ve read a thousand books about the aztecs and the conquest, so it was pretty amazing to actually be standing where everything important happened. also, on sunday morning, we went to the chapultepec zoo (located in chapultepec park, which is coincidentally where the first mexican film was made - random fact from last semester´s spanish class that i´m sure you didn´t need to know!). i love zoos and instead of gushing about how much i love them (prompting you to scroll down to the next paragraph), i´ll just end this paragraph here.

all of last week, i was sick with a nasty cold, so i couldn´t go to the orphanage to play with the adorable little ones. i´m still hacking and sneezing a bit, but i found piña colada flavored cough drops today (why do they not sell this amazingness in the states?!?), so i´m doing a bit better. also today, i found out that the chiquitos at the orfanato have all come down with hepatitis (A or B or C? i´m not really sure.), so i doubt i´ll get to play with them tomorrow or at any time this week. regardless, i get to ride busses tomorrow and try to get my credencial so they´ll let me into the place next time i come. oy vey. does anyone know how long hepatitis lasts for?

it´s beginning to feel alot like summer here (sorry guys, i know you´re freezing up there in the north!), but my life is seriously lacking lots of my summer staples: the zoo, my friends, and graeters ice cream 4 times a week, to name a few. i miss them all, just not in that order.

this weekend was courtney´s birthday, so we went out on thursday night for drinks at bambuko´s and then to a soccer game that christopher, one of our friends here on campus, was playing in. let´s just say we were probably a large embarrassment to him. then on saturday, we went out for italian food (italian food : courtney :: indian food : anni), where i didn´t actually eat any italian food, just the most divine chocolate cake and also drank some amazing white wine. i got all dressed up in my black dress and felt oh so classy! then we went dancing at a club called barZelona, which basically reminded me of the scene in bend it like beckham, when they go to a club in germany. they played wonderful american 90´s music, a very creepy remixed version of ¨crazy¨ by gnarls barkley (don´t they know it´s danceable already?!?), and some mexican dance tunes that we´ve gotten used to hearing by now. by the way, the version of shakira´s ¨hips don´t lie¨ that they play down here is so much better than the american version. don´t worry, shakira fans, i´ll bring it back with me.

also this weekend, leah and krista and i crashed at the cholula house and made my sister´s famous guacamole and my famous pineapple salsa. we went to the market (finally discovered where it is in relation to the zócalo without wandering around for 45 minutes first!) and bought all of the fresh veggies for only $5 (2 grocery bags worth). this place is marvelous. and i´m going to shop for produce at farmers markets from now on. in the process of slicing the jalapeños for the guacamole, however, i managed to splash on itty bitty drop of juice in my eye. pretty sure that was the most painful thing i have ever experienced. basically, think about how it tastes when you put straight jalapeño in your mouth. now think about how sensitive your eyes are when you squeeze a bit of lemon juice in them. it hurts. alot. the salsa and guacamole were divine, though, especially on top of the quesadillas we made with oaxaca cheese and fresh corn tortillas.

a kilo of tortillas (a stack of about 30) costs 8 pesos (80 cents US). if you´ve been paying attention to the news, you might have heard that corn prices in mexico have skyrocketed in the past few months, making it hard for poor families to purchase tortillas, which is a staple of the mexican diet. this means that a kilo of tortillas used to be around 30 cents and now that it´s gone up 50 cents, it´s a hardship. just something to think about.

last night was the academy awards and, although mexico didn´t take home as many awards as we´d hoped, 5 of us from the valpo group dressed up as the spice girls for a party. and pat joined us, on posh´s arm, dressed as david beckham. i was ginger, since apparently i have the most ginger - like hair (it´s gotten rather bleached out in the sun and kind of glows sometimes...). definitely a fun time, and i was overall pleased with the awards, since i´d actually seen most of the movies this year. thanks, fayuca!

and on a final note, i love the food here. maybe in a few days i´ll blog just about the restaurants i´ve been to. (like the restaurant in mexico city where frida and diego rivera got married. that was pretty cool.)